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[Webby the Bear]

I say technician in the loosest possible sense 

Anyway been wanting to put a diary of my jobs at work for a while and not got round to it. However today is that day 

I really enjoy this job. Yes it can be really really f.....g frustrating at times. But when you get through the tough jobs you feel like a man (as opposed to my old job where I shuffled paper round a desk).

You may see a theme with this diary. We've all got to a point where we are quite competitive with labour times. I love this. It's like an unwritten target. I know there are garages out there that have systems where you clock on / clock off jobs and you're given an "efficiency". Being a small independent garage we don't have this.

So there's one job I did a while ago now but it was lovely to do and lots of labour time  and i remembered to take photos so we will kick off with this and I'll then get on to today...

13 plate Astra J. LOTS of oil in the coolant. Spoke to Vauxhall and they have a very large amount of oil coolers they sell for this reason. I'm sure lots on here will be familiar with the v6 oil cooler failing. But this was a lot easier imo.

So to the job. Exhaust manifold removed. 8 or so nuts holding it on and three nuts affixing the cat to the centre section. And of course only being 4 years old thee was no rust in sight so they came off with ease. Once removed we see the oil cooler directly behind it......



There are a few securing bolts. A pipe that runs in to the back of the water pump. And the oil filter housing is all part of this unit. The unit removed....



The oil cooler itself bolts to this whole assembly (pictured removed in bottom right corner) and this gasket sealing it was fubar'd.

New gasket. New cooler (seen in pic). And all put back together. Coolant bled up and jobs a good 'un.

This may be controversial (I don't really care, it worked!) l cleaned the header tank and got as much shit out as possible. With the new coolant I stuck in 1/4 bottle of fairy liquid. The customer came back the following week for a full flush. And he was then sent off with a clean system and no oil in the coolant. Ahhhh that was a good job.

Anyways not to rest on ones laurels that brings us to today.....

For starters. MOT repairs on this dog...



2 coil springs, exhaust (done by someone else yesterday as it was my day off) and a reg. plate bulb holder.

Springs on these motors are about as easy as springs get. 3 x securing nuts on the strut tower with excellent access. Remove clip securing brake line to strut. Remove upper drop link nut. And then remove pinch bolt securing strut to the knuckle. I'm sure when Mr Haynes removes a strut on this car he undoes the bottom ball joint and removes drive shaft from the hub and THEN taps the knuckle down to free strut from its location in the knuckle. Well f..k that  copper hammer and minding the ABS sensor force the knuckle down and out pops your strut 

As you can see this spring was nackered.....



In this instance when the strut is putting zero tension on the spring I cut them. And in this particular case I was able to actually turn the spring and it moved its way down the strut and I just cut the pig tail to free it. Lovely jubbly 

New spring mounted in compressor....



A lot of the times you put the nut on and gun it up but the whole thing will spin with the shaft and won't tighten. In this instance I get the nut on by hand a few threads, release most of the compression from the, err, compressor. This puts tension on the spring vision the top mount and the bottom seating bit of the strut. And 9 times out of 10 your nut will tighten. If it doesn't I use unapproved OOF methods 

This is a great little tip when reassembling. Stick a fekking great chisel in the pinch part of the knuckle and make it slightly wider. Obviously don't go psycho. But the strut will slide in like butter...

[Webby the Bear]

I forgot to mention I had to do the 2 wheel tracking on this dog.

While it was on the ramp I took the opportunity to freedom the lock nuts. I find that the nuts most of the time come loose from the track rod end but the hardest part is getting the nut to move independently of the track rod. I like it to be like butter so I often brake out the fire...



Having one hand and heating up a jam nut whilst photographing it was a bit of a sod    but I held the flame with my arm whilst taking that photo with my right 

This torch can easily be beaten. We don't have oxy asceteline (spell check) but I usually find that this works. It just takes a few minutes if they're really frozen. 

So that's 2 hours labour and tracking. I then full serviced a corsa d. Nice n easy. That 3.5 hours with the tracking. I worked my lunch to get a bit of overtime  and then did an interim service on a 3008 Peugeot hybrid. I ain't going to bother taking photos of servicing but I felt the need to with this. Look at the stupid position of this canister oil filter... 



That is a long extension on my oil filter claw and you can't even see it it's that buried  only after I got the old one off and the new one did I realise that the oil filler pipe inc. the cap (in photo) unclips and when that's moved out the way you got a nice bit of access 😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩😩 live n learn  ps, I'm presuming those orange wires are bolted to the alternator for the electric power. Didn't really have time to look in to it. That was another hour 

So next job. Bit odd but nice and easy. Fiat Brava (or bravo  ). There's a plate at the side of the cylinder head and at the back of the cams. Secured with 5 nuts on studs. Was leaking oil. And the RAC man tried to fix it and decided to break one of the studs 

I removed the plate and saw that the stud still had a bit to grab on to. Got the grips and luckily it turned and came out after a while of turning. Fitted new stud using the "2 nut method "  sealed gasket to the plate using GSFs finest "sealing jizm" and slapped it back on. Topped up the oil. Job jobbed. The plate....



Sorry fir the crap photo but if anyone can tell me why there is this plate I'd be grateful as I'm a curious bear. Is it perhaps to get a rear cam lock tool in or summat 

At this point I'd have been happy to pack up my tools n go home. But not to be. I replaced a track rod and end on a Megan of 05 vintage. Sadly I forgot to take photos. But did that and got it tracked up. And then that was it. Although there was still enough time for a ghastly sight to rear its ugly head.....



I think Martin would be all over this 

That's in for MOT tomorrow. Along with some services. A wishbone on an MGTF. I'm steering well clear of that as I saw how rusty it is and I believe there are captive nuts inside the subframe holding the bolts in. I'm a wise old bear 

Hope u enjoyed this interlude. I enjoy recording my efforts. And it's nice to share. Any questions, hints or tips feel free to let me know 

[YZ250]

I remember the days when you asked inquisitive question after inquisitive question, genuinely trying to build up your knowledge bank. Now you are doing it for a living and obviously enjoying it.

Fair play to you young man. 

[Webby the Bear]

I remember the days when you asked inquisitive question after inquisitive question, genuinely trying to build up your knowledge bank. Now you are doing it for a living and obviously enjoying it.

Fair play to you young man. 

Haha. Thanks mate. I remember too. I found an old thread on here of mine. I was panicking and losing my shit over an air filter 

 

[Lazydocker]

With any Hybrid, don't touch anything bright Orange Playing with the HV Hybrid electric system will make your hair stand on end

[Webby the Bear]

Nah I know very little about them anyway so oil changes and brakes is about my limit on them 

[Varche]

Hats off to you Webby. I remember you embarking on this chapter.

There is a lot of job satisfaction doing work on vehicles. I dont think i could ever have done it for a living. Mine was always a matter of money as i couldnt afford to pay someone else.

Those heady days of Haynes manual "remove nut and seperate ball joint then..." twenty years of none removal equals lots of hammering.

I remember the first gearbox i took to bits. The manual didnt mention the three  spring loaded ball bearings . Took ages to find one. Then reassembly how do you pop three back in 120 degrees apart!

It is really great that you are enjoying your job.  Long may it continue. It would be interesting to know who pays when thngs go wrong!

[Webby the Bear]

Thanks varche. We all have our favourite jobs. Mine is definitely not clutches / GB removals. Let alone stripping them and rebuilding. I did that in college and didn't enjoy it then! 

I like what we call "the cream". Good money earners. Lots of labour. And relatively quick jobs. I'd rather do 20 different jobs than two days spent on one. But that's preference I suppose. 

[henryd]

With any Hybrid, don't touch anything bright Orange Playing with the HV Hybrid electric system will make your hair stand on end

Yes,I went on a course about Toyota Prius and the Honda insight years ago and learnt enough to know to stay away

[Lazydocker]

With any Hybrid, don't touch anything bright Orange Playing with the HV Hybrid electric system will make your hair stand on end

Yes,I went on a course about Toyota Prius and the Honda insight years ago and learnt enough to know to stay away

Must say, any fuel drain on a hybrid is a right royal pita because you need to force it onto the petrol engine to flush and start it Then there's the electric gubbins to work around too!

[Lincs Robert]

Good stuff Webby, interesting reading 

[BazaJT]

I too recall your questions and thread on your learning curve.Well done for knowing want you wanted and going all out for it I'll certainly be reading your workshop "diary".Who knows one day it might be the setting up of The Bears Garage

[Webby the Bear]

So then boys. I didn't bother taking any pics on Saturday. 3 full services. However, one of the services was on a Mazda6 and I thought folk would be interested in the most retarded service light reset in the history of such things 😂😂😂😂😂

The procedure is...

Ignition on.
Stick a piece of wire or paper clip or whatever in the following hole which is located  in the fuse box in engine bay.....

Then touch the piece of wire to ground (the batt. neg. is right next to it so nice n handy).
Whilst keeping it held to ground someone has to press the accelerator 5 times.
Ignition off.

Honestly I do wonder about the sanity of car designers at times 

So to today...

Before we get started this bad boy rocked up for MOT...



Exige of 2014 vintage. This motor has a beautiful roar 

Again as per Saturday I was servicing all day  except I fitted an anti roll bar link to a 2013 Megane Sport. And I wanted to share the way I remove them.....

Basically knowing that it's getting replaced (and therefore it doesn't matter if I destroy it) I grip the ball joint with my Irwin vice grips and try and buzz the nut off with my impact. Now I mention they're Irwin because they're the best grips I've ever used and honestly I own about ten pairs of shit grips. And they're cheap for a reason. They wouldn't hold the ball joint tight enough. So just a little tip.

Anyways if I get the slightest bit of trouble and it doesn't come apart immediately I do this......



Note the vice grip trick worked on the left hand ball joint (in the photo) but the other didn't. I break out the cut off wheel and depending on access I either cut the nut straight off. Or cut the link end and the grind it down til its non existent 

Anyway with ARB links 9.9 times out of 10 the new nuts will tighten up without having to stop the thread from spinning. However today's one decided to spin on me  but because it's a new one the Allen head is preserved and I simply hold it with the Allen (most are 5mm) and use a ratchet spanner (or "gear wrench" as AndyB prefers 😁😁😁) to tighten it up.

Tomorrow should be a better update. Got a potential calliper on an mx5 with front discs and pads. A front spring on an Astra. Another ArB link. More brakes. And something else I've forgotten 

[Webby the Bear]

.....as well as the usual servicing.

Ooooooh and an AC regas 

[citroenguy]

Wow, that Mazda service light.. How unpractical can you make it
Compared to any Citroen/Pug, where it's just holding down the trip button and turn the ignition on for 10 sec. How it should be