The daily

[DeeTurbo]

Hi all,

So I finally done it after 18 years and nearly 350k miles, I've bought a car to replace my much loved HDI Dturbo daily.



I feel the car now needs a lot of bodywork to keep it looking as good as I'd like, I thought something a bit better on fuel and cheaper tax would be a good idea to.

I also thought it would be nice to have something with some modern features.

At first I was thinking I'd get 207, there was a nice one at work that I though would be a nice replacement but Karen didn't like them.

Next I thought the Fiesta would be a good choice but they are so common and bloody everywhere. There are always three different one parked next to each other at work. Yes I know they are a really good car and that's why there are so many of them.

Some how I thought of the DS3.

There were a few I was looking at all around the £4k and all around the 100k miles plus mark.

I'm not sure how but I got Shpock on my phone and I had a look on there. I found one that a lot of people were interested in and I thought it had sold but the next week someone messaged the guy asking if it was still for sale and I saw that he said yes so I got straight in there with an offer. The accepted as he needed the funds for his new replacement car.

The car is a Dstyle Plus, so Dstyle is mid range on the trim but then the Plus gives it digital climate control, parking senors, auto wipers/light, auto dimming rear view and heated electric wing mirrors.

It's powered by the e-HDI 1.6 90bhp and has the 5 speed.

I would have like the Dsport trim but this Dstyle with the Plus pack is not far off.

I popped over to his, 45 minutes up the road from me the Monday night. He told me that the car had some rust on the front wing before going up, I thought I'd have a look and I'd probably just get a replacement off a breaker.

On seeing the car you could tell it had a bit of a bump in the past and the wing had been replaced with a cheap pattern part. The front bumper wasn't lined up well ether. I thought it could be adjusted to fit better.

We went for a test drive and the car was very comfortable but you hear a sight knocking on the front suspension. I'm thinking this could be just drop links.

The HPI came back all clear and I thought I might as well go for it and bought it Saturday morning.


When I collected it


The rust

I drove it straight to work to get it looking more presentable. I didn't find a wing in time and thought I'll just clean up the rust a little and replace at a later date.

I'm not that keen on the drive at the moment, there is bugger all feel through the steering wheel and the gear shift isn't nice, I think that's mainly down to the cable shift and the electronic power assist for the lack of feel.

On removing the bumper you could see a lot more damage. The main slam panel was slightly bent and god knows how the AC is still working with the condenser in such a bad state.

There was also some bad hackary with the cable to the DRL and fogs.

The rest of the car seems all good.

First on the priority list is sorting the rust out, then if I can get the cable lubricated to see if that helps. Not sure what I can do with the steering.


I rubbed down the area to remove as much as possible treated the rust, sprayed zinc primer and then white primer. I thought I'd leave that to dry and harden over night.

I gave it a good going over with the vacuum as it looked like it hadn't been done for a long time I later found out the previous owner had it valeted before I viewed. I would like to remove the carpet to wet vac it. The guy lives in apartments so couldn't vacuum it and the valets have been doing a pretty rubbish job. I must have spent an hour hoovering, it was pretty bad.


Later I gave it a quick wash.

The next day I sanded down but found that I should have used some high build primer as the rust had pitted quite deep, so a few more coats had to be applied. I was a bit pissed off with myself as I wanted to start using the car this week and it would have been done if I had used the high build primer but I'd have to remove the bumper off again when applying the base coats so I couldn't be bothered to put the bumper and arch liners back on to take them off again later this week when I work on it again.

Thank god GSF, ECP and CP4L having their sales on so I've bought all items required for a full service all filters (air, fuel, oil and cabin) oil, pads front and back, discs front and back, drop links, Philips head light bulbs, some new carpet mats, aux belt and a full set of wipers for just over £300.

Bloody rear discs have the ABS ring and wheel bearing built in so were a lot more then I'm used to.

So that's where I'm up to at the moment. Hopefully get the paint work done this weekend and then service it.

[DeeTurbo]

Lots of goodies to fit this weekend.

Can't wait to make a start.

I'll be giving it a full service, all fluids, all filters, all brake pads/ discs, wipers and drop links.

I'll be finishing off the wing to.

[Funky]

Wow!! You ARE gonna be busy!! Let us know how it all goes.

[Hyperkev]

Good job you know what your doing, shame my lad just sold his 1.6 D sport + diesel for around that price

Sent from my SM-T555 using Tapatalk

[BenS]

For the gearshift feel, you can install an MTech short shifter to reduce the long throw and replace the rear engine mount bushing with a polyurethane one to reduce the rubberyness of the shift action (although you will get more engine vibrations travelling through the body). That's about all you can do with the floppy cable.

Power steering, you're probably just noticing it a lot from the jump in car age. Most cars are like this or worse now. I've driven an i40 with such powerful steering assist that it was like playing a videogame.

[DeeTurbo]

For the gearshift feel, you can install an MTech short shifter to reduce the long throw and replace the rear engine mount bushing with a polyurethane one to reduce the rubberyness of the shift action (although you will get more engine vibrations travelling through the body). That's about all you can do with the floppy cable.

Power steering, you're probably just noticing it a lot from the jump in car age. Most cars are like this or worse now. I've driven an i40 with such powerful steering assist that it was like playing a videogame.

I did look in to the MTech short shift and I feel it is very over priced for what it is.

I can see how a stiffer bottom mount would help on the old rod style linkages but I thought with cable it wouldn't make much of a difference as the outer of the cable would move with the engine/box.

I done as much as I could on the paint side of things today but I'm a bit disheartened as it looks like the wing wasn't sprayed in the correct polar white and the whole side of the car might not be polar white either.

The primer seemed to be a better colour match lol.

Also it seems that when the front springs were replaced the struts weren't installed correctly. I'm thinking that the knocking noise might be coming from that, the top mounts not being correctly seated, we shall see tomorrow.

Drove the car for only the second time this afternoon and it's so disappointing the lack of feedback from the car.

During the week I ordered some of the little hooks for the strings for the parcel shelf god knows how they went missing.







There was a sick kind of smell coming from the vents and after replacing the cabin filters it has now thankfully gone.





One of the dipped bulbs and side light had gone so replaced with these. I had them on my old car and give a nice white light.



The photo doesn't show it well but in person it doesn't look right at the top of the strut.

[DeeTurbo]

Today I changed the oil, filters, took a look at the suspension and did a small bodge on the exhaust bracket.

I drove the car to work so the engine and its oil was nice and warm for draining. On arrival I jacked the car up, supported it on axle stands and drained the oil.

While the oil was draining I started to have a look at the suspension as there was a knocking over uneven ground. I had a look on the guide posted here in Bigfeet's File Repository and I found that the top mounts hadn't been aligned correctly, I had my suspicions yesterday.

This is how they should be aligned.



This is how I found them when I removing the top nut and shield.



I removed the ARB drop link and found them to be shot to



I dropped the strut a little and I was able to adjust the top mount to the correct alignment.



It's silly there isn't a pin sticking up from the top mount to allow correct alignment.

I secured the struts back to the car and replaced the ARB drop links.



I was surprised that the original drop links were made of aluminium. Sadly the TRW ones are steel.

Next I did a little bodge on the front exhaust bracket, I was told by the seller that the bracket had been welded when he had the springs replaced. In the summer I'll be removing the exhaust to weld properly.





When I was viewing the car I noticed the number plate lights seemed to be a bit hit and miss. One minute one was out the next the other. I found the element in the bulb was broken and floating about so I replaced them both with some nice but expensive Philips WhiteVision, expensive as in £5 for the two instead of 30p per bulb for the standard ones. I did think about getting LED replacements but I had the Philips spare.

I also gave the lens a quick clean as they were filthy.







While I was doing the other jobs the oil was left draining. I find it crazy how the drain plug is recessed in to the sump. On others it's always been the lowest point.

I replaced the oil filter and air filter.

The oil filter looked to be a poor quality one, you can see that there arem't as many pleats so less surface area to filter the oil.



The air filter didn't have the sponge prefilter element to keep the big bit out the main paper element.



I didn't have the motivation to replace the brake disc and pads, they are low but ok for now. I thought I'd leave them for another day and I'll strip down the calipers for a thorough check, I'll clean off the rust and give the a lick of paint.

After the works were complete I gave the engine bay and scuttle area a quick clean.

Engine bay is looking a lot better now but no photos as I needed to get to the shops before they shut.

I didn't change the fuel filter because of the state of the bay and I didn't want to risk getting dirt in the fuel system. I'll replace the filter at some point during the week.

[Mr Softie]

That's mega work there, good to see. I have a D Style + identical to yours, in white also. I was wondering where you got the hooks for the parcel shelf from? I'm missing one as well lol, I've sort of bodged the best I can with a random rubber thing I found. And I was wondering about the number plate lights, what bulbs are they and how hard is it to fit? I heard they're a bastard to take apart without breaking the entire lens housing.

[DeeTurbo]

The hooks from the normal dealers would charge £3.16 for the two I bought them from a dealer that sells on eBay, two for £2 with free shipping.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Parcel-Sh...72.m2749.l2649

The bulbs I found easier to remove the whole unit first then I used a small screw driver to lever out the bulbs. It is a pain to remove the old bulbs.

These are the bulbs I had. I've bought some more for the side lights of my other car.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Philips-WhiteVision-White-Vision-Headlight-Bulbs-H1-H3-H4-H7-H8-H11-HB3-HB4-W5W/232501888050?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&var=531 817802714&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

[DeeTurbo]

Another week with the car and I'm starting to enjoy driving it a little more.

Yesterday I did a close to 400 mile round trip in it.I never thought I'd ever use cruse control but on the way back I started using it and I quite like it now.

Before the trip I checked the tyre pressures and I found them all to be 4 PSI down on what they should. Once inflated I found the car felt a lot better and I found that the feel I was missing through the wheel was now better.

Today I finally got chance to check the tracking after adjusting the top mounts the other week. I bought a device called a trackace a few years back, it cost around £80 and I was in two minds about buying it but I'm glad I did has it's more than paid for itself now with the amount I've used it.



I found the front is toeing in by 05' and it should be be toeing out 09'. It was also pulling to the left. After correcting the alignment and the drive home I still found the car pulled slightly to the left so hopefully double check everything.



I changed the indicator bulbs in the front head lights to ones with a silver coating to stop the horrid orange that shows through.

The bulbs I used.


You can see the orange showing through here.


The new bulbs installed.


Looks a lot better.


There has been a funny buzzing behind the dash, something was vibrating when the car was in motion. I thought it was going to be a loose cable or the like but after removing the dash panel I found it to be the metal clips that holds in on.

I removed the clips and bent them slightly so they weren't loose on the tabs.

Dash with the panel removed.


The loose clip.


Slightly bent to hold better.


The clips on the back of the panel.


I did this on the centre console trim to.

It improved things but there still is a noise from somewhere else in the car I need to locate .

I also made a light to use when working in the engine bay. I used a strip of aluminium angle that I stuck some sticky back LED strip to, angle so the LED light are shielded to stop the light glare.





At the moment I found that it fits through the bonnet catch. I need to think about how I could attach it lower down on the bonnet.

I also gave the car a quick was, it was dark by the time I finished so no photos of the nice shinny car.

[Quidoigo]

Loving the care and attention you are putting in to this! Good job

[DeeTurbo]

Thank you for your kind words.

How are you getting on with your car?

[DeeTurbo]

Today on my lunch break I replaced the boot light with a 48 COB LED light that's higher up to spread the light across the boot better.

I've wired up enough cable to mount one on the other side to but I've found that the one light is too bright so I'll be swapping out that 48 chip unit for a 36 and see how that goes.

[BenS]

Great work! Glad you're starting to enjoy the car a bit more.

Also those indicator replacements are a must-do for anyone. Mine now have a slight blue tint instead of the disgusting orange.

[DeeTurbo]

Thanks, I think adding the 4 PSI all around and the properly seated then setting the correct tracking has helped. I looked like the garage had set the toe to 10' toe in when it should be 09' toe out.

I really need to have a play with the gear shift cables next, hopefully this weekend. I think once the cables are lubricated it'll feel a lot better. My theory is that heat from the exhaust has dried the grease out.