Car repairs for the "handy man"

[Ford Boy]

Quick story to tell. Just had my RS2000 go through its first roadworthy, only item that got picked were the uni joint, and the speedo dash light. NOw this dash light we knew was gonna get pickd, as we had spent the previous 3 months trying to figure out the problem. Amid much frustration, and MANY hours of trying to source the problem... we worked it out... Needed a new globe! :eek: ANyone else have an similar stories?

Also, does anyone have a pic of an RS heater control panel, so I can get some decals made up?

[Martin Thomas]

:D yep, many times, also by faulty new globes and fuses..

[sleepy]

i had a battery that was going flat overnight. tried a new battery ok for few days then went flat again everything was working ok but obviously there was a leak somewhere..took it to auto electrician answer the boot light was staying on.. easy fix take the globe out...luckily he only charged me $20..

[Martin Thomas]

My VR was running rough after the donk got warm, no specific time or anything, sometimes a while, sometimes quickly, sometimes it was OK.
Simple things first. checked the leads, all O.K. checked the plugs, looked OK but put new ones in anyway. Pulled a lead to see if I could isolate a cylinder.. POW, ZAP.. DON'T do that!!!

Time to start thinking.. Change fuel filter.. no change.

Checked fuel pickup, perhaps I had something that was blocking the line and floated back to the top after car had been turned off for a while....no change.

Scratch, Scratch. Check manual.

Bridged coms pins... no codes.

Read that it could be my coolant temp sensor. Remove and check.. No problem, put back in and wiggle wire.... No change..

Put in a new battery.. NO BLOODY CHANGE..

Check leads and plugs again.. Contemplate for sale sign...

Check the main earth, everything else was OK anyway so no surprise, no change.

Just about stall at the Post office, spit the dummy, get home and rip those leads off again... No. 1 has WAYYY too much resistance.. go inside to tell the boss I have it sorted and to kick me as I stuffed up and thought it was OK. Check again later... In spec..:confused:

Replace battery in multimeter and try again.. In spec...

Think, think, scratch, scratch.

Drive 'till problem appears, go home and measure.. Over spec... Wait. Check again, in spec.... PENNY DROPS..

When the lead got hot and expanded the resistance went too high. When it cooled and contracted, back in spec.

Fit new leads, PURRS LIKE A STOCK STANDARD V6...:D

[Martin Thomas]

Ahh, the memories come flooding back..

My exhaust (I assume) was rubbing somewhere under load. Have a mate who has a pit in his shed (covered and he's never used it before, has a drain and lights, everything. The only thing he's used it for was the drain as putting practise..)

Anyway, get under the car and look for any signs.. Wiggle here, wiggle there. Pry this, pry that. Jack it up... Get the heavy mate and his sons to sit in it.. Could not find anything or any marks but could see I needed a new exhaust when I got to Geraldton.

New exhaust, new windscreen, birds singing and sun shining.. just put the foot down and.... GODDAMN... Still there.

2 weeks later driving back from Perth and still rubs every now and then. Small road, truck heading our way, small dead roo right in front of us.. Grimace and clentch teeth... Small knock from roo on bottom of car.. Whew.. Hang on.. The rubbing's gone... You sure??? I'll check.. Yep..

Thank you Skippy.:D

[Nick Short]

Not my car, but a mate's. Tapping noise from left side of car, not noticeable at low speed, but loud and fast on quick roads. He checked underneath for anything loose, had the bearings checked, springs etc. Still the problem occurred. Then he thought it might be the expensive wheel trims he'd fitted to the steel wheels, so they went in the bin. Thought he'd fixed it, but it was because he was only doing town driving, and it came back as soon as he went on the motorway. Finally, he realised that his sports bag, permanently on the floor in the back, had a single strap trapped in the back door, and it was flapping against the side of the car at speed.....

[A9Xer]

I had a V8 Torana hatchback years ago which after about 30 minutes of driving used to cough and splutter and carry on. After playing with the fuel filter, regulator, tank and checking the fuel flow of the electric pump I still came up empty handed. It ended up that the fuel pump was overheating and the fuel was vapourising and stopping the fuel flow....... a frustrating expirence.

[moxo]

Dad's car not mine. Was a 1600 VW that didn't like to crank on cold mornings. Pulled the starter and rebuilt it. Checked the charge rate I don't know how many times, under all sorts of conditions - 14 volts so the generator was OK.

We eventually put a second battery in and started it with 24 volts. Fine for a while, but the starter motor didn't like it.

By the way, ever pulled the starter out of a Type 3? Its sort of above the right rear wheel - you need arms that are at least a metre and a half long and that have three elbows in them.

Anyway - next door guy is doing an oil change and Dad suddenly has a 'click' in his head.

The oil was 20,000 miles old. Once we warmed the car up enough for it to flow at all, it took about 10 minutes for this vegemite to come 'glugging' out of the sump.

Filled it up with new stuff and it was like a new car. Dad built that engine, too - obviously it was a good one to last that long with glue for a lubricant.



Moxo

[brchi17]

My brother's car stopped and when he turned the key, nothing would go.

Fuel gauge showed 1/4 of a tank, problem, no petrol in tank !!!

The car had a Holden software upgrade and again it stopped on the side of the road.

Again the fuel gauge on 1/4 of a tank and theproblem, you guess it no petrol in the tank.

cheers. :)

[Esses]

First time pad change on Mitsu. L300 4WD Van. Wheels off, inspect calipers, remove bolts, hmmm, funny circ-clips holding pads in place. CANNOT figure out how they come off. Fiddle, experiment, tug, pull........give up & go to "sheer force". Wedge long-nose pliers under c-clip & PULL. Pliers slip & with full force of two strong, young arms WACK points of pliers into my own head just above left eyebrow. Cursing, swearing & pools of blood later, cleaned up & band-aided, go back to brakes, squeeze gently on clip in the opposite direction & hey, presto, pads off. Must've been the wack on the head.............

[Esses]

Much earlier. Did a valve-grind on my 998 Mini. Followed the book exactly, plus my Father's occasional advice as he'd done this as a young feller on his old Austins. Everything off, valves ground, head re-assembled, Dad says: "look at all that coke on top of your pistons, you'd best clean that off". Oh? OK, Dad. Clean piston-tops till they shone. Re-assemble engine, do valve clearances, double-check everything, OK, crank her over..........and over.............and over.............

Pull it all apart, do it all again, still nothing. Finally check compression........ummm........no compression.

Tow to mechanic. Pulls motor down, lower timing-chain pulley FALLS off in two halves, rings nearly completely worn-out. Only thing keeping compression in cylinders was the coke.........THANKS, Dad.

[Esses]

God, this brings back memories. Same L300. Putting new thermostat in. No probs, new one in, gasket, housing on, two bolts, tighten one, tighten two...........crack! Oh, s##t, what was that? Housing cracked at mount-point, leaking like Niagra. Sunday afternoon, even the wreckers are shut. This is my work-van, MUST be on the road tomorrow. Think, think, think. Wander over to the Family second-car, a Sigma wagon. Won't be any good, Astron motor against Sirius motor........hold on, that Thermostat-housing looks familiar. Hey, Dad. How would you like a new Thermostat-housing for the Sigma? After I buy one tomorrow? Identical part, it & the corn-flake box gasket I cut out worked like a charm. The new housing? $2-50 from Mitsubishi. No wonder they break!

[Colh]

Friend of my fathers - a VERY senior electrical mechanic with SEC before he retired. Brake light warning light came on in his Camry, so investigates. Checked the globes in the taillights, all ok, so decides the problem must be in the wiring, so he checks all that. A couple of hours later, the light is still glowing so he proceeds to pull out the seats and traces the wiring through the car, gets to the back seat, pulls it out and traces a wire up to the back window and bingo! He forgot about the rear window light which needless to say, had a blown globe.

[MarkHM]

My girlfriend at the time was an independent oman who wouldn't take help from anyone. She had a nice Fiat 124 and I wanted to change the oil...She wanted to do it her way and told me to go away. She started the motor, warmed thngs up, pulled out the sump plug and left it to drain for 4-5 hours. Problem is she didn't think to turn the motor off...result, a rather seized Fiat motor!

[kashy]

Originally posted by brchi17
My brother's car stopped and when he turned the key, nothing would go.

Fuel gauge showed 1/4 of a tank, problem, no petrol in tank !!!

The car had a Holden software upgrade and again it stopped on the side of the road.

Again the fuel gauge on 1/4 of a tank and theproblem, you guess it no petrol in the tank.

cheers. :)

Yay - i'm not alone - my VX did the same thing, just pulled out to over take a car up a hill and my poor car just died and wouldn't turn over - fuel guage still said 1/4 of tank! After a $150 tilt truck ride home, a few digs from a couple of Ford fans later, find out - no petrol!

My boyfriend (motorbike mechanic by trade) got called to help a mate with a road bike. You'd be cruising down the road and after a while it would just stop. Leave it for a 5 minutes or so, start it up and away you go only to stop a bit further down the road. Basically pulled the whole thing apart only to find after hours that some idiot had stuffed a cigarette butt in the fuel line.

:)

[Esses]

Originally posted by MarkHM
My girlfriend at the time was an independent oman who wouldn't take help from anyone. She had a nice Fiat 124 and I wanted to change the oil...She wanted to do it her way and told me to go away. She started the motor, warmed thngs up, pulled out the sump plug and left it to drain for 4-5 hours. Problem is she didn't think to turn the motor off...result, a rather seized Fiat motor!

Also Girlfriend of the time (NOT the one I married) had the first model Front-Wheel-Drive Corolla. A CS Automatic 1.6. You could get a Twin-Cam in that model, the first one in this country, but it only came as a lairy boy-racer job with BIG Twin-Cam 16-Valve Decals & mags etc. She swore blind that hers was a Twin-Cam, but would NEVER let me under the bonnet, not even to check the oil. I wonder why..............

[Leigh]

Originally posted by kashy
Yay - i'm not alone - my VX did the same thing, just pulled out to over take a car up a hill and my poor car just died and wouldn't turn over - fuel guage still said 1/4 of tank! After a $150 tilt truck ride home, a few digs from a couple of Ford fans later, find out - no petrol!
Common fault on this model...Holden recalled it...if you havn't already, get the local Holden dealer to fix the problem (faulty sender unit if memory serves correct).

Cheers

[brchi17]

Originally posted by lcfp2297
Common fault on this model...Holden recalled it...if you haven’t already, get the local Holden dealer to fix the problem (faulty sender unit if memory serves correct).

Unfortunately this appears to be an ongoing problem and one which I've been told is a software issue. After 3 different sets of software I've given up with mine and hey, that’s what the trip meter is there for after all. At least I was lucky and mine only thinks it got a 60lt tank instead of a 75lt one, meaning all the alarms go off a little earlier than they should. Which at the end of day isn't such a bad thing.

cheers :)

[Barra]

Some years ago after coming home one night in the old EA, parking under the carport, there was a "popping" noise coming from the car. I went over the car with a torch and could see or hear nothing.

As soon as I went inside, I'd hear the pop and back I'd go to search the car.

This went on for possibly an hour and after much frustration I finally found the problem:

I told the wife that it was the catalytic converter.

"Are they expensive?" she asked. She looked quite concerned when I said yes. Although I added that I wouldn't worry about it - a sheet of cardboard under the car (put there to catch oil) was blowing in the wind and tapping against the Cat.