Kitaro - 2004 Daihatsu Copen
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So the day has finally come, I hadn't driven him since the end of October. Listed for sale and after a month or so he finally sold to a young couple looking for a small project. They "fell in love" on the test drive so I am hopeful he will be treated well.
I hooked up the battery having left the negative off and he fired right up, drove the short journey home, I forgot how frantic it feels, old school cable throttle so it does whatever you tell it to and shift rods not cables so (IMO) the gear change feels more direct (certainly more than my Abarth 500's does)
I will miss him dearly, a did a hopeless wash in the pouring rain and took a rubbish final picture sheltering indoors
And the obligatory "watching your pride and joy drive away" video
Goodbye old friend, its been fun.
So onto another MOT, first job polish up the headlight again...
It had gotten awfully cloudy
And after:
Unfortunately the MOT was a fail on a snapped coil spring, unsurprising given the state of the roads. The garage couldn't source one from any of their suppliers, so I picked one up off ebay (seemed to be the only place I could get one in the country) for an dissappointly high price and had it fitted. Advisory-less MOT gained for another 12 months.
In slightly worse news somebody then decided to vandalise it, I'm assuming just senseless vviolence as I don't believe I've upset anybody... I found it one morning with the wiper blades snapped off, the plastic clips were shattered so they wouldn't simply slide back on. The bright side of this is the blades were easy to replace and no long term damage done, but on the other hand it has made me feel pretty crappy. Despite how minor it is I feel because it is a car that "stands out" by looking pretty different to everything modern. I've started hiding it somewhat on a dead end road, out of sight of passer bys but this means I'm having to walk to/from the car every day rather than it being in my street (which is adjacent to a main road)
I've never had one of my cars vandalised before and its really knocked my trust, I'm still worrying about it a month later whenever I park it somewhere less than ideal.
I have been toying with getting rid of it for several years, every winter I end up garaging it and buying a 2nd car to run alongside, then finances look silly for running 2 cars so the Copen comes out in spring/summer and the other car gets sold, basically been repeating this pattern since I bought it.
I'm finally of the firm decision of having just 1 car, I sold the faithful Up and only have the Copen, I am starting to regret that decision... I think it might be time for it to go honestly...
Well after languishing for way too long, multiple failed attempts at trying to release the alternator I finally just ordered a new one and consigned myself to paying a garage to do the work. The problem lay with not being able to get eneough leverage on the alternator mounting bolt, the garage who changed the belt waaay over-tightened it.
Shortly after my new alternator arrived (at a ludicrous £300) I discovered this tool
I'm really not sure what to call it but it seems like it would resolve my problem of not been able to get my breakbar onto the bolt head.
And that it did...
Sucess!
To actually get the alternator out of its position some light bending of some metal had to be done, I can see why the official procedure is to remove the driveshaft, but its all out of sight anyway and it bent back fine
The new one now in place, not quite out of the woods as I can't get enough tension on the belt and tighten the adjuster bolt at the same time so its pretty loose, last time I tightened the old belt I had a friend help so I will be employing someone hopefully before the weekend to get it tightened up ready for some summer driving, at last!
A fairly uninteresting update but I've finally fitted a much needed new battery, the old one still cranked the engine over fine but with any significant electrical load at idle the voltage would plummet and cause the alternator belt to slip. I had let it run completely flat twice so its not a huge surprise it's lost a fair bit of capacity and it was only rated 33Ah from new...
New Yuasa fitted, 40Ah, seems to be the largest capacity in this size. (Excuse my rusty battery clamp, much like the rest of the car it too rusts for fun)
What a world of difference its made though, no more belt squeal, holds its voltage much better.
I'm about 700 miles past its service oops.... I've got the filters and oil so will aim to get it done at the weekend.
Also got some gearbox oil to go in, its due at 6 years or 50k miles, not there yet for mileage but I don't know if its been done in the last 6 years, no harm in doing it again anyway
Well the Daihatsu has been doing ok until I noticed with a lot of electrical load at idle the belt will squeal when pulling away. I'm not sure if duff alternator, battery or just the belt is too loose. It looks tight... I'm suspect of alternator or the battery itself as charging voltage is low at idle (13.8v no load, 13.2v under load), I can mitigate the squealing by holding it at about 1000rpm whilst idling which keeps a 14.2v charge. The belt doesn't have a tensioner and is merely under tension by the placement of the alternator.
He did pretty well in the snow given he's on summer tyres. Low weight + skinny tyres in snow is always a decent combo only coming unstuck when trying to set off from a standing start up a gradient, even then I managed with plenty of revs to scrabble up any incline I tackled.
Poor thing is absolutely filthy now...
Have been piling on the mileage of recent and all has been going well, in the region of 45mpg, the small tank is only good for about 300miles though so trips to the petrol station are more frequent...
Until last Monday when....
Disaster!
The first time he's ever left me stranded, hopefully the last as it was not pleasant in the cold & fog on the hard shoulder (fortunately a retro motorway which still has one).
Red battery light popped on, never a good sign, about 500 yards later the temp gauge rapidly started climbing so I coasted onto the shoulder. Aux belt completely shredded, nothing I could do about it then and there so the AA came to my rescue. Quite keen to get me off the motorway I was flat towed on a bar which was most unpleasant at 50mph with lorries passing... 20 miles of terrifying towing later and deposited at a local garage. Fast forward a week and all 3 belts replaced, front bumper was removed for access as there really is next to no space in the engine bay. I've only driven him a few miles since but here's hoping all back to normal.
Well since the unfortunate passing on of my Brava the little Daihatsu is my daily driver, hopefully not covering too many miles as I won't have a commute soon (new job)
Something I've wanted to do for a while is fit some smaller wheels with more tyre, the factory wheels are so crashy on bumps making it genuinely scary to drive down unfamiliar roads, if you hit a large enough pothole it feels like something will almost certainly bend.
So new wheels & tyres are on, down from 15" with 50 profile tyres to 14" with 60 profile, the circumference change is about 2.5% so speedo isn't massively affected.
Old on rear, new on front below;
I think they look a bit more interesting than the factory wheels but they're not too showy (I didn't want it to be too obvious it was on aftermarket).
The ride is notably improved, much more so than I thought it would be. It doesn't corner as flat at speed anymore but it could be the tyre compound, previously it had some performance orientated Bridgestone Potenza RE040's (which are impossible to get in this size anymore). Now running some Vredestein Sportrac 5's which is a brand I haven't heard of but they seemed fairly well received, they feel grippy enough but either the increase in sidewall or the different compound adds a bit more roll to the cornering which is a shame. Nevertheless the compromise is worth it for being able to go over potholes without shattering a suspension arm
EDIT: I've just noticed the 'sweep' of the alloy design in the pictures kind of looks backwards? Should they be on the other way round?
Well he got a little use into the autumn, then sat around for much of the winter until the MOT expired at the end of January where I plonked him in the garage and made it future Dom's problem. The summer months came and I got too busy to do anything with him so sunny days ideal for convertible driving slipped by until I finally took the time to get him sorted. Bought an oxygen sensor but couldn't get my spanner onto it in the tiny engine bay so that was a job I'd pass onto the garage come MOT.
The passenger side headlight had gone particularly cloudy so I used some Meguiars PlastX, its not perfect but it came up better with not too much elbow grease.
Before;
After;
Brushed some of the loose rust from the suspension components, it only appears to be surface rust and nothing too seirous, the sills are ok but they were done about 2 years ago, there's some rust appearing where some of the body panels meet so will have to put that in the to-do list for later on.
He still has a slow puncture, its annoying as the tyre has loads of tread and all 4 are matching. Its an awkward tyre size (165/50/15) which only 2 manufacturers actually make a tyre that size and currently I can't find any stock so again it'll just have to do for now
Got him booked in and off we went to the MOT, just about in the door!
Of course he failed the emissions as predicated but the garage fitted my provided oxygen sensor and he flew through!
Gave him a full tank of E5, was shocked at how quickly the pump shut off after filling up the Brava's 50L tank on the regular, unsurprisingly filling the 30L tank takes about half the time!