Tom
Chats A Bit
Posts: 218 
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Post by Tom on Mar 2, 2021 20:53:29 GMT
After a friend said they wanted a usable daily hot hatch I decided to have a look around at lower budget options to help him out. Anyway as a direct result of my kindness I now have an entirely unnecessary car, and one which I absolutely never thought I would own. "spec" is as follows: 04 Yaris T sport 1.5vvti 150k on the clock  Fairly bad DIY anthracite wheel refurb .. Otherwise stock. It has been well looked after it would seem with KYB dampers all round, recent disks and pads and when I dropped the oil and filter at the weekend it looked to have been done recently enough. Engine is perfect despite milage, pulls really nicely, gearbox is showing its age a little more with wear on the syncro for 2nd, have to be gentle shifting down from 3rd or it gives a wince inducing crunch on the way in. Offside lower arm bushes were absolutely non existent, and of course it has the less common 14mm front bush meaning euros could only supply me a blueprint item for more than twice the price of the budget options.. Car does now drive nicely providing above syncro is kept in mind, never really heard too much about them but seems a great nippy hot micro hatch.. Thing. One of only a handful still available for little money! Attached is a grossly over saturated image, at some point I may grab some interior pics etc.  |
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Post by wannabe on Mar 3, 2021 1:03:25 GMT
Nice, these are well recommended on some of the Pistonheads 'Shed' threads - cheap, super-reliable, not that slow  |
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Post by atlex on Mar 3, 2021 9:08:52 GMT
excellent 4x100s
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Post by suggs84 on Mar 3, 2021 10:15:00 GMT
Sounds very interesting, will await more photos  Exactly the same thing happened to me last year, my mate wanted a Subaru Impreza WRX for around 5k, so i decided to see what else he could get for 5k........ this resulted in me buying an immaculate E46 330i straight off the boat from Japan for 5k.... and he still bought his Subaru for said 5k budget  |
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Post by wannabe on Mar 4, 2021 1:39:16 GMT
Sounds very interesting, will await more photos Exactly the same thing happened to me last year, my mate wanted a Subaru Impreza WRX for around 5k, so i decided to see what else he could get for 5k........ this resulted in me buying an immaculate E46 330i straight off the boat from Japan for 5k.... and he still bought his Subaru for said 5k budget I'm really thinking a Japanese import makes a lot of sense - should be in much better condition than the salt-encrusted relics we get over here. |
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Post by Horney on Mar 4, 2021 10:16:18 GMT
I've bought 2 cars drunk on eBay.
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Post by Zed. on Mar 4, 2021 10:27:14 GMT
I've bought 2 cars drunk on eBay. thats nothing.... I bought a 1991 Discovery sober.... on the basis of 2 bad photo's & hardly any info.... 250 miles away.... my mrs (sober but stupid  ) bought the ZaZ from Lithuania (unseen) and only found out that it had no engine & gearbox when it was in Germany did work out good in the end Rich. |
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Tom
Chats A Bit
Posts: 218
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Post by Tom on Mar 8, 2021 16:02:25 GMT
I feel myself getting ever closer to this. Having got the Yaris now running nicely I am considering selling and getting an R53 cooper S... better get a few beers in for the weekend.
The car is definitely a bit of a gem though, have serviced everything and replaced bushes etc. that were shot. Engine is absolutely perfect. It definitely inspires you to put your foot down a bit just nipping around A to B which is something I have been missing getting around predominantly in a van lately.
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Post by suggs84 on Mar 10, 2021 14:33:00 GMT
Sounds very interesting, will await more photos Exactly the same thing happened to me last year, my mate wanted a Subaru Impreza WRX for around 5k, so i decided to see what else he could get for 5k........ this resulted in me buying an immaculate E46 330i straight off the boat from Japan for 5k.... and he still bought his Subaru for said 5k budget I'm really thinking a Japanese import makes a lot of sense - should be in much better condition than the salt-encrusted relics we get over here. Indeed! The condition of this B M W is incredible for the age, so much so, despite being purchased for daily use, i've now made this the weekend car and dropped my Eunos down to daily duties! The E46 is 20 years old this month but the underside was almost spotless, another reason to take it off the road for the winter. The only thing with the Japanese imports is that they are 'naked' underneath due to the different climate and non salted roads so have no underseal so this was something I had to address when I first got. But the interior is like new, arches minty fresh, zero rust! |
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Tom
Chats A Bit
Posts: 218
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Post by Tom on Apr 21, 2021 7:06:45 GMT
What fun this has been  I've now done a clutch and gearbox, lower control arm, and ARB drop links. It needs tyres next as it has god knows what on it and a slow puncture. Given my Mazda is having a multi month hissy fit and now starting I've been enjoying working on something that.. works. I actually have an mx5 front ARB on the way as I think I could fudge it onto the rear of this to stiffen it all up a bit for a bit more of a pointy front. Considering looping the PAS lines as well  |
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Tom
Chats A Bit
Posts: 218
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Post by Tom on May 4, 2021 6:30:35 GMT
 So I've made a youtube video of fitting an mx5 arb to the rear of the yaris.. This was a pretty steep learning curve, but if anyone's interested this is it. Main lessons learned is standing in front of a camera is awkward, I'm not charismatic and editing is hard!
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Tom
Chats A Bit
Posts: 218
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Post by Tom on May 11, 2021 7:27:01 GMT
So.. This I feel is a somewhat significantly improved (IMO) second video! Not that most get that far, but the audio gets peaky in the last 2mins...
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Tom
Chats A Bit
Posts: 218
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Post by Tom on May 17, 2021 21:15:33 GMT
And another one, I actually have to say I feel like this one is pretty reasonable..
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Tom
Chats A Bit
Posts: 218
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Post by Tom on May 26, 2021 4:57:05 GMT
Another one  I will play with the mazda again at some point.. |
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Post by Zed. on May 26, 2021 10:32:08 GMT
I will play with the mazda again at some point.. exactly, stop fuckin around & get your priorities right 
Rich. |
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) bought the ZaZ from Lithuania (unseen) and only found out that it had no engine & gearbox when it was in Germany 
So I've made a youtube video of fitting an mx5 arb to the rear of the yaris.. This was a pretty steep learning curve, but if anyone's interested this is it. Main lessons learned is standing in front of a camera is awkward, I'm not charismatic and editing is hard! 
I will play with the mazda again at some point..
le sigh