I just did my first oil change..

[pandkh]

... and I mean ever! Amazing feeling!!

I grew up in age where cars, by and large, worked by the time I got my first one, 1995. So never really had to get my hands dirty before. Bought my T25, 1.9 DG last year and yesterday I just went for it. I'm sure for some of you guys this seems pretty trivial, but everyone has to start somewhere.

I was quite surprised by just how fast it pours out, and then I slightly misjudged where the oil would leak from when I undid the filter, what with it being on an angle, so the drive got a few splodges but I gunked it off afterwards. No leaks from the drain plug or the filter, and I didn't tighten them up very tight, I read the warnings on here before I started.

I bought a fuel filter too, but I ran out of light before I could do that. A few issues that meant it wasn't straightforward. Firstly the replacement part from GSF was a lot smaller than the one on there which is massive. SO big in fact that it looks like they've had to bridge the orginal fuel pipe with some bigger diameter pipe to join it to the filter in place. Or is that normal? My gut feel is it in't, because the fuel filter is hanging on zip ties from the chassis, which makes me think it's a bodge job. Any advice before I tackle it tomorrow morning.??

Thanks
Pete

[blacky]

Thats a nice post Pete,like how you described the oil flow and the oil filter dripping cos the designers couldn't be arsed to make the filter sit horizontally. (why do they do that) Good on ya mate, it's great to do things yourself and feel empowered and this is the site to help with friendly advice.....but not from me tonight as a mixture of carlsberg and shiraz precludes me from giving a sensible answer/

[fairwynds]

Top marks for the oil change
The fuel filter fitted as standard sits about eight inches back from the fuel tank, under the right hand side of the van. (This pipe is the fuel delivery pipe...if you look over the other side you will see the return pipe that sends any unused fuel back yo the tank).
The metal pipe that comes OUT of the petrol tank is the same diameter as the (inbound) side of the plastic fuel filter. Between the two should be a standard braided fuel hose, and there should be PROPER fuel hose clips securing both ends of this section of hose.
The actual filter is fitted one way around (check the arrow marked on it). On the (outbound) side of the filter their should be another length of braided fuel hose which connects this side of the fuel filter to the hard fuel line that goes rear wards towards the engine bay (where there is yet more braided flexi hose, to the fuel pump, then the carb) Again, proper fuel hose clips should be in place (NOT Jubilee clips).
So, definitely change the filter, to the correct size/capacity one and inspect and change any dodgy fuel hoses, which can very often mean all of them! This is especially important when the vans history is unknown. Engine fires can be easily avoided by sorting these things...

[itchyfeet]

Well done

15w40 mineral oil I hope tappets don't like semi synth much

I always torque the sump plug now had a scary moment where it was too loose and fell out on the motorway
Too tight and you can strip it as you say

Fuel filter shoul look like this about 4" or 100 mm long from memory total

http://www.brickwerks.co.uk/index.php/f ... -carb.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Rotor arm, dizzy cap spark plugs and ignition timing next then

Brakes are quite important too inspection is easy you don't actually have to do any work but worth knowing if something is wrong

[pandkh]

Thanks, yes the one I bought looks just like that. The one that's currently on is twice as fat. Hoses look OK, maybe they are the right one then since as you described, they bridge the gap from the outflow from the tank to the filter. I'll take it off and replace the clips anyway as they look in poor condition, and if necessary replace the hose. Once it's off I'll be able to see if it fits.

I've had the distributer cap off, and the cap, rotor arm and HT leads all look fairly new to me. I might get some spares for the van, long road trip to Spain in the summer, put them with the spare fan belt, oil and coolant.

I'm going to get the spark plugs out if I have time tomorrow after the fuel filter. Back to halfords for a spark plug spanner. Also been thinking about getting a torque wrench for some time. Even my bicycles bolts these days have torque settings, so might bite the bullet and pick one up too. Timing feels like a big step at the moment, but I do wonder if it needs looking at as I've had problems starting it over winter, and it does backfire. Plus there is a persistent smell of petrol, and I checked all the fuel lines and there don't seem to be any leaks, Wondered if it was coming out in the exhaust fumes. Or could be the filler neck. When I filled it to the top, the smell was very strong.

One other question I have is, there is white smoke coming out of the exhaust for maybe 90 seconds when I start her up. In the winter it's bad, white fumes billowing out, not so bad now the weather has warmed up but still there. I googled it and it reckoned that was leaking valves seals, letting in oil which get's burnt off. Does that sound right to everyone here. Is white smoke normal? No smoke if you go out later in the day, so the oil explanation sounds reasonable.

Went to halfords tonight and bought a trolley jack and axle stands. (They were on sale) Going to check the brakes, can hear them working at the front when I brake. Is that normal? Anyway I'm going to get the wheels off and have a nose around.

My Haynes manual is my bedtime reading at the moment!

[itchyfeet]

White fumes may well be just steam and nothing to worry about if there's no sign when you start hot
No valve seals on a wbx to leak
Need to stop shopping at halfrauds

Petrol fumes at the front I assume ?
Often the expansion tank hoses or fuel filker neck as you say

I torque my wheel bolts also

Get a cheap torque wrench for around £20 not at halfrauds though

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... e%20wrench" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I should add that lower torques like bike stuff you need a different wrench
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... e%20wrench" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Ian and Lins]

Well done that man. Once you've started with 'the basics' it aint so hard to build up to what might seem harder jobs. Have you had the blood sacrifice yet? No vehicle of mine has been properly worked on unless I've cut, grazed, scraped part of me so it bleeds (just a little bit is enough) on it.
You can carry a mountain of spares and opinions differ, but if the dizzy cap looks good then just take a rotor arm. One LONG HT lead will do as a spare as they don't all fail at once.

[pandkh]

And to top the oil change, I've now changed the spark plugs! Me, spark plugs!! And the air filter and the fuel filter. I also cleaned the carb. I ran out of time to check the brakes.

I ended up having to cut the old fuel filter off, sacrificing a bit of fuel hose in the process, but that clip wasn't coming off, rusted solid. God knows how long the previous one was on for, the fuel the poured out of it once it was off, was milky pink, and it had lots of crud in it. Oh and I also replaced the fuel tank breather hoses, both hoses, both sides, completely perished. And also all of the braided vacuum hoses in the engine bay as they were in a poor state.

Did I need to bleed the new filter, only is has air in it and the last one didn't. Also there seems to be a big power loss, the old fuel filter was massive, twice the size of the new one, and when the engine is running, it drains the filter dry. Does it just need bedding in?

Engine also running on a very slow idle. Does that need adjusting after all my work. Some of those vacuum hoses could have been leaking.

Thanks for all the support.

[brett_sinclair]

i'm a complete newbie so apologies if this is a stupid answer but i think i read on somewhere here that if you smell petrol when you've just filled up then you could check the top of the fuel tank for rot.

[CJH]

God knows how long the previous one was on for, the fuel the poured out of it once it was off, was milky pink, and it had lots of crud in it.

Can you see what the fuel in the filter looks like now? Is it running clean and clear? A bit of air in the filter at rest isn't a problem I believe, but I don't think it should drain dry when running. I wonder if you've got a lot of crud in the tank so that it's not flowing freely. Has the new filter picked up any visible crud?

Yes, a strong petrol smell apparently can indicate a rusted tank - they apparently trap water on the top surface - but it's no guarantee. I had this ever since I bought the van. I also had drips of fuel under the centre of the van whenever I filled up, and I had crud in the fuel filter and even some very fine rust particles getting past the filter and into my carburettor, which caused a blocked jet a few weeks ago. All the signs were of a rusted tank (as far as I was concerned), but it turned out to be rotten breather hoses (there's several more on top of the tank - inaccessible until you drop the tank) and a leaky seal around the level sender. I also had a split in the top of the filler neck (this part), which is where the crud was getting into the tank.

[itchyfeet]

One thing you have just learnt is to do one job at a time then test drive, that way if a fault appears you know which thing is most likely causing it
how did you 'clean' the carb?

[ghost123uk]

Just to re-iterate / confirm some of what has been said.

White smoke on start up on a cold day = steam = quite normal.

No you don't need to bleed a new fuel filter, and air in it is normal.

However, it "emptying" whilst running is not normal and might be caused by a blockage on the tank side of the pipe, or a blocked strainer inside the tank. You can test this by taking the tank side pipe of the filter and blowing up it. You should be able to blow up it easily and hear lots of bubbles in the fuel in the tank. Doing this can also temporarily clear the blockage from the strainer (but of course it will re-establish itself unless you clean the tank out, which is not as bad a job as you might think). If you do find a blocked strainer, it could be (as mentioned above) be due to a rusty hole in the top of the tank.

You mention = "Also there seems to be a big power loss" can you expand on that a bit ? How bad ?
Do you mean it is not driving as well as before you started on this engine servicing ?
Could be a weak fuel mixture in view of what you say about the fuel filter emptying.
You did get all the HT leads back on in the right order didn't you ? (tip = when doing anything with HT leads or plugs, do one at a time to avoid any chance of confusion (It's easy to get it wrong )

You mention "Engine also running on a very slow idle. Does that need adjusting after all my work. Some of those vacuum hoses could have been leaking" Be very careful of making random adjustments. It is true that if any of the vac pipes, thin ones on the carb, or the brake servo vac pipe etc were leaking, then someone may have adjusted the tickover mixture and tickover speed adjuster to compensate, so your fixing the pipes might have caused it. However you need to know what you are adjusting as the mixture screw affects the emissions and if you get it wrong you can end up confused. You can of course make corrective adjustments using the actual tickover speed adjustment screw (see Haynes or ask here if not sure) but the mixture screw should only really be adjusted in conjunction with an exhaust gas analyser (at you local classic friendly garage )

Of course Itchy is right (he usually is ) = do one thing at a time and then test drive, so you can easily back track any mistakes.

[pandkh]

Don't worry I'm not about to start making unfettered adjustments to the carb setting. I just took it for a test drive and it looks like the fuel filter issue has resolved itself. Full with no air, and the power is back. Actually it's running really smoothly.

It is in fact only the cold idle that's rough. Once it's warm it's fine, but it definitely struggles from cold.

[Smosh]

Good to see another amateur getting stuck in! Keep going. Im going to attempt a oil change soon... Not one for the "in-laws" tarmac drive though.

[itchyfeet]

Good to see another amateur getting stuck in! Keep going. Im going to attempt a oil change soon... Not one for the "in-laws" tarmac drive though.

Hopefully you know the oil filler tube is telescopic