What have you done to your car today?

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
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36,382
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In acme's chair.
Checked bearing condition, measured movement of rods etc and verified within spec, re-torqued bolts, its a bit grungy in there but not uncommon for these tiny engines if they have missed a couple of oil changes. It is clean where it matters.

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Cleaned up the cradle, re-sealed the crank seal housing , fitted oil pickup with new o-ring, re-sealed sump pan, fitted new rear engine mount, re-fitted cradle.

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Dup

Dup

Soldato
Joined
10 Mar 2006
Posts
11,242
Location
East Lancs
Really feeling the strain of running old cars today.

My other halves utterly terrible Megane (2011) had just had £1400 worth of work done (brakes, caliper, handbrake, wishbone, two tyres and other bits) and is due its MOT.

I noticed a bulb was out, no problem I'll stick another in. Turns out the bulb was fine, the holder has instead correded until one of the contacts has snapped. Lovely. MOT is booked for tomorrow so I did the logical thing of soldering a small wire between what's left of the holder and the bulb. Shockingly it works.

Then I realised the third brake light does not work at all. Hoping they'll let that one go as I'm already sick of swapping cars about.

She does a 75 mile commute in it 3/4 days a week. Absolutely hate the thing. It's about time we get her something more substantial but it's a hard choice and we're spending a wedge on getting our roof sorted very soon.


My Mondeo has a pattern back box which is hitting the subframe. There's an unused hanger on the car not far from it so I'm hoping I can get a very short rubber and a universal hanger on the exhaust to pull it where it needs to be.

Honestly I used to love solving these problems but now I have young kids and other projects around the house, doing these jobs on cars I couldn't give two hoots about really grinds. Lost half my day fiddling with a bulb holder :(
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,382
Location
In acme's chair.
I believe it is a fail, all stop lamps are tested, and one being inoperable is a major fault.

If you remove it from the car, it would be a pass. Because it cannot be tested.

A third brake light is not required, but it is required to work if fitted.

So either fix it, or remove it.
 
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Man of Honour
Joined
26 Dec 2003
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30,899
Location
Shropshire
I believe it is a fail, all stop lamps are tested, and one being inoperable is a major fault.

If you remove it from the car, it would be a pass. Because it cannot be tested.

A third brake light is not required, but it is required to work if fitted.

So either fix it, or remove it.
Just checked you're right although you could just say you'd not wired it back up yet and you should be good to go based on this.

Additional stop lamps, over and above the obligatory requirements, must be tested. However, if you are not sure that they’re connected, you should give the benefit of the doubt.
 
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Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
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26,960
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
Boggles my mind that a 2011 is considered an old car now. :p

I'd blame the fact its a Renault. :D

Sounds like a lease might be the trouble free motoring you desire?

My 2004 Saab is what I would consider old. It is a bit leaky now which is annoying but I have put a new set of head bolts in per Saab instructions and so far so good. Although after I fixed that it seems my sump is leaking and will need resealing......
 
Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,382
Location
In acme's chair.
My 2004 Saab is what I would consider old. It is a bit leaky now which is annoying but I have put a new set of head bolts in per Saab instructions and so far so good. Although after I fixed that it seems my sump is leaking and will need resealing......

Thats about what I think of as old now personally.

Though my current cars are '90 and '97 and clearly they cause me quite a lot of hassle... :D
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Mar 2008
Posts
6,266
Location
Deep North
Crashed it. :(

While mooching around the new build estate that I've reserved a house on I accidentally reversed my SVR into something that was laying around (building site stuff) which my parking sensors didn't warn me of. I was looking but I was looking at some huge curb which I was trying to avoid when it happened. I'm seriously gutted and feel very silly of myself. Just hope it's not too bad/costly to repair. Going to phone my Jag dealer tomorrow to get it booked in asap.

Crease on bottom of boot door..

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Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
22,748
Location
Wargrave, UK
Fed up with driving with lights on all the time, so I designed these and fitted them:

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I took a 3d scan of the fake vent area and used it as a template to design a light housing that fits perfectly.

TpWmGto.png


3d printed in carbon-fibre nylon for lightness, strength, and weather resistance.

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Fitted:

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Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
22,748
Location
Wargrave, UK
Thats cool as hell.
Not sure on the arrangement of bulbs, I think I'd have just gone for 4 in a square
I tried a number of different arrangement before I settled on that. I initially started with 4 in a circle, then 5 in a circle, then 5 in a line, 4 in a line, then I accidentally deleted one of the lights when I was messing with the design and thought it looked cool so stuck with it. I'm undecided myself on whether I like them. Not a permenant fitment at the moment so can be changed.
 
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