Service Items On My Jazz.

[Westy36]

OK, so we've finally moved into our new house with a lovely big garage. I've my first ever level block driveway too! Last house had a tiny concrete pre fab leaking 60's garage and a sloping gravel drive, so a major upgrade.

Time to give my faithfull little motor some love. Just given him an oil & filter change. Castrol 5w30 A5 with a BluePrint filter. The old Petronas oil had only done 9k, but was really black. The engine sounds so much better with fresh oil.

Jobs scheduled: Spark Plugs, Aux Belt, MTF change, Coolant Change, Rust Treat Cill Area.

A Gates aux belt is in the post. The original needs replacing, lets see how that goes. Should be easy.

Hondaparts24/7 (Holdcraft Honda) are posting me 2L of MTF inc new washers. Be the first gearbox oil change my car has had, now on 127k. Be interesting to see if there is any difference.

I tried my local dealer, asked them to price match, and they were >£5 extra! Mrs W works 300m away from John Banks, but they weren't interested. So, UPS are dragging the items from up north. Not ideal for the planet, but hey, money is money.

Plugs. Bosch plugs in the garage already. Just ordered a low range torque wrench from FFX. Not changed the plugs on the Jazz, but great how-to thread on here and youtube video, so should be ok. Big enough garage to put the car in should the weather change.

Coolant. Yeah, need to buy some. Any recommendations?  I'll have a search on here....there was a thread not so long ago on the subject.

I could get my mate to do it all at his garage and proper mates rates, or my lad is now an apprentice mechanic. He's allowed to do family cars for free after hours! But, no, where's the fun in that? 

[madasafish]

I bought Honda Coolant from Cox when on offer.
Just opened drain valve bottom of rad: slightly blocked with sludge ( coolant clear after 10 years). Quick wire prod and ok.

Left heater set to HOT to drain heater.
Lots of bleeding afterwards squeezing top and bottom radiator rubber pipes when engine HOT so thermostat open.(gloves needed)

[guest334]

+1 for the genuine Coolant from Coxmotors

[Westy36]

Righto, I'll check for coolant via Cox.

Rust treatment and satin grey smoothrite paint on the rust cill area. Looks much better than the black underseal he's had for the last 3 yrs. I'll give it another coat of smoothrite and once fully dried, might even colour match with some Alabaster silver paint I have in the garage!

Did the plugs today. A bit fiddly, but straightforward enough. Only broke one of the plastic trim thingys, so happy with that. Cable tie repair will do until I get some new ones ordered up.

New plugs.......obviously power of suggestion and all, but I reckon little Jazz is a bit more perky with a better throttle response.

UPS delivered the MTF today. Should be a laugh getting that done. The manual makes it look easy. 

Have to say though, the joys of working in a garage with everything to hand is not to be understimated. Makes life so much easier.  good to be doing the jobs I've been putting of for ages.

[embee]

I treated myself to an oil syringe to do a g/box and axle oil change on my sports car last year.  I got a Ssealey AK54 from FFX Tools, cost under £13 (though p&p extra if order under £25).
Excellent tool,  much better quality than you'd expect at the price,  metal ends threaded onto the body. Recommend for DIY jobs. It says single action suction but the piston seal is symmetrical and works equally in both directions so fine for filling too.

[Westy36]

Funny you mention FFX. The Draper torque wrench they sent was DOA. Only works on 'undo' and not tighten? I need to sort a return. They are normaly great, but I guess it's not there fault. Fortunately I was able to borrow a torque wrench, so got the job done.

I bought a wee fluid pump from Lidl when it was on sale. I bought it for the lawnmower oil change, not that I've got round to that! So, I reckon the little pump will suck MTF ouf the bottle and into the gear box?

Your sports car is a? iirc Cappacino? If it wasn't you, someone on here has got one. Lovely cars.

Right, off to the FFX website to organise a return. 
 

[embee]

Your sports car is a? iirc Cappacino? If it wasn't you, someone on here has got one. Lovely cars.

Yes, compact and bijou,  not everyone's cup of tea  .......... 

[Westy36]

Yes, compact and bijou,  not everyone's cup of tea  .......... 

very good. I see what you did there!

Brilliant motors. Ive a real soft spot for K cars. They look so different to everything else, and that is to be celebrated these days. It's why I was always such a fan of Citroens and Saabs. Different and brilliant because of it.

Oh my, the FFX return is a total faff. Record a video of the defective wrench and scan a QR code to upload the video and get a return?? FFX.....never again.  They used to be brilliant. I'm guessing their app savvy young IT dept have no concept of how complex that is for a lot of people. Ebay/Amazon returns are so simple. Lesson learnt. 

[GBH]

Another vote for Ebay/Amazon returns.

I think Amazon may have a "no questions asked" policy regarding returns as I once bought a laptop from them that was advertised as a customer return. When it arrived it was obvious that someone had put their old laptop (same make, different model with lower spec.) in the box and presumably said that they had changed their mind.  There was no problem with my returning it and getting a full refund.

[Westy36]

FFX return was frustrating. So, print off a label, which involves borrowing a friends printer. Package up the item and cycle 2 miles to the post office. Wait a week for FFX to receive and process the return. Contact them to advise they've refunded short by £5.95 or so involving a phone call and another 10 mins!

Would I buy from FFX again? In fairness, the lady I spoke to in returns was great, but the process overall was a real faff. Still, with what's going on in the world these days, hardly counts. Just might be useful if you were thinking of using them.

Haven't done any of the other service items yet. I have however just found a nice 3" crack on the bottom NSide of my windscreen. Brilliant.  MOT is due in Feb 24, so hopefully the crack won't get any bigger for a while yet.

[Whiteshark]

If you have a small crack in your windscreen that should pass an mot, strongly advisable to get it repaired now. This service is usually covered freely by insurance and shouldn’t affect no claims bonus.

[guest334]

If the crack is not in line of sight you should be OK, however better to have the cracked stopped in its tracks with the Glue windscreen places use.
Have you lined the garage floor with old carpets and or cardboard for laying on?

[Westy36]

I thought a crack was instant game over for a windscreen. Didn't know a repair was possible. I'll have a look in my policy and see who to contact. Thanks for the knowledge!

I have a few moving boxes, so yeah all good.   I also use the parcel shelf from a 1988 Saab 900 5 dr. Massive thing, made of ply I think and covered in soft material. Had it for years, saved it from the breakers. Such a handy thing to have. Find another though.......

[Westy36]

Good news! After only 3 weeks from placing my FFX order and sending back the defective wrench, I've finally got my refund. Slowest refund ever?

FFX? no FFThanks!

[guest334]

At least you've had arefund