Car D.I.Y.

[Drago]

I was just thinking of the cars which I have had and which ones weren't bad for doing oil and filter changes on . The old Mini wasn't bad once you removed the front grille as it made access to the filter easier. Our Vauxhall Corsa B model 1.2 wasn't bad in having the oil filter placed at the top.
Our Kia Venga 1.6 has to have a small under tray removed but the difficulty is filling it back up as the engine slopes back and the filler cap on the rocker box is halfway under the bulkhead! The number of times I poured oil all over the engine !

The original Ford Kack with the hideous pushrod 1.3 that was descended from the Ford Anglia was the worst I ever encountered. I've got arms like an orangutans (long, not hairy) and the oil filter was inaccessible from above or below. It woukd surprise me not if few ever actually got their filters changed come service time.

Easiest would be th Peugeot 107, a clone of they Aygo mentioned above. Once could cry tears of joy because they're so simple to work on with decent access and visibility.

 

[Adam4868]

Serviced a vehicle last week where to get the oil filter off I had to remove the steering arm.Not the end of the world but all the same annoying.Rung a mate to ask him and he told me this was the easiest way without being a contortionist and getting oil everywhere.

 

[Illaveago]

Did you ever bother doing an oil change on the Mini? we found with ours that over the course of a couple of months of topping the oil up none of the original could still be in it.

It reminds me of an accident that a young mechanic caused in a garage where I worked . It was back in the 70's and we were working in a Ford Main dealers. The mechanic had an old Austin A 35 which it seems that the piston rings had gone as he would use a lot of oil driving into work each day .
There was a service bay called a Flow Line . Cars brought in for service would drive on to a service bay which had a metal grid over the floor with steps leading down below so that mechanics could service things underneath .
The young mechanic brought his car in one dinner time to top up his car with the old waste engine oil which was contained in a 50 gallon container. To empty the container an airline would be connected to the waste drum and a pipe to a drain pipe on the top of the container. All was going well as the mechanic started to drain some oil into his car until the drain pipe slipped off! A geyser of black engine oil shot 10 feet into the air covering everything , his car , the floor of the service bay . It was a good job that a customers car wasn't there with windows open . The mechanic quickly disconnected the airline which stopped the flow of oil . He had a bit of a mess to clean up!

 

[Drago]

Chap I know used to be a techie and an Audi dealer. One day, back in the 80's I should think, Geoff Cape's Audi was in for a service and my friend Tom accidentally dropped the wiper arm on the screen while cha ging the blades, causing said screen to crack.

Much panic ensued about how to tell the world's strongest man - and a bit of a moaner at that - that they had just damaged his car?

 

[Fastpedaller]

Think my battery needs replacing, I occasionally get a 'charging system malfunction' message on the display.
Battery is 5 years old and message only appears on start up then clears almost immediately.
Reasonable to assume it drops just below a voltage threshold on startup. Alternator.must be ok or the fault would be permanent.
EFB technology, £120 for a decent one, considerably dearer for an AGM one.
My brain is still sitting 40 years ago when you could buy a battery for £30

Is the EFB tech for stop/start feature? If you don't use that feature a lot (ie rural use) would it be ok to use a 'normal' battery?

 

[DRM]

I was just thinking of the cars which I have had and which ones weren't bad for doing oil and filter changes on . The old Mini wasn't bad once you removed the front grille as it made access to the filter easier. Our Vauxhall Corsa B model 1.2 wasn't bad in having the oil filter placed at the top.
Our Kia Venga 1.6 has to have a small under tray removed but the difficulty is filling it back up as the engine slopes back and the filler cap on the rocker box is halfway under the bulkhead! The number of times I poured oil all over the engine !

The Mk1 Freelander, with the BMW Td4 was a piece of cake to change the oil filter, it was located in a canister at the front of the car, take the lid off, remove the filter, fit the new one, replace a couple of o rings, lid back on, job done, using the Sucky bucket an oil change could be done and dusted in 15 minutes, used to do it twice a year, so it didn't really matter that there would be a very small amount in the left in the sump after extraction, you didn't even need to get underneath it, and no incuring the wrath of Mrs DRM by spilling oil all over the place

 

[Fastpedaller]

Oil catchment.......... I have a very old, plastic can which has a recessed side and hole to catch the oil and gather it inside, along with a plastic plug that effectively fills the hole to allow easy removal from under the car. It's an easy task to then fill empty containers with the used oil for disposal at the local recycling centre. I'll have to see if there is a name somewhere in the plastic moulding - I must have had it about 30 years.
Similar to this
https://www.uktoolbox.com/product/s..._term=4575617656904472&utm_content=All Sealey
But mine's a better design because the screw cap is the same end as the handle. Whoever thought the sealey one was a good idea?....... Screw the cap on and carry it by the handle - if the cap falls off there's 6L of oil on the ground

 

[Illaveago]

Chap I know used to be a techie and an Audi dealer. One day, back in the 80's I should think, Geoff Cape's Audi was in for a service and my friend Tom accidentally dropped the wiper arm on the screen while cha ging the blades, causing said screen to crack.

Much panic ensued about how to tell the world's strongest man - and a bit of a moaner at that - that they had just damaged his car?

Laminated windscreens are a bit fragile !

 

[raleighnut]

Chap I know used to be a techie and an Audi dealer. One day, back in the 80's I should think, Geoff Cape's Audi was in for a service and my friend Tom accidentally dropped the wiper arm on the screen while cha ging the blades, causing said screen to crack.

Much panic ensued about how to tell the world's strongest man - and a bit of a moaner at that - that they had just damaged his car?

Hah that's nothing,

Back in 1977 when I worked at Status Garages (SAAB main dealer) we came into work to find the senior mechanic had decided to come in early to start work on changing the timing chain on a SAAB EMS (top of the range car until the 'TURBO' came out) now the SAAB had a Ricardo designed engine the same as the Triumph Dolomite* but mounted 'backwards' as it was front wheel drive so the Clutch is on the front and the timing chain on the back so it's 'Engine/Gearbox' unit out to repair. Sadly he had positioned the 'legs' of the 2 post lift wrongly so when he was tugging at an exhaust manifold bolt the car had shifted, the front legs had slipped and the car fell but with the rear legs still in position the car was now 'nose on the floor' with the back end 6 foot in the air. I have never seen an Indian (Sikh) fella look so pale in my life, the car was almost wrecked, the car lift was twisted and it took a Crane and a Forklift to extricate the poor EMS from the tangled wreckage.

Imagine trying to explain that to the owner, the garage ended up giving him a new car.

*SAAB and Triumph shared design costs on the engine, originally a 1709cc then an 1850cc and later the 1999cc which SAAB developed into the 'TURBO' and Triumph into the 16 valve Dolomite Sprint, same block

 

[gbb]

Is the EFB tech for stop/start feature? If you don't use that feature a lot (ie rural use) would it be ok to use a 'normal' battery?

This has occurred to me....

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

 

[Illaveago]

Well the money I saved by doing my own oil change has just been spent on our Kia Venga. I just had to buy 4 new tyres at a cost of £370. I didn't go for Continental tyres which it had as they would have been over £500.

 

[Adam4868]

Well the money I saved by doing my own oil change has just been spent on our Kia Venga. I just had to buy 4 new tyres at a cost of £370. I didn't go for Continental tyres which it had as they would have been over £500.

Cheapskate ! 😁

 

[Illaveago]

Hah that's nothing,

Back in 1977 when I worked at Status Garages (SAAB main dealer) we came into work to find the senior mechanic had decided to come in early to start work on changing the timing chain on a SAAB EMS (top of the range car until the 'TURBO' came out) now the SAAB had a Ricardo designed engine the same as the Triumph Dolomite* but mounted 'backwards' as it was front wheel drive so the Clutch is on the front and the timing chain on the back so it's 'Engine/Gearbox' unit out to repair. Sadly he had positioned the 'legs' of the 2 post lift wrongly so when he was tugging at an exhaust manifold bolt the car had shifted, the front legs had slipped and the car fell but with the rear legs still in position the car was now 'nose on the floor' with the back end 6 foot in the air. I have never seen an Indian (Sikh) fella look so pale in my life, the car was almost wrecked, the car lift was twisted and it took a Crane and a Forklift to extricate the poor EMS from the tangled wreckage.

Imagine trying to explain that to the owner, the garage ended up giving him a new car.

*SAAB and Triumph shared design costs on the engine, originally a 1709cc then an 1850cc and later the 1999cc which SAAB developed into the 'TURBO' and Triumph into the 16 valve Dolomite Sprint, same block

They messed that engine up! In order to avoid the single OH camshaft they put the cylinder head studs in at an angle . I discovered this the hard way. I tried removing the cylinder head from my Sprint. One of the head studs had seized so I thought I could just spin the head around the stud . I couldn't understand why the head started to dig into the block as I turned it . Luckily there was enough room to get a hacksaw blade in and cut the stud .

 

[rockyroller]

wish me luck Saturday. will be attempting to get Mother unit's annual state auto inspection sticker

my parents always made it a giant ordeal, bringing it to the stealership & giving them carte blanche. I will NOT be doing that. I MIGHT get an oil change, in addition to the sticker, but the sticker is the goal