Bluey

[cisco]

Just called up Ben. The car is right to go.

Going to pick it up at about 3pm.

Water pump was leaking, so now it has a brand new one in there.

They couldn't find anything wrong with the turbocharger, and couldn't see it leaking oil either. That is weird. But if they have checked everything out and cleaned it all up, and couldn't get any more oil to come out, then I am happy!
But I was pretty sure quite a bit of oil was dripping out of there somewhere. Will just keep an eye on it then..

They also tightened up a few things underneath the car and just checked everything and couldn't find any other oil leaks either.

So just battling it out again with the government to make a booking as soon as possible for the re-inspection. Should be about Wednesday at this stage. Always a couple of days booked out.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Ah that is great Cisco !!
Bluey is about to become road registered and super reliable.
I can feel the force is with you.

 

[cisco]

Yeah pretty cool 'eh.

I am starting to wonder if I am developing "car always broken" syndrome. This is a mental condition where you make up problems because your brain thinks that the car is always broken even when it is running perfectly well. Because the guy said "We just can't find any oil leaking out of the turbo". Doh!

I'm wondering if it only happens under heavy boosting on the road etc. But he's really good and thorough and took it for a test drive and ran the engine to try to get it to happen etc.

I will just be grateful that the problem has vanished then.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Yep. When you have these living on the edge cars your senses are ultra sensitive.Any different noise you think "Oh my God what now!"
You check the oil more than usual, when driving watch temp, oil pressure constantly and when under boost the air/fuel gauge as well. Eyes all over the place, looking, looking all the time.
Ah but what fun !! ONLY issue with Whitey is the fitting of the extra idler pulley so I can get thousands of kl out of the belt without slippage.
Bluey nearly there I can sense it.

 

[cisco]

Yay well Blue monster is home once again!

And well some top luck with the car today..

Getting the amended engineer's certificate at 11:30am tomorrow, then motoring straight on down to the RTA pitts for the rego re-test at 1:30pm. Hello number plates!! - all going well..

He charged me a really decent price. Very happy with the whole transaction and service as always with this guy.

Bluey has no engine oil leaks, no fuel leak, new waterpump.

Yeah it was jsut freaky, she wanted to book me in on Friday for the rego re-test, I was like really really nice to her, and called her by her name, and she said "oh what about tomorrow then, there looks like there is a cancelled time slot booking you can snap up" allright!!!

I mean this is the difference between not having your car for another 3 days off the road, or having it tomorrow. Come own. So VERY lucky here.

Car feels nice to drive, really just itching to remove the exhaust blocker and slam the boost controller back on and get me some of that whoosh spooling noise. Yee hah.

 

[cisco]

Snow up on the hills again this morning. This cold air is where its at. Car will feel ultra sharp and responsive in this kind of air. I know it. Can't wait.

 

[cisco]

Also they managed to get out the absolutely ceized gearbox filler plug. They snapped a breaker bar trying to un-snap the plug.. Then they tried another one and managed to get it off. Yay. So all new filler plug in there now. Pretty cool.

This guy is onto it.

 

[cisco]

Allright, off to the rego re-inspection now.

Here's hoping.

Let's see what the AH's have to pick at this time.

I have fixed all 4 things on their failure notice, so there wouldn't want to be anything.

- Replaced rear main engine seal
- Replaced water pump and coolant leak
- Ben made some nice custom brake line mounts for the coil-overs
- I now have the corrected certificate from the engineer which fixes his mistake saying my wheels were 16.5" wide. (Get this, I had to make an appointment and all this **** with the engineer because he was crapping on about how special these are as legal documents and everything has to be official etc. Then I get out there and he uses liquid paper to remove the 1 from the 16.5" making it 6.5". You are bloody absolutely kidding. I could have done that myself instead of wasting an hour driving out there and back and making bookings - incompetent retards - I won't go back there).
- Boost controller has been removed.

 

[cisco]

Well bluey is registered. I am back with a set of plates on the car. Cannot believe it.

Registered officially through RTA now as a "Nissan VAN" with GVM of 1700kg because I have the rear seats removed. Yay! Pretty funny 'eh.

All the things I fixed up passed completely, but this time I got a different guy. He found 2 faults in the engineer's certificate (AGAIN!!!) And said I need to go back to the engineer and get him to correct them, but luckily this guy was much more realistic and decent and said "But I'm not going to waste both your time and my time failing it because of these "nothing" things". YAY! What a legend. He was one of the older guys too. Must only be the other old guy who is a real wanker in there.

Already I have:
- Removed exhaust blocker plate
- Removed air/oil re-circ pipe
- Re-installed boost controller.
- Err and screwed the number plates on. Man looks funny with a set of those on there for sure.

Going for a spin!

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Great news Cisco!! Congrats. Just tried to ring you but know what you are doing!!
The tide had turned mate.Forced Micra are out in force.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

Ha, Nissan van. Be the fastest van around methinks!!
Start a super express parcel delivery service.

 

[CMF_micra-man]

Woo Hooo!!

So as a van you should get the benefit of being able to park in loading zones?

Out of interest what were the 2 new things on the engineers certificate?

 

[cisco]

Yeah well should be able to park in loading zones yeah, but once again when you are out there doing things the custom/modified way, some ignorant parking guy would guaranteed not read my rego sticker and give me a ticket/fine. Just a whole waste of everyone's time, so i wouldn't even bother parking in a loading zone Damn!
I can just predict parking tickets there.

Two things on the certificate were:
- Silly engineer STILL made another mistake and said my tyres were 16". The last guy at the pitts only picked up the mistake on the rims saying they were 16.5". Today this guy noticed somewhere else it says the tyres are 16" even though it says the rims are 15". Its really stupid picky annoying time wasting crap. Just luckily this guy didn't fail anything, and what a rip off these engineer's certs are. This guy couldn't give a hang and did a rush job on my latest one for $550 just to engineer 3 things (coil overs, battery moved and ABS removed).
- This pitts guy also said that the engineer should have also written the car's stock track measurements next to the new modified track dimensions. Not sure why, but he said that's what they are meant to do. Puzzles me, because the other guy who failed me never mentioned that, and also the first time I went through the pitts here a couple of years back they never said anything either.

Note: I also pulled over just up the road around the corner from the pitts and got underneath the car and wiped any traces of oil away with my handerchief. Just so they couldn't be assholes about a drop of oil too just in case. I think I found where this oil is coming from. I think the turbo is sucking it out of the brand new K&N filter, because it seems to be piling up right around where the air filter pipe bolts onto the turbo. I think it will settle down with time. Its nothing at all to worry about. Anyway, this oil seems to be collecting in a small gap in the sealant of the air filter pipe and gathering up and then running down the side of the turbo. No big deal.

Its really weird. It kind of feels really weird to be driving your car. And at the same time I'm sitll a bit angry/scarred/traumatised by the whole thing. Like I drive it now and just think its a piece of **** and when's the next thing going to break But damn its fun to drive in its current state. Smoooooooth spooling - just lovely.

Need to drop the suspension down back to where it was this evening. Because now that its been raised, its running some stupid positive camber settings and is wandering all over the road when I put the power down.

Might manage to take some pics this week after I wash the dust off and lower the car back down a bit too.

Also going to get some of that flexible grey trim carpet and finish of the rear cargo tray thing.. Perhaps some sound deadening matt too for the rear.

 

[cisco]

Oh and my other favourite thing. I didn't bother wasting ANOTHER $28 either today for the 1day rego rip-off permit to drive in to the inspection with. So that's another $28 I got back off the rip-off rort government system giving me wrong advice which caused this whole round of chaos in the first place.

As well as the other day back from Ben's And as well as the other week driving to Ben's.

 

[CMF_Yom]

Positive camber? That and the wheel alignment would be out. It'd have silly amounts of toe-in as well!

So yes don't forget to get a wheel alignment once you reset the suspension (assuming you may not set it at the same low height you had it at beforehand).

Great to hear it is running cisco. Use less oil on the K&N filter next time... It can foul sensors up if you're not careful!!

Now to get some grippy tyres and see what bluey can really do!

 

[CMF_micragirl]

Hi Cisco, you should move up here, once you're registered that's it! Until you want to sell. When I was living in Sydney, my VW had to go over the pits every year, and every year they knocked me back on king/link pins, and every year I had them replaced at their request in order to get my slip. After this occurring about 3 times, I said to the mechanic/inspection guy (same one every time at the local servo) "hmmm, isn't that what you replaced last year? Your workmanship must be poor if they need redoing again" lmao. Needless to say, car passed rego no probs, but they keep trying you out.
And for anyone who thinks that all we run is old rust bucket bombs in Qld due to the lack of annual rego inspections, I know heaps of people (not friends) who drive around with NO rego because they can't afford the slip/repairs to get registration in NSW. Now that's just not safe.
Congrats anyway on getting your little machine back on the road where it belongs

 

[cisco]

Cheers micragirl,

That sounds like a nightmare too.

No, in the ACT, you don't have to go back every year either. So now that I have it done, I never have to go back unless I get randomly pulled over and defected etc (which shouldn't happen).

Long story (see other whinging threads), but I had to go back over the pitts again because of a stuffup by the government shopfront office. They told me I could cancel my registration and as long as I renewed it within 12 months, I could just come back in and pay to get my number plates back without any inspection required. Well, when I went in to actually do that, they looked at me like I was an idiot and after lots of **** fights, forced me to go over the pits. Which meant all the $$$, months, mental scarring etc.

In NSW though, the annual rego checks are a piece of cake thesedays. You can go to any service station kind of licensed guy and they mostly check brakes, and that all the blinkers and globes are working. Plus the tyres. It was pretty cruisy when I was there a few years ago.

 

[CMF_micragirl]

Wouldn't it be great if everyone followed the same procedures in their job. One person tells you one thing, and another something entirely different.
They're pretty tough in Tassie too. I took the micra down there to live from QLD when it was 3 months old, and they practically pulled my car apart. They even checked the door locks and latches, it took about 2.5 hours. I felt very indignant, especially when some of their automobiles down there looked like they needed retirement.

 

[CMF_White Knight]

The oldest cars in Austrlia are in Tasmania. You should see some of the death traps on the road. Goes with the territory. Lowest per capita income and reflected in the cars.
Funny I had no problems when I bought Whitey from Cisco. Took all of an hour and only inrterested in lights/ brakes/ suspension and any rust. Done by the local Nissan dealer.

 

[CMF_Sean]

You know my number Cisco! This I gotta see..

Have to get some video's of it too

Sean

 

[cisco]

Yep I will be in touch mate. What are you like tomorrow?

Got some running around to do to pickup the carpet and sound deadener. Then wash it a bit. Oh then also lower it again so we'll have some traction from properly adjusted camber.

Then yeah for sure, let's go for a smooth cruise.

 

[CMF_Sean]

Hey dude,

I'm finished school at around 4ish so if you want, just let me know what you want to do.

Seano

 

[cisco]

All right mate, sounds good.

How about in the evening? Even colder air

I'll try to get this exhaust fixed up tomorrow too, muffler is making some odd noises. Same muffler since I first bought the car. Might as well replace that too so everything is new

 

[cisco]

Ben has impressed me once again.

Pro-actively fixing 2 things that I didn't even ask him to do. Its like he takes time to check out your car and make sure its all ship shape. And good value price. What a guy.

He must have noticed that I'd only secured the brake lines with hose clamps and zip ties to fix the fail on the inspection, so today when I was under the car, I have noticed that he has been pro-active and made up these cool little brake line mounting tabs out of alloy. Yay! They look awesome, work great, and I didn't even ask him to do it. SERVICE!!!

Also he's put a perfect size rubber cap in my inlet pipe because I had the inspection re-circ pipe removed so there was a hole. Didn't even ask for that either, but just perfect and I needed one.

I'm going to write him a nice letter thanking him. And he can hang it up on the wall or something like Whiteline did.

 

[cisco]

Have just lowered the front end of the car. Man looks mean once again. Haha! I hope I didnt' accidentally make it a fraction too low - might have..

About to go and do the rear.

Then booked in at 2pm for new backbox and exhaust tip to be slammed on.

Booked in tomorrow for wheel alignment.

Getting there

 

[CMF_Yom]

I have been doing research into optimal suspension height for road comfort, suspension travel, handling and steering reponse.

General idea is that you want to get the lower control arms and the steering rods as flat as possible (with a preference of having the steering rods flat to anything else). This is meant to minimise bump-steer and also improve shock rebound control. Its kinda general but I guess it makes sense.

Suspension travel does change steering geometry.

 

[cisco]

Yeah spot on there Yom.

You can notice the difference with steering big time on my car when you make it "too low" as I call it.

When I had the coil overs right down low on their lowest setting, steering was quite tight, and bump steer a lot worse. That's why I raised it up about 20mm from that setting and that's where it is roughly now.

My lower arms pointing very slightly upwards which isn't ideal, but they are very very close to flat. I wouldn't go any lower at all.

The way I have been adjusting the height is purely by lengthening and shortening the front struts, i.e. not touching the spring preload or anything, so yeah I'm directly changing the geometry without changing the spring function. The good thing about this with coilovers is that when you have the car up high, it is still ultra firm and handles great just the same as if it was very low. Only difference is higher center of gravity, and infact steering angles are probably better off at the higher settings as they are spot on close to how the car comes from the factory at that height.

 

[CMF_Yom]

Yup we're always going to get bump steer when we lower our cars.

Unless we go and buy some poojets... (Peugeots!)

 

[CMF_Yom]

Oh and our cars are so small and light they just bounce around the road standard anyway