What did you do to your Saxo today? - Saxperience

aldred309uk · 28th June 2018, 18:03

Just wanting to start a thread where people just say what they've done to their Saxo whenever they have to do anything. For the interest people wanting to see the daily tasks of keeping a car going.

Today I have purchased a new fog light to replace a broken one, and also purchased a new screen wash pump because the current one is playing up.

Treated the old girl to a full tank of petrol for £47 quid too. First full tank in over a thousand miles.

What have you done to yours?

Bodeka · 28th June 2018, 19:19

Drove it how a saxo should be driven, like a ****. In all seriousness, popped to work. Neighbour reversed into my door and I'm heading to Cambridge on Sunday to pick up a new one, first ever road trip I've done with it, will be pretty fun. After that just gunna try and clean her up, make her shine. Need to change this door too.

I intend to get a new timing belt and water pump but the hardest job I've done is my droplinks. I'm tired of spending so much money at the garage and I really wanna get into cars, but this is my daily.

Bodeka · 28th June 2018, 19:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bodeka

Need to change this door too.

Meant to say grill.

aldred309uk · 28th June 2018, 21:12

When I did the timing belt on my previous 1.1 it took me 7 hours and I didn't change the water pump. The old girl had the original belt for over 130,000 miles and had 10 teeth missing!

I struggled initially with locking off the flywheel as it says you insert into a hole, and I found a hole and struggled for ages. Turned out there was another hole behind it that I should have used but due to limited vision it took me longer than it should to find it.

I'm doing the timing belt and water pump on my current 1.1 desire soon too. Going to give the coolant a good flush whilst I'm there, treat it to new spark plugs a d give the oil a flush and 0ut in some fresh stuff.

Just take your time, maybe write a list of things to do to tick off. Locking flywheel, locking cam shaft, torquing nuts, refitting certain piece, torquing nuts on certain piece. And always worth a good amount of hand cranking with a socket and ratchet to make sure the timing hasn't fallen apart before turning the key, then at least if it doesn't run properly there's no bent valves.

aldred309uk · 6th July 2018, 10:58

Just given the old girl an engine oil flush, new filter and fresh oil at 68,085. Had a little exhaust rattle lately too which ended up being a loose connection between the centre pipe and back box so I bought a new clamp for £1.80 and got out the paste. Jobs a good un .

andrew_wright · 14th October 2018, 00:52

Hello, I'm new here, got this fairly clean 52 plate 1.6 8v vtr today, 97k on the clock but she needs a few bits doing. First job is new wheel bearings all round. Any recommendations? If not I'll just go to euro. Come from the 1.8t Vag range so going to low boost it in time.

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dturbo · 14th October 2018, 10:09

On the VTS, finished filling and bleeding the coolant after replacing the radiator. Freed off the rear brake load sensing valve and reattached the spring which had come off. Ordered a new bottom pulley as mine is separating at the rubber join and squeals when you load up the alternator!

Also carried on with the passenger rear arch cut out and weld job - drivers side already completed but still to finish this one.

andrew_wright · 25th October 2018, 00:37

Wheel bearings were done yesterday...3 and half hrs and a useless 15t press. No wonder people scrap these cars over this. All done now so never mind. Next on the list is bushes/mounts and tie rod ends/alignment. Is the vts roll bars a good upgrade or anything better out there? Many thanks for some feedback.

P.s my pockets are not deep

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mtee · 29th October 2018, 19:40

Replaced the seat heater elements. The backrest one is easy: just open a few metal clips and pull up the upholstery. Then you can remove the heater element and glue the new one on the foam plastic padding.

The seat element is more laborous to access and detach. Might be easier to remove the complete seat first, but I did the job on-site in the car so i did not need to disconnect the seatbelt pretensioner.

I did not re-use the numerous metal clips used for fixing the upholstery but replaced them with plastic cable ties.

It is possible to repair the element by soldering the broken cables together unless it's broken in several places.

Crocko2 · 29th October 2018, 21:32

Removed front windows, all supports and electrical mechanisms. Removed masses of unneeded wires. Angle grinder used to cutting panels from inside front doors to make space for fabricated door cards and lexan windows.
8kg of junk removed - not including glass!

andrew_wright · 30th October 2018, 22:54

Took out the spare wheel and rack, wiper delete on the back and a good clean inside. Car come with alpine tweeters and 6" mids but the crossover was disconnected, all working now. All in all not a bad little car but really lacks power.
I found this
VTR (3.77 FDR)
1st 38.7
2nd 67.3
3rd 95.4
4th 118.7
5th 158.8
But my car struggle's to do 50 in second and 80 in 3rd and 100 in 4th. I'm new to Saxo world and am wondering if it's had a different box put in. Not sure yet if I'm going to keep it or not tbh. Depending on if I can pick up a cheap turbo kit for it. Mapping is an issue too.

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Crocko2 · 3rd November 2018, 18:21

Fitted a nice pair of Lexan front windows. Fairly straight forward job.

dturbo · 3rd November 2018, 20:23

Removed the drivers side wing mirror to investigate why it was flapping about. Part of the metalwork inside was broken, the part that allows the mirror to hinge. Used chemical metal and put a big dollop over the broken part, now solid. Won't be able to fold the mirror back but don't care really, was just getting really annoying having the mirror wobble about all the time!

aldred309uk · 3rd November 2018, 20:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by dturbo

Removed the drivers side wing mirror to investigate why it was flapping about. Part of the metalwork inside was broken, the part that allows the mirror to hinge. Used chemical metal and put a big dollop over the broken part, now solid. Won't be able to fold the mirror back but don't care really, was just getting really annoying having the mirror wobble about all the time!

I've found those hinges to be a weak point of the mirrors. I've gone through about 3 drivers mirrors on mine!

andrew_wright · 3rd November 2018, 22:09

Found I probably need a new steering rack and rear axle

starting to loose interest in this Saxo rather quickly.

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dturbo · 3rd November 2018, 22:14

what's up with the rack and the axle? My axle needs new bearings (assuming the pins are OK....). I didn't expect it. Hoping to find the pins are good and just replace bearings. Easy enough job if everything comes apart. Can do it with the axle still on the car which is one of the main reasons I am going to dig into it and see before looking at a refurb axle.

andrew_wright · 3rd November 2018, 22:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by dturbo

what's up with the rack and the axle? My axle needs new bearings (assuming the pins are OK....). I didn't expect it. Hoping to find the pins are good and just replace bearings. Easy enough job if everything comes apart. Can do it with the axle still on the car which is one of the main reasons I am going to dig into it and see before looking at a refurb axle.

I've had the car a week maybe and going through stuff. Wheels look at an angle so from reading makes me think it needs replacing even though the last owner said it was done. Rack....clunking noise in the middle of the steering point...I've had a look down under the steering wheel and the bit going through the blink head moves up and down and clunks when it goes down. Also needs a new front window lmao. At a guess £600/900 for parts for a car worth £295...not looking good for the Saxo ATM.

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andrew_wright · 3rd November 2018, 22:42

Bulk not blink

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dturbo · 4th November 2018, 21:10

Not too sure on the steering rack, however regarding the axle - don't make a call based on visual camber. It can be hard to really judge that, what with body contours etc. In any case, I've seen cars on new axles that to me looked a bit cambered and I am so sad that I have even paused reruns of old TV programmes like Frost to check out the camber on a 306 (I have one of them too) as at the time these were new cars, they have also always looked like they had a bit of camber.

Judge the axle on more specific things - with it jacked up (on axle stands of course!) can you feel play in the trailing arm bearings? Does the axle creak when the car is bounced or when driven? Even if it's a bit creaky, as long as it still moves freely and has no play then it doesn't necessarily need replacing.

Hopefully someone can come along and give some advice regaring the steering issue. Would you be putting it into a garage to get work done, or doing it yourself? Steering racks can be had 2nd hand sub £100 and if you really needed to, and axle can be had refurbished. I don't know what model car you have, but non VTR / VTS racks are £185 from IM axles, VTR/VTS are £300 but you get £70 back of that when you return your old one. Back axle swap isn't the worst job either.

I often think that as much as it is easy to view repair costs as uneconomical because they exceed the value of the car, sometimes it also helps to consider how much more it would cost you to replace the car - i.e. if the car is sound apart from £500 of work and it would do you a few years after that, but to replace it costs £1500 say, then the £500 is worth it. To be honest, any cheap car and even some upwards of 2 or 3 grand will always need work of some sort doing. One advantage of the saxo is that it is approchable by DIY and the parts are cheap, often ALOT cheaper than many other cars.

Good luck whatever way you jump.

dturbo · 4th November 2018, 21:20

Bit more cleaning out, my son refitted the rear arch carpet (removed to allow much welding!) and we hoovered the car out again. Replaced a dodgy headlight bulb, then went out for a blast. Got a couple of pics whilst out too.