General New Brava owner with a few questions

[MrSlowly]

I do believe the heater core's way too plugged up for that to work, hence my preference to just flush it straight from there, bypassing the rest of the plumbing. Still, I haven't yet been able to maneuver well enough down there to get the original clips off and do away with the hoses to flush it. The engine's too much in the way, as are a few electronics connections, the airbox thingy etc. Access from below the car is just as restricted as well, which is even more frustrating!

I guess it's a garage kinda job but I don't trust any mechanic enough to do a good enough job of it so, either I'll tear half the things off there to gain access or just cut away the whole thing and replace the hoses altogether in the process! But, that requires funds I do not readily have at the moment, so... I'll bear with the winter!

 

[franglais]

there are many videos on youtube for this kind of thing, the only advice i have is to flush using a hosepipe the opposite way of the usual flow.

 

[MrSlowly]

Well, I finally did it!

Removed the heater core hoses from the engine and the T on the exit line and flushed it with the hose. Had to take the alarm and battery tray out and there were some rusty stuff on all connections there but it was all worth it because now you can roast a chicken in there!

I still get a little sloshing even though I thoroughly bled and replaced the coolant and it seems that the fan doesn't want to turn on now, which kinda worries me but still, the temps are all good. Perhaps after a drive it'll sort itself out, for now I only tested it for about half an hour to forty five minutes on idle, basically.

Aaaanyway, another repair down! On to new things!

Oh and since I'd already opened the bonnet with tools at the ready, I decided to take a look at the timing belt. It's got a little shine to it but the teeth seem good as and there's no slack, so... yay for me!

 

[bluejohn125]

That's good news... funnily enough just as I was scrolling through to read your post properly, the thought came to me too... hang on... since there are the 2 hoses in the engine bay going into and out of the heater matrix, why not flush with them!

And that's just what you did.

 

[MrSlowly]

News time (again)!

Crawled under the car once more today, after taking it to the mechanic and finding pretty much nothing and OF COURSE him suggesting I change the half shaft, which, to my eyes, is still perfectly good.
So, new findings, because unless you look yourself, you might as well just throw money at it until something sticks!

The inner shaft boots are kinda greasy. They're not torn but they look worse for wear and I'm thinking a change should be in order soon. Apart from that, the passenger side (driver's in the UK) vibration damper also looked a little bad and came off its base. Another thing, the plastic skirt under the belts and beside the oil pan (left side) somehow kept rubbing on the shaft and I've got a shiny shiny spot on there!

So. I poked a hole in the skirt and ziptied it to a nearby screw. Problem solved on that end, at least for now. As for the damper, I pushed it back to its place and added a jubilee clip to keep it steady there.

I haven't driven it yet, especially at the speeds the vibrations arise but here's hoping...

To be honest, I'd really like to replace both half shafts but new ones are immensely expensive and I'm not too keen on installing those Chinese GSP ones, considering that most everyone who's installed them had them crap out in days or months!

 

[MrSlowly]

Couple of questions (again...)

Considering what I think about where the actual damage is, as I said before, I'm thinking about changing the cups and the star bearing thingy. Now that star I can find just fine but the cup I can't find anywhere! Doesn't this part come off? Even the used driveshafts I've found come with just the star attached and no cup, and I'm thinking whatever damage there is -if there is any- would be IN the cup grooves and not the star bearings, correct?

So, does anyone know if and where I might get the cup part?

And another thing. I've found SKF driveshafts locally for quite cheap (considering other brands are like 340eur each!). Is it worth changing the whole shaft instead of just swapping the parts that might actually be faulty?

Now I know the best way to go about this is to just get the axles out and take a look at the bearings and cups to assess the damage but in that case, I'm definitely going to clean the assembly and change the boots and grease as well and that might be money down the drain if there's damage in there and I end up changing them anyway!

 

[franglais]

the boots, grease, and other little bits are cheap, and it's tempting to go down the repair route, (i've been there see my thread posts from june 2017, link in signature) but you have to take the whole thing apart, this is a big job for an average home gamer, requiring specialist thin walled 36mm sockets seeing as you need to remove the wheel hubs to get the boot on the CV joint, for the time and effort of having the thing off the ground, and dismantled, you're effort is not worth it.
Make sure 100% the CV joint is knackered, driving in circles at full lock will clunk, then just change the whole drive shaft if needs be.

 

[MrSlowly]

I'm swaying towards that option myself, to be honest. I've done the circle test and I can hear no clunking, I have literally zero indications that they might be going bad, hence my reluctance to change them early. Not that it'd be bad for the car but it'd sure hurt my poor wallet!

Many thanks again for the input, much appreciated!

 

[MrSlowly]

Back with a quick question.

How's your urban fuel consumption? I was getting 13l/100km with the 7j wheels but I could understand that, the car felt low on power and really struggled to get those wheels going.
Still, now with the 6j 15"s, best I get is 11l/100km. Granted, I'm not the slowest driver but I can't say I really give it the beans either, and it's a pretty small city with pretty much no traffic. There's some inclines in my usual routes but I don't think it's such a big deal.

Filters and usual maintenance stuff are pretty fresh and everything seems to be running fine.

Is this normal or should I be looking into this more seriously?

 

[franglais]

Comparing against mine is not a faire comparison, but i would say you should be getting much better than that. My JTD 110 has never used more than 7L/100km, and that was a 1600km motorway run to the UK at 130kmh. Normal school and work run down country lanes gives me around 6L/100km.
My old Opel Corsa B 1.4L petrol used to do around 6L/100km on a long, straight, easy, and gentle, 35km run to work at 90kmh.

 

[MrSlowly]

On the motorway it uses much less fuel, from... not that exact measurements but pretty close anyway, it's gulping about 5.5-6.5l/100km at 110-130km/h with the occasional burst to 160+. It's the around town/start-stop consumption that seems quite high. I get it's an old car but damn...

On the other hand, the 1.6 Grand Vitara was about 13-15l/100km(!) and that was a much younger -albeit much heavier- car.

 

[franglais]

when driving around town, do you manage tyo do most of the driving at normal operating temperatures, or is it mostly on a cold engine? the fuel mix is rich on warm up.
checking the resistance values of the temperature sensor will help you decide if this part is on its way out.

 

[MrSlowly]

Nah, I always wait for the revs to drop before driving off. It certainly doesn't get up to temp that quick, though, surely. I'd already checked the temp sensor when having those bleed issues and it's fine. Don't know, perhaps I do have a heavy foot. I just got a 20 in, I'll try and drive more like I'm carrying Miss Daisy and see if anything changes.

Also note, our petrol quality indeed is dreadful over here and most stations do rip you off. Once a dude managed to pour 16 litres of fuel in my Transalp, and that bike has a 18l tank with a 3.5l reserve and I wasn't even near the reserve at the time. Go figure...

 

[bluejohn125]

Your vibration issue is a bit strange but trying to re-read through your reports it seems that the dodgy damper might be the culprit - that would be logical.

In any case I'd recommend that you just do the driveshaft / cv / gaiter overhaul, it will be overdue on a car of that age and mileage.

On my 2001 1.2 I've had an oil seal and wheel bearing done, and it may be unconnected but a few months after the oil seal the CV joint came apart. A local garage looked at getting a replacement / recon drive shaft but they're not available, so they just carefully rebuilt the joint (reshaped the circlip etc to get a good fit) and everything seems (?) fine (though I'm not currently driving the car).

The repair kits are pretty reasonable, it just depends (I think) whether you've got ABS hubs or not.

 

[MrSlowly]

Do you mean the vibration damper on the halfshaft or the shocks?

In any case, the cv boots do need replacing but I'm still debating whether or not I should replace the whole thing - provided I can find a decent second hand or aftermarket replacement that won't require the removal of one of my kidneys!
As for rebuilding the joints, I'm not quite sure about that, either. If there's any damage, it certainly seems to be in the inner joints and that kinda damage is something that can't really be fixed. Granted, if the star bearing's shot I can find it easily and pretty cheap but if the cups are worn it won't matter much and the cups I cannot find anywhere as a part, aftermarket or even used!

As for the ABS, I'm glad you mentioned it because it still perplexes me. According to the VIN, my car has ABS. However, I have no indication in the dash and I couldn't see the sensors on the halfshafts. Although, to be honest, I didn't dig much deeper than a casual look, so... yeah.

Is there any way of telling for certain, apart from looking for the ring on the shafts? Because I can't really rule out the possibility the PO changed them and got ones without ABS but that doesn't really explain the absence of an indication on the dash. Or could my VIN have been "mis-decoded"?

 

[bluejohn125]

I can't see my car right now but there would be some extra wires back from the hub if you have ABS.

The basic SX model didn't have ABS (AFAIK), mine is the Formula edition with extra bells and whistles.

If you have smallish rear drums then you have no ABS, mine has the larger ones that were probably the standard for the 1.6 upwards.

My '95 Tipo has TINY discs and drums, but they work pretty well! May well be the same as the lower spec Bravas and Bravos....

 

[franglais]

easiest way to see if you have ABS is to look under the bonnet at the round brake servo, the pipe from the master brake cylindrer will go to a box with 4 pipes and a couple of wires coming out if you have ABS, and there will be 5 pipes on the master cylinder if you do not, 1 from the brake fluid tank, and 4 directly to the wheels.

 

[MrSlowly]

Well, balls!

I've been driving like an old lady, no abrupt acceleration, no banging on the brakes, short shifting when applicable, all that jazz. And all it got me was about 10-10.5l/100km. Which is, about a liter less than when I'm driving normally.
Isn't this bad? I mean for god's sake, it's a 1.2! Granted, a pretty nippy 1.2 for its age but still, the car's had its maintenance, there's no extra weight on it, really careful/calm driving, it can't be drinking that much!

What totally baffles me is that it consumes HALF that on the motorways! If I don't thrash it and keep a steady, leisurely pace at 90-120km/h, I can achieve 5.5-6l/100km easily!

Gaaah!

 

[bluejohn125]

Did you fully resolve your binding brakes issue? I mentioned that before as a possible cause of high fuel consumption.

Cruising MPG you should expect to be quite impressive, it's a great shape for cutting through the air (especially with the boot spoiler!)/

 

[MrSlowly]

Yeah, the brakes are fine. Otherwise, I'd have been leaving behind a trail of flames and rubber a la ghost rider on that 500km roundtrip!