Jan 12
28
Car maintenance
This morning I planned to do some simple stuff on the car. Maintenance has never been an issue for me and I’ve been working on engines since I was about six, to this should have been a piece of cake. What I wanted to do was:
- Change the air filter
- Change the fuel filter
- Change the oil and oil filter
- Replace the thermostat
When I came home from dropping the kids off at school I popped the bonnet to start getting ready and realised that the thermostat on the engine looks nothing like the one I bought. Great. I must have picked the wrong one. So I went back and checked that I had the one I’d ordered, then when that was right I went back to the Halfords site and checked the number, then looked around a load of other places. EVERYTHING shows the same part listed, and that part is the wrong shape. Hmmm.
The one I ordered that does not fit
I then phoneed my local motor factors who have a trade database. They showed three different ones for my car - none of them like the one I have on my table – so I start looking at pictures and eventually work out which one it is. The trouble is it’s pretty much four times the price of the one I bought: Price of original (wrong) part… £24 inc VAT. Price quoted for correct part… £75+VAT.
The one on my car looks like this
I’ve managed to find it cheaper now (around £45) but all online and with a week or so to wait. Not helpful for a job today. At that point I gave up with the thermostat and started on the other stuff.
The air filter and the fuel filter were relatively straightforward, but the oil filter took an invented tool made from a pair of pincers, an adjustable spanner and a long steel bar to get it to shift. As for the drain plug, well that never came out at all. Fortunately there is a temperature sensor down there that I could get out and drained it through that.
Planned time… 30-60 mins. Actual time… 2 1/2 hours (and the thermostat is still not done).
Ho hum.
