A 'rack and stack' tyre refurber will save your sanity for less than 200 quid surely. I'm not in tune on pricing but there was a point a basic colour would be 25 quid a corner.
What have you done to your car today?
- Thread starter mattyprice4004
- Start date
Underboss
the only thing I wasn’t happy with when I picked up my car was the paint work was a little shabby and not looked after, rectified that today with a machine polish, now I’m happy with how it looks.
looks good !
Got any Before pics ?
Underboss
changed the information screen in my focus 2009, as it stooped working
so now i can finally see how many miles I've done and tell the time again ! lol
Also the old screen was orange with orange text, now its black screen with red text, looks miles better, and it matches my needles as they are in red too , so win win !
so now i can finally see how many miles I've done and tell the time again ! lol
Also the old screen was orange with orange text, now its black screen with red text, looks miles better, and it matches my needles as they are in red too , so win win !
Soldato
Can someone with a bit more knowledge on old Renault 5 / GT give me an insight on what the guy over the road is doing / Attempting to fix for the last week. He is constantly redlining it on the drive jacked up for a good 4 to 5 minutes at a time been going on about a week. Were a good 50 meters away but Mrs had a few texts from houses next to him asking me if they knew what on earth he's doing as they have a baby and toddler. I don't have a clue so before I go ask him wanted to give myself some vague idea 
Soldato
Being a ****?
I wouldn't take suspension and setup advice from a group of Mazda 3 owners
In other news, I was chatting to G-Wagon owners on the fundamentals of aerodynamics on Le Mans race cars
Had my car in for a recall today. They've replaced the EGR valve and EGR cooler so that's nice.
Interestingly my previous F30 had a recall in 2019 for the EGR cooler and that is also up for recall yet again too. I've got no idea if this current F30 was recalled back in 2019 too but I suspect it was. Amazing that BMW can't (or couldn't) seem to get these coolers sorted properly first time round.
Interestingly my previous F30 had a recall in 2019 for the EGR cooler and that is also up for recall yet again too. I've got no idea if this current F30 was recalled back in 2019 too but I suspect it was. Amazing that BMW can't (or couldn't) seem to get these coolers sorted properly first time round.
Soldato
R53 failed it’s MOT today… because it didn’t have any washer fluid… doh! and it needed a drop link.
All sorted now. Ready for a retest tomorrow. He even got a wash. Need to sort the dent on the bonnet and I’m tempted to go bronze wheels and get rid of the chrome for a bit.
All sorted now. Ready for a retest tomorrow. He even got a wash. Need to sort the dent on the bonnet and I’m tempted to go bronze wheels and get rid of the chrome for a bit.
We were talking about brakes?I wouldn't take suspension and setup advice from a group of Mazda 3 owners
Soldato
I like to assume he has a legit reason but so far he does sound like he is just making a racket for no reason like a total tool.
Associate
Maybe it's not man's job but I get kids to clean the car after so many trips in to the beach.
Why would you not take advice from "Mazda 3" owners?I wouldn't take suspension and setup advice from a group of Mazda 3 owners
In other news, I was chatting to G-Wagon owners on the fundamentals of aerodynamics on Le Mans race cars
Have you ever owned one? Basically a Ford Focus under the body.
Would you take advice from a Ford RS owner? No difference vs a Mazda MPS owner tbh.
Anyway... Stock suspension is fine.
Soldato
The issue that you were having was probably that the handbrake shoe adjustment was simply too tight. There's a little knurled wheel that connects to the springs that needs turning to either push the shoes out, or bring them in a bit. IIRC the way the manual says is that you have to do is move the disc/hub around until one of the bolt holes lines up with the knurled wheel, then you stick a screwdriver through the bolt hole to behind the brake disc to where the knurled wheel is and rotate the knurled wheel until the handbrake shoes push outwards and disc has a small amount of resistance to it when you try and turn it by hand - this sets the adjustment. Set it too tight, and you'll get squealing when driving along where the shoes are binding, set it too loose and you'll have too much slack in the handbrake and not the 3-5 clicks you wantReplaced rear handbrake shoes, rear brake discs and the pads. I had a squealing from the handbrake that I couldn't get rid of even after cleaning everything up and checking everything out but when I did that I noticed that the handbrake shoes and the inside of the discs were quite scored. No idea how that happened or what the previous owner did to cause it. For those who aren't familiar with BMW mechanical handbrakes, they have a hybrid disc/drum setup for the rears so the normal rear brakes are standard calipers, discs and pads but there are handbrake shoes inside the disc - the handbrake lever makes the handbrake shoes expand against the inside of the disc to hold the car.
I'd never done handbrake shoes before but I know people say how the springs can be a pain in the rear to get in but I struggled more with taking the old ones out. When it came to the new ones I just used mole grips to grab one end and pull it in place and it made things pretty easy.
Was a bit of a shame to replace the discs which were clearly still relatively new, but you could see that the inside of them where the handbrake shoes grip against were quite knackered:
So far so good, no more noises (yet). Although the car was very gradually rolling back on a slope at first but after using the handbrake a few times that seems to have stopped. Will keep an eye on that. Maybe the coating on the inside of the disc just needed to wear a bit or maybe I'll still need to adjust the handbrake cable one or two clicks but at least that's really minor stuff.
Soldato
My mums 520d has just had this as well. Back in 2019 she took it in and it was simply a check then to see if the EGR cooler was leaking and if it was, then it was replaced, if not you went to the back of the queue. I can only imagine they had every intention of replacing every EGR cooler eventually, but the appointments in 2019 were just to quickly identify those who had cars that already had an EGR cooler leak and causing a safety hazard and get them replaced ASAP.
Soldato
The panoramic sunroof stopped working on my 2013 W204/C204 C63 Coupe during the hot weather a couple of weeks ago. It never showed any sign of failing, it just suddenly refused to open one day and there was just a faint click from the motor unit when you tried to open it. Interestingly the sunblind continued to work just fine. The W204/C204/C207 have two motors in the roof, one on the left which is the one that drives the sunroof, and one on the right which drives the interior sunblind. Since the sunblind was still working, I thought it might be a switch fault so I bought a new over head panel which was easy to replace but still the same thing persisted, so this pointed to the motor. Strangely, when I started merely touching/fiddling with the main sunroof motor, the sunblind started intermittently working then completely stopped too. I read the codes on Mercedes for Carly and it stated "984971 the actuator motor roof system has a malfunction. The actuator is blocked". I could use the manual opening and close allen bolt on the motor to open the roof so couldn't understand why it was saying it was blocked.
Anyway, Mercedes wanted £450 for a new motor unit which I wasn't going to pay, so I got a second hand one off eBay (part number A2128200308 - it is also the same motor they use in the E Class Coupe C207). For some reason only known to Mercedes there are three different part numbers on the motor unit (you wouldn't get this on a BMW!!) but the above is the correct part. There are several revisions of the motorunit, but nothing that'll affect the compatibility) for £30. I had to remove the overhead interior light panel (easy to do - just stick a credit card at the rear most part of the panel and wiggle it a bit and it'll drop down) and you can access two of the screws to the motor unit (Torx T25) but a third is not accessible due to the headlining. So I had to drop the headlining at the front by removing the rear view mirror and the rear view mirror mount (3 x Torx T20), the front grab handles and driver/passenger sun blinds which were easy to get off. Then I had enough space to get a small screwdriver in to get the third screw out for the sunroof motor and it just easily comes out. The first time doing this took me about 1hr. The second time, when I timed myself, I did it in 12 minutes. Having those plastic interior trim removal tools is a must.
I initially tried to just put the complete new motor unit in the roof started partially working again, but would open an close an inch at a time and I would get the error message "984951 the actuator motor roof system has a malfunction. The component is not programmed". Unfortunately, it needed coding to the car with a Mercedes STAR system which a local Merc independent kindly offered to do for £100 (eff off!). So my work around for this was that the "motor unit" comes in two easily separable parts - the physical motor, and the electronic PCB (see pictures below). The bits with all the programming etc on was the PCB part with all the chips on, and I just used my old PCB unit and clipped it into the new motor part and hey presto - it worked and as the car still recognised the PCB part as the part that came from the factory - no coding necessary and it works perfectly now. To "recalibrate" the roof, you simply hold the button for a second or two after closing the roof and you'll hear the motor make a very brief noise and it's done - none of this rubbish about holding it for 10 seconds one way, then 10 seconds the other way etc etc etc
Anyway, a long winded post but will hopefully help someone in the future somewhere on the internet. One thing I've discovered owning a Mercedes after owning numerous BMW's is that there is sweet FA information online compared to BMW's. If I had this problem on a BMW there would be 10 DIY guides, with Youtube videos, pictures and full information. For a Mercedes? Absolutely nothing and most of it is on American websites where people haven't got a clue what they're talking about most of the time.
(Rear view mirror mount)
(Rear view mirror - just tilt to one side and pull down to release from the mount. To get it back in, use a screwdriver to put some pressure on the pin as you push it back into the mount)
Reuse your old PCB bit, and use the motor part of the new motor unit and you don't have to worry about recoding anything to the car (assuming the motor part is the bit that's failed and not the PCB. I'd suggest it would be almost always a failed motor over the PCB though)
Anyway, Mercedes wanted £450 for a new motor unit which I wasn't going to pay, so I got a second hand one off eBay (part number A2128200308 - it is also the same motor they use in the E Class Coupe C207). For some reason only known to Mercedes there are three different part numbers on the motor unit (you wouldn't get this on a BMW!!) but the above is the correct part. There are several revisions of the motorunit, but nothing that'll affect the compatibility) for £30. I had to remove the overhead interior light panel (easy to do - just stick a credit card at the rear most part of the panel and wiggle it a bit and it'll drop down) and you can access two of the screws to the motor unit (Torx T25) but a third is not accessible due to the headlining. So I had to drop the headlining at the front by removing the rear view mirror and the rear view mirror mount (3 x Torx T20), the front grab handles and driver/passenger sun blinds which were easy to get off. Then I had enough space to get a small screwdriver in to get the third screw out for the sunroof motor and it just easily comes out. The first time doing this took me about 1hr. The second time, when I timed myself, I did it in 12 minutes. Having those plastic interior trim removal tools is a must.
I initially tried to just put the complete new motor unit in the roof started partially working again, but would open an close an inch at a time and I would get the error message "984951 the actuator motor roof system has a malfunction. The component is not programmed". Unfortunately, it needed coding to the car with a Mercedes STAR system which a local Merc independent kindly offered to do for £100 (eff off!). So my work around for this was that the "motor unit" comes in two easily separable parts - the physical motor, and the electronic PCB (see pictures below). The bits with all the programming etc on was the PCB part with all the chips on, and I just used my old PCB unit and clipped it into the new motor part and hey presto - it worked and as the car still recognised the PCB part as the part that came from the factory - no coding necessary and it works perfectly now. To "recalibrate" the roof, you simply hold the button for a second or two after closing the roof and you'll hear the motor make a very brief noise and it's done - none of this rubbish about holding it for 10 seconds one way, then 10 seconds the other way etc etc etc
Anyway, a long winded post but will hopefully help someone in the future somewhere on the internet. One thing I've discovered owning a Mercedes after owning numerous BMW's is that there is sweet FA information online compared to BMW's. If I had this problem on a BMW there would be 10 DIY guides, with Youtube videos, pictures and full information. For a Mercedes? Absolutely nothing and most of it is on American websites where people haven't got a clue what they're talking about most of the time.
(Rear view mirror mount)
(Rear view mirror - just tilt to one side and pull down to release from the mount. To get it back in, use a screwdriver to put some pressure on the pin as you push it back into the mount)
Reuse your old PCB bit, and use the motor part of the new motor unit and you don't have to worry about recoding anything to the car (assuming the motor part is the bit that's failed and not the PCB. I'd suggest it would be almost always a failed motor over the PCB though)
Soldato
There’s no way I’d do it so if some kids want to, they can knock themselves out
Aye, that was my first thought and indeed the handbrake did seem to be fully engaging after less clicks than I expected when I first got the car. I did adjust the handbrake after I noticed the problem - the squeal wasn't as bad but it was still there. According to BMW TIS you push the spring in underneath the handbrake gaiter to release tension on the cables, rotate the wheel until the shoes stop the wheel spinning then to back off 7 clicks (if I remember rightly). Then finally release the spring to set tension again. I did that but still had the slight squeal - I guess I should've tried adjusting it again but backing off another click.
Still, I didn't like knowing that the shoes or the inside of the discs were as they were so was happier replacing it anyway. I did the same adjustment step with the new discs - locking the disc then backing off 7 clicks on the adjuster and it's perfect now and hopefully I'll never need to touch any of it again.
The top half of the gear knob came off in my hand a few weeks ago (it’s only glued on). So I cleaned all the glue off sanded it and restuck it down! Hot weather is what I’m putting it down to.
Apart from that had two new tyres fitted today. Spread the cost a touch, the rears are getting low but can leave until Xmas: ATS wouldn’t swap them front to rear for me, wanted £15 to do it! Expected them to insist on fitting new tyres to the rear like Costco do but they were happy to just change the fronts.
Did them back up with a torque wrench and looked like they jacked under the car (subframe or jacking point) not from the cill so that’s good. Did manage to use a lot of weights mind but whatever, it’s not like I can see them or it will bother me as long as they stay stuck on!
Apart from that had two new tyres fitted today. Spread the cost a touch, the rears are getting low but can leave until Xmas: ATS wouldn’t swap them front to rear for me, wanted £15 to do it! Expected them to insist on fitting new tyres to the rear like Costco do but they were happy to just change the fronts.
Did them back up with a torque wrench and looked like they jacked under the car (subframe or jacking point) not from the cill so that’s good. Did manage to use a lot of weights mind but whatever, it’s not like I can see them or it will bother me as long as they stay stuck on!