For those experienced amongst us you will know what I'm talking about when I mention "just Jobs" so whats the worst experience you have had & whats it cost when a just job's gone wrong??????????????????
Could be fun
Regards Doc
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For those experienced amongst us you will know what I'm talking about
Hows about for the inexperienced amoungst us you expalin what you mean??
Lee
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he means (i think)
can you "just" change the oil for me?
can you "just" stick some new brake pads in?
can you "just" sort out this loose wire?
etc
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Plenty, but this is one that was done for me.
When I was a minicab driver my car, a Singer Vogue, suddenly needed its brake pads changed. A helpful colleague took the old pads out and using a big screwdriver jammed one of the pistons crooked in its cylinder, then drove off laughing.
A more helpful colleague then helped me remove and split the caliper, freeing the jammed piston by hitting it with a big hammer.
Thought it best not to examine the state of the bore afterwards. The brakes still worked OK.
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Any kind of rust repair always ends up a bigger job than you expect.
Had a few where there's been a misfire ('justs needs new plugs or an HT lead') and it ends up with full engine stripdown.
There is no such thing as an easy autotransmission rebuild... always needs more parts replacing than you expect.
Once rebuilt a ZF4HP14 (new valve body etc). Was given what I was told was a rebuilt torque convertor to install with it. 50 miles later the car was back and transmission was full of swarf - turns out I had accidentally been given an old TC that had not even been flushed.
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Bought a Transit from one of the electricity companies, very light use, no dents, low miles, white - so didn't need re-painting form some garish colour scheme - but ..... COMPLETLEY covered with tiny flecks & speckles of grey paint.
& WORSE.... it was the stuff they paint pylons with!!
& I cleaned it all off, (couldn't give it to my valeter, else he'd never come back again!!) by hand, with thinners, petrol, white spirit, cutting compound, Jif & just about every mild abrasive you could think of.
It looked like new after many, many hours of effort!!
VB
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I took down my bike engine, carefully putting aside the gudgeon pin circlips in a clean white envelope. Having checked everything and put in hot cams and a high compression piston I reassembled with very great care, intending to have a non-oily engine for once.
I then (fortunately, I suppose) found a clean white envelope...........
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SWMBO's old mk2 Astra 1600 hadn't been warming up properly and she'd been going on about it, so I thought I'd "just" change the thermostat. Bought a new 'stat and some fresh antifreeze, got the tools out and off I went.
Drained the coolant down - no problem. Pulled the hose off the thermostat housing - no problem. Undid two of the three thermostat housing bolts - no problem. The third bolt turned quarter of a turn and snapped like a carrot, leaving the entire threaded part flush in the housing.
After a bit of swearing, I made some phone calls and found a local breakers yard who had a thermostat housing for a tenner. Lovely job. Get in the Cavalier and drive down there, pick it up and set about disconnecting the two hoses from the thermostat housing around the back of the head. This done, I undo the mounting bolts when it dawns on me that the housing passes between the cylinder head and the timing belt. Quick flick through the Haynes manual confirms my fears. The timing belt needs to come off!!
Line up the timing marks, loosen the water pump bolts and start trying to move it. (The Vauxhall engines of the time had an eccentric water pump body and rotating the pump tensioned the belt). After eventually persuading it to move there was a CRACK as bits of the gasket broke up and fell on the floor.
Water pump off, back in the Cavalier, off to the local spares shop to buy a pump gasket, and as I've gone this far, a new timing belt. Duly obtained I get back, I spend half an hour scraping bits of baked gasket off the block. With a nice clean sealing face, I replace the thermostat housing, fit the new pump gasket, refit the pump, fit the new belt, and tension it up. Torque up the bolts. Lovely! New thermostat installed, housing bolts (carefully) tightened, refill and bleed the cooling system. Fire up the engine with the timing belt cover off to make sure nothing leaks, and it's all good. Put it back together, and return to the flat to face SWMBO's helpful "I thought it was only going to take you half an hour, you've been at it all afternoon!" Grin and bear it.
That night, and I swear I am not making this up, some toerag nicked the car and wrote it off!
It warms my heart to think they had a toasty warm heater as they did it. :-(
Cheers
DP
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04 Grand Scenic 1.9 dCi Dynamique
00 Mondeo 1.8TD LX
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Put a conrod through the side of a Mini (1981ish) 850cc engine.
Rebuilt a 1100cc engine to replace it and give it more go.
When reassembling, I picked up the carefully reground crankshaft and walked across the garage floor : very carefully - and stumbled.. and dropped the crankshaft.
The good news is before it hit the ground it landed on some yielding material which stopped any damge.. and on reassembly the engine was very good and the Mini subsequently went very much more quickly.
The bad news was the yielding material was my right big toe (which I had fractured some 6 years before when a muppet dropped a forklift fork(!) onto it.)
The good news was nothing was broken.
The bad news was I lost the nail from my big toe.
The good news was it came off easily - if somewhat noisily:-) - and the nail grew back again..
When I rebuilt my Tirumph 2.5PI engine with a reground crankshaft I took care not to drop that!
madf
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My foot was aching in sympathy as I read that.
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Changing my first headlight bulb on my Scenic - took a couple of hours and left with no skin on my hand!
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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my brothers MK3 Cortina clutch - up on ramps, changed clutch, back on road same day and a core plug popped and dumped oil over new clutch. Off to motor factors for a core plug and another clutch plate, back up on ramps and new clutch plate fitted, back on road and linings stripped - faulty clutch plate. Back up on ramps clutch out and back to motor factors for another. New clutch in and back on road and it worked at last! Slept well that night I can tell you!
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Small patch of LHM under the old BX. "It's the octopus" (rubber thing hidden in front subframe where all the suspension pipes join) says I - "I'll just change it"
Two days of lying under the car later, covered in oil, muck and LHM and having removed all skin from hands and forearms to make access easier and still unable to connect the last bloomin' low pressure pipe, I went to see a mate who had a workshop. "Just pop it up on the lift, whip out the drive shaft and you'll be able to do it easily". One hour later - all done. Why didn't I ask earlier? Because I had my Haynes manual - which just said "reassembly is reverse of removal" or words to that effect!
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Phil
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Changing my first headlight bulb on my Scenic - took a couple of hours and left with no skin on my hand!
You checked the Altea handbook BobbyG?
"due to problems of access you should take your car to the dealer to chage light bulbs, intructions here are for reference only"
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< Ex RF, Ex TVM >
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A friend begged me fo fit new king pins to his Austin A35, besides nearly killing me it took me a week to get the old ones off NEVER EVER AGAIN!
He also neglected to tell me 2 garages had refused to the job, Another agreed but would not quote for it!
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I remember servicing a Hillman Minx a while back, the car drove in ok and had no reported problems. For some reason I had a peek in the bell housing and decided that the carbon ring thrust bearing looked a bit thin, and eased the release arm back a bit for a better look. Half a dozen bits of carbon fell out of the carrier ring - it had all been held together by the slight constant pressure.
The customer agreed to pay for the cost of parts, so he got a worn out clutch replaced for free.
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