StevesTruck

Start simple, check your battery leads and all the heavy leads to the ground, starter and alternator for damage and corrosion. There's a little fuse box on top of the battery with your maxi fuses in, I'm pretty much expecting one of these to be damaged, probably just a hairline crack. Inspect these carefully and give them a prod with a little screwdriver to see if the crack shows.

I've got a Makita one, basically what I'd call a floorboard saw. It's a handy little tool, just don't expect too much out of it. I go with the rule that if I can bend the material with my fingers, it will do it, or in other terms, if the jigsaw will cut it, this will, just a bit quicker. Ryobi stuff's alright for occassional DIY use.

There's not a lot between them on paper, so I'd go on condition of the individual cars. Personally, I'd generally avoid any small turbo'd petrol engine, particularly in a bigger car. I'm not convinced about their reliability.

He's asking about updating a "Swing" radio on a 2017 Skoda Octavia and providing the version numbers.

Yeah, that's pretty poor. If it's an old style skoda key, they're pretty easy to rake. Give me half an hour with my cheap and nasty pick set and I can normally get them and I don't really know what I'm doing. If it's the newer-style VAG door locks, they're pretty trivial if you have the right lishi pick.

Set the cables evenly, whip the drums off, back the adjusters off. Check the end of the cable at wheel is sat evenly on each side. Get an assistant to gently work the handbrake lever while you watch how much free play there if before the shoes start to move. I'm guessing you've got a stretched cable. If it's not a stretched cable, take it all apart, clean, lubricate (including the backplates) and reassemble.

I just push the pin hard with my finger and put the clip on with a pair of combination pliers. If you can't push down hard enough, put a 5p in the finger of a pair or gardening gloves and push with that.

Not exactly hard to check, just grab the tie rod and give it a pull in and out, feel for a knock. You change the joint with the rod "drumstick" as a lot of places call them. They're not expensive, but it's worth paying that bit more for a good brand. It can be a bit of a mare to change then, even with the right size crowsfoot socket, and the car will want re-tracking, so I generally get somewhere to do them for me.

If the window is open a bit, I'd probably start with either a long bit of stiff wire, some pallet banding or even a bit of string and see if I can get on either a window winder, or a lock pin.

Might be a bit out of your way, but these are good at what they do https://lincolncarkeyman.co.uk/

I'd always try to pick a problem apart before throwing parts at it. Actually, this is confusing, are you both talking about the same fault on the same car?

If it's a diesel, it's highly unlikely to be an immobiliser fault. Most likely the fuel pump relay (feel if it's clicking, if not, tap it with something metal), the wire to the stop valve, or the stop valve itself (whip it out, remove the plunger). D's need the stop valve, SDI's don't really need it, so you can pretty much just leave it with the plunger out if you're not discerning.

If the caddy jack is a dogleg one it should be fine* to use on the skoda. I'd just get a brace off any random scrap VAG car. Maybe a wheel and tyre too if there's space. *When I say "fine" I mean no less dodgy AF as they are to use on the Caddy.

Personally, I: Build the shoes up in the vice, biggest spring down to the smallest spring. Yank the handbrake cable out of the spring it's in with a pair of pliers,push the spring back and hold it with an old blunt set of side cutters. Hook the cable on the arm Hang the shoes on the back plate (you might need to take the bottom spring off to get it over the hub. Brake spring hooks are amazing tools and dirt cheap.

Which lights? I'd suspect a battery issue, battery connection issue, damaged maxi fuse or a clocks fault personally.

Removed the errrr... racking

If I've already told you why he's called Shaun, keep it to yourself, otherwise, pipe up when you get it! I'm not normally into modern vehicles, but work were selling this, and, well, shiny things. It's like they say about Volvo's, everyone ends up in one sooner or later

The 1.6TDI has issues with it's injectors, at that age, I'd want to see some evidence it's had a set, or factor in needing one or two in the next couple of years.

Just the wheel off, maybe unplug the sensor if you want to, then just manipulate the cable and look for splits opening up.

Carefully check the flexible cables that go down to the ABS sensor for splits, they can hide on the inside of the curves in the cable. It might not be the cause, but it's free to have a look. What did the fault codes say?

That's a weird one, it looks like the flexi's wrong for the caliper if anything. There's no chance the flexi's upside down is there? I'm wondering if the banjo's thicker on one side than the other.

I did mine a couple of years ago and don't recall them being particularly bad. I was most likely working on axle stands in the yard. I probably jacked the car up and gave them a spray with whatever was in the shed the night before and left it to soak. I think you can get to the bottom end of the bolt with a can with a straw on to spray it up - that's probably well worthwhile. I've got it in my head that I used a long spline bit on an extension so I could knock it all the way into the head of the bolt, then had the bar behind the spring and shock, rather than in front of it, as per the picture. I'm not totally sure on that though, like I say, it wasn't particularly memorable, so it can't have been that bad. I normally use a 600mm breaker bar and a set of cheap impact-rated spline bits for that sort of job. I've got a feeling I didn't use the impact gun because I couldn't get it in the space available. When I'm trying to get a spline or stardrive off, I normally give them a yank in the wrong direction first to break the rust seal without damaging the bits of the head I'm going to rely on to loosen it. Applying constant force doesn't break fixing loose, you need to shock them. Don't know if any of that's any help, I'm just sat in my armchair

I always find they come out easier if the engine's warm - guessing you've dropped the oil though, so probably a bit late for captain hindsight. I normally just use my little 10.8v cordless impact driver and don't have a problem.

Probably just the fuel and air in the can expanding with the temperature. The cans are designed to be airtight and expand and contract, so it's nothing to worry about.

Looks like they've drawn on the Pontiac Aztek for design cues.