Just realised that I never closed-out this post with the outcome...
The SWPS replacement ended up being pretty straight forward after reading through various posts that warned of some of the pitfalls and tricky bits. Definitely a good idea to remove the driver's side wheel and access the coupling joint from there, and bracing the steering wheel worked well and there was no danger of inadvertent rotation. The replacement (from Rock Auto) cured the problem I was having so happy days
Bob - Did you manage to solve your issues too?
I also managed to change the oil pressure switch without removing the header (or damaging any panels). I wasn't convinced that this was going to be possible as there are many contradictory posts, but it worked out nicely in my case - I gather that it may be different for some models so it may not be possible for some. Key enablers for me included:
- Loosening the breather pipe that gets in the way - I removed it from the engine block to create enough slack to raise the pipe (which runs behind the engine before splitting into two) above the air intake and provide enough space to get a socket in.
- Putting masking tape on surfaces that might otherwise get scratched when sliding the socket behind the intake (mainly the intake surface)
- Also adding some masking tape to the inside of the socket to create a slightly tighter fit so that the unscrewed sensor doesn't fall down the back of the engine when extracting it
- When re-fitting the new sensor, you need to be able to gently screw it in but there was no way that I was going to be able to get my hand down there. Instead, I put the new sensor in the end of a short length of rubber hose so that I could position it in the hole and rotate it by hand before tightening it with the (clunkier) swivel socket. To do this, I cut a four slits in the end of the hose (which wasn't quite big enough to fit over the sensor) and tightened it on with a cable tie. Once I'd hand-tightened the sensor with this method, I pushed the cable tie off with a screwdriver. The socket could then be lowered on, safe in the knowledge that nothing was cross-threaded etc.
Anyway, thanks all for your help in earlier posts and if anyone has any questions about the above then let me know
All the best,
Bill
The SWPS replacement ended up being pretty straight forward after reading through various posts that warned of some of the pitfalls and tricky bits. Definitely a good idea to remove the driver's side wheel and access the coupling joint from there, and bracing the steering wheel worked well and there was no danger of inadvertent rotation. The replacement (from Rock Auto) cured the problem I was having so happy days
Bob - Did you manage to solve your issues too?
I also managed to change the oil pressure switch without removing the header (or damaging any panels). I wasn't convinced that this was going to be possible as there are many contradictory posts, but it worked out nicely in my case - I gather that it may be different for some models so it may not be possible for some. Key enablers for me included:
- Loosening the breather pipe that gets in the way - I removed it from the engine block to create enough slack to raise the pipe (which runs behind the engine before splitting into two) above the air intake and provide enough space to get a socket in.
- Putting masking tape on surfaces that might otherwise get scratched when sliding the socket behind the intake (mainly the intake surface)
- Also adding some masking tape to the inside of the socket to create a slightly tighter fit so that the unscrewed sensor doesn't fall down the back of the engine when extracting it
- When re-fitting the new sensor, you need to be able to gently screw it in but there was no way that I was going to be able to get my hand down there. Instead, I put the new sensor in the end of a short length of rubber hose so that I could position it in the hole and rotate it by hand before tightening it with the (clunkier) swivel socket. To do this, I cut a four slits in the end of the hose (which wasn't quite big enough to fit over the sensor) and tightened it on with a cable tie. Once I'd hand-tightened the sensor with this method, I pushed the cable tie off with a screwdriver. The socket could then be lowered on, safe in the knowledge that nothing was cross-threaded etc.
Anyway, thanks all for your help in earlier posts and if anyone has any questions about the above then let me know
All the best,
Bill
