Car D.I.Y.
- Thread starter Drago
- Start date
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OP
OP
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
For a 0.6 hour job? That's a labour rate of £555 and hour!
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Both our cars are using unbranded wipers off eBay for a tenner a pair, they fit and work just as well as Bosch
OP
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Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
At risk of soundingnlike and old git I don't think wipers last like they used to.
Here is a tip concerning wipers, when they start to smear often it is a build-up of grease etc on the glass, grab a piece of kitchen roll or cloth, a big dollop of washing up liquid and scrub the glass, ideally when it is raining, but a hose pipe or washer jets will do, after this you will find you wipers working a lot better, normal washing of the car does not have the same effect.
Tom B
Guru
- Location
- Lancashire
On a VW van we know, the clutch failed at 33k. A quick looked showed oil leaking from the crank seal. VW wanted us to be prepared to pay £800+vat for them to strip it so they could confirm the oil seal failure and then they'd consider a warranty claim. If it was confirmed warranty they'd kindly not charge us the £800 and fix it. Warranty confirmed they asked if we'd mind contributing to the cost of the clutch kit as we'd "had 33k out of it". We did mind.
Only thinking that last week. even good ones go bad quickly.
IF manufacturers only made vehicles to be serviced easily. Inspection ports on the bell housing would allow a endoscope camera to see if seal was leaking. They design engines to be compact, bury parts like thermostats in the depth of the engine assy, requiring hours of work to change an inexpensive part. And, they wonder why folk don't maintain their cars properly, when faced with exorbitant bills just to diagnose.
Reminds me of my long gone Audi Q7 V8. Suddenly decided to blow clouds of smoke on hard acceleration, but was fine if driven normally. Audi wanted £7k to strip the engine down, bill could be up to £11k if it needed a new engine. This pretty much wrote the car off in value.
I traded it in at another make dealer. I gave them ample opportunity to find the issue when trading in. They took the car in for the day whilst I test drove a new car. I was offered just below market value, so bit their hand off. Good riddance, never bought a German car since.
That was the point where my journey into owning EVs
Reminds me of my long gone Audi Q7 V8. Suddenly decided to blow clouds of smoke on hard acceleration, but was fine if driven normally. Audi wanted £7k to strip the engine down, bill could be up to £11k if it needed a new engine. This pretty much wrote the car off in value.
I traded it in at another make dealer. I gave them ample opportunity to find the issue when trading in. They took the car in for the day whilst I test drove a new car. I was offered just below market value, so bit their hand off. Good riddance, never bought a German car since.
That was the point where my journey into owning EVs
OP
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Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
You're lucky. It seems VW don't even cover the crank seal on their extended warranty, as some owners have been complaining on the VW Transporter forum. When the manufacturers warranty is up on mine I'll buy a mechanical breakdown insurance policy elsewhere.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
It's more that at our age something you fixed only the other day was actually 3 years ago
OP
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Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
Ain't that the truth!
Or the windscreen has not been cleaned properly, making it look like the wipers are useless. My wipers have lasted me over 60,000 miles and still work well. Unlike some of my bikes the car does go out in the rain.
Moodyman
Legendary Member
Also worth cleaning the wiper rubber periodically. That fine grit on a typical windscreen is very abrasive both to the screen and the rubber wipers.
Run a finger along the rubber on a damp day, and one can see the black gritty paste.
Richard A Thackeray
Legendary Member
I went to work in the Kodiaq this morning
On unlocking it, l accidentally dropped the keys
The DiskLok key broke up, it’s 30 years old, so brittle, & has broken before
I think l picked up all the bits that l could see with a torch
I had a spare, so it’s not that much of an issue (2 spares)
BUT… l’d like it to be intact
I tried ‘Gorilla Glue’, but it’s too liquid
What else could l use?
Good old Araldite?
Suggestions please
On unlocking it, l accidentally dropped the keys
The DiskLok key broke up, it’s 30 years old, so brittle, & has broken before
I think l picked up all the bits that l could see with a torch
I had a spare, so it’s not that much of an issue (2 spares)
BUT… l’d like it to be intact
I tried ‘Gorilla Glue’, but it’s too liquid
What else could l use?
Good old Araldite?
Suggestions please
OP
OP
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I clean them very thoroughly.
