B Service

[DavieK]

Can't decide if i should just do the B service to the 160 myself or head down to Murray's to get it done. I'd be happy enough doing it myself and as it's not our only car it doesn't matter if it's out of action for a day or even a week.

The Boss thinks that we would be as well heading down to Edinburgh though to get it done as its had a full set of Lotus stamps so far but that's going to be a 2 1/2 - 3 hour drive or so each way plus a day sitting around plus £319 with the SE discount.

So some advice Oh wise ones of SE.

[robin]

If you just want a stamp, you could always get a competent local garage to do the work - that way you get a stamp, which should be both cheaper, less time consuming and still preserves your service history.

Of course I would just do it myself; if you want a stamp, go buy a postman-pat post office stamper kit - I personally prefer the Jess paw print stamp, but you pays your money, you takes your choice!

Cheers,
Robin

[tut]

Davie, as you car gets older, you will realise that it is just not worth spending hundreds of pounds and hours of travelling to get a service done.

An "A" service is engine oil and filter change, the rest are checks. A "B" is the same plus air filter and spark plugs, and a "C" is plus cambelt change and fuel filter. This is the only one that the average owner may not be able to do themselves so use a garage. You should always be checking your brake pads, oil, tyres etc on a regular basis, more so if you track your car, and a brake fluid change is again a simple matter with the help of a friend.

Not trying to do any of our independents on here out of business, but their expertise comes in for the more complicated issues, or for those that really can not manage an oil, filter and brake pad change.

tut

[Mike Scib]

IMO it depends if your thinking about selling the car any time soon as it will be easier to sell with a FLSH. If your going to be keeping it for a while do it yourself

[DavieK]

OK bugger it I'm going to do it myself with maybe some help from the wee man (I'll only not get help if he's in his bed)

So oil, oil filter, air filter and plugs. Was looking around and I think I'll get .... but willing to be told "don't be so stupid"

both filters from EP about £14 including shipping

Plugs from Ebay PFR6N-11 plugs £20 all in

as for oil I'm not exactly sure what I should be going for or if a S160 needs anything different from say a standard K


Any pointers welcome

[Gourlay83]

If you need any assistance give me a shout, only 2 mins down the road (Balmedie).

When was the last time your brake fluid was replaced ? if you don't know, I would consider it. A service isn't just replacing parts, worthwhile strip/cleaning all your brakes etc ... but the good thing about doing it yourself is you can spend a bit of time making sure everything is covered.

Cheers
Alan

P.S Garage full of tools as well, if you need anything.

[DavieK]

Thanks Alan but it's like myself (pretty basic) so should be OK. No idea when the brake fluid was last changed but will look through all the receipts I got with the car and see if it's mentioned. I was thinking of giving the brakes a good looking at over the winter so i can do that at the same time if needed.

[DavieK]

any ideas on which oil is best to use?

can get castrol 10w 40 for about £25 but thats 4l and I'll need 5 so would have to add some more pennies onto that to make up what i need. There is also Fuchs/silkolene 10w 40 for about £28 all in for 5L.


either of these ok or is there something else i should be looking to get?

[steve_weegie]

Good choice on becoming a member of the DIY service club. You too can now enjoy cursing and skint knuckles aplenty

IIRC the sport 160 should come with an oil cooler, so I'd stick with the thinner oils such as 5w-40 and 10w-40. Make sure its fully synthetic, such as castrol edge or mobil 1. I used mobil1 & silkolene pro-r, before finally running on Millers CFS now. 5 Litres of millers is about £38 quid and a bit cheaper than the mobil / silkolene equivelants.

<voice of bitter experience>
Dont skimp on oil, trust me......
</voice of bitter experience>

If you dont know when the brake fluid was last changed, i'd just flush some new stuff through as its not too expensive. Unless you're seriously brutal on the brakes, a good super DOT4 fluid will be fine. Unless you're running fancy pads and disks, the fluid will be the last thing to give up

Good luck

[DavieK]

Hopefully 1 last question.

I need a new copper washer for the sump plug and after a bit of searching i came across these sizes 14 X 19.4 X 2mm. anybody know if this is right and also if it's just a flat copper washer?


Cheers

[roadboy]

Its actually an aluminium washer.

Just buy a Rover one from a motor factors.

Dan

[DavieK]

Thanks Dan im sure i read somewhere it was copper.
This one ok?

[steve_weegie]

Yup, thats the one

Cheers,

Steve

[DavieK]

Right did this this afternoon.

Firstly I'd like to shoot whoever put the oil filter on! I know these can be a bugger to get off but in the past (not in cars but on other stuff) filters like this just need the seal oiled and they usually come off no problems the next time. This one was an utter nightmare, just glad I had an old chain wrench I made when I was an apprentice.

There was water in the 3rd spark plug well from the timing belt but none of the others so im not sure if i just need to run a bead of silicon around the cover to seal it or if it's something else. Came inside to see if it would just be rain or anything more serious by doing a quick search on SE when the boss asked what I was looking for, once I told her her reply was a classic " An Elise with water getting in where it shouldn't .... hardly news!" It took a couple of goes to actually get the plug socket out of the well with the ratchet extension rather than leaving it behind though.

Couple of questions about the couple of checks I have left to do.

One of the checks is the Brake tell tales. To me tell tales are little ports or bits of pipes that would indicate a leak somewhere a leak wouldn't be obvious ...... where are they ?

How do you check the transmission fluid level? as far as i can see theres a fill port and a drain so are you meant to open the fill port and have a poke inside?

I can't check the cylinder compression as I don't have gear to do it or know how but I'm sure I could look it up.


Oh and one last thing, if anybody looks this up and goes to buy the sump plug washer thats linked above it's not the one it's more like this one