Car D.I.Y.

[tyred]

I topped up my screen wash and dipped the oil. Toyota ownership is really stressful!

 

[Gunk]

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.

Just been out to give them a try and they are very good, a noticeable improvement, they’re not Xenon’s or LED’s but much better than the standard bulbs, so for the price I would definitely recommend the upgrade.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Alot of headlights you can remove complete then fit bulbs as required

Not on a Mk9 Civic, bumper has to come off to remove headlights. So if the retaining clip comes off changing the bulb seems like the only option, can't see me being able to refit it with one hand in a cramped space, not able to see what I'm doing. There's a knack to changing a bulb, I practice it on the full beam drivers side that has good access before doing either dipped beam bulb. Its a rubbish design, but nothing unusual these days, think some newer cars are even worse.

But the dipped headlights are so cr@p on it that I'm willing to take a chance with some better bulbs, the ones mentioned further back in this thread.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Just been out to give them a try and they are very good, a noticeable improvement, they’re not Xenon’s or LED’s but much better than the standard bulbs, so for the price I would definitely recommend the upgrade.

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Cheers Gunk, think I'll order some, sounds like a great result. At least I'll learn how to remove the front bumper if it all goes wrong..

 

[CXRAndy]

Filtered the oil. I can't see any belt residue in the filter.

I will postpone the cambelt. What I did notice whilst under the car the serpentine belt and water pump belt are showing signs of cracking. I will get these ordered. Simple to do, only crank harmonic balance wheel has to come off. Which will expose crankshaft end seal, I can check condition- do it part of cambelt

 

[fossyant]

I topped up my screen wash and dipped the oil. Toyota ownership is really stressful!

Just done that on the Aygo, took 2l of screen wash, shocking.

 

[tyred]

Just done that on the Aygo, took 2l of screen wash, shocking.

The Yaris seems to have a voracious appetite for screen wash. I might have topped the 205 2 or 3 times in a year whereas I seem to be doing it regularly on the Yaris. I can't find any leaks either. You seem to need to use it more often. I assume this is because the windscreen on a 205 is pretty upright by modern standards and attracts less dirt.

 

[Fastpedaller]

I spent about five minutes topping up the screenwash last weekend, followed by an hour freeing up the bonnet catches and release cable so that I could get it shut again.

Screenwash - a warning! Many years ago our Mondeo didn't emit any screenwash, and on further investigation it became clear no fluid was actually getting out of the container (my first thought was blocked jets or pipe). The container was under the RH wing, accessible from the wheel arch after removing the wheel arch liner. After removing the pump from the container, I found a blue, almost impenetrable 'skin' that had formed. My local MOT tester said he'd seen it happen often, and his advice was to always have very diluted screenwash and never use it to the concentrations suggested on the bottle.

 

[Drago]

A tablet or two of baby bottle steriliser will clear blocked screenwash filters and the like.

 

[CXRAndy]

New pins for brakes have turned up, along with new wipers and charcoal cabin air filter. Over Xmas, I will bleed the brakes, easier to do with two people. I do have a pressure bleeder, but its fiddly to work sometimes.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

Just fitted some sound deadening to the passenger door on the Civic, going to do the drivers side but the heavens opened. Going to do the back doors too at some point. Just getting slight rattling despite having an underseat subwoofer and not sending really low frequencies to the component speakers in the front doors using a high pass filter on the head unit. It's a bit of a faff but know it makes a big difference after doing it on other cars.

 

[Hicky]

Screenwash - a warning! Many years ago our Mondeo didn't emit any screenwash, and on further investigation it became clear no fluid was actually getting out of the container (my first thought was blocked jets or pipe). The container was under the RH wing, accessible from the wheel arch after removing the wheel arch liner. After removing the pump from the container, I found a blue, almost impenetrable 'skin' that had formed. My local MOT tester said he'd seen it happen often, and his advice was to always have very diluted screenwash and never use it to the concentrations suggested on the bottle.

Tried that on my Volvo, the beast from the east low temperatures ensured the fluid inside froze and split the res. The roads up Manchester way are filthy enough you have to fill it fairly often to avoid any buildup of a skin🙄🤭

 

[Bristolian]

Well I've had a fraught couple of days but all is now well. I should have known that the self-repairing air suspension would fail again and it did last Thursday. With the help of a friend that has a Mercedes diagnostic computer we decided that the pump had failed so a refurbished one was ordered on Thursday night for delivery yesterday. With no rain expected yesterday I decided to remove the failed pump in readiness for the new one being delivered. Problem number one - my jack won't go under the car because the back end is practically on the floor . Solution? A few house bricks behind both rear wheels and reverse onto them then get the jack under and raise the near side; slide a wheel stand into place and crack on

To get access to the pump you first have to remove the rear under-tray and then the pump cover. Problem number two - the stupid plastic nuts they use won't unscrew because the screw threads are rusty so, although the nuts will spin they don't actually undo. Solution? Find a metal nut that fits the screws and wind that on to clear the rust away then undo the plastic ones. Talk about faff

Once there's access to the pump it's pretty easy to undo the air hoses and electrical connections and then, finally, remove the defunct pump. It's remarkably small and light compared to the one on my old Discovery but I suppose that's because this car only had rear air springs and the Disco had all four. Nothing else left to do then except wait and wait for the delivery man to turn up. By mid-afternoon I'm getting worried so make a call to the supplier who eventually tells me it's not due for delivery until today. I harangue him a bit as I specifically requested Monday delivery and paid extra but it's too late to do anything about that now and I just have to hope the delivery will be before noon.

Happy days, I get up at 8 o'clock today and there's a text from the courier to say he'll be with me before 11. In fact the delivered just before 10 and by 11:30 everything was fitted again and as soon as I fired up the engine the back rose to its correct height. Halleluiah! Crisis averted and we can get to our Christmas lunch tomorrow without the need of a taxi, my blood pressure can come back down to normal and SWMBO can stop fretting at last

All I need to do now is replace the number plate lights, but that's a job for another day

 

[CXRAndy]

I like to take my time when doing maintenance on vehicles, rushing just leads to mistakes which can cost more. I've eventually finished the wife's car for brakes apart from bleeding.

I put in some new charcoal activated cabin filters. Original ones though dirty weren't that bad for 100k miles

 

[fossyant]

Screenwash - a warning! Many years ago our Mondeo didn't emit any screenwash, and on further investigation it became clear no fluid was actually getting out of the container (my first thought was blocked jets or pipe). The container was under the RH wing, accessible from the wheel arch after removing the wheel arch liner. After removing the pump from the container, I found a blue, almost impenetrable 'skin' that had formed. My local MOT tester said he'd seen it happen often, and his advice was to always have very diluted screenwash and never use it to the concentrations suggested on the bottle.

Same happened on my brother's Kuga. I had to pull quite a bit of trim off a fairly new car, to get to the bottle filter that was covered in jellied screen wash.