mounting up the rearon my list of bits and bobs to do was the rear top mounts. i've had a new set sat in my spare wheel well for about 13months now and was too lazy to get round to fitting them, so today i sorted them out.
looking at the photo below: comparing new (left), old (right) for both bushes below. you can see the old bottom part was totally worn out, the upper half was still like new - but i binned it anyway and fitted the new ones.
there was also my stupid door leaking and the wet footwell has been bugging me - so i checked out the membrane (i use a camping mat cut to shape), which looked fine - so I'm definitely confused. i'm tempted to dot some litmus paper around different areas of the footwell to see where it is actually coming from!
the tyres were also starting to wear a little, so the obligatory tyre rotation was due, there was 3mm on the fronts and 4mm on the rears, so i swapped them over.
the interior was also a state, i'm not sure how it happens, but it somehow gets covered in leaves - so i gave it a thorough hoovering, carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning and shined up the dash ... now its just the outside that needs doing.
when changing the rear mounts i noticed that the offside handbrake wasn't really doing much. pushing on the lever on the calliper seemed to work, so i guessed it was a snapped cable. just in case it was an easy fix, i removed the gaiter from the handbrake and noticed that the cable was just loose.
i went to nip it up when i noticed the pivot pin had pretty much fallen out of place - and it wasn't going to sit properly again - so a quick fix was in order.
so i removed the pin and tapped it so i could pop some thread bar inside and a nut on the end to secure it
after cutting the bar to size, i popped a little threadlock into the pin and secured the stud, then added a nut to the end. i repeated on the other side and re-fitted, its a bit overkill, but at least it will stop the handbrake coming off in my hands!
there is a leak in the boot, but i cannot spot where on earth it is coming from, so i thought i'd just change the rear clusters back to the genuine ones. there is only 1 hiccup, my genuine clusters were tinted all black (i don't really like the look!), so i fitted them up anyway, but i plan to white spirit off the bottom half - so i'll have some nice half-tints!
the crystal rears were starting to look a little lexus lighty anyway!
(at least the reflectors are still visible through the tint)