The Tale of the Micra Project Car

[Lucy]

So, recently I bought a Nissan Micra K11 from the year 2000, with a dodgy clutch, as a car to keep in the garage and do various bits of maintenance and repair work on. Mainly, she needs a clutch, but there are some other considerably overdue maintenance items as well.

I'll add more pictures as I work through the journey with this car. The aim is to have her reconditioned and back on the road as a like-new example! Pics are thumbnails, you can get bigger copies if you click 'em.



Before I started. Note the tight fit of this tiny car in my equally tiny garage.



Took the bonnet (hood) and the camshaft cover off, and battery out, among a few other items.



Radiator is also out now, because...



Coolant shouldn't be this colour.



Brakes did feel a bit lackluster on the drive over. I guess I know why!

 

[MaxBuzz]

in 2008 I made my own first car

 

[Lucy]

in 2008 I made my own first car
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Came out looking lovely!

 

[Urwumpe]

If that is the colour of the coolant, you might have a lot of "fun"* with this engine.


* Fun as in Dwarf Fortress

 

[kuddel]

As Urwumpe already noticed: If your coolant looks like that, it's almost definitely an issue with the cylinder-head gasket.
Oil (lubricant) and coolant (water) should never mix!
Taking of the cylinder-head, making that planar, making the motor-block (top) planar, exchanging the cylinder-head gasket & putting it all together again
...Nothing that can't be done -especially on older cars- but your clutch isn't going to be the only part to be swapped.

 

[Fabri91]

Well, from the color it could be coffee, in the best case scenario.

 

[N_Molson]

I like and watch "Wheeler Dealers" quite a lot. Very good work on that Vectra, many work hours there !!

@Xyon : if the engine block is too damaged, what about replacing it with an electric engine ? Lot of work (and some money), but would be very cool and "modern" for a small city car. Also would give her a lot of punch !

 

[Urwumpe]

I like and watch "Wheeler Dealers" quite a lot. Very good work on that Vectra, many work hours there !!

@Xyon : if the engine block is too damaged, what about replacing it with an electric engine ? Lot of work (and some money), but would be very cool and "modern" for a small city car. Also would give her a lot of punch !

Opel did that with a old Open Manta A car... the results looks much better than its performance (like the original car).

 

[Lucy]

I like and watch "Wheeler Dealers" quite a lot. Very good work on that Vectra, many work hours there !!

@Xyon : if the engine block is too damaged, what about replacing it with an electric engine ? Lot of work (and some money), but would be very cool and "modern" for a small city car. Also would give her a lot of punch !

I very much wouldn't rule it out! Haven't done any more on the car yet since having the kids for the weekend - more adventures midweek!

 

[Urwumpe]

Opel did that with a old Open Manta A car... the results looks much better than its performance (like the original car).

Shameless advertisement here... but its really one big electric Manta joke.

 

[Notebook]

Why not go the other way, and put a gas-turbine in?

 

[Urwumpe]

Why not go the other way, and put a gas-turbine in?

Ok, gas turbines work better if you plan to travel at constant speed (unless you really think gas does grow on trees - yeah M1 tank, I look at you there), putting them into a semi truck would likely be a great idea....

 

[MaxBuzz]

I also had a motorcycle with a funny malfunction, sometimes after starting the first gear pulled back (although the motorcycle did not have a reverse gear)

 

[Lucy]

Exhaust manifold finally removed, this gave me the runaround for a while as the bolts had seized quite firm with rust.



This is next to remove, the front exhaust pipe is held back here and needs removing - but I don't have anything to turn the star bolt with just yet

 

[Lucy]

So it turns out, I couldn't separate the exhaust parts. I settled for just dropping the whole thing, but the front anti-roll bar (called a sway bar in the US) was getting in the way, so I pulled that down on one side too.



Next was getting the gear linkages disconnected, so I can remove the transmission from the engine - the whole reason the exhaust needed to move, and the annoyingly rusty and stubbornly fixed heatshield above the exhaust also.



The linkages proved to be a bit more of a pain than I expected, so I just pulled gear lever out wholesale, which gave me the clearance to take the linkages out. I think this is normally done on a full car lift - it would certainly have made it easier!






This phase of the project requires a lot of faith that it will ever look like a car again. You can also see I've moved some of the shelves around to give me a bit more space, and lifted the vehicle a bit higher on that side, which all made working on the gear linkages a lot easier.

 

[N_Molson]

That's good work, doing all of this by yourself in a tiny space is already an achievement ! And now you're getting to the really interesting phase

 

[Lucy]

That's good work, doing all of this by yourself in a tiny space is already an achievement ! And now you're getting to the really interesting phase

It's a lot of fun, blood sweat and grease. And I'm learning a lot about the reality of major vehicular repair work, which was the aim.

 

[Lucy]

Fuel system! I inadvertently almost turned my garage into a bomb by opening up the fuel rail, lots of fuel vapour. Had one injector refuse to leave the head - a bit of persuasion with the pliers saw to that.



I left it outside a while to vent its contents somewhere less enclosed.



Much of the engine wiring is disconnected now, and pulled out of the way.



And the engine now naturally has no fuel rail on it. I've also detached the throttle cable.



Bottom ball joints for the suspension separated. This required buying a splitter - they weren't having the crowbar approach one bit.



Drained the power steering fluid ahead of removing the pump.



Driver's side driveshaft came out easier than the passenger one, which remains stubbornly stuck in the gearbox.



Mmmm, CV joint.


Stubborn blighter.


Tried disconnecting the hub carrier from the strut, but that hasn't convinced it either. More on this one soon.