Amazon Green 2000 VTS

[dturbo]

So, been asking for (and getting) loads of help on here for my VTS that I have been working on for the past few weeks. Thought I should put a basic progress thread on here in case anyone is interested.

Bought the car end of September, basically had been considering picking up a VTR or VTS for a bit of fun and for something for me and my son to work on. Main reason being that we had picked up a lovely little 1.1 Desire for him to learn in and have as his first car. We've always liked older cars and have a classic mini too, with me having a phase 2 306 D turbo as a daily.

Once I had had a few drives at his saxo I thought it was a great fun car, handled like a go kart (somewhere between the mini and the 306) and that was really what swayed me to start thinking about looking for a VT. I thought it would be easy to find one... Nope!

There were one or two available at various locations in Scotland, however most of them had been extensively modified whereas I was looking for something fairly standard, or just looked like they needed too much work.

I spotted a really clean looking green VTS for sale just a bit across the border but when I asked after it, it was sold pending collection. I put it on hold after that thinking it might be a bit of a dead end, having been surprised just how few there were around. Late to the party as usual..

A few days later, the seller contacted me to say it was actually still available if I wanted to come and look at it. I decided what the hell and roped my poor friend (who has a trailer) in to make the journey.

So we arrived in the pitch black, to find no street lights either and set about trying to view the car by torch light. The car was not looking any where near as clean as the pictures but it seemed to be quite solid underneath. A quick test drive revealed a noisy gearbox, loads of play in the gearstick, lots of clunks rattles and weird noises and a very very loud exhaust. Overall I though the car was just not what I had hoped for and I considered not buying it. But, having gone so far and realising that there wasn't alot of choice, I made an offer that I thought was reasonable given the amount of work I would need to do and bought the car.

It arrived back in Scotland very late that night.



A couple of days later I went up and gave it a good clean. The car actually cleaned up quite nicely!



It was still driving pretty rough though and was so loud I was waiting to be pulled over

I had noticed there were some strange noises coming from the back end and even though I though the arches etc were solid, I decided to peel back the carpets a bit more and have a closer look as I just had a bad feeling. The car seemed to be sitting very low at the drivers side (even though it was lowered it still looked a bit much). Uh oh, not good :



I could push the whole arch out - there was no attachment to the boot floor at all. Bouncing the back end I could see the floor flexing and that crack opening up. I felt pretty peed off and kinda thought that was it.

I slept on it and in the morning decided I was spitting the dummy and being a whiner. I can weld (just about well enough) and have welding gear from when I was welding up a mini a few years back, so decided to just suck it up and get on with it.

The drivers side was the worst. Arch skin was rotten (just held on by the sealer) and the reinforcement panel was rotten about half way along too. Part of the boot floor return was also rotten as was a section of a thicker curved plate that bridges the boot floor to the arch skin. I chopped it out in stages until I was back to decent metal, then started replacing it layer by layer.

Patched return and most of the reinforcement plate done. Wee gap still to fill:



Outer skin repair piece in position to be welded:




Outer skin welded in, dressed and skim of filler:



I had to lose some of the pressed ribs but just bashed the ends down to make it look *sort of* normal


Seam sealed and painted up (wish I had rollered the sealer rather than brush it, not a big deal really) :



The passenger side was far better, but still hiding a sizeable chunk of rot under the sealer. It hadn't lost any structural integrity though thankfully. It's still to have seam sealer applied and painted, just waiting on the electrox paint to cure fully (4 days!). Similar approach to the drivers side, layered repairs. End result with a skim of filler along the dressed welds:



So the car was now feeling alot more solid. Phew, what else can it need?

[dturbo]

***Oops.. the title should read '2000 VTS' not 200 Doh! Maybe a helpful admin can change it ? ***

With welding done, I started seeing what else was required. A quick check revealed that the passenger side track rod end was very worn with lots of play, as was the balljoint and the drivers balljoint was even worse. Not being familiar with the method of balljoint fitment, I looked into it and quickly realised I would be better just getting wishbones. A quick scan on Ebay revealed good deals on wishbones, track rod ends and drop links so I opted for that.

In the meantime, I had noticed the coolant was very very low, so topped it up only to find that it was low again very soon. Head gasket I thought, until I realised that there was a steady looking drip under the car. Turned out the bottom hose clip had broken which must have caused it to rub on the bottom pulley. This had been 'repaired' by wrapping a load of rubber repair strip round it, however it was no longer holding water.

On top of that, I thought it had no thermostat as it took ages to heat up and the top hose started heating as soon as the car was started up. A new thermostat was fitted and I ordered some hose joiners, cut the split sections out and repaired it with the joiners. Getting it to this stage then revealed that there was actually a radiator leak too! New rad was ordered (£30 not bad!) and fitted. Finally the car was water tight and heating up nice and quickly.

I'm not totally happy with the repaired hose, and you can't seem to get them anywhere, however I met a very nice chap today when buying parts (more on that later) who has one that he can provide. Brilliant.

Wishbones arrived and the drivers side has now been done. Still have the passenger side to do, however I might hold off on that as I am swapping the gearbox for one I picked up as mine has a noisy bearing (believed to be the layshaft bearings).

The car came with 106 gti seats fitted, however they were pretty tired with some damage (usual bolster hole) and I really fancied getting back to the standard VTS seats. Luckily the guy I got the gearbox from had a set of seats and doorcards (his cards were in better condition than mine) for a good price. They are out of a 2003 VTS so have side airbags which I obviously can't make any use of, but it doesn't really concern me too much - this isn't a concourse car



My son set about cleaning the seats up, they came up really well. You should be able to see the rear panel on this is cleaned with the rest still to do :



After a long time of wet vacuuming, interior shampoo etc, they were looking great. The drivers seat was sagging a bit, but a quick investigation showed that all that was wrong with it was that alot of the springs between the webbing and the frame had broken. Springs were salvaged from the gti drivers seat and after fitting the seat was back to normal. In fact a couple of cable ties were added which give it even more lumbar support, which is good as I have a dodgy back!

The seats were fitted, a couple of loose bolts in the frame tightened up and good to go. Delighted with the result, think it looks so much better :

[dturbo]

Continued....

When I bought the car, the aux belt was loose, but even after tightening it up, the car still gave a strange squeal - mostly when cold and mainly when the steering was at full lock. I spent a while trying to find it, but just couldn't figure it out. Then, I wondered - could it be the bottom pulley? I am familiar with the 2 part bonded pulleys on 306 HDi's parting ways and looking at this one, I could see it was a two part job too.

I decided the best way to check was to score a line across both parts then run the engine until it squealed, then check to see if the lines were still aligned. They were not!

You can see the outer ring score on the left, and the inner one is just visible away up at the top.



So a new pulley was ordered, got a good deal on a new old stock genuine pulley on ebay, think it was about £25. Once fitted, the strange squealing was gone. Result.

From the day I got the car, it had a tendency to hunt quite badly at idle, unpredictably though, didn't always do it. The car seemed to drive OK however the first long run I had it on, it backfired a couple of times and was very lurchy on part throttle. I took the throttle pot off and measured the output with a multi meter, to check it was smooth across the range. It wasn't. It jumped all over the place. I opened it up and attempted to repair it, just by cleaning up the tracks and the wipers. This ended badly when I tried to reassemble it due to the spring - it's very hard to rotate the spring until the centre drops in, without mangling the wipers. After putting it back together it had no output at all, open circuit.

Thankfully I knew of a scrap yard VTR so headed down there. Managed to get a genuine throttle pot and a genuine MAP sensor (as a spare) for a tenner all in. Not bad. Once fitted, the throttle pot was confirmed as the cause of my hunting and the car has been sweet ever since.

One saving grace of the car was that (I was told) the axle was 'new'. Well it certainly wasn't new to look at but I was prepared to believe it was 'newish'. Turned out that regardless of age, the bearings have quite a bit of play so that's on the list. I'll try to get the arms off and inspect the pins and if they look good I'll just do the bearings myself. Failing that it's new axle time, though I may have tracked down a second hand good one. We shall see.

[dturbo]

Continued...

The car came with a 4-2-1 manifold on it, decat and a Janspeed back box. All this in stainless steel. The clamps were finger tight on all joins however even after tightening everything up, it still leaked badly and sounded terrible. Ever seen that trombone player on a motorbike on youtube? Like that.

I fitted a CAT back in as I don't want the grief come MOT time and in any case it helped to quieten the exhaust a bit. Not enough though. I eventually decided that really I wanted something decent on there, that didn't leak constantly and didn't make me a Police magnet.

Managed to find a really nice Magnex 2nd hand local to me (Thanks David - sounds great) which also had a centre silencer too. Got that all fitted up today and delighted with it. The car is civilised again but still has a lovely deep exhaust note to it. Looks great on the car too.

Next plans are gearbox swap, passenger side wishbone, drivers side track rod end and sort something out with that axle.

As far as the engine goes, it goes like stink - though I think the noisy box that is on it is a VTR, I used the online calculator thingy and it's the only one that comes out with the right speeds for each gear, they are pretty long, but I actually quite like that. It isn't the original engine though, and not even a J4. In my ignorance I didn't know what I was looking at and it was only later on that it came to light. It's some sort of JP4 engine, JP4 or JP4s. A few features point it being the 4s but not too sure. It seems to be quite healthy so I'll just leave it in there and see how it gets on over time. If funds allow I might pick up a spare engine since they seem to be pretty rare now.

So here is how the car stands now, quite pleased with how it is looking, just need to finish off the mechanical bits. Thanks for reading! I will update with anything interesting that happens.

[dturbo]

Little bit more progress on this. Passenger side rear arch welding completed, seam sealed up and just paint to apply.



Drivers side rear brakes had a bit of a catch, so my son spent some time with the rewind tool working the piston out and back in a few times, with some brake fluid added round the piston to get a little lubrication in there. Brake catch now gone.

Also got the passenger side wishbone replaced. The car is feeling nice and solid now, no more nasty clunks. Just need to get the tracking done, think there is a bit too much toe out as the initial turn in the steering feels a bit vague.

Just got to swap the grumbling gearbox (I found the code finally and as suspected it is a vtr box that is currently fitted) with the spare box I picked up - again, found the code on the bottom of the box and it is a vts box so should be back to where it is supposed to be in terms of performance. I will probably replace the grumbling bearing which I believe to be the layshaft bearing and keep the vtr box as a spare. It's actually not that bad, just need to get the revs up to start getting the performance from the car. I am looking forward to seeing what the vts box is like though as I expect it to be a far more lively drive with that back on.

Getting there!

[gti180craig]

Awesome thread mate car looks spot on to

[dturbo]

Cheers man. Another Craig, nice one! Yeah it's getting there. SOoo much better than it was, but still plenty to do. Quite satisfying putting right (or at least repairing as best can be done) all the stuff that has been neglected on the car for years. Always amazes me how rough people seem happy to let their cars be.

The strange thing is that it has clearly been polished etc over the years, so they've wanted it to look decent but been quite happy to drive it around with everything clunking, leaking, groaning etc.

Hoping to get the replacement gearbox on soon, the current one is sounding VERY bad. Plus it's a VTR box so I am looking forward to seeing what the car should drive like, with a VTS box back on.

Really enjoying it none the less, part of the point of it was to have a sort of mini-project to do. Great learning opportunity for my son too, he's being a massive help.

[tastysombrero31]

Looks awesome mate, love what you're doing with it! I've always really liked the Amazon green colour, rare as rocking horse turds now especially in 16v form

[dturbo]

Been doing a few more jobs on the car. It was time to bite the bullet and swap my gearbox (a knackered VTR one that someone had fitted - bearings were shot) for the VTS box I picked up along with my interior.

Started off well, balljoints split, driveshafts out, oil drained, starter unbolted (don't need to remove it, just hang it down the back), battery tray out, clutch cable removed from gearbox end, engine lower mount off, exhaust bracket bolt out, linkages off and a few earths and connectors unplugged.

Took the box bolts off, wrestled for a while with the box and it dropped off. Removed the clutch (the pressure plate / cover bolts were finger tight, some rattling loose...) Things got interesting after this though. I had bought a late style clutch to put on, and was hoping that the JP4S engine that is in the car still had it's flywheel on in which case the only thing I would need to do is drill out the cover bolt holes to 8mm (thanks to Martin on here for that information). In reality, the flywheel was an early type - looks like my W reg car had the early type flywheel / clutch and this had been transferred over when the engine swap was done.





I called a nice guy I have met recently - David (sorry man I don't know your username or I could rep you!) for advice, he confirmed I had the early type flywheel (3 pairs of holes 120 Degrees apart), however he had a later type flywheel and kindly offered me it.

My son and I whizzed over to his and picked it up. Headed back to the car then realised my stupidity - the pressure plate bolts from the early type are 7mm, the later type 8mm. I hunted around for some short 8mm cap screws to no avail. So, back into the car and another 30 minute drive back over to Davids...

Clutch bolted on nicely and we set about trying to pop the new gearbox on - oh, first off we replaced the driveshaft seals and the input shaft seal. The new box I had was very oily in the housing, so I though it wise - of course this could have been engine oil from a leaking rear end crank seal, but no point in risking it when the seal kits are cheap and readily available. On that note - I was pleased to see that with the flywheel off, my rear end crank seal was bone dry. Not a hint of oil, nice.



Hours passed with us using hoists, jacks, levers etc. but we couldn't get the damned thing to go on. Got close a few times, but no joy. My back is pumped so my days of lying under the car with a boat anchor like gearbox are gone, and my son wasn't confident he could lift it either. We went home dispondant.

Next day I called on a good friend who is blessed with a good bit more strength than us and he came up to help. "Lets have a look at this" he says, sliding under the car. Lift, rotate, shove, clunk - it's on! All of about 3 minutes !!!

Proceeded to button it all up - fitted a new drivers shaft I had bought due to the inner joint boot splitting, other shaft in, wishbones buttoned up, bottom mount back on, linkages on etc. etc.

Fired it up and all was well. phew! I had concerns that the release bearing might have been unclipped from the fork as I kept bumping the clutch arm and knocking it off. Last time I had looked it had been on OK, but there had been alot of wrestling since then! thankfully all seems fine and the box I have fitted is excellent. Big thanks to the seller up in Cowdenbeath, wee bargain. It's like a different car.

[dturbo]

So a couple more bits and pieces done. I had noticed from the off that the car sounded like it had an exhaust blow right at the front, I had hunted about and couldn't see anything on the downpipe (4-2-1) and had checked for any lose nuts on the studs, so I had put it down to the 4-2-1 just 'sounding like that'. It seemed to get worse, so I looked again and this time I noticed that there was a crack almost all the way round one of the joins on the manifold!



Nothing else for it but to remove it and weld it up. Total pain, with terrible access to some of the bottom studs/nuts, it was a case of bit by bit backing them off with an open ended spanner. Eventually got it off, cleaned up around the crack and welded it up.

Fitted back to the car, massive difference. I now have an annoying persistent leak where the middle pipe fits to the back of the CAT, I'll need to try and seal that again - maybe need to renew the clamp or if worse comes to the worse, I may just need to chop and sleeve the pipes for a permanent fix.

Decided to start tidying up the engine bay a bit, it's pretty solid in there -I was pleased to see that although the metal under the ECU is quite thin, there are no holes (yet) so having already de-rusted and painted underneath in the arch, I removed the ECU to tidy it up on the bay side too.

Rubbed down rust, cleaned it up, put some zinc spray then primer on



Once dry, a few coats of British Racing Green paint that I have lying around for my mini (close enough!) and things were looking alot nicer. Gave the ECU tray a paint too and fitted a missing securing bolt for the tray, to the inner wing:



Hopefully the MOT guy won't put a hole in it... I have arch liners to try and fit back in, but not yet sure how that will go with the car lowered, might rub (might be why they have been taken out..)

Back axle remains to be done, I have opted for a good second hand one rather than attempt the bearings, but I will see if the current beam can be saved once it is off the car. Hoping to get that done in time to put the car in for an MOT (got until around the middle of December)

[dturbo]

So bit the bullet and took the car down to Kames (a local short track) for the car's first track outing. It's a fairly short and technical track, but great fun. Plus my 17 year old son got to drive too. Not surprisingly he was quicker than me...



Still more work to do on the car but hopefully this is the first track day of many!

[SpijkerVTS]

Looks well bud i love that colour, its nice to see abit of father son time, as with me and my saxo im the young one and i take ky dad to shows in it and he gives me a hand where and when i need one, makes for a pleasant read!

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[dturbo]

Thanks man! Yeah, we're having a great time overall with the car. He's getting to learn by hands on experience! Great wee cars even despite needing a fair bit of attention, still waaaaaaayy cheaper than alot of newer cars and much more fun too!

[dturbo]

so the MOT expired 19th December. I had hoped to have the last of the work done in time to preserve the anniversary of the MOT, but just ran out of time. Over the last week or two we have been ticking off the last of the issues (plus the new one where the car would not run right / cutting out).

For whatever reason, it turns out that the car is not happy without a working Lambda sensor - I found broken wiring where it had been crimped (this is an engine swapped JP4S). Something strange perhaps the different cams / valves (I don't know) seems to mean that with the J4 ECU / Map, the ECU loses control of the engine in the absence of an O2 signal (it's fine at full throttle of course). The wiring has been repaired so the car is now running properly again.



The car had the airbag light on when I got it, partly due to the car having a race type steering wheel. I had fitted an original wheel again some time back (that was very hard to come by!) and had swapped out the ruined 106 GTI interior for a decent VTS interior, however I hadn't resolved the wiring issues. So drivers airbag was reconnected and the seat pre-tensioners wired into the cars wiring again. Thankfully with this done the airbag system is happy once more - no more airbag light and no airbag errors logged.

No fault lights! :



Lastly, been refurbishing a 2nd hand axle I picked up. This was believed to be an IM refurb axle that only had 1 years use on it. The plan was to just paint it up for a freshen up and fit it, however I discovered play in it.

Stripped it down and painted everything and then fitted new SNR bearings. One shaft is spotless, the other has some bearing marking on it however being this far in and out of time I have opted to just go with it - the play was pretty minimal and hopefully with new bearings should be even less, however I will probably still have some on the side with a little pin / shaft damage. Looks to me like IM perhaps only replaced one side. Also the ARB splines at one end have about 2mm of usable splines left, the rest are ruined. Guess they didn't address that either!



Hoping to go for an MOT on Friday if I can get the axle swapped on Thursday. Fingers crossed.

[karl_mh]

Great to see that these cars are being looked after, very nice job indeed

[dturbo]

Cheers man. Yes, this car at least has certainly required a fair bit of tlc to get it back to reasonable standard! Managed to get the axle refitted today. In for MOT tomorrow so fingers crossed. Would be a nice outcome after all the effort , if it passes!

[dturbo]

And...... it passed the MOT! yipee!

[SpijkerVTS]

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[dturbo]

Thanks! So pleased. When I bought it it had so many issues that I know would NEVER have passed an MOT (i.e. the MOT it had wasn't worth a jot) that to get it through is such a relief and a validation that the car is basically now sound. My MOT tester is fair but wouldn't let anything serious go. Onwards and upwards!

[Gabbastard]

Good progress, looks awesome