Datsuncog's Heaps: Sept 2023 - Another Year's T-Met Exemption Certificate...

[mk2_craig]

Sad times. Given that there’s a couple of middlemen involved, I wonder what you’d have got direct from the metals yard if you’d driven it there and bridged it yourself?

[SiC]

I felt the same when I sent off our trusty A4 for disposal. That hurt even more as the body + interior was in excellent condition with no rust anywhere underneath it and a few stone chips. Everything was working except the big one of high pressure fuel pump which would also require replacement of four injectors, rail and a good fuel system flush.

First ever car I have scrapped. Over 4.5 years under my ownership. In total 10 years between my parents and myself, doing a combined 205k miles.

 

But the £1500 I got back for it eased the sting a bit.

[108]

Apologies for the various random reactions to some of the posts on here last night. 
I was struggling to sleep, so spent a happy couple of hours reading of your trials and tribulations. 
Your writing style is one of the reasons I pop in regularly. 
The tale of the electrical problems which ended up being caused by an interior light left on was just hilarious. 
I woke the house up with my manic 2am laughter. 
Hope you have better luck with the next one!

Cheers

[chaseracer]

46 minutes ago, 108 said:

Your writing style is one of the reasons I pop in regularly. 

Wait until his 17th-century alter ego makes an appearance!

[GrumpiusMaximus]

I think @Datsuncog missed a trick not become an author of political or historical satire.  Maybe both.  'Flashman' meets 'The Thick of It'.  Maybe call it 'Thickflash'.

[108]

1 hour ago, chaseracer said:

Wait until his 17th-century alter ego makes an appearance!

Agreed. The occasional Samuel Pepys posts are comedy writing gold. 

[Datsuncog]

Crumbs, two months on, eh?

So what's happened with the Corolla?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Nothing's fallen off.

Nothing's caught fire.

Nothing's caused MrsDC to give me The Look.

Y'know, that look I've become horribly familiar with in recent years. The Look that generally follows the EML flicking on ten minutes after we've left the house on a longish journey; that accompanies a sudden and inexplicable judder arising; that gets shot in my general direction when the electric windows all stop working on a blistering summer's day while stuck in heavy traffic.

Yeah. That look.

It's just... kept on going.

I haven't even opened the bonnet since I brought it home.

(Though I do want to get the oil changed and new filters on once the most pressing house stuff is completed.)

Well, I did slam the suspension for that JDMYO stanced look.

Kinda.

But only temporarily.

Yes, the little Toyota has been earning its keep following the house move on a series of dump runs.

The load liner from the deceased Outback fits the Corolla quite well, and has been protecting the boot floor and seat backs while we've torn up old laminate flooring, pulled out a load of dead conifers, and dealt with the aftermath of a crumbling patio being broken up.

I feel a little guilty throwing a load of concrete slabs in the back and then gunning the little 1300cc engine up a hill to the civic amenity site, but so far the little thing's taken everything in its stride.

But as a liftback it's surprisingly roomy in the back, and although I initially despaired at not having an estate at my disposal, there's been very little so far that the Toyota's failed to swallow that an estate could have handled.

It's reasonably frugal, too - despite fuel prices going stratospheric and giving everything a general end-of-days vibe, it'll give me about 400 miles out of a full tank of I'm careful, so I think my per-mile cost hasn't gone up much despite the price of unleaded hiking by a third. The Subarus never managed more than 300 miles to a tank.

So - keep on keepin' on?

[hairnet]

so much hai

 

[Datsuncog]

Once there was a shiter.

A hip young gunslinger who baulked at naught; a gallant buccaneer who laughed at lumpy running issues and tweaked the nose of crispy floorpans.

One who would leap into a 26 year old Vauxhall with known starting issues and motor down to the South of France without turning a hair. One who would routinely attend and remedy the motoring difficulties of chums with little more than (most of) a set of Chinesium market-stall spanners, a Lucas spark plug test light and an inflated sense of derring-do.

Halfords Staff Discount Card in one hand, angle grinder in t'other, and a comprehensive library of frayed and smudged charity shop HBOLs in the metaphorical back pocket, there wasn't much this rugged individual wouldn't attempt - be it swapping a Renault 19 clutch cable by the roadside or wobbing up the rear arches of a crumbly Fiesta.

Gentle reader, believe it or not this automotive swashbuckler of legend was I.

So why the blue blazes can I not even manage to successfully change a headlight bulb these days?

Yeah, I know - I've been down this route before. Baffled confusion that I'm not twenty any more, and a youthful overconfidence in my spannering abilities has given way to a middle-aged self-doubt, plus the fear that I used up all my luck in the late 1990s while swapping engines of unknown provenance in the dark.

Even so, it still came as a bit of a shock back in April when I tried and miserably failed to swap out the Corolla's original (non-functioning) cassette head unit for a replacement CD version. Hell's teeth, I used to fit three head units before morning break, back in my Halfords days. I've complained before about losing my car mechanicking mojo, but this was a new low.

But on Thursday evening, I found myself in the unexpected situation of having an hour or so available without any pressing task to fill it.

So, summoning my last remaining reserves of car-related wherewithal, I had a rummage in the garage and found the box received from @AnnoyingPentium a few months back.

It was rematch time - and this time, it was deeply personal.

The original unit is tidy-looking, and the green light-up panel fits well with the rest of the dashboard - but, unfortunately, the tape carriage mechanism seems to have jammed and there's only so much daytime radio I can take.

So. Tools assembled.

Look, I know this isn't a difficult job at all. So if you're of an impatient disposition, you may wish to go and read a PROPPA THREAD about welding/ gearbox rebuilds/ tracing problematic carb issues, written by someone who actually knows what they're doing.

But for anyone else who's interested in how the actual fitment of a stereo head unit into a Frogeye 'Rolla differs from the barefaced lies trotted out by the Haynes team of crack(pipe) mechanics, then read on... maybe it'll help someone else.

Or maybe it's just self-help at this stage, who knows.

So Haynes reckoned that if I removed the air vents, some retaining screws would magically reveal themselves. So, vents out...

And I didn't drop all the little fins on the floor this time.

And inside were... still no screws.

Just these tension clips along the bottom.

And plenty of crumbly foam, gently coming away from around the ventilation flaps.

But, still - I gamely hauled away at the fascia mount surrounding the vents, trying to gain some traction and extract the damn thing. 

I only succeeded in putting myself in a Grand Old Duke Of York situation - the fascia wouldn't come fully out, nor would it fully go back into the dash again, leaving it poking out most forlornly.

Which was deeply annoying, and marked an even more bedevilling FAIL than I managed last time.

Fortunately, the sooper-slippy silicone dash-shine that made this stage difficult back in May seems to have worn off a little - it's amazing what three months of careful neglect, and also filling the interior with cement dust and topsoil, can do to make the interior plastics much more grippy.

As ever, working outside on a bright day at the area on top of the dashboard isn't great for clear vision. So I did what I should have done at the start and got the torch out.

Ah.

Well, I'm no detective but it seems like we might have a clue here. '<RADIO SERV', you say? May indeed be relevant to my current endeavours.

But, try as I might, I couldn't do anything to access whatever clip the arrow was pointing to. My efforts at hauling away at the plastic trim only seemed to have drawn whatever-it-was back up to a place of inaccessibility, and it now seemed to be jammed - and that was why I couldn't shove the fascia back in again.

With limited options, I decided to employ my Useful Tool.

Bonus points if anyone can guess what these things are actually sold as. They cost less than a pound, tend to get used in most of my DIY projects at some stage - and this one was fresh from digging weeds out from in between the paving slabs at the back of the house before pivoting to a new role as hi-tech stereo removal tool.

Mmm, versatile.

In we go, and...

BINGO BANGO.

Out you come.

Seems that there's a trio of v-shaped clips, including one above the hazard switch that's entirely inaccessible.

Mmm. Little bit mangled now, 

But, peering in a smidge more deeply...

Aha. Finally. A welcome 10mm retaining bolt sighted.

An extension bar proved necessary for access, but...

Oh, that's good.

I'd worried there may be more concealed fasteners lurking further in, but apparently not. Two bolts is the whole shebang, although there are four additional locating lugs that slot into the top and bottom of the pod.

So we can see that there's a steel crash bar running the width of the dashboard, and two threaded brackets sprouting off this which the bolts attach into - so head units in these cars are indeed held on pretty securely.

I'd guess that folks who have found that the pods just lift out on their Corolla have maybe had these bolts previously removed and not replaced?

There's a decent amount of space behind the pod, mind. Often it's a bit of a squeeze fitting aftermarket units, when you include all the extra wiring harness adaptors necessary. Again, back in my Halfords days some installs were a little less neat than I'd like them to have been, especially if remote stalk adaptor modules were needed - but, once persuaded with a little brute force, I guess it looked okay to the casual observer...

I could also see where the soft padding on the dash was lifting away - looks like some contact adhesive might remedy that. But that's another job for another day. Focus...

So, there's no DIN cage on the OEM head unit - it's just bolted directly on.

Sadly, this gives me no opportunity to use the thousand and one slightly different stereo removal tools I've accumulated over the years. 

The aftermarket JVC unit came with a lightly bent DIN cage, but the main body also seems to have the same securing bolt pattern as the original, so... it probably makes sense to secure it properly to the car, than push-fit it into the cage and then have to suffer it falling out of the dash every now and again.

Next stage was to remove the retaining screws holding the mounting brackets to the head unit.

Being me, I managed to absolutely butcher these while trying to unscrew them, even when using a correctly sized crosshead bit. I didn't even apply much force; the fixing shoulders just deformed and tore like they were made of cheese at even the slightest pressure.

After a brief bout of swearing, I noticed that these were actually 8mm bolts with an additional crosshead, and as such I probably should have started with a socket rather than a screwdriver... *sigh*.

Funnily enough, that did the trick okay.

'Right tool for right job' shocker.

Off it came.

Just in case any ICE pervs have a particular interest in the wiring specifics of the original Philips WH8403 Toyota head unit...

And on with the new JVC unit to the original cradle brackets - again, using the 8mm socket. Nice snug fit.

With the scent of victory in my nostrils (along with dust and foam fragments), all I had to do now was connect up the damn wiring.

It belatedly occurred to me that maybe I should have checked that I had the correct ISO adaptors first, rather than do all the hard fixing and then find out there was a problem (see back along this thread for all the fun* with the Lagunas and the Yaris on this exact point).

Despite never learning, this time my luck held and the cheapo eBay adaptor fitted just fine into the Toyota wiring loom, eventually making reasonable contact with the ISO socket from the JVC's leads. 

At this point, the permanent live feed caused the new unit to make all sorts of sudden and alarming motor noises, which made me jump because I'm a wuss.

I think the harness adaptor only cost me £3, including postage, through one of the larger online ICE sellers, so that wasn't bad going. I'm going to guess there's not massive demand for these in 2022, so they were effectively priced to clear.

I was also mildly gratified to find that the aerial socket fitted the plug without the need for further adaptors. I think this is the first time in my motoring career that I've lucked out in this way.

Of course, I've about half a dozen innie-to-outie and outie-to-innie aerial adaptors now, so I would have welcomed the opportunity to lose one from my case of assorted electrical doo-dahs.

And that, dear friends, was pretty much that. 

Reassembly being the reverse of removal proved astonishingly correct in this case, and the pod snicked back into the dashboard, I was especially chuffed that I managed not to drop either one of the bolts down into the bowels of the vents while trying to wrangle them back into place with the extension bar. Because that would have been pretty on-brand for me.

With the vent fascia clipped back firmly into place, along with a torch I could now see that there is indeed a clip which should be pulled downwards using a flat-bladed screwdriver, and then the whole thing could be drawn forward.

You'd think this might warrant a mention in the Haynes manual - or indeed, a steer that the entire fascia needed to come out rather than just the directional vents - but, apparently not. Maybe their mechanic dudes reckoned that since it was actually marked with actual words, it was blindingly obvious to anyone with eyes in their head - and therefore didn't require a mention in the text.

Clearly, I'm on a special level of stupid.

I clipped the vents back into place - again without dropping the little fins, which are barely held on by some very small push-on nubs.

So, the last thing was to pop the faceplate back on and prepare for the grand switch-on. The mayor was apparently unavailable, so I did it myself.

Yay. The unit powered up, giving me something of an Eye of Sauron vibe.

A bit of riffling through the instruction manual told me how to switch off the somewhat distracting 'demo mode', and then how to programme in the radio station presets.

And there we have it. Sound and (a bit of) vision.

The Haynes Book Of Lies went back into the glovebox, in disgrace.

Later on, I went grubbing through some of the boxes still lying round from the house move, and managed to turn up a CD copy of Fatboy Slim's 'On The Floor At The Boutique' mix album, so I can confirm that the CD functionality is working just fine.

The 3.5mm minijack auxiliary port also allows me to hook up my iPod or my phone, further enhancing my ability to broadcast what MrsDC reliably informs me is shockingly poor musical taste.

And, in a thrilling finale, I even opened the bonnet and sorted out the faulty headlight bulb.

Turns out that the previous bulb must have been installed incorrectly - I replaced the blown one in exactly the same position (as it's impossible to see the aperture, and I had to go by feel), but it needed to be rotated by about 60 degrees to fit the splines into the headlight shell and allow the retaining clip to slot back into place.

It really shouldn't be this difficult... so I'm hoping that by starting small, at the bottom again, I might be able to work my way up to doing more complex spannering tasks once more. Like adding screenwash and changing the wiper blades.

Only I'd better get that bar raised pretty quickly, as the Yaris is due its MOT next month and has both a blowing exhaust and brakes that don't seem quite right...

 

[NOTE: finally finished after Chrome pulled the plug twice and lost my text, so apologies for the disjointed nature of the above.]

[hairnet]

put doyn the potato

not gonna be chromes fault is it

 

[Datsuncog]

On 7/10/2022 at 6:45 PM, hairnet said:

not gonna be chromes fault is it

Well, dunno if it's Chrome's fault or the forum software's fault, but having spoken to the techies on here there is a known instability at play - when I'm trying to upload a picture, about one in ten times Chrome crashes on me and shuts down the app completely. When I open it back up again, my post's gone.

Clicking back into the thread and starting a new comment usually restores the text and images, but sometimes it only brings part of the text back, and other times it's all gone completely.

This was why I had to stop doing my pic-heavy 'Live At The Tat Market' posts on Friday, cos it just got too annoying to lose the lot due to a glitch time and time again. I preferred using Firefox as a browser, but that integrates even more poorly with the current forum software so I had to sack it off entirely.

I just hate rewriting stuff cos I can never remember what I'd originally written, and it loses any off-the-cuff stabs at attempted wit... then I wish I'd never started... so yeah. That's my excuse why the above reads as rather more crap and boring than I'd originally intended.

[LightBulbFun]

9 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Well, dunno if it's Chrome's fault or the forum software's fault, but having spoken to the techies on here there is a known instability at play - when I'm trying to upload a picture, about one in ten times Chrome crashes on me and shuts down the app completely. When I open it back up again, my post's gone.

Clicking back into the thread and starting a new comment usually restores the text and images, but sometimes it only brings part of the text back, and other times it's all gone completely.

This was why I had to stop doing my pic-heavy 'Live At The Tat Market' posts on Friday, cos it just got too annoying to lose the lot due to a glitch time and time again. I preferred using Firefox as a browser, but that integrates even more poorly with the current forum software so I had to sack it off entirely.

I just hate rewriting stuff cos I can never remember what I'd originally written, and it loses any off-the-cuff stabs at attempted wit... then I wish I'd never started... so yeah. That's my excuse why the above reads as crap and boring.

 

yeah the Forum software is utter garbage

nothing the mods can do about it sadly, as its a problem with the underlying forum software, and thats bought in as a whole package

but its still frustrating as hell LOL

my "favourite" bug is the one where while typing it glitches out so it highlights about half of your existing post, and of course since your typing it gets overwritten right away

and even if your able to control/cmd Z it to bring it back (if your lucky), its still premaritally highlighted and wont go away, unless you completely click off of the browser, click into another window, then click back into the text box, where it will then suddenly show the glitched highlighting, which you can then click at some random point to un highlight it

 

I even managed to catch it and screen record it at one point  

 

 

[Split_Pin]

Surely the mods shouldn't just accept this and get on the phone to the provider? A developer should easily be able to sort the bug.

[crad]

On 7/10/2022 at 6:15 PM, Datsuncog said:

With limited options, I decided to employ my Useful Tool.

Bonus points if anyone can guess what these things are actually sold as. They cost less than a pound, tend to get used in most of my DIY projects at some stage - and this one was fresh from digging weeds out from in between the paving slabs at the back of the house before pivoting to a new role as hi-tech stereo removal tool.

Mmm, versatile.

i believe that is a hoof pick if i'm not mistaken?

[RoadworkUK]

I'm not sure whether it's just an indictment of how dull and predictable my life is, but I found that installation journey genuinely exciting.

[hairnet]

can ya get down town on it now?

[AnnoyingPentium]

On 7/10/2022 at 6:15 PM, Datsuncog said:

The aftermarket JVC unit came with a lightly bent DIN cage

Yeah that was my fault. It came out of my Grampa's Swift Challenger caravan when he got one of those ICE units with USB. However, the fake wood/chipboard panelling held this bastard in and wouldn't let go. There may still have been chipboard still stuck to that cage too, but I may have picked most of it off. 🤣

[Datsuncog]

2 hours ago, crad said:

i believe that is a hoof pick if i'm not mistaken?

Ding ding ding!

Correct, it is indeed a hoof pick, available from any equine store for about 95p - also good for levering the lids off paint tins, and when laying laminate flooring up against a wall. It's a handy and inexpensive general-purpose tool to have; very useful on this occasion too!

 

1 hour ago, RoadworkUK said:

I'm not sure whether it's just an indictment of how dull and predictable my life is, but I found that installation journey genuinely exciting.

Heh, glad you enjoyed anyway! It's not really much of a technical feat - and I'm not sure why I decided to document it in such excruciating depth - but I tend to replace the stereo units in most of my cars, and somehow it motivated me more into doing it as a guide for others than just doing it for myself... 

 

1 hour ago, hairnet said:

can ya get down town on it now?

Yes indeed - although if I go a few miles down the road it morphs into Cool FM, on the same frequency...

 

1 hour ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Yeah that was my fault. It came out of my Grampa's Swift Challenger caravan when he got one of those ICE units with USB. However, the fake wood/chipboard panelling held this bastard in and wouldn't let go. There may still have been chipboard still stuck to that cage too, but I may have picked most of it off. 🤣

Heh, it's not a bother - it's nigh-on impossible to remove a DIN cage without distorting it, if it was fitted properly the first time. I formerly had a Blaupunkt Calgary CD unit that I'd swapped between nine different cars, so you can imagine the state that was in!

Sadly the Blaupunkt's CD carrier stopped working after twelve years, and I replaced it with a new Pioneer mechless unit boasting iPod compatibility. However, it only gave me about twelve months of use before it developed an intermittent power fault, and then packed in completely soon after - which was a bit shit.

Even if the DIN cage on the JVC had been like new, I think I still would have bolted the unit directly into the original cradle - just seems a more secure way of fixing it in. I've had a few cars where brisk acceleration has resulted in the head unit sliding out of the dash and swinging around, and it's not really that great...

[Datsuncog]

I should probably also mention that within about ten minutes of hooking up the iPod to the JVC unit, selecting 'bass boost' and turning the volume up to overcome the wind noise of the roofbars at motorway speed, the back speakers were buzzing mightily... so a replacement set of speakers might not be a bad idea.

Generally OEM speakers use the cruddiest paper cones imaginable, so anything aftermarket will probably be an improvement.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

At least it's not the stereo 'fitting' that I did in my Ford Ka aged about 19.  Dodgy stereo from a mate.  No wiring loom adapter and no money.  All I needed was some time, electrical tape and several spare fuses until I worked out which wire did what (I ended up blowing three).  Your installation is clearly of outstanding quality.

[AnnoyingPentium]

3 hours ago, Datsuncog said:

I should probably also mention that within about ten minutes of hooking up the iPod to the JVC unit, selecting 'bass boost' and turning the volume up to overcome the wind noise of the roofbars at motorway speed, the back speakers were buzzing mightily... so a replacement set of speakers might not be a bad idea.

Generally OEM speakers use the cruddiest paper cones imaginable, so anything aftermarket will probably be an improvement.

If they're 10cm then the Pioneer TS-GF110s I have are class.

[Datsuncog]

I'll have to prise the covers off and take a look, but that's good to have a recommendation, cheers!

[Datsuncog]

Well, with the Corolla largely behaving itself, the other Toyota has made it known that it wants some attention too.

Yup, the exhaust's rotted out of the Yaris again - resulting in a somewhat fruity rasp which hints at entirely inaccurate sporting pretensions.

So, with its MOT booked for August, I roused it from its slumbers and took it down to a local fast-fit place at lunchtime so they could see which offending item was making all the fuss.

Typically, the original exhaust in this thing lasted for over ten years - but ever since then, it's reliably gobbled a new back box or centre pipe every two years or so.

There was also some godawful rasping coming from down around the hubs, indicating that the brakes have not spontaneously fixed themselves since February. Shocker.

So, in the spirit of making the problems go away (which I'm very much in favour of, these days), I asked them to see what else it needs, brake-wise.

Twenty minutes or so up on the ramps indicated that both the back box and centre section of the exhaust are holed, and also the lambda sensor looks pretty crusty.

Meanwhile, the front discs are heavily pitted with corrosion, and the pads are nearly down to the metal on one side.

So they quoted me around £100 for each of the exhaust pieces, plus £130 for a new set of discs and pads - "plus the VAT" - so we're talking about £450 to supply and fit those bits.

There was a bit of hemming and hawing about the lambda sensor. While there's nothing seemingly wrong with it right now, it's old and they can't guarantee that the act of removing it from the section of exhaust just below the manifold won't irretrievably banjax it. Not only are they not sure exactly which one is fitted this car, but they retail at £120 - £180 a throw depending on type - "plus the VAT" - and not all of them are available from their supplier.

Ah great. You may recall that it was an unobtainium lambda sensor that fed into the demise of the Outback, being a part which was deemed Very Expensive even if one could be found - but would need to be swapped in the first instance, if there was to be a hope of tracing the EML woes and determining whether the engine was borked or not. And that was before the rust was discovered...

Oh, and the fast-fit place also advised that the sidewalls on the rear tyres are cracking.

I'd thought they were a fairly recent pair of Michelin Green Xs fitted by the same outfit - but now that I've checked the manufacturing date code, I can see that the buggers are actually nine years old. In a way, this is the problem with keeping a car long term... Most of mine avoid this problem by, erm, giving me other problems.

Still plenty of tread left on them, but I'm not sure the MOT tester will be best pleased with the shoulders on these.

On the way home, I swung past the Mechanic of Choice - who currently has an eight-week backlog to even look at anything. So that's that out.

Inevitably, there followed a bit of a chat with MrsDC on my return, as I'm beginning to wonder if Hard Choices need to be made. While it's been a reliable wee thing - outliving twelve of my cars - it's also 17 years old and has led a fairly hard existence, scrabbling the mean streets of Belfast. Having clocked up 115k miles, the unprecedented times of past few years have led to its use dropping from a very average 10k a year to less than 2k - which has led to a lot of time sitting around unused for months at a stretch, while the exhaust rots and the discs corrode.

And, far be it for me to preach, but it's looking increasingly rough. And I'm becoming mildly alarmed about some of the brown streaks appearing at various points...

But, she's adamant that she wants to keep a second car running - even though it's rare nowadays that we're using both at the same time. With used car prices still silly, there's no way we could get another car for what it would take to (hopefully) fix this one. She also has a general breakdown and repair fund which hasn't needed to be dipped into much, as the wee thing just keeps on going, so - the necessary repairs have been authorised.

I kinda feel like I should be stepping in and mechanicking it back to health, but I'm not sure I can deal with the brakes on this thing again. No, actually I am sure. I just can't.

I'll be dropping it down to Magowan's tomorrow morning, and crossing everything I can conceivably cross that the lambda sensor comes off in one piece.

And I've ordered up an oil collection pan, to give it a much-needed oil and filter change at the weekend.

And I probably need to crack out the Colgate and have a go at de-blearifying the n/s headlight lens.

After that, it's kinda in the lap of the gods...

[Datsuncog]

Yaris dropped off.

I was going to give it a wash, but then I thought I'd wait and see how the sensor issue pans out before spending good money on soap...

[junkyarddog]

Brakes,tyres and to a lesser extent the exhaust are pretty much consumable items,all cars will need them so even a replacement for the Yaris will invariably need them again at some point.

Best just keep what you have going for as long as possible,plus those little Toyota's are tough,just keep it until it dies.

[beko1987]

If it passes/gets fixed etc then maybe an afternoon with some rust converter and the correct* shade of touch up paint? 

[320touring]

If it were me, I'd do an inspection of the sills and floors and see how it looks. Anything that moves under finger pressure I would be suspicious of.

 

That done, I'd weigh up what margin I had in it - by that I mean "how much can I spend before it becomes cheaper to buy another car"

An MOT'd Yaris is what? £1000-1200?

Less the exhaust and a couple of tyres and brakes..

Realistically you'd be able to spend £300ish on welding and still be ahead?

[Back_For_More]

As above..... The cost of repair against the cost of replacement PLUS the ballache of hunting classifieds and dealing in that end of the market..... No brainer really. 

If you do get rid - you could always ask D Spares if he's interested - his family races these and are always on the lookout 😁

[Datsuncog]

Naturally, I left y'all hanging on this one last month...

On 7/19/2022 at 5:17 PM, Datsuncog said:

Well, with the Corolla largely behaving itself, the other Toyota has made it known that it wants some attention too.

Yup, the exhaust's rotted out of the Yaris again - resulting in a somewhat fruity rasp which hints at entirely inaccurate sporting pretensions.

So, with its MOT booked for August, I roused it from its slumbers and took it down to a local fast-fit place at lunchtime so they could see which offending item was making all the fuss.

Typically, the original exhaust in this thing lasted for over ten years - but ever since then, it's reliably gobbled a new back box or centre pipe every two years or so.

There was also some godawful rasping coming from down around the hubs, indicating that the brakes have not spontaneously fixed themselves since February. Shocker.

So, in the spirit of making the problems go away (which I'm very much in favour of, these days), I asked them to see what else it needs, brake-wise.

Twenty minutes or so up on the ramps indicated that both the back box and centre section of the exhaust are holed, and also the lambda sensor looks pretty crusty.

Meanwhile, the front discs are heavily pitted with corrosion, and the pads are nearly down to the metal on one side.

So they quoted me around £100 for each of the exhaust pieces, plus £130 for a new set of discs and pads - "plus the VAT" - so we're talking about £450 to supply and fit those bits.

There was a bit of hemming and hawing about the lambda sensor. While there's nothing seemingly wrong with it right now, it's old and they can't guarantee that the act of removing it from the section of exhaust just below the manifold won't irretrievably banjax it. Not only are they not sure exactly which one is fitted this car, but they retail at £120 - £180 a throw depending on type - "plus the VAT" - and not all of them are available from their supplier.

Ah great. You may recall that it was an unobtainium lambda sensor that fed into the demise of the Outback, being a part which was deemed Very Expensive even if one could be found - but would need to be swapped in the first instance, if there was to be a hope of tracing the EML woes and determining whether the engine was borked or not. And that was before the rust was discovered...

Oh, and the fast-fit place also advised that the sidewalls on the rear tyres are cracking.

I'd thought they were a fairly recent pair of Michelin Green Xs fitted by the same outfit - but now that I've checked the manufacturing date code, I can see that the buggers are actually nine years old. In a way, this is the problem with keeping a car long term... Most of mine avoid this problem by, erm, giving me other problems.

Still plenty of tread left on them, but I'm not sure the MOT tester will be best pleased with the shoulders on these.

On the way home, I swung past the Mechanic of Choice - who currently has an eight-week backlog to even look at anything. So that's that out.

Inevitably, there followed a bit of a chat with MrsDC on my return, as I'm beginning to wonder if Hard Choices need to be made. While it's been a reliable wee thing - outliving twelve of my cars - it's also 17 years old and has led a fairly hard existence, scrabbling the mean streets of Belfast. Having clocked up 115k miles, the unprecedented times of past few years have led to its use dropping from a very average 10k a year to less than 2k - which has led to a lot of time sitting around unused for months at a stretch, while the exhaust rots and the discs corrode.

And, far be it for me to preach, but it's looking increasingly rough. And I'm becoming mildly alarmed about some of the brown streaks appearing at various points...

But, she's adamant that she wants to keep a second car running - even though it's rare nowadays that we're using both at the same time. With used car prices still silly, there's no way we could get another car for what it would take to (hopefully) fix this one. She also has a general breakdown and repair fund which hasn't needed to be dipped into much, as the wee thing just keeps on going, so - the necessary repairs have been authorised.

I kinda feel like I should be stepping in and mechanicking it back to health, but I'm not sure I can deal with the brakes on this thing again. No, actually I am sure. I just can't.

I'll be dropping it down to Magowan's tomorrow morning, and crossing everything I can conceivably cross that the lambda sensor comes off in one piece.

And I've ordered up an oil collection pan, to give it a much-needed oil and filter change at the weekend.

And I probably need to crack out the Colgate and have a go at de-blearifying the n/s headlight lens.

After that, it's kinda in the lap of the gods...

 

On 7/20/2022 at 8:58 AM, Datsuncog said:

Yaris dropped off.

I was going to give it a wash, but then I thought I'd wait and see how the sensor issue pans out before spending good money on soap...

Sorry, management can accept no responsibility for sleepless nights, bitten fingernails or any other symptoms of nervous exhaustion brought on by my utter negligence in updating this thread in a timely manner, after leaving it on a cliffhanger.

So. Where were we?

Well, nearly a month ago Magowan's replaced the full exhaust system on the Yaris (including the front section containing the lambda sensor mounting, which I believe was still the original factory part), both the cracked rear tyres, and fitted new discs and pads at the front.

For this, MrsDC raided her piggy bank to the tune of £540 - agreed, all these things are consumables, and it's down to the fact that the car's barely managed 2,000 miles a year since the Pandemic hit that all these bits suddenly need attended to at once.

Most of these miles have been clocked up while my various Subarus were misbehaving for a month or more; there have been times when it hasn't turned a wheel for months at a stretch, so corroded discs and rotted-out silencers aren't exactly a shock. Just an annoyance.

So on collection from the fast-fit place the car sounded a lot less fruity when moving off, and a lot less grindy when coming to a halt.

So that's good.

Unfortunately, the slight rattle which was sometimes audible when accelerating up a hill or taking a sweeping right-hand corner in a spirited manner had now blossomed into a full-blown handful-of-bolts-in-a-cement-mixer kinda death rattle, which I'm interpreting as the nearside universal joint entering its final phase on this mortal plane. Probably hastened by the injudicious use of some ugga duggas while removing/ replacing wheels and discs.

Mmm. Fast-fitters gonna fast-fit.

So that's bad.

A quick perusal of the HBoL indicated that UJs on a Mk1 Yaris aren't renewable independently of the driveshaft, so that's a moderately involved piece of work (for a handless idiot like moi).

It also mentioned that Yaris driveshafts for the 1.0 lump come in a number of different varieties, and the chassis number would be needed to order in the correct part.

As I've literally never got the right part for this car first time for any job (water pump, drive belts, spark plugs, oil sensors - all radically different from whatever the motor factor's systems claimed would fit, even when referencing the chassis number), this was unwelcome news. And I'd sooner not realise this on the driveway, while the front end's hanging off.

However, after a few more miles the bucket o' bolts noise lessened back to just the occasional rattle - but still, Something Must Be Done.

So I changed the oil.

Yeah, I'm a bit ashamed of this, to be honest. The oil on this car was last changed in December 2018; I meant to change it a year later but didn't because it was very cold out and I'm a massive wuss, so I thought I'd wait until spring; and then the world went to shit in mid-March 2020 and the Yaris wasn't used at all, because we were going nowhere. So I did bog-all with it.

After an astounding amount of procrastination, the needful items were finally assembled...

Tell me you haven't changed the oil on your cars for years without telling me you haven't changed the oil on your cars for years.

In preparation for this momentous day, I did treat myself to a goodly-sized oil pan from eBay; rather than getting better at oil changes with experience, I seem to have only got worse.

The last time I dropped the oil on this car, I dropped it absolutely everywhere.

Yeah. Quite surprised Greenpeace didn't designate me a one-man rogue nation after that mess.

So, up the ramps... oh, yeah. That's right.

I'd forgotten the front lip on this car hits my secondhand Paddy Hopkirk ramps before the tyre makes contact with it, so rather than lifting the front end I generally end up nudging them gently up and down the driveway for an hour or so first.

What larks.

A couple of spare breezeblocks came to my rescue, and up we went.

Under the bonnet was... uninspiring.

Dusty.

And rusty.

Urgh.

So, in with some magic snake oil to atone for three and a half years of neglect...

And out with my 'L'il Cheapass' budget toolset, last used in anger during my doomed attempts to get the front drop links off the Outback late last year.

In the rain.

Great.

The sump nut came off without too much screaming and swearing, and the oil pan's cherry was soon popped.

Smooth.

Ish.

Definitely less environmentally ruinous than before, mind.

I'd had some concerns about the ease with which the oil filter might come off, but in the end it was remarkably straightforward, with the right tool.

Having used all manner of straps, clamps and bands over the years, I still find this ratchet tension chain to be the best way to get a recalcitrant oil filter off.

I'm sure I've owned it over twenty years now, it horrifies me to realise. I think I bought it while I had my Mk2 Fiesta, after I had to hammer a screwdriver through the rusted-on filter to budge it.

I also appreciated the recessed ledge around the edge of the oil pan, allowing the filter to drain fully while I got on with fannying about measuring out the new stuff.

Sump plug back on and torqued up to spec.

Golden syrup.

YUM.

Glorp glorp.

Of course, 0.025 seconds after pressing the shutter for the above pic, the funnel couped and I poured the oil all over the sodding engine block.

At least the act of cleaning up the spill with a rag made the engine look all shiny.

Three-and-a-bit litres of 5w/30 fully synthetic (plus the angels' share) looked good on the dipstick.

And I even remembered to put the oil filler cap back on. Because I've definitely never forgotten to do that, then driven down to Killyleagh all the while wondering what was happening with all that blue smoke coming out from the bonnet. Never.

At least the new place has significantly better space to work at cars than the old place. Just having a garage close to hand - rather than traipsing up and down the garden to and from the shed - is a bit of a game-changer.

Didn't stop me making a bit of a mess trying to empty the oil pan into the waste oil container, mind, but at least it wipes off the epoxy-painted garage floor with ease. Glad I did that job the first weekend we moved in.

Oil = CHANGED.

I know. FFS. It's hardly a big deal - but it felt like it.

[Datsuncog]

So then the next item on the pre-MOT agenda was trying to sort the bleary old headlights.

The nearside one's the worst, as it's the car's original lamp (the other having been replaced after being smashed with a beer bottle by some rowdy students back in 2009, much to our annoyance).

I'd previously used one of those little sanding pad kits that fits onto a drill to polish up the Forester's plastic lenses and it looked ace - for about a month. And yes - I did use the UV-resistant clear coat as directed, but it still went cloudy again pretty fast. Probably my own fault for buying a cheapie £5 kit online.

So, given that other people have claimed success using toothpaste on light lenses, and that MrsDC holds Stardrops' Pink Stuff in high regard for abrasively cleaning anything, I thought I'd have a crack with it.

After about half an hour of intensive rubbing like some sort of automotive genie-summoner, there was... no discernible difference.

Maybe a little less yellow? But still pretty cloudy. Meh.

It did smell nice, though.

I meant to go and get myself a proper headlight restoration kit, but local motor factors only seemed to stock the AutoGlym branded ones for £££HFM?

And then MOT day was upon me before my inevitable (cheap) eBay special kit made it off the slow boat from China... so...

The day of doom dawned last Friday.

I vacuumed out the biohazard interior, removing all the bits of broken plasterboard and old banana skins, but didn't actually go as far as washing the exterior. There are limits.

I checked the lights, but it was really hard to tell if they were working as expected since it was super-sunny and painfully bright out.

So I sloped up to the Larne DVA Test Centre, scene of quite a few unhappy episodes in the past.

Although there in good time, they kept me waiting in Lane 2 for a fair while, while other cars came and went in Lane 3.

Because PLAGUE, drivers aren't allowed in the vehicle test area anymore, which suits me just dandy. Normally you have to sit alongside the tester in the passenger seat and attempt stilted small-talk while they grunt and make unhappy noises as they stamp on the brakes and rev the shit out of your car and all the rest, like the world's shittest and most awkward theme park ride and then, as a finale, get ushered to an uncomfortable chair at the edge of the ramp area to watch them tenderly* knock a load of rust off the underside with a lump hammer.

Which is why MrsDC now always sends me to get her car tested.

So after the Yaris vanished through the Doors Of Doom, I got to wait out the front in the 27°c heat (hey, c'mon, that's warm for these parts), albeit with an ice-cold Lemon Fanta from a vending machine in the test centre lobby.

Perhaps predictably, when the tester re-emerged the news was not quite stellar - although, it was probably at the rather better end of the fail chart.

Okay, so the headlight beams were difficult to measure owing to the cloudiness of the lenses. The tester's view was that it should be grand if they were just given a good clean with a restoration kit.

Well, at least that's nothing I didn't know about.

Fog light bulb? FFS, I'd checked that - and it appeared to be working. It's kinda a running joke that this car eats a bulb every MOT day, but it really does. Several times I've had to scramble to replace a tail light or sidelight bulb just as I'm setting off for the test, having checked them all the previous evening. Once it managed to lunch a brake light in the test centre which I'd confirmed as definitely working mere minutes before.

The brake pipes at the front weren't a total surprise - I'd had a bit of a squizz underneath the week before to check CV boots and brake lines, and I thought they looked ok - but apparently not.

Looking back over this thread, I realise that it was actually FOUR YEARS AGO that I had all the fun with the brake pipes on this car, and that while the rear pipes were professionally replaced, I'd merely tidied the fronts up with a Stanley knife, some wire wool and a bottle of Kurust.

There had then followed much agonising over whether I ought to paint or grease the cleaned pipes before or after presenting it for retest, and I'd opted to grease them afterwards, to avoid the tester thinking I was concealing anything beneath a thick smear of LM grease.

Yes, I definitely went back, took the wheels off and greased all the abraded pipes properly, immediately after getting the pass certificate in 2018.

That sounds exactly like the kind of sensible thing I'd definitely do.

🤡

"Aye, fair bit of rust on the front pipes there where they join the flexis - looks like someone's tried to clean them up before but not greased them; the metal looks pretty thin in places, so they'll definitely need replaced for the retest."

I tried to contort my features into a look of mild surprise.

"Oh, really... gosh... fancy that. Wow."

So. The tester was actually very pleasant, and let's be honest - an MOT on a seventeen year old car that's not been terribly well looked after could have been MUCH worse.

On arriving home, I pulled the fog light bulb and had a good look at it. The filament didn't appear broken, but there was indeed some mild corrosion around the contacts.

So I gave it a minor clean with a fine abrasive pad.

And guess what?

It still didn't work.

So I had a guddle in my cheapo Home Bargains bulb kit...

And, naturally, there was no spare 21w bulb in the kit.

So I toddled off to Halfords, and blew a whole £1.79 on a pair of fog light bulbs.

Success! One thing ticked off the repair list.

This left me with a spare bulb, so I went to put it in one of my little clicky cases where I keep all my various odds and ends.

At which point I realised that there was not one, not two, but a frankly ludicrous SIX individual 21w fog light bulbs already sitting there in the smegging case.

So now I've got seven of the buggers.

Will I remember that fact the next time I need a fog light bulb?

Will I bunnies...

So.

On Monday past, then, I rang the Mechanic of Choice and asked if he had any slots for some remedial MOT brake work.

I could almost hear the relief in his voice when he realised I wasn't trying to book in something with a Subaru badge.

So I left the Yaris down with him this morning, meaning to commemorate it with another photo - but I forgot to snap one.

I also asked him to maybe take it for a quick rake round the industrial estate and see if he can confirm that it's a CV joint/ driveshaft on the way out, and see if that's something he can sort at some stage soon.

I've currently got fingers, toes and most of my small intestine crossed that he won't find anything else rather more serious...

As ever, time will tell.

More to come, most likely!