Atik
12-07-2010, 12:29 AM
Was a pleasant but busy weekend working on cars this weekend. My younger brother's Civic was leaking coolant this week so tackled that, and installed a stereo in a Golf. Not particularly massive jobs, but deeply involved enough for me to be proud of what I managed.
Picked up a new rad for the Civic on Saturday after by brother had told me it was leaking down the left side (as you look at the front of the car). So, armed with the knowledge that his car has an auto gearbox, I knew that there would be two ATF pipes going into the rad too - CVR4 knowledge :mexicanwav
Managed to get the bumper off, and found that the car had been in a mildly serious frontal impact at some point. No wonder the car was a bargain! Anyway, managed to release the rad, fit the new one in with little hassle, although it took me much longer than it should have. Wonderful weather and slow methodical progress, I got the new rad fitted, topped up and it seemed ok. Engine on and it started leaking again :furious4: So it obviously wasnt the rad!
By now, my mate was waiting over an hour for me to fit his stereo, so I gave up on the Civic and got to work on the stereo. He's bought an all-in-one double din jobby which isnt a major problem, except that it was! He bought a stereo with the wiring loom for a Mk 5, but he drives a Mk 4. So the plugs dont match. Guess who has to now chop the blocks and crimp new connections?!? So I got onto that, and found that the Chinese 'loosely translated' instructions were more of a hindrance than help! The FR speaker wires were labelled as RR. So I go on the hunt to find the right speaker wires for each corner. But being a VAG car, the wiring colours do not follow any common colour schemes. Eventually with many printouts of diagrams and wiring plugs, I managed to get it working, but the stereo wont fit into the double din slot. The aerial and wiring catches onto the rear brace in the slot, so I had to cut it out in that tiny space - nightmare! Well, eventually managed to get it finished. A 3 hr job that should have been about half an hour!
Then on Sunday, I had another look at the Civic. I spotted that the coolant overflow reservoir has a crack in it so I remove that (after taking the battery out to get to it), mix up a fibreglass mix, and fill the crack. Worked superbly and was very proud of it. Fitted, filled up, went for a drive and still it leaked! Now I'm beginning to get annoyed at this. New rad, refitted pipe connections, fixed expansion tank. Where the hell is the rad leaking from? So I jack up the car, get it on axle stands and have a look underneath. I managed to work out that the water is leaking from the bottom rad pipe where it connects to the rad. The spring clamp was fixed in place, and I could squeeze the pipe and get the water to seep out! So I undid the spring clamp (hate them things with a passion now) refitted the pipe using a cheap Mikalor type jobby and hey presto, it solved it! Stupid spring clamp wasnt holding enough tension to prevent the water seeping out. That cost us a new rad and about 5 hours of my time! And some dirty hands and bruised and scraped knuckles!
No real reason to post it up, but thought I'd share the news as it was a very productive, hands on weekend for me :)
Picked up a new rad for the Civic on Saturday after by brother had told me it was leaking down the left side (as you look at the front of the car). So, armed with the knowledge that his car has an auto gearbox, I knew that there would be two ATF pipes going into the rad too - CVR4 knowledge :mexicanwav
Managed to get the bumper off, and found that the car had been in a mildly serious frontal impact at some point. No wonder the car was a bargain! Anyway, managed to release the rad, fit the new one in with little hassle, although it took me much longer than it should have. Wonderful weather and slow methodical progress, I got the new rad fitted, topped up and it seemed ok. Engine on and it started leaking again :furious4: So it obviously wasnt the rad!
By now, my mate was waiting over an hour for me to fit his stereo, so I gave up on the Civic and got to work on the stereo. He's bought an all-in-one double din jobby which isnt a major problem, except that it was! He bought a stereo with the wiring loom for a Mk 5, but he drives a Mk 4. So the plugs dont match. Guess who has to now chop the blocks and crimp new connections?!? So I got onto that, and found that the Chinese 'loosely translated' instructions were more of a hindrance than help! The FR speaker wires were labelled as RR. So I go on the hunt to find the right speaker wires for each corner. But being a VAG car, the wiring colours do not follow any common colour schemes. Eventually with many printouts of diagrams and wiring plugs, I managed to get it working, but the stereo wont fit into the double din slot. The aerial and wiring catches onto the rear brace in the slot, so I had to cut it out in that tiny space - nightmare! Well, eventually managed to get it finished. A 3 hr job that should have been about half an hour!
Then on Sunday, I had another look at the Civic. I spotted that the coolant overflow reservoir has a crack in it so I remove that (after taking the battery out to get to it), mix up a fibreglass mix, and fill the crack. Worked superbly and was very proud of it. Fitted, filled up, went for a drive and still it leaked! Now I'm beginning to get annoyed at this. New rad, refitted pipe connections, fixed expansion tank. Where the hell is the rad leaking from? So I jack up the car, get it on axle stands and have a look underneath. I managed to work out that the water is leaking from the bottom rad pipe where it connects to the rad. The spring clamp was fixed in place, and I could squeeze the pipe and get the water to seep out! So I undid the spring clamp (hate them things with a passion now) refitted the pipe using a cheap Mikalor type jobby and hey presto, it solved it! Stupid spring clamp wasnt holding enough tension to prevent the water seeping out. That cost us a new rad and about 5 hours of my time! And some dirty hands and bruised and scraped knuckles!
No real reason to post it up, but thought I'd share the news as it was a very productive, hands on weekend for me :)