-
Read the WELCOME ALL BMWFANATICS post.
Corsa C Ute - Another Toy Story
- Thread starter gavsadler
- Start date
gavsadler
///Member
Hello everyone,
So it’s been ages since I posted an update, 2016 has really been hectic and chaotic, so much going on. Work has been extremely busy, and on the personal front, a lot has also been happening. In the past 4 months, my brother and his family emigrated to Oz, we bought a new house and I was also blessed with the arrival of our 2nd daughter in March. In fact, she will be 2 months old this weekend. Time is flying….
In light of all of the above, very little happens on the car front now. No spare time to do anything, even a good ol’ wash only happens every few weeks unfortunately.
Anyways, let me provide a quick update on what has happened on the car front the past few months.
In January, just before going back to work, I decided to try make some fitted floor mats. The process was quite straight forward, and the end result looked really good. See pics below:
Having lived with them for a few months now, I can’t say things are still as good. The carpeting is rather thin and not as hard-wearing as traditional floor mats, so it is already wearing thin where my heels rest, and also due to not having any sort of sticky stuff underneath, it does tend to move around a little. Not ideal, and I had plans to try sort that out, but time is short. So I’ll leave them as-is, until I get time to try out floor mats v2.0.
Also in January, during my sleep-deprived state (the reason for which I cannot remember), I managed to successfully kerb my wheel on the pavement leaving work. Very irritating indeed, and because of the black chrome finish on the wheels, it cannot be touched up, the entire rim will need to be re-sprayed. At this stage, I don’t have spare cash to throw at that, so for now it will be a stark reminder to try and be more alert – sleep deprived or not.
Around this time as well, I managed to source a replacement turbo oil return pipe from the UK, along with a replacement seal to fit between the pipe and the turbo manifold. What I initially thought would be a good deal, turned out to be expensive thanks to customs, shipment costs and other admin fees from the local courier company. Anyways, this is what arrived from the UK:
Unfortunately, I was also done a dirty, because it is not the part that I actually required. Looking at the top flange, it is not machined bigger to accept the newer version of the o-ring seal:
This is what it should have looked like:
This is what the original pipe looks like:
So all-in-all, some school fees were paid from my side. I was hoping to fit the newer generation pipe, which has a rubber section instead of the metal flex section, as well as the o-ring seal instead of a steel gasket. Being halfway there, I decided to fit the pipe anyway and managed to source a new steel gasket locally. I’m glad I did, because testing my original pipe afterwards – there was a small leak on the steel flex section. Hopefully this would cure the puddle of oil I left wherever I ended up stopping.
Moving on to April 2016, I began to notice that the Ute was beginning to perform really crappy when using high boost and meth injection. I thought it may simply be a change of season, and the colder air going into the motor was messing with the air-fuel ratios when under load and injecting meth. I tried adjusting the meth controller, but the problem persisted and eventually got worse – as in the Ute would not pull at all when injecting meth. This led me to believe that maybe my spark plugs are kaput, and the meth is essentially extinguishing the flame.
Below are some pics of the plugs. Note that using a feeler gauge gapped to 0.8mm, it fitted comfortably in each of the plugs – this gap is too big, and most likely explains the reason for the misfiring. Also to note is that these plugs were fitted in Feb-2013 when I fitted the new turbo, they have done approx. 35000kms (20000kms of which subsequent to installing the water-meth kit):
Plug 1:
Plug 2:
Plug 3:
Plug 4:
I scratched around and found my old plugs from when I first fitted the 2l motor to my Ute. These were approx. 6months old / 10000kms, they still looked good, so I checked that the gap is 0.6mm and then fitted these again:
After swapping out the plugs, I am happy to report that all was well again, Ute was pulling like a machine with the water-meth.
But the happiness was short-lived, as the next issue arose. My speedo began doing all sorts of funky things, reading intermittently, and what was strangest of all, is that it kept dropping speed (like the rev counter) between gear changes. I suspected either a dodgy speedo sensor, or a fault in the wiring somewhere. There is also no space in the engine bay, and my speedo pickup fits into the back of the gearbox, between the motor and the firewall.
One day I managed to reach down and fiddle with the plugs a bit, and after that – no speedo at all. So I then knew that there was a wiring issue. Further investigations that weekend revealed the following: a broken speedo wire on the engine harness side:
I managed to strip away a few things to get better access, and after a relatively simple job to solder the wire together again, all was well with the speedo.
Having replaced the turbo oil return pipe, I thought all was well, until about a week after I did the job when I noticed another drip on the paving. This was very annoying, but further investigation revealed that it was now leaking at the steel gasket where it connects to the turbo manifold (now you know why they changed this to the o-ring type of seal).
Quite frankly I was irritated, and didn’t have another few grand to fork out on another pipe. I decided to rather try fix it again, so I pulled the pipe off, and after cleaning up everything, I applied a very thin layer of gasket maker to each side of the gasket and refitted the pipe (this is the same gasket maker I used when I changed the sump over). So far so good. I haven’t seen any leaks yet, so holding thumbs that all is well.
Lastly, more recently this week, whilst on leave, I decided to go visit my mate Donovan at his shop in Meyerton. He has also installed a Mr Turbo dyno, and with things quiet at the shop, we strapped my Ute onto the rollers to see what it pushes out.
These are the results, and please note that this seems to be converting back to flywheel power:
The lower graphs are at 0.7bar on pump fuel only, and the higher graphs are at 1.05bar and with water-meth injection.
Then out of curiosity, and also to put the keyboard warriors at ease, I took some time to go visit Shane at KAR, and put the Ute on his rollers, for what is considered to be one of the “benchmark” dynos in Gauteng. These are the results, and please note that these figures are at the wheels:
Both graphs are the same as before: low boost and no meth, and then high boost with water-meth injection.
Using that handy power converter calculator that can be found on the internet, if I input the figures from KAR, that gives me flywheel figures of 214kW and 433Nm. This is almost in line with the figures from my mate’s dyno.
I also partially did this as an exercise to reinforce the theory that you cannot compare 2 different dynos, on different days etc. In this case, it is a Mr Turbo dyno vs a Hyperpower dyno. The air temperature also differed by about 3 degrees on each day. Never mind all the other factors such as heat soak, warming up of the dyno rollers etc.
To end off, late this afternoon I met up with another mate who also has a 2l 16v sleeper, had some fun for about 30mins and then went our separate ways. But that folks – that is a story for another day…
Thanks for reading, a long update but I hope you enjoyed the read.
So it’s been ages since I posted an update, 2016 has really been hectic and chaotic, so much going on. Work has been extremely busy, and on the personal front, a lot has also been happening. In the past 4 months, my brother and his family emigrated to Oz, we bought a new house and I was also blessed with the arrival of our 2nd daughter in March. In fact, she will be 2 months old this weekend. Time is flying….
In light of all of the above, very little happens on the car front now. No spare time to do anything, even a good ol’ wash only happens every few weeks unfortunately.
Anyways, let me provide a quick update on what has happened on the car front the past few months.
In January, just before going back to work, I decided to try make some fitted floor mats. The process was quite straight forward, and the end result looked really good. See pics below:
Having lived with them for a few months now, I can’t say things are still as good. The carpeting is rather thin and not as hard-wearing as traditional floor mats, so it is already wearing thin where my heels rest, and also due to not having any sort of sticky stuff underneath, it does tend to move around a little. Not ideal, and I had plans to try sort that out, but time is short. So I’ll leave them as-is, until I get time to try out floor mats v2.0.
Also in January, during my sleep-deprived state (the reason for which I cannot remember), I managed to successfully kerb my wheel on the pavement leaving work. Very irritating indeed, and because of the black chrome finish on the wheels, it cannot be touched up, the entire rim will need to be re-sprayed. At this stage, I don’t have spare cash to throw at that, so for now it will be a stark reminder to try and be more alert – sleep deprived or not.
Around this time as well, I managed to source a replacement turbo oil return pipe from the UK, along with a replacement seal to fit between the pipe and the turbo manifold. What I initially thought would be a good deal, turned out to be expensive thanks to customs, shipment costs and other admin fees from the local courier company. Anyways, this is what arrived from the UK:
Unfortunately, I was also done a dirty, because it is not the part that I actually required. Looking at the top flange, it is not machined bigger to accept the newer version of the o-ring seal:
This is what it should have looked like:
This is what the original pipe looks like:
So all-in-all, some school fees were paid from my side. I was hoping to fit the newer generation pipe, which has a rubber section instead of the metal flex section, as well as the o-ring seal instead of a steel gasket. Being halfway there, I decided to fit the pipe anyway and managed to source a new steel gasket locally. I’m glad I did, because testing my original pipe afterwards – there was a small leak on the steel flex section. Hopefully this would cure the puddle of oil I left wherever I ended up stopping.
Moving on to April 2016, I began to notice that the Ute was beginning to perform really crappy when using high boost and meth injection. I thought it may simply be a change of season, and the colder air going into the motor was messing with the air-fuel ratios when under load and injecting meth. I tried adjusting the meth controller, but the problem persisted and eventually got worse – as in the Ute would not pull at all when injecting meth. This led me to believe that maybe my spark plugs are kaput, and the meth is essentially extinguishing the flame.
Below are some pics of the plugs. Note that using a feeler gauge gapped to 0.8mm, it fitted comfortably in each of the plugs – this gap is too big, and most likely explains the reason for the misfiring. Also to note is that these plugs were fitted in Feb-2013 when I fitted the new turbo, they have done approx. 35000kms (20000kms of which subsequent to installing the water-meth kit):
Plug 1:
Plug 2:
Plug 3:
Plug 4:
I scratched around and found my old plugs from when I first fitted the 2l motor to my Ute. These were approx. 6months old / 10000kms, they still looked good, so I checked that the gap is 0.6mm and then fitted these again:
After swapping out the plugs, I am happy to report that all was well again, Ute was pulling like a machine with the water-meth.
But the happiness was short-lived, as the next issue arose. My speedo began doing all sorts of funky things, reading intermittently, and what was strangest of all, is that it kept dropping speed (like the rev counter) between gear changes. I suspected either a dodgy speedo sensor, or a fault in the wiring somewhere. There is also no space in the engine bay, and my speedo pickup fits into the back of the gearbox, between the motor and the firewall.
One day I managed to reach down and fiddle with the plugs a bit, and after that – no speedo at all. So I then knew that there was a wiring issue. Further investigations that weekend revealed the following: a broken speedo wire on the engine harness side:
I managed to strip away a few things to get better access, and after a relatively simple job to solder the wire together again, all was well with the speedo.
Having replaced the turbo oil return pipe, I thought all was well, until about a week after I did the job when I noticed another drip on the paving. This was very annoying, but further investigation revealed that it was now leaking at the steel gasket where it connects to the turbo manifold (now you know why they changed this to the o-ring type of seal).
Quite frankly I was irritated, and didn’t have another few grand to fork out on another pipe. I decided to rather try fix it again, so I pulled the pipe off, and after cleaning up everything, I applied a very thin layer of gasket maker to each side of the gasket and refitted the pipe (this is the same gasket maker I used when I changed the sump over). So far so good. I haven’t seen any leaks yet, so holding thumbs that all is well.
Lastly, more recently this week, whilst on leave, I decided to go visit my mate Donovan at his shop in Meyerton. He has also installed a Mr Turbo dyno, and with things quiet at the shop, we strapped my Ute onto the rollers to see what it pushes out.
These are the results, and please note that this seems to be converting back to flywheel power:
The lower graphs are at 0.7bar on pump fuel only, and the higher graphs are at 1.05bar and with water-meth injection.
Then out of curiosity, and also to put the keyboard warriors at ease, I took some time to go visit Shane at KAR, and put the Ute on his rollers, for what is considered to be one of the “benchmark” dynos in Gauteng. These are the results, and please note that these figures are at the wheels:
Both graphs are the same as before: low boost and no meth, and then high boost with water-meth injection.
Using that handy power converter calculator that can be found on the internet, if I input the figures from KAR, that gives me flywheel figures of 214kW and 433Nm. This is almost in line with the figures from my mate’s dyno.
I also partially did this as an exercise to reinforce the theory that you cannot compare 2 different dynos, on different days etc. In this case, it is a Mr Turbo dyno vs a Hyperpower dyno. The air temperature also differed by about 3 degrees on each day. Never mind all the other factors such as heat soak, warming up of the dyno rollers etc.
To end off, late this afternoon I met up with another mate who also has a 2l 16v sleeper, had some fun for about 30mins and then went our separate ways. But that folks – that is a story for another day…
Thanks for reading, a long update but I hope you enjoyed the read.
Sabretooth tiger
///Member
Congratulations on the arrival of your 2nd daughter.
gavsadler
///Member
Last sunday (11-Sep), I entered the BMW Car Club Tarlton gymkhana and 400m challenge. I decided to enter the Ute, mainly because it is supposed to be the toy to have fun in, and also because it's tyres were the most worn out of the 2 (I can continue to justify, but essentially I wanted to go and be a hooligan for the day).
I did some basic prep on the Saturday, checking fluids, tyre pressures and giving it a clean. Sunday morning the trip to Tarlton was uneventful, and everything proceeding to plan.
Following registration and drivers briefing, we all drove in convoy through the course, to familiarise ourselves with the bends. Then on the little burn down the strip prior to queing again, and that's where some issues made themselves known. As soon as it began to boost high, the Ute was misfiring and spluttering like a champ. I thought maybe there was too much meth pumping in for the cold conditions, but some adjustments didn't make a difference. The next possible option I thought was that one or more of the plugs had now worn enough to be losing spark when the meth injects (conveniently whilst at an event - again).
Anyway, after parking off, bonnet open, and thanks to the camaraderie of everyone in the pits, I was able to loan a spark plug socket and a few other tools. Whipping out the plugs, there was no sign of excess wear, but the threads were wet. I can only think this must have been some residual water from the previous day's engine clean which was fouling the leads / plugs. Only 2 were wet, and after drying everything off thoroughly, we refitted the plugs. There was no opportunity to test either, so I would only find out if things were better on my first Gymkhana run.
About 30mins later, I was off. It was great fun chucking it through the bends on the tight course, and I'm pleased to report that there were no misfiring issues. The Ute was boosting like a champion.
To summarise the day, great fun. I did battle a little bit with traction both at the start of the gymkhana and then leading up onto the 400m sprint, but other than that the Ute performed as expected. After the first few cars ran, I set a target of 70seconds overall time, and was aiming for 170km/h through the 400m. My overall time for the 3 runs was 70.054s with a speed of 165km/h. I'm quite chuffed, considering the other cars competing on the day. Everything else was essentially more powerful, bigger tyres (even semis and slicks), more driver aids etc. I was in the lower half of the results, but like I say, the other cars had a lot more going for them :rollsmile:
My brother-in-law and I were actually joking on the day, I said I felt like a fly amongst the racing pigeons lol.
Speaking of pedigreed machinery, the came has definitely moved on for sure. Of the 59 entrants, there were only about 7 cars making less than 200kw (flywheel figures). At least 1/3 of the field was 300kw+.
If you're interested, the results and pics can be found here:
Results
Pics
Here's some pics of my Ute in action:
Loving the Ute. Within the space of a handful of days, it served as the trusted daily commute to PTA North for client meetings, then tracking it on the weekend, followed by serving as a workhorse hauling half a load of pine flooring to build a wendy house a couple of days later. :blowheart:
I did some basic prep on the Saturday, checking fluids, tyre pressures and giving it a clean. Sunday morning the trip to Tarlton was uneventful, and everything proceeding to plan.
Following registration and drivers briefing, we all drove in convoy through the course, to familiarise ourselves with the bends. Then on the little burn down the strip prior to queing again, and that's where some issues made themselves known. As soon as it began to boost high, the Ute was misfiring and spluttering like a champ. I thought maybe there was too much meth pumping in for the cold conditions, but some adjustments didn't make a difference. The next possible option I thought was that one or more of the plugs had now worn enough to be losing spark when the meth injects (conveniently whilst at an event - again).
Anyway, after parking off, bonnet open, and thanks to the camaraderie of everyone in the pits, I was able to loan a spark plug socket and a few other tools. Whipping out the plugs, there was no sign of excess wear, but the threads were wet. I can only think this must have been some residual water from the previous day's engine clean which was fouling the leads / plugs. Only 2 were wet, and after drying everything off thoroughly, we refitted the plugs. There was no opportunity to test either, so I would only find out if things were better on my first Gymkhana run.
About 30mins later, I was off. It was great fun chucking it through the bends on the tight course, and I'm pleased to report that there were no misfiring issues. The Ute was boosting like a champion.
To summarise the day, great fun. I did battle a little bit with traction both at the start of the gymkhana and then leading up onto the 400m sprint, but other than that the Ute performed as expected. After the first few cars ran, I set a target of 70seconds overall time, and was aiming for 170km/h through the 400m. My overall time for the 3 runs was 70.054s with a speed of 165km/h. I'm quite chuffed, considering the other cars competing on the day. Everything else was essentially more powerful, bigger tyres (even semis and slicks), more driver aids etc. I was in the lower half of the results, but like I say, the other cars had a lot more going for them :rollsmile:
My brother-in-law and I were actually joking on the day, I said I felt like a fly amongst the racing pigeons lol.
Speaking of pedigreed machinery, the came has definitely moved on for sure. Of the 59 entrants, there were only about 7 cars making less than 200kw (flywheel figures). At least 1/3 of the field was 300kw+.
If you're interested, the results and pics can be found here:
Results
Pics
Here's some pics of my Ute in action:
Loving the Ute. Within the space of a handful of days, it served as the trusted daily commute to PTA North for client meetings, then tracking it on the weekend, followed by serving as a workhorse hauling half a load of pine flooring to build a wendy house a couple of days later. :blowheart:
gavsadler
///Member
Just a quick little update for the festive season:
There is something waiting in the garage, which I'm hoping to attend to when I manage to get time (currently work is just ridiculously busy). The Ute is also due for a service, so will need to stock up on supplies. I'm also in 2 minds about pulling the turbo off and sending it in to get the seals done (it's puffing nicely these days).
All that being said, it is still driving brilliantly. I was doing some more highway trips recently, and managed to get my best fuel consumption to date:
7.74l/100kms. Not too shabby for a 200kw Corsa, if I don't say so myself.
There is something waiting in the garage, which I'm hoping to attend to when I manage to get time (currently work is just ridiculously busy). The Ute is also due for a service, so will need to stock up on supplies. I'm also in 2 minds about pulling the turbo off and sending it in to get the seals done (it's puffing nicely these days).
All that being said, it is still driving brilliantly. I was doing some more highway trips recently, and managed to get my best fuel consumption to date:
7.74l/100kms. Not too shabby for a 200kw Corsa, if I don't say so myself.
gavsadler
///Member
Another quick update: hit another milestone early this morning on my way to work:
> 200000kms on the Ute
> 168300kms on the engine and gearbox
> 55500kms since I did the conversion in June 2012
I'm so pleased with my little Ute. It has been fantastic.
Next step - 300000kms :rollsmile:
> 200000kms on the Ute
> 168300kms on the engine and gearbox
> 55500kms since I did the conversion in June 2012
I'm so pleased with my little Ute. It has been fantastic.
Next step - 300000kms :rollsmile:
gavsadler
///Member
Update time:
There have been some recent developments in the past couple of months. One morning I noticed that one of my rear tyres was looking badly worn on the inside. Further inspection revealed that things were bad, and it was time for some new tyres.
At the same time, I wanted to get the rims checked for buckles. So off I went to Hi Tech Mag Repairs. One rim needed to be repainted, following an incident at a client's basement parking a while back, and 2 others needed to be straightened.
Here is the offending tyre:
I must say, that these Hankooks have been brilliant. I've managed to do 65000kms on this set of tyres. (Note that the others were in better condition than this one).
While my rims were being repaired, Hi Tech kindly offered me a set of loan rims, so I was pimping with the ricer look for about a week :rollsmile:
About a week later, my rims were ready to collect. I had decided to stick with the Hankook tyres, but this time round I've gone with the newer version of the tyre which was fitted: Hankook Ventus V12 evo2.
I haven't driven the Ute much since fitting the tyres, but immediately there is a significant improvement in ride quality. The old tyres had obviously worn off funny, and coupled with the buckled rims, things were a bit wobbly at speed.
Also during this time, I have the Ute a service, so things are good for another 6-12 months.
There have been some recent developments in the past couple of months. One morning I noticed that one of my rear tyres was looking badly worn on the inside. Further inspection revealed that things were bad, and it was time for some new tyres.
At the same time, I wanted to get the rims checked for buckles. So off I went to Hi Tech Mag Repairs. One rim needed to be repainted, following an incident at a client's basement parking a while back, and 2 others needed to be straightened.
Here is the offending tyre:
I must say, that these Hankooks have been brilliant. I've managed to do 65000kms on this set of tyres. (Note that the others were in better condition than this one).
While my rims were being repaired, Hi Tech kindly offered me a set of loan rims, so I was pimping with the ricer look for about a week :rollsmile:
About a week later, my rims were ready to collect. I had decided to stick with the Hankook tyres, but this time round I've gone with the newer version of the tyre which was fitted: Hankook Ventus V12 evo2.
I haven't driven the Ute much since fitting the tyres, but immediately there is a significant improvement in ride quality. The old tyres had obviously worn off funny, and coupled with the buckled rims, things were a bit wobbly at speed.
Also during this time, I have the Ute a service, so things are good for another 6-12 months.
gavsadler
///Member
So, after fitting my new tyres, the Ute pretty much parked off for a month or so before I began using it again.
After leaving work in the wee hours of a Monday morning (3am), I was cruising home, when I hit a pothole / lump of tar on the N3 north just past Van Buuren offramp. It was quite a knock, and I was rather annoyed about it.
Inspections the next morning revealed this:
160kms of mileage done, and the tyre is stuffed. I checked the other tyres and rims and thankfully they were all ok.
I went ahead and purchased a new tyre, and now have a brand new Hankook serving duty as a garden ornament, lol.
I've also been trouble-shooting some issues with my sound system, but will post about that at a later stage.
After leaving work in the wee hours of a Monday morning (3am), I was cruising home, when I hit a pothole / lump of tar on the N3 north just past Van Buuren offramp. It was quite a knock, and I was rather annoyed about it.
Inspections the next morning revealed this:
160kms of mileage done, and the tyre is stuffed. I checked the other tyres and rims and thankfully they were all ok.
I went ahead and purchased a new tyre, and now have a brand new Hankook serving duty as a garden ornament, lol.
I've also been trouble-shooting some issues with my sound system, but will post about that at a later stage.
gavsadler
///Member
Update time:
I managed to take some annual leave in April, and also managed to squeeze in a few hours of dedicated time to fiddle on the cars.
Something that has been sitting in my garage for nearly a year, were these custom fitted floor mats (imported from the UK). Sadly, I specified Grey at the time of ordering, thinking that it would blend with my carpeting, but the colour was simply too light.
After much faffing and experimenting with different dyes etc, the only thing which stuck to the fibres is good ol' spray paint. So following liberal use of Rustoleum's finest, this was the result:
It definitely blends in much better with the carpeting, and matches the black theme of the seats and other leather bits like the steering wheel and gear lever boots.
Then in May - tragedy struck. On my way home, there were some awful protests coming from the drivetrain when freewheeling / coasting in gears. Further inspection revealed that my RHS inner CV joint was crying for mercy. I also noticed that the LHS inner CV boot was torn, so there was grease everywhere.
I decided that seeing as I am pulling the RHS driveshaft, that I would replace both CV joints.
LHS Inner CV boot:
RHS inner CV:
LHS inner CV:
Completed driveshafts:
Not sure why some of the pics aren't loading, but I see some did load.
For the record: CV grease, coupled with brake dust are 2 of the dirtiest, messiest things you can ever get your hands stuck into. It was a long day of cleaning and repairing, but all is well again.
Subsequent to this, I have been doing some car audio troubleshooting / testing, but that is an update for another day.
Thanks for reading.
I managed to take some annual leave in April, and also managed to squeeze in a few hours of dedicated time to fiddle on the cars.
Something that has been sitting in my garage for nearly a year, were these custom fitted floor mats (imported from the UK). Sadly, I specified Grey at the time of ordering, thinking that it would blend with my carpeting, but the colour was simply too light.
After much faffing and experimenting with different dyes etc, the only thing which stuck to the fibres is good ol' spray paint. So following liberal use of Rustoleum's finest, this was the result:
It definitely blends in much better with the carpeting, and matches the black theme of the seats and other leather bits like the steering wheel and gear lever boots.
Then in May - tragedy struck. On my way home, there were some awful protests coming from the drivetrain when freewheeling / coasting in gears. Further inspection revealed that my RHS inner CV joint was crying for mercy. I also noticed that the LHS inner CV boot was torn, so there was grease everywhere.
I decided that seeing as I am pulling the RHS driveshaft, that I would replace both CV joints.
LHS Inner CV boot:
RHS inner CV:
LHS inner CV:
Completed driveshafts:
Not sure why some of the pics aren't loading, but I see some did load.
For the record: CV grease, coupled with brake dust are 2 of the dirtiest, messiest things you can ever get your hands stuck into. It was a long day of cleaning and repairing, but all is well again.
Subsequent to this, I have been doing some car audio troubleshooting / testing, but that is an update for another day.
Thanks for reading.
gavsadler
///Member
Well, when it was stock 1400, I used to average probably around 8l/100kms. Now I average around 10l/100kms. There is also more weight to lug around due to all the changes I've made, incl the Armadillo, big brakes etc. So it is about 20% more thirsty...
BUT :rollsmile:
188kw vs 51kW
412Nm vs 114Nm
This was on the Ross' dyno at RBTS.
I'll pay an extra R30 per 100kms driven all day everyday. Well worth it :cartel:
BUT :rollsmile:
188kw vs 51kW
412Nm vs 114Nm
This was on the Ross' dyno at RBTS.
I'll pay an extra R30 per 100kms driven all day everyday. Well worth it :cartel:
Schalk94
Active member
gavsadler said:
Fuel consumption is irrelevant on a project like this anyway:tiptoe:
My brother's girlfriend also has a 1.4 Ute with 17inch wheels on and she struggles to get over 10km/l(under 10l/100). She doesn't do a lot of highway driving,but that is still quite thirsty for a little 1.4.
gavsadler
///Member
No significant updates to report, the Ute has been serving me well in my travels.
A few months back I was having some issues with the sound install. Loooooong story short - one of the issues was my amp.
So I sourced a nice Kenwood 4ch to replace my old Starsound unit was was fitted at the time that I initially bought the Ute:
It's been playing well since then. There are still some issues with the head unit, but at this stage, nothing critical. Thanks to all of those who assisted in the troubleshooting etc.
Then more recently, I decided to whip out the steam cleaner, and have a go at cleaning the seats and other leather bits. Over time, they have developed a bit of a shine and the stitching was looking a bit dull.
It's quite a process, but glad I did it. I initially started with some APC and the steam cleaner (working through a microfiber towel. Step 2 was a clean using some AutoGlym leather cleaner, and step 3 was some AutoGlym leather conditioner.
Here's some pics:
Seats after treatment:
Steering wheel before:
Steering wheel after:
I need to do a few maintenance things in the coming months, like a proper detail, Armadillo refurb, some mechanical repairs for an oil leak and a noisy suspension on the front left.
Other than that all is well. Still a hoot to drive and surprising a few cars on the road. :cartel:
A few months back I was having some issues with the sound install. Loooooong story short - one of the issues was my amp.
So I sourced a nice Kenwood 4ch to replace my old Starsound unit was was fitted at the time that I initially bought the Ute:
It's been playing well since then. There are still some issues with the head unit, but at this stage, nothing critical. Thanks to all of those who assisted in the troubleshooting etc.
Then more recently, I decided to whip out the steam cleaner, and have a go at cleaning the seats and other leather bits. Over time, they have developed a bit of a shine and the stitching was looking a bit dull.
It's quite a process, but glad I did it. I initially started with some APC and the steam cleaner (working through a microfiber towel. Step 2 was a clean using some AutoGlym leather cleaner, and step 3 was some AutoGlym leather conditioner.
Here's some pics:
Seats after treatment:
Steering wheel before:
Steering wheel after:
I need to do a few maintenance things in the coming months, like a proper detail, Armadillo refurb, some mechanical repairs for an oil leak and a noisy suspension on the front left.
Other than that all is well. Still a hoot to drive and surprising a few cars on the road. :cartel:
O.kidasov1988
Banned
Добрый вечер.
Часто посещаю этот сайт.
Спасибо создателей сайта за интересный контент.
Часто посещаю этот сайт.
Спасибо создателей сайта за интересный контент.
gavsadler
///Member
In recent times, I've had a lot of odd noises coming from the front when driving. Things also seemed to get worse, and now and then it felt a bit floaty up front when going through bends etc.
So while I was on leave, I decided to inspect the suspension. Good thing I did, found that both control arms were kaput, and the left front shock mounting had seized.
LHS control arm bush had enough:
RHS bush also on it's way out - literally:
So off I went to shop for some parts. New control arms, drop links and shock mounts:
Fitted the new stuff, and also cleaned up a bit underneath as well:
Even my daughter got stuck into helping / learning:
Put everything back together, and then discovered that my RHS wheel bearing was shot (I repaired this a few months ago). So stripped everything off again.
The offending bearing:
So back to the shops again, and spent more hard earned cash. Had new hubs and wheel bearings pressed into the steering knuckles:
While it was still on trestles, I convinced the Mrs to come and help me bleed the brakes. It's been 3 years since the last change, so a good time to change.
Aaaand, my water bottle cap was leaking, so decided it's time to refresh that as well, new bottle, cap and overflow pipe from the turbo to the bottle.
Before:
After:
I drove it this morning for the first time since fixing everything. It feels much more solid on the road, no clunking or clicking noises, no floatiness either. All I need to do now is the wheel alignment and then it is good for a while still.
Next repairs should be early in the new year, when I service the Ute, I'll be redoing the turbo seals and also my oil cooler pipes.
Edit: Don't know why the pics are so large ( I did resize them to the usual size), and they are also rotated all funny. Hopefully the mods can fix this?
So while I was on leave, I decided to inspect the suspension. Good thing I did, found that both control arms were kaput, and the left front shock mounting had seized.
LHS control arm bush had enough:
RHS bush also on it's way out - literally:
So off I went to shop for some parts. New control arms, drop links and shock mounts:
Fitted the new stuff, and also cleaned up a bit underneath as well:
Even my daughter got stuck into helping / learning:
Put everything back together, and then discovered that my RHS wheel bearing was shot (I repaired this a few months ago). So stripped everything off again.
The offending bearing:
So back to the shops again, and spent more hard earned cash. Had new hubs and wheel bearings pressed into the steering knuckles:
While it was still on trestles, I convinced the Mrs to come and help me bleed the brakes. It's been 3 years since the last change, so a good time to change.
Aaaand, my water bottle cap was leaking, so decided it's time to refresh that as well, new bottle, cap and overflow pipe from the turbo to the bottle.
Before:
After:
I drove it this morning for the first time since fixing everything. It feels much more solid on the road, no clunking or clicking noises, no floatiness either. All I need to do now is the wheel alignment and then it is good for a while still.
Next repairs should be early in the new year, when I service the Ute, I'll be redoing the turbo seals and also my oil cooler pipes.
Edit: Don't know why the pics are so large ( I did resize them to the usual size), and they are also rotated all funny. Hopefully the mods can fix this?
BeemerFanatic
Events Organiser
Top DIY work there,:thumbs:
