Geek on Two Wheels

• The air box is huge.  Taking it out “just because you can” is not worth it, especially when you don’t really have a place to store it.
• Water lines are pressurized. That little bit of coolant you expect to spurt out as you disconnect tubing will actually be a couple shots’ worth of the green stuff all over your transmission.
• The OEM air filter is crap, especially after goodness-knows how many years of use.  A fine layer of dust is not what one wants to see on the inside of the intake pipe.

So, that’s one more off the list.

Unfortunately, I’ve confirmed that the front motor mounts have gone bad, so said list is not actually any shorter.

For future reference:

While the filler bolt is M14 with fine thread (14mm x 1.5mm), the drain bolt is a M10 (10mm x 1.5mm). There was a lot of half-information about the exact sizing of these bolts, and it is not specified in the service manual. (At least not in the one I managed to find.)

The filler bolt is placed in such a place that it is not possible to get most (all?) clutch-type torque wrenches into where it needs to be, while a standard wrench or even a smaller ratchet would fit without issue. With the right lengths of extensions, you can get the head of the ratchet inside the suspension assembly where this is not a problem. A breaker bar is usable without extensions.

Finally, the filler hole is only a few cetimeters below the sidewall of the wheel well, making filling from the side rather difficult and slow. It is perhaps quicker and easier to use a funnel with a very long hose attachment and filling from above the engine compartment.