Newbie, in the last hour!

Hello there. My name is Steve, ive foolishly broken just about every rule of buying a used car, but....
In the true spirit of a Top Gear special, I saw a phase one gti on ebay, contacted the seller and the rest is a bit of a blur.
A trip ensued from a wintry Thorne / Doncaster down the Narnia like snow infested M1, passing many a car munching armco and jacknifed lorries, and thinking is this such a good idea?
But an hour and forty minutes later we arrived in the dark of night to a three inch thick snow covered Almera GTI.

The owner came out to meet me armed with a sweeping brush and uncovered the Nissan shaped snow sculpture, now at this point i could safely asume the car had not been started that day.
It fired up straight away, surely i was onto a winner here!
after a short time of sweeping the snow off and chipping the ice away i was able to release the bonnet and take a look at the engine bay.
The torch app for blackberry is a god send!
The car was advertised as having near as dammit a years ticket and two months tax (although the tax disc was apparently lost) I had checked with the DVLA to find that the seller was honest and it was indeed still taxed,

It was cheap too at £350 and i was informed that the clutch was on its last "teeth" which was a new one on me? A quick press of the clutch revealed that it was indeed as i would put it "about shafted"
having decided there was enough material left on it to get me the 96 miles back, the paperwork was filled in and cash changed hands .

Now this for me is the exciting part. The "will it get me home or not" game. I had the sense to add the breakdown cover to the one day tempory insurance i had arranged earlier, and within a few minutes driving i thought it may have to be called upon!

In Clakson style i found that most things that were electric were "broken"
No rear wiper
Heater fan only works on full speed
The rev counter wildy revs itself stupid without the need for the engine to be running
The mileage read 94K and the trip meter read 0 and never moved at all during the 96 miles home
Half the dash doesnt illuminate with the rest of it lights up yellow and some in blue

Other more pressing problems to be revealed were-
The 17" alloys seemed to be hexagonal shaped and the steering wheel shook with vigor
one or maybe both outer CV joints are dead, very dead.
The clutch we know about.
After we were around ten miles down the motorway the ABS light said hello.
and refuelling was a two man job trying to release the fuel flap!

Apart from the worrying pletherer of defects it was quite pleasent to drive, once id found the optimal speed at which the steering wheel stopped trying to give me vibration white finger.
At 63 mph all was well in the GTI, even the rev counter reported back for duty!

Now, a sprinkle of honesty here. The reason id not paid so much attention to the rest of the car was the fact i had planned on using it as a donor.
I have in the garage, a certain little french GTI of the 106 variety which i had planned on slipping the Almeras SR20 into.
BUT. even with all of its faults (of which there may be many more in the light of day) i rather enjoyed driving it home.
It was comfy (which the Peugeot is not) It handled quite well, im sure it would have been quite quick had the clutch no been slipping so badly.
So, im in half a mind to keep it and bring it back up to a satisfactory standard and add the turbo conversion i had planned for the peugeot!
I cant say ive decided until i see how good or indeed bad the outside and underside of the car is!
Sorry for the long post but the adrenalin was flowing (along with the stiff drink i needed when i got in) and i needed to get it off my chest before i sleep!
I will sort out some pictures for you all to have a good laugh at tomorrow!

Steve
 
Haha. I have competition in both the literacy and buying-a-gti-without-really-looking-at-it stakes.

Welcome aboard. You'll fit right in.

Sounds like it has issues but I'm sure you can get them sorted for the price of a 106.

Heater blower issue is a common fault. Resistor card needs replaced. 5 min job. I've got a spare one you can have for a few quid. PM me for details.

Demister could be anything but if it's not fuses Google 'wire glue' or 'wire paint'.

I've got a set of lightweight 15" autech GTI alloys refurbed in gunmetal sitting in the attic doing nothing.

You can diagnose abs faults with a paperclip. If the linked thread is members only PM me for details.. on the condition you pay up and become a full member (with your list of faults you'll make your money back in 5 mins).

http://www.almeraownersclub.com/threads/how-to-diagnose-n15-abs-faults.46681/
 
Welcome, I think that finding out the rust situation is the first port of call to whether you should salvage it. The rest of the issues seem fairly straightforward!

-phone-
 
Thanks for the warm welcome guys! I looked out of the window this morning and reaised that I had not been dreaming and there really was a sorry looking N15 sat on the front.
Externally there is rust in the following places.
Off side door
Off side fron wing
Just basically the off side in general lol! The off side rear quarrter glass at the bottom front has rust around the rubber!

The near side is not so bad, but gents it is a bit of a shed.
It went through a test only last month so its either not too bad underneath or it was passed by Stevie wonder motor services!

It felt okay to drive with no knocks and bangs other than the crap wheels and dodgy driveshafts. Also the gear linkage is a little like stirring soup. It does have many stamps in the service book up to 98k, which is nice.
The engine does seem really good though.

Now I must make full use of the search feature while I decide what to do. As it has a years MOT I may as well run it. After a new clutch and some minor bits and bobs sorted its still cheap motoring for a year!

Steve.
 
Pull back tbe side carpets in the boot and look at where the seatbelts bolt to. If thats rotten through the shells had it really, its all well and good with a years ticket but in an accident the belts will just pull out of the metal/rust.
 
Thanks Liam, I've just had a look at the rear seat belt anchor points under the rear bench, expecting the worst but found only a little surface bubbling and a snickers wrapper!
Pulling the side carpets out the boot area to where the reels mount, and all is well on the near side while the off side has some tin worm, but nothing serious. So I'm happy with that for now.
I think I'll have to look out for a decent shell really. Is there much interchangeable between the N15 + N16?
 
A little means its totally rotten underneath if its gotten that far Im afraid.

Only dampers (using model top mounts) and also knuckles you can change (for hub conversion with rear beam too).

-phone-
 
Yes if theres rust on the inside its travelled thru 2 layers of metal!! Have a poke with a screwdriver.
 
Provided the sills and front cross member are alright I'd just get her welded and have some cheap fun. For the cost to get it patched up you could save yourself the hassle of buying another one that could potentially be the same. I've scrapped 2 that needn't have been scrapped and regretted both times.

Welcome to the club dude!
 
Its just typical of 90s Nissans. I've had a few S13 and s14s that were cursed with the tin worm.
I may continue with my original plan of transplanting the running gear into my 106, at the minute its a bare shell that I was prepared to move on if the almera was any good!
I have a collection going now! One complete (almost) running 106 GTi which is the daily, the 106 GTi bare shell in the garage, the Mrs Megane CC and now the almera.
I may as well just crack on with the 106. It should be a bit of an animal with a low boosted SR20 in it.
 
almera.jpg

almerarear.jpg

IMG-20130324-00311.jpg

IMG-20130324-00310.jpg

Rusty rear quarter panel below the window
IMG-20130324-00312.jpg

More rust on drivers door
IMG-20130324-00313.jpg

Guess what colour this bumper was before lol!
IMG-20130324-00314.jpg

And finally the front drivers side wing.
 
The clocks have been messed about with, its at 90 odd K miles and inly the first two digits are level, all the others are a little shall we say mis-aligned lol. It doesn't bother me really. I'll have a laugh with it for 6 months or so.

Edit

Looking at the MOT Certificate it reads like this.
Odometer reading and history.
05 /11/2009. 112740
04/12/2010. 123074
30/11/2011. 129882
06/02/2013. 94999

So in truth its probably done about 135kmiles.
The stamped history runs out at 90k miles.
 
Lol! An interesting read! The lad I got it offtook it in a trade in from a foreign geezer and just wanted shot of it. Seems I paid about a hundred gold nuggets too much.
But surprisingly the engine is in fine fettle, nice and clean under the oil cap, spray bars must be clear, the cam lobes look great. The coolant also looks well, its just everything bolted around the engine that's seen its best.
Just a shame the clocks have been buggered about with, you can tell as soon as you look at it that its been messed with.
Doesn't bother me, was cheap enough.
 
This is true, I've rebuilt a good few SRs the last one made 470 on APTs rollers. They are a good straightforward engine to work with. I've got another SR20de to strip out its innards so I can mock up some engine mounts in the 106.

Believe me if this N15 was worth spending the time and effort on, I would, but sadly its not.
Unless I stumble accross a mint lower spec n15.
 
Back
Top Bottom