Witherkay's '05 2.2dci 136 N16

I bought this last September, after having (and still having) my '02 1.5 Twister for about two years. Like a few others, I was looking at a Golf or a Bora TDI, but ridiculous prices for high-mileage, badly maintained low spec ones got me looking back at bigger engine Almeras. I originally wanted a Sport, but found the diesels were much better value, and of course Ed's and Liam's cars were persuasive.

Found this in Norfolk on eBay, it was displaying the fuel pump error code, hunting for revs and I guess most people were avoiding it, thinking they would have to shell out ££££s for a new pump. I took a chance and assumed it was just the fuel pressure regulator as described on here and bought it for just above £600 with 105k, 2 months MOT and a bit of service history.





The car stank of fags, looks like it hadn't been cleaned in a year, the windscreen was scratched to hell and the headlights were so bad I had to turn the fogs on to see on the drive back to Derby - but boy the power was addictive, I floored it and lost my dad's '14 Passat on the A47.



It took a while but finally managed to get it washed and hoovered.



Also swapped over my much better (but not DEPO) headlights from the other N16.



After the MOT, which needed front pads and discs replacing, it ran sweetly for a while. The car still hunted but was fine after a fuel pump reset procedure. Eventually after failure to start a few times the car would cut out if the revs went low, pretty scary when the motorway locked up during a rainstorm! So the SCV was replaced at the grand cost of £75!

I didn't really do much mechanical to the car, mainly cosmetic and cleaning. Sprayed up the chrome on the front, tinted the fogs and mainly did service things.



Picked up some BBS craters:


Nabbed a horn off my scrapped Rover to replace the pathetic Nissan ones, but have yet to find a place to plug in the second one:


Fitted some 4000k HIDs and wind deflectors


But most of my time has been taken up by my other project - a '75 MGBGT




Specs:

2005 2.2dci SXE 136
Full standard bodykit
All around electric windows
Factory electric sunroof
AC (super warm...)
Rear parking sensors
Full colour screen, satnav etc
Rear mudflaps


Mods:

278mm Primera p12-144 rear brake upgrade (Delphi discs and pads)
HKS super hybrid panel filter
Bosch aeroflat wipers (highly recommended!)
Full electric towbar - currently removed
Heko wind deflectors
New Nissan replacement perforated leather steering wheel cover
5000k H7 'CarRover' HID in low beams
Replaced sidelights, numberplate lights, map reading lights, side repeaters and boot lights with LEDs
Yellow tinted fogs
Black sprayed front grill bars and black plastidipped handles


Future plans/ideas:

Switch alloys to Ronal twists or BBS craters
Clear side indicators (purchased not installed)
DEPO headlights (cheers everyone on Facebook making me spend money!)
Lower 35mm all around
Red tint rear lights
30-50% tint all around
Maxima gear knob
Half leathers
Replace manky boot floor carpet
Body colour paint door handles
Install wing mirror led arrow signallers (already purchased on a whim)
Subtle foot well lighting and rear seat lights
Heated seats
Add second horn (need to find wires to install)
New plates
Splitter (Leon, Laguna?)
Line glovebox in velour or similar.

Love it
Be good to see what the BBS wheels look like. Ones from an S40?

Thanks

Yeah they're off a V/S40, hoping to paint them a gunmetal but also tempted by some sport ones I've found down here in Taunton

I can't do much being down at uni, 6 hours away from home without a garage or driveway. However, when I got the car, the parcel shelf was broken:



This seems to happen much more on facelift cars, I couldn't find a non-broken facelift grey one, so got a pre-facelift very pale one and sprayed it black, simply using standard matt black spray paint.



Has come out really well! You can't see in this pic that it's a little patchy, but with another half a can will be perfect. It looks great in the car - because it's black anything that's not black can look faded and off without tinted windows, so this helped reduce that.


I'm very interested in adding DRLs, facelift N16s still look pretty modern and DRLs would enhance this, but most aftermarket ones look absolutely shite. I've found a few ideas that look alright:

I got some DEPO lights, thanks for making me spend money! Here's a comparison from my DSLR with the exact same exposure settings. 35w 5000k H7 HIDs, dip beam only:

How much they cost you dude..?? Also what was the spec of your dads passat lol.

About £100 all in. He's got the standard B7 2ltr diesel, not sure if it's 140 or 170. He had a lot of crap, plus my mum and the dog in it though so that probably helped me

For the horns just splice into the existing wiring for the original horn and then heat shrink the connections to avoid corrosion.

I like what you have done with the car I'll post up an image of my DLRs however I opted to connect to sidelights but plan in the spring to rewire and have them as intended.



Fogs are angel eye outer is DLRs with center being actual fog light.

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Mad Maru said:

For the horns just splice into the existing wiring for the original horn and then heat shrink the connections to avoid corrosion.

I like what you have done with the car I'll post up an image of my DLRs however I opted to connect to sidelights but plan in the spring to rewire and have them as intended.


Fogs are angel eye outer is DLRs with center being actual fog light.

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Click to expand...

So your DRLs are in the fogs? I was liking that idea, similar to the minis:

But a full ring instead, not multiple LEDs.

On Aliexpress they sell facelift fogs with DRLs installed but they're pretty expensive!.

Do I see twin horns in your grill there?

Yes twin horn a must compared to factory.


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Cant even remember the last time I used my horn, no pun intended.

Liam said:

Cant even remember the last time I used my horn, no pun intended.

Click to expand...

Drive in London, there are idiots everywhere it's needed to try and keep car intact.


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Liam said:

Cant even remember the last time I used my horn, no pun intended.

Click to expand...

I get a lot of pheasant, deer and dozy pigeons near me. The Rover 25 horns were great at scaring them off but the Nissan originals they don't even react to.

Looking good!

Cheers Prim!

I got some new EU plates for Christmas, after taking off the back plate though found some pretty haggard holes from a drunk mechanic of some kind



I peeled away the old glue which took some paint with it and cleaned up the holes then put some push rivets in it after rust treatment. I'll maybe weld and paint over these one day. Not a fan of screwed on plates, what a mess!



The battery tray was also being eaten by acid - so I took it off and soaked it in a bicarbonate of soda mix (alkaline) to neutralise it, rinsed it and painted it with fine stone chip paint. Next task is to paint the radiator mounting brackets on top which also go rusty.



I plastidipped/peel coated my Ronal Twist/Almera Sport wheels and put on a set of good part worns. The car handles great now, so much stickier but the shorter tyre makes it a little crashy and the wheels look a little lost on standard suspension so will opt for taller tyres when these are worn out: