It is and that's the point.

I don't want to stick miles on anything valuable and i don't want to take out a new finance / lease deal. This now owes me nothing and can be ditched / binned at any point if my situation / needs / wants change.

Best broom i've ever had this - will never need or want another one

 

I miss tinkering with an old wreck.

 

6 months tax, 2 front wheel bearings and both trackrods now fitted - the old bearings were trashed when they came out. May need to swap the wheels front to back as i suspect the knackered bearings have caused the tyres to wear funny and that's the remaining noise.

Changed the cracked rear light cover for a new OEM cheap one off Ebay as the original one was rotten. Unfortunately the reason it was cheap was because it was a European one with no reverse light lens, a red foglight one instead.

Rewired the fog lights so i have two rear fog lights, one on each side and wired in a couple of cheap LED DRLS i had lying around as reverse lights into the little gaps under the rear bumper.

 

Service given to Ivan (Fabia VRS) on the driveway... Edge TD oil, oil filter, fuel filter (this was in a terrible state), air filter, pollen filter. It feels so reassuring to put the right oil in your car, especially on these things.

65 shore Powerflex dogbone being fitted this week, otherwise the engine might hop out the bay. Gonna see what condition the upper engine mounts are like, they could be a bit tired .Few more things on the list too, Brembo drilled & grooved standard size 288's & pads next month, then a plasti-dip front grill. Probably slap Eagle F1 A2's on in summer, give leather good clean soon.

edit... 82.5mpg today on the 25 mile commute. Having an economy remap (160bhp) really shows how fantastic these little cars are.

 

Well the Micra MOT was up. The rough running, soot round the exhaust, rust in various places just didn't seem worth putting it through another so off to ebay it was.

Really wanted another Micra to be honest and that was mostly what I was searching for but keeping an eye on other options when I spotted this:



M Reg so 20 years old. Actually slightly better spec than my Micra as it has a rear wiper and cig lighter/charger but other than that as basic as a car can be. 35k miles from new and I believe it, it looks brand new inside and I reckon with a proper clean and polish and some treatments on the black plastics it will outside as well. All for £670.

Clocked 200 miles in it thus far, don't know what MPG that's given but if the fuel gauge is accurate it's around 50mpg.

And my god I knew I liked how the Micra drove but I didn't realise how far above its contemporaries it was. Where the Micra 1l engine was zippy and willing, this 1.2l is sluggish and coarse. The Micra unassisted steering full of feel and direct, this is like maneuvering a boat, but still heavy. The Micra gear change positive and accurate, this is like putting your key in the lock in the dark, when you're drunk, and you're at the wrong door. The suspension is somehow soft and wallowy where you don't even notice speed bumps, but over minor road imperfections it manages to be crashy?

I know it sounds like I hate it but actually I find it characterful. I love it's an old base spec simple car, but that has been kept in mint condition.

Part of me wants to tweak it, stick some alloys on, better suspension etc.. and part of me likes the novelty of it being completely original, tape deck and all.

Waiting on the Haynes manual to arrive from ebay (another fiver including p&p) then I'll give it a service and the cam belt & water pump is due which is meant to be a pig of a job

 

Sounds good.

Re brakes, I wouldn't bother with it I'd go straight to mk4/mk5 golf, TT etc etc discs and callipers (312mm) best brakes you can have on it and bolt straight on will be better than most pads and discs you throw on it.

I cant remember which dogbone i had but it was a superpro and didnt make that much difference.

 

Corsa B?

My GF has one for a few years (S reg), it was a 1.2 SXI 16v wasnt a bad car really just it had to go, not that we wanted it to go just rust and the rear axle got the better of it!. I'd check the metal underneath and the axle as it was common thing with them.

 

Done the dogbone... got this from Awesome, a Powerflex red one (there's a new one now at 65 shore with less vibration). It soon settled down... but this morning was jangling the keys like a good 'un!
I'm not looking to change the calipers, it's not really going to be fast-road route. The benfits of going to 312's - I've done already on my Golf, yes they stopped it a little better but are heavier. 288's Drilled & grooved help dispense of heat, a bit lighter also. The car is already as heavy as a warship. Marginal I know, but so far i'm just enjoying the economy and jobs to be done on it. H&R lowering springs, black grill (as the car is Diamond Black), Citygo badging. Eventually I'll polybush the wishbone & rear axle, but so far its ok as the car is 95% motorway use. Re-paint calipers, and possible anthracite the standard wheels (i know a cheap sprayer )
I guess time for pictures on this turd I polish!

 

Hate those old Corsas for exactly the reasons you stated and loved the Micra for the same reasons you did. I had one from new back in 1997 and it pretty much took 66k miles of total ABUSE.

Fiat is running ok but like you my eyes are always out for something else - probably something a little more crash resistant i think

 

Yup. This is the 1.2 8v engine which is incredibly crude but so long as the water pump and cam belt are kept on top of should last forever.

It's getting a full once over as soon as the weather permits but visually inspecting so far there isn't a blemish on it, the exhaust even looks like it's only about a couple of years or soold.

Yeah as a piece of engineering the Corsa B is a dog. From what I can gather they basically stuck a bubble body on the previous Nova. Later models with a 16v engine and the suspension which had been tuned by Lotus are probably far better. But this car, just as an example I'm chuffed with. I can't believe someone has cared for a base spec model like they have this

But I honestly can't believe how much of a gap there is in driving between these two, the Corsa feels to drive like it's about 10 years behind the Micra tech wise. I think a 1.3 Micra with slightly stiffened chassis might be my perfect runabout. Having driven a fair few Almeras with overly assisted, dead steering and sloppy gear change I can't believe how good the gear change and steering is on those old mk2 Micra's and even my very poorly running 1l would embarrass most cars from the lights up to about 50mph.