New daily driver

[AndyP]

Decided to further upgrade the lights ready for the dark winter nights. I already have 55W HID's in the low beams and Osram Nightbreaker bulbs in the high beams, so I decided to fit an LED light bar.

Found this 120W one that fits perfectly in the lower grill. The outer 2 are flood beams and the inner 8 are pencil beams.




As it's fitted quite low I cut a piece of clear perspex and bonded it to the front to protect it from stone chips.

This is the low beams only


Low beam and LED


LED only


The pictures really do not do justice to how bright it is, it's ridiculous!! It's set a little low at the moment resulting in a really bright spot right in front of the car, but I have to take the bumper off to adjust it, so that'll have to wait until the weekend.

[andy10v]

Looks like a nice upgrade!

What light bar did you go for?

I had been wondering if the 2 or 4 led ones would fit where the fogs are in an s2 bumper.

[AndyP]

Looks like a nice upgrade!

What light bar did you go for?

I had been wondering if the 2 or 4 led ones would fit where the fogs are in an s2 bumper.

I'll try and find the link for the one I bought, it was a China special off Ebay.

I did wonder about fitting some smaller ones into the std fog lights but I thought the patterned glass would disrupt the light output.

[macspring]

Thanks for sharing and the photos.

Do you have the link for the LEDs ?

Thanks again.

[macspring]

Hi Andy,

Just enjoyed reading the full thread through again.

Just gently checking do you get to fit the new head, turbo and downpipes just yet.

Just keen to see if there was much improvement.

Thanks either way.

[AndyP]

Not fitted yet , sorry

Touchwood, the car is so reliable, I kind of got cold feet, I didn't want to risk pulling apart a perfect engine and potentially ruining it! The downpipe is on, I fitted that when I pulled the Cats off, made a huge difference. Really need to make the rest of the exhaust as that is looking a bit sorry for itself.

[AndyP]

Speaking of nearly ruining a good car, here's a funny story that happened a few weeks ago!

Ever since I fitted the bigger injectors and chips to suit, I've had some vibration from the propshaft under heavy load. So I got a spare and re-built it with all new parts and decided to fit it along with a new rear diff because that was leaking badly. Along day a DNA in Nottinghan had everything fitted, but the vibration was even worse! So I limped the car home and decided to swap back to the old prop the next day.

So, next day I undo the rear CV and a few taps with the hammer it drops off, onto the front and it's not budging, I was beating it with a small sledgehammer and it's not hvving any of it! I checked the flange on my spare gearbox and it's 3mm deep! Next I bolted the rear CV back on, chocked all 4 wheels and tried driving it forward, still nothing, even dropping the clutch did fook all.

Time to get serious, I called my mate over with a set of chains and a Nissan Patrol, first attempt to snatch it off results in the car getting dragged backwards, same second time, so I tell him to floor it and finally it comes off with a bang!

F**k you propshaft!!

[macspring]

I can understand why you don't want to open the engine and tempt fate, especially now given the propshaft issue.

After you re-installed the original one, I presume you still have the same level of vibration under heavy load ?

Is it just under heavy load, say 20mph to 50mph, rather than light throttle at a high'ish speed 70mph+ ?

I have no idea what the cause of the vibration might be other than to suggest is it possible there is some sort of adjustment that needs to be made in the bracket that holds the bearing in the centre of the propshaft 'under' the handbrake lever ?

As you've changed the rear diff and the vibration was there with both diffs, that must rule out the rear diff as the cause ? Have you checked the rear of the gearbox for anything that is not 'true' ?

Hopefully others will read these latest additions to the thread and may contribute their ideas.

Interesting to hear the downpipe made a decent positive difference, were you expecting to to be the case as the oem is small compared to the new one, or is it the case that it not really that clear why it as 'better as it is' ?

Thanks.

[AndyP]

I rebuilt the headlights again the other weekend, a couple of the tabs had broken off and the glass had seen better days, I managed to find new glass here

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1718464204...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT



Fixed the tabs with this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3116872229...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Seems to be hanging on OK so far


The old glass had loads of really small stone chips on them which would not polish out, so to protect the new glass I fitted paint protection film
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3209168763...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

It's quite tricky to apply, but it's almost invisible now it's on

[igor136]

You have 100w bulbs?

[AndyP]

55w 4300K HIDs and Philips Extreme vision bulbs in the mains.

[Greg_S]

Paint protection film is a good idea, I changed the lenses on mine a while back for the same reason

[Jamo]

This car is still alive? i thought it would have been canabalised by now!! good going it's a good little runner

[macspring]

Any news since the last update ?