Advice on going DIY maintenance

[doggsbody]

@stef123 l feel robbed and cheated by the guy l bought my ramps off now as l thought he mentioned they were made especilly for ford but there exactly the same as yours 😱 minus the extensions thoe, still was worth £10

[stef123]

What would make them specifically for ford lol 

[doggsbody]

He worked in repairs department from being a trainee and they had them before the day's of using the lifts for everything so l presumed it would have been like a specific ford thing but they don't have it stamped on but l do have wheel nut bar with the ford badge stamped on but l don't use that 😂

[doggsbody]

Just to update, 1hr to do track rod end and anti-roll bar drop link, with just a jack, 1 rachet, 2 shifters, 1mole grips. now all is good again due to placeing mole grips at the end on the track rod end on the bar before removing, it's fitted perfectly back to the right place no need for tracking £20 saved plus garage labour on diying the parts my self 👍

[Nikstryker]

Best advice you will ever get and has saved me hundreds of quid and avoided useless mechanics ripoff bills.

Get yourself and OBD handheld tester.

I can recommend the OBD-800 I got mine off eBay for £25.

Or you can get a bluetooth module and use the Torque app on your smartphone - allows you to diagnose intermittent faults like Edd China did in Wheeler Dealers by running it and collecting data over a long drive - picks up all the ecu engine management error codes and performance so you can tune your car to perfection.

I have gone mad and now have five of them including a professional £500 one i got at a car auction for £50 as well as the bluetooth modules, laptop based serial elm327 and handhelds and they have easily saved me over a grand on all my vehicles!

The only one I need now is a Forscan compatible advanced programming cable.

I have attached screeenshots of the OBD-800 Handheld which was the first one I bought and running live it diagnosed a serious Lambda sensor fault that was causing my Ford to stutter and cut out on the motorway in the morning.

The other advice is that its great to sacve money as you will save a fortune but if you actually get to enjoy what you are doing it will be so much more satisfying than just fixing stuff to save dosh!
 

[Nikstryker]

On 13/03/2018 at 8:48 AM, stef123 said:

I have certainly heard of vinegar being used but I can't say I've ever tried it lol 

Nah what you need is to go into a Hydroponics growshop and buy the phosphoric acid bottles for ph up down - its whats in Jenolite and it works perfectly and creates an iron phosphate coating on the rusting area which protects it.

Its much cheaper than Jenolite but is very dangerous , its also used to make explosives which is why its probably sold out in most grow shops these days lol

i used to use it on my AHEM... Tomato plants and got it in my eye - ***** hell that was the nastiest moment i can tell you so wear goggles!

[stef123]

I have phosphoric acid somewhere on my desk..Rust remover to some folk, soldering flux to others like me lol.

Nikstryker, a basic obd2 reader is fine. Problem is you need to know how to use and understand it otherwise you just start firing the parts cannon lol. Live data is fine, again if you know what you are looking at but all this is just extremely basic diagnostic, if it's even diagnostic lol.

Once you get into scopes and wiring diagrams and component testing, I'd call that diagnostic

[stef123]

6 hours ago, doggsbody said:

Just to update, 1hr to do track rod end and anti-roll bar drop link, with just a jack, 1 rachet, 2 shifters, 1mole grips. now all is good again due to placeing mole grips at the end on the track rod end on the bar before removing, it's fitted perfectly back to the right place no need for tracking £20 saved plus garage labour on diying the parts my self 👍

You'd be surprised lol.

[Nikstryker]

Yeah but if you get a basic obd reader and just read the Ecu error codes and plonk it into google you get the answer, then you can either take it to a garage and tell em to replace the part or check it out yersel - thats how i first learned to use em and i knew nothing about em , plugged it into my old Streetkrap and found the lambda sensor fault and saved myself the £140 the garage wanted to charge me to do the repair and now i'm pretty good know most of the codes off by heart now!

Problem is everybody neighbour, neighbours friend brings me their cars for a quick plugin and test as they know it only takes me less than five minutes to do the job AND THE RICH ONES with their Mercs know I have the special round OBD plug so dont expect to pay anything eh!

Besides it costs £30 minimum for a mechanic in a garage to plug one in - so £30 saved pays for one in the first go!

 

[Nikstryker]

PS One of these is essential!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/FEELDO-Electric-Screwdriver-Detector-Motorcycle/dp/B079L6M2PX/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1521503375&sr=8-9&keywords=car+screwdriver+voltage+tester

 

[stef123]

25 minutes ago, Nikstryker said:

Yeah but if you get a basic obd reader and just read the Ecu error codes and plonk it into google you get the answer, then you can either take it to a garage and tell em to replace the part or check it out yersel - thats how i first learned to use em and i knew nothing about em , plugged it into my old Streetkrap and found the lambda sensor fault and saved myself the £140 the garage wanted to charge me to do the repair and now i'm pretty good know most of the codes off by heart now!

Problem is everybody neighbour, neighbours friend brings me their cars for a quick plugin and test as they know it only takes me less than five minutes to do the job AND THE RICH ONES with their Mercs know I have the special round OBD plug so dont expect to pay anything eh!

Besides it costs £30 minimum for a mechanic in a garage to plug one in - so £30 saved pays for one in the first go!

 

But the trouble is, a lambda sensor fault code does not necessarily mean you have a lambda sensor fault. So by replacing and not doing some testing you are essentially guessing at the repair.

[doggsbody]

@stef123 the track rod end must be a few mm longer as the steering wheel has moved to like 2-3 minutes past 12 from being straight so l would say a slight turn ( slightly messing ) but still it'll get it back dead on straight again 😎 unlike when ( stupidity took over ) tried sting line alignment it 100% doesn't work 😂 it just made it worse 😳

[stef123]

Just take it to a garage and get a basic alignment done  

[Nikstryker]

14 hours ago, stef123 said:

But the trouble is, a lambda sensor fault code does not necessarily mean you have a lambda sensor fault. So by replacing and not doing some testing you are essentially guessing at the repair.

Well it did for me it even identified which lambda sensor of the two it was - besides I am an electronics and computer engineer so can test all these things as I have oscilloscopes, tdr's and all sorts of gizmos in my workshop - even got a pc in my garage lol and the handheld device and bluetooth gave extra info that allowed me to be 99% sure it was the lambda p1. If you check out my pictures (they show the lambda p1 fault) the giveaway is the O2S 11 and Shrtft 11 live outputs! Stick a handheld oscilloscope (you can get em off amazon for £50 now) and you can check the lambda output waveform and its obvious then!

I know what yer saying though for beginners it might not give the exact problem but what im saying is it arms you with info should you want to take it to a garage.
If a woman comes into your garage and says she has used her obd tester and thinks its the primary exhaust manifold lambda sensor I am sure most mechanics would be shocked and would be less likely to try and hoodwink the lady - I know my girlfriend has used my advice on many occasions and avoided being treated like the "silly young female".

[stef123]

57 minutes ago, Nikstryker said:

Well it did for me it even identified which lambda sensor of the two it was - besides I am an electronics and computer engineer so can test all these things as I have oscilloscopes, tdr's and all sorts of gizmos in my workshop - even got a pc in my garage lol and the handheld device and bluetooth gave extra info that allowed me to be 99% sure it was the lambda p1. If you check out my pictures (they show the lambda p1 fault) the giveaway is the O2S 11 and Shrtft 11 live outputs! Stick a handheld oscilloscope (you can get em off amazon for £50 now) and you can check the lambda output waveform and its obvious then!

I know what yer saying though for beginners it might not give the exact problem but what im saying is it arms you with info should you want to take it to a garage.
If a woman comes into your garage and says she has used her obd tester and thinks its the primary exhaust manifold lambda sensor I am sure most mechanics would be shocked and would be less likely to try and hoodwink the lady - I know my girlfriend has used my advice on many occasions and avoided being treated like the "silly young female".

You didn’t mention any additional testing so I presumed you had took the code as gospel as it would seem everyone does.

not everyone knows what lambda probes should be doing, what long and short term fuel trims mean.. 

[doggsbody]

@stef123 @zain611 @williamweb @isetta @DavyTee @Martin-Fiesta-MK6-1.4 just to let you know if you don't already as it mày interest you, Lidl have an electric torque wrench with 4 attachments Inc at £40... It a Parker not sure what others make of the brand but I've had a cordless drill of there's for just over a year n not had a problem yet so happy days n less head ache now 😂

[stef123]

Just now, doggsbody said:

@stef123 @zain611 @williamweb @isetta @DavyTee @Martin-Fiesta-MK6-1.4 just to let you know if you don't already as it mày interest you, Lidl have an electric torque wrench with 4 attachments Inc at £40... It a Parker not sure what others make of the brand but I've had a cordless drill of there's for just over a year n not had a problem yet so happy days n less head ache now 😂

If you want to buy me one and send it up i'll do a review of it for you  

[doggsbody]

@stef123 I'll give you my review when I get to use mine, hopefully tomorrow or Saturday when l do my gearbox if my partner let's me use it as it's a birthday present n that's not for 2 months yet 😭

[stef123]

15 minutes ago, doggsbody said:

@stef123 I'll give you my review when I get to use mine, hopefully tomorrow or Saturday when l do my gearbox if my partner let's me use it as it's a birthday present n that's not for 2 months yet 😭

what are the specs on it? 

[doggsbody]

I don't have a clue @stef123 so here's a photo of the specs for you so you can tell me if it's rubbish , not bad, ok, pretty good for the money 😂 ( probably not the last 1 at £40 )

[doggsbody]

[doggsbody]

Well gearbox replacement has started so no turning back now n only basic tools being used 👍

[stef123]

Keep us posted. Atleast it’s dry! Lol 

[Nikstryker]

Now thats a real way to spend a Sunday.

Beat a day out with the OH to Debenhams and the local shopping centre anytime
lol

 

[doggsbody]

Well after being up n down to get the best position to undo them just got the 2 bolts holding the rear gearbox mount left to remove then it should come apart hopefully as I've removed all the others and I've made a basic drawing and numbered the bolts and where buy size as l realized there different sizes which I was glad l noticed other wise that would have been a right headache when it comes to refitting the other 1 😀.