After some very public tyre pressure issues on @HubNut there have been changes! I also encounter issues changing a headlamp bump on my Ford AU Fairmont... HubNut merchandise can be found at hubnut.org - thank you. #tinkering #cars
I mostly didnt like the user interface on my ford stereo other than the fact that the CD player was always unreliable. I cant imagine that willb e any better now that the stereos are 10 years older than mine was when I replaced it. As I remember the single cd playey also had different connetions to the cd changer which may be tedious.
Australian Falcons, at least from AU on were rated to tow 2,300kg with the heavy duty tow pack which yes, included electric trailer brakes & an adjustable tow bar in place of the standard bar in Betty. My Dad still has his 1999 AU Fairmont Ghia which he used for towing a 1,600kg caravan (pushing 1,900kg when fully laden) all around Australia for years. Did it comfortably, albeit with a higher rate of thirst.
A little tip for setting pressures: best practice is to pump up above the intended pressure a psi or two then bleed back down. It gives a more consistent reading regardless of gauge type. Also I know you said that you don't like digital gauges but the modern ones are very accurate and (the most important bit) consistent. Analogue ones can suffer from sticky needles, weak return springs and going out of accuracy, especially if dropped. The Topeak D2 and D2X are consistently praised for their accuracy, robustness and battery life. I have one of each, the D2 is over 10 years old and on it's original battery (been warning for low battery for 2 years now) despite hard use. I check my car pressures twice a month and it gets used on my mountain bikes before every ride so is used at least once or twice a week! I only have the D2X as I went away without the D2 for a week's riding and my obsession with tyres didn't let me go without it! Both do PSI, KPa and BAR to 0.1 accuracy which is really satisfying when using the bleed button.
That's quite a handy little TPMS moniter in the Subaru. Are you going all Jonny Smith on us with some footpump action?? 😂😂 Oh those clips on headlights.... I know all about them I lost one somewhere in the engine bay of the family Skoda when it was 7 months old, so what did I do, I superglued the bulb into the unit. All was going well, COVID hit and normally I would have changed the car at 3 years old but alas never due to COVID, presented it for its first MOT and well it failed and I had to spend something like £300 for a new light unit from Skoda! Great little tinkering video on Hubnotes.
So doubtless one extra the punter got with the Ghia spec was headlamp leveling. All the time I lived in Australia, I never heard anyone recommend a tyre pressure other than 30psi. Surprised me, fresh out of England.
the tyre pressures for the wagon are 30psi front (or 200kPa) and rear but with load the rear goes up to 35psi on 20565 tyres. Mine also doesn't have the CD stacker but we had a sedan at work that had one under the seat. I still have it somewhere. It seems there were a lot more differences between an AU1 and 2 than I expected (the front end is completely different.)
I recently acquired some dust caps that have little indicators inside them and they show green when the pressure is correct, or red when the tyre is underinflated. They're not as precise as a proper TPMS setup, but there's no batteries or wiring involved and they're useful for avoiding accidental catastrophic underinflation.
I bought a similar cheap and cheerful double barrelled pump from Aldi a few years ago. It lasted about a year and was only pumping bicycle tyres! 😮 Though the flexible pipe might have been nibbled thinking about it. Top tip! Don't leave it on the floor! 😉
Used to have one barrel foot pump in my car in the 90's, but as I never needed it, at some point removed it from the trunk, and it got lost somewhere. Now my car has just a tyre repair kit with compressor which takes power from the 12V socket, car has to be running when using the compressor. I usually check tyre pressures when I change summer / winter tyres on, and of course if tpms light comes on, but indeed I should check them more often, even when the car has that tpms light, especially now when the car and the tyres have some age in them.
I always carry a pump (preferably foot) and a tyre plug kit in every car I own. Got me home every time so far. I always check pressures before heading out of town. One to always check is rental cars. They are almost always wrong so I carry a little tyre gauge in my hand luggage when travelling.
Argos thats a name I have heard for a while, as a kid, there was almost nothing better than going through their new catalogue for the year. PS, that clip shouldn't fall out, or maybe I was just lucky. 😂
When I'm driving to Lake Constance to my home village I'm parking near the fire station. Today I did see a Subaru Forester there, like yours, end of life, a training object for the hydraulic scissors. Recently I took some photos of a sliced Fiat Ritmo Bertone Cabrio, a Golf Mk 1 Cabrio and a BMW E30 beside some Fiestas, Polos and Peugeot 206's. A strange scenery...
I’ve recently bought myself a ryobi tyre inflator after the petrol station down the road began charging for air. I’ve never been so vigilant on tyre pressures!
My BA Falcon here in Australia kept blowing headlights. Changing them is unreasonably difficult. On the drivers side I need to remove the battery. But on the passenger side I need to remove the whole air filter assembly. So, after doing this too many times I finally bought LED lamps. They are fantastic and so far, they haven't blown. Oh, and another thing, I run my Falcon's tyres at 38psi. It seems more surefooted and I haven't noticed that the ride is harsh at all. And even at this pressure the tyres still wear very evenly.
I miss the good old days when changing your headlight was A; cheap B; easy as 3 Philips screws. $200 and half a day later, I've practiced my entire vocabulary of foul language until it's perfect, and I still haven't adjusted the light properly. Mine's a BF...
I always keep a single-barrel footpump in each car. Electric/battery pumps are OK, but it's not always possible to recharge or connect them easily. And you keep fit! 😉
I'm not a great fan of their batteries but at least you can easily buy adaptors for them to use with DeWalt batteries etc - we've done that now all our Ryobi tools as the batteries seems to die after about 5 years. My oldest DeWalt batteries are dated 2014 and still work fine.
@@iboswell Mine have been fine so far. I'm a diy'er so they work for me. I built a wooden pergola and really worked my drill and impact driver hard and they came through with flying colours. Ask me about the batteries in a couple of years!😆
@@johnthresher259 Pleased for you. For best Li-Ion battery life keep them cool and about charged to 70%.. Don't leave in the charger 24/7 etc. Same as EVs really. I've got nothing against Ryobi, they make some decent tools, we have many, but I've just found that their batteries don't tend to live too long and yes that is subjective.
Tyre pressures and wheel/profile changes - not sure these are affected. Just checked user manual for a Mondeo as an example and all engine models and tyres from 215/55 R16 to 235/40 R19 are 35 Front and 32 Rear. Fiesta MK6 also same across the range.
Seem to remember the clips on my Ford Falcon being a little different, with a long arm on each side not just the one as you have there, they would also pivot out of the way and not fall off, access was still a pain though.
I can't remember what I ran my BF Fairmont on, but it was higher than 30. If I recall the label said 36 was max load, so I generally ran it at about 34. 30 does seem a bit low. I also recall having to change quite a few headlight globes in my 13 years of owning it - they seem to go out quite regularly on these. Can't say I've lost a clip, though (thankfully!)
I have always run my falcons on 34 psi anything less and it wollows in corners, and that headlight clip should be attached at the bottom so when you unhook the one side it hangs down and not fall off. Falcons never had leveling headlights that was your job with a screwdriver as for replacing the bulb it is battery and air box to be removed first then have a go.
FWIW always worth checking the spare tyre, especially if a skinny one that has to be pumped up really high. I find that OE electric tyre inflators, eg the square ones that come with Vauxhalls, Honda, etc and are designed to have a bottle of fluid screwed into them, are far better quality than aftermarket accessory tyre pumps and are cheap to buy secondhand.
Living on the west coast of Scotland would make that Subaru a great car for us, there's one or two stageas and Subaru based estates around here and they look great here.
Even with nonstandard wheels it's worth having identical pressures for opposing tyres on each axle from a handling (particularly emergency handling) standpoint.
No levelling on the AUs was a failure or oversight, i remember driving out towards Longreach in Queensland in an AU and the headlights were so high due to loaded boot that i needed to stop in the middle of the road and adjust them down. That made the cows sleeping on the road easier to see. I would say avoid the outback at night....
Brave (or foolish) to talk about tyres after the last video and the em "comments". Don't know how you read them, I get mad at some of them and I have nothing invested in it!
I think tyre pressures are a hit and miss game anyway! I have an electronic tyre inflator that pressurewise doesn't agree with the one at my local garage by about 2 psi, but my local garage one doesn't agree with another garage half a mile away either, and none of them accurately agree with my hand held pressure gauge!! What can you do, except make sure the tyres are all evenly inflated and somewhere near right!😂
before you do anything to an AU drivers side headlamp you first move the battery out of the way - it protects your sanity if you don't have small hands.
I have a pump that plugs into the lighter socket that I carry around in whatever car I'm in. Means if I have a slow puncture in theory I can limp my way home. Obviously it isn't the fastest thing in the world but easier than messing around with spare wheels.
Two observations. 30psi for a big car? My old P76 V8 was placarded ar 22psi! Also, you should have taken the BX manual to Rustival...one of 150 or so BX owners there might have been able to use it😂
Hi ian would love that compressor did try to get it last time but missed out can pick up Thursday and I would bring a present for you If its me you pick cheers and keep up the force of youtubeism thar you are much appreciated
@hubnotes thanks for so quick response didn't think you'd get back so quickly its not just me that it would help but also my neighbour we are as bad as you all always fixing our cars
Those clips are so annoying, the Sierra has them too. One side is easy to see what you are doing, the other almost impossible. Using your phone as a camera can help. Mk.3 Mondeos have headlamp modules where you just remove a couple of pins and they entire unit pops out! Ridiculously easy and functional.
I can see why you chose Bella over the Forester - fuel economy on a petrol turbo that is fun to thrash... If Bella is causing major problems is it worth swapping with a bit of cash for a Berlingo in better nick with a lower mileage?
@@hubnotes Understand where you are coming from but I'd suggest keep on looking for an example with fewer miles and things like A/C. Ensure that works - don't ever buy a car with the phrase "A/C needs re-gassing" in the advert. You might be lucky but mainly not. Then sell Bella, the odds are you might get a good price because of the channel and can film a couple of videos etc.
I can't fathom why those nasty wire clips are the industry standard for this. They must be formed using a pretty expensive machine just to avoid using a nice user friendly latch with a screw
If you need a code for that Ford cd6000 replacement head unit , they're free to get online or just post up the serial number starting with Mxxxxx and I'll get it for you. You might find the wiring is potentially different though...
2001 Mazda Demio has the same rsole clip that is supposed to be retained by a screw and washer...... I wish they had adopted the Toyota bayonet fitting....twist and go....simple.
For the big Holden i would do 2.5bar (37ish psi) , 2bar (30psi) is just too low for such a heavy car. For the Subaru i'd do 2.4bar (35ish psi) all round. IMO it is better to stay on the high side of spec.
Slightly higher pressures are better than low. Put some grease on the the piston rods of your foot pump, those cheapo products wear like crazy, I know!
Jusr move that magnificent beast of a compressor into a tin shed lean to outside the main garage, lay that supplied hose to a "main" distribution point and enjoy inflating tyres easily and quickly using a flexible hose with an accurate in line gauge/inflator??? Plus air for use in cleaning off mucky bits, dust etc.
Those ford stereos are atroceous. Much better to get a cheap stereo that takes USB or sd cards. I did it on my mondeo and even got the steering wheel controls to work. Was a JVC one. (The cd was quite a bad idea for use in cars from the start and them now being 20 years old hardly helps).
