Car D.I.Y.

[gbb]

I suppose im thinking with a head from 25 years ago, i used to order hydraulic oil by the 45 gallon barrel..It was never cheap...but wasnt extortionate either. Things have changed I guess.
I recall a compactor hose going once...shot oil about 20ft up a wall in the factory, what a bloody mess, took us half a day to soak it all up (well, as much as would come up)

 

[CXRAndy]

This is the carnage of cleaning up oil soaked debris wedge in crevices in and under the vehicle. The bin is half full of oil soak debris too. Ive steam cleaned the engine bay and underside as best as I can. Looks a million times better now. I found a new leak by removing old stuck on grime, so will attend to that. She's an old girl machine, which came with the property purchase. Its turned out to be a very useful machine- albeit a bit tired.

 

[johnnyb47]

I've been doing a spot of wheel refurbishment this weekend gone on my flakey corroded alloys.
I filed out the curb rashes and sanded back the crusty paint then hit them with some etch primer then some rattle can silver followed by a few coats of clear coat.
After the time and expense of the paint it realistically wouldn't of cost much more to of getting them professionally powder coated, but it was quite satisfying knowing I've done them myself.

 

[Bristolian]

I've been toying with the idea of doing mine. If I thought I could do a job that good I'd definitely give it a go but my spraying technique is abysmal. Nice job

 

[johnnyb47]

I find the secret to rattle can spraying alloy wheels is just a few simple steps.
Preparation of the surface is the most important.Sand or file any lifting paint or curb rash to a smooth finish and then give the rest of the wheel a less aggressive sanding down for the new paint to adhere to.
As much as a visual check use your fingers to feel for any imperfections on the surface.
Just take your time and when you're fully happy with the finish clean it off to remove any dust with panel wipes.
When it comes to spraying them I fully recommend leaving the wheels out in the sun to warm up before you hit them (never spray on a cold damp day)
Using an etch primer you literally just give them a light dusting to the point you barely see any primer on them.Leave for 10 minutes and repeat again spraying them with a view to just dusting over.After a few coats the primer will slowly build up leaving a nice uniform coverage.
Again it's the same process with the final colour and the clear coat.
Each time, you hit the wheel with light coats allow them to become touch dry in-between before you apply the next.
Also when spraying lay the wheel on the ground and dust it at a 12 o'clock position then at 3 then 6 the 9 o'clock position and view that as one coat.
Just take your time and have a mind set of using multiple light coats instead of a couple of thick heavy coats and you can't go wrong.
Using a file to remove the curb rashes out is not to hard of a job on the soft alloy either.
I've still not perfected my cheap diy spraying techniques yet, but it's good fun and satisfying trying to.
All the very best
Johnny

 

[DRM]

After my JCB Loadall decided to split a hose,dump almost all the transmission oil all over the place. I replaced the hoses associated with transmission cooler. JCB dealer recommended I change the transmission filter and clean the sump metal filter, incase increased pressure was the cause of failure (I suspect 28yr old rubber) and grime.

First snag, awkward filter location and seized on. I had to buy a fairly decent double chain filter wrench to go around 100 diameter filter



Oh and the 21 litres of new oil has to go in via the dipstick filler tube. Another purchase oil jug with flexi pipe and narrow end.

After 10 days, I have a running machine. Tomorrow I have to pressure wash all the oil splatter and hopefully locate where all the other leaks are.

Keep an eye on the transmission cooler hoses, standard hydraulic hoses seem to go soft & spongy pretty quickly with ATF going through them, you may find you might have to bite the bullet & get the genuine JCB hoses, ignore if you did get JCB hoses of course!

 

[DRM]

I suppose im thinking with a head from 25 years ago, i used to order hydraulic oil by the 45 gallon barrel..It was never cheap...but wasnt extortionate either. Things have changed I guess.
I recall a compactor hose going once...shot oil about 20ft up a wall in the factory, what a bloody mess, took us half a day to soak it all up (well, as much as would come up)

We used to have V.N.A man up trucks that were specced with aircraft grade hydraulic oil, now that was expensive, thank god they're all gone now,
i once got called out to an oil leak on a diesel counterbalance fork truck, this particular site used to burst mast lift hoses for fun, at least one every 2 weeks, turns out the oil leak was quite bad, as one truck had T Boned the other at full speed, and put one fork straight through the body/chassis frame, which is also the hydraulic oil tank, luckily it wasn't the other side as that was the diesel tank !

 

[Jameshow]

I've been doing a spot of wheel refurbishment this weekend gone on my flakey corroded alloys.
I filed out the curb rashes and sanded back the crusty paint then hit them with some etch primer then some rattle can silver followed by a few coats of clear coat.
After the time and expense of the paint it realistically wouldn't of cost much more to of getting them professionally powder coated, but it was quite satisfying knowing I've done them myself.
View attachment 806670

What car love retro Pugs!

 

[johnnyb47]

Its just an old 206 cc James

 

[Bristolian]

Apologies, but this is going to take a while. Go make a cup of tea first

Well, what a week I've had This time last week the rear air suspension on the E-class decided to drop down to the stops, which made for a rather uncomfortable 5 mile drive back home. This is the second time this has happened (Dec 2024 was the other time) so it was with a degree of trepidation that I started fault finding.

My instincts told me that the likelihood of both bags and/or the air lines failing at the same time was remote, but not impossible, so I felt I was looking for a single point of failure. I was able to confirm that the compressor which I fitted in 2024 is still working but the power relay wasn't being energised as it should be when the suspension is low. The compressor did not initially run but when I physically closed the power relay contacts it started up but no air was getting to the bags.

On the output of the compressor there is a short length of 8mm OD air line which goes into a valve block, with separate 4mm OD air lines going directly to each of the air bags. The valve block is energised by a separate 12V signal for each of the right and left solenoids and these signals weren't there possibly explaining why there was no air getting to the bags. My initial thought was to disconnect the air lines to the bags at the valve block and install a couple of Schrader valve adaptors to the air lines and then pump up the bags. Once the adaptors had arrived, this process started off okay and within about 10 minutes I had connected an electric pump and begun pumping up the air bags but (why is there always a but?) it quickly became obvious that pump didn't have enough oomph to fully inflate the bags. It couldn't put out 150psi and ran out of oomph at about 90. Bummer! Back to the drawing board

A bit of jury-rigging enabled me to power the valve block from a spare battery which opened the solenoids and started air pumping into the bags. Another five minutes and the suspension is back to somewhere near normal and I've de-energised the valve block again. Provided there are no leaks in the system I should find everything just as I left it in the morning at which point I think I will have a driveable car again, albeit not fully functional. All of this, with waiting for parts like the Schrader adaptors, connectors, etc., has taken seven days - would have been more like three had it not been for the bank holiday.

My tame mechanic is on holiday until the end of May so I'm hoping that things will remain as they are until then and we can get the car into his garage and connected to his diagnostic computer. I have a horrible feeling that the suspension control computer has failed but fingers crossed I could be wrong

 

[johnnyb47]

Two work colleges this week have had some unpleasant surprises with there cars.
Ones got an Audi s line 2 ltr 4wd and the slave cylinder decided to let go.
For a clutch, slave cylinder, dual fly mass wheel he's been quoted near enough £1000.
The other guys car has been virtually written off after the diesel engine decided it wanted to run away on its own engine oil.
I'm imagining the turbo seals had failed and it was drawing the engine oil into the cylinders causing the engine to go into uncontrollable "full on revs"

 

[DRM]

Two work colleges this week have had some unpleasant surprises with there cars.
Ones got an Audi s line 2 ltr 4wd and the slave cylinder decided to let go.
For a clutch, slave cylinder, dual fly mass wheel he's been quoted near enough £1000.
The other guys car has been virtually written off after the diesel engine decided it wanted to run away on its own engine oil.
I'm imagining the turbo seals had failed and it was drawing the engine oil into the cylinders causing the engine to go into uncontrollable "full on revs"

If it was an auto, the only way to stop it running is to block the air intake fully, but not many would know to do it, need to find some plastic sheet as well to do it

 

[gbb]

Two work colleges this week have had some unpleasant surprises with there cars.
Ones got an Audi s line 2 ltr 4wd and the slave cylinder decided to let go.
For a clutch, slave cylinder, dual fly mass wheel he's been quoted near enough £1000.
The other guys car has been virtually written off after the diesel engine decided it wanted to run away on its own engine oil.
I'm imagining the turbo seals had failed and it was drawing the engine oil into the cylinders causing the engine to go into uncontrollable "full on revs"

£1k might not be a bad price..relative of mine with a C4 Picasso is just pricing up his clutch...£450 ish just to buy the parts !!!
I still think of cluch jobs as what ? a couple hundred quid ? Not any more theyre not..