Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Did a bit of cleaning



Put the other seat in



Here's how the interior looked when I got it

I don't either, they should come out though.

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Since the Astra was parked up for such a long time, I sold the head unit that was in it (a crappy enough Sendai anyway) so it was left like this.



But since I'm going to be driving it, I put this JVC head unit in there. It has USB, AUX, Bluetooth and it powers on and off with the ignition - it's awesome. :P

GvidoR wrote:

But since I'm going to be driving it, I put this JVC head unit in there. It has USB, AUX, Bluetooth and it powers on and off with the ignition - it's awesome.

It's a bummer with them cars, and others with a display screen, that the screen becomes almost obsolete when one fits an aftermarket radio.

Oil leak was freakin me out. Never had a car go below the minimum on the dipstick before! It had also used up all the ends of the oil cans in the shed. 2.5 litres of a 10-40 5-30 mix gone in 1000 miles :cool:. Rather than just buying more oil to leak out I decided to change the oil and filter and sort the leaks. It takes 4.5 litres so I would have had to buy another cans of oil to service it after.

Sump bung had pulled most of the threads and a previous attempt at a seal with a copper washer, plastic washer and mastic wasn't working(see the pic). So rethreaded the sump from an m18 to an M20. Tricky enough to do lying on your back so it went in a a bit of an angle. Just have to use 2 copeer washers now but it seals perfect.



A fine mess


The rest of the leak is from the rocker cover. Was going to seal it up with dirko but its only 17 euro for a new gasket. Will fit that tomorrow and rinse down the engine. Hopefully that'll be the oil leaks sorted.

New wheels to replace the mad looking yokes on the celica. Bridgestone S03 wheels 16" x 7" with decent rubber. Got them for handy money off of a lad breaking a celica on donedeal. Looking forward to cleaning them up and fitting them!

Thanks they aren't the originals but they are the same diameter, width and offset as the originals and the rims themselves being made by bridgestone i'd imagine they will be a decent quality. The ones currently on the car are like chocolate.

Paid €200 for them. Less than most lads are asking for the OEM wheels and these have very good tyres so i'm happy. Will donedeal my old wheels for €100, someone will probably love them for a bora or a caddy van :P

Looking well!

Faulty (whining loudly) alternator replaced.

There's no appropriate one in my local breakers, so decided to buy different one, from the model up.

Housing is slightly bigger, although mounting holes exactly the same, as well as all the connectors.

And it's stronger - old one had 70A, new one - 80A.

There will be no photos, because I'm lazy.

Doesn't seem too excessive for a good brand oil and filter. A h7 and h3c(?) Were probably around €15 for the pair i'd say?

Not y car but some may find it interesting.
Done service on a sl600 v8 biturbo ( badged as a sl63 v 12 )
Some job on them spark plugs lads. No room what so ever to get a ratchet so took longer than expected. 16 spark plugs at 400 and something euro.

Plugs done

Done nice and clean and test drive time
Happy days

That's a lot of plugs.

Oil change coming up, gotta get a tin of cookies. :pac:

dodderangler wrote: »

Not y car but some may find it interesting.
Done service on a sl600 v8 biturbo ( badged as a sl63 v 12 )
Some job on them spark plugs lads. No room what so ever to get a ratchet so took longer than expected. [highlight]16[/highlight] spark plugs at 400 and something euro.
[...]

Weird. I see 17.

Spent a bit of time on the car last night, nothing major, oil and filter change and two new lower control arms to replace.



Got a good deal on 20 litres of Castrol 5W30 on Amazon, shipping was only £14 from Germany. Worked out at about €9.90 a litre. Each oil change is 8 litres so 2.5 services from the tank.









Oil filter is a pain in the ass to get to compared to 4 or 6 cylinder models, it sits right at the back of the block under the car:



BMW TIS for tightening torques. Also used it for the control arms:



About 9,000 miles on this, left it a little later than normal:



First control arm on the driver side took about an hour. Spent an age trying to figure out how to safely detach the xenon auto-leveling sensor:



The bushing end also has to be tightened under load so its takes a while with no ramp.
New arm in:



Opposite side took 20 minutes flat, no sensor on that side.

State of the ball joints, pretty diabolical: