I've always found people's car history's really interesting - it gives you somewhat an insight into their story.
Here's my story...
1989 VN Commodore S - 4 speed auto
So my first car was handed down to me by my folks. Lot's of great memories in this one, tonnes of camping/fishing trips. She just seemed to eat up the KMs so effortlessly. The VN was grunty around town and ridiculously dangerous in the wet. She was on her last legs around '06, constantly leaking motor and power steering oil. Her final blow was a dead fuel pump - I couldn't justify paying for her repairs anymore and let her go on the back of a trailer for a grand.
2000 Honda Civic GLi - 4 speed auto
Tired of having an unreliable car, my next vehicle was on the other end of the spectrum - a tidy Honda Civic.
I actually still "co-own" this one with my brother. Apart from the handling, this car is a bit of a bore to drive and I was pining for some rear-wheel drive fun...
2000 Mazda NB - 5 speed manual
So at the end of last year, I bought this!
It's a daily driver, so there won't be any modifications to the power plant. However, one day I'm looking to own a car with forced-induction, I've never experienced boost before! Anyone kind enough to let me try?
Plans
So there's quite a few things on my list that I haven't gotten around to fixing yet, it's quite overwhelming!
- Rattling noise near clutch. After I did an engine swap , there's been a rattling sound when I'm stationary. It goes away when I depress the clutch pedal, so it seems that I might have to adjust the clutch cable or apply some lubricant to the clutch fork, not sure.
- Clunking sounds when I do tight turns. From Googling, people tend to suggest it's due to worn-out bushes on the sway bar end-links. What does a worn bush look like? I've had a look at the end-links and the bush seems hard and deformed...how does this make the clunking noise? Is the end-link hitting against other suspension components? How would one go about fixing it? From research, it looks like I could press on some new bushes or perhaps buy new end-links? It's an aftermarket racing-beat swaybar.
- Idle drop at stop lights. Yeah, there's quite a bit of mention about this on the web, hard to tell which reasoning pertains to my car. Perhaps a vacuum leak or bad sensor.
- The windscreen is quite pitted, I wonder if there's any product that could fill the thousands of small pits on the windscreen.
- I've had a few near misses due to other cars just not seeing me on the road. I've been using my headlights for more visibility but I'll forget to switch them off one day and end up draining the battery. I'm planning on coming up with a DRL system. Perhaps replacing my parking bulbs with LEDs on a separate circuit from my main battery. Still got a tonne of research to do on other peoples setups.
Thanks for reading this long winded post!
