Always properly diagnose the problem before...

[Moppie]

Always properly diagnose the problem before you spend the money on parts.

I thought I was really clever when I decieded my car needed a new clutch, and I would get it done before it started slipping.
Its at an age where its pluasable it might need doing, and it showed all the classic symptoms of a worn out clutch plate.

So I popped down to a local autoparts store where I know I can get a trade discount and got a full kit, disk, cover and bearing. Even with a discount still a bit of money to spend on parts.

I then left work early today, planning to start stripping the car down ready to pull the box out tomorrow.
I spent about half an hour digging around the net and found a factory shop manaul (Honda UK has them online for free for many older Hondas), had a quick read, then set to work pulling stuff out.
I cleared out the air intake its surport brackets, wiring etc, basicly cleared some space on top of the box and what do I see?
A wet patch, on top of the box. Something somewhere is leaking, so I dig a little deeper, and right down on the side of the engine bay is a clutch damper (gives a smooth pedal feel), and the line running from there to the slave cylinder is leaking.

I wasted over an hour, and several hundred dollars when all I needed to do was top up the clutch master cylinder with brake fluid.

[TheSilentChamber]

Nice. What car?

[Moppie]

A honda '89 Prelude INX
16 years old, with only 110,000ks on it, used to belong to a panel beater (the arse is full of bog) and cost me next to nothing.
Im waiting for it to die (which it refuses to do) so I can sell the front cut to some poor american who wants to put it on us US spec car.
Its also the 2nd slowest car Iv ever owned.

[curtis73]

I've never done anything like that Except the time I sent two sets of noisy tires back to Yokohama before I realized that it was the front bearings making all that noise. Oops.

[Moppie]

I wonder how many hours Yokohama wasted on R&D before they decieded you must have just been a nut?

[Moppie]

This is just getting embarrasing.

After wasting time clearing things out of the way to do a job I didn't need to do I thought it might be an idea to do a job I did need to do, and so replaced the cap and rotor on the distrubtor.

A simple job you might think?
Apprently not. After 3 trips back and forth to the parts store they finnaly managed to get me a cap and rotor that fit together. Sort of. Right cap, wrong rotor.
I had to trim the ends of the rotor, useing the guides created by it wearing against the contacts inside the cap.

And then, and as this is the embarrasing part, the cars run out of fuel!

At least I hope its run out of fuel, the problem is I should have a we bit left, which means something else might have stopped, like the fuel pump, or the a clogged fuel filter...........

And the g/f wonders why I tend to leave off fixing the car till it absolutly needs doing. Its because the moment you start, everything else starts failing around you.

[TheSilentChamber]

I love parts that dont fit, thats why I own an AMC.

[Moppie]

Originally Posted by TheSilentChamber

I love parts that dont fit, thats why I own an AMC.

Its why I own a hacksaw

[2turboimports]

I'm the complete opposite....I always underestimate the problems I have with cars. Then I get blind sided when i'm trying to fix something simple and end up wasting time.

[v10_viper]

Originally Posted by Moppie

Its because the moment you start, everything else starts failing around you.

Agreed. Had my truck in the garage for a tune up, entire ignition and a few other things, I go to top off the coolant and show up 10 minutes later to put the cap back on the radiator and there is coolant all over the damn floor. Me and dad go to change lower hose on the radiator and that wasn't it, come to find out the water pump had magically taken a shit on me while it was sitting in the garage. Odd as hell.