Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Stallingrad · 03-04-2017 11:04am

Good job though flush with the bumper, very OE looking.

Ardennes1944 · 03-04-2017 11:12am

Thanks, the left one will have to be redone, you can see its a little indented which is annoying me already, the curve in the bumper meant it didn't want to stay in position as good.

Nightmare? Well in the Civic to get to the reverse wire you have to remove most of the boot lining, which is fine, but in all my other cars it has come off in sections or was somewhat flexible, but in the Civic it just comes off as one massive piece as far as the back door and its not flexible at all, top that off with a ****e wiring diagram from the manufacturer and the result is two hands that have little skin left on them :pac:

Cmar-Ireland · 04-04-2017 3:43am

Replaced the windscreen washer pump on the Avensis at the weekend. Picked up this one from eBay.

Easy enough job, remove driver side wheel, wheel arch liner and loosen some of the undertray for easier access.
The pump pops out from the bottom of the washer tank and then twists out.

Would have been well over €100 for Toyota to do it, verses €16 for the pump from eBay.

Happy days!

traco · 05-04-2017 9:48am

Not today but last night, rears done. Fronts today. All fluids, plugs and filters on Saturday along with new brake hoses and fluid. Also have the serpentine belt and a new air / oil separator. Doubt I will get the belt and separator done on Saturday so that might be another days work.

6.5 hours, started around 4:30 and left around 11pm. Complete PITA, seized pins on the rear and as for the handbrake mechanism. Do not attempt without a spring puller unless you want to completely wreck your head.

colm_mcm · 05-04-2017 8:21pm

Ardennes1944 wrote: »

Installed some parking sensors to the Civic so I don't reverse over anyone. Absolute nightmare of a job

What sensors did you get? They look very factory.

Ardennes1944 · 05-04-2017 8:37pm

These http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/STEELMATE-PTS400EX-OE-FLUSH-FIT-MATT-BLACK-REAR-PARKING-SENSORS-WITH-BUZZER-/161982581432?hash=item25b6ea0ab8:g:usUAAOSwe7BWxv77

colm_mcm · 05-04-2017 8:39pm

Did you just use touch up paint on the bumper where the holes are?

Ardennes1944 · 05-04-2017 8:42pm

I prepped and sprayed them 2 days before fitting.

MetzgerMeister · 06-04-2017 3:40pm

Very good match/job done on them if that's the case Ardennes

colm_mcm · 06-04-2017 9:48pm

So, my bonnet (which got resprayed 5 years ago because of stone chips) was gone to Shiite lately. The paint was oxidised and covered in crazing and cracks. I had tried using the DA and all manner of cutting compounds but was getting nowhere. I also tried compounding it by hand, but it wasn't touching it.
So today I grew some balls and wet sanded the whole thing.
It actually turned out really well from what I can see. I used 3 grades of paper from 600 to 1200, then followed up with heavy duty compound, then T cut, then polish, then wax. Looks a million times better now, but it did take off too much paint in one spot on the crease. Reckon I must have taken paint off with the DA and there was feck all there before I sanded.
I'll figure something out.

No pics yet.

duffman3833 · 07-04-2017 9:48am

the gf scraped the side of her car of a gate and left small marks. A can of WD40 and tissue, spray and wipe and it was gone, what cant WD40 not do?

biko · 07-04-2017 10:18am

Yeah WD40 will clean the scrape really good. Most of the mark is just debris from the gate.

joujoujou · 08-04-2017 12:11am

I have to admit I used it only once (and it was long, long time ago), but it's very good parking sensor, so won't rid of it.

One day decided to replace plastic socket (missing cap) with metal one. Looked nice and shiny when I bought it.

Wrong! It's made of a sort of aluminium alloy. And recently it didn't look nice nor shiny anymore. :mad:

Broke apart during removal:

New one. Forgot to peel the sticker off.

traco · 08-04-2017 10:30am

For today's spanner spinning activities I will attempt the following.
Oil and filter change.
Gearbox oil change - bit of a mare as lots of members and pan needs to be removed.
Finish the brake upgrade with braided hoses and new fluid.
After that hopefully a top down spin on the sun if it's still out of course that assumes I don't mess something up.

joujoujou · 08-04-2017 8:32pm

LIGHTNING wrote: »

[...]

After:

[...]

Wow. Just wow.

Wibbs · 08-04-2017 11:23pm

Oily gnashing of metal teeth parts needed oily stuff to ease the gnashing. And as a Fast and Furious treat to myself new Spoon Sport magnetic drain bolts as an add on.

I have to say, having used it for a while now, I really rate this Millers oil. Not exactly cheap, but the engine feels "looser" with it and it stands up to both short trips to the shops and VTEC Yo!.

Voodoomelon · 09-04-2017 11:53pm

It must be oil change week.

Pulled the 318Ci in to do a quick oil service. The oil filter housing cap was a nightmare to get off, had to pick up one of those bike chain wrenches and stick the hollow jack bar over it to get enough leverage.

BMW LL spec oil and tried Wix filters for the first time ever, seem like decent quality. Total cost, €35.

1_zps7ht2ooeb.jpg~original

shietpilot · 10-04-2017 5:00pm

The ABS light started coming on in my E36 intermittently. After a spin through Sally Gap it stopped being intermittent and became permanently on

I plugged in the diagnostics and a code for "ABS pump motor" came up.

nJO9mdp.jpg?1

Reading online I found a few posts saying a replacement ABS pump would need to be coded to work so I wasn't really interested in pursuing that route. On older model E36s the main cause for this issue is a bad ABS relay in the fuse box but on later E36s they integrated the relay into the ABS pump controller which sits bolted onto the ABS pump itself.

I decided to try and take off the controller but the brake lines were in the way on the pump itself. Removing the brake lines wasn't an option because if I was unable to fix the controller or if the fault was with the ABS pump itself, I wouldn't be able to actuate all the valves on the ABS pump to bleed them as they wouldn't work with a bad controller.

I ended up spending 2 hours bending the brake lines slightly around the ABS pump to try and slip the controller out. It was tricky but I managed to squeeze it out!

Then it took me another half an hour to remove the cover on the controller which was glued on, in the factory.

hDmlQSD.jpg?1

Looking at the circuit board there were 2 solder joints which were cracked, probably from engine heat (Sally gap *wink* *wink*). They were connected to 2 pins sticking out of the controller which were feeding power to the ABS pump.

A few minutes with the soldering iron and the joints were all good again

Put it back together, started the car and a few minutes later the ABS light went off again

Absolutely free fix and I'm delighted I didn't attempt to send it off to a re-manufacturing company which would have done the same job :cool:

Voodoomelon · 10-04-2017 7:14pm

Fantastic job, a satisfying result. I had something happen years ago with the radio module in my E38, the radio would dip out and you'd have to get out of the car, open the boot, punch the boot liner which covered the module in order to get the sound to come back.

Opened the module up one day, re-soldered about 50 joints and bingo, no more problems!

shietpilot · 10-04-2017 7:21pm

Voodoomelon wrote: »

Fantastic job, a satisfying result. I had something happen years ago with the radio module in my E38, the radio would dip out and you'd have to get out of the car, open the boot, punch the boot liner which covered the module in order to get the sound to come back.

Opened the module up one day, re-soldered about 50 joints and bingo, no more problems!

Yeah dry solder joints are a common problem with car electrics especially around heat! My trip display on the instrument cluster doesn't display the last digit properly (as seen in above photos) but normally it starts to appear properly after the car warms up! Must take it out some day and sort it

10-04-2017 9:04pm

shietpilot wrote: »

The ABS light started coming on in my E36 intermittently.

I love when you tackle your cars. You remind me of me when I was younger, except you actually manage to fix the problem parts you take apart instead of making the problem worse. Good going dude. Fair play!

shietpilot · 10-04-2017 9:38pm

Snotaul Goodman wrote: »

I love when you tackle your cars. You remind me of me when I was younger, except you actually manage to fix the problem parts you take apart instead of making the problem worse. Good going dude. Fair play!

Thanks! I'm on a student budget with 3 cars

I try to fix more than replace

pablo128 · 10-04-2017 10:26pm

shietpilot wrote: »

Thanks! I'm on a student budget with 3 cars I try to fix more than replace

I try to fix rather than replace too but purely because I'm a mean wh0re!:pac:

The auld fellas alternator was giving trouble one day, so I took out the brush pack. Sure enough the brushes were worn to nothing. 6 euro for a pair of genuine brushes from a main dealer, a bit of soldering and she was rocking again. I didn't even have to take the alternator off the car!:)

colm_mcm · 13-04-2017 9:22pm

Got to try out my new axle stands today. The heat shield under the rear seats broke off at the front end (only fixed the back end a few weeks ago) Pig of a job. Stuck some M8 washers behind the bolts which worked a treat!
Got to use my massive Halfords socket set and breaker bar finally on the wheel nuts. Not a waste of money then!
No more rattley civic

LawlessBoy · 13-04-2017 9:37pm

Bought a MK5 GTI the weekend, looked great 180km on clock, FSH, DSG and good spec in general. Servied it tuesday with Liqui Moly top texh fully synth 5w30, new plugs, air fuel the whole works. Was planning to do a DSG service this weekend.

While i was digging into all this i said i should replace the cam follower as its a known problem on them. I dont even know how the car drove so smooth!

image hosting temporary

Cam follower was completely smashed through! High pressure fuel pump also damaged along with the can now needing a new inlet camshaft because of this! Not a good start to my first week of ownership!

image hosting temporary

image hosting temporary

Got a price for OEM parts from the stealers. â‚¬818 and that isnt including the timing belt kit that will need to be done as you have to remove it to replace the camshaft. :mad::mad::mad:

lafors · 13-04-2017 9:45pm

LawlessBoy wrote: »

Bought a MK5 GTI the weekend, looked great 180km on clock, FSH, DSG and good spec in general. Servied it tuesday with Liqui Moly top texh fully synth 5w30, new plugs, air fuel the whole works. Was planning to do a DSG service this weekend.

While i was digging into all this i said i should replace the cam follower as its a known problem on them. I dont even know how the car drove so smooth!

Cam follower was completely smashed through! High pressure fuel pump also damaged along with the can now needing a new inlet camshaft because of this! Not a good start to my first week of ownership!

Got a price for OEM parts from the stealers. â‚¬818 and that isnt including the timing belt kit that will need to be done as you have to remove it to replace the camshaft. :mad::mad::mad:

I'd be worried about where the rest of it is! I took a worn one out of my old vrs years ago, it was an 06, and it was well worn but looked brand new in comparison to that!

Big/expensive job to replace the cam, hpfp. Could you get the cam resurfaced/skimmed rather than replacing it?

LawlessBoy · 13-04-2017 9:49pm

lafors wrote: »

I'd be worried about where the rest of it is! I took a worn one out of my old vrs years ago, it was an 06, and it was well worn but looked brand new in comparison to that!

Big/expensive job to replace the cam, hpfp. Could you get the cam resurfaced/skimmed rather than replacing it?

Not 100% sure about it being resurfaced. I wouldnt tackle anything that advanced myself. Ill be handing it over to my mechanic for the work. Looking around online though i can pick up an OEM HPFP from ebay with warranty for â‚¬200 as opposed to 350 from the main dealers.

I didnt notice any metal shavings or pieces in the oil while i was draining it. The sump will be getting dropped and inspected along with the oil pickup! Just raging its happened!

Toyotafanboi · 14-04-2017 9:42am

colm_mcm wrote: »

Got to try out my new axle stands today. The heat shield under the rear seats broke off at the front end (only fixed the back end a few weeks ago) Pig of a job. Stuck some M8 washers behind the bolts which worked a treat!
Got to use my massive Halfords socket set and breaker bar finally on the wheel nuts. Not a waste of money then!
No more rattley civic

Done exactly that to my own one, a fortnight after I bought it the shield fell down, a couple of gigantic washers later and all was well.

pablo128 · 14-04-2017 6:43pm

I tackled my sisters clutch after work on Tuesday. Started at 6pm and finished at 11.30pm. 08 Auris petrol. Straightforward enough. I took this pic at 9.15pm.

I was using my new LED worklamp. Supposed to have 4 hours light on a full charge. It lasted 5 and a half hours.:cool:

lafors · 15-04-2017 3:16pm

The missus is trading her a3 in against her new kodiaq in a few weeks and the a3 was giving a big clunking noise of acceleration and deceleration and rocking like a mad yoke on startup. Definitely going to be the mounts so checked underneath and rightly the lower engine mount was in bits so decided to fix it to get the most i can for the trade in.

Anyway i started last night, and got pissed on by the rain on two occasions, lovely! Nothing better than lying under a car and a big shower comes out of no where.

Removed the mount arm, which looked in bad nick itself.
Then starting pulling bits of out the lower mount, it was wrecked, bits of rubber everywhere.

Bolt was well stuck, time for my favourite tool...

Got most of the centre section out and then the hard bit, trying to remove the outer casing.

Part of the problem is the lack of space when lying under the car. I was trying to pry it out bit by bit and hammer around the edges to loosen it up but was getting no where. I then got the dremel out and tried to cut it to weaken it. It sort of worked but the outer casing was chipping when hammering out rather than splitting in one piece.

Then while prying with a pry bar and getting my legs soaked in a downfall i managed to catch my finger, painful!
It was getting dark and my torch ran out and needed recharging so decided to take a break for the night.
Finger was throbbing and swelling so had to go at it with the drill bit too release the pressure...Ouch!

Much better this morning, swelling has gone

So after a good night's sleep i decided to take a different approach and use a tool I've never used on a car before....My trusty jigsaw!!!
Within 2 minutes i had the casing out

Next was to inspect the top lower mount, surprisingly it was in very good condition! Wohoo!

Cleaned out the remaining crap around the mounting hole with a small wire brush.
Fitting the new bottom lower mount was a pox. The shortened edge (where the mount bar slides in and attaches) is very hard to get past the lip. In the end as I'd little room to swing the rubber mallet i put a small wooden disk i made on the puck of the jack and raised it slowly. The mount began to side in

I then used the mallet to put it in the rest of the way.

With that all in i had a look at the mounting arm and i wasn't happy to put it back in so around the corner to gsf and got a replacement for around â‚¬20.

Refitted everything and out for a test drive....Perfect, very happy with the fix except my finger! Hopefully get better trade for the car now!

Next job, get these fitted to the 645...

Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Comments