Ok here goes,

After cleaning my car and eventually getting that new car shine I have noticed slight swirly scatches on parts of the car (not so as anyone would notice except that new owner attention to detail). I think my poor cleaning was not involved in causing the problem but I need to make sure its not something I am doing (else the car will never get another clean). I have heard that waxing could hide or remove these small effects. It's not bad, but still enough to concern me in future, I don't want it to look like a poorly looked after dealership model.

Also, does anyone have any pictures of the S2000's window seals from window to soft top, I may be being paranoid but I thought the window slotted into a gap (as non- soft tops do), it is probably the case that I was so excited when picking up the car that I didn't even notice the windows sealed from water by staying completely on the outside.

Driving around last night (for absolutely no reason but to enjoy the engine) and noticed a slight sound when decelerating (all engine brake) in 2nd gear. It sounds fine from 40mph down to bearly more than a crawl in 2nd but just before it starts getting to crawling speed it makes what I can only describe as metal scrape (although it's no-where near as concerning it is still audible to the 'new owner' tag). It's not a grind or a deceleration buzz and I only tried it a few times but I just thought I'd ask if anyone had heard of this, and it only happened in 2nd gear.

Oh, and the Concept 600 alarm does not go off when even when I give the car a light roll when parked and set. I hope I have not paid for a very expensive LED.



Often.

 

OK - Starting with the windows first, they merely rest against the outside fo the rubber seal, so are not wedged in between anything. Basically if you close the door with the window up it pushes against the rubber seal to close.

As for slight swirls in the paintwork, yup these occur, and yep, waxing or T-cutting and then waxing should get rid of them. When washing the car, make sure that if you do happen to drop the sponge/cloth on the ground that you clean it thoroughly before using it on the car again, I know others have put the scratches there by this method.

Which reminds me - my step brother bought a brand new Seat Ibiza in a similar blue to out MCBlue, and bought a sponge that on one side was soft and the other rough (for the wheels), first wash he managed to use the wrong side of the sponge and now has ruined 3 panels before noticing. Ooops, still he shouldn't buy a sponge like that really.

Decellaration noise - can't say I have noticed that myself I am afraid.

Good luck with the alarm also

HTH

 

Swirl marks are all too common when you a dealer washes your car, I'm sure its because they use the same sponge and water for all of the car from the sills to the bonnet via the wheels

I find that a very (VERY!) light application of metallic T-Cut removes these and that polishing and then waxing the car leaves no trace. Always use 100% cotton valeting cloths on your paintwork, yellow dusters aren't (IMO) always the best choice for the job - Halfords sell them in a pack of 4 pretty cheaply or you can get the real deal anal retentive jobs (like mine ) from Auto Fanatics or other good US detailing retailers.

Don't worry about your windows they are supposed to ride up the outside edge of the window seal.

Noises are hard to diagnose but mine makes those kind of mechanical growlings/groanings at low revs and road speeds like crawling in stop start traffic. Then again I think every manual car I've driven does too

 

I get the second gear low rev growl too. Don't think it is something I need to worry about as everyone else seems to have it.

 

ahhh...the swirls.....

If you check out some of the international threads there's almost a whole sub culture trying to get rid of swirls...

In my experiance when the dealer PDI's the car they do almost the bare minimum to get it looking good.

Once you do the first wash then you start to abrade/remove the wax coat.

Therefore.....time to get waxing! Once I brought mine and washed it for the fist time, it got 2 coats of Autogly polish, and a final coat of Autoglyms super high gloss polish stuff (sorry I forget the names)

This also has the added bonus of making the car way easier to clean in the future as the dirt dosn't stick as much.

I also use Autoglyms glass polish as well which I find works really well IMHO, (I always end up with streaks and stuff with other cleaners)

Autoglym do a valet pack in a nice green case for about 40 notes I think, which contains most of what you need to keep the new woman in your life shiny! Got mine from halfords

M.

 

Phew! - That all seems ok then.

The sponge description sounds very familiar, I bought the grey sponge from Halfords with a rough side (which I have definately 100% never used), bought a wheel brush as well (which is great BTW).

The seal thing is a relief, It does look IMO a bit cheap and badly fitted, but I suppose it makes sense on a soft top (and may even be like that on all soft tops for all I know!).

Sounds like I need to get the car spotless and then give it a good wax to get rid of those swirls.

How do you people on the board drive your cars?, accelerating through the gears is easy, but when dis-engaging the clutch the engine break is very much present and I find boosting the revs quickly (but not too much) in a short space of time before engaging a lower gear is tricky.....with time I suppse it'll be easier.

Often.

 

Thanks Mark, list printed and ready to visit Halfords on the weekend.

Often.

 

FWIW IMHO there is nothing that looks better than a freshly waxed MC Blue (mine looks better than when I picked it up from the dealer)

And of course the Blue ones go quicker.....

Deceleration buzz...Think you have missed the point on this one.....why would you want to decelerate?

 

There are occasions where I have to slow down, when the origin blue i goes nuts for example.

Often.

 

Exactly the same seals with the hard top - ie pressure of glass from outside.
All I can say is they are very effective.
Stand up to pressure hoses!