My Bargain Basement Track Toy
05-06-2015, 01:37 AM
#22
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Thread Starter
05-06-2015, 07:10 AM
#25
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05-06-2015, 08:36 AM
#26
06-22-2015, 03:04 PM
#27
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I've not posted for a while as the car sat at my friend's garage until he had a chance to fit in sorting the wheel bearings for me as well as an MOT. I've also been on holiday to Skiathos for a week but since I've been back I've now managed to get on with sorting it out.
Just before going on holiday I managed to stumble across a set of OEM 17's from an MY06/07 at a stupid price so I swifly made a 'buy it now' offer which was accepted. Although I was prepared to drive to Southampton to collect them the lovely lady worked for a haulage company so we sorted out getting them sent to me. When they arrived they were looking a bit tired and scuffed, the tyres were dead even though the advert said 2 had good tread but I didn't really mind. I also decided not to bother giving the wheels a refurb as the car isn't a pristine example like my old S and I intend to use it very differently anyway, so it didn't really matter.
As soon as I got back from holiday I set about shopping around for tyres. That turned out to be a mission as I wanted AD08's but couldn't find them for love nor money so in the end after doing some reading I decided to order a set of Nankang NS2R, rather than the Federal RSR's that were recommended as the Nankangs have a much better wet grip rating.
Having bought the car with a failed MOT on emissions, headlight auto levelling sensor and rear wheel bearings those were sorted easily. The failed sensor got removed and chucked in the bin, the emmisions failure turned out to be a basic idle emissions test and whoever had done it didn't put in the vehicle details, which once entered mean't it flew through no problem so that only left the wheel bearings to replace. I left the car in the hands of my mechanic friend Pete while I was on holiday and collected the car with a fresh MOT and a new set of wheel bearings just under 2 weeks ago. When the wheel bearings were fitted I was told the play in the bearings have put some strain on the section they sit in. I can't remember what its called but I don't think it was the hub assembly. It drives fine for now though so only time will tell.
Last week I then got the car up in the air and fitted the coilovers before leaving it sit on the drive due to it having winter tyres on the 16's and having no tyres for the 17's yet so I've had to just wait patiently until my tyres arrived.
However, I even had to order those from 2 different suppliers. The rears, 255/40/17 were from MyTyres and the fronts from Oponeo. The rears arrived no problem at all and within the space of a week...2 weeks later I was still waiting for confirmation of a delivery date from Oponeo and after ringing them several times I just kept getting told they had asked the warehouse and not heard back. So I cancelled my order with them and ordered the fronts through Camskill. They were excellent. I ordered them last Thursday, the projected shipping date was Monday but they actually got sent out Friday and arrived this morning!
I've then had them fitted locally and the first thing I thought was - blimey these tyres are bloody meaty! After fitting the wheels to the car inbetween rain showers though, I'm now starting to become pretty pleased as its looking much tider and the 17's make it look far more modern.
Test drive tomorrow and maybe a wheel alignment check...I'm hoping if the bushes are seized they'll be with a balanced amount of camber as I really don't want to go to the effort or cost of polybushing and would be happy just being able to adjust the toe to neutral.
As the car had a bit of a pong to it I've also had the seats out and given the carpets and seats a deep clean, which have actually come up fairly well. It now smells of blueberry Jelly Bean rather than funky stuff!
While I was at it I machine polished the rear screen as it was really cloudy as well as giving the headlights a once over as they had some yellow clouding too.
I also put an order in online late Thursday night for a K&N cone filter to replace the OEM one as well as some spark plugs, diff oil and a sump baffle. All of that arrived this morning as well so I've put the K&N on and now just want to wait for my second hand sump to arrive and get the baffle welded in before I change all the fluids. I decided on the cone rather than an intake kit as I find the throttle response sharper with the standard airbox, can take the lid off when I want some noise and I'm also attempting to do this project on a shoestring budget.
I haven't even bothered to wash it yet but here are the results of my recent effort:
The rear tyres:
Total cost so far: £1413.49
Just before going on holiday I managed to stumble across a set of OEM 17's from an MY06/07 at a stupid price so I swifly made a 'buy it now' offer which was accepted. Although I was prepared to drive to Southampton to collect them the lovely lady worked for a haulage company so we sorted out getting them sent to me. When they arrived they were looking a bit tired and scuffed, the tyres were dead even though the advert said 2 had good tread but I didn't really mind. I also decided not to bother giving the wheels a refurb as the car isn't a pristine example like my old S and I intend to use it very differently anyway, so it didn't really matter.
As soon as I got back from holiday I set about shopping around for tyres. That turned out to be a mission as I wanted AD08's but couldn't find them for love nor money so in the end after doing some reading I decided to order a set of Nankang NS2R, rather than the Federal RSR's that were recommended as the Nankangs have a much better wet grip rating.
Having bought the car with a failed MOT on emissions, headlight auto levelling sensor and rear wheel bearings those were sorted easily. The failed sensor got removed and chucked in the bin, the emmisions failure turned out to be a basic idle emissions test and whoever had done it didn't put in the vehicle details, which once entered mean't it flew through no problem so that only left the wheel bearings to replace. I left the car in the hands of my mechanic friend Pete while I was on holiday and collected the car with a fresh MOT and a new set of wheel bearings just under 2 weeks ago. When the wheel bearings were fitted I was told the play in the bearings have put some strain on the section they sit in. I can't remember what its called but I don't think it was the hub assembly. It drives fine for now though so only time will tell.
Last week I then got the car up in the air and fitted the coilovers before leaving it sit on the drive due to it having winter tyres on the 16's and having no tyres for the 17's yet so I've had to just wait patiently until my tyres arrived.
However, I even had to order those from 2 different suppliers. The rears, 255/40/17 were from MyTyres and the fronts from Oponeo. The rears arrived no problem at all and within the space of a week...2 weeks later I was still waiting for confirmation of a delivery date from Oponeo and after ringing them several times I just kept getting told they had asked the warehouse and not heard back. So I cancelled my order with them and ordered the fronts through Camskill. They were excellent. I ordered them last Thursday, the projected shipping date was Monday but they actually got sent out Friday and arrived this morning!
I've then had them fitted locally and the first thing I thought was - blimey these tyres are bloody meaty! After fitting the wheels to the car inbetween rain showers though, I'm now starting to become pretty pleased as its looking much tider and the 17's make it look far more modern.
Test drive tomorrow and maybe a wheel alignment check...I'm hoping if the bushes are seized they'll be with a balanced amount of camber as I really don't want to go to the effort or cost of polybushing and would be happy just being able to adjust the toe to neutral.
As the car had a bit of a pong to it I've also had the seats out and given the carpets and seats a deep clean, which have actually come up fairly well. It now smells of blueberry Jelly Bean rather than funky stuff!
While I was at it I machine polished the rear screen as it was really cloudy as well as giving the headlights a once over as they had some yellow clouding too.I also put an order in online late Thursday night for a K&N cone filter to replace the OEM one as well as some spark plugs, diff oil and a sump baffle. All of that arrived this morning as well so I've put the K&N on and now just want to wait for my second hand sump to arrive and get the baffle welded in before I change all the fluids. I decided on the cone rather than an intake kit as I find the throttle response sharper with the standard airbox, can take the lid off when I want some noise and I'm also attempting to do this project on a shoestring budget.
I haven't even bothered to wash it yet but here are the results of my recent effort:
The rear tyres:
Total cost so far: £1413.49
06-23-2015, 01:13 AM
#29
Registered User
Thread Starter
06-23-2015, 01:35 AM
#30
[/quote]
Outstanding
