MOT / APK pass - wishbone replacement right side : driveshaft nut stuck :-(

So yes, it passed the MOT/APK on the 2nd attempt after I had fixed all the items. It's now valid till next year:

Vervaldatum APK

15 september 2027

Today was a lovely day so I left early. I brought all the tooling outside and made a start to do the other side. Jacking up the car, pulling off the wheel and go.

All the new items readily available:

But then, the driveshaft nut did not came off. It was stuck and the air-impact wrench was not powerful enough. So I had to use my own strenght. I ended up using a 2 meter long pipe:

The first tool simply snapped off:

The 2nd tool, much stronger also ended up demolished:

So, effectively I could not pursue this task. That's the downside of doing work on Sunday, you can't go to the tooling / automotive shop. I think the nut needs to be heated up. Also my air-impact wrench is really old and potentially not strong enough. Then again, if these tools snap off / twisted open with a 2 meter leverage pipe it must be severely tight. So I will bring it to the garage across the street to free up this nut. 

So with the remaining time I decided to renew the oil and the filter. I had this also readily available.

This job went fairly easy. I had noticed already the drainage plug was leaking a tiny drop of oil

So I had new gaskets available as well

Filling up with 5,5 liter of oil and checking afterwards. All looking good and no more leaking. 

Hopefully coming saturday I can make a new attempt.

The currently mileage is about 217.000 km. And the engine is not using any oil. On my way back home I was pleasantly surprised how smooth the engine goes. It also feels like it's more powerful than the Coupe I have, which is also a 2.4 engine. 

Oh, as for the APK/MOT, they fixed also my right front tyre. Turned out it was a bad valve. Could have fixed that myself. Also the airco had been fully refilled, so there is definatly a leak. It's still very warm these days, so glad the airco is functioning (despite the leak). 

So the costs for the MOT, tyre fix and airco refill (€ 80,-) was: € 187,57

The oil (5,5 liter) was € 68,85 

The oil filter was € 7,50. 

The new box of gasket O-ring seals was about € 12,00. 

So total costs for this round was: € 275,92

Next time I will include the costs for both sides regarding the wishbone and driveshaft covers.

As for the airco leaking, I spotted the green stuff on the pump itself, so potentially thats leaking. On my spare Kappa Coupe I did had installed a refurbished pump, so I might consider that one. BUT I also spotted this on the dryer. 

So that might be the concerning leak. Stupid enough when renewing the radiator and the condensor I did not renew the dryer. Well, if it's emptied out again I still can replace it.

MOT 2026 failure - wishbone - driveshaft covers - ball joints

 It was time for the yearly APK (MOT) but it failed on 3 main points:

The first two points are points of attention but are not MOT failures:

1) Handbrake left backside is working poorly.

2) Doorcatcher left front is missing

3) Balljoint tie rod left front is broken / teared.

4) Drive shaft cover left side teard at the gearbox.

5) Wishbone left side has a hole.

Bummer, the first 2 points I can skip. As for point 1, this one is broken off (typical I have this on my old Kappa Coupe as well). Point 2 I will tackle another time. I'm surprised this is not a MOT failure?

By sheer luck I had bought already a pair of wishbones with new ball joints and mouting/stabilizing rubbers. So I had only to order a pair of driveshaft covers, both inside and outside. And a tie rod with ball joint. 

Everything was quite rusty and very tight. It took quite a bit of power to undo everything.

With the wishbone removed it was quite apparent were the issue was.

Strangely I did not make a photo of the new wishbone, ball joint and rubber mounting. Oh well. 

Removing the driveshaft was again hard labour to get it out.

I had of course both sides replaced. This kit is good as it comes with the clamps, grease, lock ring and for the outerside even a new driveshaft nut.

Really pleased with this result:

Putting things back together and mounted the ball joint. Again a little bit of hassle and force but all went well in the end. Again, no photo's taken. 

The tie rod end removal required a lot of force as well. Once it was loose it went prette easy. Pushing the ball joint out was not difficult. I only do have a photo of the new tie rod

No photo of the end result either but all looks decent again. I hope they have some time to do a new MOT this week. Then I can do the same job on the other side when I have some time on my side. In any case, another Sunday well spent.

Electric power window repair

 I had looked into this before, see these blogs:

https://erwinkappa.blogspot.com/2020/12/more-audio-power-window-check-interior.html

https://erwinkappa.blogspot.com/2020/11/power-windows.html

So the right frontdoor electrical window was still not working despite previous attemtps and lubricating the joints and movements. 

I was lucky to obtain a complete new powerwindow movement with motor. When unpacking I noticed some minor differences though.

So removing the doorpanel 

First thing I did was hooking up the electric connector and check functionality. And of course it worked instantly:

Even removing the old unit went pretty easy. Didn't expect that. I was especially fearing the window would fall or requiring an extra pair of hands. Somehow the window remained fixed and I was able to unscrew two specific windowbar socket screws and the other screws of the mechanical unit.

Taking the whole unit out was a little bit fiddly and the same for putting the new unit in. But all very doable. And it worked out nicely. See this little video of the result. So happy this is now finally working as well. 

Since all was open again I also could put back the connector of the central doorlocking, which I forgot last time (doh!). So all is functional again:

Once I had putting everything togehter I noticed I had the electrical powersocket connected reversed, sigh.
Also the window does require a tiny adjustment. But other than that it's all good. I still need to work on the door again, so I will leave that for that occassion. 

Ventilator airco blower failing again

It has been a while. A few weeks back, just when the good weather starter, my interior ventilator-blower stopped working. Sigh. Last year it also stalled but that was easily fixed since the fuse was blown, see this blogpost:

https://erwinkappa.blogspot.com/2025/07/air-blower-stopped-working.html

This time around the fuse was not blown but as you have seen, last time half the socket got melted. The blower unit itself are no longer available and it's a difficult job to replace it as well. So I was not looking forward to that. Since the fuse was not blown nor did I smell anything funny nor any smoke that potentially could hint towards a failing blower unit I was hoping or anticipicating that the fusebox was malfunctioning since it was partially melted down at the fuse socket.

So I swapped it around today

And replaced one from my spare Kappa and installed it:

It worked instantly. Yes! Very pleased with that! That saved me a lot of hassle. 

Failing direction indicator + Kc 2.4 badges

It has been a while. It's still my daily driver and all is fine. Except that very often the right direction indicator is intermittenly failing. So today I swapped the relais around from another kappa. And on my home I did not had this is issue anymore. But perpahs its to early to make this conclusion ...

And today I also took the effort to get all Kappa's outside and sweep the garage.

Well, meanwhile I also obtained the original badges for the front wing of my Kappa Coupe. So I took the effort to put them on both sides:

Lancia Kappa SW - Atomium

Today I made my first international roadtrip :-)   All the way to Brussels to visit Interclassics. So a nice opportunity to make a photo with a landmark. 

A very pleasant drive, except for all the roadworks around Brussels. 

RDW voertuigenrapport

Today I obtained a status report of my vehicle provided freely by the official Ducth road registration company (RDW). Nice to have this extra piece of history available. It shows the mileage is legitimate and the amount of previous owners, and some more minor details.