Oil Burning BMW for repair

BMW in for heavy oil consumption. The car was performing fine however the oil usage was high. Tests came back with using about 1Litre of oil per 1000km’s. Thankfully this owner had a mechanical breakdown insurance who came to the rescue and paid for a large portion of the repairs. As it turned out we did 2 of these jobs in August.

Both with policy’s through different providers. This one required ‘exhaust’ valve guides and valve stem seals. A reasonably common issue. The work involved removing the cylinder head for inspection and repairs as required. The owner in this case opted to renew the timing chain ‘kit’. The timing tool in ‘blue’ is fitted here as we ‘time’ the engine and torque up the crank and cam pulleys.

Walnut-Blasting Carbon Clean/ Engine Detox

We are calling this our Stage 3 clean. Stage 1 being Hydrogen Carbon clean machine. Stage 2, Hydrogen Carbon Clean machine and Liquimoly intake cleaner.

Stage 3 Walnut Blasting

Stage 4 = All of the above

What is it? quite literally its a machine that uses compressed air and fine crushed walnut shells to remove carbon build up. In our application, usually intake ports and the back sides of intake valves.

Why do it? Alot of modern engines by design are prone to carbon build up in the intake system, over time as the carbon build up increases the efficiency of the engine reduces, meaning less performance, fuel economy etc.

Why now for WEEU? We deal with a lot of cars that suffer from carbon build up, and a lot of our customers like to keep there cars no only going, but going like they should! We follow a lot of forums and in recent times have seen a lot of discussion on this topic. We also dont know of many local workshops that offer this service so decided now was the time. Its also a good fit with our other Detox Tools and Tuning service we now provide.

Whats involved? There is some time involved and the time taken varies from car to car. We do have to remove the intake manifold to gain access to the intake ports, this can mean on some cars, intake runner flaps also need removing. Each cylinder is done separately as the valves need to be in the closed position so as to not fill the cylinder with walnut shells, all other ports are masked off etc to avoid walnut shells going where they are not wanted.

Audi S5, as we start the intake removal
A bit deeper in, still the intake runners to remove.

DTI used to help with piston location/ valves closed etc. Not required but better safe than sorry. Engine bay taped off with plastic sheet, overkill maybe!! But we dont want walnut shell in everything. Machine uses a large vacuum fitting to pull the majority of the shells out, and a metal wand goes down the center for the actual walnut blasting
Before blasting
After blasting
I love the old saying, ‘the proof is in the pudding’!!
Great feedback from the customer re the end result. We could tell from start up that the car just sounded crisper and more responsive.

New Tools

New workshop tools today, Always trying to keep up with the latest tech.  Two new battery supports to help with the growing work load.

We are faced with many different battery types in modern cars, all of which respond differently to charging, many of which wont fully charge relying on the vehicle system., Also many batteries are discarded due to sulphating.. These new chargers when connected, automatically identify the style of battery and adjusts the charging requirements to suit, and in some cases can reverse the sulphating to give your battery back some of its life.

Another feature is we can set a voltage to be maintained while working on the vehicle, critical when fault finding, scanning, coding etc.  Once set we can turn on all systems, fans, heater, lights etc and the voltage wont drop, and these are rated at a whopping 100amps.  Our first battery support pictured 3 down can manage a whopping 150amps

Above and below, magnet mounted to two of our hoists, 5 metre cables allow the full travel of the hoist while still connected, great for those service jobs, ensuring every car serviced gets a top up at minimum, and we can determine state of charge prior to completing the job. If needed we can connect to our more mobile unit..

 

 

Mechatronic VW Transmission repairs

Towed in with no drive, diagnosed with a failed Mechatronic unit in the transmission.  Customer very happy to have a mechanical Warranty as these parts are complex and don’t come cheap.  Our supplier sent this out pre-programmed.  Still required the use of our Ross-Tech to do a relearn and set adaptations etc.

 

Above, the new unit fresh out of the wrapper

Old and the new, matching up and using special tools to get the gear selection correct before fitting new ‘Mechatronic’.

Transmission with the Mechatronic unit removed…..

Scan Tool from Choice and Solutions

Another little scan tool for the office, hopefully will come in handy with some of the less mainstream cars, service resets etc.

Wellington European New-Toys, Ross-Tech VAGCOM scan tool

Our latest tool for 2017 is the Ross-Tech VW/Audi Diagnostic

VCDS will perform most of the functions of the expensive electronic diagnostic tools available only to official dealers. In the past, these dealership-only tools have prevented owners, and many small independent repair shops from performing some fundamental tasks, such as diagnosing problems, diesel ignition timing, modification of convenience options such as automatic door unlocking, coding a replacement Electronic Control Unit (ECU) or key to the vehicle, and monitoring of many vehicle sensors for diagnosing problems. Unlike generic scan tools (OBD II or EOBD), VCDS uses the more in-depth Volkswagen Group-specific manufacturer protocol commands,  which allows the user to access all diagnostic capable vehicle systems — even in vehicles which are not covered by generic OBD-II/EOBD

VCDS is also capable of interfacing vehicles which use the generic OBD-II/EOBD protocols. However, the OBD-II and EOBD standards only allow for limited diagnostics, and no adjustments to any of the ECUs.

 

So our new Ross Tech tool (wireless laptop based) has been added to our growing number of Scan Tools.

We have an ‘Auto diagnos’, an English based tool, handy on our large number of P38 Range Rover customers

‘Autel’, A great all round tool for British, European and Japanese vehicles, tablet based wireless control

Autologic, often considered to be the Ferrari of scan tools, ours is loaded with the mainstream British and Euro brands, good for diagnostics, activations, coding etc

My techs also have of their own, a ‘Launch’ and a ‘snap-on’.

 

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BMW Mini Timing Chain Replacement / New tool

Noisy chain, stretched chain, noisy start up rattles.

Continuing to build on our service tool collection, just picked up this cam locking tool for N12 and N14 Bmw/mini engines and put it straight to use today.

Stretched timing chain on these models seem to have surfaced as a common concern.  Todays car the chain had stretched to the point the timing had jumped resulting in a heavy reduction in power and the check engine light coming on.  Others we’ve done have a heavy rattle on start up.   All have exhibited problems with less than 100,000km’s on the clock.

 

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Above and below showing the cam locking tool in place to allow the chain and gears to be removed without the cams moving/ not seen is the crankshaft is also locked in place with a pin.

 

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