shamrock

Wow!
What a pita it was too!

Luckily , I had Joe with me today , an experienced ex-aircraft engineer and all round patient guy (Thanks Joe!)

Getting the fan/cooler from its housing was a complete nightmare , not enough room to swing a gnat in there!

Anyway , a couple of quick questions for y'all ...

When we wrenched the cooler out , there was a few pieces of foam / sponge a few square inches in area just lying there on the louvres that are used to extract the hot air .. what the hey!? Anyone know where these might have come from? .. They were too big to be pushed in through the slots in the louvres...

.. And I'm surprised at how high my oil temp still goes .. Definitely lower than before , but it goes a bit past the nine o clock position , say 2/3 way up between the 8 and 10 marks if that makes sense .. Is that about right?

Might I finish by saying , what a wonderful website this is , I'd have never for the life of me thought that I'd tackle a job like this , it's probably saved me a couple of hundred Euro ...
It's drinks all round guys for anyone who wants to come to Dublin to be in receipt of them!

Garth S

Good DIY!
My oil temp is rock steady at a needle width or so above the '8 o'clock' position, regardless of how hard it is run. Ambient conditions here are much the same as yours, so I would be inclined to get a laser pointing IR gun to verify oil temps and see if they are truly as high as indicated.
One possible thing to check for is freely flowing air over the cylinder fins: to do this, pull the fan and alternator, and clean out any inhaled crap sitting on top of the engine.
Having gone this far, you are 1/2 way into DIY's #2 & #3 - RS single belt pulley and a fresh brush/regulator set for the alternator ....

JasonF

Congrats!

After scraping my knuckles replacing the A/C resistor in it's original location, I opted to simply unplug the oil cooler resistor and attach the new one near the car's headlamp using a screw screw through the trunk (or bonnet depending on your lingo).

My fan starts up around the same point as yours, so no worries there.

murfysflaw

Wonderful... Mine needs to be replaced too and I was going to do it myself. the thing with me, having a last name of Murphy, it's always 100 times harder than it needs to be. In addition, I always find something else broken while I'm doing it (or I actually break something else in the process). BEAUTIFUL.

AX993

"When we wrenched the cooler out , there was a few pieces of foam / sponge a few square inches in area just lying there on the louvres that are used to extract the hot air .. what the hey!? Anyone know where these might have come from? .. They were too big to be pushed in through the slots in the louvres..."

Shamrock, If I recall correctly , those pieces of foam are suppose to be placed between
the lower body spoiler and the frame of the coolers (Oil and A/C) to reduce/ eliminate
squeaks/noises in that area. I had some loose pieces of foam on my A/C condenser side also.
I guess, over time, they work themselves out of the gaps.
HTH
Glenn

shamrock

Thanks y'all for the kind words .. I somehow feel more worthy to post on here this evening (If truth be known I did most of the passing of tools and Joe did the cusin'!!)

I don't think I'll bother unscrewing everything to put the bits of foam back! ... The way they'd fallen was just blocking the airflow anyhow...

Murph , it's really not thaat bad a job ... everything unscrewed easy enough. I would say , take the upper horn (hooter) off its mount to gain easier access to the cooler (you'll see what I mean when you go in there). and try to have someone else around who can hold the cooler from on top thru the light cavity .. He'll also be useful when you need someone to throw stuff at

shamrock

Btw a quick detail I forgot ... I ran the car to low speed fan temp and then sat (like an idiot!) with my hand under the right hand front wheel ... That low speed fan only comes on for about 20-30 secs before turning off again... This surprised me somewhat ....

BobbyT

+1 for JasonF. I did both of my resistors working through the headlight opening. Just unplug the dead resistor, leave it in place, and mount the new one behind the headlight. I used a slightly longer bolt to replace one of the fender bolts, secured it with a washer/nut, then used a locking nut to mount the resistor on the same bolt. We also did Topless in Temecula's 993 the same way. If these ever need changing again it's a five minute job.

lruss

I just did both AC and oil cooler, those who have done it with the bumper on hats off to ya, once the bumper was off the oil cooler was easy by gently pulling down on its mounting plate, the AC is a pita, i just moved the AC unit back about 5", broke the old one off with a screw driver and rubber mallet and snapped the new one back in place - easy. Them old ballast resistors looked terrible and can see why they fail

The foam comes from your front bumper mounting areas.

ppressle

Contrats! Welcome to the club. That is not a very fun job. Next time I do that, I'll pull off the front bumper.

Father of 3

I did my oil cooler resistors last year, looked at the AC side and passed on it. How can you see anything in there? My AC still works fine so will ignore it till it becomes a problem.

shamrock

Thanks guys , I've got the a/c resister to do yet , I'm going to have to reconsider the job...
For those of you who have tacked it to behind the headlight , is the old resister wire easy to unplug from the headlight cavity?
What about longterm issues of boring a hole thru the metal behind the headlight.. Surely that's going to give the dreaded rust someplace to fester in?

BobbyT

shamrock: It is not difficult to unplug the resistor working from inside the headlight housing, based on my experience doing two cars (four resistors total). Just make sure you have the correct wires before you pull anything loose, because it is hard to see the connector. Once you pull the plug, it is easy to work with, and you have good access, but the other part of the connector is now in a black hole.

1. Remove the right headlight.
2. Locate the ballast resistor wiring harness--it is fastened to the outer wall of the luggage bay with a black plastic loop.
3. Pull gently on this harness to unplug it from the ballast resistor.
4. Install the new ballast resistor in a suitable location. I use one of the fender bolts. Remove it from inside the boot, and drill the hole out slightly to accept a 25X6mm bolt. Secure the bolt with a nut and lockwasher. Insert a locknut into the recess in the resistor, and spin it hand-tight onto the bolt. Plug the resistor into the wiring harness. Reinstall the headlight, and you are done.

Toga

Good job Shamrock! The first DIY of a long list ...Once you've tasted, it's just one step to become addicted :-)

shamrock

Hey JP , it was your e-mail that got me thinkin I could do the job so thank you!
next on my list is an ISV clean out... and I'm beginning to wonder if I could do a starter motor change out on my own ... What do you think??