Newbie introduction and a few things to question

[maw]

Hi new to the Nissan Micra car world as Step daughter has just bought one. Picked up a reasonable condition 53 plate silver 5 door Micra 1.5dci SE with 109k on the clock FSH for £1550 from a dealer being a 10 year old car few niggles here n there looking through service history had a lot of work carried out in the past including a previous owner putting petrol in it!

Drove back from car dealer 170 miles away from home preformed excellent good fuel economy average 55mpg according to computer I was surprised how comfy the car was no wobbles or vibrations etc felt as smooth as the 1 series BMW I own this was after I learned that you need to press the brake to turn the key!

few niggles with it so purchased an electronic service manual.. found top strut mount was worn on drivers side knocking sound so I replaced that today sourced from ebay £25 bargain! and surprised how easy the bolts where to remove on a car this age expecting skin to be removed from my knuckles!

In service history found the following "battery is loose" did they fix it no??? luckily found old bracket in shed now secure

"Oil leak around Turbo replace Turbo ASAP" sounds a bit extreme to me seeing that was 12 k miles ago oil consumption is fine pick up seems ok. Noticed EGR valve was replaced in 2007 unfortunately they managed to break the heat shield underneath off I have so far been unable to find a replacement once found then will whip the valve off for a clean

Should I be worried about this leak around the turbo ?

Its due for an oil change so good quality fully synth oil will be used

now outstanding issues to be resolved

buzzing and high pitch squeaking noise from the passenger side whilst steering left (any ideas?)

drivers seat cushion frame has broke away at the rear, looking to source just the frame but on early investigation looks near impossible! any help would be great if anyone knows any sources there seems to be a lot of complete drivers seats out there of the wrong colour and going for over the top prices

One last thing to install is the after market stereo the Step daughter had in her KA so need to swap out the fronts any suggestions for recommended speakers as the 3 way ovals from the KA are not gonna fit in a round hole! just need a good sound being powered from an head unit will be fine

anyway that's enough work for me on this Micra for now no doubt the list will grow to keep it up together!

 

[Jen319]

Hello maw,
Welcome to the Forum
I too have a diesel K12 (mine's a 2005 sport+)

There are probably very few breakers willing to separate the seat cushions from the frame unless the seat/airbag has destroyed the cushion/fabric

you may simply have to keep an eye out for the right kind at the right price
...unless you can get a whole seat cheap enough (in any colour) and get the replacement frame from that yourself

The noise when turning sounds as if it's either a wheel bearing going/gone or possibly the suspension bushes (they are rubber and deteriorate, but I'm not sure they'd make that noise)

and...I'm not very good with stereo's...well changing them and the speakers anyway...
do you know how many speakers you have?...I have the full set front, rear and little tweeters in the A-pillar trim...which if you don't have you can take from another K12 and fit them to yours...relatively easily...and improves the sound quality quite a bit ^_^

there are guides and threads about that in the K12 section...somewhere...using the Search function in the top right of the page

by the way, I hope your Turbo is okay...as I've looked them up and they are pretty expensive

 

[maw]

Hello maw,
Welcome to the Forum
I too have a diesel K12 (mine's a 2005 sport+)

There are probably very few breakers willing to separate the seat cushions from the frame unless the seat/airbag has destroyed the cushion/fabric

you may simply have to keep an eye out for the right kind at the right price
...unless you can get a whole seat cheap enough (in any colour) and get the replacement frame from that yourself

The noise when turning sounds as if it's either a wheel bearing going/gone or possibly the suspension bushes (they are rubber and deteriorate, but I'm not sure they'd make that noise)

and...I'm not very good with stereo's...well changing them and the speakers anyway...
do you know how many speakers you have?...I have the full set front, rear and little tweeters in the A-pillar trim...which if you don't have you can take from another K12 and fit them to yours...relatively easily...and improves the sound quality quite a bit ^_^

there are guides and threads about that in the K12 section...somewhere...using the Search function in the top right of the page

by the way, I hope your Turbo is okay...as I've looked them up and they are pretty expensive

Hi thanks for the reply

I suspected the seat would be a problem on searching I found it seems to be an issue with earlier micra's esp 3 door when entering the car and kneeling on it to put stuff in the back etc the current frame is beyond repair totally sheered off and previous owner may of had a go and lost a lot of metal hopefully I will pick one up as the front bolts will sheer off soon and create a big safety issue!

on the steering front these are electro mechanical am I right? being in the IT game sounds like a squealing capacitor to me it doesn't seem to effect the steering performance on this car though. As I replaced the drivers side top mount I will replace the passengers side also soon.

Thinking back the noise seams to come from outside on the brakes. Sifting through the service history it's been in 3 times for passenger front brake binding so either calliper needs servicing or worse case the seal in the master cylinder has gone! I had this issue with a Megane years ago and that was the master cylinder the whole setup is the same suspension brakes etc from the megane from what I have seen so will probably come back to haunt me!

The turbo is a common unit as its the K9K Renault on past performance with Renaults I should of avoided it like the plague there again they was all petrols with electrical, gearbox, brakes and steering issues so I will give their diesels a chance! I have seen you can get an exchange unit for £150 plus, which is cheaper than the troublesome EGR valve above it! I noticed you can buy refurb kits for Turbo's and if its just the outer seal then maybe worth just replacing that I wouldn't replace the whole kit as I believe you cannot balance the turbo when you replace the bearings etc with such a kit and just destroy it.

The speakers has the tweeters in the A pillars I haven't checked what's in the back as yet but I know I will have the make up/buy adaptors to uprate the paper speakers to 2 or 3 ways in the front probably run the A pillar tweeters as well just to fill the front with sound. I will just run a head unit with these so simple plug n play set up. In the rear (if fitted) just fade to the front more as I have an amp and 8" tube to install and think about it later! she just wants noise in her car lol then the steering noise will disappear !

I can see a few busy weeks ahead for me!

 

[Jen319]

....I can see a few busy weeks ahead for me!

no kidding!

Sounds like you've got plenty of plans and idea's what to check...I hope the problems/niggles end up being easy/cheap fixes...

If the calliper unit is dodgy you could always get one off a breaking car?
thinking about it...my neighbours Insignia was apparently making an odd noise from the brakes, and not long after he'd had them changed at Kwick fit
...it turned out the guy who'd changed them had forgotten/not bothered to but the copper grease on the back of the new pads before putting them in place within the calliper
...my dad ended up sorting it for him, had to take off the wheel and unhook the calliper etc...get the pad back out and put a dash of grease on it, then put it all back together...noise?...gone ^_^

Yes, you're right, the power steering is electrical on these.

Gotta say you lost me in the speaker talk...I just know mine are good enough for me...but if you want a bit more oomph...get those standard ones out

Good luck with it, let us know how you get on, or if you need advice...or a shoulder to cry on etc....

 

[maw]

I think I will need to dig the copper grease out of the shed and give both sides a spruce up see what happens!

Speaker talk.... well learnt over the years how to get decent sounds for decent prices built a few systems in my cars over the years with the usual suspects Kenwood, Pioneer, Alpine etc audio equipment is so cheep now no need to spend over £1200 to make a quality noise when you can do it for £130! including head unit with MP3 / usb stick connections remote control, amp, sub, speakers and all the cables! I spent that on tweeters alone in the past!

If anyone is interested in updating there current system look for a British brand called bass face there on Ebay and have there own site most kit comes with 2 year warranty! (no I don't work for them) just surprised what you get for your money and it makes a good noise when installed properly (ok wont sound like thunder driving down the road that will draw attention!) Email the company with your requirements and they will make good suggestions with what you want

I will update you with pics once I obtain some front speakers and set some time to one side!

 

[Jen319]

Awesome

I will update you with pics once I obtain some front speakers and set some time to one side!

This is what we love here...make with the pictures already LOL