what have you done to your car today ?

[iammooks]

Found out why my number plate lights weren't working...

I've never paid much attention to the fuses in the car, but it probably explains why the 12v in the boot has never worked, given it looks like water got in there before I owned the car.

Will get a selection box from Halfords and work my way through testing the others. I've never had an electrical issue with the car so never had any spares. Silly really as I could end up with no lights or worse. The Ross Tech forum always talks about checking the fuses before doing anything drastic after checking codes, so important to keep that in mind in future.

Drove to Cardiff and back with a stop in Oxford on the way and the car was absolutely fine. Average of 55mpg there and back over about 400 miles.

The girlfriend always seems a bit nervous about being in my car because I do so much work on it, but I tell her it's not going to break down *because* I do so much work on it. Judging from the number of smoky cars I saw on the way and fairly new cars being loaded onto recovery vehicles, I'm on the right track. Was quite fun diagnosing engine issues - that car's burning coolant, that one has a fuelling issue, that Volvo is a Volvo...


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[Nathan penney]

Interesting what you say about the amount of new cars broken down.
On our way up from Folkestone a couple of weeks ago we counted 3 land rovers in the hard shoulder, 2 with bonnets up and one not but I’m assuming it was broken down. And another on the back of an AA wagon with caravan in tow.
I know Land Rover/ jag don’t have a great reliability record but I was shocked.
That was 2 evoques and 2 disco sports.
A friend of ours has also just had to pay near 3 grand to have the injectors fixed in their 2015 Evoque. A kick in the nuts when you’re also paying finance.
I have a faulty injector in my 2008 trafic van at the minute.
Its being done next week by a specialist. I’m not paying for the van aswell though.
When I’ve finished with the van once my extension is done I’m tempted to just buy a few Mk1 Leon’s safe in the knowledge at least one will always be working.

 

[iammooks]

Interesting what you say about the amount of new cars broken down.
On our way up from Folkestone a couple of weeks ago we counted 3 land rovers in the hard shoulder, 2 with bonnets up and one not but I’m assuming it was broken down. And another on the back of an AA wagon with caravan in tow.
I know Land Rover/ jag don’t have a great reliability record but I was shocked.
That was 2 evoques and 2 disco sports.
A friend of ours has also just had to pay near 3 grand to have the injectors fixed in their 2015 Evoque. A kick in the nuts when you’re also paying finance.
I have a faulty injector in my 2008 trafic van at the minute.
Its being done next week by a specialist. I’m not paying for the van aswell though.
When I’ve finished with the van once my extension is done I’m tempted to just buy a few Mk1 Leon’s safe in the knowledge at least one will always be working.

It does suck a bit sometimes - my vehicle tax is getting higher every year, not to mention all the other things that make running an older car more expensive, so I had a look at how much it would cost to get something less polluting or (apparently) more efficient. I like the Suzuki Swift, for example, but for the 1.2l version, you get 111g/km of CO2 and it's only 82bhp, compared to my 146g/km with 150bhp - and at 57mpg it's only slightly more efficient than my PD150. I understand that I have NOx emissions that are harmful, but it seems like for all these cars claiming to be efficient, it's the exhaust that's making them more efficient - not the engine. If I could retrofit a DPF or something, that'd be fine, but I'd need it mapped into the ECU and I don't think anyone's doing this.

And at the same time, the new Mercedes SL has something like 304g/km. It's like manufacturers aren't even trying.

What really gets to me is that my car is really well maintained, doesn't smoke and is still really efficient, but I'm the one failing my MoT on emissions, while a new Range Rover is pumping out way more than my car and it passes without batting an eyelid.

Then you've got the fact that my car has done 164k and has never, never broken down or even shown signs of it, and all these modern cars spend loads of time at the garage for faults that cost literal thousands of pounds to fix. I'm not exaggerating when I say I saw probably fifteen-odd cars parked up on the hard shoulder or being loaded onto recovery vehicles - most of them having problems when crawling in traffic. Nobody knows how to maintain their cars anymore and they don't bother anyway because they're all leased so they're not going to have to deal with the consequences a lot of the time - so you blow your engine because you've never touched the oil and so you end up scrapping a car.

When the hell did we get to the point that a bloody *car* was considered a disposable item?

 

[Rich.T]

Pair of new boots on the car today. And the worst inside and out ive ever seen at the local hand car wash.

 

[Alexis27]

Oil change day

 

[Dazzalcr]

Well refurbished the front arms new ball joints and poly bushes, not too bad of a job just had to wait for gaps in the rain, next get the tracking sorted. Getting closer to a drive if I have any cash for petrol left

 

[iammooks]

Just in case anyone knows - taking the bonnet off today. Does anyone know the torque settings to tighten the bonnet bolts when I'm finished? They're only 10mm bolts so I'm guessing it's not that much, but I'd rather not have it come loose for obvious reasons...


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[Thai-wronghorse]

Just in case anyone knows - taking the bonnet off today. Does anyone know the torque settings to tighten the bonnet bolts when I'm finished? They're only 10mm bolts so I'm guessing it's not that much, but I'd rather not have it come loose for obvious reasons...


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Just tight will suffice and I've never seen one fall off and only ever snapped 3 bolts on removal due to heavy corrosion on a mk1 Leon and that's after taking about 50 bonnets off!

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[iammooks]

Just tight will suffice and I've never seen one fall off and only ever snapped 3 bolts on removal due to heavy corrosion on a mk1 Leon and that's after taking about 50 bonnets off!

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Perfect - I thought as much. Thinking about putting some blue thread lock on there just in case.

First step finished thanks to my helpful neighbour. Now let's hope a stag party doesn't decide to do anything to my engine bay... #Brighton

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[Rich.T]

Got this light come on yesterday then go off again.
Same thing happened last week.
Is it just warning for pads n brake fluid level?
Front pad wiring not connected (but wiring looks bridged. Brake fluid level looks ok. Rear outer pads look ok but not been underneath to check wiring or inner pads.

 

[Alexis27]

Just front pads

 

[Thai-wronghorse]

I'd check the wear sensor plug that's been bridged to cancel the dash light.

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[Rich.T]

I'll get under and take a look sometime.
New front discs n pads were replaced a couple of months ago but as sead, wiring bridged by a PO.
Rears i think i replaced a couple of years ago (only done 18k since I got the car) but cant be sure. Cant remember if rears bridged or not.
Thanks both

 

[Rich.T]

Notice the fuel guage?
I filled it up when it was only £2.10 a litre

 

[Thai-wronghorse]

I'll get under and take a look sometime.
New front discs n pads were replaced a couple of months ago but as sead, wiring bridged by a PO.
Rears i think i replaced a couple of years ago (only done 18k since I got the car) but cant be sure. Cant remember if rears bridged or not.
Thanks both

There aren't any wear sensors on the rear, only nearside front.

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[4tra]

Just bought Leather Memory seats with heating. problem is that that the fittings are not the same and i will not get the wiring loom in for like a week. need an advice. my leon had nothing like that before, i have only one connection to airbag. do i need comfort block for those seats ? or how do i connect them ?
Thanks in advance

 

[Thai-wronghorse]

Yep additional wiring required to power them up. 2 additional plugs on those.

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[Connor H]

Just tight will suffice and I've never seen one fall off and only ever snapped 3 bolts on removal due to heavy corrosion on a mk1 Leon and that's after taking about 50 bonnets off!

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can confirm when thai transplanted my bonnet, piece of cake

 

[Cupra con]

Sprayed the interior black and run some fuel hoses!

 

[Thai-wronghorse]

Im curious as to why you chose to mask the centre console and sill trims instead of removing them when it takes a few minutes to do?

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