About to embark on Skoda ownership, Superb L&K Estate

[commievid]

Some random mucking around whilst it's still light outside, and decided to remove the kick panel:

 

So a tiny bit more vacuuming required! What this has done has given me an angle of attack:

 

So the connectors for the BCM can just about be reached:

 

So there's a tiny black tab which keeps the large white swinging bit of the connector in place, so push that in and then get another finger to swing that bit down, and away:

 

Luckily, this is the 73 pin connector that's needed. If I do some more extreme retrofits in the future (read: ventilated seats), then I'll probably need access to the other 73 pin connector, which looks extremely tight in place, in fact, it looks like that connector is actually fouled by it's own wiring, so some brute (yet gentle!) force for moving of the wiring may be required if I need to delve deeper.

 

For now, the connector has a couple of black locking tabs, which when lifted, allowed the two white connectors to be separated from the black housing:

 

It's just about visible on the black connector, with the white part which is doing the locking much more obvious.

 

So having a look at the connectors, they're labelled enough so that one connector containing pin 14 is pretty easy to spot:

 

The photo makes the 13 label for the empty end pin difficult to see, but it implies 14 is next to it, and a white wire is present as per wiring diagrams. I will either need to splice in the wireless charger cable to this one, or do something fancy involving removing this pin from this connector block and some sort of fancy adapter and crimping in order to not butcher the original wiring.

 

I'll have to plan accordingly.

 

So the current retrofits in flight are the wireless charger and the heated steering wheel.

 

At the moment, my other wish list retrofits are ventilated seats and the foot sensor to open the tailgate. Both look like they'd be fairly reasonable price wise if I stick to AliExpress, but both imply even more intricate/fiddly wiring (harness to seats, and harness from front to the rear bumper), but I suppose I'm getting enough experience and familiarity with this interior!

 

I will need to splice extensions to the Kufatec loom, so will be doing that sometime this week, and probably just connect the ground and power to the fuse box whilst leaving the rest of that loom disconnected (even unwired), so that way the intricate fusebox stuff is done and the rest of the interior can actually be reassembled.

 

That way, I can actually get the power up and running, get the car more centred on the driveway, and then presumably turn the car off, but then turn the ignition on and then disconnect the battery, in order to leave the steering column unlocked so I can have a think about changing the steering wheel (or at the very least, hook up the rest of the Kufatec loom).

 

Maintenance: £1678.25

Upgrades: £765.68

Miscellaneous: £603.58

[nicknorman]

3 hours ago, commievid said:

At the moment, my other wish list retrofits are ... the foot sensor to open the tailgate.

 

 

The car already has the "virtual pedal" which is what I think you are talking about? Wave your foot just under the rear bumper area to open the boot?

It seems to work well when the car is locked, much more reluctant when the car is not locked. No idea why, but the new car seems to  be much the same. Maybe it relates to having the folding tow ball (both the cars have that).  And the key fob has to be close but not too close.

Edited 18 March by nicknorman

[commievid]

Oh, well that's that sorted then

 

Lemme rummage through the PR codes...

 

Looks like PR-4E6 "Sensor-controlled luggage compartment opener" is the match. So guess I give that a go when I get the power back on.

Edited 18 March by commievid

[commievid]

So this morning, got some cardboard, slid under the car to have a gander at the rear bumper:

 

Indeedy, the connectors for the foot sensor/virtual pedal.

 

Double checked just to be sure it's all present and correct:

 

Above is the foremost line. With the rearmost:

 

Tucked into the bumper a bit more, so yeah, need to learn how to use it now! I did notice the screw not actually doing its job on one of the pics, so I'll sort that out when I start the suspension stuff proper.

 

As per the last pic, this trailer hitch also came as a surprise:

 

I was debating whether I would need this to really hammer home this being the workhorse, but hey ho its already there and present. I mean, there is a lever sort of thing in the boot, but didn't realise what it was for!

 

This stuff also arrived today:

 

Now, whether I needed a replacement backrest frame is up for discussion (read: I did not). When I lifted the rear carpet bit off the frame as per the workshop manual instructions, I found it not going back flat and flush.

 

I probably should have just used an iron and that would have probably sufficed, but this was £30 from eBay for a brand new one, so decided why not.

 

The same seller also had the exact piece of trim that I snapped when removing the centre console, so added that as well. £25, so £55 all in.

 

Had to transfer the Bowden cable over to this new one, which was more of a faff than it should have been, but hopefully that's done.

 

I haven't been able to get the Kufatec loom's power terminal into the fusebox. I suspect it's a size too big, maybe for a normal fuse rather than the mini ones needed for fuse 4. I did some swotting up and found 000 979 133 E be mentioned for 0.5-1mm wiring.

 

Ordered some from https://auto-connectors.co.uk/products/10x-for-audi-vw-skoda-seat-porsche-wiring-crimp-repair-terminals-pins-000979133e 

 

The above site also has 000 979 227 E which look a lot more like the ones on the Kufatec loom, and according to https://auto-connectors.co.uk/products/audi-vw-skoda-seat-porsche-10-x-wiring-crimp-repair-terminals-pins-000979227e is for wiring from 2.5-5.0, so am thinking it's a size up, hence it not fitting the fuse box. The wiring diagrams suggest it's a 10a circuit with 1mm wiring, so I'm hoping I've ordered the right stuff.

 

I'll sort out appropriate wiring as well, probably try and match the colours in the wiring diagram. Going to see if I can come up with some sort of adapter for that pin 14 in the 73 pin connector, probably some splicing on the new harness to a small 1 or 2 pin connector, or something appropriately contrived.

 

Maintenance: £1733.25 (+£55.00)

Upgrades: £765.68

Miscellaneous: £603.58

Edited 19 March by commievid

[commievid]

The stuff from auto connectors arrived today:

 

So a side by side comparisons shows it's much smaller, so hopefully that means it'll slot right into the fuse box.

 

Order came to £9.44, with £1.46 being a set of 10 of the actual connectors, but I also spent £4.99 on some fabric loom tape, for dressing up any wiring I put (bodge) together, and probably use throughout the car to see if helps against rattling and stuff. £2.99 to ship.

 

I'll just need to find my crimping tool...

 

Maintenance: £1733.25

Upgrades: £775.12 (+£9.44)

Miscellaneous: £603.58

[nicknorman]

On 19/03/2024 at 12:22, commievid said:

As per the last pic, this trailer hitch also came as a surprise:

 

I was debating whether I would need this to really hammer home this being the workhorse, but hey ho its already there and present. I mean, there is a lever sort of thing in the boot, but didn't realise what it was for!

 

 

 

Just FYI, when I was going to buy the car there was the retracting tow ball that I needed, but no reversing camera. All that great expanse of white plastic bumper... asking for trouble! So I got them to retrofit the factory camera system before I bought it. I think it was just the early (2016) L&K 280 tsi that didn't have the camera as standard. Never mind, it is there now!

 

If you do any towing, bear in mind that as soon as you plug in the trailer electrics, the side assist and rear traffic alert are automatically disabled. When you unplug the trailer electrics, these two systems do not automatically re-arm! (They do on my new car) So it can be a bit misleading if you are expecting the rear traffic alert or side assist to work as normal, but in fact they are disabled without any obvious indication. You need to remember to re-activate them once the trailer is unplugged. Also with the camera, there is a useful "look down" mode that looks down onto the tow ball and a line to tell you where to put the steering wheel to hit the tow hitch directly. And of course when to stop!

Edited 20 March by nicknorman

[commievid]

Wires came later in the day:

 

Just a couple of strands of 1mm thinwall, tried to match the colours according to the wiring diagram, so red and black for power, and brown and white for the ground.

 

Managed to find my crimping tool, but my wire strippers are in the attic, so couldn't be bothered to retrieve them.

 

Stripped about 5mm of wire on the newly proposed power wire with scissors and fingernails:

 

Then got the usual hand gymnastics to get it in place with the crimper:

 

Then I usually crimp on in two stages, the outer tabs into the insulation, and the inner as tight as possible onto the exposed wire:

 

It was at this point that I released I either needed to cut the existing ground wire, and splice the longer length in two places, or crimp a ring terminal onto the new ground wire. So I've gone and ordered some. The metal frame supporting the dashboard appears to have 3 bolts, with the upper one looking like an M8 bolt, so I've ordered some ring terminals to suit.

 

The wires came to £5.76 from eBay. They should be 2m lengths each which looks to be more than enough.

 

I got a little bored, so decided to look at the two steering wheels sitting there. The two spoke one is a little worse for wear, amazing what a pair of 2020 wheels can look like under different ownerships. The chrome trim around the centre especially looked chipped and worn, more befitting a much older car.

 

So decided to see if it can be removed. Definitely recommend trim removal tools here. It lifts up fairly easily around the buttons on the left and right, but the thinner bit across the top and bottom do feel like a more careful touch is required:

 

It does eventually start to pop out though:

 

There are four connectors to the trim (and buttons), one at the bottom and is clamped in place with a T20 screw, and another tiny one on the left (I guess for the heated steering wheel to act as a thermostat?). The remaining two are connected to the DSG paddles.

 

There are also T20 screws keeping those paddles in place, so once undone, all can be removed:

 

 

So I guess I could do the same on the better condition wheel if I wanted to transplant it onto this one. I honestly don't know why I've done this, guess it's an easy thing to do whilst sitting at my desk.

 

Maintenance: £1733.25

Upgrades: £780.88 (+£5.76)

Miscellaneous: £603.58

[commievid]

Some more mucking about, this time, removing the side bits next to the rear seats:

They are fixed in place with a single nut at the bottom, undone with a 10mm socket.

 

Now, the first one, I lifted straight out with a bit of a shove, leading to:

 

The bottom two plastic tabs to hold in place snapped off. It's a bit frustrating, but I guess can happen. Was much more careful the second time, lifting just enough to clear the captive stud the nut was attached to, then pulled forwards.

 

I think the two lost tabs won't matter in the grand scheme of things. We shall see of course.

 

These arrived today:

 

Some additional fuses. I got some "glow" ones which light up should the fuse be broken. I haven't had complete success with these, where sometimes if they had blown, they would sometimes be a little unpredictable, such as still working, or only lighting up when the circuit was on. Ironically, once individual fuses were involved, or other sets, then the price difference wasn't enough.

 

This set of 30 came to £9.09, which given only two fuses are actually needed (10a for the heated steering wheel, 5a for the wireless charger), complete overkill. Could replace a few of the existing ones with these I suppose.

 

This also arrived:

 

A comprehensively wrapped:

 

Replacement rear vent as the original is missing its left tab/handle thingy.

 

Now, upon closer inspection, the foam was a bit soggy:

 

So it gave off a mouldy smell, and worse:

 

This pic doesn't really help show it, but essentially the right side is loose, so the rear part isn't connected to the tab, and I can just about see it being possible to put back in.

 

This is impossible to do as it is, unless you really had the time and patience, so decided to see if I can take the vent apart.

 

The answer is yes:

 

But not without a great deal of patience. There's about 4 tabs on the top keeping it in place, 1 on each side and 2 at the bottom, and they're all very firm in keeping the front attached. Some forceful bending of the tabs is needed, almost to breaking point, but once a couple start coming loose, it can be convinced to be separated:

 

From there, the individual slats can be removed. The rear vertical ones can be coaxed out with a bit of bending, leaving the horizontal ones.

 

There is an additional front bit of trim, which is easier to remove, just some tabs that can be pushed forward to remove the trim, which exposes where the horizontal slats click in place along the centre:

 

Once a few are undone, it just falls apart.

 

Now, once I pulled the tab from the centre slat, a metal bit flew out. After some attempts at trying to guess how this was meant to go back into the tab, I made a decision.

 

With the original right side working fine, and this new one having a working left side, it made sense to transplant the working sides into one frame:

 

This did mean disassembling the original one, so the annoying front assembly, and then having another set of slats all apart.

 

I do not recommend you try this at home, unless you have a great deal of patience. The horizontal slats have a metal guide which is used to keep all the slats in parallel when rotated. This is pretty much an interference fit, with some of the slats hooked in from the outside, and others from the inside.

 

There was no way I was able to take pictures of this, as its extremely fiddly. I think I ended up putting the bottom horizontal slat in place, then the metal guide onto this slat. Then manoeuvred the centre slat so it slots onto that metal guide. Then the opposing middle slat (second from top), with a bit of thin screwdriver action to coax the slat onto the metal guide. Once in place, the metal guide is secure enough for the other two slats to go in without much drama.

 

Then its a case of reassembling the vertical slats, making sure the tab's rear arm slides into the slot of the slat. Apologies for the wording.

 

The vertical slats only really go in one way, as I discovered when I couldn't move the tab vertically if its on the wrong way around.

 

So here's the remains of what was meant to be the replacement vent:

 

With the original vent now having a working left side, left to dry, as I gave it a clean throughout:

 

I'll reassemble it completely later in the evening.

 

The replacement vent cost £24.30 from eBay, and no doubt in the near future an untoward foot will strike this thing and break it again!

 

Maintenance: £1757.55 (+£24.30)

Upgrades: £789.97 (+£9.09)

Miscellaneous: £603.58

[commievid]

Skoda Parts stuff has arrived. Stuff was ordered on Monday, shipped on Tuesday and arrived Friday. Very impressive.

 

This was borne from an earlier post where I noticed the cover for the rear seat backrest Bowden cable thingy looked different:

 

So here they are. The part that will clip into the Bowden cable thingy looks as expected, but the bit around the bushing that slots into the car is a little less obvious:

 

Maybe once the seat cover is in place, this will become a bit more obvious.

 

Also got random bits of replacement trim, such as:

 

Replacements for the rear of the seats, for the Isofix. More to spruce them up as they look a little tired.

 

Also this:

 

The mat for the wireless charger. Now, it looks like the mat has three pegs on the underside, presumably to keep it in place:

 

Which don't marry up to anything on the charger mat I've installed, so it sits a bit proud:

 

I suspect I'll either need to do some more homework, or frankly cut those pegs off, as it looks like it'll fit ok without them.

 

The total cost was €56.26, which looks to be £48.13 on the credit card. The days of nearly €2 to the pound are long gone.

 

I also got these in the mail:

 

The ring terminals for the ground wires for the charger and heated steering wheel, due to wanting to use the M8 bolt on the dashboard frame. From 3 way components via eBay for £2.40 for 10. So loads spare.

 

The size of the terminal crimp bits were just a bit wider than my crimper, so a bit of fiddling in advance was needed:

 

But a bit of persistence got it all crimped up. The first attempt was a bust where the crimp was just too loose and the wire slipped off but not able to get back on.

 

Anyways, time to get them into the car.

 

I read somewhere random on the internet to use a zip tie through the fuse box terminal to help locate where it should go, so gave that a try:

 

It works. With the terminal also latching onto the zip tie, just a bit of careful pushing and pulling and it sorta slots in place. I imagine it clicks into place, but they're tiny terminals so couldn't rely on hearing. The terminal gets into a point where it doesn't pull out, unless with a lot of force. Or, in typical fashion, when you try and insert a fuse into the slot, which then pushes the terminal out.

 

So inserting the terminal again, I used the purple locking bar back in place, which then allowed the fuse to go in. I genuinely can't tell if the fuse is in place and connected to the terminals. Can only hope for the best.

 

So with the wireless charger fuse in place, it was the heated steering wheel next into fuse 4. But attempting to remove the purple locking bar was met with disaster:

 

Decided to snap off and fly somewhere. Luckily the seats aren't all bolted up yet, so lifted it up and found it launched down the centre tunnel:

 

So, left with the remains in the fusebox, obviously one of the tools I know I don't have is needle nose pliers. Rummaging through the garage, the next best thing was a set of circlip pliers, with what looked the closest to needle nose pliers. Some faff but eventually got it free:

 

So pulled it out and inserted the wire intended for the heated steering wheel:

 

It's the silver bit sticking out in fuse 4, the top left, left of the 5A and above the 10A. You can see the new glow fuse at 5A for the wireless charger (I'm hoping that's fuse 16).

 

I tried again to put the new fuse in and out the terminal popped again, so repeat install, and this time, get the remains of the purple locking bar and inserted in partway, with the hope it locks that first fuse terminal in place.

 

I have no idea if that was successful, but the two fuses are now in place:

 

I'll probably have to keep the glovebox disassembled when I power the car up, just in case I need to go back to the fusebox to double check stuff.

 

So the only other thing left is to replace the old ring terminal on the wireless charger harness:

 

With the new one:

 

The wire on this is quite small as evidenced by the crimp probably not securing the wire as much as I'd like. Hopefully it's sufficient.

 

So now they're the right size for that larger captive stud/nut:

 

Hopefully I've routed enough slack in the wiring so that it tidies up ok.

 

So yeah, spoils of war:

 

If anyone knows where I can source a replacement, I'd greatly appreciate it! I've no idea where to start looking.

 

I suppose I could still use the remains and insert it all the way in, and just reply on some pliers should I ever need to remove it again, so probably one of those things that will always bug me if not sorted.

 

Worse case scenario, could source a fusebox from a scrapyard, and then essentially throw most of it away.

 

Maintenance: £1757.55

Upgrades: £840.50 (+£50.53)

Miscellaneous: £603.58

Edited 22 March by commievid

[commievid]

Forgot to mention that I noticed this on the right side rear seat back release latch:

 

I was way too cack handed when removing the trim for the latch, in such a way that I also damaged the latch itself.

 

Found a replacement on eBay. Brand new for £29.99, so decided why not:

 

So you can see the tab on the right hand new one.

 

 

It's also nice and shiny so saves a bit of wiping down.

 

So here it is dry fitted to the right side seat frame. You can see some attempts at planning ahead by simply putting the frame onto the foam, leaving impressions on the foam allowing me to mark up with a sharpie pen.

 

I'll leave this short post for now, because it's a prelude for what was a busy day.

 

Maintenance: £1787.54 (+£29.99)

Upgrades: £840.50

Miscellaneous: £603.58

[commievid]

Today's weather was a bit wild, starting with lovely sunshine, then spots of heavy rain and hail.

 

With the sun out early, decided to tackle that last wire for the wireless charger, to essentially splice into pin 14 of the 73 pin connector on the BCM, the nearest of the three.

 

So with a terminal extractor kit, just found one that would slot into the tab in the connector:

 

Then the connector should pop out.

 

Decided at this stage to see if a bodge could work:

 

Basically just cut the terminal off the wireless charger harness, stripped a bit of the insulation and wrapped it around the connector. Didn't take pics of getting the connector in, but basically eventually forced it in.

 

I got as far as almost getting the connector in place, before the heavens opened:

 

So had to run back into the house sharpish.

 

Not knowing when/if the rain would clear, I guess I couldn't procrastinate any longer:

 

Time to tackle the seats. Started with the right hand side one, from the previous post. So after bolting up the latch up to 23Nm, then clicking the Bowden cable bit onto the frame, I rested the frame onto the foam, and got a bread knife, and a craft knife and started hacking away:

 

For the route of the cable itself, I used the bread knife to try and slice a narrow V channel for it, but I suspect that just a slice would be enough, with the foam being squishy enough to allow the cable to slot into the slice:

 

Easier to see with regular pulling away of the side about how deep to slice the foam. It gets messy!

 

For the rest of the mechanism, it was just a case of slowly hacking away bit by bit, trying to get the foam in place and so on:

 

As more was cut away, the foam was then starting to fit back in place, so at that point, the cover was started to be rolled back on. It was then at an arbitrary point that the cover itself could be put back on.

 

For the right hand seat, one side was left on, so it was a case of attaching the top, bottom, and remaining side. It involved some folding of the plastic channel, and then essentially pushing it into the metal guides of the seat frame until it clicks into place:

 

I then used a sharpie to mark out where the Bowden cable mechanism is, as the next bit now involved cutting a hole in the cover:

 

So started with the knife, then a pair of scissors to enlarge it bit by bit. I had a naff pair, the process here would have been smoother with fabric shears:

 

With the Bowden cable mechanism starting to be revealed, just double checked the cover fitting location:

 

The cover has 5 tabs, with a slightly larger centre one which all locate into the Bowden cable mechanism, so as long as those are seen in the cut cover, it should be sufficient.

 

The other side of the cover has a hook:

 

Started to scratch my head about this, but it appears it could be to keep the other Bowden cable in place:

 

So presumably it'll help keep the Bowden cable to the boot relatively aligned. Without this cover, I would assume the cable would enter the seat in the same location as the wiring for the heater elements. With this, the cable appears to be remain outside:

 

So one thing I had to do in addition is to the cut the foam where the cable runs along in order to sit it in place once it is installed (as seen above where I've attached it to the mechanism).

 

So essentially, that's it for the right hand seat, the final step of attaching the above cable and the cover presumably can only be done once the cable is attached to the boot itself, which also means the removal of the boot trim, which is an entire thing for another day.

 

So cracked on with the other seat:

 

As you can see, I got a little more cack handed with this one, but nevertheless, the same approach as the other side.

 

So the same procedure to get the cover back on and mark out where to cut the cover:

 

For whatever reason, the cover on this left side backrest was a bit more awkward to click into place. Not sure why, but it was a case of persevering. Probably could have been due to attempting to get the plastic channel into the metal frame but having a squishy seat foam underneath.

 

Got there in the end:

 

With the cover cut as well:

 

Less neater than the other side, but I was probably a bit more nonchalant due the cover eventually sorting that out.

 

With that done, the bits of trim on the seats were ready to go back on. For the left side, I removed the headrest guides, so those were slotted back in, just with a push into the frame, then the headrest back on:

 

The newly purchased rear isofix cover was inserted:

 

For the left, I hadn't removed the old one, so here's a pic of removal:

 

There are two hooks top and bottom of the trim, so the trim tool pushes them inwards to allow the trim to be lifted up, then the new one is pushed into place:

 

So only really the release lever trims to install, which I'll leave until later. Hopefully, that means the seats are good to go.

 

It was at this point that both the weather picked up, and also some deliveries arrived. That'll be for the next post.

 

Maintenance: £1787.54

Upgrades: £840.50

Miscellaneous: £603.58

[commievid]

As noted in the last post, some deliveries:

 

I can't remember where I found the information, but it eventually led me to take a punt on this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204450772668 which is according to eBay a TE MQS connector. It was ordered 15 March and arrived today, so a week from China. Can't complain. Cost £3.90.

 

The idea is that if the original pin 14 terminal is inserted into one end of the plug, then the other plug could have a pin that essentially has two wires, one for the wireless charger and one to go into the BCM. Probably harder to explain than to show.

 

Took the now cut off terminal from the wireless charger loom and test fitted it into the black connector, which looked to be a perfect fit, so had enough confidence that the original pin 14 will also slot in the same.

 

These also arrived:

 

In anticipation of servicing the car, I got a Fumoto valve, based on searching on the Internet for its size, so F106N. I use them on all my cars as it saves on the effort around sump drain plugs and also of seals, such as the ones above.

 

I've discovered however that the sump on these engines are plastic, so a bit of swotting around, and it looks like its probably just easier to replace the o-rings on the plastic drain plug when necessary. So here's what I'm hoping are the right size, a pack of 10 for £6.63, from https://www.totallyseals.com/products/12mm-x-3mm-viton-o-rings?variant=31167404048418.

 

I'll have to price in the wasted Fumoto valve I guess, £42.70 from Amazon, exacerbated by there being no UK distributor for Fumoto valves anymore, hence the higher price. Such a shame.

 

This then drives it home:

 

I could have used a flat screwdriver to undo the sump plug, but decided to do it a bit more properly, so another thing from eBay, £4.56. Sod's law I'll still end up being cack handed and do some damage with these plastic bits, but fingers crossed.

 

So as mentioned earlier, of course the weather picked up a bit, so I guess I had to redo the whole bit with that pin 14 wire:

 

I put the fusebox back into place and clicked it into place as seen above.

 

This hopefully confirms the general routing approach for the heated steering wheel and wireless charger. It goes behind the fusebox, up between part of the dashboard metal panel, and across, above the cabin filter, then down to the centre tunnel to where the wireless charger will be, with the heated steering wheel wiring then going further to end up somewhere roughly under the steering column, which I'll then sort out later (as it'll need splicing into the Kufatec loom).

 

So a bit of deja vu:

 

Now, the original plan was to cut an bit of the wire from the wireless charger loom, then take a male terminal and splice both that and the rest of the charger loom into the single terminal and insert it into the connector. The original pin 14 is inserted into the other connecter and thus hopefully creates the effect of splicing without touching the original loom.

 

I didn't take pics because it was a bit delicate and then a disaster. Normally crimping two wires into a terminal is possible, but these terminals are a bit smaller, so the resulting terminal couldn't go into the housing, resulting in the terminal snapping whilst I was forcing it in!

 

I basically only had one life left as there was no spare terminals.

 

So had to chicken out and rely on the butt splice:

 

So the above illustrates roughly the intention. The right wire has the female terminal intended for the actual BCM connector, and the newly spliced male terminal will be attached to the other end of the butt terminal in addition to the rest of the wireless charger loom.

 

This is it back in the car and crimped:

 

Unfortunately I wasn't able to find my heat gun, it's probably somewhere in the deepest darkest corners of my garage. So had to improvise, with a soldering iron that I found instead:

 

Not ideal, so decided to wrap the result in some loom tape just to try and make it look a bit more OEM:

 

So the 2 pin terminal is seen above alongside the plug that is now fully assembled. So you can sort of see that the original pin diverts away from the plug, into the black connector, and that goes into the splice, which then goes into the BCM plug, and the other wire going to the charger. Who knows if I've cocked it up.

 

With that all plugged in, decided to utilise the nice weather and start putting back the rest of the interior.

 

Started with the arm rest:

 

The furthest left bolt is the most annoying as it fouls that little deep bit in the cubby hole, so the centre console needs to be lifted to get enough clearance. The bolts are tightened to 6Nm, which isn't much, but luckily I have a small range torque wrench for the purpose as seen above. It just about fits.

 

Once done, the rest of the centre console can be tightened up, it should be 6 torx screws, T20 in size. These are all 1.5Nm, which I don't think warrants a torque wrench, just a nip with the wrist should do it.

 

The wireless charger was then fiddled into place. The AliExpress cradle is naff and the charger keeps popping out, which is very annoying, but I suppose allowed for the wiring to be connected and any other bits pulled through:

 

Then two T20 torx screws on the front of the storage compartment/wireless charger.

 

Then it was the glovebox, which was two screws at the bottom, and four along the top, with a bunch of connectors, for two lights, one presumably as a switch for the light inside the glovebox, and also to wiggle the head unit wiring to make sure it doesn't foul anything.

 

The glovebox surround has a plastic tab on the left that locates into the dashboard, presumably to help keep it in place whilst all of the other gubbins is installed.

 

Then the head unit was connected. The connectors are all reasonably self explanatory, matching up the colours, etc.

 

Decided at this point to connect up all the centre console switches, and connect the battery negative terminal, and fire up the car!

 

Even after a couple of weeks, the car started up. Whole bunch of warning lights and messages though. No ACC, no ParkAssist, no ESC, and an airbag warning. Not sure why, but could be due to the rear of the car actually not connected up possibly.

 

Either way, took the opportunity to get the car rolling on the driveway, and move it around to centre it ready for future work.

 

I noticed at this point that the DAB radio wasn't working (no antenna signal showing on the screen), had a bit of a panic, so had to look at the head unit again.

 

Quick check on the internet suggests the black connector is the DAB antenna, so looking at it, noticed that the centre connector was a little off centre, so got my trusty thin screwdriver (it's been doing a lot of heavy lifting that thing), and tried to wedge it towards the middle.

 

Reconnected, got the car into ignition, and the radio was back on, so panic over. Was then happy to slot the head unit home:

 

It's nearly looking like a car now!

 

With the car in ignition, I then disconnected the negative terminal, hopefully meaning the steering column lock isn't engaged, so I can take off the lower steering column (I suppose I could install the Kufatec loom straight away whilst there). Not sure if I'm brave enough to actually go and swap the steering wheel now (one thing at a time, etc.)

 

Hopefully most of the errors are just the car not being on for ages and a drive helps most of them, and that the VCDS can clear any of the airbag fault codes. We shall see I suppose.

 

This whole day was from 8am to 5pm, not sure how it took the whole day.

 

Tomorrow should be much more calmer weather wise, so I'll finish up the interior tomorrow, or maybe start on some of the mechanical bits finally!

 

Maintenance: £1794.17 (+£6.63)

Upgrades: £887.10 (+£46.60)

Miscellaneous: £608.14 (+£4.56)

[nicknorman]

Just on the sump drain plug thing, you are supposed to replace the plastic sump plug each time. Not a big deal as they are about £3.50 from TPS.
Recently I made a stupid mistake. I’d run out of the pukka drain plugs and didn’t want to go to TPS so I ordered a couple from eBay. They were much the same price as the TPS ones, but would come through the letter box. I drained the oil and put a new sump plug in. Ran the engine in the garage a bit to check the oil level. Everything fine…

 

Next morning I came down to about 5 litres of oil all over the garage floor. This definitely spoiled my day! Still, could have been worse, I might have run out of oil when driving! Turned out the O ring on the plug was the wrong size - just slightly too thin - and this allowed the oil to drip out over night.

 

Needless to say I then made the trip to TPS. So the moral is don’t use anything except the pukka sump plug from TPS unless you are CERTAIN it is the exact right size!

[commievid]

41 minutes ago, nicknorman said:

Just on the sump drain plug thing, you are supposed to replace the plastic sump plug each time. Not a big deal as they are about £3.50 from TPS.
Recently I made a stupid mistake. I’d run out of the pukka drain plugs and didn’t want to go to TPS so I ordered a couple from eBay. They were much the same price as the TPS ones, but would come through the letter box. I drained the oil and put a new sump plug in. Ran the engine in the garage a bit to check the oil level. Everything fine…

 

Next morning I came down to about 5 litres of oil all over the garage floor. This definitely spoiled my day! Still, could have been worse, I might have run out of oil when driving! Turned out the O ring on the plug was the wrong size - just slightly too thin - and this allowed the oil to drip out over night.

Happy to be the guinea pig regarding the o-rings. I'll probably source a few drain plugs, or entertain more drastic options if I find it all too much of a faff (read: replace sump).

[commievid]

Another long day, easier because the sun was out especially in the afternoon. Was a bit windier in the morning, so spent that within the car.

 

Started to reassemble the rear of the centre console. Don't make the same mistake I did and forget to put the air vent back in:

 

I then realised an additional mistake:

 

Luckily I got the rear vent and tried to roughly guess where it would end up, and the air vents were nowhere near one another. So I removed the rear trim (again) and rejigged the air vent:

 

It finished up much higher, and more importantly, more in line with the rear vent where the foam was now seated as expected.

 

Did some rejigging to make sure the wiring is in the correct place, two connectors for the rear climate controls, and the light and 12v socket connector at the bottom:

 

The ashtray/storage/12v socket bits comprises of 3 bits; the outer trim, which clips into the tray, which together clip into an inner part. The inner part was a push fit into place:

 

The pic also shows roughly locating the top part with the rear climiate controls already inserted into the replacement trim purchased a few days back. The pic also shows the actual tray connected up. Forgot to clip the connector into place:

 

There's a couple of tabs that keep the connector in place, which I didn't sort out the first time, which led to what I assume is the tray fouling the wiring and not closing fully.

 

Once that was sorted, the rear vent light connector was plugged in, and it attached to the piano black trim, and that all clipped into place:

 

 

The rear is pretty much done, feels like a good milestone!

 

With the back of the car actually pretty clear and empty, and me being rather short, I decided to crawl into the boot and start having a go at the trim, which I'll need to eventually remove in order to install the remaining Bowden cables that connect to the rear seats.

 

So firstly, some of the easy bits:

 

The rear hooks that fold down expose some Torx bolts (as opposed to screws). These are T30 in size, chunkier than others such as those in the centre console, but that's presumably due to them being part of the hook assembly. The blank where the rear seat lever goes is slap bang in the middle, which we'll get to later.

 

The rear most hook needs a bit of contortion, where it needs to be pushed in a bit, then lifted up slightly:

 

This will either then pop out and fly across the boot, or be in a position to be coaxed out:

 

Revealing a T20 screw:

 

In addition to the this one, and the two T30 bolts, there is also another T20 screw at the front most of the trim:

 

At this point, I started to loosen the trim:

 

It pops out from the bottom along a few places, and the front also clips out near the window.

 

It didn't come free though, so started pulling additional trim, specifically, the D pillar trim:

 

Did this on the other side as well, as it came out relatively straightforwardly:

 

Eagle eyed readers may notice the remaining the T20 screw on the trim:

 

So once removed, you can then pull the trim free, and separate the electrical connectors. For the right side, one for the 12v socket, and one for something I'm not actually sure about:

 

The other side also has this unknown connector, in addition to the charger for the removable torch thingy:

 

I didn't take anymore pics around this point. To free the trim completely, you also need to undo the M10 spline bit bolts attaching the rear seat belt anchor point to the chassis. This is then weaved through the trim opening. I bolted the anchors back in just in case.

 

I didn't take pics primarily because of this:

 

The blanks that need to be removed in order to install the seat release levers:

 

These were a PAIN to remove. They are kept in place by essentially two tabs on the trim, but they were an absolute nightmare to get free. Some force with the trim removal tools and some perseverence seemed to be the only way to remove them.

 

Anyways, with that done, I took the trims back into the house to give them a clean up. They're a little scratched up, the life of a fully utilised Estate I suppose.

 

I took to then distracting myself by taking apart the lower steering column trim. Three T20 screws a la lots of the interior screws:

 

A couple of electrical connectors, with the engine start button connector being a little more awkward (thin screwdriver as per usual).

 

This leaves the clock springs as seen from below:

 

I started to connect up the Kufatec loom:

 

Before I realised it wasn't actually going to fit into the clock spring because it's the non heated steering wheel.

 

I took that as a cue to take a break, coinciding with lunch. 

 

Maintenance: £1794.17

Upgrades: £887.10

Miscellaneous: £608.14

[commievid]

With the afternoon looking bright, I decided to finally do something not with the interior:

 

First pic of the engine bay I guess? I've taken the engine cover off a while ago, giving it a clean. On my wife's old 1.2 Seat Ibiza, the cover also housed the filter, which is neat, but as far as I can tell, as per far too many modern (usually German) engines, its just a lump of pointless plastic. But anyways.

 

I probably should have structured the day a bit better. I decided to randomly try and remove the windscreen cowl/plenum cover:

 

So removed the two metal clips with some gentle persuasion with some Knipex pliers, which is definitely overkill.

 

The seal is then next.

 

It then occurred to me that I would need to remove the windscreen wipers. So decided I'll leave that for another day for now. I've ordered replacement windscreen cowls ages ago now, and you can't see on the pic above the damage to the left of the trim.

 

Want to remove them primarily to gain access to the three bolts each side for the suspension, but also to inevitably give that whole area a clean.

 

But yeah, decided at this point to jack up the front. Got a trolley jack onto the sill, and then axle stands roughly under the rubber bit slightly inwards. Well, the right side had a rubber cover, and the left had nothing:

 

I noticed the jack was awful close to the stand, meaning I couldn't get the axle stand dead centre. Hopefully it's good enough. I'll probably need to source some jack adapters to aid locating them (and to fill that missing one on the front left.

 

Wasn't jacked up super high, but potentially enough to get working on it. Ideally I want the car to be as level as possible ready for the Haldex and DSG oil fills, but that'll be something I'll sort out a little later.

 

So noticed this:

 

In addition to:

 

So the mudflap needs replacing, and there's a missing retaining bit on the right side underside plastic panel. I lifted the panel down slightly:

 

So that's an ominous amount of mud. I'll need to remove these bits and have a big clean out.

 

At this stage, I remember I actually have two jacks, which would have made the process of jacking the front up a bit easier, so did the same process for the rears:

 

Now, from other posts in the forum, there's apparently a plastic trim piece at the rear, but on this car, it wasn't present, so just went and slotted the axle stand in place:

 

Whether I source replacement plastic panels or not, will depend if I can find the part numbers I suppose.

 

So time to remove the wheels. The bolts on this car had those plastic covers on. Luckily I recall spotting this in the garage during my rummaging for other bits in the recent past:

 

Basically then slots in and pulls out the cover:

 

Amusingly, the grey ones on the wheel in the pic above came out without drama, but the black one was on tight. I had to resort to that thin screwdriver again, to wedge the edge of the cover, and once it decided to budge a millimetre, was loosened enough for the tool.

 

The wheel bolts for the left rear came off without any drama, and the wheel came free with a slight pull:

 

The wheel arch itself has probably what could be assumed to be 8 years of wear and rust:

 

The wheel arch on the rear is the same sort of fabric like wheel arch cover that I saw on our old (now dead) Ford Focus, a moisture and dirt trap perfect for this sort of rusting. Don't really know how best to approach this. I'll probably just spray the wheel arches with something to buy a year or two before I think about something more (hopefully) permanent.

 

The bolt for the brake disc on this side looks newer (cross head screw is a usual giveaway), but evidence of grease on bolts and the wheel face is good to see. I've had nightmares of cars simply not having any and being a pain.

 

On that note:

 

I struggled on these two wheel bolts. I've not had any wheel bolts where my Impact wrench has struggled with before, so this is quite novel.

 

The ones that came free:

 

Look like a sign of what happened, caked in rust and no grease!

 

A breaker bar didn't help:

 

Even with me actually standing on the damn thing!

 

So I got a little desperate:

 

I've never had to resort to a blowtorch on wheel bolts before:

 

But this, with some penetrating spray on it, still didn't budge.

 

I had to keep the heat on it a few times, and then resorted to further dramatics:

 

I needed something to extend the breaker bar, and the trolley jack handle fitted the bill.

 

One bolt gave a hell of a crack, and the other eventually loosened with some forceful belly flopping of the super long bar:

 

Absolute ball ache. Amusingly, the wheel itself just came free with a pull akin to the other side, so either no grease, or someone just deciding to go as RFT as possible, or both.

 

The arch is the same as the other side:

 

I suspect I'll need to remove the wheel arch to gauge properly the state of the arch, but what is seen here is probably the same for the whole arch, just a bit tatty really.

 

The fronts were nowhere near as bad as this. The bolts came free and the wheel fell off of the hub, so plenty of appropriate use of grease there.

 

I was left a little miffed with that rear right wheel, so left it at that.

 

I'll need to remove the front wheel arches anyway as part of addressing the rear washer jet pipe issue. So in advance of this, I pressure washed the arches:

 

The rear arches will need to be taken out to truly get them sorted as they kept coming out dirty constantly, probably the years of dirt buildup. The front wasn't as bad:

 

For the front right arch, the pressure washer stripped off a tiny bit more of the paint near the mudflap. Another thing for the poor body shop to sort out once I get to that stage. Slapped a bit of corrosion block grease on it for now.

 

So here she is waiting to dry out a bit before I close the bonnet and the day:

 

I feel like the rear axle stands are a little more to the front than I'd like, but I assume most of the weight of the car is at the front, so unless the engine is removed or something, I'm hoping its stable enough.

 

There's technically nothing to stop the car being serviced now. Again, I probably should plan this, but I'll probably end up just doing things in an adhoc manner.

 

Hopefully, I'm still able to reach the engine bay ok with the car raised, as I've said in previous post, I'm on the short side, so I'll probably have to rely on stools and what not for when the battery needs removing for the DSG bit.

 

Once I've calmed down a bit, I'll probably clean up the trim I bought in the house, and that's that for the day.

 

Maintenance: £1794.17

Upgrades: £887.10

Miscellaneous: £608.14

Edited 24 March by commievid

[commievid]

So now that the battery was disconnected with the ignition on, and the wheels are off the ground, I figured this is the best time to have a look at the steering wheel and removing it:

 

So an earlier post had me doing this with a steering column off the car, and the steps are the same. So turning the wheel to the left and looking at the back:

 

Reveals the hook for the airbag and the metal retaining clip thing. My stubby screwdriver was back to wedge itself around in the top right of the gap, and then wiggled to try and lever the metal clip to get it free of the airbag, and once done, it'll pop out:

 

So turn the wheel to the opposing side and do the same thing, so the airbag pops out pretty much entirely:

 

Then its the white tab on the yellow connector, pulling that out to allow the yellow connector to be disconnected, and the one on the left to the buttons. It's a tiny bit of a faff as it's pretty tight against the steering wheel, compared to the facelift wheels where this connector is at the bottom of the wheel. Once those connectors are sorted:

 

It'll be the M12 spline bit to undo. Used my impact wrench whilst holding the wheel just in case it decided to spin freely:

 

The wheel comes out without much drama. Compared to something like the Lotus Elise, where a puller is required, it's nice that it simply slides out.

 

Brought the old wheel and airbag back into the house:

 

Newer design is just a smidge smaller.

 

So it's time to get the new clock spring that's been sitting there to be installed. The old one is removed first, three T15 torx screws:

 

Then the three white connectors need disconnecting, just some wiggling with the black retaining tabs and so on:

 

Which should allow the clock spring to slide out. With the new one in place, I connected up the yellow connector in addition to dry fitting the Kufatec loom:

 

I'll need to do some rejigging of the loom to put that large white connector block somewhere without fouling anything. I took the main power and ground from the loom and followed it:

 

Down along the other wiring into the abyss it seems. Hopefully I can remove the trim below to gain access, primarily to get the newer wiring into there and spliced into the loom.

 

So that's really it, put the new steering wheel on, making sure the centre line notches on the column and wheel are aligned, and started dry fitting the bolt and connectors:

 

It was getting dark, hence the camera flash over exposing the wheel and the connectors. You can just about see the adapter I bought from https://skoda-acc.com/Skoda-steering-wheel-buttons-adapter-Full-S0001F. I actually don't remember if I've tallied this into the cost. This was ordered on 1 March, and arrived on the 16 March. The order came to €268.37, primarily due to also order a set of all weather mats, and shipping of €27.42. It came to £239.44 according to the credit card statement.

 

It's an expensive adapter, really hope it works.

 

So once the Kufatec loom is spliced into the two wires I bodged in on the weekend, there isn't much stopping the power from being disconnected. We'll see how the week and Easter break goes!

 

Maintenance: £1794.17

Upgrades: £1126.54 (+£239.44)

Miscellaneous: £608.14

[commievid]

Weather is supposed to be rain all day, but this morning had a bit of sun, so took a quick half hour to do some car stuff before work.

 

I stared wistfully at the rear wheel arches. I think the plan for now is to get some Lanoguard and give it the once over, then reassess next year. I'll eventually want to play with something like Epoxy Mastic, but I'll need to mentally prepare for that, as doing that properly entails removing entire swathes of the car underside...

 

I sadly noticed this:

 

With a reverse angle:

 

Basically, the right side of the rear anti roll bar has snapped. Interesting that the MoT didn't flag this up at all (either hidden well enough behind the wheels, or it has snapped on the way back down from Scotland).

 

I think for now it might be easier to source a second hand replacement. If I was super desperate (i.e. the MoT test was within the next few days), I'd probably resort to removing the entire rear anti roll bar. I believe it can't be failed if its not there.

 

So diverted my attention back to the boot. I was conscious of the car being on axle stands that I didn't do something silly like bounce around on the boot, but it looked like it was stable enough.

 

First port of call was the lever used for the retractable tow bar. It's a case of lifting up the lever, putting something small into the hole on one side near the lever and pushing down, whilst lifting a plastic tab on the other side straight up and into the handle. It'll then reveal the ball on the other side of the lever cable and it comes free:

 

Not very practical to take photos of this as it kind of requires 3 hands to do really. The workshop manual states to clamp the lever so it doesn't retract back in, so I was a bit panicky about whether the whole thing will slide back into itself, but it kinda stops where you see on the pic above. Probably will need strong pliers to get it back out enough to reattach though.

 

Don't do what I did and try and lift the plastic tab without doing the bit on the other side:

 

A portion of the plastic tab snapped off. I don't think it'll make a difference once reinstalled I think, but one of those that'll probably annoy me enough to eventually do something about it.

 

This allows this part of the trim on the boot lip to be almost removable. So a trim tool to get some purchase:

 

To start loosening the 4 clips that keep this trim on. It won't lift free straight away, as the tailgate itself is preventing access.

 

I started to get annoyed, but decided to see if the yellow latch that's visible with the tailgate trim removed can be used. It tilts upwards, and doing so, the tailgate releases!

 

I lifted it just enough to allow the trim to be removed, as I didn't want to potentially do anything damaging to the tailgate struts/motors:

 

The trim then lifts upwards and away. There's a connector that fell away from the trim:

 

Looks like the light for the towbar lever bit, and what appears to be double sided foam tape to keep it in place. I guess some rubbing alcohol on the trim might help make it adhere better.

 

The side bottom trims are next and the only thing I believe stopping the side carpet bits being removable:

 

There's a pop rivet on each side, either a thin screwdriver or trim tool to loosen and remove. The trim is at right angles, so requires a bit of grunt with the trim removal tools. What I found was the two tabs which the boot lip trim covered:

 

Allowed the rest of the trim to come out a bit more easier. There's a few more tabs at the top, but eventually it comes away.

 

So that's the rear of the car:

 

It looks like a T20 screw at the rear is what is holding the side carpets on, so hopefully that's it.

 

Back to work though.

 

Maintenance: £1794.17

Upgrades: £887.10

Miscellaneous: £608.14

[commievid]

Random thing through the post:

 

I had no luck trying to find out anything about those purple locking tabs, so decided the quickest (and probably cheapest) is just to get a fusebox from a scrapped car on eBay. This was £12.33 part number 5Q0 937 615 C with the ad describing it as VW Golf/Seat Leon. It looks similar enough.

 

I'll essentially extract the purple locking tab from this, and I guess, throw the rest away I suppose...

 

The pain point is the fact that I've already reinstalled the glovebox, and head unit and all that, so if anything, I'll end up leaving this on the back burner for a long time.

 

I guess once I get to the stage of installing the Virtual Cockpit, that'll be the time to sort this out (as I'll have to get behind the head unit to attach the cable from there to the Virtual Cockpit...

 

Maintenance: £1806.50 (+£12.33)

Upgrades: £887.10

Miscellaneous: £608.14

[commievid]

As seems typical of bank holiday weekends, there's no telling the weather. What was forecast as rain now appears to be overcast, and rain today has like yesterday actually meant sunshine in the morning.

 

So spent the time before work getting the wheel arches off, or at least the fronts.

 

First step was the broken mudflap, held on by 3 screws out of 4, with one being on the underside. It comes out without drama:

 

All the screws encountered are T20 torx, and are pretty much the standard VW wheel arch screws. There were about 18 for each of the wheel arches:

 

Including a few around the bottom, including 3 or 4 attaching to the front undertray. You can see the scrapes on the right underside of the bumper here. Not really fussed.

 

Probably a bit more fussed with the left side:

 

Maybe a curb or a verge that was too high? Seems solid enough and its just plastic at the end of the day. I suppose I could go to a scrap yard if I'm ever really bothered.

 

Once the mountain of screws are undone, it's just some wiggling to get the arch liners free:

 

The remainder of the wheel arches themselves aren't as bad as the exposed bit. I'll probably jet wash those around lunch time if the weather remains fair.

 

Quite easy to spot the washer hose:

 

So that's the mystery solved. I'll assume it just needs clipping back into place but I'll double check the workshop manual.

 

I started to attempt the rears, but the right side decided to be a hassle:

 

A couple of the screws on the right arch immediately rounded off upon looking at them.

 

I'll have to hope some Knipex pliers can get enough purchase on them, otherwise worse case is to be brutal and destroy the plastic retaining bit these screws go into and replace.

 

Back to work!

 

Maintenance: £1806.50

Upgrades: £887.10

Miscellaneous: £608.14

[coppertop]

Don't butcher the clips, if the Knipex don't do the job, take a dremel and cut a slot or grind the top off.  As an aside, can't believe how much rust there is under the car, makes me want to check mine in a bit more depth 🙈

[nicknorman]

I think the huge amount of rust is in part due to the fact that I dropped the car off 8th December having driven 100 miles on very salty roads, lots of salt spray on the motorway etc. The car then sat there, or elsewhere, for several months caked in salt. Normally after a brief salty road spell there would be lots of rain and thus cleanish water spray to get rid of the salt. The worst bit was having to drive my gleaming shiny new car the other way in the salt spray. By the time I got home it was filthy!

 

On the wheel bolts, as far as I know one is not supposed to put grease on VW wheel bolts? Someone please correct me if I’m wrong? I had a huge amount of hassle with one locking wheel bolt that refused to come off, in the end I had to take it to a small local garage who were prepared to use obscene force to get it off. After that  replaced all the locking wheel bolts with ordinary ones. I always put lots of grease on the wheel centre hole and face, but the wheels do seem prone to sticking on due I think to corrosion of the wheel centre hole.

 

There should be the plastic wheel bolt cover removing tool in the toolkit under the boot floor.

 

Re. The damage to the front left bumper, this was no kerb, that was a big fat badger that ran in front of me at a range of about 5 metres, I was doing about 50. Behind that area is a plastic duct that takes cooling air to an aux radiator further back. Shards from the plastic duct punctured the radiator, so 10 seconds later I got the “coolant low” warning. Fortunately I was close to destination and with one stop to beg water from a house, I got there with no overheating. I bought a new radiator and a new duct, but I just patched up the front bumper with hot staples.

Edited 29 March by nicknorman

[commievid]

I put grease on wheel bolts irrespective of whether anyone suggests otherwise. Otherwise this sort of shenanigans can happen, especially as you say, with 100 miles of salty road driving with no cleanup afterwards. Steel, aluminium, salt and water is gonna do stuff.

 

Anyways, things are about to be worse. It's a busy day this Good Friday, I'll be splitting up the day into several posts, in order to maintain a sense of flow, as I ended up doing bits in an adhoc order, but there's a sensible grouping of tasks which I'll try and sort out here.

 

As suggested by @coppertop, I decided to dremel the remaining screws that were rounded off in the rear wheel arches:

 

Please don't do this whilst taking a photo! But essentially, a cutting disc on the screws to get a groove into it, enough to get a flat head screwdriver in:

 

Because these are screwed into a plastic housing, some of them did come free without much drama:

 

Unfortunately, there were a couple of screws along the wheel arch lip that I missed (as they were under a decent chunk of mud), I didn't fancy lying down to cut those, and ended up just being impatient and ripped the wheel arch out:

 

I'll probably either source another one, or just bodge it back into place somehow.

 

So for the right side rear arch, three screws remain:

 

This was one of them in addition to the two. Now this one has a notch Dremel'd in, but more importantly, had access to the back. The screw here was also turning the plastic retaining nut, so had to eventually resort to two Knipex pliers to undo this one.

 

For the remaining two, I'll leave it for tomorrow or Sunday.

 

The left rear arch was no where near as troublesome, I think about 4 of them needed the Dremel:

\

 

Amusingly, the two wheel arch ones on this side was fine.

 

So this is the resulting wheel arch on the front:

 

With the same to the rear:

 

As mentioned in an earlier post, exactly same effect as I saw on our Focus with the similar carpet-y wheel arch, so presumably a trap for moisture and dirt and salt. It is what it is.

 

So the spoils of war:

 

I'll be sourcing stainless steel equivalents to hopefully make future removals less painful.

 

So decided to also remove the two plastic covers under the car body, running along the length of the car. I posted a pic of impending dread around this.

 

The covers are attached with a bunch of plastic nuts, and can be undone with a 10mm spanner:

 

The nuts appear to stay captive in the plastic cover. I haven't given it a closer inspection, because, well, look at them.

 

I had to get the trolley jack back out to lift up the front as the front axle stands were pinching the covers, but once the plastic screws were undone sufficiently:

 

So here's the underside:

 

 

 

Not great.

 

Carried on with the opposite side:

 

So the other side is also less than perfect:

 

A copper brake line, so at least one won't need to replaced in the future due to rust:

 

It's sad to see what should be a galvanised chassis suffer this much in such a short time. The plan still remains though, only this time the Lanoguard looks to need applying almost everywhere.

 

For now, just pressure washed the underside and wheel arches now that the chassis is more exposed:

 

 

So the underside:

 

Some bits look ok, so I guess its just sod's law.

 

I took the plastic covers and gave them a quick one over with the pressure washer:

 

Also went at the wheel arch, at which point the heavens opened:

 

It was at this time that I took a break for lunch, although technically I also did other bits in between, but as mentioned, I'll group the posts into sections.

 

Next is some stuff in the interior.

 

Maintenance: £1806.50

Upgrades: £887.10

Miscellaneous: £608.14

[commievid]

So after the huge downpour for 30 minutes, the sun came out again. This happened twice over the afternoon, so there were basically bits of working inside the car, then in the engine bay, then running back into the house, etc.

 

So now that I know how to unlatch the tailgate, decided to lift it up further, and it looks like the struts keep it held at whatever position it is, so lifted it up further, and started to take out the subwoofer:

 

 

It was a 10mm nut at the bottom, and two torx screws (T20 I think) and the subwoofer can then be lifted away. There is a single connector for it.

 

Noticed the area behind it was a bit wet:

 

I don't know if this is recent water ingress, given the downpour, so I'll need to check this tomorrow to see if more water appears, because that's another headache if so.

 

Anyways, spoiler alert:

 

I decided to buy some 2mm silent coat stuff. From eBay for £64.99, simply because given the amount of the boot trim has been removed, this is probably the best and easiest opportunity to install some. I also spent £9.99 on a roller for it.

 

There are 40 sheets, and I suspect one day if I also do the remainder of the interior of the car, I'll probably end up using about 20 (maybe 40) more. For now, I won't be doing complete coverage, but probably 70-80% I think, and I'll most likely just wing it by tapping on metal to check for pings or thuds.

 

I'll have to determine what to do with the foam bits attached to the chassis. I peeled a bit and it looks like a lot will remain, so I'll either just put silent coat over it, or get something to scrape away for a clean surface. It'll probably eat more time than I'd like.

 

This will technically block the reinstallation of the boot trim so probably needs to take priority.

 

Yet despite this, decided to find something else to do:

 

I routed the Kufatec loom under the steering column and through to the side of the centre console to meet up with the wires I've already sorted into the fusebox and ground point. The pic above is the butt splice crimped for the ground, and the other for power:

 

I'll need to heatshrink and clean this up as appropriate. As it is, it technically means that the heated steering wheel wiring is now complete.

 

Maintenance: £1806.50

Upgrades: £952.09 (+£64.99)

Miscellaneous: £618.13 (+£9.99)

Edited 29 March by commievid

[commievid]

Several things involving the engine bay happened today. One thing was to take the windscreen cowl off, as I eventually want to get the washer bottles out of the car, but also to make the suspension top struts easier to sort out without the cowls in place. I think I've also mentioned the air quality sensor.

 

So firstly, the windscreen wipers need removing:

 

It's another one of those where the thin screwdriver is needed:

 

Many wiper arms I've encountered have used 13mm nuts (apart from the Japanese, where its 12mm, as they're superstitious folks), and this was no different.

 

It was at this point that I tried out my new wiper arm removal tool. I'll not tally this up in the costs as its a tool I'll probably use whenever needed, not just for this car:

 

So it's a case of mounting the jaws to the underside of the arm, and then screwing the centre downwards to start pulling the arm. Irrespective of mileage or corrosion or condition, it always feels a bit squeaky bum, as what you're actually expecting is an almighty bang to indicate it was freed from the splines:

 

 

Then its a case of just using the tool further to lift it up a bit more and then the arm can be wiggled free.

 

The driver side was tougher than the passenger side but both got free without major drama. Rubbed some corrosion block grease onto the splines for the future.

 

Next was to remove the washer bottle cap as it looks like the only thing on the driver side blocking the cowl:

 

Just a case of wiggling and unclipping it.

 

The neck didn't look great:

 

This could go some way to explaining the blocked washer jet and the subsequent MoT failure. More reason to take the washer bottle out as who knows what else is in there.

 

For now, just bunged it:

 

So, here's an excerpt from the workshop manual

 

I have read "Pull out the plenum chamber cover -2- from the fitting section upwards towards the centre of the vehicle to the edge of the glass on the left" so many times and I still don't get it.

 

I heeded the warnings about cracking the windscreen to heart and just fumbled about in an oh so careful manner.

 

After a few minutes, I managed to do this:

 

The outer corner of the cowl lifted and popped out. Once done, the cowl is able to pivot, so essentially, the two sides of the cowl pivot around the centre of the car, and then also can be angled up at the base of the windscreen.

 

So some wiggling and lifting and both sides came out without much drama:

 

So that's them, leaving the cowl:

 

Will need to give this a bit of a decent wipe down, but the pic shows the air quality sensor to the far end.

 

There's now easy access to the top of the washer bottle, which is a separate piece from the main bottle. It was two nuts, and a large rubber bung which meant a deal of wiggling and lifting:

 

I have no idea what this weird film is and don't really want to know.

 

I then started to tackle the nuts on the washer bottle:

 

I found two nuts and a T20 torx at the top on the washer bottle.

 

I stopped at this stage, as I couldn't find anything else. Hopefully it doesn't mean the wing itself needs removing, although to be honest, there doesn't seem to be any significant obstacles stopping the wings from being taken out.

 

Something I'll have to swot on the workshop manual for.

 

Maintenance: £1806.50

Upgrades: £952.09

Miscellaneous: £618.13