Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

I find myself thinking fondly of our first car, a 1990 nissan sunny bought for £700. Never serviced, never broke, always started. Even the electric sunroof worked. I got £400 from insurance after a forklift ran into the passenger door and then sold it for £500 after three years.

One of these. Quite like the looks too.

You're right. Doesn't make a lot of sense at all. Imagine that engine mated to a modern 8 speed auto.....

Didn't Alfa do a weird version of that?

Re: wifi reversing cams... looks like they work, but don't have the functionality to detect reverse and switch smoothly (either they're on all the time, or you connect them to the reversing lights 12V then each time they need to power up, by which time you've gone over the neighbour's cat whilst stuffing a Greggs into your face and reversing one handed)

Some wonderful sales pitch here though
https://www.amazon.co.uk/BW-Wireless-Transmitter-Receiver-Reversing-Black/dp/B00E5YZQYC/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_23_lp_t_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=M54DKMC3X2GM5FXPSB6Z

No idea. But I found this awesome bunch while searching: http://www.speedhunters.com/2016/06/forgotten-nissans-80s-90s/

Just look at this thing, what a beaut compared to my boring newish volvo

I love this time of year, when any small niggly problem that manifests itself can't be looked at until the weekend when available time and light happen to match up.

I went on Autotrader last night because I want a new motorbike (probably a BMW R1200GS, bike fans, because I'm getting old).

I don't go on there much so I was surprised to find that it automatically populated the postcode field.

But not actually with my postcode, with @Dammit 's...

I'm guessing he spends the longest time on Autotrader out of any of its users so it assumes every visitor is him.

All you search are belong to us

My sister lives 125 miles away and I had a visit coming up. Taking public transportation would have cost £95 per ticket and we were four people going, so a quick bit of manmaths made it clear that I needed a car again. While insulting a colleagues car, he told me it was actually for sale, so I bought it.
1999 Nissan Micra K11 with 155000 miles on the clock. He had his three dogs semipermanently living in it, had lost the rear seat and it makes all sorts of horrible noises when driving. But it has a fresh MOT covering the next two years, a usable set of winter tyres and rims and I got two Duba chairs in matching colour thrown in the deal as well.
A steal at £630 (This is in Denmark - the tax on cars is 160 or 180%...).
It runs ok in a straight line, sounds like it's falling apart when turning and does 45 mpg.

5 Attachments

holden!

It makes some nasty beltish noises when running and a variety of squealing and clunking noises when turning. I knew this when I bought it and apparently his mechanic had told him it was just noise, and not worth fixing. My suspicion is a worn bearing somewhere along one of the belts and worn belts and worn out CV joints. Belts, water pump and CV joints were all less than £15 each, so I'll start out replacing those. According to some Micra fora (forums?), these are prone to noise from loose heat shields as well, so will have a look around underneath, when I'm sorting the stiff gear linkage anyway.
It wouldn't have cost me that much more to find a car with much less niggles, but where is the fun in that?

Get a water pump that comes with a gasket. Some do some don't.

What micra is it?

Read forward...K11. Has it got fluid power steering?

What is the forum approved windscreen washer fluid - ideally large bottle of concentrate.

Alfa/fiat had there own version.

What type was in there before? There is a possibility that mixing types can make a jelly like substance :(

Really? I just buy whatever's available, never had an issue. Or is this a uk specific issue?

Power steering seems fluid, so thought I'd check/sort the other stuff first, but yes it crossed my mind as a source of noise.
Water pump was £12 in a sale, cheapest one with a gasket was £35, I think. I'll make it work.

i was on the road so bought a big flask of premixed stuff from a BP garage

am thinking buying a huge container of concentrate to keep at home would be a better idea (and then have some premixed in the car in case of it running out)

(and then have some premixed in the car in case of it running out)

It's better to just check it and top it up once a month or so at the same time as checking tyre pressures, tyre tread depth, oil levels, etc.

You do check those things regularly don't you?

I learnt to drive in a micra. Heap of shit.

Nobody claimed anything else...

yep i do regular checks, my car also has a warning light when running low on windscreen fluid.

roads round here have been filthy and been getting through a lot of fluid recently - compounded by the previous lot (not the BP one) being shit and leaving lots of smears on the windscreen

Fair enough, I’d rather get the train than drive one again!

Had it happen a couple of times. Thought is was due to mixing of differing fluids. It is a pain as it can block the washer jets. Google seems to say it is common but no mention what caused it.

Hey we can even buy scented washer fluid.