For Sale The Beast from the East - Daihatsu Sirion - Help Me Take on the Autoshite Colt

[Cleon-Fonte]

Shall I get the raffle proceedings started then?

[Cavcraft]

Yes please as that way someone might want to buy my Daihatsu Sirion alloys wheels with nearly new matching Avon tyres.

[spartacus]

18 and 26 please...

 

 

I can't help it, I'm like a fucking alcy with a bottle of vodka, I literally cannot stop myself from entering a raffle. This forum has a lot to answer for.

[dollywobbler]

I await further rOfFle details with interest...

[skattrd]

Yes please as that way someone might want to buy my Daihatsu Sirion alloys wheels with nearly new matching Avon tyres.

 

What size were these Billy? I'm guessing 13's off the yellow peril.

[dollywobbler]

14s! It had HUGE wheels.

[Cleon-Fonte]

£12 a ticket, need to sell at least 50 tickets. 60 would be better but is probably over-ambitious.

 

I'll start making a list of lucky* raffle entrants tomorrow at some point.

[Lacquer Peel]

14s! It had HUGE wheels.

 

 

Yes please as that way someone might want to buy my Daihatsu Sirion alloys wheels with nearly new matching Avon tyres.

 

4x100?

[Cavcraft]

Yep, 4x100 14".  165/65/14 tyres, think they're mildly M&S (not the shop) style. They gripped superbly when I was wellying the Sirion round the back lanes, that's for sure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dollywobbler]

They're full on winter tyres. As you say, very grippy.

[Lacquer Peel]

4x100 is good but the centre bore is wrong by a few mm.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Right, so:

 

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[spartacus]

Yesss... I'm winning!

[Cleon-Fonte]

This may seem unwise, given that only two tickets have sold so far, but I've just realised the National Lottery (or whatever the marketing types have renamed it these days) now offers 59 tickets. Given that I was planning for the winning number to be that week's bonus ball I'm adding another 10 tickets to roffle, just so we don't end up with the winning ticket being a nonexistent 54 or something.

 

Buy them up folks, safe in the knowledge that you're helping keep two classics* on the road.

[Cleon-Fonte]

You may think this post is a blatant bit of thread bumping, and that's because it is.

 

If this car doesn't go (and it won't even go by raffle at this rate) I'm in the shitter financially. The insurance renews 1st April and if it hasn't gone by expiry time it'd be more economical to pay you £750 to take it away.

 

Apologies for the pitiful sob story etc etc.

[dollywobbler]

I actually saw another Sirion the other day. Even better, it had the strange headlamp masks that mine had! Wish I'd been able to get a pic. 

 

These really should be the default small car of choice. They're great.

[Cleon-Fonte]

My record for Sirion sightings in one day is six. All driven by Waterloo veterans.

 

Daihatsu should have cleaned up with these, but I guess EU import quotas and the lack of massive dystopian marketing regime put paid to that.

[spartacus]

C'mon, buy tickets folks! I want to win it this week!

[Cleon-Fonte]

Having insured the Sirion for another year I thought sod it, I may as well keep it. And that's exactly what I've done, aided in my decision by the fact that it costs peanuts to run and that the BX likes to throw the occasional paddy. I've not really much to say about Sirion ownership of late as it's largely an uneventful and painless experience. Certainly, not having to use it for jobs to which it's unsuited has probably helped grow my fondness for it, and I'm now probably one of the few people who uses a Sirion as a fun occasional toy.

 

There are jobs to do though: first gear is still a pain in the arse to select when the gearbox is warm so I reckon a fluid change is well overdue; and those wheels have turned from silver to silver with lovely orange and brown speckles, so that'll need sorting. And that's it for the moment, which puts me in the weird position where I own a car that doesn't need tonnes of work.

 

 

The Sirion having fun in the Peak District, earlier.

 

 

 

[dollywobbler]

As someone who used to have a Sirion as back up for foible-laden Citroens, I applaud your good sense.

[AnthonyG]

Having spent more than £2k saving it from a crunchy death, keeping it is the sane choice .

[mat_the_cat]

Only here could spending 10 times the car's value on repairs be considered in any way a sane choice!

 

I applaud your (in)sanity.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Absolute bastards:

 

 

My friend's street has been having a bit of a keying epidemic of late, with my Sirion being the latest victim. It looks worse in the flesh. Anyone good with paint?

 

In other Sirion news, that stubborn gearchange was beginning to annoy me so I decided to change the fluid. There was no record of this ever having been done so I didn't know what I'd find.

 

 

On axle stands. Jacking up hydropneumatic Citroens is much preferable.

 

 

That must be the drain bolt.

 

 

Thar she blows.

 

 

Spot the difference: old fluid on the right, a container of fresh stuff on the left.

 

A fairly easy job to do once all the correct bolts are located, although putting in fresh oil is a bit tricky with big hands as the available space is quite tight. The gearchange is already much improved and I'm hoping with use it'll improve further.

 

I did, however, manage to run over my jack in my enthusiasm to go for a test run. Bugger.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Daihatsu E-series engines have something of a reputation for gumming up their oil control rings at around 70,000 miles, causing excessive oil consumption and some lovely two stroke-style smells during tarmac-tearing* acceleration. Sure enough, as the Sirion hit 70,600 miles a while ago these symptoms began to occur. You can see the extent of the problem with what came out when I changed the oil on Thursday.

 

 

I'd topped up to the full 2.3 litres the week before, so that's nearly one litre consumed in 75 miles. Impressive.

 

The oil change appears to have largely solved the problem for now, but if it re-occurs I might drop the 10W40 that I've put in for something a little bit thinner.

 

 

In other fluid change news, the gearbox oil was flushed out again at the same time. Changing it previously had made a great difference, as whereas it was difficult to select first and third with a warm gearbox before, post-change it was instead difficult to select second.

 

As you can see the last two and a half months hadn't been kind to the new oil, but this is actually a vast improvement on last time as it still retained some viscosity and smelt like gearbox oil rather than burnt iron. Gearchanging is already much improved this time, so I'm hoping after a few more flushes I might have a normally functioning gearbox.

 

 

[Cleon-Fonte]

Any interest in this? The presence of the Autoshite Colt for sale (again) is tempting me away from the poor Sirion as I reckon the former would suit my needs much better. The Daihatsu needs a better owner than I have time to be at the minute, and in truth most of my driving is long distance and involves lots of hills, neither of which show it in its best light. Sadly the BX, which is perfect at such things, can not be relied upon as a daily runner until I've got it properly sorted.

 

Pretty much the same state of play as last time I tried to sell it: this thing never breaks, runs on fresh air and is a delight to drive (except over long distances when a recognised medical condition called Daihatsu Arse begins to set in). Bad points are: bubbling on the offside front wing (new wings in the correct colour provided), slightly rusty rear arches and scabby wheels; it's been keyed but I'm going to try and T-Cut it and see if that helps; third gear is a tad crunchy when warm; the front tie rod bushes need changing and the steering wheel judders under heavy braking (countless numbers of mechanics have looked at it and haven't been able to sort it).

 

Is MoTed until July, the only advisories it got were the aforementioned tie rod bushes and rust on the underside, which having had it up on stands I've failed to find. However I reckon if you keep the waxoyl levels topped up this thing should go on forever.

 

Not really sure what price to expect as Sirion values are all over the place at the moment, and most of the eBay ones are rotten anyway.

[strangeangel]

Are you only offloading the Sirion to make space for the Colt, or do you need to raise funds? If it's the latter I would happily put up the asking, and we could go down the 'Y10 trusted shiter' road.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Alas it's the former, I just don't have the funds or the space to buy the Colt if the Sirion's still around, but if somebody else buys the Colt before me I'll happily keep it. There's no real imperative to replace the Sirion as such, it's just that it's not suited to what I use it for.

[dollywobbler]

I'm a bit late here, but my Sirion was also smoky as hell when I got it. Fresh oil largely sorted it out. Not sure what was in it, but 5w30 is definitely the recommendation for what should be in it.

[Cleon-Fonte]

It seems to have calmed down quite a lot in terms of oil consumption since the last change. Although I'll still be putting in some 5w30 at some point in the next week or two, it's had 10w40 in thus far because the motor factors sent out industrial quantities of the stuff the last time I paid a mechanic to do it.