Completely New To Almeras

[lee337]

Hi.
Just bought my very first Almera - 2001 N16, 3 door, Metallic Blue, 1.8 Sport, with 40K on it. Due to the previous owners bin blowing into it on a stormy night last week and putting a small dent in the driver side front arch, I wont be getting it until thursday as they are getting it repaired.

After driving a Rover 25 1.4i for the past 3 years, this car is 10 times better in every area - just from a quick 3 mile test drive. Ill hopefully get some pictures up very soon. Its completely standard at the minute, tho Im not really planning much to it. Lowering it, set of wheels, rear tints and maybe an exhaust. Im not a huge fan of big bodykits, bonnets, spoilers, lexus lights, or mobile cinema interiors.

Few questions tho:

1. Any places that are prone to rust/weathering, the Rover broke my heart with corrosion and rust in the oddest places.

2. Best place for a set of reasonably priced coilovers, Ive looked abit over the internet but I haven't had much joy unless its just for springs [which Im not overly fond of] - After further reading of the forums Ive found the answer to this haha

3. Any parts need special TLC? In 3 years of owning a rover, which now only has 53k on it, its been through Gear Box an Clutch, Wheel Bearings, Immobiliser reset, Rear Suspension Bushes, 4 million brake bulbs, and just before I traded it in I had to replace the bonnet latch. And Im not a hard driver either.

Thanks for any help.
Lee

 

[Graeme GFC]

Welcome mate. New member myself. Managed to offload my Rover 25 1.4i just before Christmas & got an Almera N16 1.5 SE. Cracking little car.

Interesting to see your list of Rover problems......Been there & spent a fortune on the repairs!! Had to laugh at your 4 million bulbs comment, I nearly set a direct debit up with Halfords for the amount I went through.

Happy motoring in your new 1.8 Sport. Look forward to seeing the pics.

Cheers.

 

[LSG_STU]

Hi & welcome had a 25 1.4 IL as well almera is better in all places

 

[wraith]

Hi and welcome to the club.

Wheels are easy enough to find.

Coilovers are trickier - these are all I can find that are supposed to fit though I've heard there are a few fiddly bits required to get them in.
Eibach do spring kits that I've heard good things about (so do other companies but opinion varies on them) but I can't find any uprated/short shocks specifically for the N16.

For anything other than a stock exhaust you'll likely have to get one custom made - around £300 fitted when I last got a quote.

There's lots of induction kits about but as you may have guessed the N16 is not considered to be a modder's car so finding off the shelf upgrades is tricky,
for some things best bet is to find out if B15 chassis Sentra parts will fit and import them (Sentra is US equivilent to Almera). There's a fair bit of info on all this in the N16 forums but you'll have to join the club to get to the juicy stuff (well worth the £15).

As for common problems - not a lot have come up in the forums that I have seen - a couple of people have had clutches pack-in at 50-60k but other than that nothing jumps out.

 

[Fred]

Welcome to the club.

I have a 54 plate 1.5 SE, with a Sebring exhaust backbox, K&N 57i induction kit & an imported (direct fit) B15 Sentra front strut brace fitted, & also a set of brand new K-Sport coilovers for it (again imported), that have never been out of the box since I got them 7 months ago.

It also had a set of 17" KEI Force 10 alloys fitted, but these are currently on my GTi.

If you look @ my `Members Rides` threads, you should see all the above items fitted to my N16.

Also, do a search for N16 gearbox, or similar, as there is a design fault with the early N16 gearboxes.