DIY Car Maintenance with function over finesse!!

[CitroJim]

The other trouble with those selection boxes is they contain every size but the one you need... I have a box of assorted O Rings that fall into that category

[Paul-R]

Just the one box? You should have a box of metric O-rings and a box of imperial O-rings, neither of which has the required size.

[mickthemaverick]

My Dekton kit, pictured above , has both metric and imperial and so far I've always found what I needed but then it is only 5 years old!!!

[Gibbo2286]

Those hose clips will be ok on good new hoses but not on hardened with age stuff, just don't overtighten them.
Your Dekton O rings could be an age related waste of space after five years in the box. Mick.

[mickthemaverick]

Your Dekton O rings could be an age related waste of space after five years in the box. Mick.

Yes indeed they might Gibbo, but they have been kept indoors, rather than in the garage, and still both look and feel fresh and rubbery so I think keeping them at normal room temperature has extended their expected shelf life. I tend to use them more on taps and the like which is why they live indoors but so far, and I fitted one on the kitchen mixer spout a couple of weeks ago, they are still doing a good job when called upon!!

[mickthemaverick]

This morning dawned bright and cheery so I decided to do the cooling system and power steering hose on the Subaru. I started with the best of intentions to use the camera but I'm afraid after the first few my fingers were too yucky to use it so only limited pics I'm afraid.

Having put the car on the ramps making it fairly level with the back up my sloping drive the first problem hit me straight away!! I had positioned the ramps further out than I normally do and as a result, once mounted, there was not enough clearance to open the bonnet as normal and use its stay so a bit of improvisation came into play:

Bonnet prop

Once secure the first job was to remove the air intake chute:

Air intake chute

Intake chute removed

Then under the car to remove the under shield:

The undertray

Next job was to drain the coolant, made very easy and clean by the inclusion of the radiator drain plug. Once removed a very steady and straight flow into the box ready for reuse if ok. As you can see it is indeed very clean still since the replacement during the timing belt job at 120000 miles. I am very pleased with that and it confirms why I didn't want to use a sealant to cure the radiator weep.

Radiator drain plug

Drained coolant

At this point I decided it was time to give my new battery ratchet a good workout and use it for the rest of the job:

The ratchet

I have to say it performed brilliantly especially on the new hose clips which I had bought oversize so they needed a good winding down to size. A simple task with the battery tool.

Next job was to remove the top and bottom hoses, no pictures but not really necessary. That done I unplugged the two fans and removed the radiator braces from the top of the radiator and lifted out the radiator and fan assembly complete.

Old Radiator front

Old Radiator fan side

It was then a simple job to swap the two fans from old to new:

New Radiator

Fans onto the new radiator

Turning my attention to the engine again I released the bolt adjusters fitted to both auxiliary belts and removed the old belts which are in fact still in good condition so have gone into the emergency stock box. I then fitted both new belts and adjusted them back to the correct tensions.

New belts fitted

Then it was simply a matter of sliding the new radiator and fan assembly into place and tightening the mounts. Then I released the mounts and slid it back out having forgotten to replace the thermostat while the radiator was out!

The thermostat was then replaced and the cap refitted following a good clean of the hose connector surface to ensure a good seal with the new hose. I then put the radiator assembly back in again and fitted the top mounts. I felt the new radiator top pins were a tad lose inside the rubber bush mounts so I added a couple of O rings to the pegs to make them more snug. I then plugged back in the two fans, fitted the new bottom and top hoses and then refilled the system ready for bleeding once I had dealt with the power steering.

The power steering suction hose clamps came off both ends with no difficulty at all and I disconnected the pump end first to drain the oil into a container and thus empty the reservoir. Once drained I removed the hose and then undid the pump end connector to replace the O ring inside. That done I put it all back together with the new hose and clips and refilled the reservoir ready for bleeding once I got the car off the ramps.

Penultimate job was to refit the air intake chute and then run the engine up to temperature with the heater on full and my bleeding funnel installed to allow all the air to bubble out. After 6 minutes of running both fans switched in, good news, and then a few minutes more until there was no air bubbles at all. Switch off, insert funnel plug into the funnel and then remove from the radiator and return the contents to the coolant can. Top up the overflow bottle to the correct level and the job is done.

During the running I had been underneath to check all places for leaks and it was fine so the last job there was to refit the undertray. Having done that I reversed the car off the ramps and then gave it 4 cycles of lock to lock to bleed the power steering. The reservoir level dropped a tad below normal so a quick top up there and the work was done.

I took the car out for a test drive and everything worked perfectly and it actually felt a tad quieter all round!! Called into our recycling centre to offload the old parts and packaging and then came home to write this!! Happy days!!

[CitroJim]

Excellent Good work Mick

[Rp0thejester]

So when can I book mine in for it's service?

[mickthemaverick]

Happy to do that for you Ryan as long as you get all the parts!!

[Rp0thejester]

Haha, you'll regret that, I have it in writing now!!!

[mickthemaverick]

I never regret offering to work on cars Ryan, it's eating all the lunches that the owners keep buying me that gets me down!!

[Rp0thejester]

I'll bring a cabbage, don't want to slow you down

[CitroJim]

I never regret offering to work on cars Ryan, it's eating all the lunches that the owners keep buying me that gets me down!!

[mickthemaverick]

Just an update to my cooling work. I took the car on a 120 mile round trip yesterday with the aircon on all the time and set at 19`C. It ran beautifully smoothly and returned 43.2 mpg for the day. Well chuffed!!

[mickthemaverick]

This tale began on Picture of the Day if you want to read it from the beginning! After heading for Jim's in the Celerio being 10 minutes late on departure, (I'd left 15 mins early in the MX3) I had an argument with an articulated lorry on the roundabout at M1 J14. As I was in SWMBO's car I decided not to push the point and peeled off at the exit before my intended one, which actually put me onto the northbound carriageway of the M1. As I had been carrying a 10 minute delay with no chance to make up time I was still ten minutes late when I arrived at J14. I now realised that going to J15 and back would add another 25 minutes to my journey time so I dived into Newport Pagnell services to phone Jim and give him my new ETA. That done I rejoined the M1 and headed up to J15 where I was able to turn back and head south. Once I got off J14 I had to negotiate the diversion which has been in place forever and work my way back to Jim's. I finally arrived at 6.55 and dived in the loo!! No Ryan not literally!!

So we left MK an hour behind schedule and headed down to Peter's via a McD's brekkie along the A303. We arrived at Peter's at 11.10 for me to find a text message from Peter, who was at a funeral, apologising for forgetting to leave the car key in the car and saying he would be with us soon. The message was 20 minutes old as I had been driving and thus ignoring the phone and by the time we had sorted ourselves out and Jim had prepped the diagbox Peter arrived home and got the key.

A diagnostic session followed which produced this fault list:

Diagnostic report on Peter's C5

Next move was a BSI reset followed by a new diag report which showed only the Crankshaft sensor fault. We investigated and found a potential culprit for holding the sensor slightly out of line. That removed we refitted the sensor but found the connector would not seat properly thus preventing the pins from connecting to their sockets. I modified the plug accordingly, refitted it, Peter pumped the diesel primer and Jim fired her up!! Hurrah success. So the temporary mod I made proved the point and we left Peter with the task of splicing in a new plug to make a permanent fix.

Due to my time pressure to get back to MK and then get SWMBO's car down to her, we left Peter to clear up and headed home. Nightmare journey with several heavy jams made us too late for me to get the Celerio back to her in time so we stopped for me to let her know to arrange a cab for her outward journey and then I would be home in time to collect her at 9.30. In the end we got back to Jim's at 6.15 and I got home for 7.45 after seeing the TPMS light come on in the Celerio!! Once home I had a quick rest and bite while watching the first half of the Lionesses match and then at half time I went out to pump up the tyres. Fronts should be 39psi and rears 36 so I put my compressor on the first front which was showing 30psi. I pumped that one up and then moved the compressor round to the other front only to find it had died!!

Time was now against me so I set off to collect SWMBO and her friend from Hoddesdon and take/bring them home. After dropping off her friend I took the car to the garage to spend £1 to pump up the other, equally low, tyres. After that I called at a cash point to get some cash for today's visit to my tyre man.

Today began with me going through the TPMS reset procedure on her car, the tyres having cooled overnight, which basically was check the pressures were correct, they were, then turn on the ignition and hold the TPMS button in for 3 secs until the light flashes for 5 secs, Release the button during those 5 secs and it then extinguished. Apparently it will now relearn its parameters over the next few miles!!

Once that was done I headed down to my tyre man who relieved me of £90 for a new pair of Continentals for the back, I always work in pairs, and then back here to investigate the compressor. It plugs into the cigar lighter socket using a fused plug and that fuse has blown but not before it melted the end of the plug. Another trip into town to source a replacement fused plug and then a solder and heat sink job to fit it to the compressor. I replaced the mystery fuse it was supplied with using one of my stock 10A fuses and tested the compressor. All good Hooray!! Just the Mazda to look at now then:

I ran the engine and the fan cut in and I watched the temperature guage, after 5 minutes I saw it head for the extreme and so I took the actual temperatue readings of the thermostat housing and the bottom hose connector metal pipe:

Guage at almost in the red

Thermostat housing temperature

Bottom hose metal pipe

A bit mystified I ran the engine for another couple of minutes, with the fan running and generating a decent airflow, :

Guage into the red

Thermostat housing

Bottom hose

So all that leads me to think that the guage sensor has got its knickers in a twist so my next move is to replace it. If you have any other suggestions please feel free!!