Thanks Clarky makes sense.

Good news

• Ryco catch can on the way, quality seems to be on par w/ ProVent - not bothering with anything other than top quality here, looks like the $30 eBay catch cans can't catch shit.
• T-Pipe on the way for the turbo intake seal upgrade
• Glow plugs on the way
• Ordered an oil drain valve so that I only have to do one messy oil change

Bad news

Had a chance to drive while the ETC lightning bolt like was on, wasn't able to yet. I think it was in limp mode, serious loss of power. Unable to get past 115kph unless going downhill. Unable to accelerate while going uphill.

Codes:
P0246 - turbocharger wastewater control circuit high
P2010 - intake manifold runner (swirl) control circuit high
P065A - generator system performance
P0048 - turbocharger boost control circuit high

Jaycar is open tomorrow, I'll grab a couple 5W 4.7k ohm resistors and do swirl bypass.

hotqld in this thread had the **exact** same codes and symptoms, cause determined to be to a crapped-out ground wire shared by these systems. Will inspect the wiring and test w/ multimeter.

Hanna in this thread traced ETC light + a load of codes to ASD fuse, I will re-seat all fuses and swap this particular one.

Other news

I'm considering investing in a bypass oil filtration system to reduce wear and tear on the engine. Insane Diesel has a really tempting kit w/ machined oil filler cap w/ return inlet, and filter cap w/ pressurised outlet but its bloody expensive, around $1k AUD shipped.

I could DIY mod a normal filler cap w/ inlet and put an outlet between the oil pressure sensor and the oil system, but this makes me nervous. there is potential for an immediately fatal oil leak before a problem is noticed. So I think its either a purpose-made kit like Insane Diesel's or nothing at all for me. Can't find any other supplier of the custom filler and filter caps.

Appreciate advice on this. I'm hoping to keep the jeep for quite some time, but if I did get rid of it I'd still want it to have a nice long life. I quite like it.

Hey Cannabat, A grand is an awful lot of money to spend on an 8K car just for oil filtration. Doesn't the Mann oil filter do a good enough job? I would use the high Zinc fully synth oil that Clarky recommends and go with regular oil changes.
Have you looked into the Green Tune? Thats about a grand and seems like money better spent. More power, less fuel, EGR and Swirl Motor delete... https://www.murchisonproducts.com.au...flash-tune-kit

I will let you know how my $30 Provent copy catch can goes. Im using 25mm pipe and cotton filter. I will measure what it gathers and report back. Nothing to loose for the price. My daughters Grand has done 235,000 without any sort of mod. I checked underneath today, and not much oil gathered since i did my elephant hose mod. Coincidence? Not sure, but i will monitor it and report back.

I will also take pics of the diff and driveshaft work. I know yours is all good, but for future reference, you may want some pics. I got all 3 bushes and driveshaft kit for around $100 total. Labour Freeeee.....

Cheers,

Grabbed some 5 watt 4.7k ohm resistors from Jaycar. No ETC light this morning, neither were there any active codes, power was back.

On the tip from hotqld, I looked around the battery and found this very loose ground connection:
https://i.imgur.com/8AmlRfm.jpg

Yikes! There was a bit of gunk on each of the eyelets, on the washer and the bolt. I took some fine-grit sandpaper and cleaned each, then reassembled and tightened. Didn't see anything else that looked suspect.

Cleaned the battery tray and checked underneath, things look good, no corrosion on the tray or below. I guess that big chunk of aluminium with heat-sink fins on it is the ECU?

I don't understand how that ground connection was so loose. I mean, it was so loose that "loose" isn't even the right word - the bolt was only screwed in a few threads. Can't imagine it worked itself that loose but suppose it is possible.

Anyways, I cleared all stored codes (again none active after re-assembling) and took her for a spin. On Clarky's advice, I drove like a bat out of hell, got up to 150kph and decided that that was fast enough for me, put some more hair on my chest and a bit of sweat on my brow. No worries for the jeep though. Hopefully that loose ground was the cause.

Yeah you are right, it is a lot for an 8k car. Yeah have looked at the GDE tune, it's very tempting. I'm a computery kinda guy so there is also the temptation to buy an ECU flasher and appropriate software to edit it and have a stab at editing the binary myself, but the stab would probably end up in my own foot. For now I'll not worry about the bypass filter, I just got a bit hyped on the concept after reading up on it haha.

Do the nicer (or perhaps just more expensive) genuine provent filters fit in your copy? That would be great if so! I spent $168 on the Ryco catch can and I'm confident it will last, but hey $30 is like 5 and a half of what I bought so that's a great deal if the filters themselves work well.

I suppose you went with the standard rubber bushings? I saw some heavier duty polyurethane bushings for sale somewhere. I wonder what the lifetime of the standard rubber bushings actually is, some people said 30k which seems awfully short, that can't be right! Thank you in advance for taking pics and good luck with the job!

So I realised I should try loosening that bolt up again and seeing if the codes came back. I undid it entirely and started the car, got ETC light again, didn't try driving it though as I didn't want to chance causing further issues. I was unable to connect to my OBD scanner though, maybe the ground I disconnected also was for its power.

Put the bolt back in, tightened up, check stored codes, yup same 4 codes are back!

Cleared them, car off, on, not coming back. Pretty dang sure that loose bolt was the problem. Happy camper here.

Some good diagnostics work there Cannabat. Hope those codes stay away, but it sounds like you found and fixed the problem.

Cheers,

The GC went to get its roadworthy today:

• Center rear brake light - reseated connector and fixed
• License plate light - replaced globe, bugger to get it out, fixed
• Brake fluid needs flush - paying the service centre $90 to do this as I don't have wheel stands. about $90 per pair of stands at Supercheap and I think I'd need a hydraulic jack as well so I'm looking at around $300 just to get the car high enough to take off all the wheels, which I understand is necessary for a brake fluid flush. Plus a little pump thingy to suck the fluid out.
• Transmission fluid leak - looks like the gasket/seal to the pan may be leaking. removed the plastic guard plate and cleaned up the fluid thoroughly. went for a drive changed gears a bit, transmission fluid temp steady around 78 to 80 deg C, back home and I don't see any more fluid leaking. the drain plug feels pretty tight and the brackets were mostly tight except two which I tightened a bit. I think they may be too tight, actually, as its a rubber gasket and they don't like to be too tight, but I don't have a torque wrench to check. hopefully no more fluid appears, leaving the guard plate off for now.

The transmission fluid was flushed in July 2020 by rapidlube. I am not confident in their work because:

• they misrepresented the brake pad levels significantly, for ex said rear pads were @ 4mm in July and both the service centre and I measured them at just over 5mm.
• they said the cabin air filter needs to be replaced relatively soon. I checked and I can't even find a cabin air filter! it looks like there is just some mesh grating but no filter.

So I wonder if they even put in a fresh gasket seal thing and, or checked the specified torque etc. Anyways.

Going to try and find a transmission fluid dipstick to check the level in case a significant amount of fluid has escaped.

I'm enjoying this car stuff :) most I've ever done before was change my oil once about 10 years ago. Learning a ton, I feel so much more capable as a car owner now.