Ask a Shiter

[Negative Creep]

My mechanic housemate has left a battery on charge with the cells exposed. Is this some sort of technique I'm unaware of?

[autofive]

just letting it breathe

[DSdriver]

Don't lean over it with a fag in you mouth or you'll blow your head off.

[Albert Ross]

My mechanic housemate has left a battery on charge with the cells exposed. Is this some sort of technique I'm unaware of?

 

Quite correct, hats off to the chap. Better than a resounding "BOOM" and a dented sink! (I only say this as I used to do all mine on the sink.... sod the washing up)

[autofive]

 

im having trouble removed the siezed bolts of out this essex manifold

 

any (relevant and useful) tips?

[DSdriver]

Stage 1: remove heads from bolts with cold chisel/grinder/file/laser

Stage 2: remove manifold

Stage three remove remnants of bolts

Draper stud extractors

+

[Negative Creep]

My mechanic housemate has left a battery on charge with the cells exposed. Is this some sort of technique I'm unaware of?

 

Quite correct, hats off to the chap. Better than a resounding "BOOM" and a dented sink! (I only say this as I used to do all mine on the sink.... sod the washing up)

 

 

Fair enough. Only ever seen a car battery explode once and that was whilst it was in a car. Luckily it was with the bonnet closed

[Father Ted]

Does anyone have any idea if its possible to re-fit the seat runners on my car (K11 Micra) so that I can get an extra 6" of legroom?

[autofive]

Stage 1: remove heads from bolts with cold chisel/grinder/file/laser

Stage 2: remove manifold

Stage three remove remnants of bolts

Draper stud extractors

+

 

 

i used these:

 

 

 

[DSdriver]

Result!

sometimes spanners just aren't enough

I take it that once the manifold was off the remains of the bolts realised the game was up and surrendered quietly?

 

Edit:

A drill chuck can make a good alternative to stud extractors (remove it from the drill first obviously) especially if a stilson is applied.

[autofive]

Result!

sometimes spanners just aren't enough

I take it that once the manifold was off the remains of the bolts realised the game was up and surrendered quietly?

 

Edit:

A drill chuck can make a good alternative to stud extractors (remove it from the drill first obviously) especially if a stilson is applied.

 

 

yes, a quick spray of the threads with wd40, a tap with a mash hammer and then molegrips had them moving straight away

 

(and being serenaded by scary on the guitar helped, obviously)

[myglaren]

Last night my eldest swapped her Civic for an 03 Astra.

This evening she came round after work and all her dashboard lights were flashing at around 1HZ.

 

Anyone have any theories why?

 

We did bugger around with it a bit and discovered that:

A) the motor for the headlamp vertical alignment buzzes but nothing seems to happen.

The lights stop flashing when a door is opened and the interior lights come on.

C) The foglight switch flashes alarmingly when pressed but the foglights (rear) don't illuminate.

 

I have never had a Vauxhall so it is all a bit of a mystery.

[Cavcraft]

New one one me too, but sounds like a dodgy earth.

[myglaren]

Thanks Billy, will delve into that.

I'm thinking the same of mine for the poor starting.

[barefoot]

My Scirocco 1.6GT (manual) keeps coming up everywhere as a 1.6GT AUTO.

The V5 is wrong, has been since I have owned it & appears to have been like that since ever.

Is this likely to be a problem?

Can I just scribble out auto & write manual & post V5 back to Swansea?

Or is it more complicated than that?

If so, what should I do?

[dieselnutjob]

This sounds like total BS to me but see what you think. Someone my wife works with broke down this morning in her Fiat Panda on the A12 when the car ran out of water, It turns out the oil filter hadn't been fitted right and it had been leaking all over a coolant pipe, corroding it and making it piss it's contends everywhere.

 

The man from the AA turned up and told her that she'll be ok as her car is a diesel and that you don't need water as much, if it was a petrol then it would be a different story as her engine would seize.

 

Now i would have thought water is equally important in a diesel as it is in a petrol engine, right?.

 

A diesel definitely takes longer to warm up, so maybe they make less heat. Certainly many years ago my wife drove around in her Seat Toledo 1.9D all day with no water pump belt on it, and ignoring the warning lights. It had hardly any water at all left in it but after refilling and a new belt it was fine.

Also a colleague tried to cook his Mondeo TDCI or whatever a few years ago. He told me that it went to reduced power mode and then finally cut out completely, but wasn't permanently damaged. It's as if the ECU was protecting the engine.

 

On the other hand an air lock cost me a new head gasket (but no head warpage) on my sister's 309 diesel.

[Cavcraft]

Thanks Billy, will delve into that.

I'm thinking the same of mine for the poor starting.

 

Just found this on the interwebz....

 

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/ ... tm?t=82927

 

and this...

 

http://www.astraownersnetwork.co.uk/sho ... hp?t=53892

 

Both of which seem to suggest an alternator fault.

[myglaren]

Thanks Billy.

The symptoms are not quite the same though.

All the dash lights flash regularly but the headlights are steady.

The washers, wipers and indicators have now taken on a life of their own.

She took it back to the guy she bought it from last night (actually took the cash to pay for it) but he wasn't back from London.

She's at work from 08:30 to 20:30 today then has a meeting in Newcastle until around midnight but we are taking it back tomorrow for him to sort out.

 

From what I have seen, it can be a key fault but she has used all three keys with the same problem - one key did fall to bits when he put her house keys on it so we thought it might be that but apparently not.

The other thing is whatever Vauxhall call the BSI or Com2000.

He has a Snap-On code reader so should be able to identify the problem.

[Cavcraft]

Ah, hopefully that will sort it then. Does the 'plipper' work on the key by the way? Not heard of key faults with thewse but doesn't mean it's not the cause. Hopefully the FCR will show the problem but if not you can score second hand keys for about a fiver on an internet auction site, then just find someone with the programme to chip to your car and you're laughing. My neighbour has it on his laptop and it works a treat.

[CIH]

This sounds like total BS to me but see what you think. Someone my wife works with broke down this morning in her Fiat Panda on the A12 when the car ran out of water, It turns out the oil filter hadn't been fitted right and it had been leaking all over a coolant pipe, corroding it and making it piss it's contends everywhere.

 

The man from the AA turned up and told her that she'll be ok as her car is a diesel and that you don't need water as much, if it was a petrol then it would be a different story as her engine would seize.

 

Now i would have thought water is equally important in a diesel as it is in a petrol engine, right?.

 

A diesel definitely takes longer to warm up, so maybe they make less heat. Certainly many years ago my wife drove around in her Seat Toledo 1.9D all day with no water pump belt on it, and ignoring the warning lights. It had hardly any water at all left in it but after refilling and a new belt it was fine.

Also a colleague tried to cook his Mondeo TDCI or whatever a few years ago. He told me that it went to reduced power mode and then finally cut out completely, but wasn't permanently damaged. It's as if the ECU was protecting the engine.

 

On the other hand an air lock cost me a new head gasket (but no head warpage) on my sister's 309 diesel.

 

How does oil make a coolant pipe corrode ?

[myglaren]

Ah, hopefully that will sort it then. Does the 'plipper' work on the key by the way? Not heard of key faults with thewse but doesn't mean it's not the cause. Hopefully the FCR will show the problem but if not you can score second hand keys for about a fiver on an internet auction site, then just find someone with the programme to chip to your car and you're laughing. My neighbour has it on his laptop and it works a treat.

 

Yes, the plippers both work fine.

Haven't heard from her today and the guy is awaiting the arrival of the Astra to diagnose and fix.

It was his brother's car and there were no reported faults other than a tiny dent in the rear NS door that he is going to fix when Annika can let him have the car for a couple of days.

She's off work tomorrow and I can take her and return her on Sunday. She can't use my car as it is physically too large for the parking spaces, she has a struggle getting the Astra in. That and the parking permission sticker that is car-specific. I could practically walk to work, it's only four miles (three on the footpath) and the bus stops at the bottom of my street, then 100 yds from work.

She wouldn't have it though, the size scares her - unlike her little sister with the Rover 75. She chucks my car around like it's a mini.

[myglaren]

Resolved

 

Car was fine all day yesterday but we still took it for it to be checked.

When we got there he'd found what the problem was - a loose relay under the dash making intermittent contact.

 

Cheap fix

 

Thanks for your advice though Billy.

[KruJoe]

@Scoots, I'm a bit late replying but thanks for the offer of BX headlights... I went down the route of the hot glue gun to re-attach the glass. (I warmed the glass on the wood burner first so it stayed warm enough to keep all the glue soft until I pressed it back together.) So far so good, I have been through the polish car wash and buzzed across many cattle grids since, and it seems to be fine. Touch wood...

[DSdriver]

Erm... just a thought... Wont the heat of the headlamps melt the glue gun wax?

[The Moog]

Took the volvo in to get the tyres swapped over at one of the back street places round here. I had just changed the brake discs and pads and as normal put some copper grease on it. I got a massive lecture by the polish tyre monkey about how I shouldnt ever do that as it will cause the brakes to fail.

 

Now is this bolloxs or have I been doing it wrong for the last 15 years?

[CreepingJesus]

He's talking nonsense. Copaslip on the back of the pads, and the hub face is perfectly ok.

[Albert Ross]

Why put it on the backing? It serves no purpose there. Better to be on the sliders. Copper grease is not meant to be used for ABS appplcations, a high heat resistant silicon grease should be used for that.

[ashmicro]

Copper grease on the pad backing was the only thing I could do to stop the pads in my mate's Avensis from squealing. The brakes worked just fine. I suspect that the supplied Apec "anti squeal shims" were poop.

[cort16]

The doors on my Alfa won't lock and the word on the street is, it's the stupid little micro switch inside the bonnet catch. In a classic bit of Alfa logic you can drive for 400 miles with the bonnet flapping about but when you get to your destination you can't lock the door. That'll learn you.

Anyway I can hear it click, see it engage etc but I still can't get the bugger to work. If I snipped the cables and put them together would this make the circuit and bypass the microswitch or does it need a specific resistance or something? I know -12 out of 5 about electrics so I'm really not sure.

[ashmicro]

Try it. The worst that can happen is you blow a fuse if it's more than just a I/O.