So this useless ebay special "empty" catch tank needs modifying. 7/16" brass tube is the largest that will fit in the hose tail whilst leaving just enough material to drill out. The hose tail fitting was drilled out to 7/16" and the tube soldered in place. Then the tube gets a cut and shut dog leg made and soldered up. Tube gets cross drilled to accommodate the tank filling with oil and still flowing the crud from the engine top vent. Stainless steel scouring pads serve as the baffle. Now needs a mounting bracket making and remote oil drain sorting out. Hope it works, gotta have a better chance than how it started out!
Crappy paintwork is driving me nuts so time to get aggressive. Farecla G3 Ultra Abrasive Cutting Compound wheeled well wet followed by Poorboy's Black Hole polish wheeled again. Was about to finish off with Autoglym Ultra Deep Shine but rain stopped play, nevertheless a big improvement.
Had a look at the passengers door lock which doesn't work of the elctrics. Stripped the door card off and had a look, lock motor is twitching so suspected brushes or commutator problems. Can't readily locate one so looking to discover what else daihatsu fitted that motor on. Searching ebay, daihatsu and 2000 to 2009 showed a Terios rear hatch lock "2005 Daihatsu Terios 5dr 1.3 8v Rear Door Lock Latch Motor" Less than £20 delivered so I've had a punt.
Interesting about the inclusion of a door vapour barrier with wholly plastic door cards, if only tney took so much care with the panel seems.
Well the 2005 Daihatsu Terios 5dr 1.3 8v Rear Door Lock Latch Motor fits the Copen but needs the actuator arm swapping over. One more job done but opened the gates on more work. Whilst the door card is off Ill do some corrosion protection and fit some sound deadening pads.
A nice little job, got me a little red trimmed wheel to fit in place of the all black. I did a step by step in case it saves someone from an air bag disaster. Serious personal injury or death if an air bag goes off in your face! First disconnect the battery, air bags can kill, wait a few minutes after disconnection before doing anything else. There is stored charge in the SRS system, wait a few minutes!!! Fully loosen but dont remove the torqs / tri hex or whatever your language is from each side of the wheel. Pull the centre section forward carefully, don’t let it drop as its wired. Disconnect the yellow air bag connector, pull up the white locking tab first. Release the upper connector for the horn push and pull away the air bag assembly. Remove the wheel nut with a 19mm socket but don’t maul the steering column lock. If your lucky the wheel will pull off, mine was stuck so I removed the four pozi head machine screws to allow for a little more clearance between the boss assembly and the rear plastic work for a bearing puller. Break the joint with a puller, its on a taper seat and spline. The wheel now pulls away, I greased up with some copper slip. Plonk the wheel back on, reconnect the wiring and don’t forget to secure the air bag white clamp. Tuck the wiring away properly in the cleats. Push the air bag fully home and tighten the pair of tri hex pins. Reconnect the battery. Switch on ignition and check the SRS / air bag indicator light sequence. SRS light on for a few seconds as a redundancy confidence check. Then the light goes out. Your nearly good to go! Load up the memory stick with some Obey and have a drive.
I got a ten pack of silent coat for £15 and fitted nearly eight to the back of the door, the remaining two sheets went on the back of the door card. Then a squirt of Wax oil in the bottom of the door and a poke around to make sure the drain holes were clear. Back on with the vapour screen and door card. Then I found the interior door handle fixing holes were stripped which explains why the handle was always floppy. Strip down again to rethread the door panel and build up again. Then the door lock had packed up again so a strip down for the second time and had to rebuild the non re-buildable lock motor which had failed again because I had swapped the motor actuator arms over and it hadn’t fully engaged in the motor spline or come adrift. Its glued in now! Build everything back up again and the lock still works, door shuts with a better thunk rather than a clang and the one speaker sounds a little better.
Coolant additive eventually arrived. Comma Xsream G30 Glysantin OAT So gave a good back flush until just clear water was flowing. I flushed from the radiator fill to three points. Radiator drain. Turbo coolant return hose. Rear of engine heater hose. It takes some flushing for a little engine. Refilled with 2.4 litres at a 50% mix and good for another few years. Also been sunny today and I have black Wax Oil dripping from the passenger door, I knew I overdid it :-(
Great job Bemused! I too have done very similar work to my Copen over the last 3 months and regretfully (or not) I am coming to the end of all of the jobs needed, some of which I have documented on this site. Like most modern cars, the Copen seems to suffer from stone chips especially when taking it on the motorway. I have repaired a number of them over the weeks and being the metallic gray colour it is near impossible to match the colour due to the nature of metallic paints and the way the flakes sit etc. As the car is over 8 years old previous owners have touched up a number of stone chips not as well as I would like it but as the saying goes for touching up stone chips, you should always think - "Protection not perfection" Or as my dad would say, "its a bloody car and if you don't want scratches or stone chips, bubble wrap it and keep it in the garage!" I use to be very anal regarding stone chips and scratches and door dings on cars but now I stay away from buying new cars and go for cars a couple of years old with these already present. Having scratches, stone chips is part of everyday use and should not spoil the ownership of enjoying the car. Saying that, I believe you should obviously repair the worst of these to protect the panels from corrosion but don't go over board. Oh, this guy gives a great instructions on how to touch up stone chips or as the Americans call them, Rock chips! If a rock chip hit my copen I am sure it would flatten it!
Always thought the great expanse of yellow looked a little garish. A sticky back plastic proof of concept.
Grill was a little shoddy where I presume someone had scuffed it along the floor. Sanded the scuffs with 380 grit then gave it a blast from a Krylon Ultra Flat black rattle can. Pictures don't really work but its much improved.
