You pass it down the line to anything you have that burns oil.
Car D.I.Y.
- Thread starter Drago
- Start date
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You pass it down the line to anything you have that burns oil.
Started the wife's Tesla brake job. no apparent wear to pads, rotors look slightly rusty.
First brake job on her car 106,000 miles
Hubs have stepped mounts, so reduces area for rust to bind disc to, a quick clean with fibre abrasive tool fits on impact gun-copper grease the contact area
Some ceramic lubricant for pads, copper grease on bolts
All reassembled, half hour one side
Then it went tits up on the other side. The spring clip pins had seized in place , the harder I hit them, the more bent they became -arrrgh
Remedy
I used a Dremel to cut the pins , remove pads, then the big dog came out, hammer only to drive out what was left of the seized pins. No resistance to the Milwaukee.
Job now delayed as new set of pins ordered.
Tomorrow then rears
First brake job on her car 106,000 miles
Hubs have stepped mounts, so reduces area for rust to bind disc to, a quick clean with fibre abrasive tool fits on impact gun-copper grease the contact area
Some ceramic lubricant for pads, copper grease on bolts
All reassembled, half hour one side
Then it went tits up on the other side. The spring clip pins had seized in place , the harder I hit them, the more bent they became -arrrgh
Remedy
I used a Dremel to cut the pins , remove pads, then the big dog came out, hammer only to drive out what was left of the seized pins. No resistance to the Milwaukee.
Job now delayed as new set of pins ordered.
Tomorrow then rears
Bristolian
Senior Member
- Location
- Bristol, UK
I had a really weird experience today. Driving to the local garden centre I had a message "car rising up - please wait" on the dash, followed by "malfunction". Odd, I thought, but the car felt okay so I carried on but by the time I reached the garden centre (about 1/4 mile) the rear of the car was right down on the bump stops 
The car has air suspension on the back to give self-levelling headlights.
Once I'd finished shopping I restarted the car and (fingers crossed) hoped it would pump itself back up but no joy and I couldn't hear the air pump so I took a very slow drive back home, avoiding as many potholes as I could. After a bit of research on t'Internet and in the factory workshop manual - don't ask where that came from
- I decided to start with the simple stuff like fuses, of which there are three, and the pump relay. Two of the fuses are easy to get at being in the front and rear fuse boxes but the third is a nightmare as you have to remove and disassemble the front pre-fuse box. Who knew there was a pre-fuse box before the fuse box? WHY?
Before I undertook that job I jacked the back of the car up and connected my multi-meter to the level sensor mounted on top of the differential. Good job I've got a low profile jack 'cos with the suspension right down there's not a lot of room under there. Anyway, that checked out okay. Then I made sure the pump relay was working which showed me that it wasn't getting any power ... bummer, that means I have to get into the pre-fuse box. This is truly a daunting task; not only is it awkward to get at but it has about a dozen electrical connections, some multi-pin sockets and others bolted. First thing to do is remove the battery to get more access, undo the single not that holds the box in place and then systematically undo the various cables and wires starting on the top before moving on to the the ones on the sides. The box can then be lifted out. Not only why does this box exist but why is the fuse I'm interested in the most awkward one to get at?
Fortunately (?) the fuse is okay and I can put the thing back together again making sure everything goes back in the same place it came out of - lots of mobile phone pictures taken ready for this bit. Why did I say fortunately? Well, Mercedes don't sell these fuses and you have to buy a complete pre-fuse box at some (undoubtedly) astronomical price. So, I get it all back together and the battery reconnected and fire it up to make sure everything is as it should be ... and the rear suspension pumps up
I've got no idea which bit of what I did resolved the problem but I suspect it might have been the act of disconnecting and subsequently reconnecting the battery that reset the system. My Carsoft diagnostic tool didn't show any fault codes, which is a bit disappointing. Fingers crossed this was a one-off
Apologies for the length of the missive.
The car has air suspension on the back to give self-levelling headlights.Once I'd finished shopping I restarted the car and (fingers crossed) hoped it would pump itself back up but no joy and I couldn't hear the air pump so I took a very slow drive back home, avoiding as many potholes as I could. After a bit of research on t'Internet and in the factory workshop manual - don't ask where that came from
- I decided to start with the simple stuff like fuses, of which there are three, and the pump relay. Two of the fuses are easy to get at being in the front and rear fuse boxes but the third is a nightmare as you have to remove and disassemble the front pre-fuse box. Who knew there was a pre-fuse box before the fuse box? WHY?Before I undertook that job I jacked the back of the car up and connected my multi-meter to the level sensor mounted on top of the differential. Good job I've got a low profile jack 'cos with the suspension right down there's not a lot of room under there. Anyway, that checked out okay. Then I made sure the pump relay was working which showed me that it wasn't getting any power ... bummer, that means I have to get into the pre-fuse box. This is truly a daunting task; not only is it awkward to get at but it has about a dozen electrical connections, some multi-pin sockets and others bolted. First thing to do is remove the battery to get more access, undo the single not that holds the box in place and then systematically undo the various cables and wires starting on the top before moving on to the the ones on the sides. The box can then be lifted out. Not only why does this box exist but why is the fuse I'm interested in the most awkward one to get at?
Fortunately (?) the fuse is okay and I can put the thing back together again making sure everything goes back in the same place it came out of - lots of mobile phone pictures taken ready for this bit. Why did I say fortunately? Well, Mercedes don't sell these fuses and you have to buy a complete pre-fuse box at some (undoubtedly) astronomical price. So, I get it all back together and the battery reconnected and fire it up to make sure everything is as it should be ... and the rear suspension pumps up
I've got no idea which bit of what I did resolved the problem but I suspect it might have been the act of disconnecting and subsequently reconnecting the battery that reset the system. My Carsoft diagnostic tool didn't show any fault codes, which is a bit disappointing. Fingers crossed this was a one-off
Apologies for the length of the missive.
I had a really weird experience today. Driving to the local garden centre I had a message "car rising up - please wait" on the dash, followed by "malfunction". Odd, I thought, but the car felt okay so I carried on but by the time I reached the garden centre (about 1/4 mile) the rear of the car was right down on the bump stops
Once I'd finished shopping I restarted the car and (fingers crossed) hoped it would pump itself back up but no joy and I couldn't hear the air pump so I took a very slow drive back home, avoiding as many potholes as I could. After a bit of research on t'Internet and in the factory workshop manual - don't ask where that came from
Before I undertook that job I jacked the back of the car up and connected my multi-meter to the level sensor mounted on top of the differential. Good job I've got a low profile jack 'cos with the suspension right down there's not a lot of room under there. Anyway, that checked out okay. Then I made sure the pump relay was working which showed me that it wasn't getting any power ... bummer, that means I have to get into the pre-fuse box. This is truly a daunting task; not only is it awkward to get at but it has about a dozen electrical connections, some multi-pin sockets and others bolted. First thing to do is remove the battery to get more access, undo the single not that holds the box in place and then systematically undo the various cables and wires starting on the top before moving on to the the ones on the sides. The box can then be lifted out. Not only why does this box exist but why is the fuse I'm interested in the most awkward one to get at?
Fortunately (?) the fuse is okay and I can put the thing back together again making sure everything goes back in the same place it came out of - lots of mobile phone pictures taken ready for this bit. Why did I say fortunately? Well, Mercedes don't sell these fuses and you have to buy a complete pre-fuse box at some (undoubtedly) astronomical price. So, I get it all back together and the battery reconnected and fire it up to make sure everything is as it should be ... and the rear suspension pumps up
I've got no idea which bit of what I did resolved the problem but I suspect it might have been the act of disconnecting and subsequently reconnecting the battery that reset the system. My Carsoft diagnostic tool didn't show any fault codes, which is a bit disappointing. Fingers crossed this was a one-off
Apologies for the length of the missive.
Mercedes can be awkward to basic code scanners. Even top of the range still have difficulty with German veh
OP
OP
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
If its an iCarsoft it's likely a v2.0 model which will make light work of all the subsystems.
Bristolian
Senior Member
- Location
- Bristol, UK
The iCarsoft V2 that I have is generally very good on Mercedes cars and is widely used by home mechanics. It's extremely good at reading and clearing fault codes. Not as good as MB's STAR system but significantly cheaper
OP
OP
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
The V2.0 and now V3.0 are generally the best thing for most makes short of a laptop based system.
OP
OP
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I remember my olde R80/GS, the original air cooled version (would be worth a fortune now.) Sitting bolt upright as an air brake had a greater retarding effect than actually applying the brakes.
I changed the headlamp bulbs (remember those!) in our little Škoda Citigo this morning, the standard lights on dipped are so bad they are verging on being quite dangerous, hopefully these will improve the situation, I’ll try them out later this evening.
Easy job on the Citigo, the engine is so tiny there is plenty of room.
Easy job on the Citigo, the engine is so tiny there is plenty of room.
Richard A Thackeray
Legendary Member
Quite the opposite to my Kodiaq, there's a ridiculously small gap to get a hand in, let alone find a hand position to twist the holder/remove it/re-twist it to seat the bulb
(the Octavia was okay, as the entire headlamp unit came out)
My nosiness got the better of me with the Citroen wet belt condition. Only conclusive proof is to drop the sump pan and see if debris is in the pickup tube. I've got some filter paper to sieve the oil to check for fine particles in the dumped oil.
So far no evidence of failing wet cambelt-phew!
Sump back on, RTV curing overnight
So far no evidence of failing wet cambelt-phew!
Sump back on, RTV curing overnight
Cletus Van Damme
Previously known as Cheesney Hawks
- Location
- Out in the sticks...
Can you post your findings please Gunk. I've been looking at those, H7 though as the dipped beam on my Civic is terrible. Just don't want to do it if they're a waste of time as changing the dipped beam bulbs is horrendous on it. One handed cramped access, get it wrong and the retaining clip comes off, the bumper has to come off.
