Tito told me this morning that the stars were aligned with the chakras and winter was in retrograde so I couldn't hardly pass up the opportunity to go for a #wednesdaywalk to Engine Bay.
I've been to Engine Bay many times but I can't say that I've ever especially enjoyed my visits but somehow I keep coming back. It's a small, cramped place with lots of things to do there but most of them are things you'd rather not have to deal with.
For better or worse it's right close, just out the door and down the driveway a bit. While I wasn't especially thrilled to make it back to Engine Bay it was unfortunately a bit of a necessity. The recent cold snap left my battery deader than a doornail and with how my car was parked it wasn't possible to jump it so that left me with little option but to yank it.
They'd changed things around a bit since the last time I'd been in Engine Bay. Damned newfangled dohickery. Used to you could loosen a couple things and pull the leads off and ol' Battry would come right out.
Not no more! If you can ignore me brandishing the airbox, you can see ol' Battry hiding halfway under the cowl. Don't worry, nothing untoward was happening here.
With ol' Battry playing hide & seek the only way to get at it was through the airbox so it had to go. Of course it was connected to leventy-eleven different other things which all had to be disconnected first before I could yank it.
Hey, that looks like a mass airflow sensor. Got to visit with it for a minute while I disconnected the wiring for it. Don't know if they built Engine Bay with superglue or just used an impact wrench but nothing wanted to come undone like it should. Good to know that hadn't changed any...
Engine Bay looks different up close. That wire is what I had to disconnect from the MAF in the previous photo. It always takes me twice as long to take things apart the first time, I'm never quite sure if a part is just being stubborn or I'm just doin' it wrong and about to break something.
With the airbox out of the way I was able to get at that mess in front of the battery.
Ol' Battry was really strapped in. Every time I thought I'd got everything unhooked I'd discover something else to deal with.
Seems like Negative Lead has starting growing toothpaste... With the strap across it removed I could finally move ol' Battry around a bit and start sliding it out. Dammitalltohell, still had one more thing to remove. Once I got that sensor to the left of the lead disconnected it finally slid out!
For as small as it looks that sumbitch is heavy. Nothing good to grip on it, had to rig a sling to actually lift it out . After all that I'd about had my fill of Engine Bay so we parted ways for the day. Now if you need me I'll be cleaning up a toothpaste farm.
We had our own journey to engine bay recently, when the linkage for the wipers broke and the sliding rail on the door after a forceful open stuck itself in the open position. Never fun on a modern car. Had to change the headlights a couple of years ago, required removing both front tyres, and the whole front end panelling of the car, ridiculous. Never buy a fiat.
Sounds like it, that seems a bit much to change a headlight. Lol, I'm pretty sure they deliberately engineer modern cars to make it difficult for shade tree mechanics to work on.
Only Fiats I've ever come across were go-kart sized, do they have larger ones over there?
Tell me about it. I've got a second banger car for rubbish dump trips and knocking about in, currently lent to a friend, a 1991 twingo phase 1. Super easy to repair like all old cars. Simple mechanics, not freaking electronic looms, power windows, annoying beeps that come from nowhere and can't be shut off.
Fiat's are relatively rare even here, you see more of the larger vans, they seem to be popular but our specific one, a fiant qubo 2012 if you want to Google it, is pretty damn rare. Only ever seen a handful at the scrap yard, and the same number on the road. Haynes never even published a repair manual for it because it undersold (never heard of that happening before) but in the plus side whilst the engine is super underpowered, it is really fuel efficient. Diesel at the pump today was €1.719 / litre, so everything helps right? Parts are ridiculously priced though.
Your posts are always such fun to read even a nightmare task in the engine bay
Been years since I took a battery out and from what I remember it didn’t used to be that difficult
Thanks for joining Wednesday Walk :), I truly enjoy exploring the world virtually each Wednesday seeing walks from all around the globe and feeling I am there and experiencing it all myself, such as I did in your post just now :)
Thank ya! You're right, it didn't. Don't know when it became an ordeal but I'd never seen the like before I popped the hood on that the first time (it's a 2014 Ford Focus). It's a weird setup, you can't even get to the negative post normally, there's just a line running from it to the frame. Confused the hell out of me the first time I went to jump someone else with the car. With as small as it is I suppose they had to make concessions somewhere but I'm still just going to blame Ford.
Thanks for dropping by!
I remember when they used to say Ford was short for
Fix Or Repair Daily
Lol
🤣🤣🤣
Yep! For reasons that were never made clear my family always held Fords in low esteem, it was a tossup whether Ford stood for that or Found On Road Dead. Lol, and 'no power' Mopar.
Lol ohh yeah I remember those as well
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