What have you done to your car today?

Acme said:
I've never used a rotary polisher, so best not unless you like the DeLorean look. :p
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You can come and clean mine if you like. Let you get up close and personal with the Alfa :p

Then I can steal your torque wrench which I keep meaning to buy but never get round to it :( They're just at that price where I don't want to pay for it :p
 
My torque wrench is about 50 years old. :p

(seriously, like most of the other tools I use it has been handed down :))
 
10 hours of wire wheeling and rust removal procedures and the rear subframe was finally ready for some anti rust primer.

3HlQhTx.jpg


Got the basecoat black going on later afternoon followed by underseal around factory welds etc.

Good experience to do once, and glad to know it's as ready as it can be but definitely getting a sand blaster for next time :P

Ears are still ringing from the wire wheeling
 
I'm going to come across a Mondeo fitted one day Howard and curse someone.

The plastic panel that they go through has to be removed to change a windscreen
 
Done quite a few insurance comparisons. Annoyingly, it seems like it's going to stay at about the same as last year. Close to a grand. For ****ing 92hp...Annoying as hell. Even using RAF postcode only knocks it down to about £850
 
NooBish AbbZ said:
Done quite a few insurance comparisons. Annoyingly, it seems like it's going to stay at about the same as last year. Close to a grand. For ****ing 92hp...Annoying as hell. Even using RAF postcode only knocks it down to about £850
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Have you tried ringing up at all?
Go from the base quotes provided online and then ask if they can do better than X etc. Directline, Adrianflux, Greenlight and Sky are usually worth the time.
 
Rainagul said:
10 hours of wire wheeling and rust removal procedures and the rear subframe was finally ready for some anti rust primer.

http://i.imgur.com/3HlQhTx.jpg[img]

Got the basecoat black going on later afternoon followed by underseal around factory welds etc.

Good experience to do once, and glad to know it's as ready as it can be but definitely getting a sand blaster for next time :P

Ears are still ringing from the wire wheeling[/QUOTE]

Making the best of the new space - can't wait to see the end result. I'd love to have the space to do that sort of thing. Enjoying the updates in the mean time.
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.. And now that it's dark I had a chance to check out the lights and adjust them. The projectors bolt to the headlight housing using deformable rubber washers for each of the 3 mounting points, so there was some [quite a lot of] up/down/left/right adjustment to be made but now that it's tweaked, it's a wee bit brighter (photos are shot with exactly the same camera settings at pretty much the same time of day but the 'after' was a teeny bit brighter in real life!) and seems to offer a better spread of light to the sides with a slightly sharper cut-off when closer to objects. I drove it quickly round the block but I'll see what it's like 'on the road' properly when I next drive at night.

Before:

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After:

(before I aligned them properly, lol, and wiped off rain water)
xenonafter1.jpg


(after alignment and the height slightly tweaked from how they were before anyway)
xenonafter2.jpg
 
Noted a window issue today, when rolling up the windows using the switch to auto-power them up, sometimes the front windows would stop or roll back down.

I thought it might be a regulator fault but doing a diagnostic showed a fuse fault. I investigated and swapped out fuse 48 (20 Amps). The old fuse wasn't broken, so perhaps it was just faulty? Fuse 48 and 49 control the "front windows lift" according to the legend. Fuse 49 is 5 Amps, and removing this sends the car mental. The interior lights shut off and the alarm sounds a continuous loud tone.

Probably don't remove fuse 49 any time soon again.

Also, diagnostics showed the middle right PDC sensor as faulty. I can hear it ticking slower than the rest, but as it's an E46 I figure it will fix itself in months to come. I have a set of 4 spare,m but they are silver as I bought them for the old car which ended up fixing themselves too.

Lastly, it found latent error codes such as MAF sensor from when I was faffing about installing the Eventuri. Surprised it stored that since the engine was off? Cleared them all and will re-check in a month to see what returns and then see to those.
 
Got the tyres fitted today after yesterday's administrative malfunction

Aforementioned cockup aside, impressed with Halfords - really backs up that they really have nothing in common with the retail stores. After being fitted and balanced, they cleaned all 4 wheels. They came to check what the correct pressures were as there was a difference between the sticker and the published data (they changed the specs later in the life of the 9-5) but I told them as I already knew. Watched them fit the wheels back and use a torque wrench on the nuts, drive it then re checked the torque.

While I was there a young lady came in asking if they knew where she could buy a bottle of oil - they drove the car in and topped it up for her, inflated her tyres and filled the washer fluid and didn't charge her a penny. Don't lay the Halfords brand put you off :)
 
mrk said:
Also, diagnostics showed the middle right PDC sensor as faulty. I can hear it ticking slower than the rest, but as it's an E46 I figure it will fix itself in months to come. I have a set of 4 spare,m but they are silver as I bought them for the old car which ended up fixing themselves too.

Lastly, it found latent error codes such as MAF sensor from when I was faffing about installing the Eventuri. Surprised it stored that since the engine was off? Cleared them all and will re-check in a month to see what returns and then see to those.
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Cold plays havoc with the sensors. Mine always die in winter and regain life once it warms up.
 
Went and swapped my wheels front to back so I can just say 'fit tyres to the rear please' instead of 'new tyres on the front wheels but rotate with the back' which results in such confusion and an extra charge of a tenner.
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Meant I could soak my suspension arms and drop links for when I come to change them. Meant I found a snapped spring :( will order an eiback pro kit that drops the car a small amount.

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How it is just now, crap angle sorry.
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Hopefully sit something like this, closer to the first car I'd hope. They do a sportline kit that drops it more at the front but I'd hate it.
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That's an older pic of mine. Spent most of my day at work on Saturday cleaning it and removing tar spots. I thought the rear end and front of the sill area were a lost cause but removing the tar and SRP to remove the mark left from water running off the wing mirror and it's all good. Can't hide the small dent in the bonnet though.

Wonder who would be faster now? Was a no brainer with the Almera vs Polo.
 
I'm not sure how much power your car has. Or how much more it weighs. If it is the standard 2.0T 200HP then mine will probably be quicker because it weighs about 130KG less and has short gearing, but if it is re-mapped then yours will be quicker I imagine, though I'm not sure how much by.

An Astra VXR pulls away from me fairly steadily I know that much. :)
 
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