halfords @*$%ers! long boring rant!

[logey79]

Had lots of bits and bobs to do today on various motors (surf, mondeo and my mums rover 75 cdt). felt pretty good this morning, had a good breakfast, got everything i knew i'd need for the day (or what i thought i would, put it that way) and set off about my DIYery.
Now, i'm ok with the familiar things on a familiar engine, which out of these for me is the mondeo, so that goes first to make me feel good, oil, filter, fuel filter, air+pollen filters, tyre swaps back to front and then the pig brakes and discs. everything done, usual sh[t with the 'what finger is getting broken today' winding in callipers but nothing unusual.
then the rover. all i had to do was oil+filter+air filter. LOL "what the f*** is that", as i opened the bonnet. anyway, removed all that plastic nonsense and finally found an engine. removed some more plastic c.rap found the air filter. PROBLEM: completely different to the one the dick in halfords give me, because they didn't have it listed in the book so had to 'ask at parts' which i hate 'coz there is always someone dumber than me there-not good. (by the way they tried charging me £26 for oil filter for surf-F.that!!got 3 filter kits from milners+sump washers for £45?????)
PROBLEM 2: after draining oil from rover, could not find oil filter anywhere. really started getting paranoid, waiting for camera crew to appear or something. anyway found a rover forum, which was bollox in comparison to this one, and was informed of how to get to filter-via a 36mm socket nut fecking thing. could i find a 36mm fecking socket-bollox could i. finally found the socket and unscrewed the oil filter housing only to reveal PROBLEM 3. the aforementioned twa.t at halfords had given me the wrong oil filter as well. so off i stomped to halfrauds, showed them what i needed actually had feck all resemblance to what they give me (oil filter just a bit of paper, no metal casing unlike what they give me. and the air filter he give me was flat and square i needed a long cylindrical thing) only to be told PROBLEM 4. they can't get these until tuesday. I very nearly slapped the guy PROBLEM 5: i didn't.
so now i've got a rover 75 in my way, with no oil in it and the day has been half wasted so the surf gets put off until tommorrow. plus i lost my temper driving back from halfrauds and broke the speed limit twice....but amazingly hit nothing for...a change!!! bird flu may be cured....

boring rant over, i'm still bored, and if you are still reading, then you must be too. goodnight all.

[Vagrant No2]

Halfrauds is the closest to me , but the very last place I go for ANYTHING mechanical . There is never anyone on the parts desk , and as you say, they know sweet FA about life or motor vehicles . I once wanted a rocker cover gasket for a Sierra , 'Spotty' wanted to sell me the complete head gasket set advising me the other gaskets would be handy . He got a reply that he is still probably trying to work out as it had medical terms that involved his lower passage and the gasket set .
There is nothing good or useful about that place or the 'people' who work there .

YOU ARE NOT ALONE Logey .

[logey79]

well, i'm a bit happier now than i was last night, so just checking on a couple of little things before i get at the surf, gonna block the egr, try reduce the cloud that covers people on my travels!!

[BUSHWHACKER]

Happy hunting....hehehehe!!!

[logey79]

I know, i know...but if it wasn't for me scratching my head at my own stupidity then i'd have absolutely nothing to do!!! I didn't look for it for too long though, so will post queries for everything now...but at least i am learning!!

[BUSHWHACKER]

What's your air filter like, 'cos if it's dirty, that will cause smoke.
Also, could you take a pic of your engine and post it on here? maybe we could use it as a reference and point things out to you.

[logey79]

filter not too bad, but will be changing it regardless once my milners order gets here in the week. i took off the filter-turbo piping and turbo-throttle housing/inlet and cleaned them out, they were drenched in oil, i know its normal to have a little but it really was OTT, so that may help a little.
i was going to remove the rocker breather that goes into the filter-turbo piping and pop it into a catchment bottle, that should keep these pipes clean, but does it need to be connected for any reason?
I will take some pics as soon as my sister gives me back my camera...stolen it to take pics of her baby, how boring?!?hehe, only joking she's lovely.

[BUSHWHACKER]

[QUOTE=logey79]
i was going to remove the rocker breather that goes into the filter-turbo piping and pop it into a catchment bottle, that should keep these pipes clean, but does it need to be connected for any reason? QUOTE]




Funny you should mention that, I've pulled the pipe off my rocker cover and replaced it with a length of rubber hose directed into a small coke bottle, and taped over the hole in the turbo inlet hose. The result is absolutely no smoke, except on startup, and clean inlet pipes.

[Vagrant No2]

Jon (Jotto) has a very smart purpose made stainless steel catch pot he made for his 2.4 . Wether he would make more is his call , but I thought I would mention it .

[logey79]

[QUOTE=BUSHWHACKER]

i was going to remove the rocker breather that goes into the filter-turbo piping and pop it into a catchment bottle, that should keep these pipes clean, but does it need to be connected for any reason? QUOTE]

i'll give it a pop then, might just do the trick for the smoking. i'll let you know if i manage to break anything in the process.


Funny you should mention that, I've pulled the pipe off my rocker cover and replaced it with a length of rubber hose directed into a small coke bottle, and taped over the hole in the turbo inlet hose. The result is absolutely no smoke, except on startup, and clean inlet pipes.

[logey79]

ooh err! what happened there? (wasn't me)