What have you done to your car today?

Used some Meguiar's quick detailing spray to remove some watermarks from the body after I washed it a couple of days ago. Faffed with my bonnet to make sure it was properly closed (do I drop or do I push...not 100% on which right now...) and then sat in it and wondered "is it going to rain" and decided it was, so put it back in the garage. Exciting life I live.
 
mjt said:
Duuuuuuuude! How did a brand new C300 break down?
You really need to move away from Mercedes. Or buy a W140 or something
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Was fine last night. This morning the engine came on instantly, then a coolant warning on the dash. Checked coolant level, all fine.

had another quick spin, almost cut out then check engine light lit up :(
 
pastymuncher said:
What a pain in the **** modern cars are. I bought some new headlight bulbs and reverse light bulbs for my 17 plate Ford B-Max so had a look at the owners manual and went out to swap them over. First thing I noticed is that my head and tail lights are different to the ones in the manual so that was useless. With a great deal of difficulty due to the engine bay being so bloody cramped I managed to change the low beam bulbs. After much trying and cut knuckles I gave up on the high beam bulbs as I just can't get in there. Went around the rear and popped the tailgate only to find no obvious way to get to the bulbs. After much searching I found a seam in the trim and pulled a piece of the fabric back to find a small hole barely big enough to get your hand in. You have to undo this fastner by hand which has a heavy duty spring on it to remove the whole tail light. After much cursing, sore fingers and more cuts I got the damn thing undone only to find I had to go get a screwdriver to remove another cover on the light unit to get to the bulbs. Once removed I discovered that I had the wrong bulbs. The ones I had which were supposedly the correct bulbs for my car only had a single contact on the bottom while the actual ones I need should have two (so much for putting your reg number in and showing all the correct bulbs for your car :mad:). With more cursing I put the damn thing back together again and that was a wasted 65 minutes in which I only managed to change a pair of dipped beam bulbs. What a nightmare!! I understand now why some people take their cars to a garage to have the bulbs changed. I now have to find a guide to see the easiest way to change the high beam bulbs and I suspect it's going to involve removing the headlight unti.
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A bit more to add to this now. I still haven't managed to replace the high beam bulbs so did a search to find the easiest way to change them. I found a video from Ford in which they state the recommended way to change the headlight bulbs is to remove the whole unit from the car. All this to change a bloody bulb!! What a nightmare if you need to change a bulb at the roadside at night. This is complete and utter madness to have to do so much work just to replace a bulb. Guess I will have to add a set of Torx drivers to the spare bulb kit Icarry in the car now. It's just ridiculous.
 
Took the car in for MOT and passed with the only advisories being 2 fro t tyres nearing leval limit... Id say I have atleast 6 months left on them now we have reduced our mileage some what.

Also replaced front and rear wipers on the car. I can't quite remember if I've actually changed them before so may have been the OEM ones so they haven't done bad for 6 years and 82k miles. Replaced with Bosch.
 
pastymuncher said:
A bit more to add to this now. I still haven't managed to replace the high beam bulbs so did a search to find the easiest way to change them. I found a video from Ford in which they state the recommended way to change the headlight bulbs is to remove the whole unit from the car. All this to change a bloody bulb!! What a nightmare if you need to change a bulb at the roadside at night. This is complete and utter madness to have to do so much work just to replace a bulb. Guess I will have to add a set of Torx drivers to the spare bulb kit Icarry in the car now. It's just ridiculous.
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Can't say I'm familiar with the Ford headlight units, but my old Volvo S40 was like; but to remove the unit was literally two plugs for the lights and then what I can only describe as a tent peg to pull out and the whole unit pulls forward with ease. Compared to the madness of what my Civic is like, I'd say that's probably the best way!
 
pastymuncher said:
A bit more to add to this now. I still haven't managed to replace the high beam bulbs so did a search to find the easiest way to change them. I found a video from Ford in which they state the recommended way to change the headlight bulbs is to remove the whole unit from the car. All this to change a bloody bulb!! What a nightmare if you need to change a bulb at the roadside at night. This is complete and utter madness to have to do so much work just to replace a bulb. Guess I will have to add a set of Torx drivers to the spare bulb kit Icarry in the car now. It's just ridiculous.
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The majority of Fords have been like this for over a decade now, some even longer. I'd argue it's just easier to take the unit out these days, with how tightly everything is packed into modern cars' engine bays. My Focus is three screws and it just comes out once I disconnect the wiring socket. Nice, easy access then - this is greatly appreciated as it has xenon headlights and the bulbs have a further locking mechanism inside the cramped space of the headlight unit!
 
GinG said:
Took the car in for MOT and passed with the only advisories being 2 fro t tyres nearing leval limit... Id say I have atleast 6 months left on them now we have reduced our mileage some what.

Also replaced front and rear wipers on the car. I can't quite remember if I've actually changed them before so may have been the OEM ones so they haven't done bad for 6 years and 82k miles. Replaced with Bosch.
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No way your wipers have lasted 6 years! They will have been replaced when your car went in for a service if you didn't do it yourself.
 
mjt said:
No way your wipers have lasted 6 years! They will have been replaced when your car went in for a service if you didn't do it yourself.
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You say this but my car is now 5 years old on its original wipers. Nobody but me has ever had the car serviced and I've never had the wipers replaced.

I did actually try and replace them myself 18 months ago - brand new Bosch wipers, awful squeaking I couldn't get rid of. Brand new Valeo wipers, awful squeaking I couldn't get rid of. Back to the OEM ones - perfectly silent and still performing well :eek:

I dread they day they stop working effectively.
 
mjt said:
No way your wipers have lasted 6 years! They will have been replaced when your car went in for a service if you didn't do it yourself.
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[TW]Fox said:
You say this but my car is now 5 years old on its original wipers. Nobody but me has ever had the car serviced and I've never had the wipers replaced.

I did actually try and replace them myself 18 months ago - brand new Bosch wipers, awful squeaking I couldn't get rid of. Brand new Valeo wipers, awful squeaking I couldn't get rid of. Back to the OEM ones - perfectly silent and still performing well :eek:

I dread they day they stop working effectively.
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Haha for sure - it is super odd but I seem to remember a decade or so ago having to replace wipers 'frequently'. Definitely haven't touched them on any of my cars that were at least 3 years old and they definitely had no signs of going!

You'd argue it isn't entirely mileage dependent either, given the rubber would perish just as much over time.
 
To the scrotum who keyed the entire length of my car today, thank you. I really was looking for some video content ideas and removal of your work sounds like it'd be great fun. Yours truly, Ross.
 
What have I done to my car? Authorised an expensive load of work!

Have a Ford KA as a run around and station car (when I was actually commuting to work) that used to belong to my Dad. Coolant is leaking from a blanking plug on the engine block, but to swap out the plug and seal the leak its an engine out job as its in just the wrong place. Probably £1k worth of work (also getting the cam belt done and a few other things while the engine is out anyway) for a £2k car. Don't want to scrap it as it was my Dad's car (he died a couple of years ago) and don't want to let it go just yet.

Grrrr.
 
mjt said:
No way your wipers have lasted 6 years! They will have been replaced when your car went in for a service if you didn't do it yourself.
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I had a look back through all the paperwork and invoices. I can confirm that the wipers were the original OEM.

Suprised how long they have lasted especially with the weather we get in North Yorkshire!

Really happy with the Bosch...it has been heavy rain today and performed excellent.
 
Car was into the dealer was for an oil change. While there they gave it a general inspection and top up fluids etc. They checked the tyre tread depths and in conversation tell me they recommend replacement at 3mm. This surprised me somewhat.

Of course you can view this as simple cash generation, but I thought it was a strange stance in the current environment re efficiencies and reducing pollution etc. So it got me wondering if you guys generally run your tyres all the way down to the legal limit before changing, or is there a point before this where you feel it’s preferred to change?

My tyres are 7mm and don’t need changing btw.
 
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