Bear's bangers: bearing up, but it's just another brick in the hall...

[Bear]

What's involved in making the best of a dishonest eBayer's crap?

A lot.

I couldn't refit that seat back - it's disgustingly rusted - so I've stripped the cover to wash, and dismantled all the plastics and things to effectively retrim the original seat frame.

Really can't believe this guy got the seats from the car he's breaking and just decided to keep the money and sell them instead of saying they were no good.

[Bear]

Aaaaaaaargh

Fucking washing machine mystery mishap.

I

am sick

of this car's interior.

Fetch me a lumphammer and an angle grinder.

[Bear]

(Whether I use them on the car or the person that sold me the interior is undecided but I am Very Angry and need to break something now).

[Bear]

That will have to do.

Not helped by another facebook messer with "can't you do it cheaper the clutch will cost to replace" "It is already £500 cheaper than similar examples, exactly how much cheaper did you want".

£350.

If that roffle doesn't sell, I an seriously just going to wreck this car. It has been such a distraction and thing that I cannot ignore or defocus from.

[Bear]

Seriously, replacing four seat covers base and back, rebuilding frames, everything involved. Ugh.

[Bear]

Shit! A Volvo crashed into my house!

I mean, I just get confused because I put my old carpet in the garage...

Time to do the front wheelbearings.

I had to evict the Boxster which gave me a shove to finish waxing it.

And finally vacuum the boot

It is such a nice shape

And that interior

Does make quite a difference.

But do I need two low black '90s sportscars?

Still. I wish the Apple IIgs would sell, because I don't want to sell this just to pay bills 😭

And where is that coolant leak hiding? WTF was the car up to! I am almost wondering if I spilled washer fluid and it just took a while to make it down to the front,  but I have topped up about 700ml of distilled water.

[Bear]

Long strut

Streeeeetch

P2 Volvo owner trigger warning

Meaty

I'm going to have to get the driveshaft out aren't I...

[Bear]

I still think the Porsche needs the 666 plate. Not sure about A4 on the Insight though.

Volvo certainly likes marking where it sits.

Which is currently the garage since I need A Tool to deal with the wheelbearings.

[Bear]

Right, so, Volvo XC70 P2 front wheel bearing. It's a module one so doesn't need a press or other shenanigans to change, but that doesn't mean Volvo want it to be easy.

Removing the caliper and disc is straightforward enough - I just undid the two caliper bolts and tied it up on the coil spring. But the bolts securing the hub unit are fed from behind and recessed/obscured by the driveshaft, so the driveshaft has to come out.

The new unit came with new stretch bolt for this task, and it has 13mm. 13mm didn't fit the original, but when I put the 14mm on the impact driver, I got a chewed up bolt in return. I should have persevered with the 13mm perhaps.

The chewed up bolt was dealt with by ordering this from Amazon: Thinkwork 32-piece impact bolt extractor set (£45.99)

There are cheaper sets with fewer sizes, obviously I only needed one... but I like to be ready.

I already had the steering angled right to do the right wheel - since I was fairly sure this would help with driveshafts. It did. Undoing both strut bolts on @ruffgeezer's recommendation over undoing the balljoint a lot of places suggest, removing the upper bolt and letting the knuckle swing down and back on the steering link and lower bolt kept everything connected but allowed enough travel and flex in the driveshaft to push it out and angle it out of the way.

Which meant I could get the socket and impact gun on a short extension and spin out the four bolts. Removing the hub did not require a puller - I tried the clever approach of leaving the bolts in loose and hitting them with a hammer, then missed and hit my hand with the hammer, at which point I got annoyed and smacked the disc side of the hub outwards with said tool.

That broke the rusty bond and then it removed easily. Note that attaching a slide hammer to it did NOT achieve this, it needed a direct impact. PITA. Or hand. I've yet to managed to miss something I'm hitting with a hammer and hit my own arse with a mallet.

Yes, I wirebrushed outside and cleaned up inside the carrier before fitting the new bearing. Lots of rust flakes and lots of dirt got released during this process, a marked contrast from the engine bay.

The hero. You only buy tools like this when you REALLY need them, at which point you need them to work, and damn it, it worked. Once I got the old driveshaft bolt out it's clear it will work again, too, rather than having chewed up itself and become useless with one job. And yes, you need the impact gun, it's sort of pointless trying to turn it with a ratchet.

Reassembly is the reverse, as the HBOL says. Put wheel hub in, fit the four bolts, torque to 20Nm, then 45Nm + 60 degrees, refit the driveshaft (I cleaned the splines, I wonder if I should have put some grease on but there didn't appear to be any when I took them off), fit the driveshaft bolt, torque to 35Nm + 90 degrees. I couldn't transfer the washer over, but I'm not convinced the new washer has any rubber compound - it felt like just a thick washer. Refit the two strut bolts, torque to 105Nm + 90 degrees.

Fit brake disc, fit caliper (100Nm for the two bolts to hub carrier), put wheel back on, marvel at the number of creaking noises the car makes as the suspension settles, 

A quick test drive suggests that the epic amount of wheelbearing noise was almost entirely down to this offside front one, so I'm not sure I need to do the nearside front after all - might do it anyway.

[ruffgeezer]

Fucking well done that man.  It's never fun when something seems to battle you then whole way.

[Bear]

It lost!

It sounds happier now, maybe only needed one side...

Relaxing with a film:

[Bear]

THE FIAT HAS GONE!

Admittedly I took £250 for it from some very excitable Romanians who arrived as a trio in a Zafira, the gangster wagon of choice for Chesterfield, but I do not care about the £350 loss (lies), I am just happy the bloody thing isn't here to annoy me anymore and I don't need to deal with magical vanishing enquiries.

Just to break my heart a bit more I missed a beautiful* 1999 yellow SLK on Facebook marketplace for £600. I called too late and it sold.

*not MOTd, rusty front wing, but 84,000 miles and looked unmodified and reminded me a lot of mine when I got it.

[Bear]

The Great Ground Lubricator can now occupy the drive,  and I can allow myself new Boxster tyres.