DIY with function over finesse!!

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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by myglaren »

The ditchfinders on mine were £40 each from a local tyre supply company (less than a mile from home).

I can't remember what they are and while they were a bit crap when new they seem fine now, a year on, and are lasting far better than anything on the C5s, where I had to change them every MOT, usually 6~7,000 miles.

'Oak Tyres' - carved from solid wood :)

Ed:-
Oak are the distributors, the tyres it seems are Davanti. Never heard of them before.
Last edited by myglaren on 16 Jul 2021, 16:51, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

The first parts for the wheel replacement arrived today,
Own work - I've got new nuts!!
Own work - I've got new nuts!!
and I popped down to see my tyre man who took the wrecked tyres off the wrecked wheels ready for me to weigh in when I have all four. One is so badly damaged I cannot see anyone wanting it so I will recycle them all down at the recycling yard which became the graveyard of my Delica:
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

Well, egg on face time :-D despite what I said about Continentals it turns out that there were none the right size available so my man has supplied me with a pair of mid range brand new tyres for the same price. I now have a pair of Marshal MH12's on the front which do stand up quite well in the Euro ratings. Having driven 60 miles of mixed driving this afternoon I can confirm that they are very quiet on the high speed stuff and grip and track very well so I am happy with them!!:
Own work
Own work
Own work
Own work
So now we have 68 spokes in the family!! :-D
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

The weather having cooled down and dried up at the moment I decided to do the next part of the Legacy's service this morning. I forgot to take any pictures I'm afraid but, as it happens, it doesn't matter! I had to play musical motors to get SWMBO's car out onto the road as she is going shopping before I could reverse the Subaru onto the drive, tucking the boot into the garage door and thereby leaving the rear wheels and jacking points over the flat concrete in front of the garage.

This means parking the nearside about 2 inches inside the wall to allow for jacking tilt when doing the offside which is where I started. So I chocked the car and released the wheel nuts half a turn and jacked the wheel clear of the ground. I removed the wheel and closely examined the pads. They did seem to have a fair bit of meat on them so I undid the lower caliper bolt and swung the caliper up and clear, suspending it with cable ties around the coil spring.

Out came the pads which were in excellent condition and with about half of the meat of the new ones. I decided it would be daft to replace them at this point so with a little clean and a dab of copper grease on the ends I refitted them and put it all back together!! I do like it when a job turns out to be that simple!! I repeated the procedure on the nearside, more for balance than anything, and came back indoors before SWMBO was ready to go out, so I could have saved the game of musical motors but I wasn't to know that was I? :-D
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

I actually managed to get over to the mancave today to complete the service on the legacy!! So we jacked her up to remove the engine and transmission sump plugs. Levelled the car and allowed them to drain!! All good. Then replaced both engine and transmission filters, interestingly both cartridge type but well labelled with their destinations! Then it was time to fit new washers to the plugs and refit them ready for refilling. Refilled the engine first with fully synthetic 5-30 as specified, I used Shell, and the transmission with Subaru's own ATF made for the car and cost a fortune!! Then it was time to check the front and rear diff oils and both had very clean clear oil to the right level so I decided to leave them as they had obviously been replaced recently. _ Pub O'clock had arrived so we slipped off to our local for a sandwich and light refreshment.

Returning to the cave after lunch it was time to finish the job by replacing the front discs and pads. We jacked the car onto axle stands and removed the front wheels. We settled down in front of one wheel each and set about removing the calipers - no problems for either of us. On removing the pads we both found them badly worn with severe grooves which did not surprise us as we had seen the state of the discs!!

Time to remove the caliper brackets which Dave did first, as we only had one breaker bar between us, and then it was my turn. I removed the top bolt as normal and then the trouble started. The bottom bolt was frozen solid. Lots of penetrating fluid and numerous efforts on the bar finally yielded a result. Shame it wasn't the one I wanted. The head of the M12 fine thread high tensile bolt sheared off leaving the bolt still through the caliper bracket mount and screwed into the bracket. So at this point the only option was to remove the disc and bracket together and then roll the disc out of the bracket leaving the frozen ex bolt, now stud, protruding from the bracket. It was then a job for vice and blow torch and after much straining the "stud" finally gave in and unscrewed leaving the bracket thread undamaged. Phew!! that was a relief, all that was needed now was a replacement bolt and the job could be completed. So I removed the old disc which you do by screwing 2 M6 bolts, I think they were, through the disc threaded holes which then push the disc off the interference fit hub boss. I prepped and fitted the new disc and set about the broken bolt problem.

Then the real problems began because although we must have hundreds of bolts in stock we did not have an M12 fine thread 35mm high tensile bolt or anything we could adapt! None of the suppliers I called had the required bolt in stock, so we decided plan B was the best option. I refitted the stud in the bottom of the bracket and slid it home and installed the top bolt. So the carrier is securely bolted to the top mount and effectively has a screwed in "dowel" through the bottom which will stop it from twisting around the top bolt. Then I used the piston compressing tool to push back the twin pistons, installed the new pads and shims and refitted the caliper. Dave had completed his side so we refitted the wheels and jacked the car off the axle stands and I gently reversed it out of the work area and parked it in a bay out side. I then borrowed the red mini which Dave has finished rebuilding but not got around to selling yet, luckily for me!, and drove the 30 miles home. Tomorrow I will be going to my local Subaru dealer, in Cambridge!!, and hopefully getting a new bolt to go and insert and the car will be ready for my three longish trips planned over the next couple of weeks!! Heyho!! :( :( :)
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

mickthemaverick wrote: 27 Jul 2021, 22:40 Tomorrow I will be going to my local Subaru dealer, in Cambridge!!, and hopefully getting a new bolt to go and insert and the car will be ready for my three longish trips planned over the next couple of weeks!! Heyho!! :( :( :)
Will it be a miracle if they have the bolt in stock, and its under £5 :?:

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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

Contacted both my close-ish dealers and neither have it in stock and quoted 2 prices 4.35 and 3.78!! Still looking to find one today!! Watch this space! :-D
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

Found a dealer in Woodford with them in stock at 3.81. Result!! Not too far but does involve the north circular which is a pain!! :-D on my way!
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

Well the job is complete and the car is back outside where it belongs. It is driving so much smoother with very impressive throttle response and brakes which are at least twice as good as they were and when you see the old discs it is easy to understand that!! : :-D
Own work
Own work
As you can see a maximum of 50% of the surface was being used for braking and now it is 100%. I find it hard to understand how the previous owner let them get that bad!! Together with fresh fluids throughout, new air filter and pollen filter it is genuinely like driving a new car, and I was reasonably happy with it before I started!!. All the belts have been checked and adjusted as necessary, timing belt in very good condition as are the plugs and previously mentioned rear brake pads so the replacements I had bought have gone into stock. Now looking forward to a couple of decent trips around the country in the next couple of weeks, Cheltenham on Friday, Thruxton on Sunday and Warrington on Monday week and Wednesday week!! :-D
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

I had a moments joy today when the DPD van pulled up outside and I thought "Great I can do the bearing tomorrow!". I was mistaken, the van brought the parts for a job on one of my maintenance fleet cars so I'll be doing that instead tomorrow, still no sign of my wheel bearing!! :?
Own work
Own work
Here's hoping I've had my share of caliper bolts shearing this year! :)
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I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

I am pleased to report that the replacement of the rear disks and pads on the Kia Venga was a straightforward job completed in just under an hour!! No rusty bolt issues and pistons went back easily!! Makes a nice change working on a 5 year old car that hasn't had time to degenerate!! :-D
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

Had to turn to domestic issues today. Our integrated under counter fridge has been playing up for at least two months so about three weeks ago I ordered a replacement thermostat for it and installed it. After another week of iffy behaviour I decided it was suffering a fluid leak and just wasn't going to work. So SWMBO decided that she wanted a new one which I found and ordered from AO.com. (Having first ordered the same model from Amazon and then cancelled 6 hours later when I realised their delivery date was 22nd September!!)

So AO delivered on time this afternoon, having texted me at 07.00 to let me know I could have a lie in as they were delivering PM! :twisted: so I got up anyway and had an early breakfast! On arrival my first job was to unpack and then reverse the door hinges. It is a Whirlpool fridge so the instructions are in the form of the "IKEA" style line drawings. Basically I had to move the top right hinge to bottom left and bottom right to top left!! Simple you may well think, but when you discover that the screws will not screw into the holes on the left and after several attempts you discover you are just flattening the threads on the bolts you realise this is not going to be quite as straightforward as it should be!! However to cut a long story......out with the tap and die set and installed M5 tap and dies into their appropriate holders and re threaded the bolts and retapped the holes and we were ready to go. How many people have the kit handy for doing that one wonders? :(

As you will realise by now I hadn't remembered to take any pics until after I had done the door and then positioned the fridge into its new home:
Own work
Own work
So all that remained was to fit the door ---- hmmmm! Again to cut a long story ......... an hour and twenty minutes after taking the above picture I was able to take this one:
Own work
Own work
"I'm not paying £100.00 for them to install it" said I, " or £20.00 to take away the old one" -- that's the next job!! :-D

Still at least I can sit down with a Doombar and count my brownie points!! :-D
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

At last my parcel from Autodoc arrived this morning so all systems go for the bearing change tomorrow!! :)
Own work
Own work
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

Well I am pleased to say that the bearing swap went exactly as planned and took around 40 minutes!! Another £485 I won't be giving to the main stealer!! The new bearing was original equipment from Autodoc for £90 and my mate's lunch cost me £20.00!! Result!!
However yet again I have proved that I am a much better mechanic than a video producer!! The clips I took during the work have all come out black so not worth posting. However the one I made to demonstrate the reason for the change has come out, all 24 seconds of it, and it certainly shows that a director I am not!!! :-D
However you can hear the reason for the change so I am happy to know the whole job was both warranted and worthwhile!! The car is very quiet to drive now and, as ever, I hadn't realised just how much background noise it was responsible for!! :-D :-D

I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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Re: DIY with function over finesse!!

Post by mickthemaverick »

Today is the third full day of home care since SWMBO came home from hospital, after her hip replacement, on Friday! That fact means that this week, in addition to being car mechanic, domestic appliance engineer, plumber, electrician, chippy, decorator, roofer, carpet cleaner, gardener, IT consultant, glazier, provider of trivial information and general dogsbody, I have had to become, nurse, chef, washer upper, physiotherapy adviser, stairclimbing support agent, entertainer, and house maid. No wonder they charge £1200.00 a week for full time care these days!! :-D However I am pleased to say that she is doing very well indeed and now toddling around the house every hour and even a stroll into the garden on her sticks for some air, which is brilliant!! :) :) :)
Last edited by mickthemaverick on 13 Sep 2021, 16:11, edited 1 time in total.
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
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