Car D.I.Y.

[fossyant]

PS no sluggishness from start up now, but flatting it with the radio is a sign. It wasn't as powerful in winter at starting, so I was expexmcting it to fail before next winter.

An air of doom came over me when thinking about calling AA on a bank holiday... hours. Passed loads of broken down cars on way home. Stupid thing is there is a set of leads in the Aygo, and a big set in the garage/my car but not the Qashqai.

MrsF was like get me a new battery ASAP. I'll have to finish early to go collect it from ECP. Fortunately Nissan have the retaining bolts at the top of the battery where its easy to get to.

 

[Jameshow]

Our VW carvelle needed new battery one Christmas about 8yo.. Diesel and having electric step / disabled lift probably did it.

 

[november4]

My honda has a stoopid charging system, and I keep an eye on it with a cig lighter plug voltmeter. It only goes to full charge from trickle after a long time weighted interval, which means if driving around town the battery gets abused. Workaround is to put headlights on, I only learned this recently.

 

[Drago]

Mrs D's MINI temporarily relegated to the road while I roll the 'vert out for a few minor jobs.

 

[Accy cyclist]

Is using T-Cut classed as car D.I.Y ? If so I'll explain what happened to my car today. I turned left onto a narrow street only to see one of those weeny extension, Yank flat back type 4x4's coming at me. I had right of way as the only parked cars were on weeny extension boy's side, forcing him into the middle of the road. I made eye contact with him. To me he looked like he was 'on summat'. I wouldn't be surprised if he was as half of Accrington are on smack or cocaine. Anyway he just drove without hesitation and then I saw my driver's side mirror get knocked back and heard a kind of rumble sound as his weeny extension side swiped mine! My thought's were to pull over asap and view the damage. He'd long gone by now and even if he had hung around I certainly didn't want a confrontation with a banty rooster high on coke! As I climbed out to survey the damage I saw a 3ft long, black mark on my car. I touched the black stuff and was slightly relieved to see that it was rubber and not paint off the weeny extension. Don't panic, I told myself! Get some T-Cut and see if the mark will shift. Anyway, after 20 minutes of elbow grease and T-Cut I more or less restored my driver side to how it was before, though there is a slight dent over the rear right side wheel and a teeny crease in the driver's door. All in all I was pleased with my effort! You can hardly, if at all tell i've been side swiped with me knowing only because I know it happened, if you know what I mean. The annoying thing is that I didn't take a photo of the 3 ft mark to post on CC. Something in my mind told me not to, as to keep looking at such a photo would slightly depress me. So you'll just have to take my word for it. I'm glad I tidied it up myself and didn't panic and take it to a 'kerching let's sting him' garage. where they'd probably take me for 200 quid. I even used the T-Cut to erase other marks and blemishes that have bugged me for a while. Things could've been a lot worse. Thanks for reading this and sorry there isn't a before and after photo, but I hope I've described it enough for you too imagine one in your mind.

 

[fossyant]

New front tyres day for the little Aygo. Avon ZT7's going on (rears were done 12 months ago) for the grand sum of £118. Son has paid half as he's been racking up the miles in it, and one of the the fronts have hit the "limit", with the other not far behind.

Also noticed the driver's side rear light was 'loose' - it's held on to the body with one nut and push clips. The plastic that the bolt was 'connected' too had snapped off the lamp body - out with the epoxy to fix that.

 

[fossyant]

Argh. ATS fitter has snapped off two wheel bolts. Waiting for AA to recover me to local garage where they will have to get someone in to sort it and drill them out. Tyres not fitted...

 

[Fastpedaller]

Argh. ATS fitter has snapped off two wheel bolts. Waiting for AA to recover me to local garage where they will have to get someone in to sort it and drill them out. Tyres not fitted...

Oh No. Make sure ATS pay for their negligence. I've resorted to taking the wheels off and transporting them in another car to avoid the dugga-dugga gun. They save time (not) and are just a lazy man's tool. Make sure they don't clamp the brake disc in the vice while they remove the wheel studs - I've seen it done!

 

[Drago]

I get my trusted local garage to do tyres. They dost a little more, but it's worth it to watch the care they take as they tighten them by hand then finish with a torque wrench.

 

[DRM]

Argh. ATS fitter has snapped off two wheel bolts. Waiting for AA to recover me to local garage where they will have to get someone in to sort it and drill them out. Tyres not fitted...

Don't forget, as the ad should have said, You can't get sh*tter than a Kwik Fit fitter!

 

[fossyant]

Looks like otherside was tight as garage snapped a bolt off too. Best way is two new hubs and bearings. Will get ATS to pay at least half. Wheels were hand tightened 18 months ago, but even though they were coppa slipped, they were a bugger to undo when we got the car.

 

[gbb]

Looks like otherside was tight as garage snapped a bolt off too. Best way is two new hubs and bearings. Will get ATS to pay at least half. Wheels were hand tightened 18 months ago, but even though they were coppa slipped, they were a bugger to undo when we got the car.

Shouldn't actually copperslip bolts that require or rely on specific torque settings. These settings are calculated dry, putting copperslip on boggers it all up.
Thinking about it, you'd need a lot more force to achieve the same torque with copperslip, so that's maybe why they've snapped.

 

[midlife]

Looks like otherside was tight as garage snapped a bolt off too. Best way is two new hubs and bearings. Will get ATS to pay at least half. Wheels were hand tightened 18 months ago, but even though they were coppa slipped, they were a bugger to undo when we got the car.

Just out of curiosity what should ATS have done to get the bolts off without snapping them?

 

[fossyant]

Just out of curiosity what should ATS have done to get the bolts off without snapping them?

Well who knows. Now know it was an issue though. 🙄 Previous owner hadn't done much maintenance wise, wheels had never been off, brakes shot. All fixed cheap, but hey ho, risk of buying a cheap box for the kids to use.

 

[Adam4868]

Just out of curiosity what should ATS have done to get the bolts off without snapping them?

Other than using plenty of WD/penetrating oil.A wack of the nut with a hammer and a breaker bar....not much.
Could of been worse...could of been you at the side of the road.😁