What Did You Do Today (2017)

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Seems quite logical; given that many who resort to using a plunger will have already tried putting chemicals down the plug'ole.

MichaelG.

Or pretending to be a Dalek!

Edited By Malcolm Jones 1 on 14/12/2017 14:50:36

I only bought a 2013 BMW F11 520d estate because Honda no longer sell the Accord family in Europe - their largest vehicles are Civic-based now, which isn't enough for a family of 5 with 2 dogs etc. I'd read in Which magazine that some of the BMWs are reasonably reliable these days. However, the myth of reliable German engineering certainly doesn't measure up to my positive experience with a long series of Hondas.

After an unfortunate experience with a deer on the M61 (much more so for the deer), I endured weeks of buggerage while the repair cowboys tried to find a set of (genuine BMW / Hella) replacement xenon headlights that didn't fog up after washing and a bonnet that actually fitted. Then a few months back the radiator sprung a leak where a blanking blug had failed. They wanted to charge me £100 to fix it until I told them to behave. Then 2 weeks ago I took it for its 2nd MOT test (approaching 4 years and 42k miles) during which they "inspected" the rear suspension airbags (the estate has air suspension, as do various other estates, SUVs etc). They warned me that the nearside airbag looked a bit worn and sure enough when I got it home and parked it up, it had miraculously but coincidentally developed an audible leak. Then a couple of days later the warning messages started on the display. Now it is fully down on its bump stops and arguably not fit to travel any distance.

Seems to be a well known problem if you check out the BMW forums and when you ring up the motor factors for parts quotes. Of course, once it's out of the 3 year warranty, it's over to you - at full dealership rates. And certainly no admitting any form of quality problem. No wonder they seem to be so profitable - ship crap and then make the customer pay them to fix it. I've heard that before....

The official quote was £749 per side, all in. There are plenty of youtube videos showing how easy it is to do yourself in perhaps 30 mins or so with minimal tools required. So I ordered a couple of replacement airbags off ebay at £40 each and look forward to fitting them on the drive in the rain next week. That'll come in at 5% of the dealer quote, then. You'll note that I have a workshop, not a garage.

And before anyone says it, they really can't be any worse than the originals. In terms of safety, the vehicle is driveable but uncomfortable when deflated. Obviously long journeys and heavy loads are out.

I might have to see if I can find a used Accord at this rate....

Murray

Muzzer

Or a Honda CRV? I have one and I'm very pleased with it.

Jim

Hi Muzzer, I went to Honda vehicles about ten years ago, buying new, first a Jazz then a Civic and now a Jazz again, the only problem encountered in that time has been a software fault with the touchscreen in my latest Jazz. The software was common across the range and affected a number of models, bought in by Honda from I think it was JVC, two updates solved the problem, it was an interesting fault though, various spurious messages appeared on the screen one of which said that whilst travelling at approx 50 mph forward I was apparently going to collide with an object behind the car as in reversing into it!!! And to think ten years ago I was seriously contemplating a new BMW, seems I certainly made the right decision as I can't praise Honda, enough their quality is first class. Good luck changing your air suspension, a few years ago I would have thought nothing of tackling a job like that but now at 71 and with the onset of paralysis on one side I am afraid I delegate processes like that.

DaveW

Haha I used to love working on cars and bikes and initially it was the only way to run a car as a teenager / twenties. Finally when family started happening I was glad to just buy a Honda and not have to bother with all that. I wasn't planning on starting all over again but at least I have the tools and a reasonable idea what to do.

The Accord family is a big seller in N America, where it includes MPV (Odyssey), SUV (Pilot), pickup (Ridgeliner) and others. We had a Pilot and a Jazz / Fit for 4 years in Canada and they were faultess. Whilst I accept that it makes business sense to drop the Accord here (I assume due to insufficient market share), it leaves a gap in my market. I suppose an alternative Japanese or Korean vehicle would be an option but really I just want a Honda!

Looked at a CRV but TBH it isn't quite big enough for some of our excursions.

Murray

Good evening Muzzer,

In June this year I retired which meant I had to hand my Vauxhall Vivaro van back, I used it for private use which involved towing my trailer with my engines in to Rally's.

The replacement vehicle had to have several uses my invalid wife had to be able to get in it, I had to be able to get her mobility scooter in the back complete, it has to be able to tow my two ton max capacity trailer and for selfish reasons 4 x 4, the vehicle that I found that covered all the above is a Subaru Forester two litre turbo diesel, I've had it for six months, its a 2009 low mileage XC and I'm more than pleased with it.

Martin P

Edited By martin perman on 14/12/2017 17:30:47

Murray, if you think BMW prices are bad, pray that you don't end up with one of the (extremely rare) Hondas that do breakdown! Avoid Mitsubishis too, their prices are comically high unless it's your car

When I worked as a recovery driver, we were in and out of the German dealers on a daily basis. The last year I worked, I went to Toyota twice(and one of those was the first clutch at 110k miles) and Honda once.

Muzzer

Recently had to have the rear suspension airbags replaced on my Citroen MPV, which is just under 10 years old. (but which has only done 40,000 miles)

Under 10 years of age Citroen do a special deal on replacement - they provide the airbags free and the customer pays for labour.  Which means to me that they recognise that this is a part "born to fail".   So got both replaced for a total of £75. Good result I thought.

Edited By Robbo on 14/12/2017 18:58:18

My Volvo S40 has just gone past 224,000 miles & the passenger electric window winder has failed. - This is the fourth major failure event. The first being rear shocks & the main one being peeling laquer on the front part of the bonnet & finally a broken nearside headlight motor .

Volvo really need to get their act together. I do not need it any more,( I have a van) but the damned thing will not wear out, no rust, nothing. Just runs like a dream & the garage where I have it serviced says it has miles left in it yet

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 14/12/2017 19:14:43

I had a Volvo 740 for 10 years serviced it myself and once had to replace the track rod ends and front discs, nothing else. In 2000 I bought a new V70 last of the old shape at good price. I have had it 17 years and three or four sets of discs due to rusting up at the back or warping at the front not actually wearing out. one front oxygen sensor failure, had to clean venturi couple of times.

2 years ago got an old shape xc60 with the new 4 cyl engine and have not got the first clue how to service or deal with it but in the first two years no issues other than washer bottle sensor under warranty (known issue). Still got the old V70 cannot justify paarting with it, treat it like a truck still drives like new, it will not die, climate control everyting just works.

Heard some real horror stories about Mitsibushi's engine failures, cannot bring myself to go German. I am sure they are fine but lady at work has a dash LCD failure that BMW could not fix so traded it in.

I used to have either Mondeo or Passat estates until one day the Passat driver's side door rusted out inside, the way they do, just before MOT time. I was stuck without a car. Eventually decided to buy one on my way home from lunch. Got a Civic 1600 SE on an 02 plate as a stop gap and now I cannot bear to part with it. It goes wrong occasionally but the parts are so cheap I don't care. Only problem is I can only get small cannon in the back, six pounders are out of the question

I bought a SAAB 93 new in 1998 and it is still a great car to drive now - lots of "go", comfortable, adaptable ( back seat folds down to take all sorts of "stuff" to the dump when required) and bodywork in great condition. Downside is that it IS a bit thirsty ( 2 litre engine) but then, when you push that right hand pedal down, it does seem to respond quickly and that's fun!

As an economy measure we bought a little SEAT for my wife and that gets used most of the time for pootlin' about locally but, for longer journeys, the SAAB still reigns supreme!

Norman

Some time has passed since I fitted my ELS to my EMCO V10P lathe, and so far I am very happy with how it all works, so much so that I have just finished fitting the same system to my new EMCO 14D Lathe ( well, nearly one year old now..)

Makes threading a real breeze! And gives a very nice autofeed with no gears...

Spindle encoder added with drive belt:

NEMA40 Stepper motor drive to Leadscrew

Stepper seen lower right

Stepper drive train cover

Lathe Control board seen from rear - Mid-Right is where I added the stepper drive PSU and the NUCLEO microprocessor module that does the ELS function

The white module seen upper is the Nucleo.

The ELS controls and panel are added just below the DRO and lathe stock controls.

Works nicely, so a happy chappy !

Regards

Joe

After doing the ELS on the 14D, I finally re-started on a project that began more than 15 years ago - A Spot Welder...

re-started as I finally need such a capability to make some simple galvanized sheet metal 'boxes' that are to be covers for the plastic box that house the electronics for our Wildlife Animal tracking logger, spread around in the Namib desert and scrub - the metal cover protects against the wild sandstorms and as it is spaced away from the plastic box beneath, provides some protection against the hot desert sun...Anyway...

The first plan was to use an 800VA toroid that I had, wound with 3 x 5 turns of 8.5mm diameter copper wire - about 50mm square in total. This worked, gave 1800amps, but the secondary wire still got hot as hades after 10 x2second welds.

The three 8.5mm diameter cables

So scrapped that odea and found an old 150amp Buzz-Box Welder. Stripped the core down and re-assembled so that it was a plain C-Core shape, and then added my windings.

Primary tapped for 220V, 230V, 240V, wound with 3mm diameter Cu wire.

Secondary 2X4 turns of 95sq mm cable wired in parallel - 190sq mm in total...

Then started on the vertical slide mechanism for the pincers - used a heavy duty drawer slide, cut to suit:

Feed arms are 22mm diameter solid Cu bar.

First concept was to use a wiper motor with an over-center toggle to drive the upper pincer up and down.

Over center toggle:

Was not happy with that idea - makes it difficult to change pincer stroke and pinch position..

So moved to a Stepper drive with a M16X2mm leadscrew.

Here is the drive and head mounted on the welder frame.

View of the frame - High current sides wired up.

Transformer fitted and wired, with the 4 flexi-cables ( 280sq mm total) in place.

Next is to wire the mains input side, contactors, timer, and to make a pincer contact closure detector - will try to use a 5KHz signal fed onto the secondary - the inductance is very high, so the impedance should not drop the signal level much, but when the pincers make contact the signal should drop to zero - then I know to advance the stepper N turns to develop pinch point pressure, and start the weld...

More to follow..

Joe

Edited By Joseph Noci 1 on 14/12/2017 20:55:55

Ah, I forgot to mention - I cheated.

Bar the 1/2"-5/8" slots for actually holding tool bits and the drilling and tapping, everything else inc the above slot was done on my 8" Boxford shaper. Slot done with a parting tool.

I have a warco 14, not as big as your wm16. Managed to slot 12 toolholders using a 1/2" roughing endmill without any problems

Mick

" so much so that I have just finished fitting the same system to my new EMCO 14D Lathe ( well, nearly one year old now..) ... After doing the ELS on the 14D, I finally re-started on a project that began more than 15 years ago - A Spot Welder..."

Joe - apart from being totally mind-boggled by the output level of your efforts, can you please explain how you manage to get at least twice as many hours in your days as those allotted to mere mortals like me, please?? The effect of your posts is akin to that described by JS (won't refer to him as 'late', as he is still a major force in the forum!) when writing of ME visitors coming back from viewing Cherry Hill's models - a head-shaking, distant gaze of wonderment ... at least that's how I react. Jason B et al have a similar effect and it produces both admiration by the bucketload ... and depression, 'cos there's no way I would EVER reach a tenth of that competence!! Anyway, long may you experts continue to enthrall 'hackers and manglers' like me and a Merry Xmas to one and all!

rgds

Bill