So I spent 6 hours of today carrying my first DIY Major Service.
I have to report beforehand that I was worried about access to and replacing the spark plugs and also bleeding the brakes.
But I have to say it all went very well, aided by some but not too much swearing and occasionally banging my head on the exhausts.
Access to the plugs was the hardest part by far and without borrowing my mates ramp it would have been impossible. I did not have to remove the silencers as some say but it is very tight to get a socket in let alone a torque wrench or your hands for that matter.
Being able to actually see what you re doing is very hard too.
Removing the coil packs and associated wires was a ***** as was getting them back on/in.
I think it took about an hour and a bit to do the first spark plug and then I got faster and faster, it still took about four hours in total.
One strange thing was that I really struggled getting the first coil pack back into the block, I had to tighten the bolts to get it back in securely. All the other ones pushed back in quite easily. This concerned me so I removed the first coil pack and compared it to one of the others. Upon inspection it had what looked like an adapter on it and none of the others did, so I removed the adapter and it went back in fine. So it looks like it shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Now I wonder if that is why the car would occasionally feel like it had a miss fire / hesitate when holding a gear at about 50/60 mph....
I also replaced the heat shields as they had rotted to bits and once I worked out how that fitted they are a simple fix.
Changing the oil and filter is a simple job too.
Air box takes a bit of messing about to get it out but then the air filter and pollen filter are simple.
The poly belt is surprisingly easy too but I did have a hand on the final part.
When replacing the brake fluid I first sprayed the bleed nipples with freeing oil and left them for a few hours before releasing. I was very nervous about this and I brought stainless steel replacements and I was going to swap them out but in the end I didn't want to push my luck, so I just flushed through with new brake fluid.
Car now runs very smoothly and I am having lots of wine to celebrate.
Also it was fun to work on my own car and very satisfying too.
Plus I saved £1000 on what my local OPC would have charged me to do the work.
I have to report beforehand that I was worried about access to and replacing the spark plugs and also bleeding the brakes.
But I have to say it all went very well, aided by some but not too much swearing and occasionally banging my head on the exhausts.
Access to the plugs was the hardest part by far and without borrowing my mates ramp it would have been impossible. I did not have to remove the silencers as some say but it is very tight to get a socket in let alone a torque wrench or your hands for that matter.
Being able to actually see what you re doing is very hard too.
Removing the coil packs and associated wires was a ***** as was getting them back on/in.
I think it took about an hour and a bit to do the first spark plug and then I got faster and faster, it still took about four hours in total.
One strange thing was that I really struggled getting the first coil pack back into the block, I had to tighten the bolts to get it back in securely. All the other ones pushed back in quite easily. This concerned me so I removed the first coil pack and compared it to one of the others. Upon inspection it had what looked like an adapter on it and none of the others did, so I removed the adapter and it went back in fine. So it looks like it shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Now I wonder if that is why the car would occasionally feel like it had a miss fire / hesitate when holding a gear at about 50/60 mph....
I also replaced the heat shields as they had rotted to bits and once I worked out how that fitted they are a simple fix.
Changing the oil and filter is a simple job too.
Air box takes a bit of messing about to get it out but then the air filter and pollen filter are simple.
The poly belt is surprisingly easy too but I did have a hand on the final part.
When replacing the brake fluid I first sprayed the bleed nipples with freeing oil and left them for a few hours before releasing. I was very nervous about this and I brought stainless steel replacements and I was going to swap them out but in the end I didn't want to push my luck, so I just flushed through with new brake fluid.
Car now runs very smoothly and I am having lots of wine to celebrate.
Also it was fun to work on my own car and very satisfying too.
Plus I saved £1000 on what my local OPC would have charged me to do the work.