Car Care

All the Errors

Posted by Malc on June 6, 2022
Posted in: Car Care, Misc. Tagged: , .

So I was just cruising along when…

Error! Error! Error! Error! Error!

Cruise control fail, ABS fail, stability control fail, pedestrian impact warning fail, rear impact warning fail, tyre pressure warning fail.

Immediate thought was actually something electrical had crapped out and it was shutting down systems but did a code scan and found the real culprit.

ABS sensor, front right.

This was on the wheel that had an advisory for a noisy wheel bearing last MOT, it possibly only needed the wheel bearing replaced to allow a better pick up but not doing the job twice so replaced both.


Front brakes were last changed during the car’s stint away for the EGR cooler recall. 3 years & 27k later, feel the prep of the flange face could have been better. Thats actually quite a lot of corrosion and the discs needed twatted with a hammer to release them.


Discs are serviceable but the back faces are suffering.


Inner hat on the discs got set about with a brass brushwheel on a drill before refitting.

Recess on the hub and bearing mounting face also given some wire brush love before reassembly.

After re-assembly & test drive everything showed fine on bimmerlink and no error messages.

Had a little deep dive in to a couple of menus whilst I was bothered.

DPF supposedly has 68k miles left in it. Hoping to improve that now I’m doing more regular commuting etc to help with natural burn off.

Battery at 57% isn’t a huge surprise, auto stop-start is very seasonally dependent on the car and I’ve long suspected that’s due to a slightly weak battery.

Sorted

Posted by Malc on January 20, 2022
Posted in: Car Care. Tagged: .

Few days running ghetto fabulous / drift bunnet style miss-matched wheels, due to diamond cut wheels needing 2 days at the refurbishing place.

Better pic of the damage before refinishing:

Refitting time

Took the opportunity to have a go at giving the front brakes a better clean than they get during a normal Sunday wash

Back to matching wheels

Now to get the winter refurbished, just in time for summer…

2 steps forward, 1 step back

Posted by Malc on January 7, 2022
Posted in: Car Care. Tagged: , .

Got the front tyres swapped over after the MOT advisory. Really annoying that one, should have pulled my finger out and sorted the alignment before given i knew it was out. The tyres both still had an easy 5-6mm of centre tread but the drivers outer shoulder was utterly pumped.

Went like for like with Potenza S001s and got an alignment done at the same time.

Unfortunately, washing the car the next day to get all the tyres fitting compound off, I found both rims had copped some lacquer damage. To be fair to them, they checked out pics taken before work commenced and acknowledged fault, cars booked in next Thursday for the wheels to be refurbed on their account.

Recent arrival of a new niece meant the year started with a chance for a decent run. Straight north up the A9 in freezing cold conditions and mostly in to a headwind to boot. Still good round trip to blow the cobwebs off.

Caramics

Posted by Malc on March 11, 2019
Posted in: 2019, Car Care, Detailing, Tests & Reviews, Videos. Tagged: , , .

Car ceramics, Caramics, oh I get it.

Was meant to be fitting my summer wheels to the car this weekend but:

  • It was snowing
  • The roads are still being regularly salted
  • My cars going in for EGR check at the end of the week so could be gone anywhere from 1 day to 3 months and that’s a long time of someone else being in charge of not kerbing my wheels

So instead, I jumped in to Halfords and grabbed one of Auto Finesse’s Caramics kits to have a play with.

Piece of cake to use, pleased with the results. Now just need to wait ??? weeks to get them on the car and see how the coating stands up to real world use.

Video of how to apply if anyone is interested, mostly because I didn’t find out that was any real use on YouTube when I went looking

Snowfoam Sunday

Posted by Malc on February 24, 2019
Posted in: 2019, Car Care, Detailing.

Gave the cars some love today seeing as I had that rarest of things in my life, a Sunday off.

BMW was probably clean after just the Snowfoam but I gave it a hand wash as well, followed by some tyre shine. It got a proper wheel wash this time as well which it was crying out for. Polar Seal is still beading nicely after a couple of weeks use in the winter grime.

Then there was the Celica…

First up was a full (diluted) G101 bath from a trigger spray bottle. Not sure why I didn’t use one of my new pump spray bottles there tbh.

Then I broke out my new Farecla clay mitt to have another go at removing the bonded on paint primer and other junk.

The before, all manner of nastiness.

During:

The mitt was an absolute revelation. 15 mins solid on half the rear wing with clay didn’t even get it half way ready for polishing. 5 mins total with the mitt took care of the whole bonnet.

Then I gave it a go with Meguiars Ultimate Compound and my new DAS-6, my first time properly using the machine polisher beyond half the rear wing.

Bonnet was a good choice to start with, barely a flat section on it! Made a few rookie errors despite all the YouTube videos I’ve watched over the last week telling me not to; too much product, too much pressure stalling the polisher, lifting it off the panel before it’s done spinning etc.

Anyways, absolutely made up with the results:

The best illustration of how much improvement there is in the finish, is this comparison of the reflection on the untreated roof vs the polished bonnet: