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Project Micra

Hi

Just bought myself a cracking little K11 :cool:

1.0 16V manual.3 door.57k miles.12 months MOT,6 months TAX.New clutch kit just fitted.completely standard throughout.2 owners from new,last owner for 12 years!

Very clean inside and out and in perfect running order mechanically.

Not planning on keeping anything standard so decided to start my own build thread.Im not really into speed or performance but more cosmetic style mods.

Heres to a great project so please check back for updates! :D

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OK,not really a update as such but ive just serviced the car.i always like to service a new car plus if i do it myself i have job satisfaction and know its been done right too :D

4 new NGK spark plugs
new air filter
new oil filter
Castrol GTX Magnatec 10w-40

took about 45 mins to do and jobs a good one! ;)
 
today i fitted a cig lighter so i can run my hands free kit in the car :)

all wiring was already there so only took me 5 mins to fit and works a treat
 
this afternoon i decided to drain and flush the cooling system as the coolant in there was actually brown! :eek:
so now ive got nice fresh blue coolant in the there and the heaters are really toasty warm in the car too :D

also used half a can of carb cleaner to clean inside throttle body as it was slightly coked up.

so now only thing thats left to do is the fuel filter and the old girl has had a complete overhaul lol.

seems to run alot better now anyway than it did when i first got it a few days ago.
 
I am incredibly envious of the colour! haha. I ended up with a white one, grown to like it now though.

good thing that you are sorting out the mechanics first. Our plans for our cars sound very similar.
 
I am incredibly envious of the colour! haha. I ended up with a white one, grown to like it now though.

good thing that you are sorting out the mechanics first. Our plans for our cars sound very similar.

haha honestly in real life its gleaming red.not a hint of paint fade anywhere! does not have a spot of rust on the body work and underneath is very strong and clean too,even in the usual suspect places its solid.does have a few little scratches here and there.worst bit of the car is the bonnet,there is a dent about the size of a fist.looks like the bonnet was opened up and maybe a garage door or something has come down on it? this weekend (or before if i get the chance to spare a few hours) im going to give her a good wash and then treat the paintwork to brighten it up even more and protect it.:)

and yeah,i always like to make sure a car is in atleast half decent mechanical condition before i start modifying them.no point in doing things backwards lol.:)
 
well today i spent nearly 6 hours washing and t-cutting the car!

all nooks and cranny's are now squeaky clean,behind all arch's are free of dirt and mud,all window seals cleaned and the paint work is gleaming!

all little spots of tar from the road removed from bonnet,doors and even the roof and all black plastic parts waxed with plastic wax.99% of scratches and marks on the paint have gone too.all windows cleaned inside and out and tyres also been blacked with tyre polish.

i must say it looks like brand new inside and out now and i have very sore fingers and red hands from the effort i put in today lol.;)

only thing left to do,as its too dark now,is to wax the paintwork to protect all my hard work.will post some pics tomorrow so please check back then :D
 
after taking the little one to school this morning i stopped in the park to take a few snaps of the car,picture quality is not the best as it was of a mobile phone camera.Plus it was grey and overclouded so the deep gloss red paintwork does not show up aswell as i was hoping.Also please dont laugh at my mobile phone in the phone holder on the dash lol.:D

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Very smart mate, if you sprayed the steels, it'd look brand new :).

funny you should say that lol,was just talking to the mrs today about spraying them.im thinking white wheel with a black center cap.......
 
funny you should say that lol,was just talking to the mrs today about spraying them.im thinking white wheel with a black center cap.......

YES! Was just about to tell you to go white before i saw this post. Black centres might be a little too dark for the rest of the car, how about polished centres ? ;)
 
YES! Was just about to tell you to go white before i saw this post. Black centres might be a little too dark for the rest of the car, how about polished centres ? ;)

haha! well i could always spray the center caps black and if it looked too much always do them white. they are plastic the center caps so how would i get them polished/shiny? or are polished/shiny caps available to buy as a separate item?
 
Just when it looked for a few months like everbody was finding white ones a brace of AJ4's crop up.

Your's look especially smart.

white is all the rage at the moment i totally agree,and not many people like red cars because they go pink but for a 15 year old car its as red as the day it left the factory and does look really nice in the flesh.cheers :)
 
Today i drained the gearbox oil and refilled with 3L of fresh gearbox oil,as i noticed sometimes the gear change was a little stiff,and now after a 5 mile test drive the gear change is silky smooth so all good there then :)
 
Keep it factory stock and clean, it's becoming rarer and rarer nowadays :) A silver coat on the weels and a bit of special product for recolor the seats and it will be 2012 mintest L K11
 
also i fixed my squeaky winder wipers today too as i originally thought it was the actual wiper blades (hence replacing them) but it was actually the spline/nut area that holds the wipers on that was at fault.Plenty of WD40 and white grease have cured the problem.
 
rewired radio earth as had no dash/tail lights as previous owner had earthed radio to illumination wire and also removed rear window seal as it had shrunk and was all tatty anyway.seen as rear window is bonded/sealed in place hopefully there will be no leaks.

also discovered a very small (hardly nothing) oil leak today,im not sure if its just excess that is sat on the driveshafts/front arms/etc and dripping off from changing engine and gearbox oil other day?
 
I was wondering if the bubble sticker on the boot was a genuine Nissan?

you mean the little car sticker? i have seen this sticker on other (but not all) micras so i would have assumed its standard.

not really bothered if its standard or not anyway as when i get a spare min both the ''car'' and ''micra'' stickers are getting took off with our lasses hairdryer :)
 
You might have guessed Delboy that Seb is a bit of a stickler for Micra originalness (I've just invented a word - yay!) :D.
 
Ha, ha! Ps. There's no way you invented the word "bum", pretty sure I've heard it before :p.
 
You might have guessed Delboy that Seb is a bit of a stickler for Micra originalness (I've just invented a word - yay!) :D.
That's not like if I already bought spare OEM K11 stickers on Ebay:rolleyes: Ok, I've already done it... :D
 
just bought 4 T5 286 red L.E.D dash bulbs now ive got my dash/clock lights working so when im driving at night ill have a nice red glow to match the color of the car.oh and also bought a battery isolator switch too so i can use it when im working on the car electrics and also doubles as a anti theft device.the battery isolator comes with a in-line fuse so every time i use it it will not lose any settings for the radio/clock :)

links here if anyone wants them?

Dash bulbs: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170729025049?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Battery isolator: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/360417760625?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649
 
fitted my new LED dash/speedo bulbs today.nice red glow at night now :)

pic shows all needles as been abit off color/not showing properly but they are a nice bright white against the red in the flesh

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Now ive got the car all serviced up and running sweet aswell as a good clean/t-cut and polish i have decided that due to the low level of security fitted (apart from NATS) to my car it would be wise to install a alarm system of some sort to help protect my micra so i have purchased this

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/140508790120?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2648

a scorpion alarm system with remote central locking upgrade kit.(the remote locking will be handy seen as my micra only has manual locks :))

before i really start modifying the micra i really want to make sure the car is running sweet (hence full major service) and looks good (hence 6 hour cleaning session) and atleast have some sort of additional security fitted to it.i dont see the point in spending £££s on modifying it if its easy to steal.I have installed many of similar kits before to other cars so should have no major difficulty installing this to my micra.i do expect this to take me a few hours for a good/secure/well laid out and planned install so it should keep me busy for a while once the kit arrives.

I do have a fuel cut off switch fitted to the car too aswell as a battery isolator switch which all help to deter theft.

Once i have installed the kit i can then start on actually modifying the micra with a little peace of mind that it should still be sat outside my house when i wake up every morning:)
 
nice lights.,,,,,one of the best things you could do ,alarm with door open/close system

thanks.

to me it makes sense to secure it abit more before i spend £££s on it in modifying it.Its abit like spending money on making a car quicker and people always forget about brakes lol.to me personally it just makes sense to try and get it all running right then looking right and then secure before spending money on modifying it.

either way,it can only be a good thing im sure and the alarm has a few nice features too like auto door locking when you drive away,silent arm/disarm,starter cut off,perimeter guarding,shock sensor and auto re-arm aswell as the added bonus of remote central locking for convenience.
 
Well today,ive part managed to get the alarm system installed and working.got the ''brain'' and all wiring for alarm routed through the car,also got shock sensor wired up and working and got the indicators to flash when arming/disarming the alarm.all working great :)

tomorrow (weather/time permitting) i shall install the remote central locking side of the system and should have fully functioning remote locking which arms/disarms alarm at the same time :)

then need to fit all the little add on accessories :)
 
How did you get the indicators to flash? I gave up on mine as I couldn't find the correct wire/relay, it seemed to be deep within the dash:(

i wired it to the hazard switch,i did not even need to cut any wiring in the cars loom to do it either.i simply pushed the wires that make the indicators flash into the multiplug on the back of the hazard switch and there a nice tight fit too.your wiring may be different tho if you have a the facelift k11?
 
Today i spent the best part of 6 hours installing the central locking kit to the micra.longest part was routing and securing the the wiring nice and safe and away from moving parts/hazards.

So now ive got full remote central locking that arms and disarms the alarm at the same time! :)

ive also managed to program the door locks to automatically lock when i start the car and automatically unlock when i take the key out of the ignition too :D

just got a few more bits and bobs to add to the alarm system and its all done! :)

ive got very sore knees from kneeling on the pavement all day long tho now haha
 
i wired it to the hazard switch,i did not even need to cut any wiring in the cars loom to do it either.i simply pushed the wires that make the indicators flash into the multiplug on the back of the hazard switch and there a nice tight fit too.your wiring may be different tho if you have a the facelift k11?

Thank you delboy. I tried the back of the hazard switch but with no luck, the switch is different but the loom's similar so maybe I missed something lol. I'll have to give it another go when I get the time.
 
Thank you delboy. I tried the back of the hazard switch but with no luck, the switch is different but the loom's similar so maybe I missed something lol. I'll have to give it another go when I get the time.

on the back of my hazard switch is about 8 wires that go into the actual plug on the rear of the hazard switch.i cant remember which color wires i taped into but because there was only 8 or so wires i just tried one at a time and then got out of the car and armed/disarmed the alarm to see if any of the indicators flashed.at first i got one side flashing but not the other so i figured out which wire was making one side of the indicators work and then moved the other wire to another terminal and found the other terminal i needed pretty quick through trial and error.

i did not actually cut into any wires for the hazard switch i simply exposed some of the wire from the alarm that makes the indicators flash,twisted the copper wire around,bent it over on itself and jammed it into the correct terminal on the actual multiplug of the hazard switch and its a nice tight fit so wont come out unless i tug it very hard.plus with it been on the rear of the hazard switch its not exactly going to get accidentally pulled out or anything because you have to remove the center console to get to it.

you only other option is to wire it direct to the indicator bulbs in the headlamps.there is only 2 wires going to the indicator bulb any way so it might be easier to figure out which wire to tap into.however i assume you will need to extend the alarm wiring to reach the indicators and you will most likely need to tap into both left and right front indicators to get both sides working? hence me doing it straight to the hazards as i new all the wiring i needed would be at the rear of the switch due to the hazard switch controlling all the indicators.

hope this makes sense.cant beat having the lights flashing,looks great plus it can be used for finding the car in a busy carpark if you forgot where you parked lol.

i was also going to tap into the headlight wiring so that the headlights come on when arming/disarming but decided against it as it would probably look daft? although it would be handy at night for a DIY version of ''guide me home'' lighting that is used on modern cars for lighting up your driveway/house/street or wherever your parked up to aid you in the dark for a few seconds.
 
Today i drained the gearbox oil and refilled with 3L of fresh gearbox oil,as i noticed sometimes the gear change was a little stiff,and now after a 5 mile test drive the gear change is silky smooth so all good there then :)
Do you have any pics for changing to gear box oil. ( drain plug and refill? )
 
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