First tune, service, mod

[TTnA]

Hiya

Well I've read the panel filter / induction filter battle is still going on...and on....and on :laugh: but our new 1998 1.0 Twister is about to get looked after properly for the first time. Knowing it has full stamped history means not a lot these days, and well it was just a shopping trolley, since my wife and I have been driving it, we can already feel it's wanting to drive properly, it is slowly freeing up, but not quite the pocket rocket our old Micra's used to be.

At 58k, its milage is nothing, oil is clean and fresh, every service has been bang on, so can't complain, but, typical Micra, pocket rocket it 1st gear, 5th gear it just wants to go and go and go and go, we don't have enough roads here to just keep going. Need to lube the gear stick, and concentrate on a little rust showing under the car, starting to bleb on the cross member and cill.

Panel filter / mod, first things first, nice and simple, exhaust, need a full system, it's rusting a lot, still solid, cat heat shield has fallen off, but 2 year old cars need exhausts replaced where we are due to the amount of salt and gravel tracks up here.

We need the car to be economical, our Xantia 1.9 turbo is, so we expect great results from our Micra, we pay £1.30ppl up here, so please, throw your ideas at us. Air in, Exhaust out comes first.

OK, fitting in the baby seat comes first lol (have been told)

Denzo plugs? Never used, seem cheap, but iridium, just like the word Any good?
Sparky leads, my wife thinks the blue ones look nicer than the red ones - Splitfire or Worxspec? lol

It's servicing has all been Nissan, or general garages, Nissan leads fitted, NGK sparks, but generic oil / air filters. All stamped history done on the dot.

Just need to make this little £200 looker a nice car, it needs to perform well, be economical, and later on have the ability to handle the environment we currently put the Xantia through. It'll probably make more sense getting a 4x4, but no where near as much fun.

Out of interest, this little thing has Aircon on it, not tried it yet (will never get that hot in the Orkney Isles), but can it be disengaged? It has no power steering either!

So all ideas welcome, budget is on going, other priorites will have to come first (baby, food, household bills, heating, but should be able to sneak a few things through

Will probably go for the braces, made a huge difference to my 1.3, will not lower, or that'll remove the exhaust system, could do with more ground clearance!

Shall eagerly wait replies

edited for mistakes

 

[TTnA]

:wasntme: I've just got an 'important' notice, but I am replying to myself with relevence, which may make an intersting read for those especially new.

This forum answers many questions without ever having to post, finally after many hours of reading parts and bits have been ordered and some have been fitted. (Many thanks to MPH for the calls, emails and parts - a little something of Orkney will be heading your way when you get back from holiday)

Decided to keep things simple to start with with regards to modifications, first off, brand new garage roof with skylights, sealed, new front panel, still need new front doors, but they'll do for now and then for the car, a K&N panel filter has now been fitted, polished all air inlet pipes with great difficulty but a great way of losing about 4 hours, especially when any difference is probably not noticable and that you can't actually see most of the work that has been carried out, for me though, knowing I have clean inner air pipes must mean air will travel up there quicker than with dirt, and I will have a faster more economical car for that effort. (Y)

The K&N panel filter just replaces the grotty(Y), though still looked new stock air filter, but the most important question was will it make a difference? The answer is yes, the car feels like it is no longer being strangled, it's woken up, perky, or as my wife said coming back from her first drive this morning, chirpy! So we know have a chirpy, perky, less strangled and responsive little pocket rocket in the making.

Not a mod, but apparently has it's uses, new pads, the old ones were very worn, and the OS front were making the typical I have nothing left noise. So my quick 'will be done in 10mins sweetie, pads are easy on a Micra' turned into about 2 hours. Drivers side bolts siezed, plenty of 3 in 1, a bit of heat, a very long bar and a big hammer freed them off (new discs in January of this year), the piston was out about as far as it would go, and as for the ability to slide, not a chance, the wear on the pads are a good indication of it sticking!

Anyway, some very mucky hands later and about an hour and half, pads changed, it's amazing what you can do with a large power bar, a 1946 copper tail pipe from a Rayburn, a large house wall and a bit of force Was not going to attempt to play with the nipples at this stage, that will come later on, pads at the end of the day only slow you down NS front were nice and easy, compared to the OS, bolts were siezed, didn't slide, pads, a lot less wear than I expected, also odd pads, these were not a matched pair, might explain why there was uneven wear, still nothing was noticed under braking! Still pads fitted, the car stops when that middle peddle is pressed down, more importantly the car goes quite well when the right peddle is pushed down. (Y)

Replaced rear wiper blade, even cleaned the rear windscreen and stuck the K&N sticker on :blush: either trying to reclaim some lost youth here or my wager with my neighbour about my wife not actually seeing the sticker could just put an extra £5 in the pocket! :laugh: (hope she doesn't fish out this post)
Next will be the return spring for the gear leaver, fuel filter, oil and filter change and getting the inner arch fixed properly.

Exhaust will be cat-less, or if the corrosion keeps up it will be exhausted litteraly, peco, or janspeed, not yet decided, I do think the stainless steel option will prove fruitfull up here especially with our weather and roads.

So far so good, and a huge thanks to the many posts on here that have helped, hindered, and confused but answered along the way, has been so tempting to post, but put the hours in reading and you finally get there.

As for a style mod, I dropped my led torch down the front of the car as I was closing the bonnet, the front grill in the bonnet and bumper illuminated nicley, I was quite impressed and shall play with a couple of white cold cathode tubes I have tucked away somewhere, should be quite nice

Next I'm afraid is staircase, tidy garage, finish roof off, boring oil filter change and the rest of the service on the micra, then service on the Xantia, till then I shall be looking at shiney exhaust systems with ones that don't have a cat. Getting a fag lighter fitted, and it still needs a good hoover!