Smart Roadster wrangling writing

[Mac69400]

I bought this from @Jimblob yesterday. I know nothing about them, but I fancied it and it was cheap enough to take a punt on. 

I've got very few pictures so far, so here's a link to the sale thread. 

 

I saw the ad on Friday, and committed to buying it on Saturday morning if it was still available at 10:30 am. It was, and I bought it. 

I spent the weekend researching the Smart Roadster Coupe - for geeks, the model code is 452 - and realised swapping the starter is indeed a fuck of a job. Not to worry, I've got time on my hands. 

My brother, who owes me several car related favours, agreed to give me a lift the 120ish miles to Cambridgeshire. Away we went, with two dogs in a Skoda Fabia Scout on what turned out to be quite a hot day.  

We arrived at Jim's lovely home, very well equipped for shite related adventures, all desperate for a piss. Once we'd got that sorted, Jim gave us a thorough tour of the car and the spares it came with, including a starter motor. I'd done some research and asked about a couple of fuses. Fuse 1 is a 25a for the starter motor and fuse 27 seems to reset the ECU (except it's called a SAM on a Smart). Jim pulled fuse 1 and it was blown. I began to think I'd had the bargain of the century until he popped another one in and it blew instantly once the ignition was turned to position 2. 

We then spent far longer than we should have done pushing the car around Earith while I got my hands and feet in the wrong place at the wrong time to bump an automated manual car. Once Jim took over the tricky stuff and I pushed, the bloody thing started. 

It also had 3/4 of a tank of fuel in it, so once I'd got most of my stuff out of my brother's car, we fucked off in convoy. Shortly down the road, he pulled over and said "I reckon you'll be fine now. See you on Thursday." and fucked off on his own.

He was right. It sounds great, the little three cylinder 700cc engine thrumming away behind my head, we knocked off the 120 miles home without a hitch. 

Unfortunately, I took it to the wrong home. 

[Mac69400]

What you can't quite see from the picture is that there's a river just beyond the scruffy hedge. I live at almost the lowest point in the town. 

It's lovely and it doesn't flood, but it's not ideal when you have a car that needs bump starting every time. 

It's also a stupid place to try to work on a car. I live in a motorhome, and have a Scudo van as a toolshed, workshop, tip wagon, shopping car etc. Any work I do is on the grass on whatever the weather is. 

Nonetheless, I decided to crack on. The blown fuse interested me. The SAM (ECU) is unusual in that it's a fucking stupid design. Almost all of the relays are encased inside, and wrapped within, the PCBs. Here's a picture robbed from fq101.xo.uk, who are a very useful resource for any smart car enthusiast.

Hoping it wasn't a problem in there, I tested the pin for the starter and it was getting 12v when the ignition was turned on. Awesome. 

Next, I decided to make sure the wiring from the SAM to the solenoid was intact. This is when I realised why changing the starter is going to be a fucking horrible job. I'm going to have a look at it some time tomorrow and I'll take pictures. Christ almighty. 

[Mac69400]

Back to the starter saga. After much fucking about, I managed to pull the female spade connector off the solenoid and keep it out of the way of anything metal. The fuse then didn't blow. 

Clearly the problem is with the solenoid, which involves removing the fucking starter. There are people that claim to have done it from above, and I'd pay bloody good money to watch them do it. 

Here's a picture of the access to the engine from above. The multimeter is on the inlet manifold, the starter is below the AC pipes to the front of the car. The fan shroud to the left is the intercooler fan. Under there are the bolts through the bell housing to the starter. 

The recommended procedure is to drop the engine and subframe about 20cm on big long bolts. No bother. 

First, remove the coupé windows. 

Then the rear bumper and wings. 

Then the intercooler and fan. Throttle body out, too. 

At this point, the dog needed a walk and my back was fucked. Tomorrow, or more likely Friday, the intercooler shroud will come out and the car will be lifted off the subframe. I might actually see the starter motor before the weekend. 

[Mac69400]

You'll notice the new salubrious environment for working on tiny cars.  From this:

To this:

 

For reasons that I'll never really understand, I bought a house at the end of last year. It kind of made sense at the time, but definitely doesn't now. I think I've spent about seven nights in total in it. I'm a commited van lifer. The bloody dog loves the house, though. Not sure how to tell him we probably won't ever live in it.

Anyway, it's got space for four or five cars, and the neighbours seem lovely. Various vehicles appear, stay for days or weeks, then disappear. No questions asked. 

 

[stuboy]

good luck with it !

[Jimblob]

Good luck Mac! You'll get it sorted 

[Mac69400]

The bloody weeds on the drive! Why did I ever buy a house.

[grogee]

Can I live in your house? 

Good luck with the Smart. 

I regretted not buying it right up to the point where I read: 

1 hour ago, Mac69400 said:

Then the rear bumper and wings. 

 

[Mac69400]

15 minutes ago, grogee said:

Can I live in your house? 

Good luck with the Smart. 

I regretted not buying it right up to the point where I read: 

 

Someone should. It's crazy to leave it empty and it's a nice enough house. I've lived in the van for four years and I absolutely love the lifestyle. Fuck knows what I was thinking at the time. 

I hope it's not going to be the A8 front bumper story all over again, but it didn't take that long to get it all off. 

[inconsistant]

There was a gathering of Smart cars the other week when I went to the Gaydon Slot Festival. They’re certainly odd things, and I don’t think I'd ever want to own one but I’m really glad they exist.  
 

Looking forward to reading more!

[Mac69400]

12 hours ago, Bear said:

Tagging, not the thread, I hope - it is interesting. Just felt a bit shite having it shoved under my nose.

I've deleted all references and my replies to you in this thread. It's entirely up to you if you do the same, or leave your long winded, moaning replies for the world of autoshite to see. 

The car was for sale. You wanted it, I wanted it. On Saturday morning, I transferred the money and bought the car. If you'd wanted it as much as you claim, you'd have done the same. But you didn't. Now I've got the car and you don't have it. That's an end to it. 

[Bear]

30 minutes ago, Mac69400 said:

f you'd wanted it as much as you claim, you'd have done the same. But you didn't. Now I've got the car and you don't have it. That's an end to it. 

I genuinely hope that it brings every delight a Smart Roadster can offer. But tagging me seemed really bizarre. All you did was buy a car I'd already enquired about and offered a deposit on, then tag me, and then post this when I explained why tagging me seemed a bit shitty?

[BorniteIdentity]

Tremendous effort here. I don’t reckon even my very, very friendly mechanic would have taken this on for me. 

It was a bargain and one of those cars you just have to jump at. But sometimes the stars don’t align for another buyer. I’m still sore about a canary yellow escort I tried to buy 10 years ago. I’m cross again just thinking about it. 

Anyway. Van life. Dog. Smart car. Sounds like you’re living the dream! 

[Sheefag]

What a great car and a great thread.
Looking forward to reading your progress.

[M'coli]

The dog prefers the house because the floor doesn't move when you do, disturbing the dog's naps.

[Mac69400]

Today's smart adventures will be slightly delayed. I was out most of the day yesterday and came back to batteries discharged more than they should be in the Hymer. 

I recently swapped from an old three way fridge to a suspiciously cheap compressor fridge, so I've been keeping an eye on consumption. 

No screenshot last night, but this would normally be around 90% this morning, and should be charging at about 15 amps 

The front panels are doing a pretty good job:

The back panel isn't:

I'll get away with it at this time of year, but I need all the solar to be doing it's thing in the winter, especially since I'll be stuck in the UK this year. 

I've also just remembered the multimeter is in the fucking car half a mile away. 

[Mac69400]

10 hours ago, BorniteIdentity said:

Tremendous effort here. I don’t reckon even my very, very friendly mechanic would have taken this on for me.

I'm no mechanic! I'll be learning as I go. My biggest fear is siezed bolts. Those two little bastards holding the intercooler scoop thing in are worrying me. 

[Mac69400]

11 hours ago, M'coli said:

The dog prefers the house because the floor doesn't move when you do, disturbing the dog's naps.

I think he likes the choice of rooms to fart in! 

[R Lutz]

I messaged the seller over this car, and fair play, he gave me his phone number but emphasised it had to go ASAP. I arranged a trailer and the like for the Sunday, but saw BEAR had put a deposit down, so withdrew and went to get drunk (not over missing the SMART, but because I was on a rest day). 

I am well jealous. Best of luck. I used to love having these for sale back in the day. I sold one to my old GCSE Art Teacher.

I also remember a Master Tech doughnutting a Brabaus Roadster in the Kings workshops. I also remember being in Geneva and seeing the monumentally well engineered sub-structure.  I have so many good memories of these and I have the autobiography of the man who was going to build them in Wales and badge them as MGs.

First dibs when you are done. 

 

[R Lutz]

13 hours ago, Mac69400 said:

I'm no mechanic! I'll be learning as I go. My biggest fear is siezed bolts. Those two little bastards holding the intercooler scoop thing in are worrying me. 

Soak what you can in that Bulldog penetrating oil. It really does seem to be as good as they say in my experience. 

[Rustybullethole]

4 minutes ago, R Lutz said:

Soak what you can in that Bulldog penetrating oil. It really does seem to be as good as they say in my experience. 

Well if it makes penetrating bulldogs safe...

Always thought these would be a lot of fun. Plenty type two fun too I see. 

 

[R Lutz]

Just now, Rustybullethole said:

Well if it makes penetrating bulldogs safe...

You're now making me wonder if I have got the right name for it. 

[Rustybullethole]

3 minutes ago, R Lutz said:

You're now making me wonder if I have got the right name for it. 

My google hits were safe, you're good👍🏽

Was thinking of this stuff this morning as the allen head started to round off on the steel fasteners that have got too friendly with the alloy fork leg. 

Had some good results with it in the past. 

[R Lutz]

19 minutes ago, R Lutz said:

You're now making me wonder if I have got the right name for it. 

It's BDX penetrating spray/lube. I've had to go into the garage to check. 

[SiC]

I absolutely looooooove these. Especially in the coupe shape and I regret getting a roadster instead. However I paid £550 for mine with a dodgy auto gearbox. Turned out to be a chaffed wire.

One of those absolute very few cars that I would 100% do again.  

If I wasn't above my car limit already I would have been all over this before anyone else could have got a chance. 

[Mac69400]

What a pain in the arse this is turning out to be. Mostly my own stupidity, fortunately.

Last Wednesday, I'd got as far as the intercooler shroud to access the starter motor bolts. I could see one of them, but not the other. I decided to cut a flap in the plastic shroud to get to the other one, and fold it back. Of course, it snapped off. Not to worry, a bit of plastic welding will sort that. 

The recommended method to actually remove the starter motor is to drop the engine and subframe by removing the four bolts and replacing them with much longer ones. I bought them, then found out it's possible to lower the right hand side of the engine with a bit (relatively) less hassle. 

All you have to do is remove the X frame, which is the track control arms and the mount to the subframe. It looks like this when it's off. 

The rear ends of the subframe spring apart alarmingly as it comes off. Next, engine mount off and drop the jack under the gearbox. 

This allows the right hand end of the engine to drop about 8". Fantastic. 

The engine mount has the two holes in it, it sits above and behind the bolt I put back in for the X frame so I didn't lose the fucker. 

This gives you this access to the top of the engine. 

The starter is beneath the Aircon pipes on the right. Having had the gas safely removed* from the Aircon system (it was empty anyway), I got to this stage. 

Clearly, by the time I took this photo, I'd drained the fucking coolant and taken the thermostat and a couple of hoses out too. 

Flushed with success, I pulled the bastard starter out. It had obviously had a few love taps to persuade it to work again:

This was when I made my fatal error. 

[Mac69400]

I'll get the excuses out of the way first.

1: By this time, it was 8:30 on Friday evening, my girlfriend had expected to meet me at 8, but was being fairly understanding.

2: I've recently started taking medication that fucks with your memory. Initially, I was a bit sceptical, but it's true. I didn't want to leave any more work undone before I slept than I had to. 

3: I'm a fucking idiot.

The car came with a used starter. On a roll, I fitted the starter, topped up the coolant with water for the short term, put the thermostat and aircon pipes back on, refitted the intercooler and fan and fucked off home with just refitting the engine left to do. 

This is how I left it. There was no need to have taken the wheel, wheel arch liner and belt cover off. I had thought I'd need to take the Aircon compressor out, but I didn't. 

[Mac69400]

The following morning I walked the dogs and got the Hymer ready to go to Cheltenham to see a Leftfield DJ set that evening. Assuring the girlfriend I'd be back at the van, showered and ready to go at 4pm, I went to the car to put it back together. 

A ratchet strap helped get the track control arms back onto the subframe. 

Once it was back on all four wheels, I clambered in (it's low) and turned the key. A click from the relay in the SAM, fuel pump running, but no crank. Fuck. 

 Because every time you turn your back on the thing it locks the fucking doors, I had it on a battery charger. I was able to get a meter on the main feed - 13.10v.  With a lot of fuckery, I got the signal wire off again and checked that. 12.78v.  With a lot more fuckery, I got it back on the the spade connector and tried, pathetically and fruitlessly, to start the bastard several times. 

Had it crossed my mind to check the starter before I fitted it? It had, but see the list of excuses in the previous post. What an absolute arsehole.

[Mac69400]

 

With Leftfield out of the way - fairly decent, and an interesting venue in Deya Brewery, my girlfriend wasn't expecting much of a day on Sunday since I had watching the BTCC on the agenda. Fortunately, for reasons, I can't eat solid food so lunch was out of the question. I dumped the Hymer on the drive of the house, she walked around the corner to her house and I started stripping the fucking car again. 

The second time was a lot quicker than the first, which is some solace. Not much, but a tiny bit. 

Between races, I had the starter out and tested. Sure enough, it's fucked. Great big sparks, but no motion of any sort. Here's a picture of two broken starters. 

I had an unexpectedly long appointment with an oncologist today, so all I managed to do was order a brand new starter which might be here tomorrow. If it is, the car should be running, at least. If not, I don't think I'll get a chance until Friday.

[Rustybullethole]

Enjoyed the write up. It mirrors moves i've made in the past and surely ones ill make again!

Third time will be pro level quick👍🏽