Fixing the Car When On Holiday

It had to happen whilst we were away, the car broke. Not seriously but the electronic boot catch stopped working, a bit annoying when you're on holiday and using the boot (trunk to the Americans) lots. Luckily it was just after I got all our luggage into the holiday house.

Now I've got no idea why this catch is electronic as the switch is just above the catch and a button would do the job just as well, but I guess a button has less chance of going wrong so a repair is less likely, or maybe I'm just being pessimistic. 

Boot stripped of covers

Googling the problem showed it to be a fairly common fault with two options an easy fix or a tricky one. I hoped for the first one and checked the fuses under the bonnet and in the boot. None had gone, this meant it was the harder fix. 

Switch at the bottom

I had to strip off all the covers to expose the switching mechanism. So I went and brought a set of screwdrivers and bits and set to work. I used a large flat head screwdriver to manually open the boot and then it didn't take me too long to have it all apart so I could see what the problem was. I think that the switch was pressing against the metal work of the boot and this caused it to stop working. So using my girls scissors I cut some plastic spacers out of a yoghurt pot and put them in before putting it all back together again. 

It worked fine then and we could get the pushchair out of the car when we wanted - a big deal when you're on holiday with two little ones! 

It's funny because the thought of taking the car to the garage to get it fixed didn't even cross my mind and I'm sure my wife didn't even think to suggest it! 

i guess I try to be as self reliant as possible on holiday as well as at home. (next time I'll take a few more tools with me though!)

Repairing The Dishwasher

Sorry to have another post so close together about fixing appliances, but during last week the dishwasher kept flashing with an error message. There's not many days I could live without our dishwasher - there's just nowhere to stack anything, as can be seen in my kitchen video.

 I did a quick search on the internet and found out the most likely cause of the problem. Emptied the fridge, lifted it down and then tipped the dishwasher over. I removed the underside cover and then traced back the pipe for the waste water to the pump.

I opened the pump up and found the little bit of plastic that had been causing the trouble!

  It must have slipped through the filters somehow. I put the machine back together and it all worked fine. I was pleased we didn't have to fork out for a new dishwasher and this one will last a little bit longer yet.

The Internet is such a a great resource if you're trying to do things yourself. Years ago you would have had to have phoned someone (if you knew anyone who knew about these type of things) or just open it up and hope that you could find the problem. At least I knew what I was looking for and had some instructions on how to fix it. I bet many would have called someone out to fix it or, due to the age of the machine, replaced it.

What was the last appliance you repaired? And did the internet help you fix it?

A Little Self Reliance

We woke up on Tuesday morning and all we could smell was heating oil. The boiler was leaking.

Not great.

I didn't have time to deal with it then so I turned everything off and went to work hoping there wouldn't be a massive oil slick when I got home.

When I got back I went about finding the problem, cleaning off all the oil and then letting it leak again. I found the problem straight away, someone in the past had used a hydrolic pipe to from the filter to the boiler instead of the proper braided pipe, this had worn through and oil was starting to weep onto the floor of the boiler.

My dad picked up a new pipe for me the next day and I fitted it and had it working again that night. The pipe cost £5.01 but I'm sure if I got a plumber out it would have been over £100 to have the problem sorted, with call out fees and the like.

I can never understand how people that can't do things for themselves afford to live, that said I'm lucky this was an easy problem and one I could manage.