Detach8 5th Gear February 3, 2015 Share February 3, 2015 (edited) This is starting to become and old classic, and I think we should have a thread for it. I own a '96 Nissan March K11. It looks pretty crappy now but I'm hoping COE would drop towards 2016 so I can renew, then I can give this car a makeover. The engine on this car is literally bullet proof. I'm hitting 300,000 kms soon and it's still going strong. Let's start by saying hi. Add your name to this list and copy + paste: Name Carplate Color Year detach8 SCQ6200A Red 1996 I'll start sharing some mods I did to the interior of the car later. Edited February 10, 2015 by HyperTonic ↡ Advertisement 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detach8 5th Gear February 3, 2015 Author Share February 3, 2015 So I started taking apart the interior, which was in pretty bad shape... You can see here the color difference between the original carpet and what it is now. Took the panels home to wash. Then bought some fiber tape and epoxy glue... And mended the cracking panels. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Supersonic February 3, 2015 Share February 3, 2015 Wah! Really old car... My wife used to drive one. I remember that when we bought it in 1997, it cost us $72k, including COE. Drove it for a about 5 years and sold it off to a dealer then and still managed to get about $45k for it. You are right. It is bullet proof and damn economical to run. But as long as you don't try to take 5 adults it was alright. Had 5 adults in it once and I recall that I struggled to drive up Sheares bridge. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detach8 5th Gear February 3, 2015 Author Share February 3, 2015 Wah! Really old car... My wife used to drive one. I remember that when we bought it in 1997, it cost us $72k, including COE. Drove it for a about 5 years and sold it off to a dealer then and still managed to get about $45k for it. You are right. It is bullet proof and damn economical to run. But as long as you don't try to take 5 adults it was alright. Had 5 adults in it once and I recall that I struggled to drive up Sheares bridge. You should have kept the car! I have a big modern car, but every time I get back in the K11, it's such a joy to drive. It potters around town and just whizzes in and out of traffic and carparks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Supersonic February 3, 2015 Share February 3, 2015 You should have kept the car! I have a big modern car, but every time I get back in the K11, it's such a joy to drive. It potters around town and just whizzes in and out of traffic and carparks. now my wife a bit sqeamish about driving a car with no ABS and no air bags leh ... She also hates driving manual cars. Had to give up my desire to drive a manual and now we only drive autos. Ah well. ... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ER-3682 Twincharged February 3, 2015 Share February 3, 2015 now my wife a bit sqeamish about driving a car with no ABS and no air bags leh ... She also hates driving manual cars. Had to give up my desire to drive a manual and now we only drive autos. Ah well. ... Tell your wife, ABS or Air bags,are not important,if she drive slowly & carefully... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Supersonic February 3, 2015 Share February 3, 2015 Tell your wife, ABS or Air bags,are not important,if she drive slowly & carefully... too late now that she is used to "modern" cars with all these features. Although I have to admit that such small nippy manual cars are damn fun to drive. We used to have a 1.5 litre Mazda 121 manual. 1.5 litre engine in such a tiny car was damn shiok man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ER-3682 Twincharged February 3, 2015 Share February 3, 2015 too late now that she is used to "modern" cars with all these features. Although I have to admit that such small nippy manual cars are damn fun to drive. We used to have a 1.5 litre Mazda 121 manual. 1.5 litre engine in such a tiny car was damn shiok man. That comes the problem,many motorists thought their cars got ABS,TCS & Airbags,tends to be "Overconfident", so they drive faster,resulting more accident. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kangadrool Supersonic February 3, 2015 Share February 3, 2015 Some people thought that ABS = skid proof. That comes the problem,many motorists thought their cars got ABS,TCS & Airbags,tends to be "Overconfident", so they drive faster,resulting more accident. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loki Supersonic February 4, 2015 Share February 4, 2015 That comes the problem,many motorists thought their cars got ABS,TCS & Airbags,tends to be "Overconfident", so they drive faster,resulting more accident. Agree - I much prefer to be able to use manual gears for engine braking. More fun too! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
So_nice 6th Gear February 4, 2015 Share February 4, 2015 Good car. Still plenty running around. My mscp has a red one wif black hood. Some years back there was one wif 1.3 turbo in yishun. Reminds me of my old starlet Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanpaseo 2nd Gear February 4, 2015 Share February 4, 2015 My corolla ae101 registered in 1991 nov can join in as old car list or not. hahahaa Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detach8 5th Gear February 4, 2015 Author Share February 4, 2015 (edited) My corolla ae101 registered in 1991 nov can join in as old car list or not. hahahaa That's another classic. Sure... join in! I'm sure our engines are more similar than different. We can share some tools and tips. Edited February 4, 2015 by Detach8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ER-3682 Twincharged February 4, 2015 Share February 4, 2015 My corolla ae101 registered in 1991 nov can join in as old car list or not. hahahaa You mean yellow/red plate classic.?Must be 30 yeas & above. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ivanpaseo 2nd Gear February 5, 2015 Share February 5, 2015 (edited) That's another classic. Sure... join in! I'm sure our engines are more similar than different. We can share some tools and tips. Yeah, old car are damn nice to work with easy to dismantle.... old car need to take note of the ECU and Dash Meters, capacitors are so old that some are leaking and causing meters not working correctly and ecu failure. Diy replace capacitors on ecu and dash board meters myself. Cars are this age usually control arm bushes are falling apart you can buy superpro polyurethane to replace the worn bushes >> http://www.superpro.com.au/?v=nissan-micra-k11---08-1992-12-1997/999501373 ECU capacitor replacements Polyurethance filled engine mount shore 55 hardwareness ugly but it works well with slightly more vibration then stock. You mean yellow/red plate classic.?Must be 30 yeas & above. haha not yet my car only 23 years old this year still have another 4 1/2 years more to go.... Edited February 5, 2015 by Ivanpaseo 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detach8 5th Gear February 6, 2015 Author Share February 6, 2015 (edited) Continuing my interior refurbishment... I started taking apart panels and saw horrible wiring. Here's the alarm wiring in the driver's footwell. Tidied up the wiring. Then I pulled out the HU and found this mess too. BTW, I am not impressed at all by a lot of the audio shops here. This is a common sight, and I do NOT like that. Bad wiring = fire hazard. It's obvious here that the original HU had proper connectors, then when the ex-owner upgraded the HU the audio shop simply twisted wires together and black-taped over them. So I mapped out the wring for the audio. Redid the wiring by soldering the wiring to the plugs/connectors. Edited February 6, 2015 by Detach8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detach8 5th Gear February 6, 2015 Author Share February 6, 2015 (edited) HU reinstalled, and a sigh of relief knowing that the wiring behind is now neat and tidy. This is very common in the K11. Over the years the heat from the regular bulb melts the plastic and it comes apart and does not twist anymore. I replaced with an LED bulb. I deliberately picked one that has a sideways diffusion. LED bulb installed. I tried installing LEDs in the the dash, but I did not like the color and brightness, so I replaced with new bulbs and T10 twist sockets (the old one have melted too). I think it looks nice this way -- more classic. I would have installed a bulb in the gear switch above to match but I do not want to destroy the bulb holder any more. Unlike the T10 sockets in the dash, the one in the gear is not easily replaceable. Edited February 6, 2015 by Detach8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Detach8 5th Gear February 6, 2015 Author Share February 6, 2015 Moving on to the engine. I was in the US and bought a timing light for cheap, I think under US$30. I also bought a Nissan diagnostics tool. This is pre-OBD, and so only works on this era of Nissan cars. I was also lucky to have an old laptop with a serial port + working battery, so I used the tool to set the car in base timing adjustment mode, and worked on the timing. Turns out that the timing is way off, and most mechanics here "tikam" the timing. The Nissan K11 requires the car to be in base timing mode + set to 15 deg BTDC + the timing wheel reads in opposite direction from other cars with the timing mark on on the engine block. After setting the timing correctly -- in fact I set it a little bit more advanced since we have good fuel here -- the car performs MUCH better. Yeah, old car are damn nice to work with easy to dismantle.... old car need to take note of the ECU and Dash Meters, capacitors are so old that some are leaking and causing meters not working correctly and ecu failure. Diy replace capacitors on ecu and dash board meters myself. Cars are this age usually control arm bushes are falling apart you can buy superpro polyurethane to replace the worn bushes >> http://www.superpro.com.au/?v=nissan-micra-k11---08-1992-12-1997/999501373 They don't have the bushes for the March/Micra K11 :( I found some online but they are very expensive. ↡ Advertisement Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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