A few questions from new micra owner!

[maddave]

Hello! Hope you dont mind me posting this question on a Micra sports forum for a lowly 1 litre car!! I have just bought a 1999 1.0l micra for my girlfriend for a bargain price £1500. It is in top condition had loads spent on it and even found that the speedo had been changed within the first few months of its life so its actually done 20,000 miles less than it was adervtised for! Its only done 24,000 miles so even more of a bargain! Hopefully it should be a lot more reliable than her old citreon AX and a lot more comfortable!

Anyway, just a quick question as these cars are new to me. When we got the car home I noticed that the tank marked refridgerant on the right hand side of the engine was empty! But the raditor was full. I assume this empty tank is an expansion tank? I filled it up with anti freeze and water to the Max mark, but just wanted to check that is ok!!! I was in traffic jams all the way home and the temperature stayed the same with no threat of overheating.

Also, the car does feel smooth and quiet but there is a lot of noticeable vibration through the gear stick when sat in traffic and if you switch any electrical item on, the revs drop for a second then pick up again. Is this a normal trait of a micra?

And finally, we only noticed once we had bought the car but the spare wheel well was full of water!! The boot carpet doesn't show any stains and is not damp and all boot seals look good. Any ideas where it could be coming in from?
Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks!
David.

 

[K11SS]

1st of all welcome to the club dave and dont refer to the 1.0 as lowly, most people on this club have one or has driven one and is an amazing car

well as for the electrical dip in power at idle this is normal i think as it happend with all three of mine, n as for rattle of gear stick i dont no much bout that but someone will be along soon to help there, hope u enjoy ur stay n we see more of u on the club.



ps post up some pics if u can of the car we always like seeing new members cars

 

[richmicratwista]

yes i think the idle dropping is ok
mine does it too

 

[rlees85]

yep my idle drops, sometimes for as something as little is spraying the windscreen! filling the tank up is what you were meant to do, dont know why it could have been empty in the first place.. i get abit of vibration on the gear stick, dont know if its normal or not, and how the spare wheel got full of water sounds very odd aswell...

 

[tommo]

rev drop is normal, gearstick vibration is normal, mine and my mums does it, and for the boot, no idea sorry matey!

 

[maddave]

Thanks all! Glad to hear most of my questions are nothing to worry about! Thought it best to ask though as my girlfriend will kill me if it turns out I got her a dud! I bought the car on a number of recommendations saying how great micras are and on the 40 mile drive I had with it back from buying it, it certainly was fun! Here is a pic of the car:

I am going to keep an eye on the spare wheel well ( at least its living up to its name as a "well"!) to make sure it doesn't fill with water anymore. If it does I might just drill a small hole in the bottom to act as a drain tube, that is if I cant find the source of the leak first.

Thanks again.

 

[tommo]

if the gearstick vibration is excesssive, get it checked. thats all i'll say. looks clean mate, similar to mine before it got modded!

 

[richmicratwista]

there is already a drain hole in the well mate

looks just like my car did that

 

[squigbobble]

I am going to keep an eye on the spare wheel well ( at least its living up to its name as a "well"!) to make sure it doesn't fill with water anymore. If it does I might just drill a small hole in the bottom to act as a drain tube, that is if I cant find the source of the leak first.

Thanks again.

I think the tube for the rear windscreen washer runs along the boot floor but I'm not sure 'cos my memory's pants :upside:; lift the boot carpet thing up and look for a clear plastic pipe held down with clips. If it does, it could've split and be leaking the water. As rich mentioned, there's already a drain hole in the wheel well, it plugged by a 5 inch rubber bung which just pushes out. I used it when I hosed out my wheel well (very carefully!).

 

[Swiper]

welcome to the club!
if you turn up the idle slightly on the throttle body, that should sort your vibration. (6mm allen key, located on the left-rear corner of tb if looking from front of engine bay. iirc its clock-wise to turn up, it'll only need a fraction of a turn).
anti-freeze should be fine now you've topped it up. nothing to worry about.
as for water in well, i agree with squigbobble, if rear washer pipe is in that area.