When I replaced my steering damper (used a standard one rather than a Terrafirma) the steering was noticeably stiffer.
It quickly settled down and became lighter again though.
Just had a thought...the trucks at work use steering boxes rather than rack and pinion too.
I'll ask the techs what might cause these symptoms and see what they say.
Hammered them back in to rough shape now and some of the captive nuts are intact. They've been tapped to clean them up.
Replacements for the brass spacers have been made using threaded rod and nuts.
I'll fit a couple of rivnuts to the bigger sections of the mating faces and it should do nicely.
Ah, that sucks.
At least your bad decision wasn't to do your own head gasket job on the driveway as a minor hurricane blew through town on the same day Autumn started and all the leaves fell of the row trees over the road!
I did have that idea but Fiona's father seemed really against it for some reason.
I think that's what I'm going to do anyway. By far the cheapest and easiest solution.
Oh, it only seemed to be in that one.
I have all sorts of seals in a bag so I would have the parts to do it.
I've never disassembled valve gear though - does it need special tools? I'd imagine a valve spring compressor at the very least.
I'm not a fan of putting something back together knowing there's something wrong with it :(
It did run great before though...
I think I might be murdered in my sleep if I report back that there's another problem/delay on this job!
Left unchecked it will presumably worsen. Worst case the cylinder fills with oil that can't be compressed and goes boom or is it not that bad?
Took my cylinder heads off today and found this inside one of the cylinders:
The car ran completely fine with no roughness or smoke or any else.
Any ideas?
That's what I've spent my afternoon doing.
Craddocks can do them next day (Tuesday) but are over £400.
The prices seem a bit nuts for some pieces of pressed steel. I can't remember which right now but two of the pieces are about 3x the price of the other two!
eBay can get me some for £100 on Thursday but I've been told very firmly that that's too late.
So out came several sets of mole grips, an angle grinder and a ball pein hammer.
Cut the bolts off, clamped the halves together and using a combination of hammering and bending with more molegrips to get them back in shape. They're not a million miles off but they're certainly not ready to fit at the moment.
Will have to assemble them around the manifolds and finalise the shape once they come back from the machine shop that's skimming the heads. I gave him the manifolds to drill out and tidy up the threaded hole that the heat shield brass rod bits go in. Three of them snapped off in the manifold :(
I'll also have to drill new holes for new nuts and bolts to hold them together.
Not sure what I'm going to do about replacing the snapped brass bits at the moment. Might have to call the local dealer and see if they have them on the shelf but it's highly unlikely.
Craddocks have them and their next day delivery should have them with me on Tuesday which wouldn't be the end of the world. I'm not getting the heads back until late Monday anyway.
Bugger me....new heatshields are pricey! £290ish from Island 4x4 - cheapest I can find for new parts. Some of them seem to be genuine LR parts only. From experience, Island 4x4's delivery leaves a lot to be desired and I need them rather sharpish!
There's a full set on eBay for £100 posted but they won't be here until Thursday at the earliest, which is a little bit late.
I'm assuming running without them is a very, very silly thing to do
Anyone had any experience of using exhaust wrap instead of the shields?
I managed to smash my way through the rest of the heatshield and got it off :)
Then I discovered the screws holding the mudflap on were so corroded the hole in the top was unidentifiable. No idea what they were made of but tried 5 or 6 drill bits of different sizes but nothing would drill them. So out came the angle grinder. Need a new mudflap now :P
The last manifold bolt came out pretty easily then. Used a 12mm 3/8 socket with a 3/8 U/J thing, a 3/8 to 1/2 adapter, two long extensions and a breaker bar.
1/2 socket and U/J wouldn't clear the manifold :(
I tried taking the passenger side manifold off with the head but I couldn't make it work. The sockets wouldn't clear the end of the manifold to sit straight on the head bolts at the end near the bulkhead. It was just rounding off as it was sitting crooked and not engaging properly. I'd have been done hours ago if that had worked!
Got the damned heat shield off using a centre punch as a chisel attached to two long 1/2" extension bars and a big hammer.
Now on to the final bolt - is it possible with the steering shaft in place?
Bloody heatshields...
All the bolts have rusted away meaning I can't undo any of them. Having to get a little "creative (destructive) with them - bending and peeling the heatshields back.
I've got all of the bolts out except the very last one on the driver's side. The one closest to the firewall, under the manifold pipes.
I can't get any tools on it at all with the heatshield in place and bent as far as it will go. It's hitting the steering shaft and I'd really, really like to avoid removing that if possible. I don't think removing that will improve matters anyway as the heatshield will still be in place.
I've seen that it can be accessed through the wheel arch but presumably only with the heatshield removed? If I can get to it through the wheel arch with the heatshield on and the steering shaft in place I'll go that route but access is tight for a jack where I'm parked. Don't really want to add work for myself if it's not going to work.
Any other bright ideas on how to get at this bolt?
The only locking wheel nut numbers I've seen have been printed on a bit of card that came with the car new.
I had to order one for my old Focus. As you say, it was an aftermarket set of nuts - McGard in my case. They sent the number off to McGard who sent a new locking nut out for me. IIRC it was about £18 all in.
My girlfriends Corsa also had the number printed on a bit of card in a small plastic box that held the wheel nuts for the steel spare wheel.
Apparently it's all solved.
Turns out the MOT tester somehow disturbed some kind of "ventilation pipe" under the car somewhere causing the noises.
This pipe has been fixed and all the noises are gone.
Makes little sense to me but he says it's fine now!
My dad's car went for an MOT on Saturday. It was done at Kwik Fit and it's an 08 plate Mazda 5 1.8 petrol.
Prior to the MOT he had new front discs and pads as well as ARB drop links.
With the new parts fitted he drove off to the MOT and everything was fine.
The car went through the MOT and everything was fine.
Soon after leaving the MOT his car started making all sorts of noises.
Front left wheel clicks when turning.
There's a bang/knock somewhere central when changing gear or letting off the power but staying in gear.
There's a kind of scratchy/rubbing/grindy noise somewhere in the front left.
Lastly, there's a creaking/squeaking noise somewhere high up on the front right when turning.
As mentioned, the car was fine before the MOT and the MOT didn't flag up anything suggesting these problems would be imminent.
My thoughts are CV joint for the clicking, gearbox mount for the banging, driveshaft support bearing (if it has one) for scratchy/rubbing noise and top mount for the creaking.
The problem is, how suddenly this all came on after leaving the MOT and how nothing was found by the tester. All of the noises are very loud and noticeable.
I don't want to accuse Kwik Fit of anything but is there anything they could have done to sabotage this kind of stuff to make work for themselves? My dad said the whole place was dead, nothing going on and several techs standing around smoking and chatting.
Or, is it likely that the tester was really, really bad at his job of finding this stuff and the MOT itself is suspect?
Yeesh...went to see three today. Wish I'd stayed home!
Over to Lichfield to see one, looked good in the advert and had a good description. Got there and found someone had left their lunch in the foot well, a moody rag on the back seat, mold in the boot cubby (along with some kind of long plastic cap that said "single use only") and a smashed tail light. Clutch was almost dead too along with a fairly filthy interior. The place wanted £2.5k for it!
Second one was up in Leeds. This one looked pretty immaculate, full leather, heated everything and the Harmon Kardon sound system, had a few jiggles but nothing major. Driver's door not unlocking on the remote (but locking ok), some speakers not working and a faded/fogged headlamp. Pretty reasonable for the age in my book. Gearbox was a wreck though! Jumping out of reverse, seemingly potluck if it would go in to the other gears and sometimes grinding loudly when trying. REALLY heavy steering and a nasty crunchy noise at full lock. £3k this time. Nope.
Same place had a 1.8 petrol. Was perfect to drive but base spec with no toys and had the engine warning light on. £2k for this one but low spec and warning light made it a no no.
Diesels really are dreadful to drive! Slow, noisy, cumbersome and so smelly. When I started up one of the diesels my girlfriend nearly refused to keep looking over it. Said it sounded broken. I had to tell her that's just what diesels sound like :(
Gilbertd wrote:
As long as they've done them in the past and know what to expect, you should be OK. I needed one side doing on one car a few years ago (before I knew Marty and others) and as it was January, freezing cold and the work would have to be done outside (garage not wide enough to get the car in and be able to work alongside it), I got a quote from a local LR independent. Quote was £380 all in so I booked it in and left it with them. two days later they phoned to say they couldn't get the hub out as they couldn't remove the ABS sensor other than by drilling it out so there'd be the extra cost of an ABS sensor. Told them to get on with it. A further couple of days later they called to say that the joints had been changed but it needed the tracking doing and the adjuster was seized solid so they recommended replacing the link rod too. Finally, after about a week, they phoned to say it was ready so I went to collect it only to be presented with a bill for £1,050. Their excuse was that it was such a bastard to dismantle that the extra was in the labour......
Never taken a car anywhere since.
I called a local (to where I used to live) LR specialist to quote for flushing my brake fluid a couple of years ago. They wouldn't give me a quote as they said they didn't know how bad it would be until they had the car there. The bleed nipples might be seized, might need new calipers, might need this that and the other.
Took it to Marshalls in Peterborough. Can't remember the exact numbers but they gave me a quote and actually charged me less than the quote!
Clive603 wrote:
ABS sensor pretty much re-defines pig-to-shift if they have been in a fair while. Finally doing my nearside ball joints whilst I have everything out and up in t'air for brake calliper and line change. About 3 hours into the ABS sensor between multiple anointings with Plus Gas and its moved about 1/4". Pretty sure its not coming out in one piece but I do have a spare. Frankly at garage rates if it doesn't move easily sensible approach is to cut the top off, drilling is not the way to go as you are likely to end up with the drill jammed in half a mile of wire, pull the innards and "operate" on the case so the drive shaft comes out. 15 minutes tops with it up on a lift if you have the gear and know what you are doing. What I should'a done but not so easy on axle stands.
Frankly if I were a pro new ABS sensor and Lemfoder link arm would be on the bill automatically. Professional's do it fast, do it once and do it right. Hard to find real professional garages. Most can't get their head round relative cost of parts and time. Especially when new, decent quality but not manufacturer parts are now so relatively inexpensive that fast destructive working is better than careful 'cos I should be able to re-use that unless things are clearly recently changed. Even at home I try far too hard to save things.
Clive
That's pretty much what we do here (DAF trucks main dealer) - if the ABS sensor doesn't come out easily it just stays in the old hub. If the techs have to put that much effort in to removing it chances are it will get damaged in some way anyway and start causing faults in the not too distant future.
No customer (not even the manufacturer on a warranty job!) will pay several hours of labour to undo seized parts so why bother? Much easier to justify the cost of a sensor that's seized in and can't be removed.
Happens with ball joints, rod ends etc.
Cheers guys.
Off to look at a nice looking 06-plate tomorrow :)