I booked in for an MOT next Friday, so thought I would do some minor jobs on the car (07 1.6 TDCi). Last MOT advisory was for front brake pads, which are still well within legal, but I thought I would change them as I was going to replace the brake fluid any way.

So here is my list with my estimates:

1. Front brake pads 20-40 minutes
2. Brake fluid renewal, about 1 to 1.5 hrs
3. Fuel filter, 10 minutes
4. Oil filter change 10 minutes.
5. Oil change, 40 minutes, allowing for oil to drain completely.

I had all weekend so was in no rush (took Friday off (good excuse)).

So got up nice and early Friday morning, and was out on the car at 8am, to start replacing brake pads. 1.5hrs later I was still trying to remove the second lockiing nut! at this point I thought I would try to remove 3 and 4, before I damaged the lock nut tool too much. 20 minutes later I had managed to remove 1 more, but two were completly stuck. So I bit the bullet and took it to my local tyre place and asked for help, 40 minute later two off the nuts had to be drilled and split to get them off (one of those still required an impact driver as it was so tight!) It was now about 11 am and I needed four new nuts to replace the locking set. Tyre place told me I would have to go to Ford as they were "special" for the alloys, and they had none in stock. At this point I commented that that was going to be at least £40 quid then. The tyre guy said "nah, a couple of quid a piece tops".

So off I went to the local Ford dealer and was quoted £8.82 a piece +vat (£42.36 not a bad sarcastic gues on my part). I kindly declined the offer! Of to my local breakers 4 for a quid a piece, result.

Back home to start again on brakes. 25 minutes later finished the pads, but weather starting to look iffy, so decided to leave the brake fluid till Saturday.

So 8am till about 12.30 = 4 and a half hours for a 20 minute job!

OK so fuel filter next (remember 10 minutes estimate). 15 minutes later fuel filter replaced, but car would not run. 2 hrs later the car finally ran with a tow start (what a bitch)!

Took the car for a quick spin to check brake pads, and ended up with a 20mm chip right in the center of my vision (stone I think, scrared the crap out of me). Went home and luckily fully comp, so not too bad, and arranged to replacement the day before MOT.

Next day (Saturday).
Went and got oil filter and oil from local MVC (good price too). The guy there pointed out the new filter may be different to the one I take out, but showed me a little slip of paper that showed it was the correct replacement. Again at this point the weather looked like it may not be too good very soon, so I made the decision to just do the filter and then see what the weather was like (perhaps leave brakes till Sunday).

OK removed air box and gained access to filter and got the old filter out in about five minutes. 10 minutes later I was still struggling to get the new filter in. At this point I realised the bracket holding the engine breather(?) hose was fouling the new filter going in square, so undid this braket and prised it out the way, new filter went in sweet. Heavens opened and we had a torrential down pour.

At about 4 pm I started on the oil change. No real issue here only problem here was removing the plastic shield underneath. I'm quite a big chap, and need to jack the car to get under it . I could not see anywhere in the middle to jack from, so had to do one side then the other, had same problem when doing brake pads.

Sunday (today)
Brake fluid. I've got one of those easy bleed kits, works of spare tyre, brilliant bit of kit. Gues what gave me grief? Yep, seized nipples. Ended up banging a socket over one of them because it was nearly rounded off, took the best part of 2.5 hrs!

So estimated half days work took best part of three days.

Oh yeah, usual smashed knuckles, shredded wrists and forearms. I love home mechanics!

Now I'm going to have a beer and look forward to work tomorrow.

What a weekend you have had!!! Still it's done now and you can enjoy it. Hope it passes MOT.

DIY wouldn't be the same without nightmares Sounds like you have had a busy weekend.

hope the mot goes well mate

[indent=1]well done for not giving up. thankfully for me my dad's a mechanic and i leave this sort of stuff to him. fingers crossed your car gets its MOT fella.[/indent]

Yikes, what a weekend. Bet your're almost looking forward to returning to work lol.

Had a bit of a mare myself engine removal 2.0 tdci you would not believe the gear that has to be removed to drop it out and then when you think you,ve disconected everything its snagging on sensors you coulndnt see any ways out now hard part next week end putting new motor in lot of huffing and puffing to be expected.

[quote name='STEADS' timestamp='1329682742' post='167651']
Had a bit of a mare myself engine removal 2.0 tdci you would not believe the gear that has to be removed to drop it out and then when you think you,ve disconected everything its snagging on sensors you coulndnt see any ways out now hard part next week end putting new motor in lot of huffing and puffing to be expected.
[/quote]

These are the kind of jobs i hate I've got the exhaust to replace on my other half's car, unfortunately the front pipe is a funny shape so i have to pull the engine to remove/replace it. just done the clutch last weekend..

Aw man, sorry to hear you've had a mare of a weekend.. How come tyre places rarely smear a dot of copper grease on the studs and inner face of the rim before they overtorque the wheel back on? It takes them two seconds to do it, then curse and struggle when you fetch the car back in to them to get the wheels off
I hope your week goes a bit better, and good luck for Friday