StevesTruck

Did you pre-fill the caliper with fluid? I've found it helps a lot on VW rear calipers.

No reason not to, I'm of the belief that keeping the oil fresh in a diesel makes it live longer. Just make sure you're using the right spec oil for your engine, and check you've got the right tools for removing the filter before you start.

Interested to see see how you get on with the MG. I've heard they're utilitarian, but in a good way.

That's anything with a canbus to be fair, so most cars made in this century

It mostly goes down to the level of systems it can read and change, and the cars it can work on. I have a £20 Lidl's scanner in the glovebox. It'll tell me ECU and ABS fault codes so I can go Google them, turn a service light off on most older cars, and that's about it. When my van put an engine light on 100 miles from home, it gave me a code to google so I could make a decision whether to continue, and turned the light off. That's all I wanted. My brother's got a Snap on Solus. It'll give him the fault code, live data, test a systems operation (power it up, see if it works) and a guide as to what the fault means and some common fixes. I was chasing a fault on a Peugeot, it told me what the code meant, a few things to check with a meter and how to fix it. Then you've got stuff like VCDS, which will be able to look at all the car's systems, give fault codes, show the live data from the system, do output checks, let you recode modules.... but only on VAG. I've got it, when I bought it, it was the thing to have. The level of stuff it can do on VAG cars is pretty comprehensive (except security systems), but it's a bit clunky to use and you really need a laptop. Last time I used it, it identified a faulty injector on my Polo, told me which one it was, what was wrong with it, and then allowed me to code the replacement in. Then there's the Chinese stuff, Topdon and the like. Mine was £350, it can do pretty much anything VCDS can do, but on any car, and it's fairly easy to use for most things. But.... some of the interface is a can be written in Engrish, and there's no real guarantee that it's going to do the right thing to your car, and still be working a few years down the line. So really, it's down to what you want to work on, what you want to be able to do on it, and what sort of brand do you want to buy? Yeah, VCDS is amazing, if you want to spend a few hours geeking out changing settings or tracing an awkward fault on a Skoda, but it's a no real use when your mate's Fiesta throws an ABS light.

Guessing it's the bit closest to the camera giving you the trouble? As long as it's not the actual arm itself, only the sleeve inside the bush that's touching the subframe, that's fine, just knock it in unless it's obviously well over sized. If in doubt, wind the bolt in and out without the arm there to see what it feels like. If you're reusing the original bolt, it'll probably want a good wire-brushing to clean it up. At risk of stating the obvious, leave the outer ball joint (the one that goes in the bottom of the wheel hub carrier) until last.

Depends what you're carrying?

https://wiki.ross-tech.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Fault_Codes

When I did the gearbox on my old pickup, I had the car on stands. You'll need to get under to pull the driveshafts out and undo all the bell housing bolts, so how far you want to lift it depends on your physique. Bear in mind it's a Skoda box, not a VW one, so the driveshaft has a spline that goes into the box and makes the oil seal, rather than bolting onto an output shaft. By necessity, I did mine on axle stands, and lifted the box out the top (it wasn't particularly heavy).

I'm trying to work out why you would need a specialist tool. Is it just to lock the clutch arm? I did a gearbox on a 1.6 years ago and can't remember it being anything special at the gearbox end (never took the pedal box end of the cable off). My normal method of doing a clutch cable is press the pedal, get a volunteer to hold the clutch arm in place with a crowbar, release the pedal and the cable should be loose to move.

Sounds like the recirculating flap motor is skipping teeth when it tries to open. Is the A/C actually a factor, or does it do it when just the fan's on?

It's a support for the handbrake cable. There should be another one on the other side if you want a pattern to look at when you're refitting it

You know you're arguing over an 8 year old post right?

Sniffer kits are cheap enough these days, I'd start there personally.

The only obvious mod is the exhaust, I'm guessing at the very least, it's been mapped though

Just comes up as a Scout TDI 140 on my check, so I'd assume it's just been modified.

Yeah, they do fit at some filling stations. I dodged a bullet the other week nearly doing the same thing at a Shell garage. Personally, I'd keep the tank filled above half for as many miles as possible, so it keeps any contamination as diluted as possible, but that's really splitting hairs, and not one to worry about either way.

I don't know much about valeting stuff, but could be worth heating it up to see if it melts and reforms as it should? Stand the can in a bucket of hot water?

A litre should be fine, I'd always say buy an extra one just in case and take it back if you don't need it.

Last time it had an engine put in, the only thing they'd got to lend her was a Stinger GT. That and she's got a habit of picking up a courtesy car with a full tank of fuel and taking it back on less than fumes 🤣

I don't know how much they're sharing tech with Kia (I know if used to be a lot), but a mate of mine's got a Sportage that's on it's 3rd engine. 7 year warranty though, so she's not bothered

Washing up liquid's a bad idea. Dishwasher tablets work well though. I could be wrong, but - My instinct is, the heater matrix is blocked and the system's got a load of rad weld and/or crap in it.

That makes me think the easiest thing to do is pull a full beam with the brakes on off an old Ibiza/Polo/Fabia. I've not tried it on one of these cars, but on my old Polo, there was quite a bit of adjustment left in the compensator before the back end was anywhere near to going twitchy.

Yep, I can imagine the back end of a Grinall letting go in the wet would be quite an emotional experience.

The 1mm minimum on the grinall is probably because it's a legally a bike not a car as tyres go. Still not a good idea though.