bigmansmollcar Smoll SooZooKey of joy - airtight* rim

[dozeydustman]

Tren the third. Not 3rd rail powered. Weird.

[Cord Fourteener]

Looks like some kind of electric-powered carriage powered by a local on-board diesel generator.

 

[MorrisItalSLX]

1 hour ago, JeeExEll said:

Shit!!

Haven't you seen the news?

 

[dozeydustman]

Lunch at Birmingham New St. have an hour or so’s wait here for next train.

 

[dozeydustman]

Final train boarded. I have not seen this type before.

Need a wee. Destination just under 2 hours.

Poo count = 0

[dozeydustman]

Some Welsh

about 30 minutes of train left

[Christine]

C'mon. Updates please !

[dozeydustman]

Quick update Destination achieved around 15:30

£38 to fill up but pez shot won’t upload for some reason.

it’s 8pm, just stopped at Tot Hill services, which is dire.

coffee purchased, about an hour til I get home

[Cord Fourteener]

8 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Final train boarded. I have not seen this type before.

Need a wee. Destination just under 2 hours.

Poo count = 0

Those are the bread and butter of where I grew up

[Cord Fourteener]

6 hours ago, dozeydustman said:

Some Welsh

about 30 minutes of train left

Ti'di dod i Gymru? Da iawn, dwi'n gobeithio bod ti wedi cael amser da yng Nghymru.

[dozeydustman]

pez shot!

I’m home safely. Uneventful drive other than usual middle/outer lane idiots who must overtake a lorry doing 56 at 56.5 mph. Little Ignis performed beautifully no undue knocks, rattles etc and is just like a go-kart! Mrs_D likes it and have taken her for a quick spin round the block.

great to meet you @Cavcraft, a true gentleman, many thanks for the bonus items in the boot as well! A pleasure to do business with you.

[Cavcraft]

Likewise, captain, and my pleasure.

[Christine]

Who was tallest and heaviest?

[dozeydustman]

Having a 250 mile 5 hour drive home (including a coffee purchase and wee wee) it gave me plenty of time to get a good idea of this little car and if it would be a long termer for me, or like the Focus I had 18 months ago, binned off after 3 weeks.

Initial thoughts were how am I going to get in it and will it get me home in comfort? Thankfully I fit in it with just about enough room and yes I found it comfortable once I'd found the best seating position for my ample bulk. Cavcraft recommended I went home via Nantwich on the A41 then along to the M56, M6 etc, so some 60mph single carriageway roads with a few bends gave me enough time to see how it drove.

The driving position is very upright, much like driving a lorry which suits me well, the stalks and buttons are well positioned (for me at least), no back aches, no dead legs, and most importantly, no left bollock trappage when pressing the clutch pedal. Pedal spacing is very wide, which is ideal when you have size 15s. 

Handling I wasn't expecting much, but on smooth roads it's pretty good and is quite checkable like a go-kart, it's a bit more fidgety on bumpy surfaces but a short wheelbase, narrowish track and tall body I was expecting it, if it was softer and more rolly in the bends I think it would topple over with my heavy weight bias on one side. Rode the motorways quite well and kept up with the big boys, a few times I had to check the speedo as it had kept up to 75+ a few times. I miss cruise control though. I wouldn't call it a long distance cruiser, but most of what the wife and I do now is pottering about now madam has use of the Corolla; the longest journey we do is the 80 miles to my folks once a month.

The engine is nice and peppy, very eager to rev; gear ratios are well spaced so car picks up speed like a little puppy dog chasing a ball. Most of the noise on the journey was road noise as opposed to engine and transmission noise, which may be down to the tyres more than anything else; it's running Nangkangs which are ok but very very hard and have a high noise rating.

Car behaved brilliantly, the Mrs loves it (apart from the indicator stalk being on the correct side), strangely so does madam.

I'll review things in a few weeks, see how I get on with it. I find it more comfy than the focus so the the outlay of a few roffle tickets I'm pretty pleased.

[Cord Fourteener]

Well done, you did a good tombola buy!

[Christine]

Is it unbelievably economical?  That Baleno 1600 I had from vince70  was..Even the tailpipe was shiny on the inside..like it ran on fresh air !

[dozeydustman]

2 minutes ago, Christine said:

Is it unbelievably economical?  That Baleno 1600 I had from vince70  was..Even the tailpipe was shiny on the inside..like it ran on fresh air !

I still had half a tank when I got home.

[Christine]

I,m liking the Ignis,  I'm thinking of getting one and selling our Hrv. I'll wait for your report on how long the second half lasts!

[dozeydustman]

12 hours ago, Christine said:

I,m liking the Ignis,  I'm thinking of getting one and selling our Hrv. I'll wait for your report on how long the second half lasts!

If there is a southern meet up at any time soon I'll bring it along if I can make it, you'll be more than welcome to take it for a little spin

[Spurious]

They've the same engine out of the Jimny. It's a great little unit, pure Japanese simplicity.  I've never had one go wrong... 

[dozeydustman]

3 weeks on and while I miss the Saab of doom, this little smoll green SooZooKey is pretty good. I've still had no backaches etc and just pootling to work and back, plus a week's worth of shopping it fits the bill. It will be a member of the dustbin household for a while yet. My parents like it, it's easy to transport my father-in-law around in when he needs us to drive him somewhere (normally when he comes for dinner & goes home squiffy). I think I'm averaging around 40mpg doing just town driving and some very rough mathematics.

Jobs to do.

1. Ticking CV joint - I think it's the nearside one, and a CV kit is in the boot.
2. Front Brake pads - occasionally there is a grinding under hard braking, so I hope in the morning I can give them a quick once over.
3. restore faded trim - ok it's scratched in places and has a small ding, but the faded black plastics make the car look a little dishevelled. I do have some turd polish somewhere.
4. replace aerial - can't pick up anything save the odd MW station as the roof mounted aerial is broked (I put some CDs in the glove box but whenever the wife's driven it it's the sodding Mika album in the CD slot)
5. Give it a pre-MoT - Ticket is up mid January, so as long as nothing dire is on the cards, should be plain sailing as looking through the history it's been bulbs and service items it's needed for each test.
6. Get some better tyres - the ones on it are horrible, make a lot of road noise and slippery when wet. Don't care if the car I drive is a shitheap or something smart, it's gotta have decent tyres, so I may well invest in a set of Falkens as fitted to the Corolla as they transformed that car.

6ft 5 bloke getting in and out of it does look ridiculous though.

Going to Manchester for a week on Sunday in this as we have a freshly hatched great nephew to meet. 

[dozeydustman]

2 months on I've put nearly 2000 miles behind the wheel of this funny little conveyance including a trip to Manchester with the journey home via the Peak District, Yorkshire and Kent, plus a weekend away in Dorset and another trip to Kent. I really am very happy with this car, well worth a ridiculous amount of tickets and a journey to Chester to collect it.

Only one major niggle which is I seem to have developed a slow puncture in the NS rear tyre. It's got a shite tyre on it (Nankang) which is near the end of its tread depth so I'm hoping after Christmas I'll get at least 2 new boots for it. The spare appears to be the original from 2002 and is also in poor shape so the better of the 2 I have changed will go on here.

As it's due an MoT in January and it's returning around 38-40 mpg on most tanks I think she needs a service so have ordered plugs & filters (I have lots of engine oil) and along with the brake pads I hope to do this at the weekend.

[dozeydustman]

Changed front pads today. What a delightful little car to work on.

Yep, they’re worn. Not to death but still undesirable.

 

nice amount of grease on the sliders; the boots a re looking a bit worse for wear now so I’ll order up a new set of these. I think the discs will need changing at next set of pads so I’ll have to order some.

This car has been well cared for by its previous owners; everything came off with minimal fuss and is well lubed and greased where it needs to be.I’ve never had a car new(ish) to me where the sliders do this when you push the piston back in.

[Spurious]

Make sure you use red rubber grease on the sliders. My sister had an Ignis and both my Jimnys all had copper slip in the sliders which makes the rubber bulge and split (petroleum based grease doesn't play with rubber). Common in Zooks.

Water gets in the sliders and then they sieze solid. 

 

[dozeydustman]

9 minutes ago, Spurious said:

Make sure you use red rubber grease on the sliders. My sister had an Ignis and both my Jimnys all had copper slip in the sliders which makes the rubber bulge and split (petroleum based grease doesn't play with rubber). Common in Zooks.

Water gets in the sliders and then they sieze solid. 

 

I have never used red rubber grease, I've used that silicone stuff before on sliders, normally when changing them. It goes for MoT a week on Monday, I cannot see anything underneath untoward.

After MoT I will crack on with the CV joint (if it passes without extra work being done I may ask the garage to do this). I also need to find an Eezibleed cap that fits the fluid reservoir on this and get some new tyres. The Nankang/Passio combination is not good in the wet.

[Spurious]

I have never used red rubber grease, I've used that silicone stuff before on sliders, normally when changing them. It goes for MoT a week on Monday, I cannot see anything underneath untoward.
After MoT I will crack on with the CV joint (if it passes without extra work being done I may ask the garage to do this). I also need to find an Eezibleed cap that fits the fluid reservoir on this and get some new tyres. The Nankang/Passio combination is not good in the wet.

You're probably alright with Silicone grease. It's petrol based greases which mess things up.

Good luck with the MOT.

[dozeydustman]

 

Another year of motoring. That’ll do nicely. I knew the dust covers and rear tyres were borderline,m

[Stanky]

http://www.southwalesprops.co.uk/propshaft/consumables/ball_joint.htm

Worth getting the mixed bag of 10 just so you can cover all bases. @TheDoctor have you still got that bag of ball joint dust covers I posted up to you?

[dozeydustman]

Thanks for the link @Stanky, I’ll order some after the festivites. 
 

along with some new boots. I think 5 tyres as the spare is datestamped 2001......

[Stanky]

Well worth getting the ones with silicone o-rings, the set I got had metal clips which were a right old carry-on with greasy fingers from assembly!