What have you done to your car today?

Oh, I also replaced the god-awful B&O centre speaker that was utterly ruining the hifi. Swapped it out with a Dayton audio 3.5" driver and it's transformed. The B&O hifi is good but has two really stupid decisions by Ford. The sub is a paper cone POS with a ridiculous boost at 65Hz which makes the hifi stupidly boomy, and the centre speaker is also a paper cone POS but with the added bonus of extremely high sensitivity which means it takes over the soundstange. I swapped the sub out with a Pioneer item which sounds so much better. Sensitivity is a bit low though so I've got a Kicker one on the way that has lower power handling but is 15db/W more sensitive.
 
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Rilot said:
I've had a look at that throttle body spacer. Seems like snake-oil to me but am willing to be proved wrong.
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Spacers make a difference with carbs because it increases the volume in the plenum, which can help with higher RPM power, it apparently increases air speed and directness and can improve vaporisation, as well as being a carb insulator.

Plenum spacers are also a popular mod on the Nissan VQ35, regularly improving top end power by roughly 6 - 12HP depending on what else is going on.

So it quite possibly may not be snake oil. :)
 
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Akagi said:
Spacers make a difference with carbs because it increases the volume in the plenum, which can help with higher RPM power, it apparently increases air speed and directness and can improve vaporisation, as well as being a carb insulator.

Plenum spacers are also a popular mod on the Nissan VQ35, regularly improving top end power by roughly 6 - 12HP depending on what else is going on.

So it quite possibly may not be snake oil. :)
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Same thing with the inlet manifold spacers - they increase the runner length which can increase mid range torque. Not everything on the market is quite as bad as magnets on fuel lines!
 
lordrobs said:
I'll report back with the 'shock horror cheap headunit ends up being rubbish' post sometime after the 17th July :p
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Finally got round to fitting this tonight. Now it's safe to say expectations were low so I was fully expecting to be whipping it straight back out again!

Out with the old (OG Clarion cassette deck making a cameo appearance)



In with the new ..

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As I say expectations were very low and my initial verdict is... It's really really good! It's not merely just good for thirty quid, I wouldn't have been disappointed paying the £80 odd that Amazon wanted.

FM reception is perfect, sound is as good as you are going to get from stock MX-5 speakers.

The screens that I was convinced were just BS renders in the listing actually looks like that on the unit.

I can't get wired android auto working with the rear USB but it could be my duff cable. For now I've gone wireless android auto with a USB routed out of the way to top up the phone in the centre cubby hole.

I may change my opinion when I take it out on the move but for now, well happy!
 
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dirtychinchilla said:
Wireless Carplay, at least, absolutely drains your battery, so maybe the lack of wireless isn't such a bad thing after all
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Yeah I've found that in the past which is why I've always used it wired previously. I use both android auto and carplay as my work issue phone is an iPhone 16 and the battery hit is way worse on android auto.

That was an error in my post (now corrected) for whatever reason it wasn't seeing my phone on the wired connection. Either that is because my USB cable was whack (although I did try two) or the rear USB doesn't support Android Auto which I'm leaning more towards being the case.

So I've routed a cable from the 12V socket to the centre cubby which will provide enough juice to keep it running.

Hopefully have a chance to set it up properly tonight. So far I've just found the setting to stop it cycling the colours of buttons as that was giving me Halfords circa 1999 flash backs :p

I can't get it straight in my head that this is something that cost £32 though. I mean, it may stop working tomorrow but I just think... how is it possible to make it and distribute it for that price? It even comes with two (extremely cheap feeling) remote controls and an external mic that I'll never use :p
 
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lordrobs said:
I can't get it straight in my head that this is something that cost £32 though. I mean, it may stop working tomorrow but I just think... how is it possible to make it and distribute it for that price? It even comes with two (extremely cheap feeling) remote controls and an external mic that I'll never use :p
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The answer to that is probably that UK car audio people work at a big markup
 
Installed the front dash cam (quick & lazy 12v socket) - will do the hardwire kit and rear camera when I'm not feeling so knackered.

Also used a charging point for the first time - app (Pod Point) was a PITA, but got it in the end.


13% - 64% in just under two hours, cost £6.40. No idea if that's cheap, but seems so compared to petrol. Filled the car yesterday (£62), so I'll get a better idea on general running costs over the next couple of weeks.
 
Spent 300 years with a dremel modifying the grille, and then I painted it silver.
Made a small error (cut out the wrong slat...) which I have half-assedly repaired. I'll do a better job at a later date because I'll probably change the colour again somewhen. I was trying to match the wheels but its a bit too bright.

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Been doing a lot with the Subaru

Removed the borked tints from the rear windows and flew a little too close to the sun with the heat gun, so a new window channel strip ordered, derp!
Removed windscreen stickers
Removed bobbling from the headliner
Gave it a good clean
Had the hill hold light on, thought it was an error, thankfully not, it was just turned off
Gave it a good run a few times, brakes are pitted at the front unfortunately. Discs and pads not expensive even though it has the STi Brembo calipers up front, bonus
Polished up a few small scuffs to see what Im working with, not bad thankfully but the bonnet vent is needing repainted so Ill get them all done at the same time, just getting prices
I had a Spec C badge, but when I put it on, it just didnt look right, so off it came with the heat gun (safely)

Ordered:
Window seal/strip for the back after it melted a little
New drilled discs and pads
New coin cubby thingy, the one in it doesnt close properly

It drives well, really flies after 3500rpm. Id been taking it easy for a few hundred miles and now give it some push and it doesnt disappoint. It feels really light compared to most modern stuff, some alloy panels etc on the Spec C, no boot trims, so it feels a bit rally-car-ish. Its not the easiest thing to drive, but i think im too used to autos these days. Feels raw, but then, so it should.

Will be going into JM Imports or MB Performance for a tune in a few weeks hopefully once the items above are fitted. New fuel pump and filter will go on for the tune at the same time.

 
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Trying to book in the smart repair. Online booking doesn’t work. Eventually get a phone call, next available date 29th August. Not hugely helpful, so now they are trying to see if they can do some of my suggested dates. Not great so far.
 
I changed over the interior dash wood trims from Eucalyptus to Dark Oak on the Mrs' i3s. The car has the 'suite' interior which normally comes with Dark Oak, but the owner had option'd the Eucalyptus which some may like, it's just started showing its age, the pores have opened and it's getting splotches of silvering plus the Mrs just doesn't like the contrasting colour with the rest of the interior. Luckily, BMW are great for things like this, they do a full dash kit which with forum discount at my local BMW outfit was just over £200 for the 3 pieces and it took about 10 minutes to install thanks to Youtube!

From

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To:
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There will be a few more jobs to do over the coming weeks.. Mostly fairly trivial, but the most important is the Mrs hates the skinny/hard steering wheel, so will have to get that retrimmed with a bit more padding/plain leather (Either Jack Royal, or if anyone has a suggestion, anyone good at it!)..
 
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RedMogg said:
Installed the front dash cam (quick & lazy 12v socket) - will do the hardwire kit and rear camera when I'm not feeling so knackered.

Also used a charging point for the first time - app (Pod Point) was a PITA, but got it in the end.


13% - 64% in just under two hours, cost £6.40. No idea if that's cheap, but seems so compared to petrol. Filled the car yesterday (£62), so I'll get a better idea on general running costs over the next couple of weeks.
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Just FYI,

13% to 64% on a 13.8kwh battery is 7kwh.. which ties in with the almost two hours at its max charging rate of 3.7kw.

Tesco's podpoints around me are 44p/kwh so should have cost £3.08..

On a cheap EV home tariff that would have been £0.49
 
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Demon said:
Just FYI,

13% to 64% on a 13.8kwh battery is 7kwh.. which ties in with the almost two hours at it's max charging rate of 3.7kw.

Tesco's podpoints around me are 44p/kwh so should have cost £3.08..

On a cheap EV home tariff that would have been £0.49
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You're absolutely right - it was 3 quid-ish. I mistook what was left of my £10 credit as the actual cost. I actually had £6.40 remaining.

I appreciate a domestic EV tariff would be much cheaper, but we're not in the position to install one at our current house (End of terrace, parking spot adjacent).

We've always been fortunate to have off-street parking, when we eventually move that will definitely be a factor, particularly with Portsmouth being an absolute nightmare for car users.
 
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