bought one!

minis84 · Post by **minis84** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:36 pm

Hi

Thanks to your advice last night, I bought a MkIII squareback this morning!! Its a 1992 1043cc CL, with 88000 miles. Drives quite nicely, although the gearbox seems to prefer slow changes, is this a normal sort of thing? I am used to a KAD quickshift on the mini so maybe thats what it is.

It has a few little spots of rust here and there, which have been quite poorly touched up, but the boot is in good nick, no ripples, sticker intact, tool kit complete, even with towing eye! Starts first time, no smoke, pulls right through the rev range, no knocking/rattling, recently serviced (air and oil filters, plugs and leads at least by the looks of it). I don't know if the cam belt has been done though, is it a DIY job do you think? All electrics work, but it has no stereo, although the hole in the dash looks recently vacated. Was wiring fitted to the car originally for a stereo?

I paid Â£395 for it, does that seem a reasonable price?

I'll put some pics on when i figure out how!

Cheers, tom

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Karl_CLCoupe · Post by **Karl_CLCoupe** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 5:43 pm

Good man! Rust can be sorted easy enough. I have a factory spec radio I can GIVE you, as its more use as a door wedge to me.

RE: Pictures. If you use something like ImageShack, that should be able to host your pictures reliably enough for you.

Karl.

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 11:25 pm

I'll swap you my old stock stereo for the towing eye....

Hell if you're in the birmingham area in a couple weekends time, i'll fit it for you for the towing eye

So long as SOME wires are left, cuz man, i bet those speaker clips arent purchasable any more

(ooooops - did i remember to save em for when i take the Sony and JBLs out to sell the car??)

Nice job though, sounds like you've got a minter - give it another really, really thorough going-over to be sure, but Â£395 seems a pretty good price! (I paid Â£650 for my H-plate a couple years ago - i think you can do those maths! .... and then i was hit for Â£250 on brake repairs a couple days later)

In fact for that price it's worth taking it down a local garage right now and having the belt done just as a precaution - unless something's badly wrong with it you dont know about, you still wont quite be up to book price.

The gearbox takes a little bit of learning - be really, really, really goddamn careful of the 1st/Reverse interchange for the first couple of months, especially if you havent checked if the linkage is still properly aligned (which itself can be a cause of dicky changes). It IS a whole lot smoother if you're relaxed about it - though going (far) too slow will over heat the synchros or something - makes it crunch.. all fixed next time you try tho. You can shift it quick, its not as easy or as smooth, but can be done, even into 1st. Its a matter of learning how hard to apply the pressure and how progressively. Some b*llsh*t like that

If you get the timing of your throw just "so", its like buttered silk....

minis84 · Post by **minis84** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 12:27 am

yeah, i have experienced a decent gearchange a few times now (done about 50 miles in it), like you say i think it will just take practice!

I am so used to all the nuances of the mini that getting used to this is really tricky, for example the brake pedal is very spongy, yet the brakes are fantastic, is this just a characteristic of servo brakes?? (mini is running Cooper S discs with 4 pot alloy calipers and alloy drums with braided hoses all round) I'm obviously just not used to them.

I'm going to have to decline the offer of stereo's although they're very kind! I work at Halfords so i'm going to get the audio specialist to have a look at it tommorrow see what can be done - there is still some wiring there but not sure what!!

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 1:10 am

yeah a lot of people say polo brakes are crap but i think it's just because of the feel - and maybe experiences with mk1s/early mk2s on servo-less drums! there's PLENTY enough stopping power, you just have to push the pedal harder! (enough that you can lock the wheels without meaning it from time to time = all you need, isnt it?)

yep the servo makes it "spongy" (ie you dont have to put your whole weight behind the pedal) but its nowhere near as bad as a lot of modern cars.

if it's really, really spongy though, you need to get them bled!

hardhitter · Post by **hardhitter** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 1:19 pm

Sounds pretty good. What spec was your mini ? I used to be into them a few years ago. The brakes are like that, it's just a matter of getting used to them. Check the gear oil, or even replace it if your not sure it's 100%. But having said that, it's not going to be like having a quickshift.

minis84 · Post by **minis84** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 9:07 pm

mini is a 78 clubman, 1275 A+ engine, morspeed phase 2 cam, stage 3 head, 1.5 roller rockers, straight cut drop gears, non verto clutch, 1.75" carb, stage 1 kit, s discs, minifin drums, soon to have neg camber bottom arms, solid mount subframes, polybushes, adj tie rods, roll cage, buckets, its not bad really, looking 15 sec quarters hopefully, once the mods are complete.

I'm getting used to the old Polo slowly, just another question, what temperature does other peoples run at? Mine seems to run at what looks like about 90 deg in traffic, maybe rising slightly higher, and about 80 on the move. Is that normal?

Tom

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:01 pm

damn that sounds sweet

gotta respect the rodded clubman! (my folks used to have a really battered 850 that finally conked out in france whilst i was still getting my embryonic groove on - and they left it there

)

80-90 sounds perfectly healthy, so long as the fan isnt regularly coming on - i'd prefer that to the 65-75 I tend to get (think it's either a duff guage/sender, or the car is overcooling, radiator valve open when it shouldnt be, etc)

minis84 · Post by **minis84** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 11:39 pm

its not a bad little motor really, embarrasses some much larger cars when it wants to. I think i'll check out the fan switch as i've never actually heard it come on, and i'll have a peek under the bonnet when its warm see if its actually working. Think i'll do the cam belt soon, looked in the bible seems a pretty straightforward job, so will probably do that on my next day off if the weather is decent.

pettsy · Post by **pettsy** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 11:57 pm

oooooooh, just noticed you in derby

where abouts?

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 12:16 am

if by bible you mean haynes.... take a hardhat

its often come up somewhat lacking as concerns the mk3, ive found - for pretty much every job i've attempted using it.

minis84 · Post by **minis84** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:25 pm

yeah, haynes. Thinking about it its true what you say, the later Haynes manual for the Mini is absolutely pants, half of the descriptions contain things like 'remove the pulley, as explained in chapter 4'. So you go to chapter 4, and it says 'to remove the pulley, first remove the breather housing, as explained in chapter 7'. So you go to chapter 7 and it says 'to remove the breather housing, firstly remove the engine and front subframe assembly, as described in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 9'. When all you wanted to do was make sure the timing was right! GRRRR!!!!

The older manuals are much better, they just tell you how do bloody well do it without all this cross referencing malarky. Praps I'll just do the cambelt without the manual, i've built an A-series engine and timed a fast road cam perfectly well so should be able to cope with a 1043 Polo engine. It had a new belt at what looks like about 35000 miles, is it about due for another one at 88000? I would think so.

Pettsy, I am in Spondon, where are you?

minis84 · Post by **minis84** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 5:28 pm

Sorry, just noticed I sounded a bit arrogant in that last message, about being able to do the cambelt. I just meant that it must be pretty straightforward as long at the correct procedures and precautions are taken!

Tahrey1043 · Post by **Tahrey1043** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 9:31 pm

well if you're familiar with doing belts on other cars, you should already have most of the know-how and tools, and i think haynes has the relevant details you need to update yourself to the mk3 whilst skipping most of the crap someone like myself would have to

i read down their method, saw what tools i would have to buy and what tricky procedures i would likely have to do half-blind first time, chickened out and took it to a service centre, which in the end wasnt too bad. i can never remember the exact price but it was roughly 100-110 quid?
quite a bit if you've just bought the car but somehow seems less when you've had it a year! especially when the tooling would come to half that.

now if you manage to do the gearbox oil i'd be interested to see how you get on

haynes crossreferences to that..... into a chapter that doesnt even exist!! read up method on here and other boards, got the right stuff together (fairly cheap)... and ended up scuppered by the inner-wing mudguard thing (apparently held on by plastic pop rivets or something fancy) getting right in the way of anyone trying to access the fill hole (drain hole is fine, perversely). So there's now 3 bottles of 80/90 sitting in the garage unloved

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:28 pm

On my car, the fill hole is perfectly accessible from above (with a bit of fiddling about..), and the gearboxes are pretty much the same design between mk2 and 3... you just have to run a length of drainpipe down into it, stick a funnel on the end and voila, one full gearbox

As for the cambelt, it's not a hard job, however haynes in my case helpfully failed to mention that it's impossible to remove the alternator belt pulley without either removing the crankshaft sprocket bolt or dropping the engine slightly. Also, you'll need a 1/4" socket set and a very small extention bar to get the third water pump bolt in, it's awkward.. Other than that it's as close to a piece of cake as changing a cam belt is likely to get