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PollyMobiles Rebuild

here's some alloys i found interesting

15" Speedline 2108 CS Silver - £136 per wheel!

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15" OZ Racing Superturismo WRC White - £145 per wheel!

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wayy too expensive at the mo, tyres are not cheap either and add the pulsar brake upgrade on top. i think i'll keep these 13" on for a while.
 
here's some alloys i found interesting

15" Speedline 2108 CS Silver - £136 per wheel!
View attachment 14870

15" OZ Racing Superturismo WRC White - £145 per wheel!
View attachment 14871

wayy too expensive at the mo, tyres are not cheap either and add the pulsar brake upgrade on top. i think i'll keep these 13" on for a while.
Not an awful price though - I saw some in Halfords (yeah, I know :D) for over €1000... just... what the hell?? :suspect:
 
hey thanks maily. had a look at few rotas and got my eye on a white or gunmetal with polished lip rota grid.

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cheapest i found are a set from lambodoorkits.co.uk for 380quid without tyres which could be another 200+ quid

my wallet has suddenly ran away
 
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recently i noticed the front left wheel was slightly knocking once per turn whenever i braked from 30mph. i thought it was abit of disc edge rust agaihst the pad/caliper but found it was actually the left CV boot thats split open and the ungreased CV is knocking when unloaded and braking.

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so got new boot

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cleaned and regreased the CV

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rebooted

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the little toolbag thats usually tied closed usually ends up with the wheelnut lock key popping out through the side gaps and the bag has also hardened over the years. so i ironed the bag flat which also softened it back up too, and stuck some velcro on. much secure and neater now.

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other day setting off for work i had a dumb moment getting out the garage as i turned too early and slightly scraped the side against the metal shutters. Grrrr

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the fuel gauge that never reaches full mark when its brimmed was bugging me. even when full i could hear it sloshing when i rock the car so something in the tank is causing this air gap. i thought my breather pipe was kinked again or that its leaking and causing the gauge to go down overnights. i brought a draper syphon hand pump while i got the CV boot and it works much better than that jiggle syphon crap.

took out tank

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the conduit pipe mod i did was totally hardened solid now, had to cut it half before i could get the tank out. all pipes were intact and flowed fine. think i'll replace this breather pipe properly, so i rang everywhere for a 20mm rubber hose 14mm bore (gave mom a sample of hose to help me out when she was out about) and absolutely no one i rang stocks that big a hose, twas near impossible to find on the day. then mom rang that she found some and it was a heater hose from partco who earlier said to me they had nothing that size?
how the heck do women find things easier than guys like me?

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fitted

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ok the pipes are all fine so i wanna check the fuel gauge system itself is working. took out the fuel sensor, ign ON, move it from low to full. the gauge slowly moves up but as usual doesn't quite reach full, i know this sensor is at full and i recently cleaned it so the gauge needle must be sticky.

reassembled all

took instrument cluster out, removed the front cover, and to take the dial clusters out you simply unbolt them at the back

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and pull the cluster out (i used to think they were soldered onto the back circuit there)

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twas impossible to pull the needle out the shaft so thats staying there but i thought the fuel gauge needle was abit stiff campared to the tacho, eng temp and speedo. so i spun it about and it seemed as though the grease was quite viscous initially, then got looser the more i twirled it. reassembled, ign ON and now the looser gauge just Twangs into action. it actually dips abit when i first turn on ignition and the pump is sucking away and also bops up/down as the sensor float bops up & down when i rock the car back & forth.
thats sorted now
 
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common fault with the cv boot splitting. what alloya have you chosen then?

the boots only been replaced since i restored this car back in may, they don't last very long.

i like the Rota Grid in a rally looking white and the classier looking gunmetal with polished lip but the prices are abit beyond me at the mo.

dunno wether to go back to me 13" avons when these yokos are gone soon or to blow a load (almost upto the value of the car) upgrading to these rotas with some toyos and pulsar brakes
 
found a set of toyos t1-r from camskill for £125 delivered
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anyone used these before?

how much would a pair of pulsar calipers, prob new discs & pads cost from?
 
i'm really feeling for the white rota grids at the mo. saw some on McCheungs black facelift and looks mint

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talking to me m8, i thought may as well get them cos it'd happen eventually and £500 for alloys & tyres sounded reasonable to him compared to how much much his modeo saloon tyres cost. so plan is changing to rotas and toyos when the yokos have gone
 
The white Grids are very nice! Remember alot of these wheel retailers do offer finance :D Im currently debating wether or not to treat my SR to some black and chrome GT3's.

As for calipers you could pick up a set for £60 of of the 'bay and new discs and pads could range anything from £50 upwards depending on the quality your after.(Y)
 
great great blog fella....regarding the sunroof drain pipes... i have done it on my 2 door front and rear, but now me brother wants his doing and he has a 4 door.
the fronts are easy, but i aint got a clue how or where the rears are routed. any tips, pointers how to get access to the rear pipes....

cheers andy
 
andy i believe the rear drain pipe just drains straight out under the boot/rear bumper area. peak under the back bumper near the chassis rail beam and there's a rubber drain tube
 
oh i just can't wait, prob gona order the rims and tyres at the weekend :p
emailed the alloy company about fitting the t1-r rather than economy tyres and if they can match the £125 from the other tyre place.

prob end up cheaper getting them seperately
£380 alloys
£125 tyres
£10-15 fitting?
 
just saw some pulsar brakes for sale on almera club that frank pointed out for £75 delivered. well interested

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just needs a simple washer to fit correctly right? wonder if my master cylinder'll be sufficient

gona ring that lambodoorskit.co.uk tomorrow to check if they have the alloys with t1r's and if its possible to pick em up on sat (prob not)
 
ya think i should also upgrade the master cylinder? do pulsars or that group of model have abs?

wonder if it'll hinder heel n toeing if the pedal stops too low below the acc. if its only slight, i could prob adjust the acc pedal travel

i just popped Paul in the post (not literally :p)
 
baguete used a primera gt master cylinder eh paul, i would see how they feel first, personally

Yes, i used Primera GT master cylinder (not a direct fit, used some braided brake lines), but the initial pedal travel sits a little lower, but when it reaches the point where it starts to brake stronger it feels very tight... Not sure if Primera GT master cylinder gives better brake performance, but until now i dont have any problems and im very happy with this new brake system.
 
phoned the alloy wheel guy, he couldn't match the £125 tyre price so i ordered them seperately now. they guy rang me to remind me that paying via Ccard has 2% surcharge but debit card doesnt... 5mins after i placed the order online! (extra £83). its mainly a web order company so can't collect but i will be driving down to essex tomorrow to check the gtir brakes'll fit.
alloys n tyre will arrive early next week then take to garage to fit.

i'll see how the pedals sit baguete then mod if needed. did your primera cylinder have 2 or 4 outputs? my older 1993 slx non-abs cylinder had 4 outputs going directly to each wheel whereas the abs cylinder has 2 outputs going to the abs module where it further splits into the 4 channels. i'd imagine it'll be a mission to change the master cylinder as it'll prob require new pipes to be made from cylinder to abs module.
 
i'll see how the pedals sit baguete then mod if needed. did your primera cylinder have 2 or 4 outputs? my older 1993 slx non-abs cylinder had 4 outputs going directly to each wheel whereas the abs cylinder has 2 outputs going to the abs module where it further splits into the 4 channels. i'd imagine it'll be a mission to change the master cylinder as it'll prob require new pipes to be made from cylinder to abs module.

My Primera GT master cylinder has 4 outputs. I think you can use only 2 outputs, one of the rears and one of the fronts, and blank the other 2. Same as 200SX guys that fit 300ZX master cylinder. I only needed 3 braided lines to adapt it to stock pipes. And really dont remember if the outputs go to the correct lines, but its working fine until now.
 
here's an update

the brake pedal seemed to rest too high since the rebuild. the pedal had to be screwed almost to the end of the master cylinder shaft in order to press the brake switch. so i stuck some double sided pads then i could screw the pedal back in.

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i went down to essex to check out the pulsar brakes on saturday. measured the mounting bracket holes and it was 130mm across. damn, larger than the 114mm i measured. ok headed back home.

2miles later i thought why wouldn't it fit cos i read many times it would be a straight swap, couldn't yet this oppurtunity go. then i realised the 114mm was the rear caliper mount not the front! so did a quick u-turn, remeasured my front caliper mount, 130mm so it does fit. paid £50 and went back home.

heavy vented discs

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rear caliper vs pulsar front caliper

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time to rebuild them. to get the piston out i used a foot pump, put some ducktape over the nozzle to get a good seal

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one of the boot was damaged

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pistons abit rusted n seized, needs cleaning

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and peel out the old boot

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the pads were mintex mdb 1920

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all cleaned

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for a moment i didn't know what this clip was. it didn't push against anything, then i found on mintex website its the wear indicator

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caliper & mount grinded

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primed & painted

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the 15" rota grid racing rims arrived, well nice

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and the toyo proxes t1r, with just enough time after work to fit the tyres on new rims for £30 at kwikfit.

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centre hole was too big so fitted the supplied adapter

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new GTIR caliper rebuild kit arrived from ebay, £32

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soaked seals beforehand

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to fit the new guidepin rubber boot, the red plug is put over a rod like a drillbit to stop it from puncturing the boot

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new boot is lubed and sloted into the hole then push it all the way through, quite tricky

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fit new boot & new seals

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rebuilt

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gave the disc a good wirebrushing & paint

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new vs old disc, marginally larger diameter but wayy thicker & heavier

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look at that :) real nice rally lookin although gotta get used to the fact they get dirty the instant i use the brakes

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bedded in the brakes. abs kicks in now and they really grab now when pushed. pedal only slightly lower, same feel, abit spongier cos of the small master cylinder vs larger piston requiring more travel when it bites.

problem when i hit the motorway is the steering vibrates slightly. wonder if its the rotors that unbalanced. rang people around bout some stock GTIR disc and they quoted from £80 pair, rediculous. so ordered new grooved GTIR discs off ebay £60.

tday the front centre caps have popped off the alloys from the excess heat during the beddin in, have to find some new ones now :(

big issue at the moment.

i rang elephant afterwards bout the brake upgrade but they told me they cant add anymore mods than the current 6 mods, wtf? BAH!!

so i ended up leaving the insurance as it is and had to put the stock brakes back on, what a farce.

ok so i have to look for another insurance who can support this much mod. rang almost everyone and almost all of them can't handle the 9 mods i'll have that is:

rear spoiler
alloys
sports seat
lowered
swaybar
manifold
exhaust system
cd player
and brakes

i just get passed from one call centre to the other, took all day & night.
how the friggin heck am i suppose to insure this car, seems impossibly difficult n hopeless. guess they dont want the business

the only one who can do it was Chaucer via sky insurance who quoted £371 TPFT and banged on £21 legal cover free, really good compared to £430 i'm on at the moment with elephant.
rang elephant bout cancelling and they said its £47 cancellation fee and refund back £261 of the £430 i paid even though i'm only 1/4 way through, so really they're grabbing upto £107 outa me just to cancel it. gona have to do it to fit these brakes

i'm expecting more calls from the other high performance car insurers tomorrow cos they only work during my work hours, which is inconvenient for the quiet office i work at. can only call them during my lunch. see how it goes
 
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The hell, you're basically penalised by the insurer for adding better brakes? Surely they should lower the insurance since you can stop quicker in an emergency ;)
 
they're penalising me for having tooo many mods :(
how do people with big modded scoobies or supras or endlessly modded cars do it?
stopping power certainly improved with big brakes and especially the wider, lower stickier tyres
 
take rear spoiler off the list, hardly a performance enhancing mod is it? the manifold and exhaust should be covered under 'exhaust modifications' and id personally take the cd player off the list also. many insurers are only bothered about performance enhancing mods.
 
does it not invalid the claim if i don't declare them?

all sorted. i rang chriss knott, gave em the discount ref # and Chaucers £371 quote. they could match that quote with same free legal cover but with only £150 excess rather than chaucers £250 excess.
set it up, rang elephant to cancel. can now slap me new brakes back on and new documents will come next week
 
installed a vinyl sunstrip today to stop the sun from blinding me between the sunvisors above the rear mirror.

marked and cut vinyl
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installing it was such a pain when one side was done but the other side was slightly off, then i had to unpeel it all and reangle it
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gona wait for the new brake discs to arrive before installing back the pulsar brakes.

since fitting the new alloys there was a slight steering vibration at high speed. i thought the heavy pulsar discs were unbalanced and throwing the light wheels off balance, but it was still there after fitting the stock brakes back on so it must be the wheels. went back to kwikfit to get em rebalanced, by a more experienced lad rather than the young 20odd newbie. sorted
 
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pulsar calipers were abit mucky from greasy hands and that the bare paint finish was too sticky so dirt just binds to it so i cleaned and repainted them then laquered them which seems to provide a smoother harder less tacky finish

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just plonked em on top of the boiler to speed up drying

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set of the old 13" nissan alloys stacked in corner of garage. will give em a clean and sell em soon, still has 3.5-5mm tread left

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oh btw forgot to mention weight.

The rota grid alloys were 6kg,
toyo t1r were 7.6kg,
valves were 0.2kg
totalling at 13.8kg each.

The old 13" nissan alloy with yoko a-drive was 14.2kg so saved 0.4kg each wheel. every little helps

will note the weight of the old vs new brake when fitting
 
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baring in mind the caliper paint now that you've laquered them you can t-cut them and polish/wax em after should keep cleaner for longer :)
Looking good! (Y)
 
baring in mind the caliper paint now that you've laquered them you can t-cut them and polish/wax em after should keep cleaner for longer :)
Looking good! (Y)

aye. wish the same could be said for the alloys cos they're gonna be hard work to keep clean. these brakes just blasts black dust at them after afew hard stops. waxed them the other day but found one of the front wheels insides not fully painted and rough so dirt just grips onto it.
 
i just weighed the new and old brake calipers/discs.

old caliper = 3.6kg (like my JUN UL flywheel)
old disc = 3.2kg
pulsar caliper = 4.6kg
pulsar vented discs = 6kg! (same as the Rota alloys) almost twice as heavy although they are technically twice the disc

the guide pin seemed to be gripping the new rubber seat too hard (no amount of grease works cos the tight fit just squeezes it out dry) prob cos the inside is slightly stretched and narrowed from the installation so i widened it abit with a 7mm drillbit till it slides smoothly. i tried various greases and most of them just get squezed dry and the guide pin just grips the rubber tube. so i tried engine oil and that works, the engine oil keeps the pin n rubber always lubed and could prob withstand and perform under high brake temps if it can withstand inside a firey engine

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caliper, pads and mount fitted with clean gloves this time

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fitted

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few low shots

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pic of the vinyl sunstrip

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whenever i took the new brakes out for bedding in, from cold the disc could be heard scrubbing against something every half turn like a really warped disc when i'm off the brake and silences when i brake. after a hard bedding in when the brakes heated up or the disc lip has worn enough paint off the inside of the caliper, the noise goes away.

took the caliper out and traced it to the disc being soo close to the caliper the slightest offset and the crusty rust at the rim made it rub against the inside of the caliper. releasing the brake to relax the caliper allows it to loosen and droop down at an angle towards the disc. when applying the brake it squeezes against the pads & disc which straightens the calipers position away from the disc.

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grinded the paint off the inside face and tried to rejig the caliper mount far away from the disc as i can.
tested again and the noise is still slightly there

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the scraping marks can be seen on the rusted disc lip so i grinded the rust away till smooth

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success, it works quietly now :) new disc'll prob arrive tomorrow but at least i could drive to work in the morning before it comes.

screwed the brake pedal further into the master cylinder shaft cos previously just locking it via the last few threads didn't seem sturdy enough incase i brake hard and the few threads couldn't hold. this would lower the pedal range and i also bent the brake sensor bracket abit closer to the pedal

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with a lower brake pedal i also lowered the accelerator by thickening the bumpstop with a bicycle brake pad ziptied to it and readjusted the throttle cable at the TB

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today i recorded how the tyre pressure affects the tread patch and plotted it in excel

pressure vs tyre patch.jpg
.
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the unsprung weight may have increased by 3.4kg, and the rotational mass increased by 2.4kg but the handling is so much more stable and the brakes can bite harder for longer. stiffened the rear swaybar setting and with the increased stable grip there's no more hint of understeer in the dry or moist tarmac at low speeds now, just neutral grip
 
having slight problem finding a replacement centre cap for the alloys. cant find any website that sells the dome type rota badge. only one i found was a californian company that only sells within USA. thought about buying a nissan wheel badge on ebay and bond it to a rubber basin plug but there's none that are big enough to fit the 52mm hole. gona ring lambodoorkits.co.uk if they sell em seperately
 
lambodoorkit didn't have any so ordered one from rarerims. now i have to figure what to put within the bore of the plastic clips to lock it in place and prevent them falling out again, like on my 13" nissan alloys they use a spring clip to push the fingers out to lock em as the centre hole varies with temperature.
 
Stock SuperS 13" steelies with standard 175/60/R13's on weight 12.8kgs each, i've not weighted a normal 13" steel with 155's on but I expect it's very close. A 15x7" OZ SL with a 195/45/R15 Toyo T1S weights also 12.8kgs and a 15x7" Enkei RPF1 with the same tyre comes in at 12.4kgs. The GTI-R discs however kill it, as the discs weight more than double the puny stock items hehehehe ;)
 
i weighed a rusty 155 steelie laying about and it's 10.6kg

parent missed the delivery of the centre cap & disc tday so i phoned the courier, they shut at 6pm and its 5.30, i'm 30mins away at least. shot outa the door and straight to the depot, just made it there bang on 6pm, got the centre cap. then drove to parcelforce to get me discs.

centre cap picked up

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grooved discs

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here's the ebay item #
180331766990

the discs weigh 6.4kg as opposed to the stock 6kg cos the vent is narrower hence more metal thickness & mass

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fitted. the grooves go clockwise for the RH side and counterclockwise for the LH

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on first test drive that familiar scraping sound comes back, oh ffs

back to garage, wheel off and again one side of the disc lip is rubbing on the caliper. so i rebolted the caliper mount as far away then tested again.

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was fine when cold but once the disc heats up it expands and begins to touch the caliper again :(

i measured the diameter of the micra hub (58.8mm), micra disc centre bore (58.8) and the stock pulsar disc centre bore (60.5mm)
it seems the bore of the pulsar disc is a fraction too big and so it sits slightly offset on the hub which may explain why the disc is scraping on the caliper and why the steering vibrates slightly even after a wheel rebalance. the caliper being sooo close to the disc doesn't help either.

so tomorrow i'll have to figure how to centre this disc on the hub by bout 0.5mm, maybe with a machined ring or most probably just abit of tape. then grind away the inside of the caliper a little bit.
not exactly a straight forward fit but just requires abit of adjustments
 
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