Bit of a 'slog' this afternoon/evening/night. Decided to change the engine oil, IRD oil and gearbox oil. Working in the evening was great, after a day of ****ing it down we had a lovely evening. This was tempered slightly by the onset of 'dusk' and was aggravated by the ****ty design of the engine undertray, that I have just read CAN be fully removed. ****!
'Anyhoo', onto the IRD.....I would personally like to thank the dick that decided to torque these two plugs over their spec....I had to gently use an impact gun to release both of them. Luckily for me no damage was done. Interestingly the drain plug magnate was covered in a very thick blob of metal filings(very fine particles,so it did it's 'thang') and the oil was fairly minging. Surprisingly to me the new fluid was very light in colour. Anyway, a bit of gymnastics and the IRD was refilled along with my sleeve and armpit, despite an heroic attempt to avoid such embarrassment.
Next the gearbox.....having read the forum I was fairly well prepared. Again, 'Dick' had overtightened the 'fill' and drain plugs, again the oil was 'well used' and again, refilling was a 'such fun'.....'fiddly' describes this job(as a whole) exaserbated by the ignorance that is 'not knowing how to remove the undertray'. 'Must try harder' seems to be an appropriate comment. Will check all levels tomorrow as I will have to move car to do so, where I was working was far from ideal. But thats 3 less jobs to be worried about.
One thing that is a concern is the amount of corrosion I keep finding. Nowt structural as I can tell but tonight I removed two scrivets, thinking I could access the gearbox fill/drain plugs better only to find that the wheel arch was behind the plastic panel and is a bit of a mess...superficial but something I have noted...