A few Murena questions, part II...

[macaroni]

1) What water temp are the cars supposed to run at?
Mine is usually at 50, even on a 70  mph cruise. It goes up to 90C in a traffic queue.

2) Anyone know the static ignition timing/plug gap etc?

3) Is the clock supposed to be lit at night?

4) What would be the cause, and solution, of the car sitting slightly lower on the drivers side?

Thats it for now!

Any help gratefully received.

Antony

[krede]

What would be the cause, and solution, of the car sitting slightly lower on the drivers side?

You mean like this ?



Accourding to our very own Anders Dinsen   it was designed that way!!.. and is it supposed to sit a bit lower in the drivers side

[Will Falconer]

Anders is quite correct.  It's designed to sit horizontally on a French Route Nationale which is cambered to the right.  Why Matra didn't consider that Murenas might be used on flat autoroutes or motorways I cannot imagine, but heh that's why we love them.

[macaroni]

WHAT???

[macaroni]

OK, well let me add another question to my list:

5) What would cause a grating sound to emanate from my drivers side rear wheel when cornering to the right, very hard?
If not the fact that it is lower on that side.

[Anders Dinsen]

What would be the cause, and solution, of the car sitting slightly lower on the drivers side?

You mean like this ?

Accourding to our very own Anders Dinsen   it was designed that way!!.. and is it supposed to sit a bit lower in the drivers side

I don't know if the rear should sit like yours do... the springs left and right are the same on the 2.2 and my guess would be that the right rear was the most loaded as that's where the engine sits.

But in the workshop manual, there's different left and right adjustments of the torsion bars. It's just a few mm, I think. Will, you may be right, but I would have thought it was a handling thing...

Macaroni, sounds like your thermostat doesn't close off completely.

I think the clock is supposed to be lit at night, and it has a small bulb inside - pull it carefully out and you should be able to see it.

Plug gap would be 0.6 mm when new, but something between 0.6 and 0.9 should be ok. Bernhard has all diagrams of ignition timing here: http://www.technikhomepage.de/kfz/elektrik/verteiler.html

Your 5th question is difficult to answer - I guess you need to examine the tyre and suspension carefully to look for possible causes.

[Will Falconer]

A wheel bearing?  Worn ones generally make themselves known under cornering.

[macaroni]

I guess it could be a wheel bearing, are they the same as on any other car?

[Anders Dinsen]

I guess it could be a wheel bearing, are they the same as on any other car?

Talbot Solara... when you are at it, I suggest you replace front discs and pads too. The thing is that the hub is on the outside of the discs on Murena (unlike other cars) so you need to take the hub out of the bearing anyway to replace the disc. This cannot be done without a bit of dirt getting into the bearing causing it to fail quickly after - so it's generally considered a good idea to fit new bearings when replacing the discs...

So... since you are going to replace the bearing now, I think it will be a good idea to spend the extra on discs both sides.

Or you can just wait and see how the grating sound develops...

This is one of those problems that start developing when you start using the car on a more daily basis. I'm going to have my steering joints replaced now as both sides have worn completely out. When I had mine import checked (aka MoT) in August, there was nothing!

[macaroni]

This is true, I've done more miles in the last 2 weeks in mine than it had done in the previous year!

All the disks and pads have been replaced, at great expense, within the last year so I'm reluctant to do it again. I'm not sure if the bearings were replaced at the same time, I'll have to check. If that is the case, then it shouldn't be a bearing I guess.
It is the drivers side rear that is making the noise and it seems to be worse when turning left, which is odd.

[Anders Dinsen]

This is true, I've done more miles in the last 2 weeks in mine than it had done in the previous year!

All the disks and pads have been replaced, at great expense, within the last year so I'm reluctant to do it again. I'm not sure if the bearings were replaced at the same time, I'll have to check. If that is the case, then it shouldn't be a bearing I guess.
It is the drivers side rear that is making the noise and it seems to be worse when turning left, which is odd.

Ok in that case it wouldn't make sense to replace the discs of course.
If the old bearings have been refitted, then it is likely that you have found the problem... that doesn't mean that the others will fail too, only that there's a chance.

With the weight distribution of the Murena 2.2, the lateral force on the bearings are actually higher on the rear than on the front bearings. This is because the car will try to rotate around its centre of gravity, which means that the lateral force on the rear wheels during cornering is always about 1.5 times the force on the fronts. This is also why you don't want to fit cheap tyres on the rear end of a Murena if you wish to stay on the road

In other words, it makes perfect sense that the rear end is failing first

Will, you can probably enlighten us on the procedure of replacing bearings on the rear - is it necessary to take the trailing arm off the car entirely or can it be done in-situ?

[Will Falconer]

Will, you can probably enlighten us on the procedure of replacing bearings on the rear - is it necessary to take the trailing arm off the car entirely or can it be done in-situ?

It's a while since I've done one,  but from memory you need to drop the trailing arm to get the drive-shaft out in order to unclip the bearing and in turn push that out. Once the arm is off then it's easier to remove/refit the bearing in a hydraulic press.

I agree with Anders that bearings are more likely to fail when the car changes owner as it may have been standing or leading an easy life previously.

I have a theory that change of ownership can be quite traumatic for a car  just because of different - not necessarily harder - driving habits putting new demands on the wearing parts.

[Anders Dinsen]

I have a theory that change of ownership can be quite traumatic for a car  just because of different - not necessarily harder - driving habits putting new demands on the wearing parts.

That's a very good theory indeed! And certainly for a Murena where it seems owners have a tendency to stop using them at some point, and then let them go to someone who is - quite naturally - very eager to drive this wonderful machine as much as he can!