What's made you grumpy today?

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Changing the brake pads on my brother's 407 last night, wheel bolts on one side were seriously tight. Second side was worse, and resulted in a sheared bolt. Didn't have time to sort it last night, but 4 bolts will be safe enough until I look at it again.

One of the guide pins had seized resulting in one pad down to the metal. And pad on the other side of the disc crumbled away, heat damaged.

Gator had started to split on the CV joint, so some nice black grease on everthing behind and rear of caliper. It's an awkward double wishbone suspension, so hoping there's enough movement to get the driveshaft out with only the bottom link undone. That'll be added the the joy of trying the drill the broken wheel bolt out,

Looks like you've got some fun times ahead there. I take it this isn't a car you see regularly? with so much stuff seized up I wouldn't be surprised to hear it was dealer maintained? Has the wheel bolt sheared off flush or under the surface of the flange? if so might be possible to wind it on all the way through?

 

[vexorg]

With my brother, unless sometihng is falling off the car then it's driven into the ground.
It had work done for it's mot at the beginning of the year, he let the mot garage do the work and they were cursing that car. I had phoned up as he thought he was getting the runaround, but it was all to do with the peugeot stock system crashing out for a few weeks and no one could get parts.

 

[Cheest]

I stopped for lunch on my way to Red Wing, Minnesnowta. Was just checking the tie down on my old bicycle when I saw this.

Where the hell is my saddle? It was on the bicycle when I left home.

Sunuva…

I dropped $130US for a new one. Happy Early Fathers Day to me, I guess.

 

[StevenRB45]

It did you a favour there ,

Have a random light, rotational grinding front left while turning right at low speed, light squeak at higher speeds.

Pretty unlikely to be wheel bearing at the mileage (34k).

Looked at the discs..deary me Citroën OEM discs what are they made of? Smaller wear lips on the outside face but the saving of 40p per car in not fitting backing plates (at least eliminates bent backing plate from the equation) means the disc face and pad get sanded down with all the road grime. Proper wear lip on it...and then suspect it's oxidised while standing for a week. But it's also done Hartside pass twice..so they could have just worn out given 0 engine braking.

Think it'll be getting left at the indy next week for it's second set of discs and pads. Not OEM this time as clearly they are made of tissue paper..first set was done at 17k miles which I put down to short trips and lock down but this set has lasted precisely as long.

 

[StevenRB45]

Apparently the discs are red herring..

Hello there Mr CV joint aren't you meant to be wearing a hat?

So next week plot changes to extracting free parts out of the warranty company hopefully..or getting it changed by the indy.

 

[Barchetta Bloke 440]

Trivial grumpiness....the cycling highlights show for the Giro weren't on tonight ,can't find a reason for it .
The appalling weather has made the race very trying for all ,I'm surprised the race continues at all considering the devastation of Emelia Romagna region around Bologna .Covid is also making its way through the Peloton with quite a few riders abandoning with illness .
The Formula 1 got binned but I don't care about that ,no longer watch that yawnfest .

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

The Formula 1 got binned but I don't care about that ,no longer watch that yawnfest .

Agree. Back in the day of "screaming" engines and dodgy road holding it was an exciting spectacle. Not for me now. I used to enjoy watching the Australian V8 supercars on one of the Sky TV channels but I cancelled my Sky TV a few years ago - just too expensive for the limited number of channels that interested me. Now I try to catch the lunatics who do bike racing whenever I can.

 

[vexorg]

The Formula 1 got binned but I don't care about that ,no longer watch that yawnfest .

The joy of sky+, watch it on fast forward. F1, not the bikes, never seen the appeal of watch people struggle on bikes for fun, they always look like they dont want to be there..

 

[portland_bill]

Kettle lid won't click shut. Silly little catch, opened by a button on the handle, spring inside must be broken, or seized. Kettle's several years old, but disappoiinting as otherwise it works fine still. But with the sprung lid open, it is reluctant to shut off.
Can't see how the lid would come apart, so more likely to break than be able to repair.
Off to Currys. Good grief. Cheap kettles, look and feel very nasty. Then a leap to £40-£50, but most of theirs still naff. Whatever happened to simple and effective? Could of course pay up to £120 for a kettle.
Off to Argos, that's better. A Russell Hobbs, same as current one, £40. An very similar one, from Breville, £32. Took the Breville.
At home, instructions say fill and boil, empty, repeat twice more, before use. Filled to max, turned on. Seemed to take ages to boil, despite rating being same as old one, but was very reluctant to shut off. Kettle almost dancing off its base before shut off. That's no good, as partner's carers put kettle on, do other stuff and return, as we all do. Then emptying it. Oh woe! Pours like a bucket, including leaking past the lid.
Keep using the old one.
Monday, back to Argos, to swap for the Russell Hobbs. Hassle. Shame, Breville used to be a good brand.

 

[porta]

Style over substance these days

 

[Cheest]

I got PO'd enough with what my employer sees as a quality product that I gave my two week notice yesterday. It's not official yet because I did promise my boss(We go back 27 years)that I'd do a conference call with the new CEO tomorrow morning before pulling the trigger.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

The golf finally let me down, we’ll sort of. 7 and a half years on and something has finally broken, it’s just somewhat typical it would be the aircon in the middle of a heat wave.

The typical first response to the aircon not working on any car is, “is there gas in the system?”

Well there was when I set out on my journey at 5pm but it’s getting on for nearly 8 years old and has never had a regas (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it) so this seemed a pretty fair question, I have the means to check the pressure so I plugged it in and not a PSI more or less than what should be expected… odd.
I supposed it did seem pretty odd that one minute it was working fine the next it was dead, rather than tapering off over the months to a mild muggy warm breeze out of the vents.

I don’t have a diagnostic tool for vw so that wasn’t an option.

I looked down at the compressor, with the engine running I could see the pulley idling fine. I stopped the car, turned the compressor by hand, it was lovely and smooth and I could feel the resistance as the pressure was building within the compressor nothing seemed out of place I was at this point assuming that it might be a relay or a fuse but the fuses where all fine and god only knows where the relays were hidden, but not in any of the fuse boxes.

I was begining to wonder if it was an expansion valve issue as I know these can need replacing sometimes on vw cars, it’s nice easily serviceable part, but then it occurred to me I wasn’t hearing the compressor even trying to click on and off, thinking ok clearly there is either something electrical or a problem with the clutch engaging, I had the car stopped again and was reaching down and turning the pump by hand again seeing if I could feel anything wrong with the pulley or compressor. And that’s when it figuratively struck me and quite literally cut me.

I took my hand out to see a 6mm piece of jagged metal stuck in my middle finger. I pulled it out and looked back down again only to see what wasn’t obvious before

You can probably just see there a piece of silver broken metal.
I went on eBay (usually the best place for pictures of disassembled parts, to find a picture of the clutch and found this

The outer and inner part of the clutch are connected by those three silver bars/arms, and on mine one of them was broken in half. I turned the clutch over again and found the other two had completely disconnected.
Looking at the picture above it looks like they are pretty badly made and only pushed into some sort of hole on the pulley there is no bolt or rivet. My theory is that over the last 7 years of the aircon being run permanently when. The car is running, the cycling of the clutch on and off finally caused those push fittings to detach on a couple of the metal bars and the resulting pressure on the one remaining bat caused it to break in two.

Now the forensic investigation is over it needs to be fixed. My local vw people are only 100 yards from my house so I’ll drop in and see them tomorrow and see if there is a official VW clutch replacement they can drop in for me, I’m fairly confident the rest of the system is ok.
Even then I am not looking forward to the bill.

 

[bugsymike]

In the past one of my customers aircon was rattling from the clutch (she used to drive through flooded lanes regularly to see to her horses) pump not servicable, new complete unit only. I think hers was a Toyota Yaris? , hopefully VW better.

 

[PuntoHowTo]

In the past one of my customers aircon was rattling from the clutch (she used to drive through flooded lanes regularly to see to her horses) pump not servicable, new complete unit only. I think hers was a Toyota Yaris? , hopefully VW better.

Just talking to my brother on whatsapp at the moment, hes not a mechanic but he has a camper conversion company that specializes in VWs and he has a body shop which does have to replace these things when people bend the front of the car a little too much (a handy guy to know when you need an aircon regas)

He tells me there is a trade company for VAG parts that can do all genuine parts and knows every part that's on any VAG car so hopefully he can find out if I can get a separate clutch.
I am not sure I fancy doing this myself. My back is shot and I just don't get the time these days. but if I can get a rough Idea of what is needed I can at least talk to the garage around the corner from me, or there is a VW specialist in the Unit between my brother's two units so maybe they could do it.

I don't want to pay for a whole new compressor if I can avoid it. Changing just the clutch also avoids opening up the system. and regassing it.

 

[bugsymike]

Just talking to my brother on whatsapp at the moment, hes not a mechanic but he has a camper conversion company that specializes in VWs and he has a body shop which does have to replace these things when people bend the front of the car a little too much (a handy guy to know when you need an aircon regas)

He tells me there is a trade company for VAG parts that can do all genuine parts and knows every part that's on any VAG car so hopefully he can find out if I can get a separate clutch.
I am not sure I fancy doing this myself. My back is shot and I just don't get the time these days. but if I can get a rough Idea of what is needed I can at least talk to the garage around the corner from me, or there is a VW specialist in the Unit between my brother's two units so maybe they could do it.

I don't want to pay for a whole new compressor if I can avoid it. Changing just the clutch also avoids opening up the system. and regassing it.

Sounds like TPS (trade dept for VW so oily mechanics don't walk through showrooms ) I used to have an account with them so they would deliver until I retired a few years ago, helpful lads.

 

[porta]

I got PO'd enough with what my employer sees as a quality product that I gave my two week notice yesterday. It's not official yet because I did promise my boss(We go back 27 years)that I'd do a conference call with the new CEO tomorrow morning before pulling the trigger.

Did you jump then, and what was the reaction?

 

[PuntoHowTo]

Sounds like TPS (trade dept for VW so oily mechanics don't walk through showrooms ) I used to have an account with them so they would deliver until I retired a few years ago, helpful lads.

Yep looks like it is one and the same, brother is going to give them a call for me and see if they do a separate clutch.

It’s a bit of an odd ball car because by design is a mk6 golf, though being the cabriolet everything from the dash back is different.
Then to further complicate matters they stopped making the normal mk6 in 2012, so mine being a 2015 is a mash of more modern parts. It was built at the Karmann factory in Osnubruck alongside all the other VAG specials like the Porsche Cayman, Boxster and other weird things like the XL1 so while still made from a lot of time tested part bins parts, there are a lot of parts from audi because it was based on the Audi a3 cabriolet.

Looking at the part numbers on the compressor it looks like it might be out of a MK7 GTD but has a weird part number which is not model specific (5K being the mk6 golf code)

 

[Cheest]

Did you jump then, and what was the reaction?

I’ve told them that I’d stick around until the end of July, but only if there is a plan to fix this cluster. Then, it’s my call after that.

The new CEO seems to be on my side here. He was going to enact a plan next year that all production and engineering staff are to spend up to two weeks each year working in the field with the service staff. After this current fiasco, it’s happening this summer. Refuse to travel, look for another job. I think he’s going to play hardball.

One other thing he wants to do is have myself or one of the other two Service guys come down to the factory and perform a one to two week inspection on new machines before they are shipped to the customer. I told him that we tried that. I handed in a five page report on what needed to be corrected. The report was ignored, the machine was shipped, and I spent the next three months in the field making it it right. My daily reports started out with “Dear Idiots” and included the entire management team in it. They were punctuated wIth F-bombs. One clown said I was very unprofessional. He learned quickly not to poke the bear.

 

[bugsymike]

I’ve told them that I’d stick around until the end of July, but only if there is a plan to fix this cluster. Then, it’s my call after that.

The new CEO seems to be on my side here. He was going to enact a plan next year that all production and engineering staff are to spend up to two weeks each year working in the field with the service staff. After this current fiasco, it’s happening this summer. Refuse to travel, look for another job. I think he’s going to play hardball.

One other thing he wants to do is have myself or one of the other two Service guys come down to the factory and perform a one to two week inspection on new machines before they are shipped to the customer. I told him that we tried that. I handed in a five page report on what needed to be corrected. The report was ignored, the machine was shipped, and I spent the next three months in the field making it it right. My daily reports started out with “Dear Idiots” and included the entire management team in it. They were punctuated wIth F-bombs. One clown said I was very unprofessional. He learned quickly not to poke the bear.

The truth hurts.

 

[portland_bill]

Yep looks like it is one and the same, brother is going to give them a call for me and see if they do a separate clutch.

It’s a bit of an odd ball car because by design is a mk6 golf, though being the cabriolet everything from the dash back is different.
Then to further complicate matters they stopped making the normal mk6 in 2012, so mine being a 2015 is a mash of more modern parts. It was built at the Karmann factory in Osnubruck alongside all the other VAG specials like the Porsche Cayman, Boxster and other weird things like the XL1 so while still made from a lot of time tested part bins parts, there are a lot of parts from audi because it was based on the Audi a3 cabriolet.

Looking at the part numbers on the compressor it looks like it might be out of a MK7 GTD but has a weird part number which is not model specific (5K being the mk6 golf code)

I just stuck aircon compressor clutch into Google, and came back with results. Not specific to Golf of course, but it seems Autodoc list for many models.
I would expect the compressor, and clutch to be generic, so not that many options. Vehicle manufacturers are likely to use an existing unit, rather than have a bespoke unit designed, so hopefully just a case of choosing the right one.