DIY Car Maintenance with function over finesse!!

[mickthemaverick]

I am starting this thread for contributers to document details of jobs they carry out on their cars rather than the more general DIY with function over finesse thread which was intended to be non motoring projects. Thus hopefully it will serve as a resource and guide for members tackling jobs for the first time

So whatever tinkering you are up to write it up here and members can make whatever they want of it. Of course the normal disclaimers prevail and nothing found in the thread should be taken as either accurate or recommended by anyone. They are just stories of jobs which may prove amusing, helpful, entertaning but above all interesting!! For proper technical guides refer to the appropriate section of the forum for your car!!

[mickthemaverick]

Possibly the most common, and maybe the easiest car maintenance job is to wash the car! Often looked on as a cosmetic thing it does have other significant benefits which should not be ignored:
1 Going over the whole car with a sponge or a leather gives you the chance to spot issues that otherwise may go below your radar, eg windscreen wipers splitting, window rubbers fatigueing, dinks that will rust if left untouched etc.
2 Removing the surface grime will also help prevent the ingress of nasties into the parts of the car where they may cause rot and decay.
3 An opportunity to check the tyre condition and tread depths
4 The feeling of satisfaction and possibly even pride when you finish the task and step back and admire the results of your work.

Why am I posting this you ask? Well it's simple, I am feeling that warm glow having just completed the task on my MX3 !

Own work

[Gibbo2286]

That was always the first job when I took a car part exchange Mick, it would have been nice to have been able to do it prior to buying sometimes.

[Rp0thejester]

The best use I've ever seen for a Honda

drive the car and rubbish to the dump and walkaway. I'm joking, but wow that's alot crammed into the car. Any tips on dump runs as the inside of my C8 is suffering...

[RichardW]

I give you the 'temporary repair' on the headlamp adjuster...

Anyway there was enough pin left on the bottom, and I got the top joint freed up, so it's wired back on. Will see if it stays - it's only temporary - unless it works!!

Working fine for 2 months!!

[Rp0thejester]

now that is DIY maintenance!

[Rp0thejester]

Ever heard of 'your that thick you'd crash into a parked car'? Well someone was thick enough to hit mine! I'm lucky it was just a bumper scuff that ripped my paint off...

so out came the T Cut,

, I'm trying a touch up paint at the moment, I'll send the photos of the results after its done. I'm currently testing on inside door metalwork but looks promising. Going back to marcthemaveriks first post. It's a great idea to keep your car clean, in a car park people will treat your car as you treat it, If it looks like a banger people will treat it that way.

[Rp0thejester]

Got some touch up paint from an online seller, if it works well I'll get it in aerosol form for the washer jet cover replacement.

first coat.

second coat overlapping first by half.

third coat looks promising. Weather permitting I should be able to show some results of stone chip repairs to see if actually any good rather than a door slam.

[RichardW]

My Sister was here today in her 2011 C4 Picasso, and said the rear driver's side window was falling down. Stripped off the door panel and found as expected the wire a rusty broken mess. Since it's only the rear, and a new mech is £420, wedging it up seemed best. Piece of wood cut to length, wedged in, and cable tied to the upright in the mech. Another 'temporary' repair

[Rp0thejester]

If the woods been treated it'll probably out live the car!

[Gibbo2286]

Despite all my years in the trade I've never had a close look at these modern window lifters, could the rotted away cables not be replaced instead of replacing the whole caboodle? You could buy a roll of Bowden cable for a small bit of cash.

[RichardW]

I've heard of replacement cables for Cs which suffer this commonly on front windows (although I've not heard of one recently), haven't investigated this one, this was just a 'temporary' repair, which is better than the folded paper and window scraper that was holding it up before. Since it is a rear window, the rear is rarely used (except when the scouts were in it and opened it....) so it doesn't really matter if it doesn't work!

[mickthemaverick]

After repairing my exhaust I posted up the resulting fuel consumption here which was 44.1mpg. My trip to the Isle of Wight on Tuesday was even more pleasing, not bad for an 18 year old 2.5 litre engine!!

Fuel consumption on a day out!

[Gibbo2286]

How are you measuring the consumption Mick? We used to have all sorts of people telling us that their car did X or Y on a gallon some complaining some bragging we had a measured pint pot to get a pretty accurate figure.

Some were astonished when the found that truly their Hillman Minx wasn't capable of more than 24 mpg and that the basic Mini would do damned near 70 mpg driven by the same driver on the same set route.

[mickthemaverick]

The readings are those given by the cars onboard trip computer. The actual calibration may be off the mark but as a comparison from previous readings it serves a purpose. On that trip my mate was paying for the fuel used so I left with a brimming tank and refilled it on my return at his expense, which took 29.5 litres and I covered 355 miles on the day. I'll let you work that to mpg if you want Gibbo!!