Black Diesel Engine Oil

Dunno about that one, but AFAIK a standard trick for a CX heater matrix is to cut a slot in the interior.

cheers, clive

There have been many instances of this where the bodywork concerned is the floorpan or bulkhead in order to get at bellhousing bolts etc. The rover P6 had a gear selector problem where I cut a big chunk out of the transmission tunnel, but that was always on cars which were or soon would be bangers.

Steve

Ivan wrote: I know it's going off on a bit of a tangent, but as a layman (so I may be

The current Fiat Punto 1.2 8 valve petrol engine comes to mind.... The right side engine mounting is fixed to the engine by bolting it right through the centre of the cambelt run.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Ivan" saying something like:

I have a vague recollection of something on the R16, but the one that sticks in my mind is the clutch cable pedalbox end on the Viva HA car and van. It was an utter nightmare to fiddle about under the dash so many mechanics took a sharpened chisel to the tray under the bonnet that was above the footwell and cut a 2" sq hole. 10 minutes later, new cable in place.

IIRC it was the floorpan and a short cut way to replacing the clutch, no argument a total botch, but why do manufacturers design things that are so bloody awful that it drives people into having to resort to doing this sort of thing?

Because they can.

Remember the Mini fan-belt? You had to feed it around the fan's blades one at a time and you were allowed to charge for 10 minutes servicing time. A better shroud design migh have put tuppence on the price of a new car.

(Yes, I know they were already giving them away at a loss. We may not have had the only bad management in the industry but we certainly had the worst outside of the communist countries.)

The shroud was tight fitting for a reason - to improve fan efficiency. Side mounted rad, remember. Most are just safety guards.

Yes.

Seem to recall a trick shown on tv if you needed to fit a certain water pipe on a mini .

IMS the pipe was about 3-4 inches long and a real bastard .

The trick was to get a suitable nut and bolt and screw it down to take about a inch off the length - then put it in the freezer overnight .

Cant remember how long the water pipe took to expand after it was fitted the next day .

The message from Vhit contains these words:

Yeah, you went down the car shop and bought a "concertina pipe" which went in with about half the effort.

And lasted a couple of months. ;-)

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

Last one I fitted was still going years later.

Last one I bought is still in the garage! I found it a couple of weeks ago, still in it's packaging, while I was looking for something else, natch.

Steve