Spurious' Jimny thread. Probable blocked 🐱

[Spurious]

14 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Yeah, I reckon lift-off oversteer is never far away. It's what journalists demanded at the time, so they could use the word 'lairy' rather than 'dull' when spanking family cars around a track. I never entirely trusted the car, but it is still amazing how quickly it will go around a bend.

Got a hold of an old Autocar test of the Primera. It had it's time on the 'ring unsurprisingly.  With Dirk Schoysman having of input into the handling which I didn't know about. 

Dirk was one of the few people to rival Sabine Schmit for knowledge of the 'ring and not the first time (or last time) he worked with Nissan either.  He worked on the handling with most of the modern GT-R Skylines, famously holding a production lap record for years in a R34

I'd love to take it on a track day to be honest. Strange that it has an awful amount of capability but I was pottering home doing 60mph... 

[Spurious]

[Spurious]

Pretty accurate to be honest.  Primera is the fun car.  406 is the better and prettier package.  Always thought the 406 was the best looker of the 90s/00s in a family wagon.

 

In other news,  I'm getting a nasty brake squeal.  The fronts seemed to have plenty of pad on them when I gave them a quick spot check so I'm not quite sure what's going on. I'll have a peek tomorrow as the weather was awful

[Noel Tidybeard]

nah seats are shite in a 406

[Leyland Worldmaster]

10 hours ago, Spurious said:

Interesting! I had an ex-Police 406 2.0 Petrol. It was much faster than the one in this test. Much faster. Top speed in 2nd was 65mph!😱😱😱

[Spurious]

Had an inspection of the brakes today and a pad change. 

Strangely the front offside brakes were getting thin. Probably down to the wear markers. Not really sure why, as they nearside ones were fine to be honest. 

The offside caliper wasn't sticking, it's new and the sliders weren't binding. So I'm unsure how one side had bad pads and the other side were fine as it didn't look like it was sticky. 

New pads in and the squeal is gone. The discs are both fine. Something to keep an eye on. 

[Spurious]

This cheeky wee thing is now 10 years old and sailed through the MOT 3rd year running. 

It's uncomfortable, impractical but has a buzzy engine, looks cheeky but rugged and has only ever had fluids changed and the underside waxed. 

Great little car. 

[Spurious]

A wee round up as to where we are with the Primera;

The Passenger front electric window regulator died the other day. This was Monday, it was lashing rain and I was on nights. Having today only finished my run of night shifts, at the time I popped off the door card and wedged it up with a plank of wood. Some plastic bits fell out of the regulator and the cable has unspooled itself. 

A entertaining  WET drive home and it's now put to one side until I get a regulator off the eBay. It's annoyingly parked up. I can't really rely on the security of it parked outside in North Manchester until it's fixed. 

I suspect it'll need a CV joint soon as well. It's starting to click and clack on full lock. We'll see how it develops. 

The timing chain still rattles for a second after startup; it's not got any worse. 

Otherwise it's okay. 

 

Running total of costs:

4 Tyres @ £59 each (old ones were cracked): £236

Window regulator : £22.50 

Brake pads front : £29 

Servicing bits and bobs, including HT Leads and dizzy cap ; £48 (kinda optional unlike the other costs)

Still cheaper than a PCP monthly payment for a new Golf. Can't really complain too much... 

 

[Spurious]

so an eBay parcel arrived. 

A LHS front window regulator off the later facelift primera for £22.50 delivered.  Allegedly the same as the earlier. 

Old one removed. Door cards snapped off with the little clips and a bit of persuasion. The tempory stick had done an admirable job and secured it shut through last week's washout weather. 

Next step was to remove the duff window regulator which had wound itself into a rat's nest of cable. 

And fell apart on the way out. I'm glad I didn't order one of those regulator rebuild kits. 

Rebuild is reverse of removal. Etc. Three spanner job on the Haynes. 

 

[Spurious]

 

[Spurious]

On 5/20/2021 at 6:00 PM, Spurious said:

This cheeky wee thing is now 10 years old and sailed through the MOT 3rd year running. 

It's uncomfortable, impractical but has a buzzy engine, looks cheeky but rugged and has only ever had fluids changed and the underside waxed. 

Great little car. 

I think I spoke too soon about this. 

2005-2009 Jimny's had a slightly weaker gearbox which didn't really last. Characteristic of this was a noisy 3/4th and then inability to select gears followed by a failure to progress. 

The later 2009-2018 Jimny's had a fix with better sealed bearings, whilst using the same gearbox. Apparently. However I'm now getting the characteristic noisy 3rd and 4th gear. 

There's always a lot of drivetrain noise in a Jimny, you're practically sitting on a gearbox, transfer case and front and rear diffs are only yards away. I suspect something's amiss as it's getting really noisy however. 

Time to order oil to drain the gearbox again and see if there's any swarf or metal bits in the oil. Hopefully a oil change quietens it down as reconditioned boxes are about £750. 

[Spurious]

So I did a bit of work on the Jimny in the vain hope that a gearbox oil change would help matters. It didn't look hopeful to be honest.  I'd had the fluid changed about 8000 (just as routine maintenance) miles ago in a garage (as I couldn't manage to undo the filler plug, it's a bit awkward to get at).  I've had a noticeable increase in gear noise in 2nd through to 4th, think a straight cut gearbox with a cyclical chattering noise which sounds much like bearings.

Changing the fluid requires some way of transferring it; I used a big syringe driver, about 500ml.  It takes about 1.1-1.2l of 75w/90 GL4.  It's a bit fiddly as you can see.

Dropped the oil and it wasn't looking good.  It should be a nice caramel colour if it's in there 8000 miles.  And even at 80,000 miles it shouldn't be this colour.  Something's not happy.

 

And the drain plug was full of swarf.  It goes down the sides too. 

 

And here's the noise post gearbox change.  It's shifting lovely mind you but I think it's better to park the little Suzuki up until I've got £800 spare to spend on it.  Sad times.  It's such a reliable little car.   The gearbox, the R72 had problems between 2005-2009, I thought I got away with it with a 2010 build but maybe it was a gearbox left over from an earlier run. 

The Primera is now daily duty car.  It's looking fine right now, should be okay.

[dollywobbler]

Meh. Don't worry until you find Sauron on your sump plug...

[Spurious]

15 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

Meh. Don't worry until you find Sauron on your sump plug...

Ooooft. I'm guessing an LT77 did that. It does look a bit like Sauron and his helmet 😁😁

The mega difference is that the LR gearboxes are well catered for but the Suzuki boxes are like hen's teeth. So you've to rebuild the box you've got or pay Cam Suzuki 1100 for one of their recon boxes. 

1 hour ago, goosey said:

Had the same thing with the gearbox on my sons Jimny.

We took a chance with a low mileage second hand gearbox for £120 off Facebook, swapped them over on the drive fitted a new clutch at the same time and it’s been ok ever since.

It’s a shame Suzuki didn’t make the gearbox crossmember removable as it would have made the gearbox swap soooo much easier.

Water pic 

 

I'll have to keep an eye out for them. There's two on FB at the moment but they look like they've been sitting outside and look rough externally. 

If I had the wherewithal and the kit (presses etc) I'd chance taking box apart and replace the bearings myself but I don't even have a garage to work on this yet. It's poor timing, I'm still in the rental accommodation and not in the new house with a little garage. 

Its also a shame they didn't use the earlier box from the pre-VVT Jimnys. They never went wrong. It's even an option with an adaptor plate that people make. Again, they're rare to appear on the second hand market. 

[Asimo]

4 hours ago, goosey said:

It’s a shame Suzuki didn’t make the gearbox crossmember removable as it would have made the gearbox swap soooo much easier.

Suzuki learned: Bolt-in gearbox crossmember on our GV.

[goosey]

20 minutes ago, Asimo said:

Suzuki learned: Bolt-in gearbox crossmember on our GV.

Now that,  is nice to see 

[Spurious]

On 6/30/2021 at 2:26 PM, goosey said:

Now that,  is nice to see 

Isn't it, I'm starting to save for the eventual 750-1000 bill that the Suzuki is going to cost.

I've left the Nissan for a week whilst I was in Wales and I think the battery is dead.  Not much excitement out of the starter, very sluggish and not happy.  Quick multimeter after cranking it was 9v.  Oh bother.   Someone's fitted Euro's finest batteries a few years back and it's had enough I think.

I've connected it up to the Noco battery charger and we'll see if it's smart enough to coax a few volts back into it.

 

 

[Spurious]

2 minutes ago, Spurious said:

Isn't it, I'm starting to save for the eventual 750-1000 bill that the Suzuki is going to cost.

I've left the Nissan for a week whilst I was in Wales and I think the battery is dead.  Not much excitement out of the starter, very sluggish and not happy.  Quick multimeter after cranking it was 9v.  Oh bother.   Someone's fitted Euro's finest batteries a few years back and it's had enough I think.

I've connected it up to the Noco battery charger and we'll see if it's smart enough to coax a few volts back into it.

 

 

 

[dollywobbler]

That's a pain. I don't think the Nissan ever sat for more than a couple of days without use in my ownership. 

[Spurious]

I think the Noco smart charger has saved it @dollywobbler, it has a battery repair mode which may have revived it. 

Certainly something to keep an eye on for the moment, but I think it's alright. 

[Spurious]

On 6/30/2021 at 9:23 AM, goosey said:

Had the same thing with the gearbox on my sons Jimny.

We took a chance with a low mileage second hand gearbox for £120 off Facebook, swapped them over on the drive fitted a new clutch at the same time and it’s been ok ever since.

 

 

Spoke to a Gearbox place in Bolton and he was like, straight away, it'll need new bearings, about £180ish in labour and about 250 in parts for the gearbox alone.  He said it's a common fault. 

Now that's a little better than the £1000 being quoted for other places but that included removal and refitting of the gearbox. 

I've a friend who runs a small garage in Rochdale, I'll have to ask him would he mind keeping it in the garage for a few days and getting the box in and out. 

I think I might get away with 700 with a clutch all going well. There's no point not doing the clutch if the gearbox is out anyway especially with almost 100k miles on it. 

[goosey]

because of the fixed gearbox crossmember- 

We found that if you undo the gearbox slide it backwards then remove the clutch, it gives you enough room to drop the gearbox down and remove it because with the clutch in place there’s not enough room for the gearbox to clear as the gearbox input shaft hits the clutch assembly.

on reassembly - we lifted the gearbox in place first, slid it backwards then reffited the clutch in place and slid the gearbox forward into position,

We found the above out the hard way  as apparently dropping the gearbox is a lot easier when you have a body lift fitted

 

[Spurious]

Showing that my powers of observation are completely rubbish these days, I eventually noticed that I don't have an oil pressure impending doom light on the Primera.  I've literally no idea of whether it just died recently or a month or two ago. I'm pretty sure it worked when I acquired it. 

So, I ordered a NEW old stock intermotor one on eBay for the princely sum of £4.95 delivered. The Haynes manual allegedly says it's near the oil filter housing so that's a good excuse for an oil change, right? @dollywobblersuggested it would be a good idea after a couple of hundred miles to do another, but it's been a 1000 and I've been busy so hopefully it's not too hot out. 

Also the front calipers are squealing again. Might make sure the shims are greased and the sliders are fine when I do the oil as I'll have the wheels off. 

And the Suzuki is still inop. Which is a pain in the bollocks as I had the air con regassed in May and it was icy cold. More like sweaty bollocks in this weather. 

 

 

[Spurious]

Previously not much to tell about the Primera, it's been fine until now. It's getting a bit problematic to idle and not stall. .

This issue first developed on the motorway in traffic, dipping the clutch and it would hunt about and stall if I didn't apply throttle. 

Thankfully it didn't break down there but it got very lumpy running home tonight. Stalled several times about a quarter mile from home, limped it back and it's sitting on the drive.  It wouldn't start when it cut out once but I remembered I was rolling still and it bump started fine in 3rd gear. Luckily. 

Its pulling fine if you put your foot down. Just low down traffic work it's really unhappy with. I suspect it's a MAF or a ICV. Or a vacuum leak but I think it would cause all sorts of issues all across the rev range. 

No EML either but I've had bad MAFs and no EML so maybe that. 

Might quickly whip out the MAF and clean it. They're bloody pricy for the P11, £200+ for Denso one. 

[Spurious]

[Spurious]

Prime suspect is now the MAF sensor. Tried cleaning it and it made zero difference and that was after 18hrs with the battery unplugged and about 100 miles to let the car "learn" the now cleaned MAF. 

This afternoon, I drove it round the block until it got up to temp and it started sputtering at idle and trying to stall. Pulled the MAF off whilst it was doing this and it recovered into a steady but slow 500rpm idle. 

Probably that. 

It's not vac leak, I can't find any spraying car cleaner around the rubber hoses and joints. It's not ignition as it's all new plugs, leads and caps. It's also pulling really well when you boot it, so it's not a fuel supply issue which leave me with the MAF really. The thought did cross my mind that the timing chain could have stretched with 170k miles and thrown the timing out but it's only really at idle the issue is and only when hot. So I don't think it's that. 

I did check the ground pin on the MAF an make sure it's getting a good ground and it's making effectively 0ohms between it and the engine ground so it's not that either. 

Now I did buy a cheap MAF. The genuine Denso/Hitachi MAFs are £200-250 which on a car worth 400-500 pounds isn't worth it. 

Fingers crossed it works. 

[Spurious]

Got a new third party MAF. A "Mobiletron" one.  Never heard of them but it says England on the box. Whether that means it was it was made here or just feels a bit patriotic, who knows. I've had mixed luck with spurious (hehe) MAFs in the past but this one seems the same. This one £60 but a Genuine Hitachi MAF is £220. Worth a go surely. 

It idles fine, I've only come back from work tonight and quickly changed it. A genuine "it's only going to take 5 minutes" job. Who knew they exist 😂

That's me wiping me cleaning the mesh with my glove on the old one. It was manky. I think this went a while without air filter changes at some point before I or dollywobbler owned it. Anyways, I've to drive it to work again tomorrow, will see if it works on the 10 mile drive okay.. 

[Spurious]

Smol Suzuki update. I've it booked in to get the transmission fixed and a clutch change in Bolton on Monday next. Decided to bite the bullet as I missed not being able to drive the cheeky thing. 

Looking at about £490 for the transmission work and about £200 labour for putting in and out the box plus fitting a clutch I supplied. 

As much as I would like to do it myself, it's too much hassle at the moment. Had a look at doing it, and it didn't look an easy job on the driveway so this has got farmed out. Theres an awkward cross member in the way and some of the bolts seem a bit difficult where the body meets the chassis. 

Hopefully just in time for some OMG SNOW CHAOS again 

 

[goosey]

5 hours ago, Spurious said:

Smol Suzuki update. I've it booked in to get the transmission fixed and a clutch change in Bolton on Monday next. Decided to bite the bullet as I missed not being able to drive the cheeky thing. 

Looking at about £490 for the transmission work and about £200 labour for putting in and out the box plus fitting a clutch I supplied. 

As much as I would like to do it myself, it's too much hassle at the moment. Had a look at doing it, and it didn't look an easy job on the driveway so this has got farmed out. Theres an awkward cross member in the way and some of the bolts seem a bit difficult where the body meets the chassis. 

Hopefully just in time for some OMG SNOW CHAOS again 

 

Get them to fit a new clutch cable as well, the difference is night and day 

[Spurious]

Oh that's a good idea actually. Mines squeaky. Must see if ECP has them.