DIY Car Maintenance with function over finesse!!

[CitroJim]

Good work Mick

[mickthemaverick]

As we left our dinner venue last night it was dark so on went the lights for the first time in a while, only to find no nearside dipped beam!!! So I took Jim home on one headlight and the front fog ligts and then came home to Hertford as I always do without using an A road so I was on main beam most of the time!!

This morning I went out to change the bulb and did so with no hassle at all, when I looked last night I thought I'd have to take the battery out but it turned out, once I could see in daylight, that all I needed to do was shuffle it back 10mil and I had room to remove and replace the bulb. So all done in 10 minutes, 7 of which were getting the new bulb from my stock, the trim tool which I didn't need and putting my bench down and back up!! No pictures because I doubt we have anyone who is reading this who doesn't know what a headlamp H7 bulb looks like!!

[myglaren]

If only they were all so simple.

[mickthemaverick]

If only they were all so simple.

Japanese engineering at its best Steve, that's Subaru!!

[myglaren]

I have Japanese engineering too but I very much doubt that the headlights are so easily accessible, the previous one's weren't.
Son had this on in Scotland and on return said the main beams were not working. They are LE so expected the worst. Tried them out and they are OK but he had turned off the autolights.

[mickthemaverick]

I have Japanese engineering too but I very much doubt that the headlights are so easily accessible, the previous one's weren't.
Son had this on in Scotland and on return said the main beams were not working. They are LE so expected the worst. Tried them out and they are OK but he had turned off the autolights.

The trouble is Steve your car is far too new, got all those unnecessary gimmicks which cause problems that never used to exist!! I think my 2004 Legacy comes from the period when cars had reached their peak and it has been a downhill slide eversince!!

[myglaren]

Can't disagree with that, although headlight bulb changes on the C5s were a pain, compared to the Xantia and Accord. GS was easy too. Can't remember about the BX, the Visa, the 265 and the rest.
Daughters C3 is a nightmare and goes through bulbs like they were going out of fashion.

I had a bit of a concern last week, the display showed the whole car diagram in bright red. Just drove home then realised that I had pressed the boot opener, not the door unlock button, so the boot lid was slightly open.
It is full of mystery messages.
Fortunately no electric handbrake.

[Paul-R]

The easiest headlamp bulb change I've done was on a friend's Volvo, an XC40 I think. You pull out two plastic strips and then, after disconnecting the electrics, simply pull the assembly out. It was then extremely easy to replace the dipped beam bulb even though it was an HID type.

[CitroJim]

Excellent! Pleased that was a nice, easy fix Mick

[mickthemaverick]

My driver's side washer jet seemed blocked and was just giving a dribble last night which I assumed to be running out of fluid. On checking the bottle it was half full so this morning I took the washers apart having first removed the under bonnet insulation and discovered the driver's side was very blocked and the passenger side slightly blocked . No problem I thought I'll just fit two new nozzles:

MTMO - The Amazon offerings - none on Ebay.

Having stood up again following the feather incident I decided that cleaning was the way to go, I put both nozzles into a bath of white vinegar for a couple of hours and then rinsed them clean before spraying Jizer through each one to check the spray pattern. The passenger side was perfect and the driver's side 90% so I swapped them over and refitted them to the car with all new piping to overcome the age deterioration. Under test they work admirably, the swapped passenger one even giving a full spray under the higher pressure than my Jizer can. Just got to wait for the new trim clips for the insulation, most of which broke from age brittleness, and the car will be back to full health!!

[PaulC5]

The tap water in our area is hard and it gives a lot of limescale on things. We often go to the Lake District which has soft water so fill a few bottles to use in the car washers. I cannot carry enough back to wash the cars though.

[bobins]

Some of the less expensive screenwashes seem to be lacking in effective algicides in their composition, leading to algae in the system which can lead to blockage of the pump / pipes / nozzles. I usually add a very small shot of Benzalkonium chloride (Bac 50) into the mix to help prevent this from happening..... though I'm in no way recommending this to anyone

[CitroJim]

Some of the less expensive screenwashes seem to be lacking in effective algicides in their composition, leading to algae in the system which can lead to blockage of the pump / pipes / nozzles.

Gosh yes, and doesn't that sort of screen wash get very rank after a while I once recall retrieving set of headlamp washers, pumps and bottle from a long scrapped Xantia. It made me feel sick. And the slime that had grown took a lot of cleaning out...

I can still smell it now

[PaulC5]

A few times I have syphoned washer water out of bottles when it has been smelly, filled with fresh water and repeated a few times. I only use additives in freezing weather but dealer services always put something in.

[myglaren]

My last C5 had that problem, lots of black floaty algae clogging the jets.
Removed them and reverse flushed them with hot water and with the jets off flushed the reservoir with hot water and a little bleach.
Added meths to the screenwash fluid when refilling it.