I'm not too concerned about the water. I've had mine up on the heated truck jet wash setup we have at work and gone to town on the entire underside a few times. Never had an issue.
I figured I've been wading with it up past the tops of the wheels and nothing bad happened - I can't get it much more wet than that!
I don't think petrol is cheap anywhere! I used to commute 50+ miles per day in it and fuel in Peterborough was nearly always about 7ppl more expensive than in Leicester, where my girlfriend works :(
The leak will be found and fixed, don't worry about that. I thought I'd fixed it earlier in the year when i replaced the radiator and bleed hose. A previous owner had snapped the bit of the radiator that the bleed hose went on and "fixed" (bodged) it by jamming a barbed pipe connector in the newly enlarged hole and run a length of rubber hose to the header tank. What he had actually done is introduced a constant leak.
I don't have LPG on my car, patrol only. I do have a steam cleaner - I'll have a crack at it in the week. Wait for the little guy to nap and head outside with the baby monitor :P
Coolant level drops slowly over time and has done since I've owned the car.
I'll see about ordering a new hose and plate for the throttle body heater too. I've got a couple of other bits to order so I'll tag those on. Need some new tailgate struts, getting bored of getting a headache each time I open the boot.
Sorry, I was a little unclear with my last message. The leak is red - it just looked clear on my fingers when I dipped them in the puddle under the car and wiped the drips on the diff. I couldn't see the colour of the leak or path it took along the diff when the diff was dirty.
Now that the diff is clean I can see clearly where the leak runs - it seems to be splashed all over the diff:
Here's the rocker cover:
And the pipes for what I assume is the throttle heater:
These ones have clearly been leaking at some point but look dry now. The one below appears to be leaking currently:
Cleaned off the diff this morning and went out for a drive. Turns out it's a coolant leak dripping on to the diff from above. It just looked clear when I dipped my fingers in the puddle on the floor. Couldn't really see the leak on the diff when it was dirty and wet already.
Looks like I need to replace the rocker cover gaskets.
Does coolant leaking from the rocker covers mean something else is wrong deeper inside the engine? Valley gasket etc?
The oil I took out was properly filthy. It's was like a grey sludge, which is why I assumed the new oil would show some wear/dirt after a few months of use.
Glad to know there's no brake lines in that area.
I'm guessing a porous weld in the diff casing means it's new axle time?
I hadn't even considered brake fluid!
It had better not be a leaking brake line - it was MOT'd on 21/10/2017 and the only advisories were a tyre close to the limit and the O/S/R brake pipe slightly corroded. No mention of anything relating to the front brake lines.
I'll have to get a good look at it in the morning.
I've noticed a new damp patch appearing under the front of my car - it's a completely clear liquid that feels oily to touch and quickly goes tacky/sticky if I rub it between my fingers.
A very quick look under the front bumper shows it appears to be dripping from the bottom of the front diff - I don't know if it's coming from the diff itself or if it's dripping on to the diff from somewhere above. It seems fairly rapid leak - I was parked up at the side of the road for a couple of hours today and noticed a pool under the drip site about 15-20cm in diameter.
I just can't think what would be completely clear and oily - I'd expect any oil that was coming from the diff or inside something else with moving parts would be at least a little bit dirty. I've not put any fresh liquids in recently (besides a coolant top up - but that's red).
Engine, diff and transmission oils were done months ago but again, engine and transmission oil aren't clear. Not sure what colour the diff oil was though.
Any ideas what my mystery fluid could be?
Yep - no more work for me until May!
no10chris, is this foam inside the filler cap or between the rocker cover and the tube?
I didn't do the cap up unusually tight last time, not sure why it's chosen this time to seize. I tried it again once it had all warmed up but it's still not going anyway.
The repair will need to wait until the weekend - it's a bit cold to have the baby out on the driveway while I do it and mummy will be home from work at the weekend.
Just checked my oii and it needs topping up.
Tried to undo the filler cap and found the whole filler tube spinning in the rocker cover.
Is the tube screwed/clipped in or is it supposed to be part of the rocker cover?
I'll have to find something to hold the tube still so I can undo the cap now.
All sorted now. It was the driver's side manifold, stud nearest the gearbox.
Drilled it out this morning.Got all the way up to a 9mm drill bit before anything started giving. Knocked out the last mm or so with a screwdriver and a hammer. I reckon I did a pretty good job - drilled centrally enough that the threads were still useable :)
Bah! Started off on the wrong foot assuming the nuts on the studs would be metric. Started rounding the damn things with a 15mm. 14mm wouldn't go on. Turns out they were 9/16 or something equally daft. Then two studs snapped. Managed to get one out by welding a nut to it but the other is stuck fast. Even cut a slot in the side of the manifold flange to release the thread but it's going nowhere. The stub is too short to get an extractor on.
Had to call it a day as they were closing the workshop and tackle it again on Monday.
I did my front bags earlier this year.
I lifted the vehicle and supported it on the chassis rails. I then used the jack under the wheel hub to lift and the lower the axle as required to get the bags in and out.
Lifted it a little to take the strain off the pins - they came out super easy then - and lowered the jack to pop the spring out.
New spring in, jack up to meet the upper mount and slide the new pins on.
Orangebean wrote:
Wonder why sometimes doing a job means you have to do a completely different one to facilitate it?!
Just ordered a set from Amazon.
I think I'll replace any studs that come out with bolts - those are readily available cheaply through my parts guys.
GeorgeB wrote:
Sorry, this probably isn't helping! :-)
it's not so bad, I'll be in a workshop with it up on a lift and with access to some very large air guns if anything wants to be stubborn :P
I'm asking so I can be prepared and not find myself caught out/stuck and missing parts I need.
I'll start soaking them a couple of days before I do the work.
Is supporting the gearbox and removing the chassis cross member an essential part of the process is RAVE going a bit overboard?
Ok, so the manifold and cat pipes join together using studs embedded in the manifold and nuts? I was hoping it would be a simple bolt going through both flanges.
Thanks for that, I'll get some studs ready just in case!
Swapping out the exhaust on my car later this week as it's leaking from a couple of places and my MOT is due.
The bits I've looked at are pretty rusty - as you'd expect, given that it's leaking - to the point that the nuts and bolts holding it all together are no longer identifiable.
I've not seen the ends of the manifolds though.
Is it common for those to be too rusty to separate properly and re-use? I'm a bit concerned about getting it apart and finding the flanges on the manifolds crumbling away :(