Grr, need to do a full service

[Krian]

Right,

I was going over the car again today, checking bits and pieces (like the alarm thats had its wires cut, but just been left there ) and after finding loads of stupid things wrong with it (like almost no oil, almost no coolant, etc) i figure i'm gonna try and give it a full service myself.

I've gone through my Haynes manual looking at the parts it suggests replacing, and I was wondering if anyone could recommend whether I should use official nissan parts or third party parts.

Here's what I'm changing:

Timing Belt
Brake Fluid
Fuel Filter
Air Filter Element
Coolant
Crankcase Ventilation system filter
Spark Plugs
Engine Oil
Oil Filter

I've already put in a new air filter - just a cheapy one from halfords until i can order one from K&N apart from that is there anything else you can recommend I replace?

Cheers.

 

[Fordy]

timing belt, spark plugs, oil filter, fuel filter and Crankcase Ventilation system filter (pvc filter)

all the above i would get from nissan if you can afford it

get the timing belt/cam belt in a kit thats got the tensioner included

engine oil should be 10w40 semi synthetic a 5 litre bottle will do. also dont go too cheap but dont go to expensive. the engine holds 3.2 ish litres but the haynes should tell you that.

coolant i personally would get nissan stuff but you can get loads of different makes that mix with all types of coolant. some makes are pre mixed and some you need to mix with water eg. so many parts coolant to so many parts water etc

brake fluid can be dot 3 or dot 4 i think its around £6+vat at nissan for one litre

 

[runaway-robot]

personally i would go with as much nissan stuff as poss.

 

[Krian]

Well i put in some 10w40 oil, and took it round the block a couple of times, let the engine cool then checked it - it looks very black and gunky so i figure theres a lot of old rubbish in there too.

Is there anything I can use to clean it out before putting in new oil? Or should I just do a couple of regular oil changes and hope it flushes out the system?

 

[Turtle]

Did you change the filter?

And did you let all off the old oil come out first?

If you didnt the new oil tends to look black pretty quickly.

 

[Krian]

Havent changed the filter or done a full oil change yet, hopefully i'll have the chance to pick one up on my lunch break tomorrow.

Any idea of how much the filter's gonna cost?

 

[Turtle]

I think I paid £17 for 5l of oil last time and £3 for the filter.

 

[Arnold]

Get Nissan HT leads, and change the dizzy cap and rotor arm too!

 

[Fordy]

nissan leads are about £29 and dissy cap about £16, and to be honest i wouldnt change them if you dont have any problems with them

 

[Arnold]

nissan leads are about £29

I paid £40 for mine! but im amazed how much difference they've made to my car.

 

[Fordy]

seems like youve been ripped off, i got mine only on friday aswell so the price might of droped, but you will only see a difference if your old ones had given up

 

[Arnold]

seems like youve been ripped off,

Lol, i had the choice to pay it, i wasnt forced!! Therefor i wasnt ripped off. As i've said before, im extremly satisfied with how much better they are than my previous ones and i was prepared to pay it, based on the recommendation from a few people on here.

but you will only see a difference if your old ones had given up

No. I had two sets of new halfords ones and they were both changed within a few weeks of purchase.. dont think it was a fault of the leads, they were just crap in general and my car didnt like them. It wouldnt start, and when it finally did it wouldnt run properley.

Being ripped off is when you take your car to kwik fit and they charge £90 to change the brake pads etc, but the works been done and you have to pay it

 

[ollie240585]

I refuse to use kiwk fit!!!! They "repaired" my mates brakes, less than 1 week later his brakes failed on him at 60 mp/h

 

[Ed]

I've never ever brought service items from nissan for the ST or the March. Decent brand local auto factors parts (eg blueprint) are just as good. Or goto halfords. Its all fine, I speak with over 300K miles of K10 micra experience.

 

[Ed]

What I would say tho Krian, is good on you for doing all of that. You'll do that all in a day. Keep to the Halfords airfilter - there is nothing wrong with them, the PCV filter can also just be cleaned with thinners etc.http://www.micra.org.uk/member.php?u=2614

 

[Krian]

The HT Leads are the only thing on the car that look newish :glare: not sure if they're offical nissan ones or not tho.

Hence not planning on changing em yet.

Ed: Thanks for the encouragement. Partly I wanted to do a full service at some point because i'm kinda hoping it will teach me a fair bit about the car, how it all works etc, i'm just doing it all now because i'm going to be driving it from london to dee and back again on a monthly basis and I dont really want it dying on the motorway because I didn't do something fairly basic.

Oh, another quick question - when I put the new oil in it was really difficult to get the oil cap off, and almost impossible to get it back on (ended up trimming the bottom of the plastic with a craft knife, cutting my finger in the process, then sitting it on and smacking it with a rubber hammer!) is that a normal prob with k10's? Or just mine being funky in more ways than one?

 

[Ed]

That with the oil cap is totally normal!! You can get a new one but in time it will only happen again. They are great cars to learn from, infact perhaps the best from how simple and accessible everything is.

 

[Turtle]

Maybe its just my imagination, but I found the oil cap 10 times easier to get off when hot. The engines supposed to be hot anyway when changing the oil so take the cap off when you start the job, not when you need to pour in the new oil. That might help.

 

[Slim]

the oil cap becomes brittle and is a total pain in the arse. Get a new one, its so much easier then

or buys a MA10T rocker cover and enjoy the benefits of a screw cap.

 

[Krian]

Before I do the oil change is it worthwhile removing the entire sump pan and giving it a good clean out? I know i'd need to get new gaskets, sealing strips and some gasket cement, and it seems fairly complicated.

Or should I just do an oil change and hope its ok for a few months?

 

[Ed]

No dont do that. Best thing you can do is give it regular oil changes if you really want to clean it up.

Ed

 

[Speedle]

some engine flush would help get most of the crap out mate, but regular oil changes (including the filter everytime) are the way forward

 

[Ed]

Engine flush is often a bad idea, and can actually cause more bearing damage than good. The best way is good oils regulary that will slowly break down the carbon deposits inside the engine.

Ed

 

[Turtle]

Ed, what is your opinion on this:

My engine had its oil changed approx every year without fail, no more no less. Since Ive driven it thats changing to approx every 6 months starting with last september, and recently in april.

The engine oil still goes black pretty quick within a month or 2, new oil costs me £15-20 so is it worth doing it more often than every 6 months for a while?

Im just thinking of Gran Tourismo, where the colour tells you when to change.

 

[Krian]

Well I called around a few breakers yards today - one of em has a B reg k10 engine going for 50 quid, so I might pick that up and use it to practise taking it apart and putting it back together again

Hopefully then I can get a fair bit of practise with the tricky parts - like fooling around with the pistons, and still have a working car.

Oh, that reminds me, Ed, can you regrind k10 camshafts too? Or just k11's?

Edit: Just re-read the post on performance cams, never mind