So I've decided it's time for some much needed maintenance on my 2000SC. I'm still on a steep gradient on my mechanics learning curve so I thought I'd ask a bit of advice.
There has been a lot of brake squeal recently so I stripped off the brake pads and discovered the anti-squeal shims and springs are missing. Presumably they have rusted to dust! I went up to J Wadhams (literally a three minute drive up the road!) and picked up a new set of shims and springs. I went to fit them over the weekend and discovered that the back of the brake disks is very badly scored and on the o/s there is actually a ring of rust on the disk where it would appear the pad has not been pressing against the surface properly. I suspect i'll have to get new disks and pads, but i'm not sure what would have caused this to happen in the first place. I know that disks can be skimmed but i'm not sure how far gone is too far gone to be skimmed. The back of the disks do seem pretty bad though.
Next is my coolant leak. The radiator looks fine. I removed it and flushed it through with a hose. I found some wet rust on the o/s engine side plate. I cant tell yet if the plate has a hoie or whether it's a gasket leak. I stripped off all the gubbins in the way and taken out the 22(?) small bolts and the nuts around the engine mount studs, but the plate seems to still attached somewhere. I read on another post that there is a plug in the side plate, which i assume is the round thing with the two prongs inside? Does this need to be removed before i can get the side plate off and if so how? It looks like I might need a special tool to remove it.
My third issue is that I am having trouble sometimes getting the car into gear. It's like the gear stick is sometimes getting stuck, but most of the time it goes into gear fine. When it does play up i have trouble selecting any gear and really need to force the stick in order to get it to go in. I have a feeling it could be something to do with the gear linkages not being quite right. They need adjusting maybe?
Any help is much appreciated!
There has been a lot of brake squeal recently so I stripped off the brake pads and discovered the anti-squeal shims and springs are missing. Presumably they have rusted to dust! I went up to J Wadhams (literally a three minute drive up the road!) and picked up a new set of shims and springs. I went to fit them over the weekend and discovered that the back of the brake disks is very badly scored and on the o/s there is actually a ring of rust on the disk where it would appear the pad has not been pressing against the surface properly. I suspect i'll have to get new disks and pads, but i'm not sure what would have caused this to happen in the first place. I know that disks can be skimmed but i'm not sure how far gone is too far gone to be skimmed. The back of the disks do seem pretty bad though.
Next is my coolant leak. The radiator looks fine. I removed it and flushed it through with a hose. I found some wet rust on the o/s engine side plate. I cant tell yet if the plate has a hoie or whether it's a gasket leak. I stripped off all the gubbins in the way and taken out the 22(?) small bolts and the nuts around the engine mount studs, but the plate seems to still attached somewhere. I read on another post that there is a plug in the side plate, which i assume is the round thing with the two prongs inside? Does this need to be removed before i can get the side plate off and if so how? It looks like I might need a special tool to remove it.
My third issue is that I am having trouble sometimes getting the car into gear. It's like the gear stick is sometimes getting stuck, but most of the time it goes into gear fine. When it does play up i have trouble selecting any gear and really need to force the stick in order to get it to go in. I have a feeling it could be something to do with the gear linkages not being quite right. They need adjusting maybe?
Any help is much appreciated!