The Micra lives on!

Kennysevenfold

Kennysevenfold

Kennysevenfold

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Joined
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Glasgow
1 year after getting the old 52 plate Micra k11 (for the girlfriend passing her test) 1.0 it was time for its MOT. :o

I must admit i fell in love with it. :cool:

Wasnt looking forward to the MOT really, heard horror stories about rust.

It passed with 2 advisories

-inner sills corroded
-o/s/r outer sill COVERED in underseal (my fault :rolleyes::p it was welded with a 'plate'? last year for the MOT when i got it and was adviced to give it a coat of underseal to save the bare metal being exposed)


Question is, why would they advise this?

The guy took £100 to MOT it, change the oil/filter (which i supplied) and clean the inner sills and coat them in underseal. That sound reasonable? Will they not just advise this next year again? :confused:

All in all, 1 year, 11k miles on, all it cost was the MOT and a new tyre valve a few months ago :D

With i could live with one :cool:

Best/reliable car you have had?
 
Best/reliable car I know of and serviced was my ex's K11, but sadly hers was a bit rotten!

10 years it went without an oil change...... :D

The previous owner just kept putting a bit of oil in every now and then, so when I got to it in 2014 the oil level was about 3 inches too far up the dip stick and came out bubbly and lumpy, and not without some metal flecks. Oil filter dated late 2003 :D (it was a W reg)

You'll be pleased to hear it had the 1.0 engine. ;)

It didn't sound healthy unsurprisingly, but its still alive...
 
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Pass. Edited my post with more detail. :p

And yes I suppose so, to be honest I didn't know it was chain driven. Probably a good job otherwise the belt would probably never have been changed!
 
My old Corsa C was probably the most reliable I ever had, owned it for 7 years before the Mrs wrote it off. It was the 1.4 twinport with the chain driven engine and was practically bullet proof.

Almost every other car I have owned has been questionable at best :D
 
K11 Micras are indestructible and utterly reliable. Change the oil regularly and the engine will drive you to the restaurant at the end of the universe!

The only thing that ever goes wrong is the Mass Air Flow meter (Throttle body)

(Occasional replacement of dizzy cap and rotor arm is sometimes required)

However, If you ever even think about getting a K12 one, Whack yourself over the head with a 4Lb Mallet until the feeling wears off! They are dreadful, they eat cam chains for breakfast (20,000 miles in some cases) and it is pretty well an engine out job to replace them!
 
Orionaut said:
K11 Micras are indestructible and utterly reliable. Change the oil regularly and the engine will drive you to the restaurant at the end of the universe!

The only thing that ever goes wrong is the Mass Air Flow meter (Throttle body)

(Occasional replacement of dizzy cap and rotor arm is sometimes required)

However, If you ever even think about getting a K12 one, Whack yourself over the head with a 4Lb Mallet until the feeling wears off! They are dreadful, they eat cam chains for breakfast (20,000 miles in some cases) and it is pretty well an engine out job to replace them!
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That bad? heard Renault took over the micra's in the k12, would explain why :o:p
 
Orionaut said:
Really?? :eek:

Unless things have changed dramatically since I last bought one, they are not that expensive.

Or are you a tightwad? :p
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I think it was a few hundred to replace and fit but the car wasn't worth much more than that and had its MOT coming up which probably would have incurred more costs so I decided to move on. Great car though :D
 
weringo said:
I think it was a few hundred to replace and fit but the car wasn't worth much more than that and had its MOT coming up which probably would have incurred more costs so I decided to move on. Great car though :D
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"Worth" is an interesting concept.

I always advise people with older cars that the car is not worth what you could sell it for, it is worth what it would cost to replace.

Basically, a good solid and reliable car, that you like and would be happy to keep, is always worth at least £1500

Scrapping an otherwise solid and reliable car for the sake of a couple of hundred pound repair bill is insane, unless you are looking for an excuse to get a new car (which is fair enough I suppose)
 
Orionaut said:
"Worth" is an interesting concept.

I always advise people with older cars that the car is not worth what you could sell it for, it is worth what it would cost to replace.

Basically, a good solid and reliable car, that you like and would be happy to keep, is always worth at least £1500

Scrapping an otherwise solid and reliable car for the sake of a couple of hundred pound repair bill is insane, unless you are looking for an excuse to get a new car (which is fair enough I suppose)
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I see where you're coming from and agree it would made little sense to scrap and replace with a similarly priced car. There were other factors involved as well such as clients taking the **** out of me for turning up in a 12 yr old Micra :p. Ended up replacing it with a mk 7 Fiesta FWIW.
 
weringo said:
I see where you're coming from and agree it would made little sense to scrap and replace with a similarly priced car. There were other factors involved as well such as clients taking the **** out of me for turning up in a 12 yr old Micra :p. Ended up replacing it with a mk 7 Fiesta FWIW.
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I bet you have (or will) live to regret it! ;) :p

(You didn't get a diesel fiesta did you?? :D)
 
The 1.0 micro engine is superb! Great engine to work on if your starting off, chain driven DOHC and 16valve. They had a habit of flooding though if driven for a very short journey the night before. Can of WD40 in th glove box was an absolute must on cold mornings, a squirt of that in the air intake gets anything going! ;)
 
Kennysevenfold said:
1 year after getting the old 52 plate Micra k11 (for the girlfriend passing her test) 1.0 it was time for its MOT. :o

I must admit i fell in love with it. :cool:

Wasnt looking forward to the MOT really, heard horror stories about rust.

It passed with 2 advisories

-inner sills corroded
-o/s/r outer sill COVERED in underseal (my fault :rolleyes::p it was welded with a 'plate'? last year for the MOT when i got it and was adviced to give it a coat of underseal to save the bare metal being exposed)


Question is, why would they advise this?

The guy took £100 to MOT it, change the oil/filter (which i supplied) and clean the inner sills and coat them in underseal. That sound reasonable? Will they not just advise this next year again? :confused:

All in all, 1 year, 11k miles on, all it cost was the MOT and a new tyre valve a few months ago :D

With i could live with one :cool:

Best/reliable car you have had?
Click to expand...



They would give an advisory for the outer sill being covered in underseal because most likely the underseal is there to cover a repair, (would imagine it is a small focused area over the welded plate not the entire outer sill) but because of the underseal the method of repair is not easily visible.

This repair may possibly be done incorrectly, but as it is covered it cannot be checked thoroughly, so the tester will pass it but give an advisory so that next year the tester will be aware and can have a look again at that area in case something is more obvious.

The testers guidelines state;-

"It is accepted that it is sometimes difficult to identify the repair method after the repair has been covered in paint or underseal. If the method of repair is in doubt the tester should pass and advise."

The inner sills have been cleaned and covered completely in underseal I would imagine, so it is clear that it is not covering a focused area (possible repair patch) so highly unlikely to be advised, the outer sill may well indeed get advised again though.
 
Love my k11 albeit with the beasty 1.4 engine and cvt auto gearbox. It's taught me a lot about understeer and handbrake induced oversteer
 
I've only had 3 cars as my workhorse daily drivers but they've all done well.

2001 Focus - I put 38k miles on it in 10 months, did nothing to it other than oil changes and new tyres. It still lives on to this day and the MOT history isn't bad.

2009 Fiesta - I put 125k miles on this in 3 years. Other than servicing and a new clutch ally it needed was a new throttle body (£40) and a new radiator fan (£40). I still own the car and my wife usually drives it to work but I don't use it anymore. Passed its last MOT at almost 140k with 0 advisories.

2010 320d - Had it just over 2 years and put 73k or so on it since I got it. Other than servicing the only cost has been clutch/DMF which although isn't cheap, is at least a consumable.

So far I'd say the Fiesta has done the best :) But yes as people always say, that generation of Micra is practically indestructible. They're very impressive in that regard.
 
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