Sprint Blue Tinkering

I have decided I will leave my Coupe as standard but will just try and bring it back a little to its original state.

The only exception is the sound system which will be upgrade but only modestly.

I switched the head unit from my MG, the MG has silver facia in the dash and the silver head unit from the coupe suits it (though with no CD's in the car not sure what use it is) and the Black head unit from the MG suits the Coupe so its a win win.

http://i58.tinypic.com/10h15q9.jpg

I will run with the 6 x 9's in the back and the existing door speakers in the front all running off the head, and I will add a small amp and 10 inch sub combo in the boot. I have the sub left over from another old car, made a box for it. All I need now is to run a power lead down to the boot and some audio carpet to cover the box in. Then I will buy a small/cheap amp just to give the bass speaker enough to balance out the sounds. With the other speakers running off the head it doesn't need to work hard and wont take up much room. (the speaker will face through the hole behind the passenger side rear seat. The amp will be mounted to the rear of the box, the hole lot secured by a bolt through the metalwork behind the rear seats.

In other news I ordered a few bits off a coupe that is being broken.

Rear ashtray (missing for some reason)
Carpet clips x 2 (missing from inside boot)
3 bolt covers (clip over bolts securing seat belt and seat)
Turbo recirculation valve (told it needed doing by last owner so trusting it does... apparently it makes the wrong sound)

I also will have the job fiddling with the alarm to see if it can be made to work reliably... if it does all well and good if not I will need to buy a cheapo aftermarket one (just so I can use the remote to open doors)

My drivers door needs some care and attention but that can wait till after Christmas. Multiple dents... not sure if it will be easier to fill and spray or buy a replacement door.

The rear high level brake light... I think it is missing 2 LED's but they are the second in from either side. Not sure if it is by design or not (presumably they just blew evenly.)
So buy led bulbs or a complete unit?

Aside from that not much wrong that I can see...

The high level brake light doesn't respond well to LED bulbs - several owners have commented that they appear to be permanently lit (albeit very dimly)

I have a couple of complete units in stock if you get stuck for standard bulbs

As for the dump valve - never heard of "wrong sound" as a problem - they either work or they don't

Many Coupe owners replace with a forge DV006 - very reliable and well made - not cheap though

Good to see you on a gradual programme of improvement - good luck

Just to add to this...the bosch recirculation valve makes a flutter noise, which isn't correct but in all fairness probably won't do much harm. All my forge replacements make a solid and quiet 'achoo' noise

Nice to see you're making a list David

Ok so the high level brake light has standard bulbs rather than LED's? That will explain why a couple have blown... I will try to replace said bulbs but any problem I will take a complete unit off you Nigel. (I will PM you if I need to take you up on the offer)

Yes DanDan, Always good to make a list with a secondhand car. The most severe items on the list are the paint/door issues. These will cost money/time to get right. All the other issue's seem pretty straight forwards and very minor.

With a bit more driving I will be on alert for rattles but I think the car basically needs regular cleaning and taking care of but it all seems to be pretty much in order. Maybe a couple of new tyres in the not so distant future but it could be much worse. My MG has the VVC unit and head off at the moment due to gasket trouble. Not sure what the point of spending any money on it is since the car is basically worthless unless I break it... I just cant bring myself to break the old girl. Therefore I will get it in order and park it up for the winter...see how I feel next summer.

but with a drilled airbox, youll hear the recirc valve, your not really meant to hear the valve, but with the box being drilled youll hear it through that.

Drilled airbox tell me more? Are they drilled as standard? Non-standard? Advantages? DIsadvantages? Where are the holes drilled?

They are drilled in the side of the air box. I don't think there are any advantages, except you hear more intake sound without having to use an ugly cone air filter

They are not drilled as standard, but you will find many have been done in the past.

Also, you have a K&N panel filter in there, rather than a cheap standard papery type. That's a better quality filter and can make the intake noise louder too due to it being thinner in size.

I ran a drilled and a standard box for a couple of weeks against each other on and off, much prefer the drilled sound, especially with a BMC filter.

OK will bear this in mind. Thanks for the info.

If you're lucky, Bockers will be along soon and offer his thoughts and advice on the Coupe alarm.

I have the scorpion alarm, it was disabled after repeatedly going off. At present it seems the volumetric controls are set to minimum (and switch on fob set not to arm them anyway) and I found a thing on how you reset the alarm (involving disconnecting the battery, turning ignition and reconnecting battery)

I will have to try these things out and see if the alarm is still problematic.

In honesty immobiliser and remote central locking is all that I feel is necessary but if the car came with an alarm it would be nice if it functions as designed.

Judging from what I have read so far it is not an unusual situation I find myself in.

I took the rear brake light apart... it is such a simple design... a couple of metal rails which the bulbs click into...

Replaced the two defective bulbs closed the unit and tested it... now 3 don't work... found that jiggling the bulbs see them turn on and off... got them all on... click the unit shut and two turn off... continued in the same vain for quite some time before thinking there has to be a better way.

Well looking at EBay there are several LED brake lamps said "fits fiat coupe" but I am not convinced that they do... maybe I could modify one such unit but maybe better to buy a standard unit where all the bulbs work...

here you go Click

genuine third brake light.

going give this a go

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291263137054?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT#ht_1490wt_1107

It might require some fettling...or it might be straightforward. I am nervous of the original unit it seems a terrible design to have 10 bulbs all held precariously and ready to blow at regular intervals therefore LED would be superior if it fits properly and functions correctly...

Wish me luck ^^

Replaced the rear ashtray, fixed the gear linkage with the original rubber grommet (gear change feels much better as compared to the temporary fix)

Ran a wire from the battery to the boot for the purpose of running an amp. This was a major hassle... you would think it would be straight forwards but no. In the end it was off with the wing since the grommet on the passengers side feed into the wing then does a kink back into the cabin. Got there in the end. Carpet is a joke... similar to the MG they used the bare minimum required... I can see someone has had a go with duck tape and draught excluder and all sorts to try and get the carpet to stay in place. I fed the wire under the carpet, under the rear seat and it is now in place, the carpet however is not exactly in place. Next trip out I will get some double-sided tape I guess.

Looking to take a feed off the cigarette lighter, does seem immediately accessible... maybe got to deconstruct the facia of the dash.

Got the LED rear light through the post today... fits fiat coupe? No it doesn't... not without a whole lot of fettling.

The unit is shorter than the Fiats one but the black part seemed like it was hollow to I took a chance. I drilled three holes through it where the fiat unit has holes to allow the bolts to go through it to hold it into the housing.

That seemed to work OK... and the unit looked ok even with the small gaps at each end of the lamp.

Next to solder on the plug from the fiats... but lucky I remembered that unlike a bulb LED's only work if you get the positive and negative the right way around.

Testing it I found which way to solder the plug on and did that. Then reinstalled. Now it functions perfectly and will not blow bulbs again so I can forget about that

Also wired in my amp an subwoofer. Bolted the unit in place so it cannot float around the boot... considering it is just the one speaker it sounds very good. It won't get much use though since I want to hear the engine.

Finally sorted the front bumper alignment... after getting it back from the repairer it was OK but not exactly the same as the other side... needed the bracket bent back a little and a screw through the bottom to keep it in tight.

So feeling good after a nice long run around the M25 last night... it drives great but this morning I notice that it has taken yet more damage while parked yesterday... dent in the bonnet that I obviously didn't spot in the dark but is glaringly obvious in day light.

http://i59.tinypic.com/x1by41.jpg