and today i have mostly been...

[OllieNZ]

Just for Welly ;)

From left to right
1/4, 3/8, 1/2

[Welly]

Thanks Ollie, funny how different they look for the sake of about 3mm in size.

[Welly]

Well, I have now completed a 'full service' of the little renner with no real issues

Air Filter was a tad tricky, pollen filter was easy to access but put up a fight (had to show it who's boss). Spark plugs were very easy, the oil change I took my time and got it really hot and left it draining for ages whilst pissing about with other things (like greasing any rusty bolt threads) the oil filter 'hangs upside down' so being clever I pre-filled the new one with oil and proceeded to fill the sump with fresh oil - after a quick run and settle it was bang on Max. The new oil is so clean it was hard to see on the dippy.

Overall I was pleased with my efforts and felt I'd done 'a bit extra' than a Garage might have (given their time constraints). This work took me about 3 hours but I was in no rush.

Of course I suffered 'Thread Phobia' during the process; this is where you tighten the sump plug for example and then worry that it's not tight enough and keep checking it again why is it that when you watch someone else tighten a nut you don't even think about it yet when you do it yourself you turn into Mr_Worry

[Captain Jack]

I replaced the throttle body on my 407 last weekend. It hasn't been right for at least a year but over the past few weeks it has been putting on engine light on and once even went into limp mode. Cost of new part £100 - pretty easy to change as it's at the front of the engine but the EGR, if that ever needs changing (it doesn't - it's mapped out), is an absolute arse to get to. According to official* sources, you need to remove the cylinder head cover to get to it... fk that.

Old one - full of oil inside all over the electrics. Probably why it failed.




New one in place:



P.S. Any good alternatives to Photobucket? It's so slow, it's unusable. Flickr perhaps?

[steve_earwig]

I'm still using bloatofucket but you're right, they've broken it and now I'm having to find work-arounds for things that just used to take a couple of clicks. Create a new album to upload to? No, you can't do that here any more, you have to go to your albums to create it first. What the f---?

Feel free to experiment!

Would it have helped to have dumped a can of carb cleaner through that or did you already try?

Of course I suffered 'Thread Phobia' during the process; this is where you tighten the sump plug for example and then worry that it's not tight enough and keep checking it again

If in doubt, torque wrench out? I'm a dab hand at stripping threads, I think it's another aspie thing. I find myself using the smallest wrench I have so I can't overdo it, especially all the ally stuff on the Yamaha.

[Welly]

I think the thing with Photobucket is "pay us money and we'll make it work for you" kinda thing, it's so 'laggy' and full of adverts even logging in is a pain.

Cap'n that's quite a brave DIY job there, nice one, I hope its worked?

Wiggy it was mainly the sump plug, I was issued a new aluminium washer which I wasn't used to, it didn't seem to be a crush washer, I have a torque wrench but no idea what you'd torque a sump plug to? I had stories of heli-coils and new sumps buzzing around in my head so proceeded to 'nip' it up by feel. It don't leak anyway

Funny thing with the torque wrench; I torqued the spark plugs and the wheel nuts but there was an overwhelming "is that it?" feeling to the process

[Captain Jack]

I am sure I could have drained the oil and cleaned up the leccies but as I already had a new one... Don't know if it worked, haven't really driven the car anywhere yet!

Seems quite a common fault on the 407 2.2 HDIs. I know rwb replaced his and a bunch of others on Farcebook as well...

[OllieNZ]

Funny thing with the torque wrench; I torqued the spark plugs and the wheel nuts but there was an overwhelming "is that it?" feeling to the process

Makes you realise how easy it is to over tighten things.....
I did oil and filter on both cars and the gearbox oil on t'wifes in under 2 hours. Typical beepin cars though, I had to remove the battery and battery tray in the 307 to get to the gearbox filler.

[Welly]

Having 'tooled up' a little bit this month and embarking on "our" own car maintenance I thought her_indoors would have a heightened sense of interest in what I was up to outside/in the Garage and at least maybe come out to check all ok or whatever.....

Nope.

Nada.

Zip.

f*ck all.

A big Invoice for Labour would soon have her sucking her teeth and 'tutting' though. Maybe its because a car is absolutely no different after an oil service, like, you've not 'fixed' anything as such

[PeterN]

Just changed the cam belt on one of mine and I'm hot and shattered.

Peter

[Welly]

Oil change No.2 (Volvo) completed

Me new Oil Housing sockets and Torque Wrench working hard*:


Paper insert filter:


2 x butchered 5 ltr containers to catch nearly 6 ltrs of oil, the first 4 ltrs FLY out on this engine :


There is only one comment to make about Oil Changes; Under-trays can seriously do one

[steve_earwig]

Looking a bit dribbly there, were you forbidden to use the washing up bowl?

Under-trays can seriously do one

Maybe it'll do you a favour and fall off somewhere

[Welly]

Oil change No.3 achieved.

Following Jasper's advice the oil was made to get *very* hot before draining, this pic was taken after about 30 mins. 67.1 deg C as shown by my Wife's kitchen meat thermometer (don't worry I wiped it on my Jeans before putting it back in the drawer) :


The oil fell out of the sump like water it was very runny and didn't sound like oil draining to me, it later thickened a little by the time it was being 'recycled' down at the tip/dump. I had about 15 ltrs of engine oil to get rid of all in all.

Also followed Jasper's advice regarding the paper element-type oil filter which made fitting it very easy, thanks for that

One notable difference was the engine sounds quieter on the new oil (after only 5000 miles ).

And a BIG thumbs up to Citroen; their under-trays are ace! all the fixing points line up nice and the threads were still 'thready' and the 10mm bolts nipped up lovely without feeling like they were going to strip the captive thread at any moment.

Summary: 1.6 HDi oil changes are easy

[steve_earwig]

Splendid Sounds like a 100% success.

it later thickened a little by the time it was being 'recycled' down at the tip/dump

[Doggy]

S**t!, That's not the Welland I hope?