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My K11 1.0 Vibe (2002)

Hey there,

I passed my test just a week ago and I’ve just bought my K11 1.0 Micra Vibe. My reason for choosing a Micra is that I had one once before when I was around 16 just to ‘do-up’ and sell on and whilst owning it I fell in love with them! They’re great little cars which speak for themselves and have every aspect of being a great, all-round car.

This thread is going to be a journey throughout my ownership of the car and I’ll list what I do to it, how it performs and any other details that people would like to know!

Thank you very much for reading and I hope you enjoy what you see.

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Having passed my test last Wednesday (a week ago today) first time with only one minor (!) I instantly put down my deposit on the car. But as you can see it’s got a private number plate (which has landed the car the name of ‘Mr G’), and the owner wanted to take it off and so I’ve had to wait around 8 days (it should be finished at the weekend) to actually get the car in my own hands.

It’s a great example of a K11, with only 29,000 miles and a very clean underside.

It was apparently previously owned by a driving instructor and so has dual controls which I’ll make a post following the removal of them!

More to come


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Lots has happened to my little Micra! Having collected it on the Tuesday I decided to get right away with an oil change, I used Castrol GTX 10W40 to ensure that the engine remains properly maintained.
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Rather stupidly I forgot to change the oil filter however. The same evening I had a bit of trouble... I found myself caught on a hedge and sadly snapped my original bumper in half. Having sourced a bumper in a local body shop after having scanned various scrapyards I found one and bought the correct paint (Z01).

The next job was to remove the dual controls from the car as it was, as previously mentioned, an instructors car. This went very smoothly and it feels great to have them removed.
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The new bumper arrived today! Had to go to a local body shop, Calvers, to pick it up.

Also having picked up the paint yesterday I thought a rushed attempt to fix up the car and get the new bumper on was called for.
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Off the old bumper came and out came the new one.
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As the new bumper was already primed I used 800 grade sandpaper to sand it down and then wiped it clean using a basic cloth.
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The first coat of paint was on and it was looking great! Not as metallic as I’d have liked but it’s the first time I’ve attempted any kind of bodywork and I was on a very limited time schedule hence the hair drier.
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Once I’d added one base coat of Z01 Lazuli blue paint I sanded it down using a 1500 grit sandpaper. And then another coat! I added 3 coats of Simoniz lacquer after this to finish it off.
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The photos aren’t the best but after the painting and topcoat I went and put the bumper on. It’s on safely but when I have more time I’ll properly secure it with ALL of the bolts and clips. At the moment there are 6 main bolts. The bumper will again be off and fitted properly after a good old paint.

Not a bad job for two hours!




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Decided to give the interior a bit of a clean this evening which for some reason reminded me that I also need to change my fuel filter.
Here’s a photo of the boot, very clean indeed, the photo doesn’t do it justice.
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I went about starting the fuel filter change and of course needed to remove the fuel pump fuse...
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The fuel filter itself didn’t seem in bad condition, however as the new owner of the car I thought I’d change it out anyway. Before anyone asks... YES, the hoses were difficult to remove.
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I cut my hand pretty badly from constant friction of trying to remove it from the top hose... well worth it though!

And here’s the end product. The new filter looks fresher than the old one and will do a great job. Nothing fancy, just a Halfords own fuel filter but great nonetheless.
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Tomorrow is going to be the big day... Mr G is going to hit 30,000 miles!!
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A happy Micra at the end of a long but enjoyable evening.
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Very nice ,
Would recommend getting the factory spec upgrades, makes the car abit better but without any modification really ,plug and play for most, tho opinions re of the owner
Have you checked the under side for any rust or such? Millage , age, history etc don't count for rust of I'm honest ,
if your bord ,just have a peep at my blog ,
 
Very nice ,
Would recommend getting the factory spec upgrades, makes the car abit better but without any modification really ,plug and play for most, tho opinions re of the owner
Have you checked the under side for any rust or such? Millage , age, history etc don't count for rust of I'm honest ,
if your bord ,just have a peep at my blog ,

That’s for the tip! Yeah I’ve checked for rust and it’s completely clean... a real great example of a K11


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Tweeters, rear speakers, pop out windows, front fogs, either almera or oem vented discs, chrome kit, almera airbox, rear pockets, split rear seats , head rests, boot/fuel release, mud flapts, headlight covers, spoilers (3 of them) taco clocks, mats, wind deflectors, electric mirrors, almera/terrano wiper stalk, leather steering wheel, anti roll bar (yep an option),sill/boot guards,abs, airbag seats, stainless backbox, remote locking CD player, sport (auto models) parking sensors, alloys, preface - rear discs, shorter steering rack, fold flat rear seats, till the coil pack micra nearly everything was a option, and there's lots more,some are.very rare the. You get into the march, that's got a lot more options as well
 
Tweeters, rear speakers, pop out windows, front fogs, either almera or oem vented discs, chrome kit, almera airbox, rear pockets, split rear seats , head rests, boot/fuel release, mud flapts, headlight covers, spoilers (3 of them) taco clocks, mats, wind deflectors, electric mirrors, almera/terrano wiper stalk, leather steering wheel, anti roll bar (yep an option),sill/boot guards,abs, airbag seats, stainless backbox, remote locking CD player, sport (auto models) parking sensors, alloys, preface - rear discs, shorter steering rack, fold flat rear seats, till the coil pack micra nearly everything was a option, and there's lots more,some are.very rare the. You get into the march, that's got a lot more options as well
I’m interested in about half those things... and probably about 10 years too late to find any of it in newish condition ?
 
What you after like?

Already stripped it out and installed a decent sound system with tweeters & looking at adding rear speakers, picked up an Almera airbox & calipers, a set of green taco clocks as well as alloys (off of you ;) ).

Looking for front fogs as well as a wrap around for sure and maybe a rear axle with discs if I ever come across one in reasonable nick.

I can't find any pictures of fold flat / split rear seats. is there really much difference between fold flat and the generic almost fold flat seats?
 
Nothing major today. Just changed the front two wiper blades and got some interior mats from Halfords... not too sure about them! (The seats are wet because I cleaned a bit of dirt off of them)
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They’re not bad! I guess it’s only got 30k miles on it though... probably why. Also it was an instructors car so again, i guess it had to be kept clean!


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Did a little bit of shopping today... nothing too extreme!
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The grommets are for a hole left by a mount for the dual controls which is located in the bulkhead. Thought I’d clean up front and back number plates too as well as finally securing that bumper!

I cleaned the number plate down with some of the girlfriend’s nail polish remover, and it wasn’t looking too bad for the original plates!
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I also bored out the holes left by previous screws slightly to give a better fit on the new screws and mounts.
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I removed the rear number plate which was being held on by duck tape I’d doubled over, and as I’d guessed it was full of adhesive marks and scratches!
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I’ll clean up the rest of it tomorrow and fix up the hole in the bulkhead as well as fit the rear number plate!
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The first job this morning was to remove the old adhesive pads from the number plate and clean it up a little bit.
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After wiping it down it was then simply a case of sticking the new pads onto the plate and then onto Mr G! They look much cleaner and it’s more reassuring knowing that there’s a proper adhesive holding my number plate up. I love the plates as they’re the originals... still with the dealership logo at the bottom.
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My boot handle is quite loose on one side also... I took the interior panel out and both screws were as tight as anything. Is it a case of just gluing it back on externally?
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That’s annoying! It’s not on the top of my to-do list so I’ll probably leave it for a while. Cheers for telling me! I’ll just use some Evo-Stik for the meantime I think


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yeah it's a micra thing lol.
Sorry I've been busy.and sleep, I've only got a set of 16 inch note wheels but the y would need 40/45 profile tyres.and a.refurb, I may just scrap them as bad a lot of time wasters.with them,
 
No problem then mate, thanks for replying though... looking for some 14 inches. If you find any for under £100 please let me know!!


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Only know of 1 oem set at a.local scrapyard from a 98/99 model those were £80
Cannot even remember what the tyres were like , scrap down atm so may worth a look at the local scrapys
 
Only know of 1 oem set at a.local scrapyard from a 98/99 model those were £80
Cannot even remember what the tyres were like , scrap down atm so may worth a look at the local scrapys

I did look at local scrappy’s but believe it or not... there’s ONE K11 locally!


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Hiya. Nice to meet you!

Wow, seriously clean car. Such a shame about the bumper but you’ve done a great job repairing it.

You’ve also reminded me I need to service my car haha!
 
Hiya. Nice to meet you!

Wow, seriously clean car. Such a shame about the bumper but you’ve done a great job repairing it.

You’ve also reminded me I need to service my car haha!

Hey Max! Thank you very much... I’m really proud of it. Yeah, the bumper is still a ‘temporary’ fix but once it’s properly sorted it should be almost unnoticeable.

You should definitely do that! I’m loving your ‘Kerry’ also... very clean. The private plate makes it look that little bit cleaner- I need to get ahold of one sooner or later!


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Thank you. She’s not bad considering she has 70k MORE on her than Mr G!

Looking forward to the updates vin :)
 
Just buffed the grey trim up a little bit this afternoon, nothing too major. They look much better though, smoother too!
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Mr G got his face sorted today! Just got to find a way of squeezing those fog light trims back in... they don’t seem to fit! It’s a lot nicer now the bumper is nice and flush, makes the car look a lot neater.
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New tyres today! Cost me £226. Had to change them as although the thread was perfectly fine, they were beyond perished as they were apparently the ORIGINAL tyres. Tracking was done as well as a free winter check.

Expensive but worth it in the long run.
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New tyres today! Cost me £226. Had to change them as although the thread was perfectly fine, they were beyond perished as they were apparently the ORIGINAL tyres. Tracking was done as well as a free winter check.

Expensive but worth it in the long run.
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Bloody hell, thought mine were dear at £186 for 4 brand new continental eco contact 5 ,that are also a odd size, tho reminds me i need to doing my tracking it's just a wee bit out from lowering it , tho good to seen someone going off condition not tread
Tho, I took a 2012 continental tyre in last year for a plug and claimed.it was rotten, what.they did was to off the date lol, only thing was a few.scuffs and a self rapper in the center.of tyre, they wanted to just bin, and charge £70 for a new or cheap tyres ...
 
Bloody hell, thought mine were dear at £186 for 4 brand new continental eco contact 5 ,that are also a odd size, tho reminds me i need to doing my tracking it's just a wee bit out from lowering it , tho good to seen someone going off condition not tread
Tho, I took a 2012 continental tyre in last year for a plug and claimed.it was rotten, what.they did was to off the date lol, only thing was a few.scuffs and a self rapper in the center.of tyre, they wanted to just bin, and charge £70 for a new or cheap tyres ...

£186 for Continentals?! Everything locally was at least £55 for Continentals or even Hankooks which would make it obviously £220 for the 4. But as I said I needed tracking so I’m glad that’s done anyway...


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Also the tyres that can off would have been dated, we're they crack or dry rotted,
Just wondering, some places now try to rip anyone off for a sale
 
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