Car D.I.Y.

[Drago]

@fossyant did the C70 with Buzzweld ACE. Very impressed. Coverage jsnsuperb, and my testing in the week showed only a very fine film is required so a little goes a very, very, long way. Perhaps 1/4 of a litre to donthe entire underside of the car, so I've enough to do the van in August, and for both vehicles for several more years. Very impressed.

 

[fossyant]

@fossyant did the C70 with Buzzweld ACE. Very impressed. Coverage jsnsuperb, and my testing in the week showed only a very fine film is required so a little goes a very, very, long way. Perhaps 1/4 of a litre to donthe entire underside of the car, so I've enough to do the van in August, and for both vehicles for several more years. Very impressed.

How's the drying time. Would you say 48 hours then to be sure.

 

[Drago]

48 hrs with a light coat.

Old exhaust off the C70, and not before time...

New Jetex pipe ready...

And fitted...

Wasn't a bad job. Old pipe didn't put up much of a fight and the new one was a perfect fit.

 

[fossyant]

Front pads done on the van. With getting everything out and packing away, around two and a half hours. This included cleaning the calipers, painting them with aqua steel anti rust and spraying suspension components with buzzweld underbody protection (the lanolin based one).

Only tricky bit was removing a sprung retainer on the caliper, putting back was easy. Also scrubbed the inside of each alloy.

The white aqua steel on the components turns to grey black or clear once its dried.

 

[fossyant]

Possibly the easiest pad change I've ever done once I'd worked everything out. The slider bolts are an 11mm hex socket (that had been ordered previously), but they were protected in a thick rubber tube - I'd seen a video previously (hence knowing the hex socket size) where the mechanic had flipped some end caps off - I tried to pull the whole rubber tube, nope it's just a cap on the end that comes off (dust and dirt seal). The only faff was removing the sprung steel spacer that holds the calliper in place (the bendy bit of steel in the picture between the calliper and the hub).

Both slider pins have to come out as the piston side pad has prongs that slot into the piston to hold it in place. Other pads, I've only needed to take one slider out and flip the calliper up (lazy I know - ideally both as you can ensure they are clean). Once the calliper was 'free' just needed to use a screwdriver to lever the piston back slightly - very easy, no pressure needed. Once out, used a long bike strap to hold the heavy calliper. Got out the winding tool and wound the piston back (could have bodged it, but I've a tool these days).
Calliper cleaned up etc/faff with coating suspension. Popped piston side pad onto the calliper. Outer side just slotted into the calliper carrier at the disc - no squeezing it in, no fiddly stuff as often it's quite tight getting the pads in. Literally slotted the calliper back in. Can't be this easy I thought. Offered up both slider bolts and tightened up. Dust covers back on !

The brakes are big and heavy being a van, significantly bigger than MrsF's car. Original pads were on the van, and nothing was seized after 4 1/2 years and 43k miles. Long may this continue !! This van will see me out (I hope).

 

[Pinno718]

Passed MOT today. No advisories.
Happy bimmer, happy owner.

 

[Bristolian]

A final update to my weird suspension problems - PLEASE let it be the final update

In desperation I ordered a new valve block (it controls the air flow into the suspension bags and seals them off afterwards). Both my mechanic and I were under the mistaken belief that the block also vented air from the bags to lower the rear of the car when load is removed from the boot. Turns out there is a dump valve fitted to the compressor which does this so we decided to take another look at the compressor.

We undid the electrical connector that (we assumed) controlled the actions of the dump valve and one of the wires came apart. This had obviously been bodged at some earlier time and I can only suppose that it was prior to me replacing the compressor in 2024 and I was lucky not to have the wire break then. Anyway, five minutes later George (my mechanic) cleared the last remaining fault and cranked up the engine. No "malfunction" messages and I can hear the reassuring sound of the compressor running. The rear of the car immediately started to rise and stopped at precisely the right height. No new fault codes so fingers crossed we have a winner

Four days later and I have tested the suspension by loading wifey's mobility scooter (90kg) into the boot and removing it again. With the scooter onboard the suspension was about 1" lower than it should have been but starting up the engine raised it to the correct height in seconds. Killing the engine resulted in the suspension remaining at height for 2 days. Removing the scooter saw the rear height about 3/4" too high and then resulted in a few seconds of heart stopping anxiety as the rear end dropped again. Would it stop, or not? PHEW! The sound of air escaping stopped and the ride height is spot on correct

I'm gonna risk it by saying I think it's fixed. I hope so, anyway, as we're off to North Wales tomorrow Once we're back from Llandudno it's off to the detailers to get it ready for sale. Anyone got a 2018 Skoda Superb estate they're looking to part company with? Drop me a DM.

 

[Bristolian]

So, after driving to North Wales and back this week the car is behaving itself so I'm confident we found the problem

Returning from a club meeting last night I got to use the headlights for the first time this week and lo-and-behold the ILS (Intelligent Lighting System) is working again Both the auto-dipping main beam head lights and cornering lights are behaving again. RESULT!!

Now to get the car valeted and detailed ready for sale

 

[fossyant]

I have purchased a new OBD reader to see if I can wind the rear brake pistons back on the van to do a rear pad change. It's not recognising the VIN in the app (it's a dongle plus app) so I may have to pretend it's a Peugeot or Toyota from the drop down list. Only fiddled with the app yet. The dongle is still boxed.

Was going for a Topdon unit but given it's over £200 I held off as that may not work as the Vivaro is in a funny bracket. The 2016 to 2025 Expert is listed so we will see if I can tap in on that as it's the same van.

 

[Drago]

Im upgrading to iCarsoft V4.0 when my Carista subscription ends.

 

[fossyant]

Im upgrading to iCarsoft V4.0 when my Carista subscription ends.

I was looking at those but they have yet to reply if the OP (Vauxhall Opel) version works with my Van. There may be a security gateway on the OBD which needs a costly subscription.