Meriva A airbox screws?

Subtle. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

It's what a garage would do!

Might need to look at using a breakers.

Chris

I bet. ;-)

I'm not sure we have many locally any more Chris but I've ordered some stainless self tappers off eBay and once I find one that works I'll de-thread the top bit and they should then outlast the car. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Given that they are only accessed a few times in the life of the car, I'd be confident of being able to find a suitable self-tapper. You could even replace them all if you were worried about matching.

I'm awaiting the postman. ;-)

For me, 'suitable' would be mainly that the thread would be the same diameter and pitch, so as to not muller the soft plastic threads in the airbox any more than necessary. [1]

Only insofar as the other screws are starting to show signs of imminent failure so I will change them all anyway. Even if I only change the air filter one more time in the cars life, I'd like it to be as easy as possible. ;-) [2]

Cheers, T i m

Why does it matter if it is not clamped down firmly? In the unlikely event of a small air leak, it will only be on the dirty side of the filter.

Chris

No scientific reason other than preferring to do things 'right' and to resist water getting in there etc. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Been there, done that.

:-)

What is weird ... ordinarily (especially these days and at my age) I find myself doing something I wouldn't even dream of doing at that time, (the last instance being) fitting an exhaust on a van, in the road ... in the middle squall ... but do anyway so to help someone else out (daughter, daughters Ex or similar) and they are going from me and driving up to Scotland. No pressure then. ;-(

The pressure seem to come from the assumption that 'because I got them out of trouble all the other times, I can get them out of trouble every time'!

The last two times I didn't try past some basic tests / diagnostics was when the fuel injection pump (well, actually it's ECU) failed on daughters Connect and the alternator on one of her Ex's Berlingo van. It turns out the garage had an issue getting the alternator off and it wouldn't have been so easy in the road at this time of year. ;-(

Not so long ago I was fairly happy to spend reasonable amounts on special tools .. the thought that either I or someone I'm helping might be able to make use of them again (and they often up ended 'free' if you would otherwise have to take it to a garage) but as things get more complex and I get older I'm doing so less often.

I did buy another bluetooth OBD dongle the other day so we can have a 'floating' one and daughter can check exactly what it is that seems to be popping the EML on every so often on her (other) Connect?

Cheers, T i m

are you real, it's a screw find one like it and use.

Oh yes.

So it is!

Yup, some on their way (thanks).

Oh, did I mention this was my car and not your fence? ;-)

Cheers, T i m

My kids have all moved away, so they don't pester me much. Don't think I have done anything other than a jump or tow start, or a wheel change, for anyone for 20 years. I leave all the computer stuff to a mechanic friend who has the trade software after failing to get far with a couple of cheap OBD dongles.

Not familiar with his previous work? ;)

But they can still pester you some then, even when remote. ;-)

Do you live out in the sticks by any chance? Daughters ex rang from work yesterday (he works local to us) asking how easy it might be to fit an aux bet as his had just come off the Berlingo. I Escorted him to our local garage earlier and it looks like the alternator has been moving within it's bracket and worn both the alternator mounting lugs and the inside faces of the bracket? I might see if I can bore it out tomorrow and turn and fit a sleeve so at least it can get him going short term and then see if we can find a good bracket and alternator to fix it permanently.

I just tried the cheap bluetooth one (£5 eBay) with Torque Pro and it connected first time and showed one stored fault (EGR valve that I'm not too bothered about right now). ForScan on the netbook also works well on the Connect, as did OpCom (both USB) for faultfinding the intermittent fault on the ECU on the Meriva.

But then I like playing with computery things. ;-)

I'm not sure I'd want to push either past the basic read / clear fault codes and setting up scope traces and data monitoring etc. It takes some bottle to go past that 'Are you sure' prompt when you are about to do something that could disable the vehicle completely. ;-(

Cheers, T i m