MikeT

Changed the oil, filter and air filter for Julia's Canada 1 today.

#2 - if it's brown, flush it down. (sorry not sorry)

*daughter's

My daughters smart, the Canada 1 BRABUS, was in a collision in 2020 when my son was driving and the left side headlight was damaged and replaced with a used one from a wrecked 2005 smart that had been in the sun for too long (crazed yellowed lens). So not long after she got the car and it was being stored outside as it is now, the light began to leak in the rain. We had spare minty lenses and today we changed it. The shocking thing is that four of the 7 plastic clips that hold the lens on - the ones on the top of the car - had basically turned to microplastic dust and there was no recovering them. So: what to do? Answer: make my own clips out of thick wire. The rubber gasket was coated lightly with clear silicone and the lens was temporarily clamped to the tight position and then wire was tied over the lens clips and then they were tied tight and the vice-grips released. After wiring, the lens-to-housing gap was filled with clear silicone too. The end result was satisfactory:

I've got a German language service manual book.

Woah, lourd! J'ai eu la même problème avec une Peugeot 405 en 2009: jet d'antigel un fois une bougie démonté. Quand même, la voiture avait 366.000 km.... donc pas de déception. Bon boulot donc.

Check the N-111-3 connector on the SAM. If one or more of the pins show heat damage, the car needs external relays mounted.

The connector in the valence panel is an Amphenol type. If your car is a 2006, it has the block heater fitted to the transaxle. If it's a 2005, there is no block heater (but the connector is there).

It only works when the factory block heater cable is connected to household electricity. It's for an interior heater.

Yes and yes. About $1200 last time I had one done.

Good info. The code thrown by Snowball has not reappeared yet, so hoping for more good kms for our daughter!

Modified puck is a good lift for the 404C sills....I cleaned out the 4 front brake cylinders and reinstalled them a couple of weeks ago. I realised a couple weeks ago that the front crossover brake lines with bubble flares need a specific type of fitting. So I looked online... Sunday Nov 16 I made a couple of lines and then mounted them all to the car. New rear proportioning valve with two of the three lines connected to it... Third line connected to the prop valve. Longest line to the front mounted and the end will be flared under the car once I establish the perfect length. Front crossover lines and some other spare brake parts arrived from France Nov. 19. ALVEAS is a good fast supplier. So Alveas sent me lines with two different types of fitting. The upper one is correct.....according to my original fittings that can't be re-used.... ...so I made another that was identical to the correct one... Alveas correct line at the upper left; one I made with a Peugeot (but not 404) fitting on the upper right and below that, the one I made to replace the incorrect Alveas one which is at the bottom. RF wheel LF wheel The metal brake lines can all be removed and replaced with the engine in situ but it's not easy. I had to cut the rear line to the correct length (mm-perfect!) under the car and flare it there, and then connect it to the splitter with the splitter not yet mounted to the crossmember. That's because the steering rack in a LHD car will prevent access to the fitting nuts for tightening if it's on the X-member already. Cut the RF brake line under the car too and flared it there and that one can be mounted with the splitter on the X-member. The next step is to take the Hydrovac out and tighten the RF brake line on the splitter and mount the last metal line that attaches to the firewall. Then it should be ready to bleed.

Will do!

Nice car. We unloaded ours to our youngest daughter earlier this year. 20 years of smarts was enough for us. Still like them but it was time to move on....

I sold the white C1 to my youngest daughter recently and twice now it has failed to start for her, in a way that I've never experienced. The ignition key will be turned on and there is nothing, no lights on the dash, just a relay click. I haven't been with her when it happened but that is how it was described. The first time it happened was around a week ago, we were in Paris and she got to use our new Mercedes GLC350e. Now that we are home, there is no back-up car..... The floors and battery well are dry, so that's not it. Could it be an ignition switch fault? I'll drop the SAM on the weekend and put come MolySlip Combat on all the contacts after inspecting them, but right now I'm short of ideas.