Who is doing what maintenance today?

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Carried pottering today with the 80. Changed the fuel filter, it had done 8K but as I had a genuine one spare I thought I'd change it.

It can be seen it doesn't have the fuel heater in the filter head on an Import.

Next I changed the front speakers. On the last decent trip it was noticed the sound quality wasn't good especially as the 80 has a 3" exhaust which tends to drown the music a bit.

I fitted a pair of these:-

As recommended. Very easy to fit, perhaps the sound quality wasn't good because the speakers looked like this:-

Sound much better, the music is far clearer over the exhaust noise now.

Just got the autobox cable to fit when it comes.

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

No guessing what came today?

And what I'll be doing later.

 

[fbnss]

That was quick

 

[Howmanygoes]

Put the roof tent up today and gave it a coat of fabsil gold in the sunshine. Getting ready for camping season.

 

[Towpack]

Spent the morning checking the off side brakes for a loud "click" that had appeared on first application. Had both front and rear pads out and everything checked out OK, clips, pins etc and all bolts tight. Put everything back together and no click. I hate that!

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Done a few bits to the 80, carrying on crossing jobs off.
Firstly the siezed TV cable ( fuel pump to autobox). Quite an involved job so as not to tie the ramp up I did it in the workshop with a pit. There's two aspects to the job, disconnecting the cable within the autobox and undoing the bolt which holds the retaining clip which holds the cable to top of the gearbox. The sump pan has to be dropped to get the end of the cable disconnected and re connected which is straight forward but the bolt and clip affair is on another level. Front prop off, undershields off, crossmember bolts out and drop it down with a maxi sized scissor jack till the engine is touching the bulkhead. Only then can you feel, but not see the 12mm bolt head you need to undo. This a contortionists dream but getting it undone was a peach compared to putting it back. The clip has to be transferred from cable to cable exactly in the right place so as to line up with a hole you can't see but eventually I got it to start and it was done. The old cable could have been cut back and the new one not fastened which probably been ok but its not my way.
I tapped out the cross member captive nuts in the chassis and the bolts went back a treat ( with Copperslip). Reassembled all the bits and filled back 6 litres of new ATF ( I recently changed 15 litres) set the TV cable up and that job was that.
I gave the front prop another grease while it was off too.

I came across a guy selling quite a bit of ARB stuff well priced so I took a chance on a S/H compressor. This came with new pipes, inflator, deflator etc so I fitted this in stages. Theres not much room under the bonnet for one of these ( unless you have a GS without the ABS pump) so I did my best with what I had to install it in the right orientation.
I wired it to the N/S battery and as I didn't get the plug wiring to switch I spliced into the back of the plug and used a spare Isolator switch to activate. It works well so when I air down for laning I can air back up rather than travel 30 miles as I did last time to find air ( which cost me £3).

Took it for a few mile test run and the autobox is the best its been in 8 years with a new cable and 20 litres of ATF changed.

Also I wrapped the stainless exhaust end to end including the silencers, this has had a dramatic effect on the noise inside, I also did the V6 Collie which again had had a major reduction in noise inside.

 

[Raj]

Last month I changed the engine oil and filter but after driving to Europe now I got engine oil maintenance required soon message. I did 2700 miles since the last oil change but this message came up so did the oil change yesterday and reset this message.
I had several doubts - Bad diesel triggered this, maybe a fast long drive triggered this, maybe I didn't change the oil properly last time, there are sensors to find out if the oil is bad or if this was a message pre-set as a reminder from the last Toyota service 10000 miles ago. It was also making some strange noise at cold start since last oil change.
So many things to investigate and rule out so just changed the oil and filter.

This time I didnt get Toyota oil. I found this one with the same specs at Tayna batteries at half price so used this one. Got 2 engine oil filters and some bits and pieces from Toyota,

.

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Even for Toyota's engine oil, the non-trade price is 85.58£ +VAT for 5 lit 5w30 oil.

Looking at a couple of Aussie vids on the subject of oil changes its noticeable that they use 5w40 oil instead of 5w30. I'm not a fan of 5w30 as I think its very thin at working temp and if I had a 200 it would get 5w40 or even 10w40.
Very interesting that the crankshaft failures on the Discovery 3 and especially the 4 are attributed to the use of 5w30 oil.

 

[Raj]

use 5w40

Thank you Andy. I never thought of this. If I want to shift to 5W40 from 5w30 do we have to completely take out all existing oil. or can we just shift at next oil change?
If oil is thick is it ok for our cold climate. My Landcruiser already takes about 10 mins for engine temp needle to come to middle. For comparison my accord takes about 3-4 mins.
My understanding is that about 1-1.5 lt oil will be left in the engine or oil pan even after draining

 

[karl2000]

Raj I assume your accord is petrol, I think petrols warm up quicker than diesels

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

Another day of maintenance, but not on mine.
DandyLandy brought his 80 round for a bit of TLC.
Timing belt, alt belts and a fuel filter and a good all round social morning.

Topped the oil up and it was good to go.

Oh, and I fitted some LED headlights on mine to see what all the fuss is about ( Dandy has some on his).

 

[Towpack]

What's the Allisport reservoir thingy in the top pic, power steering?

 

[AndycruiserguyLomas]

power steering?

Yep its a aftermarket reservoir.

 

[Raj]

it’s Krown day.

 

[Allan M]

Cam belt, serpentine belt and new radiator on the Collie. At 70k since the last change cam belt looked like new. Radiator was peace of mind. 22years and 250,000 miles was probably pushing my luck.

 

[frank rabbets]

No problem deciding what grade of oil to use. It is all in the owners handbook. Tech of oil is also described so you do't have to stick to Toyota oil.

 

[frank rabbets]

P.S. Big problem at Land Rover with bearing failure. Faulty bearings as they had no nibs to stop them spinning. Nothing to do with "wrong" oil.

 

[ram]

Hi everyone,
it's been a long time since i've been on here and a long time, almost 2 years since i had my lc 80 on the road. I am hoping to get it mot'd sometime next week and as i was going through various checks, like lights indicators etc. you know all menial stuff but necessary as the garage charged me £15 pounds for changing a single wiper on wife's audi last time i took it for mot. I found my rear fog lights are not working, the ones located on the drop down tail gate on the 80, first thing i did was check the bulbs and they were both good and then checked the fuse in the fusebox and the space that was meant for the fuse and said foglights on the cover but this was empty and after shining a torch in the fuse holder, there are no contacts there, it's empty so i'm a bit confused. Is the fuse for the rear fog lights located somewhere else.
please kindly advise where i can check for any faults as i want to enjoy my 80 for the next few months before i go and park it up at my son's place in Berkshire because of the bloody ULEZ.
unfortunately i will be affected by it this August which means i'll need to park up my 80 and get ride of wife's audi Q5
Thank you in advance
I hope to attend as many events as i can once i get back on the road

 

[frank rabbets]

If you have no luck re the fuse I would check where the wire harness flexes between the drop down tail gate and the body. There might be broken wire(s) in there.

 

[chapel gate]

Check the ECU B fuse.