Your fleet running reports

[Jobbo]

The lights are taking a bit of getting used-to, I’m wondering if there’s a decent set of LED bulbs I could upgrade to.

Xenons don’t seem to fail as they age but their light output drops off. Even at ~6yrs old my previous BMWs from the same sort of era would have benefitted from new bulbs. So just replacing the bulbs with new OE ones may improve the light output quite a bit.

[Jimmy Choo]

One of the reasons I chose my house was that it had a drive. Parking round here can be tough and with a 5m long car, it's kind of a necessity. I'd previously not had off road parking since 2009. Well, there was a drive in 2010 but it was mostly taken up with cars that Kathryn had crashed.

Yesterday there were cars littered all over the street so when I pulled up outside my house to reverse onto the drive, I swung my car's nose behind a parked BMW and started to thread the needle to get back onto the drive. I was mildly alarmed to see that the BM had put it's reversing lights on. I was much more concerned to see it start moving backwards. I was very concerned that when I lent on the horn, it kept moving backwards and I was deeply concerned when it hit me.

Fortunately, once I wiped the red paint off my blue car, it seems like the panel between the drivers wheel arch and the door has just got some mild scrapes along it that haven't gone down to the metal but I'm a bit irked that it needs to be cleaned up.

[mik]

The lights are taking a bit of getting used-to, I’m wondering if there’s a decent set of LED bulbs I could upgrade to.

I upgraded the HID bulbs on the Evora - Osram higher performance range. The ones I used are discontinued now (they claimed +70%), replaced with THESE which claim even more. @scotta put a pair of these in his (now departed) GolfR.

Mine were only 4yrs old when I did them (original
Bulbs were std Osram) and there was a definite improvement. I did the whole “change one side and check the difference” thang, but the pics are on photbucket…. Probably still have them somewhere.

Anyway - I’d recommend you try this first - before going down the LED route (which seems a bit of a minefield in terms of good kits and cheap chinese crap).

Edit: or ask on PCGB. I always found that forum great for knowledge sharing (the 944/968 guys were very friendly and extremely knowledgeable).

[Beany]

Everything came apart really nicely, cleaned up the bolt/pins, buggered if I can get the piston to push back (yes the reservoir is open)

Neighbour who had donated thier drive will be back soon, I'll brainstorm with him over a cuppa

[Sundayjumper]

I normally use a g-clamp.

[Beany]

Guess what I don't have

Neighbour is on his way back, has a caliper push back tool. Should sort it.

[Beany]

Done. Other than the calipers being fucking heavy and me being a weak manlet, that went fine. Even worked out the pad wear sensor after going 'uh oh' upon spotting it.

Pedal a bit soft so I think in my attempts to push the drivers side caliper in, I may have let some air in (tried loosening the bleed nipple, didn't help) but it firms up after a period so should be fine for now. Getting dark and cold for bleeding just now so will come back to that, I think without a pressure bleeder is a two man job anyway.

For a twenty year old car, that was painless. The biggest issues were me not having a caliper push back tool, me dropping the only 7mm hex bit (found it after a cup of tea) and both of us completely forgetting that it's lefty tighty for the caliper bolt/slides from 'outside' the car - no wonder they weren't taking a thread

So a wholesome afternoon if spanner work all in.

[Ascender]

Guess what I don't have

Neighbour is on his way back, has a caliper push back tool. Should sort it.

I remember the first time I did the brakes myself on my Mini Cooper S. The amount of trips I had to make to B&Q or Halfords for little things like that meant the job took what felt like a week.

That's good its all sorted @Beany, satisfying to do stuff like that yourself.

[Beany]

It'll be sorted when the brakes are bled, but this is close enough for me to call it a win

The old pad on the drivers side inside was utterly gibbed, to the extent that the retaining clip had come away from the pad backing, no wonder the thing was grabbing.

Slide pins/bolts were in a nasty state too, covered in gunk. Dremel sorted those out, no evidence of binding any more that I could tell on my quick test drive.

[integrale_evo]

I just use a screwdriver through the calliper against the disk to push the piston back, sticking an old pad or a spacer in if it don’t go back far enough on it’s own.

I do similar for my one man brake bleeding when I can’t be bothered to find / use my pressure bleeder.

Pump pedal to push the pads out and take up any gap, open bleed nipple and wait, you’ll get quite a lot of air out just letting it gravity bleed ( assuming the car is pretty level and the bleed nipple is at the highest point)

With the nipple open, use a screwdriver through the end of the calliper to push the piston back, then as you get close to the end of travel nip the nipple up. Go pump the pedal and repeat the process until you’re not getting any more air out.

That’s how I did it the other week when I changed the piston, so the calliper was completely empty of fluid and full of air.

[integrale_evo]

Another weekend of awful weather means yet again ive done nothing of any use in the cars. I gave the compact a quick wash and that was about it.

I’m slowly trying to refurb a set of turbines in my shed but got so many other things in the way waiting to be sorted / fitted / moved if we ever get a dry weekend, that it seems to be taking forever. And I keep gassing myself out with solvent fumes which isn’t ideal

[Beany]

I did try using some screwdrivers/spanners to get leverage, bit it needed the wind back tool to really get anywhere.

The other piston was easier, so I think next month, refurb caliper on it.

Suspect that the caliper/bolts got grubby enough to cause it to stick, which buggered the pad (glad I bought those...) and replacing the pads and coaching the pins had solved the problem, but I'm not massively happy about the caliper overall.

Given the caliper swap would literally be two extra steps (disconnect pipe/bleed after refitting) then it seems like that's something I can do meself, too, or at least with me neighbour. He's quite happy to tinker and it keeps my morale up so it's a good deal.

Oh, only other complication was having to ride the car up on some old wood to be able to get my cheap jack under it

[Sundayjumper]

And I keep gassing myself out with solvent fumes which isn’t ideal

1B8EB8C8-CE7C-462D-B517-43F749946E52.jpeg (11.28 KiB) Viewed 877 times

[integrale_evo]

Fairly accurate tbh

[scotta]

The lights are taking a bit of getting used-to, I’m wondering if there’s a decent set of LED bulbs I could upgrade to.

I upgraded the HID bulbs on the Evora - Osram higher performance range. The ones I used are discontinued now (they claimed +70%), replaced with THESE which claim even more. @scotta put a pair of these in his (now departed) GolfR.

Mine were only 4yrs old when I did them (original
Bulbs were std Osram) and there was a definite improvement. I did the whole “change one side and check the difference” thang, but the pics are on photbucket…. Probably still have them somewhere.

Anyway - I’d recommend you try this first - before going down the LED route (which seems a bit of a minefield in terms of good kits and cheap chinese crap).

Edit: or ask on PCGB. I always found that forum great for knowledge sharing (the 944/968 guys were very friendly and extremely knowledgeable).

I noticed a difference even on the 3 year old golf. Deffo worth doing.

[scotta]

On the subject of LED upgrades.

JAMIEWIN 12000LM H7 Led Headlight...

I fitted these to our F30 after someone on here recommended them. They are great. The bulb rotates in the holder to focus the beam to its sharpest point. It’s pads an MOT twice with these fitted. Mot man said the beam pattern was sharp on the machine and they are super bright.

I also fitted them to the Mini Race car for doing ROR. Added with the light bar the lights were outstanding.

Phillips now do LED upgrades for standard H4 bulbs. They look very well built but are expensive.

Philips Ultinon Pro9000 LED Car Headlight Bulb (H7), set of 2

I have no idea if they are A any better than the ones I’ve got. B as good as the ones I’ve got.

[scotta]

[JonMad]

Fabia washer jets replumbed after one side snapped at the t-piece under the centre of the scuttle when the windscreen was replaced. Used a universal rubber hose and t piece instead of the OEM plastic tubes to each jet.

[JonMad]

Now to work out how/where to fit these…

[Rich B]

Now to work out how/where to fit these…

maybe pay a garage? It'll at least save us from reading how you accidentally drilled through your engine...