Car D.I.Y.

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Jody

Stubborn git
It also has glow plug issues which are £130 each! Its way past its cambelt change too.

Liability wise, I wouldn't be touching the glow plugs.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Liability wise, I wouldn't be touching the glow plugs.

Yes, I've read horror stories of seized ones .

Actually that reminds me of our Audi 10 yrs or more ago, when the main dealer returned my car with a check engine light, which turned out to be a damaged glow plug. They tried to deny it but I threatened legal action. They replaced the glow plug. I quickly sold the car on, due to it burning excess oil. Never bought German since
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
My lad has been changing the clutch on his modified 'track' Fabia - and fitted a LSD. Unfortunately, the LSD has meant a couple of 'washers needed milling down, but he found a place that did it (via VW car forum). Latest was a spring clip he lost - couldn't get the gearbox back in and clutch withut this tiny aper clip sized wire clip - he lost it. The VAG forum came up trumps, and he got one loally for free.

Next issue has been clutch bleeding - I've helped, but getting out of bucket seats is no longer possible with my limited spinal movement following my crash - usually OK with stuff, but anything low etc I am buggered - I can ride my bike for 8 hours non-stop.

Wife and daughter can't fit in the seats well as they are designed for fellas narrower hips/bottoms. I can get in it fine, but with the extra side cussions, I have to haul myself out holding onto the car roof to pull myself out.

Fortunately one of his mates has come round to sit in said seat. He needs it running this week as we've got a wait for the MOT for the bail out car, the Aygo. It will be off road for a week as the MOT places are rammed busy, so the car won't be useable from Friday.
 
had the 2014 Jeep Cherokee RDM fluid checked, nice & clean. the car is just under 41k miles
finger dip.jpg

plug didn't look bad
plug 1.jpg

our mechanic said it had plenty, but was about 1/2" from the fill hole, so OK to add a little. I'll get that from the dealer. I'll try to top it off myself, sometime soon
 
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CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Finished my friends Insignia diesel service. Oil, fuel, air, cabin filters changed, oil too. New battery. Cleared all the codes and rescanned for obvious hard faults.

Her complaint was no power on acceleration. There were no codes for anything to do boost or dpf faults. I suspect the fuel filter was the issue. Known on poorly maintained diesel cars

Driver Xenon dipped beam failure, cylinder 1 glow plug malfunction. It's got quite a bad leak on the EGR cooler assembly. The oil filter cartridge had a leak too. I've cleaned up a much oil as possible

Then there is the little matter of cambelt and water pump replacement. Probably Aircon belts too.

Filters were quite dirty- air filter below

20230924_112144.jpg


I bet I will be seeing this vehicle again!
 

gbb

Squire
Location
Peterborough
Not DIY yet but setting myself up.
Mazda 3, it seems the alloy wheels are quite prone to lacquer peel, added to that I have kerbed mine quite badly, they're in need of some attention. The laquer peel is very bad on mine plus ite tyres are about done anyway.

Saw a guy selling 4 alloys relatively locally, some very light damage but with good Yokohamas on 5 to 6mm tread each, got them for £280.
So some very light repairs to these then I can concentrate on my originals at my leisure.

And stop kerbing the bl00dy things....
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Aygo failed MOT on corroded off side shock - the bit/shelf the spring rests on has corroded quite enough - other side OK.

New shock was £50 inc VAT but we've had to get an additional spanner and socket for £20. Son's almost got it off, but we need a ball joint splitter - the hub has to come off on the drive side of an Aygo/C1/107. Not got one, and no amount of heat etc is moving it. His friend has one, lives round the corner, but is currently in hospital (on-going condition - no doctors this week). Anyway he is asking his dad to look for it - dad ownes an auto spares shop so we might be able to get one.

If not we'll get one tomorrow from somewhere, fix tomorrow night then I'll need to book some time off to get the car droped back for the work to be checked for the MOT - our local garage apologised that they were too busy to fix it - three week wait as one mechanic is sick. I said I'd get my son to do it as he modifies cars and has done loads of suspension swaps.
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
New shock is in, and ball joint split (borrowed the tool), but the rubber has split in the process. Crazy thing is, a new ball joint, which will need the faff of pressing out and new one fitting into the lower arm, is £30. A whole new arm, including joint is £30. New arm it is.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Did you use a pickle fork or traditional ball joint lever tool?

I find this is where acquiring special tools can get expensive for rare/one off jobs.

At least with a new lower arm, you know the bushings won't need doing for a good few years 🤞
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Did you use a pickle fork or traditional ball joint lever tool?

I find this is where acquiring special tools can get expensive for rare/one off jobs.

At least with a new lower arm, you know the bushings won't need doing for a good few years 🤞

He used a borrowed fork, rather than getting a lever - I'm sure we'd have used a lever again on his cars. He wholloped it in and it mullered the rubbers. Grrr. Still cheaper than waiting for the garage. New arm arrived today, but getting son out to fit it is another matter. It's nearly 8pm and he's not using the dugga dugga beyond 10pm due to neighbours. His car's front caliper is binding, so needs the 'spare' (Aygo) back on the road. Doesn't bother me if the car is off the road as I don't need one for work, and he's not having mine.

The Aygo was bought to bail him out when his 'track' car broke and for when daughter passes her test, but she's still not keen on driving. It will be a good (if old by then) car once we deide to sell it on - it's had loads of jobs done that previous owners left.

You can probably tell this car modifying doesn't sit well with me (my son), with me being a cyclist !
 
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a funny thing happened to me on the way to the forum ... (nowhere near home) the car started to jerk like it was running out of gas. was able to pull over safely. posted a thread on one of my auto forums. web friends started giving advice. found a local auto parts store, read a code for a cylinder 2 misfire. bought an ignition coil pack & borrowed a cpl tools & replaced it in the parking lot. got back on the highway & finished my trip! & my gas mileage improved!

the biggest head scratcher was which one was cylinder #2 (which does not correspond w/ firing order!)
Screen Shot 2023-10-07 at 8.04.47 AM.png

the guys at the auto parts store could only tell me the firing order. 2 web friends & our car dealer parts dept. just before they closed Friday were able to tell me it was this one
Screen Shot 2023-10-07 at 8.08.56 AM.png

I'm used to seeing 26-29mpg on straight highway trips & only see 30+ when drafting trucks. wow I might change the other 3 & see what happens!
mpg.jpg

a real success story for internet web forums! in the old days I could have been in for lots of real & possibly expensive inconveniences! or eaten by bears!
 
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