What have you done to your car today?

Rear discs weren't too special, so I replaced them for grooved and dimpled, which now match the fronts.

PXL-20250525-124644760.jpg


Also replaced the caliper slider boots, and cleaned and greased the slide pins.

After bleeding the rear calipers I bled the fronts, then bled the clutch. I was going to do an oil change while I was under there, but realised that while I did buy 5 litres of magnatec in the winter in a sale, I'd not bought an oil filter!

Also replaced the ageing wheel centre caps with some cheap eBay jobs, which fitted well.

PXL-20250525-151105218.jpg


She just needs an oil change and a good clean and polish, then she'll be ready for our road trip to Italy in four weeks.
 
Tried to sort out the 2 cars that have been sitting on my drive since before Christmas - one an MOT fail for scrap, one a neglected project car.

Charged both batteries last week - project car started but only with a second battery added so battery is knackered. Added a battery disconnect as it sits a lot. Pumped the tyres.

Write-off car still has tyres and some trim that I want to nick for its replacement. This one wasn't so good - turned over a few times, started, squealed for 10 seconds then stalled out. I suspected something on the accessory belt seized, sure enough the alternator pulley was burning hot already. Freed it off with a spanner and it seemed to be ok after that. Pumped the tyres.

Tomorrow: Move the cars around, mow the knee high grass/weeds/flowers grown under the write-off car, move back. Potentially swap the wheels over so I can restore the alloys on replacement car.
 
Yesterday:

Engine oil and oil filter change.

Oiled up my cleaned K&N panel filter and fitted that, so definitely a 8bhp increase :)

I got it as a present five years ago, together with the oil and fluid for cleaning it. Dunno about any noticable gains, but it's good to clean and reuse it rather than buying a new one every year.
 
bainbridge said:
Yesterday:

Engine oil and oil filter change.

Oiled up my cleaned K&N panel filter and fitted that, so definitely a 8bhp increase :)

I got it as a present five years ago, together with the oil and fluid for cleaning it. Dunno about any noticable gains, but it's good to clean and reuse it rather than buying a new one every year.
Click to expand...
Go easy with the cleaning. They are only designed to be cleaned once, maybe twice, during their serviceable life.

I've got one in the MX5, fitted by the previous owner. I had a cleaning kit but sold it on. When I think it needs a clean I'll swap it out for a paper one for better filtration.

Did the biannual oil change on the Polo yesterday, a job made twice as long due to the plastic under tray :rolleyes:
 
Last edited:
Today we are having the first bit of rain for months so got out there and cleaned the car. I use water butt water to rinse off so I don't have to wipe it dry.
Still shines under that carpet of sandy dust.
 
A few weeks ago I drove the wife's car and heard a nasty metallic rattling noise. Immediately pulled over thinking the exhaust was hanging down or something worse but I couldn't see anything. No noises when idle or when revving the engine in neutral, only when moving at more than 5mph or so. Eventually found one of the dust shields behind one of the front brake discs was loose and had broken so that was rubbing against the disc. Went to ask her about it and she said "oh yeah, I meant to say to you that I heard a noise from it earlier". Brilliant, could've told me before it was 9pm and dark. Had to jack the car up in the dark, take the wheel off and just rip the metal dust shield off and this was the result:



Luckily I knew the front discs needed doing soon so I just left it a while and ordered all the replacement parts. Yesterday's job was a simple brake job with the addition of the new dust shield, a slight improvement. Oh and it may look like I've been a fool and I'm relying on the crappy scissor jack there but I'm not - that's just there because it was ridiculously windy and it's stopping my cardboard sheet from blowing all over the place :) The 4 black rings towards the lower right are all that remained of the original dust shield.





And those old discs were definitely past their prime. I should probably have done those quite some time ago :D

 
Last edited:
Thomas. PLease. said:
Fitted some carbon fibre goodness
Click to expand...

Looks awesome. I went to a car show (only a small thing bolted onto the side of a village fete) the other week and I guy had his Jag XKR-S on show with lots of CF bits inside. 1) It looked great and 2) there so much going on in there that I don't think you'll lose a socket down any cracks if you were to drop one.
 
It went up in the air:

xgpoJce.jpeg



And the Subframe said hello to the ground:

Ve3iJzE.jpeg


Bushings refresh, exhaust hangers, exhaust sealing rings and gaskets, propshaft centre bearing, new handbrake shoes.
 
Last edited:
Took the rear brakes apart, removed handbrake cables (extremely difficult due to rust but got there in the end!), tried to remove ABS sensor, snapped bolt off in the hub, disconnected it at the other end instead and poked it through the floor, did the same on the other side, didn't even bother trying to undo it just poked it through... :p
Removed the driveshafts, removed the rear and centre exhaust sections...

Discovered that the helmet that I had do a load of work to the rear end for me a few years ago put the rear subframe bushes in either upside down, or didn't use the retaining top plates, so the rear beam is like 2 inches too high up and I can't access the bolts to get the control arms out to do the bushes... So now I have to remove the entire rear beam and diff to put it right... And potentially buy the retaining plates that appear to me straight up missing. :mad:

So that means he ****ed up every single thing I paid him to do, apart from fitting the rear brakes. He definitely wasn't ready to start his own business, should have been a fitter with someone with a clue telling him what to do... It has been years and I'm still finding things he did wrong...
 
Last edited:
IC3 said:
That is why I still work on my cars, at least I know it's done properly with no corner cutting.
Click to expand...

At the time I was working and didn't have much spare time so I thought I'll hand it off, big mistake... :(

I try to do almost everything myself because of that mistrust, but I struggle to get motivated to do it.
 
Akagi said:
At the time I was working and didn't have much spare time so I thought I'll hand it off, big mistake... :(

I try to do almost everything myself because of that mistrust, but I struggle to get motivated to do it.
Click to expand...
Same here, but I'm tired of wasting money and time on 'mechanics'..
 
Subframe assembly out...

uYDhrdl.jpeg
chiQYnA.jpeg



Retention plates on the top of the bushings completely missing, insert has ridden up into the cavity on the body and pushed the rubber out the bottom...

iJjHbfU.jpeg
1AdteKw.jpeg


Cutting disk marks on my subframe bolts... Lovely!

R5b3ZgL.jpeg
zfvN6jJ.jpeg


Fuming.

Current situation... Might leave it there for today honestly.

sfZE5v9.jpeg
XR80H11.jpeg


Oh and clearly this had to be done. Its upset when it just has a downpipe, idles lumpy and runs rich. Never understood why since it has no cat and no O2 sensor etc. Definitely doesn't sound great, just loud. :D

 
Last edited:
Had its yearly service, everything good including my 6.5 year old tyres. I knew that anyway as I visibly checked them myself but nice to know an expert agrees.
 
First chance to get the Cayman up in the air and clean the arches.
54565125710_c22bffb1a9_c.jpg


54563920617_f4ea61ca2e_c.jpg


54563920642_5b56b23255_c.jpg


54565126805_1a8d111f53_c.jpg


54565031943_c16e9f0871_c.jpg


I wanted to do an oil change but theres' a shedload of torx screws holding the trays on and the Quickjack gets in the way of some.
 
Akagi said:
Oh and clearly this had to be done. Its upset when it just has a downpipe, idles lumpy and runs rich. Never understood why since it has no cat and no O2 sensor etc. Definitely doesn't sound great, just loud. :D

Click to expand...
No backpressure
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom