What have you done to your car today?

Have a guess what I did to it today. :o

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Changed the gearbox oil this morning then gave the car a wash this afternoon.

It shifts nicely now, and I replaced both the plugs as the drain plug was nicely rounded off, had to remove it with mole grips.

Stinky horrible stuff, though, gearbox oil. Eugh.
 
Not sure, wasn't keeping time. An hour?

I chopped up an allen key a couple of weeks ago to get off the drain plug, then discovered it was all knackered and rounded off, so I ordered a couple of new plugs from Ford and did the job today. Drain plug came undone easily enough with mole grips, and the new ones screwed in nice and tight with the aid of my chopped off allen bit and an 8mm spanner. Siphoned the new oil in with a length of hose and a funnel. Not too difficult.
 
I washed mine yesterday, sealed the wheels and the paintwork.

Today - i drove it on some awesome roads and it was fantastic. I love my car, i love the engine, i love the gearbox, i love the looks.

I can also now say with some confidence that, happily, the brakes are fixed and I will only be fitting BMW brake discs from now on to any future BMW i own which has big brake discs. I don't know what is so special about them, but all i do know is that the judder is completely gone and has been since i had them fitted.
 
big end let go when I was on the M4 somewhere near Newbury.

Nursed it towards home (35 miles) before the rod decided to part company with the cap on Birdlip hill. and voila, exit stage left! DOH!

Why - no idea! Oil pressure was good (well the light wasn't on) Oil level was good, of good quality and no signs of impending doom until a CEL popped up about a millisecond before a faint rattle started)
 
Supermarket fuel?

I had a friend round this afternoon and we chatted about car bits. The biggest issue with something blowing up like that unexpectedly was the time end effort to fix it as we're both guys that do all our own car stuff, but as you get older its much much harder to get the enthusiasm i find
 
big end let go when I was on the M4 somewhere near Newbury.

Nursed it towards home (35 miles) before the rod decided to part company with the cap on Birdlip hill. and voila, exit stage left! DOH!

Why - no idea! Oil pressure was good (well the light wasn't on) Oil level was good, of good quality and no signs of impending doom until a CEL popped up about a millisecond before a faint rattle started)

You know, I was about to comment 'is it Birdlip?' when I first saw the picture....road heading towards the Hot Air balloon roundabout, A417?

When my Fiesta ST clutch slave finally packed in I ended up stuck pretty much exactly where you are there, probably within 20 yards. I spent an hour at the side of the road waiting for a recovery truck. That stretch of road is a breakdown blackspot for OcUK, clearly :(
 
You know, I was about to comment 'is it Birdlip?' when I first saw the picture....road heading towards the Hot Air balloon roundabout, A417?
Ha, yea, exactly correct.

No waiting for recovery trucks for me, just called in a favour.

Voilà. Disco rescuing Disco. :D

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I have been running supermarket fuel lately as my old dear loves the Morrisons points that thing accumulates when it costs £130 to fill up.
Really can't see how that caused the big end to let go though.
 
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Fit a nice V8 ;)

Seriously though, that sucks. Not aware of the TD5 being prone to this sort of failure.

A few people have already suggested I put an GM LS# engine of some description in it :D

I can't help but worry I caused it somehow, as I had all the oil filter and oil cooler housings off it a week ago to fix a load of leaks.
Serviced it as well with both new OE roto filter, OE oil filter and 7+ ltrs of semi syth :o :(
 
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A few people have already suggested I put an GM LS# engine of some description in it :D

I can't help but worry I caused it somehow, as I had all the oil filter and oil cooler housings off it a week ago to fix a load of leaks.
Serviced it as well with both new OE roto filter, OE oil filter and 7+ ltrs of semi syth :o :(

Not sure how changing oils could cause that sort of catastrophic failure. I would have expected some sort of warning if it were caused by oil supply issues.

An ls with megasquirt would be awesome.
 
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