What should I do whilst I'm "in there" ?

[mr tickle]

i have just ordered the following items from Milners for a super service next week:

Service Filter kit
Water pump (have leak) (Will do a full flush out and refill with new antifreeze)
4 Glow plugs
3 belts

I will also be attempting to remove and replace the noisy bearing in my steering pump (that was refurbed only 4 months ago ) & make an EGR blank plug.

Whilst I have a mini strip down going on, is there anything else that would be beneficial to be done.

All of the transmission fluids were done recently and the thermostat replaced.

Many thanks

PS - is it easier to remove the rad seeing as the fluid is all coming out anyways?

PPS happy new year:thumb2

 

[11redrex]

You will have to remove the rad to get the water pump off. There's a good workshop download doing this. It's for an older Mistral so will have a couple of differences to your vehicle, eg. no oil cooler on yours, but it's a good guide.

Couple of things not mentioned in the download :

1. The black plastic cowling around the fan splits in two, and you will need to remove both halves one at a time before you can remove the rad. I could not remove the rad with the lower cowling in place because the bottom hose connection sticks out and catches on the cowling.

2. The bolt that holds the power steering pump in place needs to be quite tight when you are adjusting the pump otherwise the pump can be pulled out of line (which can wreck the bearings).

Noticed you haven't mentioned a thermostat, which I would replace when doing a coolant flush.
Also it's a good idea to refill the system with plain water, run it for a bit and drain it, a few times as you won't get all the old coolant out just by draining the rad and removing the pump. There is a drain plug but it's hidden below the turbo so you can't get to it and, for some bloody stupid reason, it's mounted on rubber so you can't turn it without splitting the rubber.

 

[makeitfit]

Clean out the inside of your intercooler, as it's bound to be full of oil and cack
If you've got the "throttle" body type thing on the inlet manifold, you can bin the flap inside for better air flow , assuming you're blanking the EGR too.
Make a little bottle(oil catch tank) to take the "blow by oil" that gets stuffed back in the air intake just after the MAF, that'll gunge up the intercooler again otherwise
Check the earth wires to the block, inlet manifold and anywhere else I cant remember

 

[clivvy]

agreed with above plus, remove the small cylinder shaped thing at the front right of the engine block, below the intercooler, may have a green sticker on it and clean it out then refit and tighten-many blow gunk out the bottom and it looks terrible.

 

[makeitfit]

That's what I said

 

[mr tickle]

I thought I would Update on how my mini service went over the weekend.

Removed Battery
Removed undertray
Drained radiator
removed radiator
removed fan
removed all 3 belts
removed water pump
removed steering pump
removed maf and cleaned with carb cleaner
removed all intake pipe and little oil catcher and cleaned through although they were cleanish
removed intercooler and cleaned through even though it too was quite clean.
**put two rags in both pipes pipes to stop parts falling in engine** very important!
removed oil filter air filter and fuel filter and secondary fuel filter
removed glow plugs

Whenever I buy a new car, I don't feel comfortable with it until I have given it a good service and replaced all of the consumables. having stripped down a number of items under the bonnet I feel like I'm begining to "connect" with my car.

Most of these jobs were very easy and working on this car is actually good fun, it reminds my of working on cars I used to own many years ago. I can even get underneath without even having to jack the car up.

I stripped the steering pump down and removed the whiney bearing. My local hayley shop gave me a new one for £4!!! As it took quite a hammering to get it of the shaft, I did not want to damage the new bearing hammering it back on the shaft, I dropped the bare shaft into liquid nitrogen for 1 minute and the new bearing just dropped on.

The worst part of this job was removing the "welded" on gasket from the old waterpump.
It took me about two hours to slowly remove all the bits and clean up the block face!
flush radiator through with garden hose and hoover out all of the dust/fluff from fins
New antifreeze
new oil
new filters
new belts (don't forget to replace the old belts with new the new ones - I replaced the old middle one in error and then had to go back and strip off 2 belts LOL!!)
clean battery terminals and copper grease
New steering fluid
new glow plugs

Car fired up first time and does appear to be running sweetly.

Now who designed the fan to have an uneven number of blades!
I was hoping to cut half of them off to cut down on drag and noise.

Next jobs:

1) Replace cassette player with new Bluetooth Cd player in "home made" facia with hazard light and extra ciggie lighter sockets
2) completely wire brush the entire underneath of the car - re-underseal and fill all chassis holes with waxoil.
3) Enjoy driving it!