Finally got around to changing the beehive yesterday as I\'m sick of seeing little oil pools under the car. 10mm spanner for the two nuts underneath, 12mm for the bolt onto the top of the motor and a 23mm for the oil banjo. For starters, I had to go out and buy a 23mm ring spanner (I\'ve got a 22 and 24 :Grrr) as there is no room to fit a socket. Those 10mm nuts look easy enough but they are a right PITA if the undersides of the beehive are coated in eons worth of oil and dirt.
The 12mm one is the easiest to get to but it was welded so tight.. millions of torques applied to the socket wrench, the customary TINK (so it\'s either loosened or buggered then) and then my left hand flying at light speed past a plastic connector, knocking that off and taking a chunk of finger out with the now exposed metal spade( would have looked great in F1 style super slow mo ).....swearing.....carry on until I notice plastic glove has blood sloshing inside.....swearing.....cleaning and plaster....carry on. :mad:
Everything comes off ok, lovely brown water from it\'s innards and o rings are flat and brittle. Have now exposed more dirt and greasy muck to clean. Notice the water hose from the top of the cooler has been taped up, note to replace later. Luckily, I have a nice clean and dry beehive which was prepared earlier (supplied by Darkside Spares Dept) with some nice new o rings and so, in the best Haynes tradition, refitting is the reverse of removal.
Too dark to test for leaks so waited until this afternoon, fired TWiR into life, check for leaks, drive for 20 minutes, notice that low water light actually works (which is nice), check for leaks again (none) and top up coolant. Job done, finger recovering (thanks for asking) :Giggle
So, TWiR will be leak free for Brooklands and Japfest :Thumbs-up
