What have you done to your car today?

Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,420
Location
In acme's chair.
False start, decided to replace the gearbox mounts because they are pretty roached.

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The rear gearbox mount is unobtainium, but I found something that looks close enough from a Daewoo that uses the same gearbox casing.

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Street

Street

Street

Soldato
Joined
17 Jan 2005
Posts
8,563
Location
Liverpool
Fitted a bit of engine bling at the weekend. I'm toying with the idea of getting a FMIC fitted so wanted these in case I decided to go for it. I wanted to fit the Forge silicone intake hose as well, but there's no place to plug the moisture sensor in on it and I've seen a few people say if it's disconnected it throws up an error and I didn't want to take that chance.
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Axeboy

Axeboy

Axeboy

Soldato
Joined
13 Nov 2002
Posts
5,255
Location
Scotland
Someone coming to view the Vito today, had a lot of interest, a car that I actually made money on, wow

Bad news is that the Impreza STI is still in Japan, shipping seems to be a big issue at the moment. Should leave for Newcastle soon though.

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Lopéz

Lopéz

Lopéz

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
29,104
Location
Ottakring, Vienna.
I live in an apartment, and not having anywhere to work on a car is turning out to be a massive pain.

It's not considered generally legal to work on a car in the street here, so I resorted to trying to find a quiet car park in an industrial area at the weekend so I could work in peace - and within five minutes of getting the car jacked up I had a busybody telling me what I was doing was illegal and that they would call the police if I didn't pack up and leave.

After some Googling, I managed to locate a couple of "Kfz Werkstatt" places - garages where you can hire a lift, and tools if you need them, by the hour.

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They're extremely busy and fairly cramped, but 13 Euros an hour is not too bad.
It can soon add up on a big job though.

Replaced:

Front discs
Front pads
Anti roll bar bushes
Top mounts
Front dampers
Front springs
Front wishbones

I still need to replace the sill, but these ramps are really inconvenient for that. I don't have much alternative though.
 

Cristian

Cristian

Cristian

Associate
Joined
2 Jan 2009
Posts
2,027
Location
London
13 Euros an hour is very good for having lift access, there's only one place in London that does that and it's £20+ VAT per hour...
Not my car but swapped all discs and pads on a friend's 520d over the weekend, those rear discs were fatory fitted and seized into oblivion but nothing a bolt and two nuts tightened through the caliper holder wouldn't sort.
 

adam cool dude

adam cool dude

adam cool dude

Caporegime
Joined
22 Oct 2002
Posts
27,088
Location
Boston, Lincolnshire
Might be best to try and find some old boy with a farm and a shed?

What about tinkering on a driveway is that frowned upon over there too? Tinkering for me at least is a massive relaxant and getaway from the day to day. Would hate it if I was unable to do it anymore.
 
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Lopéz

Lopéz

Lopéz

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
29,104
Location
Ottakring, Vienna.
adam cool dude said:
Might be best to try and find some old boy with a farm and a shed?

What about tinkering on a driveway is that frowned upon over there too? Tinkering for me at least is a massive relaxant and getaway from the day to day. Would hate it if I was unable to do it anymore.
Click to expand...
I live in a capital city - not many farms here unfortunately!

No driveway either:

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Apartments have underground parking, but it's very expensive (€150 pcm) and it's forbidden to work on a car in them. They don't have any power outlets either.

Washing your car in the street is illegal too, not that I could do that as I've no way of getting car washing quantities of water outside anyway :p
 
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Lopéz

Lopéz

Lopéz

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
29,104
Location
Ottakring, Vienna.
Cristian said:
13 Euros an hour is very good for having lift access, there's only one place in London that does that and it's £20+ VAT per hour...
Not my car but swapped all discs and pads on a friend's 520d over the weekend, those rear discs were fatory fitted and seized into oblivion but nothing a bolt and two nuts tightened through the caliper holder wouldn't sort.
Click to expand...
This is the one I use:

www.carwerk.at

CARWERK wien - unser Angebot

Bei CARWERK Wien bieten wir 13 Hebebühnen inkl. Werkzeugkasten zum Selber-schrauben an. Gleich Anmeldungsformular / Buchung nutzen. Diverses spezial Werkzeug, Öle & Zubehör sind bei uns zu finden. Sollte doch mal etwas nicht da sein, besrogen wir es gerne auf Bestellung.
www.carwerk.at www.carwerk.at

It's nowhere near as clean or well lit as it appears in the promo pictures unfortunately, but it has what you need, you can rent things like MIG welders for 10 Euros an hour etc. Some of the bigger tools you can use for free (spring compressors, big trolley jacks, oil syphon, hydraulic stands and jacks for lifting axles/anti roll bars etc into place. The bloke who's on duty when I go doesn't speak a word of English but I manage my way through interactions with rough German.
Unfortunately it's a 30 minute drive away ,and sometimes there are no places free - but it's definitely better than nothing.

I tried this one : https://www.kfz-hobbycenter.at/ but it's insanely cramped, you have to work almost touching backs to the person on the next ramp, and it's very very busy every time I have been - queues of 5-10 people literally standing waiting for you to finish. Aggravatingly it's also a 30 minute drive away, but in the opposite direction :D Again it looks very spacious in the images but it's a trick of the lens, like when you look at estate agent pictures of houses.
 
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Cristian

Cristian

Cristian

Associate
Joined
2 Jan 2009
Posts
2,027
Location
London
Lopéz said:
This is the one I use:

www.carwerk.at

CARWERK wien - unser Angebot

Bei CARWERK Wien bieten wir 13 Hebebühnen inkl. Werkzeugkasten zum Selber-schrauben an. Gleich Anmeldungsformular / Buchung nutzen. Diverses spezial Werkzeug, Öle & Zubehör sind bei uns zu finden. Sollte doch mal etwas nicht da sein, besrogen wir es gerne auf Bestellung.
www.carwerk.at www.carwerk.at

It's nowhere near as clean or well lit as it appears in the promo pictures unfortunately, but it has what you need, you can rent things like MIG welders for 10 Euros an hour etc. Some of the bigger tools you can use for free (spring compressors, big trolley jacks, oil syphon, hydraulic stands and jacks for lifting axles/anti roll bars etc into place. The bloke who's on duty when I go doesn't speak a word of English but I manage my way through interactions with rough German.
Unfortunately it's a 30 minute drive away ,and sometimes there are no places free - but it's definitely better than nothing.

I tried this one : https://www.kfz-hobbycenter.at/ but it's insanely cramped, you have to work almost touching backs to the person on the next ramp, and it's very very busy every time I have been - queues of 5-10 people literally standing waiting for you to finish. Aggravatingly it's also a 30 minute drive away, but in the opposite direction :D Again it looks very spacious in the images but it's a trick of the lens, like when you look at estate agent pictures of houses.
Click to expand...

30 mins is very good, my London option is 1h drive each way in lovely London traffic.
That being said, I am always anxious when using it in case something goes wrong (a wire/ connector breaks, a bolt breaks, a part of something breaks and you have to order a replacement part waiting for days). You can try and pack as much as possible but it becomes such a faff.

A good example was when I replaced a balljoint on the Audi earlier this year... used a knuckle spreader, put the balljoint in and then as I was tightening it holding a 3/8 ratchet in the palm of my hand (there's only so much torque that could generate!) the balljoint recess snapped. There's no chance you're getting that moving from there, ordered a replacement knuckle online (of course there's multiple part numbers and variations of holes diameter for the same car) turned up with the wrong part first and only got it back on the road a week later. I dread to say what I'd have done with the car stuck on the lift somewhere that charges by the hour given how awkward sourcing the replacement was.
 
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Akagi

Akagi

Akagi

Caporegime
Joined
29 Jul 2011
Posts
36,420
Location
In acme's chair.
Added a few details, I'm treading water a little bit while someone is borrowing the pallet truck which I need before I can put the engine back in. :p

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Even gave the engine-less car a bath...

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The alternator on the car is the wrong one, and the alignment of the belt was way off, no idea how it wasn't causing issues, but it wasn't. Still, I decided to improve matters a little.

This is how misaligned it was before vs after:

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I had to cut the alignment tab thing off the top because it was in the way of it sitting straight...

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And here is a before and after of how it is mounted... The lug is threaded, so this was just nonsense:

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And if anyone can identify the alternator for me, you will earn one internet cookie! :p
Because I tried, and these numbers all seem meaningless.

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It also has "AMF1312" stamped on it. At least I think that is what it says...
 
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