Dave

Yes - I discovered the window issue yesterday and found a helpful video:

Thank you very much for your replies. I've just put the original battery back in having been charging it - it was whilst charging it that I thought I'd killed the car with a different, incorrectly connected battery - and was about to lock up and leave it, probably for a long time, I imagined. Of course, I had one more go first, and on turning the key all the usual lights lit up and it started. I've no idea what's going on. It was completey dead on a good battery earlier. Anyway, I'm just glad it's alive again and will not be so careless again. Thanks again.

When trying to start the car from another battery having managed to drain the car's battery, I managed to connected the 'donor battery' backwards (yes, I know. Long story). Result - completely dead car. I fear the worst and that this may be terminal or will have caused extensive /expensive damage. Will this be the case or is there anything I can look at initially?

Agreed - for the price it'd be worth doing although I don't feel so inclined from the point of view of removing the drive shaft and the disassembling that in order to slide the new piece on. It'd be nice if it had been designed with a slit so that it could simply be opened up and put round the shaft and clamped. Now I know what it is (i.e. not something joining two sections of shaft) I'm no longer concerned about it per se. It should be providing essentially the right mass in the right position. I'm more concerned about the possibility of serious shaft corrosion inside the damper. I've seen some terrifying images of this on the internet; not on an Alphard but the principle will be the same. Anyway, I need to stick to the job in hand for now and get back to caliper cleaning...

That looks (actual pic of service kit above) like my service kit (from ebay) I was thinking to myself, but for the pin collars. It'd be a shame to have to buy all that just to get one collar... Then I thought I should take a closer look at my kit, as yet unopened, and sure enough, two pin collars! So - thanks for all your help which led me to discovering that I already have a new pair of collars. In my quest for said collars I've also discovered stuff about the pins that I wouldn't otherwise have been aware of so it's been a valuable exercise (for me at least) all round.

Hello! I moved to Inverness with my Alphard a couple of years ago. If you even find yourself struggling to find anyone prepared to work on your Alphard (I did) then IT Garage Services (in Inverness) is the place to go. They've done a couple of jobs for me that didn't lend themselves to lying underneath it on my driveway. Everyone else refused to touch it.

Attached is a picture of my front caliper pins as they came out of the calipers. I hadn't realised before that the two pins of one caliper are not the same. One of the pins, R2 in pic, has a rubber collar round it near the tip and this is missing on L2. It will have been like that for at least the last 7 years (the time I've had the car). Why are the pins different? They appear to be identical but for the groove and collar and the parts of the caliper that they slide into look the same, as far as I can see. I've seen some sets purporting to be for the Alphard which appear to have two identical (collar-less) pins. I want to finish the caliper service and get them back on the car asap and am wondering how to proceed: 1. Use my existing pins as they are 2. Get a new set with collars 3. Get a set without collars if there's a shorter wait. Any thoughts, particularly on the purpose of the rubber collar pin and the wisdom of using such a pin without the collar would be much appreciated. Many thanks, Dave

Many thanks for your help.

The Blueprint shims and original shims are significantly different. Is this an issue?

It's near-side. Yes, it does appear to be joining two pieces of drive shaft. I'm wondering what it's called in case I need to get one. It doesn't appear to be in the greatest of condition to me but it must have been like that for some time and the car has just got through its mot with no issues. I'm hoping someone will tell me that it's fine!

Can someone tell me a) what this part is,and b) how concerned I should be about its condition Many thanks, Dave

Many thanks for the replies - which I've only just seen. Am I supposed to get email notifications of replies? I believe I have this set on. Incidentally, adt343164 seems to be a part number for discs.

Yes, the alternator is fine. Everything is fine. I just stupidly drained the battery.

Thanks for your replies. In the end I remembered that I had a motorcycle battery in a cupboard... I charged that and then jumped the Alphard from that. Moral of the story: don't use a car-powered tyre pump without the engine running.