Allow me to introduce myself...

Greetings AOC!

My name is Arthur.
I'm the proud owner of a 2004 N16 Almera SE.

I have been driving since October 2012 and so this is my first car (which my parents and grandparents have bought for me from a local Nissan "used and approved" dealer for £3,400 with 46k on the clock - that's after haggling!).
Just a little over one year later, I have finally decided to join the AOC website since it has been of invaluable help to me. I know literally nothing about cars but I hope to change that with the ownership of my N16.
Sad to say, within one short year I have had the usual first time driver's dings and prangs. It's a relatively short list but each incident adding unsightly imperfections (even after repairs) imperceptible to everyone but myself - i.e. panel gaps, hairline scratches etc.

The list of accidents in chronological order are as follows:
1) Curbed my front alloy at a Burger King drive through.
2) Reversed into a tree while parking (completely ignored parking sensors screaming at me to stop).
3) Drove out of a retail parking spot into a low barrier without seeing the aforementioned barrier shielding the street lamp placed in the centre of four parking spots.
4) Drove into the back of a c-class mercedes whilst second in place at the roundabout (late for work, I was looking to my right and did not check my front again after he had started to move off - he had stopped suddenly). Merc was completely untouched but my car looked very sad after this encounter. Had a cowboy fix my car on the cheap, did not realise my horn wasn't working.
5) A bloke reversed into my front left flank even though I was pressing the horn. (I then realised my horn wasn't working.)
6) Just yesterday, I went into the back of a Nissan Qashqai at another roundabout (left very late from work, very tired) but the gent kindly decided not to make anything of it since he suffered no damage. My car is again looking rather sad, the bumper is pushed in and the sides are snapped out of their mounting brackets.

So now I am here to see if I can find a way to fix the damage by myself. My ultimate goal is to keep this car for a very long time as it is of particular sentimental value to me. I would like to keep this car stock in appearance and consider minor performance and handling upgrades to improve the driving experience. I never used to think much of this car, but it has grown on me. I love this car.

Please feel free to see photos of my baby.

Photos of the car last year (before accidents)
----------------------------------------------------------





Photo of the car after the 'Prestige Car Incident'
Though it may not seem much, one of the headlights was literally hanging on by a thread and had to be duct-taped before replacing, the bonnet wouldn't open without being force and other complications.
-------------------------------------------------------------


If anyone can point me in the right direction on how to fix my 'pushed in' bumper and the bent support strut in front of the radiator that would be great. Bearing in mind I have very little practical knowledge about cars (of course I know all about JDM stuff and RB JZ SR KA blah blah blah engines - I have 0 hands on experience).

Thanks for reading!
Arthur

I admire your honesty. Where are you from, so I can avoid any roundabouts in
Your Town lol.

Welcome to the club Arthur

Welcome to the club Arthur-first upgrade should be to secure tyres to the sides of your car as per the picture-may help with the parking dings hehe-just kidding

Don't worry mate. Im on my 4th nissan now and I think that the fact they have soft body panels and paint makes them more attractive to bollards and lamp posts. On my old P11-144 sport+ I managed to put a nasty ding in all 4 corners

Welcome to the AOC

Welcome along.

Welcome mate, eBay will be your friend for parts unless people on here are breaking cars etc, the support bar you can get brand new ones off eBay for £30-50, have alook in the forsale section on broken cars to see if you can get a phase 2 headlight etc or again look on eBay or scrapyards bud gl with trying yourself on the fix

Natch97 said:

Don't worry mate. Im on my 4th nissan now and I think that the fact they have soft body panels and paint makes them more attractive to bollards and lamp posts. On my old P11-144 sport+ I managed to put a nasty ding in all 4 corners

Click to expand...

You must be a female??

Nah, faid not.

Nismosteve said:

I admire your honesty. Where are you from, so I can avoid any roundabouts in
Your Town lol.

Click to expand...

Well if anything, my driving skill has improved after these incidents, and by "improved" I mean I am more cautious, aware and generally take things a lot slower now. Still, I can't guarantee your safety if I'm on the road however; so if you work/live in and around London I'd keep a weather eye on any light blue Almera SEs with an '04 plate if I were you!

edk said:

Welcome to the club Arthur

Click to expand...

Thank you for the warm welcome Ed!
Within the first month of my ownership of my car I had wanted to improve it's appearance and performance (not in the "fast & furious" style) but to make it look smarter and give it a bit more poke just to make the existing 1.5 that little bit more enjoyable to drive. Searching on google and youtube for 'Almera Tuning' consistently brought up your beautiful and tastefully modified Almera. Since then your car has been a benchmark for me and it is what I hope mine will look like one day.
I have a lot to learn and to do, but with your's and everyone else's help on AOC, I'm sure I will get there!

sportyblueone said:

Welcome to the club Arthur-first upgrade should be to secure tyres to the sides of your car as per the picture-may help with the parking dings hehe-just kiddingView attachment 10861

Click to expand...

I'll have you know, I passed my theory test with 50/50 on multiple choice, 65/75 on hazard. I also passed my road test first time with 3 minor errors.
Suffice it to say, it has meant I started my solo driving career with an overconfident and self-inflated opinion on my abilities.

Natch97 said:

Don't worry mate. Im on my 4th nissan now and I think that the fact they have soft body panels and paint makes them more attractive to bollards and lamp posts. On my old P11-144 sport+ I managed to put a nasty ding in all 4 corners

Click to expand...

I never believed that there could have been such a difference in body strength during impact between Japanese and German cars even though I've heard and seen evidence of it in the past. I guess in the long run I'd really like a German car but I don't think I'd ever give up my first car regardless of its foibles!

Wolverine said:

Welcome mate, eBay will be your friend for parts unless people on here are breaking cars etc, the support bar you can get brand new ones off eBay for £30-50, have alook in the forsale section on broken cars to see if you can get a phase 2 headlight etc or again look on eBay or scrapyards bud gl with trying yourself on the fix

Click to expand...

Good call! In fact I had a look on ebay and they had a front support bar for £29! That's not too bad provided I can find the right thread here so I can do the work myself.

My primary objectives are thus (I will probably be able to do 1 ~ 10% of the work):

1) Repair Mera to factory condition
2) Give Mera more poke across all speeds (If that's even possible. How well does the 1.5 petrol lump respond to moderate tuning anyway? Is 150bhp an impossible ask? Will it shorten engine life?) Find a better cat for the mera, replace catback, install induction and CAI then ECU. I might need to find some garages and places with dynos around my area though.
4) Give Mera awesome handling and composure on the treacherous UK small roads and twisty country lanes! These make up at least 40% of my daily commute. Maybe coilovers and strut bars? (Again I'm only name dropping, I have no idea how much these things cost to buy or how to go about installing it. I can't tell the ends of a spanner apart!)
5) Make Mera look like Ed's. I want it to look clean, simple, elegant and not something you'd find on Barryboys. I'd like a sleek and respectable company car feel with a slight sporty accent. I also want to make it sound beefy engine side, but relatively silent at the exhaust end.

I hope you get it sorted and suitably spruced. Don't forget any engine mods will hammer your insurance.
Perhaps you should mainly concentrate on improving the cars handling. While your own skills improve and your insurance becomes more mod friendly.

It would be great to see your spanner skills improve too. Help is only a post away. Best of luck Arthur.

Arthur "SuperArt" said:

My primary objectives are thus (I will probably be able to do 1 ~ 10% of the work):

1) Repair Mera to factory condition
2) Give Mera more poke across all speeds (If that's even possible. How well does the 1.5 petrol lump respond to moderate tuning anyway? Is 150bhp an impossible ask? Will it shorten engine life?) Find a better cat for the mera, replace catback, install induction and CAI then ECU. I might need to find some garages and places with dynos around my area though.
4) Give Mera awesome handling and composure on the treacherous UK small roads and twisty country lanes! These make up at least 40% of my daily commute. Maybe coilovers and strut bars? (Again I'm only name dropping, I have no idea how much these things cost to buy or how to go about installing it. I can't tell the ends of a spanner apart!)
5) Make Mera look like Ed's. I want it to look clean, simple, elegant and not something you'd find on Barryboys. I'd like a sleek and respectable company car feel with a slight sporty accent. I also want to make it sound beefy engine side, but relatively silent at the exhaust end.
I am dreaming of the perfect Almera.

Click to expand...

2. 150hp would be approximately 50% power increase and with the weakness of the gearbox on the 1.5. An engine swap to an sr20 from a gti would be a better option being 143hp standard. One previous owner did this to his car (Darren).
1, 4, 5 are sensible options not sure where your number 3 is though.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the comments. Glad the car has provided some inspiration.

Re SR20 version as mentioned its your best bet, but tricky on the phase 2s because of the canbus system.

Years back someone put a lightened flywheel on their QG15 with basic breathing mods and said it made a difference. But its not the sort of engine that responds well. For the money, you could turbo it and get better results. Low boost mind.

Gear boxes are ok if you make sure there's enough oil in them. The filler hole is too low so you need to jack the car up to put more in.

The big worry i would have with a QG is the timing chain. They stretch for fun so any tuning is just going to make it worse.

Qg18de.net might give you some options for the engine.

-phone-

Welcome to the AOC! I'm in a similar situation to yourself, having passed my test late last year and gone for a 1.5 N16 as my first car (just 4 years older than your one). It also sounds like you intend to do something along the same lines that I've attempted to do with my car, that being to try and make it a bit more interesting than your standard family hatch, but still not go all out Barry Boy.

The first thing I'd do to it is check the underside for corrosion and get it properly undersealed. This is a lesson I've learned the hard way, as my N16 is currently on its last legs thanks to chassis rust (among other things). This does mean I'll likely be breaking the car, so may have some parts you might be interested in. Where are you based?

Nismosteve said:

I hope you get it sorted and suitably spruced. Don't forget any engine mods will hammer your insurance.
Perhaps you should mainly concentrate on improving the cars handling. While your own skills improve and your insurance becomes more mod friendly.
It would be great to see your spanner skills improve too. Help is only a post away. Best of luck Arthur.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice and encouragement. I think I will leave the engine stock. From what I have read so far, the QG15DE looks to be a very poor tuning path.

edk said:

Thanks for the comments. Glad the car has provided some inspiration.
Re SR20 version as mentioned its your best bet, but tricky on the phase 2s because of the canbus system.
Years back someone put a lightened flywheel on their QG15 with basic breathing mods and said it made a difference. But its not the sort of engine that responds well. For the money, you could turbo it and get better results. Low boost mind.
Gear boxes are ok if you make sure there's enough oil in them. The filler hole is too low so you need to jack the car up to put more in.
The big worry i would have with a QG is the timing chain. They stretch for fun so any tuning is just going to make it worse.
Qg18de.net might give you some options for the engine.
-phone-

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips Ed. I gather that the only way to develop good power would be to find a clean diesel N16 example and go from there (like you) if swaps are to be avoided.

Seebeebee said:

Welcome to the AOC! I'm in a similar situation to yourself, having passed my test late last year and gone for a 1.5 N16 as my first car (just 4 years older than your one). It also sounds like you intend to do something along the same lines that I've attempted to do with my car, that being to try and make it a bit more interesting than your standard family hatch, but still not go all out Barry Boy.

The first thing I'd do to it is check the underside for corrosion and get it properly undersealed. This is a lesson I've learned the hard way, as my N16 is currently on its last legs thanks to chassis rust (among other things). This does mean I'll likely be breaking the car, so may have some parts you might be interested in. Where are you based?

Click to expand...

The only thing I can think of which my car needs is the front bumper support bar and bumper clips (as some of mine have snapped). My N16 was pretty much showroom or concourse condition when I bought it, I have religiously given it a weekly wash and wax ever since and kept it stunning - as you can see from my first photos (though I still don't know how to do the engine bay).

I'm afraid due to the time and effort I would'nt be willing to make mine again, or if I would I would probably charge and it would be outside your budget.

X-Racing in Au for the grille.
Knight Racer for the bonnet (FRP) or Nissan for an OEM metal one.

You can have a go at blending the grille into the OEM bumper so it looks like my old grey one. Or see if you can find a reliable body shop to do the work. Again I could blend the grille for you but you would have to supply me with a spare bumper to work with, and would have to pick it up when it's done and sort out painting yourself. In all honestly I'm not keen on doing it but if the price is right... not trying to make a quick buck but just saying I can help if you really need but I can't do it for free.

edk said:

I'm afraid due to the time and effort I would'nt be willing to make mine again, or if I would I would probably charge and it would be outside your budget.

X-Racing in Au for the grille.
Knight Racer for the bonnet (FRP) or Nissan for an OEM metal one.

You can have a go at blending the grille into the OEM bumper so it looks like my old grey one. Or see if you can find a reliable body shop to do the work. Again I could blend the grille for you but you would have to supply me with a spare bumper to work with, and would have to pick it up when it's done and sort out painting yourself. In all honestly I'm not keen on doing it but if the price is right... not trying to make a quick buck but just saying I can help if you really need but I can't do it for free.

Click to expand...

I would never so outrageously assume that you would give up time/effort for free! It's good to know that if all else fails I can still turn to you for a solution - for the right price of course!