Ryan's Micra Blog

[flyboypuoi]

Added the new badge!

Finally got her in the garage. Starting to put bits back together. Having to bodge quite a few panels as bolts had snapped, and plastic bolt things were almost all broken.

I redesigned the horn wiring as I first made it years ago.

I also changed my mind about the side markers. I've now set it so that the top LED comes on with the sidelights, but the bottom one comes on with the indicators.

Headlights are in. The LEDs in the indicators at the front made it a nuisance.

Got the same air fresheners from years ago, because they match the interior styling so well! Now there are clear ones and blue ones. It's been ages since I had fresheners!

And finally that's one assembled K11.

I went and got fuel, but on the way back, I was down one cylinder. Engine warning light on the dash, as well as tractor sounds. Just like when the coilpack failed.
Not sure right now why it happened, but I'm thinking the injectors I used were crappy.
I was also quite frightened by a load of smoke coming from the engine bay as I stopped, but I think it was steam. The engine was out in the rain all of last night, and the smoke/steam happened when I got to a large gradient.
I also need to investigate the oil leak issue. I don't really know where it's coming from, but I think it's the sump gasket. Or the sump. Or the crank pulley seal.

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[flyboypuoi]

Whoops, forgot to add, I also got a 16V badge. I only managed to get one, so I was thinking of putting it somewhere different. In the end I felt the only good place to put it would be on one of the wings, where they normally are.
Now I just need to find another...

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[flyboypuoi]

I've moved house again. Now I have a proper garage!
And a great view of my car.

I decided I'd take some stuff apart. The SRS module here. This set has been coated to prevent corrosion. Not obvious how it detects deceleration (it is this that does it right?). Gigantic capacitor on the top side. I guess that charges the airbags. One chip on the underside too. I wonder how this differs to the one I have in there now. Perhaps my new one has more components where this has blanks.

And the old ECU. No coating on this one. Again wonder how my current one looks in comparison.

There's an AMD chip in there! Go team red!

Not much luck getting the chip reader apart.

It wasn't long before Eddie came over and we got his new MSC sticker on. Decided I'd add this to my blog as he never takes photos.

His power folding mirrors.

His new horns (damn these are big)

Same foglight as me!

I got myself some new floor mats for cheap. My rubber ones are pretty dead now. I've saved them under the boot carpet in case I really need them. Nice to finally have rear mats.

Ha. Look at him.

Eddie's new foglight.

A really old picture here (but it's here on my phone), but my friend decided to scrap his poor K11 because of this damage. I already had a slam panel removed and ready to replace!

Back to now.
A random picture.

And a little photoshoot of Eddie as he was leaving.

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[Eddington]

Might have to Bteal a couple photos of me to use for my blog... Please teach me how to take photos pls

 

[flyboypuoi]

Might have to Bteal a couple photos of me to use for my blog... Please teach me how to take photos pls

Come over now, I'll show you

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[flyboypuoi]

Eddie actually did come over today. We cut out his rear wiper motor as it was held in by a de-threaded bolt.
We also took off his headlights.

And now they look like this!

Check his blog on more photos. We managed to plug the chrome in the sidelight by using blue tack. It seems to not pull off the thin chrome coat.

Looks great. I love how the light lights up part of the black inner bit.

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[flyboypuoi]

This post will be a little off topic... but I promise there is a K11 in here.
I just went on holiday to my usual destination of Finland. Was there for 4 weeks.
Over there, I own a 1986 Sunny N13. It shares many parts with the K10.

Straight away I gave it a new air filter.

And replaced some dash lights.

Hey look, there's that K11 I promised. They have headlight washers. Prefaces have headlight wipers.

Visited the magical place of Åland.

There are many K10s there. Some pretty rough.
You can see this one used to have headlight wipers.

Some photos.

I fitted some quad tail lights. The standard corners work well at angles but are ultimately too small.

Now it's also easier to tell if I'm braking. It's usually blindingly sunny this time of year and full headlights on at all times is the law.
Dual fog lights now too, rather than just the left side.

In reality the glow looks very similar. The camera isn't capturing it right.

In a ship.

Testing some orange T10s while I prepare for my next mod.

Not easy to see here, but I made use of those orange side bits. They're now side markers. Originally I think they were maybe the JDM side indicators. But the European models have K10 sides.

One of the dash backlight caps broke! Well, the actual clocks plastic.
I had to get super-bodgy and glue in a spare T10 wired through connector blocks to a different bulb. Worked perfectly. Will upgrade the other two to a similar setup next year.

Night time, I now have yellow LED sidelights and the side markers. Looks awesome.

Hole found in the tyre that went flat last year.

Impossible to keep your car clean over here.

Time to wash.

Seems to be an issue attaching my final photo. Can't add any more pictures. Even though I removed one.



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[flyboypuoi]

They last photo was the one I removed... can't edit it either.
Whatever, here's the final photo. The nice JDM chrome wiper arms. Front, back, and even on the headlight wipers/washers.
Only issue is that the sun reflects on them and is blinding. Even sometimes on the rear one through the rear view mirror.

Now. Back home, back to K11 stuff.

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[flyboypuoi]

New project started.

Can you tell what I'm doing?
This should make it more obvious:

I've bought T5 SMD bulbs which I'm taking apart so they're just chips. SMD is as ever the brightest and smallest option.
Quick preview with the faceplate:

The cold air blues might look a little out of place due to how I lined up the photo. It was a bit dodgy powering it by two wires poking into a T10 slot (especially as I've shorted those before, was a butt-clench moment).
These will also hopefully be further away from the plate.

To help keep the right colours in the right places, I put some dividers in.

Just waiting for 10 Reds and 30 Whites to arrive. Then I'll get going.

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[flyboypuoi]

I've been busy today!
Got some new bulbs.

Here is the illuminated dash at the beginning:

I began by spray painting the inside with a chrome silver. It's just by that become much more reflective.

Next, I scratched away the orange needle backing. It needed sanding and smoothing. Unfortunately the desk marked the tops a little, as you'll see at the end.
I then drew on the blue with a permanent marker pen.

Next, a tricky bit. Tried my best to cut out the orange filters in the face plate, without doing too much damage. I left some orange in fear of scratching the black. (Useful tip, to remove the needles without scratching the black bits, run some string underneath and pull the string from both ends up)

A look with the T5s and chrome in place. Also the previously mentioned green LED drilled into a spare bulb cap as the front fog warning.

Now for something more. I wanted the needles to glow more, so I dismantled some remaining blue T5s and glued/soldered them all in place like so. It was a little difficult, but good fun. Took a while to do.

In place and lit up!

Final test before reassembly, switched back the yellow T5s to incandescent as the SMDs were terrible! Now an SMD high beam warning too (rather than a flat tip)

And with the face plate back on... (photo doesn't do it justice.)

Yeah. That looks good!

I put a white bulb in the mirror switch finally. And also I rewired the backlight to come on with sidelights, instead of ignition. Much better.

Overall. Unique and nice.

In addition to this, I wired in a diode from the high beam wire to the front fog wire.
This means that I can still independently turn on front foglights, but now, when I turn on high beam or flash, the fogs flash too. It's good!

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[nissan boy]

Looks good, would a coloured filament bulb for the trip be better, as it looks blinding , specially in a dark road at night ,

 

[flyboypuoi]

Looks good, would a coloured filament bulb for the trip be better, as it looks blinding , specially in a dark road at night ,

Thanks
Nah, it's completely impossible for my phone to get the exposure right on that panel. Every time I take a photo I'm spending a minute or two tapping the edges of the glare. In reality it's not nearly as bright as that.

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[flyboypuoi]

Had a look at night, looks good! I tried to cover up the LCD this time to get a more accurate photo. Still it looks better in person. The needles are a deeper blue and have less shine from the LCD etc.

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[flyboypuoi]

Today I have been making some stuff!
I decided I'd put some more bits together for the air controls box.
I've been thinking, it would be really useful to have some kind of 12V tester to see if something was working or a wiring setup was correct.
Then I remembered, I have two cigarette lighter to USB2 adaptors in the glovebox. One doesn't work and the other kinda works.
I took the broken one and hacked at it, tore out components, soldered in new wires and boom!
I have a 12V tester!

Here it is in action! It works, as you can see by the T5 sat in the connector block.
Interestingly, a tiny bit of power is going to the socket even when the ignition is off.

Glued the casing back together and used those permanent markers I got for the dash needles.

Now then! The next thing I want to do is improve the hazard light switch backlighting.
It's been something I've wanted to do pretty much since it's last upgrade. In the photos it always looked okay, but in reality it was a little dim and only really glowed at certain angles. Adding foil to the inside barely did anything.
So, out with the foil (it was too small and complicated in there for it) and in with the chrome paint.

I've been planning on using a couple of T5s, but then I thought, I have two T10s... Maybe they'd fit?
One kinda did!

Saved the hassle of wires by directly soldering the bulb to the original cap fitment. This actually worked.

(Both of the T10s were missing two of the front chips)

Unfortunately, I didn't account for the clearance needed for the face of the switch. When I pushed it on, things went bad.
Like, pretty bad.
There were sparks and flashes from where I soldered it on, followed by smoke. Much more than I'd expect, the circuit didn't even blow, but the T10 sure did. (Find out why in a few photos)

So, I reverted back to the original plan. Two T5s mounted on some card in there. I even sprayed the card.

Initial setup was good.

However, more drama. The wire had nowhere to go and was forever getting stuck on things. Something rubbed or broke somewhere and again the lights went out. This time though, they weren't coming on again.
Obviously I blew the sidelight circuit. However, I don't remember putting a (probably temporary) 20A fuse in the fusebox, where it should have been 10A. Whoops. Good thing it didn't cause a fire or destroy a component somewhere.

My next attempt was dismantling the remaining T10s and trying to make my own array of red LED chips.

Unfortunately, though it took ages, it didn't work. At least I hope it didn't in retrospective. I didn't have the tester plugged in...
It was quite complex and I doubt it would have been particularly durable, so, back to the original plan again.

This time I figured out a route for the wires. Two holes in the lower section of the switch and a larger one in the back.
Worked very well! I had just remembered (from the switch being dismantled) that the spring in my switch is from a pen. I lost the original.

Reassembled, it worked fantastically! The wires aren't snagging anything.
Now it sucks that I started to chop the panel that these mount into on the dash. Luckily I didn't finish chopping it.

A quick test reveals no fire or sparks, and light. While the switch was in pieces I again scratched away some of the remaining filter in the back of the triangle. Made it less scratchy too.

Then later on a quick look...

It looks so good! But the photos don't show it! It looks so so so much brighter and redder than it did.
Managed to get this photo just as the outside light was turning off.

The photo shows it to have a bit of an orange tint. It's not, it's completely red. Also it looks less offset.

Very pleased!

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[flyboypuoi]

It was time to get some new oil. This engine is leaking slowly from somewhere around the sump.
It had gotten so low, I was getting the oil pressure warning light when in heavy corners.
Checked the dip stick, didn't even have any oil on it!
Even after adding a bunch the dip stick was still dry.
Seems like I had barely anything in there. When I was adding some I could occasionally hear it pouring in the engine.
This time I have opted for 10w40 rather than 5w40.
Seems to be the more common one. Ultimately very similar.

The red bulbs arrived today, so I chucked them in. This is going to be a wiring challenge. Just waiting on whites now. And solder. I need a lot more.

Managed to get a nice photo while quickly at the shop! (It's a corner space, I'm not partly in another space)

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[nissan boy]

Would say 10/40 is better , even Nissan says 5/30 only good for short commutes
,is it leaking from the main seal on the flywheel side of the crank?

 

[flyboypuoi]

Would say 10/40 is better , even Nissan says 5/30 only good for short commutes
,is it leaking from the main seal on the flywheel side of the crank?

I can't tell unfortunately, the whole sump is always wet with oil.
I guess I could wipe it all off and have a look.
Can never find the time/bother to go under the car right now though :|

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[Tan H]

I've been busy today!
Got some new bulbs.
View attachment 58379
View attachment 58377
Here is the illuminated dash at the beginning:
View attachment 58378
I began by spray painting the inside with a chrome silver. It's just by that become much more reflective.
View attachment 58380
View attachment 58381
Next, I scratched away the orange needle backing. It needed sanding and smoothing. Unfortunately the desk marked the tops a little, as you'll see at the end.
I then drew on the blue with a permanent marker pen.
View attachment 58382
Next, a tricky bit. Tried my best to cut out the orange filters in the face plate, without doing too much damage. I left some orange in fear of scratching the black. (Useful tip, to remove the needles without scratching the black bits, run some string underneath and pull the string from both ends up)
View attachment 58383
A look with the T5s and chrome in place. Also the previously mentioned green LED drilled into a spare bulb cap as the front fog warning.
View attachment 58384
Now for something more. I wanted the needles to glow more, so I dismantled some remaining blue T5s and glued/soldered them all in place like so. It was a little difficult, but good fun. Took a while to do.
View attachment 58385
In place and lit up!
View attachment 58386
Final test before reassembly, switched back the yellow T5s to incandescent as the SMDs were terrible! Now an SMD high beam warning too (rather than a flat tip)
View attachment 58387
And with the face plate back on... (photo doesn't do it justice.)
View attachment 58388
Yeah. That looks good!
View attachment 58389
I put a white bulb in the mirror switch finally. And also I rewired the backlight to come on with sidelights, instead of ignition. Much better.
View attachment 58390
Overall. Unique and nice.
View attachment 58391
In addition to this, I wired in a diode from the high beam wire to the front fog wire.
This means that I can still independently turn on front foglights, but now, when I turn on high beam or flash, the fogs flash too. It's good!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Micra Sports Club mobile app

Can you send the link to the bulbs?

 

[flyboypuoi]

So, I finally got back some enthusiasm to work on Cassie. I lifted her up for the first time at this new home and went underneath to see what's going on.
Still need to find the source of that oil leak. So much oil is getting everywhere now. Looks to me like, thankfully, it's just the sump itself. Seems clean and dry on the upper half of the sump on all sides.
I also tightened the joint between the first and second exhaust sections. It's been leaking gas through there and keeps giving me engine warning lights (or so is my theory, another being spark plug gap). Looks like I'll need some exhaust sealant there.
Then I looked at the flappy old cut-out splashguard on the left side.
I decided to chop out half of it to allow much more air to pass up to the air intake.
Then I had an additional idea.
That turbo setup I bought ages ago had some piping.
I thought, I'll just replace it with something better when I actually do turbo the car, so maybe I could use the pipe to force some more air into the engine?
The air filters I buy are open end cones, meaning that there is an inner and outer filter side.
The outer filter is still drawing in air as usual (maybe some more because of the splashguard removal), and now the inner part is getting a nice feed of air from below:

I realised that on full right lock, the wheel intercepted the pipe, so I had to add a little curve.

We will see in time if this increases, decreases or does not change the power. Don't hear any air being sucked in at idle, so it looks like this will only effect things whilst moving.
My rear wiper has been broken for a while, so I glued it.

And finally I have the white T10s! Time to finish this off!

Done a decent job of soldering the first lot in!

A quick test in my cigarette lighter tester. Looks great!

I could tell how bright it was as soon as I plugged it in, from the reflection..:

Almost all of the diodes in place, I ended up squeezing four white ones in the middle of the centre one after.

And a quick test, it's so damn bright! I can't wait to finish this completely. This might look like it was taken in the dark, but it was in a sunny day, that's how bright they are.

My fan direction setting has become really broken, so installing this will give me a great opportunity to fix that.

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[flyboypuoi]

Can you send the link to the bulbs?

Blue
White
Red
Yellow

Blues and whites are very very bright, red is pretty bright too, yellows aren't so bright but they're okay.
Bear in mind that the items from "Mazhimeng" will most likely take a very very long time to arrive, potentially two months

 

[Tan H]

Blue
White
Red
Yellow

Blues and whites are very very bright, red is pretty bright too, yellows aren't so bright but they're okay.
Bear in mind that the items from "Mazhimeng" will most likely take a very very long time to arrive, potentially two months

Thanks for that ?

 

[flyboypuoi]

I can confirm, the engine feels much healthier and seems as if it has more available power. I'm thinking out of opening the flow to the filter, making a tube to it, and tightening the exhaust, the exhaust was probably the bigger effect. It often gets underestimated, but allowing exhaust gasses to pass out easier makes a good difference.
On top of this, the random power losses and engine warning lights have stopped for now.
I went and visited Eddie at his new place. Wish I had such a nice coat of paint on my car. Maybe I should spend a day waxing it.

Back home later, I finished off the lighting project. I repaired the broken left dial (the gear had slipped into the wrong position on the rack).
After wiring it all together, I had a pretty unsuccessful test, upon plugging it in and turning the key, there was a flash, smoke, metal particles and some nasty noises, leaving my lighting board glowing orange in a few areas on the back.
Seems like some wires were touching when they shouldn't have been.
After repairing quite extensive damage (soldered joints had exploded, even one of the metal legs had blown into two!) it finally worked fully!

I gave it a quick test with the faceplate, and it wasn't as bright as I had hoped.
Remembering something a fellow member had told me once, I tried scraping off the glue and the filter material from the back.

And while the outside looks the same still, the light passing through is incredible. Picture makes it look washed out/orange, but in reality it's a solid red.

So I did it to all of them. Even the ones with the lighter filter, as scratching off the others made them white instead of blue.

A quick test and it looks great.

So. I slid it on. It was a pain to wire in, I used the left airbox bulb as a source. It was quite hard to get it in with the lights now in the way a bit. I broke one of them sadly.

And there it is, all lit up. Thankfully squeezing it in didn't bridge any wires. Electrical tape probably saved me there. The only light to break was one of the knob lights in the middle (it's extremely cramped there).

And with the faceplate on, holy crap it looks good.

I think I may have reached peak brightness!

That looks so damn good. You'd really have to see it in person. This is the best case yet of "the camera doesn't take the photo right".

Because of the complexity of the colours on the middle dial, some white is shining on the red dots and making them a little pale. I may increase the card shielding or add some chocolate wrapper filters. Because it's missing a white light, as the dial turns it kind of cycles through colours a bit.
Then again... this does sort-of make the knob colour match the setting it's on. That would be kinda cool.

Anyway. This is freaking cool. It's a little bright while driving at night, but not a problem. I could make the dash match but I think the dimmer lighting is better for night driving so I'll probably leave it.

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[flyboypuoi]

A daytime view of the new lighting.

The middle right vent was kinda broken. No wonder it felt so weak and whistled.

Figured since I was here, I'd tart up the demister switch. Same as the hazard, sprayed with chrome and this time, I drilled in a full T5 including the plastic (there's much less space in this one)

Worked right away, no drama this time.

The wires were pulled through a couple of redundant holes in the connector.

A fresh red bulb in the bottom.

I also wanted to scratch down the filter in the face. It came off though! But, this allowed for a much easier and neater job. Annoyingly, just like the dash needles, it got scratched on my table. Really need to remember that.

Back in, working, and lit. For some reason the red light seems less bright. Maybe the bulb was worse, or the chrome paint didn't work this time.

Touched up the needles with some polish to reduce the horrible scratches on the tops. I stuck on some sticky labels on the backs (and coloured them blue) as the translucency was making them look darker.

The demister showing a little better as the sunlight decreases...

Dash needles look a little better... it actually looks a little better in the photo for once.

The demister in the dark.

It is brighter, and less yellowy. Pure white now.

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[vinvindan]

Hey there! I know you posted about it a while ago but where did you get the spotlights from?


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[St0rm91]

Finally, I got some alloys. I was told these had just come from a first-facelift Micra. They're 15" though.
Mechanic later told me they're from an Almera.
Still, they look great, and put my speedo to near 100% accuracy.
View attachment 49299

How've you found the 15" wheels compared with stock (13?)?

 

[flyboypuoi]

Hey there! I know you posted about it a while ago but where did you get the spotlights from?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hello! The front fog lights I assume you mean? I actually got the light units themselves brand new on eBay. I think I got all of the rest of the bits from there too. Best place to find stuff would either be on the Facebook forum, or on eBay. If you want generic bits, Amazon is good too.

 

[flyboypuoi]

How've you found the 15" wheels compared with stock (13?)?

The stock wheels are actually 14" on the second facelift. Though I've had some experience with 13" aswell with that preface I had.
Well, generally (for larger wheels):
Pros:
•Slight increase in top-end speed (slight)
•More grip in corners (assuming they're wider too)
•Slightly smoother ride as the bigger circumference can go over bumps better
•Depending on tyre thickness, can correct the stock speedometer
Cons:
•Reduced acceleration (slight)
•Reduced fuel economy
•Can rub arches under load when going over larger bumps
•Can potentially rub engine splashguards at full steering lock
Pros/Cons:
•Wheels don't spin up as easily when moving off

Also if you're considering some, it's worth getting the correct wheel nuts as the alloys have a taper to the holes (it got noted on one of my MOT reports once)
Overall I'm glad I got 15" wheels. I recently lowered the car by 30mm and it doesn't rub any more than it did before. I think having relatively thick tyres like mine stops the wheels from looking too big for the car though.
Also, I think these larger tyres are more common. In the past, I'd often have to get a garage to order in some stock K11 low-profile tyres.

 

[flyboypuoi]

Quick update. I'm on a train heading way up North for something interesting.
I'll have plenty to talk about regarding this later...

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[flyboypuoi]

So then. I've been thinking for some time that it might be time to say a very sad goodbye to Cassie and move on...
I know. "What?!"
Here's the situation; Cassie is rusty. Very rusty. Every year she fails the MOT test and I spend hundreds on getting her patched up (purely because I can't let go) and the rust always comes back. Rust is now forming all over the place, doors, roof, rear quarters, suspension... There's even a hole in the boot (not to mention loads of holes on the sills)
On top of that, all of that electrical bodgery I've been doing is beginning to catch up with me, with not long ago something getting snagged in the huge wiring mess dangling just above the pedals, and things have been acting up a bit.
Additionally, things are rattling so much now. It's been 3½ (maybe longer) years now, and back in the earlier days, I was much much less skilled at modifying. Poorly attached connector blocks, messy wiring, nuts and screws missing or out of place.
I realised once I was helping (doing) Eddie's mods that I was doing them so so much better. So I want to start again fresh.


After weeks of searching, I finally found one. Yeah, these cars are common, but a really good one is actually not as hard to find. I've been extremely strict with what cars I've been considering.
I had to take three trains, which took 5 hours, but I found one:

Initially, I've been ignoring the 2002/2003 ones. Because of the horrible Renault stalks behind the steering wheel (after driving 4 hours back I still don't like them). As well as that, there are a few un-necessary electrical changes as far as I know, such as different relays. Of which finding documentation online or in the Haynes manual is proving hard.
But, I've heard recently that the steering column isn't too hard to change over (both are completely different at the top), so I thought I'd do that and broaden my options as I wasn't finding any cars.

So! This is the new one!
My fourth K11 (if you don't count the model).

This is, like Cassie, registered before the actual year it was finished, so it's a 52-plate but it's a 2003 model. Yep, '03, the last year! As far as I know not too many of those were made.
There are benefits to getting the "Renault Edition" cars though. Not only are they newer, so less likely to be rough, but they often have a sunroof. I am so glad I got myself a sunroof. Eddie was making me jealous! And, here's one of my favourite bits: Remote central locking! Freakin' hype! And the paint colour. It seems only the late second-facelifts got the metallic grey. That and some prefacelifts (could be slightly different).
Other than those things, and body-coloured side/bumper strips (and a cool late black interior which... I'm not keeping much of), and a remote fuel flap/boot combo lever, this car is effectively bottom-spec.
No foglights, passenger airbag, pillar speakers, electric windows and mirrors, popout rear windows, even rear speakers...
Condition-wise, it has a rather long mark down the left side strip, but that looks like it'll come off. There's a tiny dent on the right wing which might be easy to fix (it's tiny though), and it has some unfortunate marks on the bonnet from a serious cleaning error.
There is of course rust, there is always rust. But it's in areas that don't matter much, and it's surface rust.
The all-important sills look great!


It was a very long ride home. Twice I nearly ran out of fuel (I must've forgotten how fast it drains on motorways).
On the way home the car and I celebrated 100,000 miles! What a cool way to start the story.

The car obviously feels different to Cassie. First of all, this is running a CG10DE engine. Going from the 1.4L CGA3DE down to 1.0L is sad, man!
This car also has the stock 5j 14" steel rims on stock suspension, with no strut bracing and (presumably) no anti-roll bars on front and rear. So it feels much different, handling-wise.
The gearstick feels pretty loose and uncertain, and the clutch is very high, but these will change when the big engine goes in (yes, I'm doing it again).
The steering seems to be a notch over to the right, and it pulls a little to the left, so an alignment will need to be done once I move over some components.
The battery also feels a little like it's reaching the end of it's life. I'll put Cassie's new one in.

Other than that, it's fantastic. I got it for £500 which is a fair price, not cheap nor expensive. And given how nice the sellers were, I happily paid that amount. It's just a shame I had to spend £60+ on a train and a bit on fuel back too.
But these things must be done if you want the right car, which should last a long time.

This car has never had any note of rusty sills/suspension on the MOT history and you can see how on-time it's been done, shows it was looked after.
One MOT failure ever, based on a leaking power steering pump, suggesting it's been changed or at least repaired (though it's going to be replaced in the engine swap of course).

I've got plans on top of swapping Cassie's parts over, I want to go for a slightly different style to match the colour of the car. Also I want new rims. You'll see in time!

Big thank you to the previous owners, if you're reading this. You've made me very happy.

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[flyboypuoi]

And so begins the big parts transfer.
Immediately, I changed the radio. I really wasn't liking what was already in there, and I love my old one, so it had to get switched. Should be able to sell the old one fairly easy though.
In addition to this, I swapped over the gear knob. I just prefer the classic Nissan one that is on all of the cars from 1992 to 2001.
It wasn't too hard, much much easier than when I helped Eddie do the same.

Now then. I didn't get any photos of the interior. It's black/dark-grey two-tone. Looks pretty nice, but the black plastic seems to allow more scratches to show, as well as any stains. I won't be keeping much of this interior.

Curiously the headliner is the usual grey colour. Also weirdly, despite being such a late model, this car has the older type of interior light, which doesn't click into the three positions, it's just loose and stupid. Will change soon.

Next, I transferred over the sun visors. These are from my blue prefacelift "Billy" They're longer on the inside than the usual ones, and look nicer. The passenger one also has a mirror. The old set on this car had a mirror glued in!

Next up was the A-Pillar trim with tweeter speakers. Audio treble quality improved!

It's already beginning to look higher-spec. Ignore the mis-matched colours.

Now, on the topic of audio, I want to get these speakers into the black parcel shelf.

It turned out not to be an easy task.

But I got the first one in. Had to get a picture. I'll never again see a parcel shelf with just one speaker in it.

Proud of the final product! Not wonky at all! Luckily if you drill in the wrong place, it's likely it'll be covered up by the speaker housing anyway.

And for my first electrical modification... I actually soldered it. I also reinforced the spades in the connector with solder as they looked like they were beginning to be pulled out from being used so much.

Plugged in and ready to go!

Looks so cool in black. I really am appreciating the rare colour. Audio bass and overall quality increased! Overall quality because these help hugely with the volume, so you need less volume (therefore less crackly overly-loud speakers). And the sound feels more like it fills the car, rather than all at the front.

As you can probably see, that last photo was a bit corrupted.
I lost an additional 6 photos after this, so you'll have to imagine in your mind what I'm describing.
•I replaced the interior fan resistor pack as the one in this car had totally blown, meaning it'd only work on full speed. Again I used one from a prefacelift, which is more than twice as big. Perhaps this makes it more reliable, as the card is cooled (it gets hot) by the fan.
•The interior fan still felt really weak. I noticed that the perforated area behind the dash had been cut out, implying that the pollen filter had been changed. Turns out this one has the filter where you'd expect it to be (maybe Cassie just didn't have one?). I cleaned it a little but decided to remove it totally. Now the fan is much stronger! As well as working on all speeds.
•I found food behind the dash to the left of the glovebox. Ew.
•I decided to remove the wheel trims as they are a bit ugly.
•I thoroughly cleaned the interior of the car and put my own floormats in.
•I put my own spare wheel in the back. It's completely unused and even has a perfect black paint coat. The tyre still has the coloured lines in the tread. And it's a Dunlop quality one. Turns out that the spare wheel well is full of shattered glass! And a lot of it!
•I transferred over the boot struts from Cassie. They've rusted a bit but they aren't too old and perform better than the ones on this car. This time I sanded down the ball joints and put plenty of copper grease on them to help them move better and not rust up.
•I replaced the stock RC aerial with the "beesting" aerial from Cassie (from the grey donor).

My phone didn't lose the last picture.
Now the boot is all clean and nice, the speakers are in, the first aid kit and warning triangle are there, and the rubber floor mats (for very dirty feet) are under the carpet.

I may have missed a few things, but that's the general story for today.
I just realised I took off the rearview mirror as the one in this car was so loose, simply your own gravity and presence would move it out of position.
I must remember to get Cassie's one in here tomorrow morning when I set off.

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[DaytimeDreamer]

Amazing blog in general. Was a lurker and just registered. May I ask what model is your Sony stereo in your Micra? Are you happy with it?

 

[flyboypuoi]

Amazing blog in general. Was a lurker and just registered. May I ask what model is your Sony stereo in your Micra? Are you happy with it?

Hey DaytimeDreamer, thanks.
It's a Sony DSX-A40UI. It's fantastic, I don't think I'll be buying another radio for a long time. Sound quality is great, functionality is good (equaliser settings, remote control, etc) and style-wise it's great. No chrome, simple display, no flashy business. Steering wheel control compatible (coming soon to my car).
It's a very mid-range radio but it's great. There's a bluetooth version which is blue backlit instead of red, and costs a little more.
I got mine brand new from Halfords for around £50.
I reccommend.

*Edit*
If you (or anyone reading this) does get one, I reccomend these settings:
Fader: F3 (F10 if you have rear pasengers, so they can hear you)
Equaliser: "Space" (for treble), "Edge" (for balanced), "Xplod" (for bass (careful) )

 

[flyboypuoi]

This phone is losing photos every time.
Today I took the Super March tail lights from Cassie and gave them a clean up and repaint. They had started to go pink in the sun already. Decided to go for black, to match the darkness of the new car.

In record time (this is the third time now) I switched the lights. Using a sliding "stanley" blade makes removing the black gasket so much easier.
It took until night time, but it's done. Just need to put the rear fogs in the bumper.

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[flyboypuoi]

Yesterday, I removed the badges on the rear and the bonnet. I also T-Cut some areas that were quite scratched.

I've also cleaned out the spare wheel well, as it was full of glass. (And other crap)
It was also full of water. It seems that the gaskets for the tail lights had had enough, and I had just washed the car.

I tidied up the bonnet and got the first facelift badge on there. That badge has now been on three cars.

I then put the first facelift Micra badge on. Looks so much nicer than the second facelift one.

As for today, I've started to clean up the glue from the badges, as well as prep the clear side indicators (they had gotten pretty rough).
I've used blue tack to seal the tail lights. I used one and a half packs, but I wish I had used two.

There's water in the pockets, which I'm trying to dry out. There's also glass in there.
What the hell happened to the rear window of this car in its past?

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[flyboypuoi]

Continuation of last post...

Headlights off, ready for the new style. No broken glass or plastic this time, now I know what I'm doing.

I've also been soaking the side indicators in bleach to get rid of the discolouration. They got wet in Cassie, and went a bit green.
They still aren't perfect but look much nicer, and clearer.
I've ordered orange bulbs for the front, but in the mean time, some clear orange paint from the model K11 seems like a good idea for the clear bulbs.

Headlight surrounds off, prepped for sanding. Making tape around the indicator lens, blue tack in the sidelight.

Primer coat.

I've soldered in the side LEDs this time, no connector blocks.
Also I've gone for both LEDs being on the indicator flash, rather than side position markers.

The clear lens looking right at home against the metallic dark grey.

Black coat applied to the light surrounds. Looks glossy as hell, will dry matt.

Foglight covers painted roughly. These will be replaced by foglights soon anyway.

16V badge added to the wing.

End result of the headlight surrounds. Looks good. The blue tack still pulls off a tiny bit of the chrome, but not much.

Reassembled, looks great!

I've transferred over some parts from the engine bay. Some generic bits like the windscreen wash tank cap, radiator cap, fuse box cover, bonnet nipples. I've also put the air intake and strut bar on from Cassie.

I've also replaced the bonnet latch. Cassie's one looked much nicer, and this one wasn't working quite right.
Turns out that didn't fix anything. Re-adjusting the latch has now allowed the bonnet to sit at the right level. However, it still doesn't spring up when the lever is pulled. Must be the cable.

I've somehow forgotten to take a photo of the car with the new lights. I'll get one later. It looks awesome.

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[flyboypuoi]

A look at the desaturated, blackened front end.

Tomorrow, I want to paint the grey bits. I might not be able to get it all done, but I'll try.
I might also try to swap over the bonnet release cable.
I'm thinking of looking into the steering column swap this weekend. I know it'll be a huge task. But I just can't use those horrible stubby stalks. Also I want front fogs and more wiper controls.
If I have time I'll also begin wiring in more features.

I've got a set of first facelift grilles on the way from a fellow member, and I should hopefully receive spring compressors and/or a rivet gun as a birthday gift.
So that'll mean the lowered springs and/or popout rear windows being fitted.

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[nissan boy]

Looks good, would invest a rivnut kit , I've replaced nearly all my arch clips with them, popouts, and odds and sods lol

 

[flyboypuoi]

Looks good, would invest a rivnut kit , I've replaced nearly all my arch clips with them, popouts, and odds and sods lol

Yeah, I have a bag of rivnuts that I got when I put the popouts in the last car, figured I could try to get them in without the tool.
Turns out I couldn't.
This time I'll do it properly.

 

[flyboypuoi]

Front plastics sanded and primed!

And painted matt black.

Repainted the aerial once again. Did a better job than ever, though I still touched it while it wasn't quite dry, and missed a small bit

Door handles painted. Too bad one wasn't very good. Ah well.

Just about had time for the rear too.

Looking fine! Still couldn't get the scrapes off of the bonnet. But, I cracked out the Turtle Wax, something I haven't used in years. I first got this long before I even had a car.

The wax did well. It's starting to look good.
I had to find new screws for the plate, they were completely rusted away. Will get a metal plate some day.

Forgot to say, I got this for my birthday! The seller even chucked in some authentic brown rice tea.

New bulbs have arrived for the rear indicators as I broke one. Look less cheap and crap. Bit more orange rather than yellow.
Mudflaps removed from Cassie. I'm going to buy paint that suits their flexibility. It always just cracks off.

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[addamf16]

do the bumper inserts black as well.....looks stunning already I might add

 

[flyboypuoi]

The new grille has arrived! Thank you very much Adam for those and for being a really decent seller.
I'll give these some fresh paint some time but for now I'm too impatient.
It's kinda hard to see the difference when they're next to each other here. Wait until they're on the car.

Now you can see clearly how different they are. Also they bolt on which is 100x easier to remove than the horrible clips on the second face

Had to do a clean behind where the old chrome was. It was filthy. But here we have it.
Other than front fogs, and I guess a metal plate, the front is done.

I also fitted proper orange bulbs in the indicators and have the painted bodgy ones as spares.

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[addamf16]

Looks slick! Glad they got there safely!

 

[LiamC]

The new grille has arrived! Thank you very much Adam for those and for being a really decent seller.
I'll give these some fresh paint some time but for now I'm too impatient.
It's kinda hard to see the difference when they're next to each other here. Wait until they're on the car.
View attachment 59359
Now you can see clearly how different they are. Also they bolt on which is 100x easier to remove than the horrible clips on the second face
View attachment 59360
Had to do a clean behind where the old chrome was. It was filthy. But here we have it.
Other than front fogs, and I guess a metal plate, the front is done.
View attachment 59361
I also fitted proper orange bulbs in the indicators and have the painted bodgy ones as spares.

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Did you get the chrome covered bulbs that shine orange or standard orange bulbs

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[flyboypuoi]

Did you get the chrome covered bulbs that shine orange or standard orange bulbs

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Standard orange ones. Are these chrome ones good?

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[flyboypuoi]

The CGA3 in Cassie has been shut down one last time. There was some oil flush in the garage when I moved in. Used it and shut the engine down by pulling the fuse on the fuel pump to drop the fuel pressure in the lines.

Also, while undoing bits, I heard something drop.

Well well well. There's my adjustable spanner. Been hiding somewhere behind the centre console for like a year.

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[flyboypuoi]

So. I'm spending this weekend taking the steering column from Cassie and putting it in the new car. I won't have much time after this as I'm starting work again and uni will begin picking up.

Look at all of that wiring!
Managed to get the dash out with minimal/no damage.

...

Now I'm a little stuck here getting the column out
Not quite sure what to do, and the daylight is more or less gone. Also it's getting mosquito-y out there.

Looks like I need to get up early and spend tomorrow getting the dash and column out of the new car and getting this column out.
I also want to prepare some electronics while the dash is out for future mods.


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[flyboypuoi]

I managed to get the steering column out from Cassie. It wasn't too hard actually. A single 12mm bolt clamps the shaft in at the spline.
Getting the ignition barrel/steering lock off wasn't so easy. One bolt actually came off on the first go with my cheap crappy bolt extractor kit. The other met its fate with a dremel and a cutting disk.

I started to remove the column from the new un-named car.
You can do it without taking the dash out, I found!

Done. The bastard had a 13mm bolt at the bottom though.

A side-by-side of the two different columns. The only real difference is the mounting bracket for the stalks. The ignition barrel looked a tiny bit different.
Unfortunately the bolts holding the steering lock on on this one were way more stubborn. I actually damaged my drill trying to remove them.
I had to cut them both out with the dremel, luckily the bolts unscrewed fairly easy once they had only half of the thread holding them in.

Skip ahead a little, I got the old column in place, it wasn't that easy but it's in now. I had to adjust its position to match the bolts holding the column up.
Also I had problems with the damn airbags again. I got one bolt out of the new car and one out of Cassie. The other two needed chopping. Then removal of the seized bolt from the airbag. Interestingly, both airbags are identical in design, colour, and even socket.


And now for the next part. Swapping over the wiring. Luckily, the left stalk is almost the same. The only discrepancy is the rear fog light. On normal cars, there's a single wire for it. On the late models, there's a whole bunch on their own socket. I got front fogs working (including with the diode to make front fogs flash with the high beams), but have left the rear fogs for now, as I don't even have any fitted.

And there's the left stalk fitted and working (except rear fog).
I didn't have time today to fit the right stalk, but I managed to label some wires, as some are the same. Unfortunately, some are not. Seems to be mainly the rear wiper.
Eddie had issues with his rear wiper in the past and we could never figure it out because the wiring is different to the usual documentation.
Perhaps K12 diagrams or late Almera cars have the wiring described.

It's at least driveable for tomorrow, and I'll hopefully finish off then.

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[nissan boy]

Almera is different for the light stalks this is the same for both n15&&16 terrano i think it the same on the short stalk models as the k11

 

[flyboypuoi]

Had to drive it like this briefly this morning...

No right stalk, dangly wires, and the steering wheel wasn't aligned
Very close now to finishing off this stalk project.
I figured out most of the wiring for the right stalk, a lot of it is similar. Only thing is the rear wiper motor. Just like the rear fog light, there are different wires, and more than expected. Judging by the sound, the rear fog now has a relay, which explains the wires. Though the rear wiper always had a relay.
I didn't spot two relays at the back yesterday, will take a deeper look today.

Damn my fingers are all sliced up by that column.

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[flyboypuoi]

Photo of earlier.

Today I continued with the right stalk wiring.

I was able to accurately guess almost all of the wires from matching the remaining wire gauges!

Then I realised! It seems that the late second facelift doesn't have a rear wiper relay at the back. That relay is for the rear fog light (which previous cars don't even have)!
So I transferred over the wiper relay from Cassie and ran a wire from the switch to the rear. Two wires shared a power wire from the existing relay, and the wiper wire got added in there at the back.

The top bolt holding the ignition/lock in were in the way of the right stalk so it got chopped.

The glorious moment when the proper stalks were fitted to the 2003 K11...

But wait! A problem has happened! The ignition barrel doesn't fit in the casing. I had to chop the casing a little but it's still not fitting right. I thought the ignition was the same general shape...

With the dash panel in place there isn't enough room. I had to remove the ring around the key reader.

That's annoying. But I have a spare in case I've messed up somewhere.
I added some paint to the mudflaps ready for swapping. I've used some rather costy flexible paint. Regretting years of using regular paint and leaving cracking paint all over them.
I'll need to drill two holes on the rear bumper on each side to fit them so they'll have to wait.

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