Been doing a few jobs to the daughter's Civic 2.0S Vtec, it's now covered 115k and despite the merciless thrashing or maybe because of as most of her commutes are 150 miles at a time, it runs well.
SWM followed me back from the tyre shop where we had the new all season tyres slipped on, gave the car some welly in middle gears to check the Vtec was coming on stream OK at 5k'ish RPM, she reports not a trace of smoke nor anything else to worry about, it shifts well, nice to drive and a testament to good engineering and quality production.
Changed gearbox oil today.
New front pads and discs, new aux drive belt, new spark plugs, bleed brakes, all to go on tomorrow...already stripped out.
If time permits i'll renew the coolant too.
Depends how long the main job of the day takes me...check and reset the tappets and reassemble...yes it has adjustable tappets with a screw and pinch bolt just like proper cars from years ago, will need engine cold for that hence it's on the drive on the axle stands ready.
Cam cover is off, lovely and clean in there and beautifully made it is too.
Couldn't find me feeler gauges, goodness knows how many years since i last used them, had to buy a new set...imperial of course, can't be doing with this dodgy foreign currency..;)
What a pleasure to work on though, jack it up, remove the front wheels and the two clip on plastic splash guards either side of the lower engine and it's really quite easy to get to almost everything.
Disc grub screws needed me trusty impact driver, wouldn't have shifted them without, i thought i'd loosened them when i first serviced the car, losing the plot fast.
Nice touch is the aux belt tensioner, you simply put a spanner on the nut and spring the tensioner forward to release the belt and again to fit the new one, makes the belt fitting a 2 minute job, nothing to undo or move out of the way, why are other cars such a palarva to do this simple job.
Is relatively simple servicing and normal repair work only to be found on Japanese or Korean cars, or are there other modern makes just as easy to do the regular bits.
PS, knees ache like billio..;)
Last edited by: gordonbennet on Fri 14 Oct 11 at 23:11
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The Lancer is easy to work on I believe, not that I know whether the engine is in the front or the rear (yet)
I was told they are 'old school' oily bits by the garage where I bought it, s'not even DOHC!!
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>> Is relatively simple servicing and normal repair work only to be found on Japanese or
>> Korean cars, or are there other modern makes just as easy to do the regular
>> bits.
Citroen C2 VTS? :)
BMW's have traditionally been easy to work on, but getting complicated now regarding things like oil changes.
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The Berlingo is pretty straightforward for most things but Canbus electrics frighten me.
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Modern electrics give me the willies too, the C2 is not added to the list of easy to work on, took me ages to work out how to remove the air filter but it was easy to replace the headlight bulbs, and i imagine the Mitsi will be a doddle.
Well the jobs went well, apart from the aux belt and i can only sigh for the future of our country... they had to get the new one in, so i left the old one with them so when they phoned me...you've guessed haven't you..;), computer said it's the right one so he didn't compare them...aaarrrggghh, i sometimes feel like im banging me head against a wall.
Used to be an older feller at the factor and he loved it when you'd bring the old bits in for pattern, but then he went to the school of common sense.
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The lancer is a joy to work on, ok so its got an ECU but not much else in the field of canbus.
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The Golf (PD) is nice and easy for the scheduled stuff. Oil filter on top of the engine (replaceable element type), air filter and fuel filter easily accessible, and a nice, tidy, logical layout once the plastic engine cover is unclipped, with all hoses well routed and supported. Only difficult bulb replacement lets it down slightly.
For the kind of engineering precision and beautifully made componentry referred to by the op, and something for which Honda are justifiably well known, I would also nominate my old 2001 Volvo S60. Never came across so much as a corroded fastener, everything came apart easily, slotted back together precisely, and was generally a joy to work with.
Poor quality fasteners are what always let Ford vehicles down in this area, in my experience, although I haven't worked on one built in the last 5 years, so this may well be better now. Ford pay good attention to maintenance access on many of their engines, and then choose to secure components with bolts and screws whose heads turn to disintegrating brown flakes after a couple of winters. One of the most frustrating aspects of any job is not being able to undo a rotten screw or bolt, and having to waste time and energy on the various countermeasures.
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For hands on stuff agree with DP, the Volvo is pretty straight forward.
If the computer starts throwing fault codes though it can be a lot of heartache. There are 12 separates recorders to check in the post 2004 machines. A hole in a vacuum pipe resulted in an error code thrown out pointing to one of:
1. Engine pad mounted on the front of the airbox
2. Turbo govenor
3. Blown Intercooler
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>>A hole in a vacuum pipe resulted in an error code thrown out pointing to one of:
1. Engine pad mounted on the front of the airbox
2. Turbo govenor
3. Blown Intercooler<<
That was my job for 14 years - diagnostics, worked on over 10,000 cars in that time, the vast majority of faults were caused by something simple like a leaking vacuum hose or a bad connection, bloke who trained me up always sed "get back to basics Dog".
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>> That was my job for 14 years - diagnostics, worked on over 10,000 cars in
>> that time, the vast majority of faults were caused by something simple like a leaking
>> vacuum hose or a bad connection, bloke who trained me up always sed "get back
>> to basics Dog".
My old Audi 80 estate TDi had a lack of power at about 2500-3000 revs, it literally felt like the brakes were slightly applied. I must have put up with it for about a year until I asked a local VAG bloke about it while he was changing the EGR valve. Apparently the narrow pipe from the exhaust manifold to the ECU can split. Mine wasn't split, it was actually disconnected. Pipe back on, job done.
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I could recount many such cases, but one or 2 (hundred) stick in my mind ... called out to a Nissan Patrol, lack of power + rough idle etc.. soon as I opened the bonnet I could see a vacuum pipe sticking up saying coo´ey I'm here :0)
Still charged him 30 sovs though, although I did go through the full monty with compression test, Crypton analysis,
4 gas etc., etc..
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I only went to the garage once I suspected I had fixed the problem to get the codes checked and reset.
The hole in the vacuum pipe I found by accident. I'd noticed this particular pipe looked very close to the block housing where the starter motor is located.
Quick feel on the underside of the pipe revealed the hole. Replacement pipe is now held out of the way with a cable-tie.
Can't think why anyone might have moved the pipe as no work has been done down there. Can't imagine it is how Volvo would build the car or noticing the pipe in that position before. Maybe the original tie had split and fallen off. I'll never know.
When having the codes reset, the list of faults also flagged a fault on the door mirror in two different modules, tha door and main. The fault was listed as a motor failure.
The problem was actually the heater element in the mirror which had failed. That was replaced earlier in the year as it is my main mirror when driving in Europe. No message in the driver information module.
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Another one - I had a squealing noise when I pressed the clutch pedal on my Mk2 Escort. Oh dear, looks like the release bearing I thought, and went to see the garage. A quick look and they said "Your bell housing bolts are loose. Tighten them up, it should be OK." And it was. The car had a pretty rough 2.0 Pinto conversion, and that plus the shunting transmission due to a bodged gearbox mount were a few things I had to sort out.
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It never ceased to amaze me the amount of times I came to tune a car (usually Teutonic) and whipped the plugs out to find one or two covered in oil ... "but I've just had the engine rebored and new piston rings fitted, mate"
Pity they didn't replace the valve guide oil seals :-(
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My car man has the Bosch kit and always says reading the codes doesn't tell you what's wrong, the skill is working out what they mean.
Dealers like to give a different impression. A friend has an Alfa Spider that was kangarooing despite a dealer service. The dealer said "For £75 we'll put it on the machine and that will tell us what's wrong with it". So he paid up.
The answer was "it definitely needs new clutch". The clutch having been replaced 2,000 miles earlier by the above mentioned car man, before Spider man moved away from here, Spider man said "not likely". He took it to a local independent who cured it for £10 with some gaffer tape wrapped around a split pipe.
He rang up the Alfa dealer to ask for his money back, based on the fact that they had told him it would cost £1500 for a clutch change. They asked to look at it, so he took it in, saying he'd come back at 4pm. "I think we'll have to take the gearbox off before we can say whether it needs a clutch or not". Short conversation ensued. He got his £75 back.
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The garage I used to work at had a Volvo with a fuel injection fault which the world and his wife had looked at, before it came to us.
Someone far brighter than me worked out a relay mounted on the inner wing was not properly earthed due to rust.
Problem solved by remounting the relay on the part of the panel which was not corroded.
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I would never take my Panda to a main dealer for diagnostics if I had to pay for it. I would just take it to my indie and if he can't read it I will just get the software myself and report the fault codes on a forum such as this.
I replaced the MAF that way, got the fault codes of my mechanic and posted it on here. People on here and the Corsa site thought it could be the MAF, so I bought a Bosch one at £90 and replaced it.
Vauxhall would have wanted close to £500 to fix that.
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Both the best and worst examples of interpreting fault codes have been with franchised dealers.
The local Renault dealer did a sterling job of tracing various alarming turbo related codes on our Scenic to a split hose, after about 20 mins of methodical diagnostic work. By contrast, the Peugeot dealer I was forced to use with a previous company car wanted to replace the ECU every time the car so much as coughed.
Sensors aside, I have never had an actual component of a modern engine management system fail. Split hoses seem to be the most common cause of poor running and MIL lights blinking. Although BMW seem to have buggy software on some of their models if my E90 is any indication.
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Easy modern cars to work on. - Dog
