Today I did something to my car (volume 2)

Wise Old Elf

Pollen filter and air filter in my Focus (2004, Mk1).
Got spark plugs as well but it was getting dark. Will do the oil in the next week or so.

Old vs new pollen filter:


Old air filter wasn't that bad as it happens:


Edit: question on the mini-filter thing, I think it's a filter for the crankcase breather or something. Anyway, it's a sponge style filter, but it's too big for the slot in the focus, so I had to squish it to get it to fit. Should I have cut it to size instead or does it matter?

Foxhole Norman

Replaced my rocker cover with a new second hand one and fitted a new gasket at the same time. Gave the car a service too with Petronas 5W-30, E39's seem to love it! New NGK Laser plugs which were badly needed too and new Pollen/Air/Oil Filters:

New cover and filters fitted:

Noccy_Mondy

Wise Old Elf wrote: »

Pollen filter and air filter in my Focus (2004, Mk1).
Got spark plugs as well but it was getting dark. Will do the oil in the next week or so.

Old vs new pollen filter:


Old air filter wasn't that bad as it happens:


Edit: question on the mini-filter thing, I think it's a filter for the crankcase breather or something. Anyway, it's a sponge style filter, but it's too big for the slot in the focus, so I had to squish it to get it to fit. Should I have cut it to size instead or does it matter?

Be sure to get the proper seal of Ford to reseal the plastic cover at the base of the windscreen or else your pollen filter will be sopping in no time! It's only a few beans. And no, silicone won't work

punisher5112

Wise Old Elf wrote: »

Pollen filter and air filter in my Focus (2004, Mk1).
Got spark plugs as well but it was getting dark. Will do the oil in the next week or so.

Old vs new pollen filter:


Old air filter wasn't that bad as it happens:


Edit: question on the mini-filter thing, I think it's a filter for the crankcase breather or something. Anyway, it's a sponge style filter, but it's too big for the slot in the focus, so I had to squish it to get it to fit. Should I have cut it to size instead or does it matter?

That sponge is the oil breather.
Take it out clean with petrol or egr cleaner etc. Then dry it out with kitchen towel.

As above seal replace and get at oil asap if needed.

Wise Old Elf

punisher5112 wrote: »

That sponge is the oil breather.
Take it out clean with petrol or egr cleaner etc. Then dry it out with kitchen towel.

As above seal replace and get at oil asap if needed.

Thanks, a new one comes with the air filter so I just popped the new one in with the new air filter instead
Did the oil earlier this year so it's not in a very bad state.

Hal1

I hoovered out my air box the last time I recharged my air filter (k&n). It's amazing what you don't see initially. Also were the oil breather is can get fouled with oily gunk stuff, so worth spending the extra time to clean it.

joujoujou

New year, new mods!

Additional ceiling light this time.

It will go here, between the sunvisors:



But first things first, a lot of reading pug 207 diagrams (that was the car the light assy came from) and even more connections checks with multimeter.



Peugeot diagrams confirmed that them lights are controlled by the sort of ECU (a.k.a. Built-in System Interface), but I needed it to be controlled simply by presence (or not) of ground taken from door sensors, so had to cut some connections (4 points), as seen below. Some soldering done as well.



Time to make a template...



...and it fits!



Messy wires are no longer messy:



Some drawing...



...cutting and wiring...



...and all works as I wanted it to!



Yes, it looks like is a bit off to the right, but in fact it's O.K.

May get some better LED bulbs later. :cool:

job seeker

Very nice mod dude. :cool:

job seeker

I just taxed the Yaris for the year. 199 beans!

joujoujou

Minor thing this time, sort of visual improvement.

Was:



Now:

CianRyan

Advised crab pressure?

fitzeyboy.

Swapped out the front left brake caliper with a refurbed one because it was sticking intermittently. Changed front pads while I was at it. Then found the front right caliper piston wouldnt go all the way back in. Caliper boot had split and piston had corroded. Had to strip the fecker down, clean it up and replace some bits with what I had lying around the shed. Working like a dream now, but I'll swap it out with a refurbed one during the week for peace of mind.

Foxhole Norman

All sorted, kind of they all work now but fronts cut in every now and again but I'm happy out, first time they've worked since I got the car

This Blue and black cable was unplugged:

nd

Before


After


it needed a bumper, rad, left wishbone, headlight, tyre and left shock. I've to do the shock yet. Should come tomorrow.

punisher5112

Wash it and will look all new and shiny.

nd

I'll leave that till last

Ardent

CianRyan wrote: »

Advised crab pressure?

Beware of crabs (with enormous fjcking claws!) when opening your door!

Wise Old Elf

Not so much did something but today my 13 year old Focus passed the NCT, another year of legal motoring
It was actually at the limit of brake imbalance at the front, 29 percent and fail at 30, so need to check that out. Everything else was OK, CO at idle was 0.22, limit of 0.30 so a bit of leeway there as well.

Wibbs

Not exactly rebuilding a gearbox or anything but swapped out my Denso's for these;



Bloody hell! What a difference. :eek: I have never noticed much of any difference when swapping out spark plugs, but man this time I did. The Densos were OEM platinums and not that long in the car as far as mileage goes(and looked nice and clean burning coming out so that's good), maybe 10,000 Kms tops, but these go in and it starts a turn of the starter motor less and the idle is smoooooth. And when you press the go pedal, much more immediate a response. It'll be interesting to see how they affect petrol consumption, but it's a thrifty enough old bastid as is so... Well worth the money(35 euroquids from ebay).

eringobragh

Wibbs wrote: »

Well worth the money(35 euroquids from ebay).

Im sure you know but careful where you buy the NGKs from on there, theres alot of fakes doing the rounds

On a side note (no pics for once) I swapped out my electric aerial on the MR2 with the one from my breaker MR2 as it wasn't retracting and I couldn't be bothered rebuilding it [next time]

I found one of these watch cover removers ($1 on fleabay) to be quite gentle on the chrome cap and released it quite easily, the official tool is mad money and the need nose pliers can mark it if your not careful

joujoujou

Yet another visual improvement (well, sort of...):

keyboard_cat

nd wrote: »

Before


After


it needed a bumper, rad, left wishbone, headlight, tyre and left shock. I've to do the shock yet. Should come tomorrow.

https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/2006-mazda-3-1-4-new-nct-jan-18/14501462
what sorta boards discount do u do?

TrailerBob

Swapped the old rear indicators for LEDs to see how they go. Colour is almost identical but I reckon a bit brighter. Have stop & tail on order. All helps to reduce the load on the harness along with trailer wiring.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6034073/uploads/attachments/442641/408276.jpg

€6 from AliExpress - and the quality is good. No dodgy crooked LED panels or lumpy soldering

Daniel S

Been planning on installing R56 Cooper S brakes on my R53 Cooper S for a while now. Got a great deal, £32 for new Mintex discs posted and £75 for the used brakes. Free Motul brake fluid from my local garage too!

276mm to 294mm disc upgrade.

Picked up some copper grease, brake cleaner and a one-man-bleeding bottle from Halfords for €20.



The brakes are far too small.







Pretty bad lip on the disc, fairly sure these are the original discs. Don't think any of these parts have ever been off before other than to change the pads.



Tried removing the caliper from the carrier... 7mm hex. I've 8 and 6mm.



Second trip to Halfords and I'm sorted. 16mm socket and 7mm hex. Picket up some WD 40 and a new magnetic light too.



Now it's dark, starting to feel like a long night.



Caliper removed from carrier.



Bolt is stripped pretty badly. Socket is sliding off. After about an hour of swearing at it, a neighbour of mine came out with a box of tricks.



These are amazing!



Bolt out!



Spend the next two hours trying to get the disc retaining bolt out. Eventually gave up and moved to the otherside... where I got stuck at the same point. The disc retaining bolt is absolutely seized in there. This is where I gave in, packed everything up and brought it inside. I'll drill out the bolt tomorrow and just leave it.



Getting a lift to work tomorrow....

CianRyan

Those disk retainers chew up really easily so don't feel too bad.
That one's lost but to get it out, throw the carrier back on, stick a screw driver in a vent slot in the disk so it can't spin. Once the disk won't move, get a dot punch, make a small mark on the outer edge of the screw and work it around slowly until it moves.
When putting a new one back in you shouldn't tighten it past a pinch. It's only to keep everything straight while you're putting your calliper and pads together.

On the far side remove the screw before stripping anything else. Screw driver in the vent and if you have one, use an impact screw driver to remove the retainer. If not, just be careful and use loads of WD40.

But ALWAYS take those off first, you're only killing yourself trying to take them off afterwards, at least without stripping them.

MetzgerMeister

Those disc retaining screws are the greatest PITA of all time. They are ALWAYS seized in place. I made the same mistake on the 335 whereby I removed everything else before the screw It just never came to mind to try it first mainly because you wouldn't be expecting it to be seized!

joujoujou

MetzgerMeister wrote: »

Those disc retaining screws are the greatest PITA of all time. They are ALWAYS seized in place. [...]

True.

Thank god some manufacturers got rid of them completely.

Special Circumstances

Brakes far too small...

Yeah, a bit odd that the 160hp version came with the same brakes as the 80hp version. Some insurers could load you for uprating the brakes to a sensible stopping power... Lol.

Hal1

In the eyes of the insurance company for loading for a sensible upgrade / mod call it what you will.

You were going too fast or you were braking too fast. Either way you were going to fast

:pac:.

vintagevrs

Changed the seals on my diff today. Can't get new oil into it the diff as the tool I have does not fit between the drain and filler plugs and the spare wheel well. Gonna be just as handy to bring it to a local mechanic with right tool and a lift tomorrow so I'll do that.