OV9

Fitted new Yuasa battery to the Zoe. Never done a battery change before, but it really was a doddle. Unscrew the terminals, undo two clips, unplug the drain hose, undo the T40 bolt (had to buy a tool kit with that size in it, yay!), remove clip holding coolant reservoir in place and unclip the hose allowing it to slide to the left, lift battery out.

Fit new battery in tray and reverse the removal process. Took all of 20 minutes to complete and that included having to find the right size spanner.

All warnings cleared from dash and we're back to normal. For extra man points I got my hands dirty, and am bleeding from two small cuts.

Just need to take the old battery to the tip and we're done. As Renault would have charged me about £300 for the privilege (battery was £72 delivered), that feels like a good saving.

Lots of excellent work all round, and excellent value
£2250 6pot 1er conv. for London
Pita inboard brakes rebuilt/refreshed
£200+ saving on a fitted battery

Only drove the EV version of the 1 series coupe. Really liked it and would have bought a 130 coupe but then got the 6 series.

DeskJockey wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 10:49 am Fitted new Yuasa battery to the Zoe. Never done a battery change before, but it really was a doddle. Unscrew the terminals, undo two clips, unplug the drain hose, undo the T40 bolt (had to buy a tool kit with that size in it, yay!), remove clip holding coolant reservoir in place and unclip the hose allowing it to slide to the left, lift battery out.

Fit new battery in tray and reverse the removal process. Took all of 20 minutes to complete and that included having to find the right size spanner.

All warnings cleared from dash and we're back to normal. For extra man points I got my hands dirty, and am bleeding from two small cuts.

Just need to take the old battery to the tip and we're done. As Renault would have charged me about £300 for the privilege (battery was £72 delivered), that feels like a good saving.

Check there’s not a “I’ve got a new battery” reset on these, many modern cars have to do the automotive equivalent of entering cheap codes into tekken 3 so it charges properly

jamcg wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 12:30 pm

DeskJockey wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 10:49 am Fitted new Yuasa battery to the Zoe. Never done a battery change before, but it really was a doddle. Unscrew the terminals, undo two clips, unplug the drain hose, undo the T40 bolt (had to buy a tool kit with that size in it, yay!), remove clip holding coolant reservoir in place and unclip the hose allowing it to slide to the left, lift battery out.

Fit new battery in tray and reverse the removal process. Took all of 20 minutes to complete and that included having to find the right size spanner.

All warnings cleared from dash and we're back to normal. For extra man points I got my hands dirty, and am bleeding from two small cuts.

Just need to take the old battery to the tip and we're done. As Renault would have charged me about £300 for the privilege (battery was £72 delivered), that feels like a good saving.

Check there’s not a “I’ve got a new battery” reset on these, many modern cars have to do the automotive equivalent of entering cheap codes into tekken 3 so it charges properly

The guide I watched online didn't mention anything about having to do a voodoo dance or sacrifice a chicken. I did think about it, but apparently it is simple to do.

Mito Man wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 11:58 am Only drove the EV version of the 1 series coupe. Really liked it and would have bought a 130 coupe but then got the 6 series.

which EV version? the i3 isn’t really related to the 1 series?

Rich B wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 1:10 pm

Mito Man wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 11:58 am Only drove the EV version of the 1 series coupe. Really liked it and would have bought a 130 coupe but then got the 6 series.

which EV version? the i3 isn’t really related to the 1 series?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_ActiveE
It was an i3/Mini E test Mule. But it had better range and handling than both the models which followed

Mito Man wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 1:23 pm

Rich B wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 1:10 pm

Mito Man wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 11:58 am Only drove the EV version of the 1 series coupe. Really liked it and would have bought a 130 coupe but then got the 6 series.

which EV version? the i3 isn’t really related to the 1 series?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_ActiveE
It was an i3/Mini E test Mule. But it had better range and handling than both the models which followed

makes sense! where did you drive one?

Rich B wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 1:29 pm

Mito Man wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 1:23 pm

Rich B wrote: Sat Aug 24, 2024 1:10 pm which EV version? the i3 isn’t really related to the 1 series?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_ActiveE
It was an i3/Mini E test Mule. But it had better range and handling than both the models which followed

makes sense! where did you drive one?

They were offered for week long test drives for potential i3 customers. I don’t think they had much interest because they offered me one too when I just wondered in with my dad to look at the i3 concept in Park lane.
Actually found a picture of me charging it from a 3 pin charger in a disabled bay.

Think they got scrapped shortly after so at least I gave it a good run.

Finding all the old pics now.

i3 concept in 2013

Nailed on future classic

I wish I had the room to keep mine. It's also now uninsurable for the kids and not even viable for the limit use just my daughter has as the renewal was £1800 so will definitely be going for sale next week.

It's clear from the insurance thread that pricing doesn't follow logic but even then I struggle to fathom how a 2yr old i3 is 13% more expensive to insure than a new M2 with me as a sole driver!

There must be a senior actuary somewhere convinced that electric cars are all about to inexplicably explode!

The i3 is really expensive to repair, anything bigger than a minor bump which impacted the carbon frame front/rear was an automatic £10k bill. Specialist job to cut the frame, bond new carbon etc - supercar level repairs on a hatchback.
Side impact even at low speed was a straight write off. Front end you can get away with quite a bit, but the rear an inch from the boot lid is the carbon frame, so anything SUV sized bumping into it will crack the frame.

So yeah, can imagine why insurers don’t like it and with depreciation I imagine any minor frame damage = write off now.

My stupidity never ceases to amaze me.

This is half the differential of a brush cutter.

It is a woefully engineered part for a 250kg 18hp spinning blade of death machine. Look carefully at the top and bottom and you can see where all the bolts have snapped. This happens without fail once every 2 years. And then I spend 4 tedious hours repairing it and this involves turning the broken bolts 1/10 of a turn at a time with some very thin pliers.
Anyway, fix it again for probably the 5th time in total today. But the diff isn’t working right, only powers one wheel.
Much head scratching ensues.
Oh well, it’s another problem for another week.

Clear up workbench and spot something.

Bollocks

Nothing more beer can’t solve

Got around to removing that stuck wheel bolt today. First attempt with the special tool a couple of weeks back just stripped the spline on the tool. With a new tool bit to hand, I drilled the middle of the bolt to relieve it slightly and it came out nicely.



With that wheel finally off, I noticed it has a LOT of weights on it. That’s now prime suspect for the vibration. I’ve swapped the wheels front-rear; if I now get big vibration through the steering that will confirm it.

Also spotted several missing fixings on the undertray on that side so that might have been banging about too. Replaced some of them but they’re a weird difficult design that breaks really easily. Need to buy more.

I've been doing a few jobs on the Beetle over the last couple of weeks. I've replaced pretty much all of the ignition components, plugs, leads, rotor arm, cap etc and the improvement in how the engine runs is very noticeable. A vacuum hose was looking a bit worse for wear so I replaced that too and also tweaked the timing slightly. The engine had an occasional hesitation which is much improved now.

One of the brake lights has been intermittently failing to work and swapping the bulb didn't solve it so I stripped the light unit down and cleaned everything up with a bit of wet and dry and at the moment it is working. The car is 58 years old and parts such as the light internals are very fragile now.

The drivers door has always needed a hefty slam/push to close it so today I spent a good hour refitting the door rubber seal and aligning the catch and striker plate and now it closes...just like a Golf

It's great to have a classic to fiddle with again with no pressure to have it ready for the work commute.

Washed three cars yesterday. The Mini hadn’t been done for a couple of years so in particular was a bit dusty.

Massive driveway envy

Gave Steve a clean and fresh layer of sealent as yesterday it got covered in Seagull poop at Scarborough.
Recently got a pair of new front tyres (Continent CrossContacts to match the existing rears) and tracking done.
Last month I had to top the oil up (1 litre in 6 months).
No other updates since we have had the car as been boringly reliable and exceptionally average to drive.

Filled up my car and noticed the local petrol station now preapproves payment up to £200. Hopefully not foreshadowing the near future! But I guess it's only a matter of time eh.