MOT advisories

Biohazard said:
Its not a shame.

Driving along happily listening to radio 2, then BANG all of a sudden you start getting a stutter then clunking noises and death to the engine follows with all valves gone potentially is way more of a shame than needing to service an engine. :p
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Well yes, but replacing a fairly new belt (how much do they cost, by the way?) is also a shame just for lack of a service history :)

Also, that belt looks old and past it but isn't original but don't hold me to that. Oil over it corrodes the rubber, making it weak. I would change that, not a hard job. You get a look at bearings too then.

Get the oil mopped off everything, and sort out rocker cover gasket, tighten up bolts or new gasket. a couple of quid.
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Sorry, not quite up to speed with fancy engine terms :p Is the rocker cover gasket the thing around the big oil reservoir thing (where one checks for mayo)? And just any bolts I can see? And what gasket do you suggest replacing? Sorry for all the questions!

Also I had a look in the Haynes about changing the cam belt and it rated it as a 5-spanner job :o is it really that easy? Mentions me needing to be able to tighten it to the correct tension etc etc!
 
miniyazz said:
Well yes, but replacing a fairly new belt (how much do they cost, by the way?) is also a shame just for lack of a service history :)



Sorry, not quite up to speed with fancy engine terms :p Is the rocker cover gasket the thing around the big oil reservoir thing (where one checks for mayo)? And just any bolts I can see? And what gasket do you suggest replacing? Sorry for all the questions!

Also I had a look in the Haynes about changing the cam belt and it rated it as a 5-spanner job :o is it really that easy? Mentions me needing to be able to tighten it to the correct tension etc etc!
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its not for piece of mind. and by the looks of it I would replace that, as its covered in oil, manky and I can't even see the lobes yet. a new belt is what 30 quid for that? you are not sure of age that should be enough reason ontop of the oil imo.

the black thing on the top with the oil filler cap (that you check for mayo) isn't an oil reservoir (thats underneath at the bottom of the car). but yes, the bit at the top in your photos is the rocker cover. it covers the valve gear at the top of the engine which get spayed with oil from the bottom, and is to stop oil spraying all over your engine bay.

as this is metal bolts onto metal it needs a gasket to seal, and your rocker cover has come a little lose or the gasket between that and the cyclinder head has aged and come away.
 
BigglesPiP said:
LOL, yes, and it's not an oil reservoir.

All of them, although I think that needs a new seal.

Rocker cover gasket/seal.
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:p I know, the sump is the oil reservoir, just couldn't think of anything else to call it and it has oil in it so.. lol

Biohazard said:
its not for piece of mind. and by the looks of it I would replace that, as its covered in oil, manky and I can't even see the lobes yet. a new belt is what 30 quid for that? you are not sure of age that should be enough reason ontop of the oil imo.
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Fair enough, yes I'll be replacing that then for definite. But this confuses me:
Defcon5 said:
Cam belt replacement overdue (meant to be after 4 years or 30000 miles, whichever comes earlier, if i remember correctly, this has never been done) £300 ish, or closer to £500 at VW
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If the belt costs £30, how does it cost £300ish? Surely there's not 5 hours' labour involved? :confused:

as this is metal bolts onto metal it needs a gasket to seal, and your rocker cover has come a little lose or the gasket between that and the cyclinder head has aged and come away.
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Right so new rocker cover gasket, bit of tightening, and replacement cam belt (which I'm reluctant to do myself, unless you suggest fitting it roughly right tensionwise (Haynes explains how to do this) then taking to garage asap to do the fine-tweaking?), along with replacement CV gaiters (reluctant to do myself just because I don't have equipment to work underneath), but not bothering with the braking imbalance?
Couple of hundred quid all in at a garage (fitting rocker cover gasket myself, ofc)?
 
dunno drop by one and ask them for an estimate.

if you could slide the belt off in some knuckle ******* and scrapping manner then it shouldn't take long, failing that bits need to come off. garages tend to take longer for money I suppose, it can be done in 30 mins on some cars.

you only need a jack even the one in your boot will do, and spare wheel or stands to get underneath.
 
Cam belt - I think its not that hard a job on the 1.4 but still needs some knowledge and seeing that you don't know what a rocker cover is then I think you should take it to a garage

Rocker cover - clean all the oil away and see if it is leaking or was a spillage when filling, if it isnt a spillage then get a new rocker cover seal and replace it, peice of cake!

Brakes - do them yourself if your confident but check them THOROUGHLY before you go out.
 
Fantom said:
Cam belt - I think its not that hard a job on the 1.4 but still needs some knowledge and seeing that you don't know what a rocker cover is then I think you should take it to a garage
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This is my thinking :p

Rocker cover - clean all the oil away and see if it is leaking or was a spillage when filling, if it isnt a spillage then get a new rocker cover seal and replace it, peice of cake!

Brakes - do them yourself if your confident but check them THOROUGHLY before you go out.
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My question is really - do I need to do the brakes at all?

And yes, I'll do that. Petrol btw.
 
miniyazz said:
Right so new rocker cover gasket, bit of tightening, and replacement cam belt (which I'm reluctant to do myself, unless you suggest fitting it roughly right tensionwise (Haynes explains how to do this) then taking to garage asap to do the fine-tweaking?)
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A timing belt just isn't something you can risk doing half a job on. It takes literally seconds of running to do a lot of damage if you get the timing wrong or don't tension it adequately. It's not usually a very difficult job on an SOHC engine, but (and it pains me to say it) unless you are confident in your abilities or have a friend that can help then you are probably better of paying to get it done.
 
miniyazz said:
My question is really - do I need to do the brakes at all?
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Yes. Imbalance is only an issue on brakes (front brakes in particular) if something is wrong. It will very likely just be one of the calipers is sticking on it's sliders, which is a common problem. If the disks and pads are in good condition, this won't cost you anything apart from time to fix. Remove calipers, clean up the sliders, grease and re-assemble.

Sticking sliders tend to wear one side of the disc and one pad much more quickly than the other, so the sooner you do it the greater the chance you won't need to replace anything.
 
if your not confident , and have no one who is - take it to a garage - who is a member of the good garage scheme [ there will be one locally - you can look up good garage scheme on the net ] .. do not half attempt a brake diagnosis and repair -
if you think its expensive look at it like this " how much is my life worth "
same goes for timing belt - if its not correctly setup - it dont even need to start , it will destroy your engine , just by turning it over on the starter motor ... cv gaiters need done soon as poss , cos if they split .. the grease comes out instantly [centrifugal force ] the joint runs dry , and the bearings are cooked - now you will need the whole joint [ about 3-4 times dearer than a gaiter !] sorry to sound "holier than thou" but ive been a mechanic for 27 yrs , and see these things daily . "prevention is better than cure " and cheaper in the long run
 
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miniyazz said:
This is my thinking :p



My question is really - do I need to do the brakes at all?

And yes, I'll do that. Petrol btw.
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go out somewhere on a private stretch of road where safe and try an emergency stop, see how you get on... the car will probably not stop in a straight line which means if you have to stop in the middle lane of the motorway you could hit the surrounding cars, not to mention other dodgy situations that could arise...

Brakes and tyres are the most important thing on your car, forget the engine without a good set of both.
 
OK cheers guys. I get what you're all saying.. and I'll get these things sorted before a) my engine self-destructs, or b) I die. :)
 
Muffin` said:
the 106 is dangerous for hard braking, mine fishtails all over the place
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Guess I'll try to avoid hard braking then ;)
TBH I don't suppose many cars of this calibre are going to be spectacular really!

Just a little update, since the thread's been bumped, I'll be changing the CV gaiters myself - just ordered the parts off eBay yesterday - but as above I'll be getting the cam belt done at a garage. The braking imbalance - I intend to go for a short drive, find an empty road, brake hard from 50ish without holding the wheel firmly and see if I'm concerned about veering off to one side. If I am, I'll do something about the braking, otherwise I'll probably be meh, and change discs/pads when required.
 
A little update, in case anyone's interested -

Had the cam belt done at the Lodge Tyre Co (recommended to me a few months ago on this forum) for £184 inc, and I'd use them again - they put a plastic sheet over the driving seat for when they moved it around, which I thought was a nice touch.

Did the CV gaiters over the last couple of days. Was planning on getting them all done on Sunday; rather than go through the hassle of taking off the driveshaft I bought a pair of split gaiters to glue together around the driveshaft. Funnily enough, the first one went fine, but the second was a bit more of a chore, the stupid thing kept splitting after glueing, for some reason. Anyway with some more CV grease and several tubes of superglue (having used up the original supplies), we got it sealed the day before yesterday. I gave it 24 hours to properly harden, just in case, before driving it anywhere and gave it a more thorough test-drive today when I took it to Shrewsbury, and it's stayed patent. :)
I also replaced the rocker cover gasket on Sunday but still need to clean the engine/check it's sealed properly.

Oh and the braking imbalance - quite obvious with the car on axle stands aka spare wheels. Putting it into first and idling (c. 4mph I guess, if it were on the road), the nearside brakes are clearly effecting the wheel - the offside wheel turns fairly rapidly whereas the nearside barely moves (courtesy of the diff, I presume). I may reseat the brakes but tbh my thinking is that it should really just wear down the nearside brake pads until the braking imbalance cancels out? :confused: Anyway, I like the luxury of often not needing to use the handbrake/footbrake to stop myself from rolling backwards at lights etc on slight hills, which is bad of me but hey.

Cheers for the advice.
 
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