First DIY Service
New job means a longer commute and more mileage, which in turn means more servicing needed. So my plan is to do some of the servicing myself and leave the bigger stuff to the specialists. I hadn’t done any DIY servicing on the Scoob, although I had done the basics on my previous cars. This weekend, then, was a step into the unkown. Hopefully by sharing my experiences, people in the same situation might pick up a thing or two.
Oil/filter change
This was the first job. The biggest change from my previous cars was the presence of a plastic guard under the sump, so that had to come off. Easily done with two round clips, two plastic c-shaped clips and a few 12mm hex bolts. Draining oil and filter was easy, and reinstalling same was easy. Topped up with Motul 300V 15W50. One slight surprise was that 4 litres was just bringing the level to the bottom of the dipstick, although the car was on an incline so it was hard to get a good reading. Ran the engine to circulate the oil and topped up with approx 0.5-0.75 of a litre to bring it up to the F mark.
K&N Air Filter clean
Again, pretty easy. spray on the cleaner, let it work for 10-15 mins and rinse off with running water. Leave to dry and then spray on the new filter oil.
Spark plugs
This was the bit I feared most. I had never messed with coil packs, never done plugs on a boxer and was afraid of dropping something in the bowels of the engine and not getting it back. Washer reservoir, battery and air filter holder came out easy. Coil packs came out fine also, I like the way the bolt is retained in the coil pack to prevent it dropping down into the bottom of the engine bay. The biggest difficulty with the plugs was getting the right combination of extensions and a ratchet to give enough room to remove the plugs and install new ones. My 1/2 in set had extensions that were too long or too short and the ratchet was very big. So I dug out my old 3/8 in set which had a better range of extensions and a smaller ratchet. Moral of the story: never throw out your old tools. The only worry I had reinstalling the plugs was whether I had torqued them correctly. The fact that you have to work at a slight angle sometimes doesn’t help in feeling the actual torque you’re applying and I don’t have a small torque wrench so I was relying on feel alone. Also, I wondered if using anti-sieze on the threads meant that you could end up overtorquing the plugs. Time will tell I suppose. Another slight concern is that I used PFR6Bs rather than PFR7Bs as I couldn’t afford to be waiting for delivery etc. The engine spec is standard so this should not be an issue.
Rear Diff Oil Change
This was an utter pain. With the car only up on axle stands, it’s hard to get enough leverage. Breaker bar, torque wrench, everything thrown at it and the plugs would not budge. Eventually I came up with the idea of using my trolley jack to apply enough force to the torque wrench to loosen the plug. Used this technique on both the drain and filler plugs. Motul 300V gear oil was used in the diff, the old stuff looked in reasonable condition - a bit cloudy but not bad.
So that’s it, some basic DIY servicing done. The car started and ran fine after changing the plugs, which was a big moment of truth. It could do with a wash but I’m much happier now that I’ve done the stuff above and have had a good look around underneath at bushes etc. Some Ferodo DS2500 pads are on order, so hopefully I’ll tackle them to have her fully ready for winter.
