New Vibe owner in Kano

[Kanovibe]

Hi I bought my wife a Vibe, who only passed her driving test in June this year, it's a 2010 FWD auto 2.4Lt, it mostly looks in good condition, no accident damage and only a couple of small scratches, it is a US import to Nigeria and I had no idea of its history, so first thing replace auxiliary drive belt, plugs, air & oil filters and oil. That is when I kept finding things that were wrong and I can't believe it could be done by US mechanics!
I found 3 different grades of NGK plugs fitted; none correct.
Only 2 of 3 bolts fitted to the upper engine mount, which I removed to access the belt tensioner arm to release the belt.
With a jack raising the R-H front & wheel off I found the inner sliding tripod joint rubber boot torn and slid back off the outer part of the joint, so its best I replace the drive shaft,
The threaded end of the CV joint stub axel and its nut was so corroded, I had to cut the end off with an angle grinder but still could not loosen the nut as no socket could grip what was left of the nut.
Next removed the brake calliper & rotor plus the 2 bolts from the suspension spring strut to release the hub/upright/drive shaft, next I found 1 of 3 bolts holding the suspension arm ball joint broken with the broken bolt still in the ball joint mounting bracket, to release the drive shaft next to remove the bolts on its bearing support bracket and found a bolt missing, by this time I was dreading to look the at the L-H suspension!
With the front hub upright and shaft at work I was able to heat it and with a pipe wrench remove the rusted nut, having heated it I now needed to replace the hub bearings as well, re-assembly was pretty straight forward after removing/replacing broken and missing bolts.
Now for its electrical issues, it had a drain of just over 0.4amps, so left standing the battery would go flat; after removing and charging the battery, I found the engine would only run about 4 minutes and if left 20 minutes could restart. The engine stopping fault was traced to a local very crudely made antitheft device, but having no way to reset it the only option was to remove it, the battery drain was found to be a faulty door switch.
Next we had the battery charge alarm light on the dash and had to replace the diode pack in the alternator but had great difficulty removing the alternator fixing bolt as the hex head rounded off and was rusted in the threaded sleave nut.
After driving a few weeks, the starter motor stopped working, got a S/H replacement.
Not a good introduction to Vibe ownership/driving and am sure the saga will continue
Here in Kano, there are a lot of Vibes and Matrix driving around which should mean spares are available
John

[joatmon]

Welcome to genvibe.

That's a lot to have to fix. After all that I hope the car serves you well for a long time.

Too bad the history of the car isn't known, whoever abused the car like that shouldn't be allowed to touch another

[Kanovibe]

Welcome to genvibe.

That's a lot to have to fix. After all that I hope the car serves you well for a long time.

Too bad the history of the car isn't known, whoever abused the car like that shouldn't be allowed to touch another

Hi Joatmon,
The saga continued on the left side suspension, before I had time to check it out Mrs B luckily driving slowly, on a quiet road had the suspension arm ball joint come out of the upright, the nut was still in the road, but not the correct castellated with a locking split pin, a wrong bigger size inches nylock nut?? also the ball joint was fitted to the arm with just the 2 studs and nuts no third bolt, bought replacement ball joint assembly and replaced the missing bolt, I'm not very happy with the drive shaft, but have to make a split ring tool to pull out the inner sliding tripod joint from the gearbox, unless somebody on here has a trick way of getting them out?
When I've finished with front suspension, I need to check wheel alignment as the steering feels "off" and does not return to centre if you take your hands off after turning a corner.
We do have wheel aligners here, But they never look for info for a car and set them straight, causing tyres to scrub as rubber joints compress and you get toe out when moving.
All this Vibe work is interfering with "my project" of building the only one known in Africa, 50 year old, Mini based, with 1400cc 120bhp mid engined, Cox GTM.
John

[Kanovibe]

More work has been done, replaced blowing exhaust manifold gasket, replaced leaking R-H shock absorber, replaced cut rubber CV joint cover, replaced damaged engine rubber mounts, that was my Christmas holiday and now back to work again.
John

[joatmon]

Congrats on having the skill/tools/time to do so much on that poor Vibe. When you bought it, you likely didn't think it would be more of a project than your Cox GTM

[Kanovibe]

Time is the thing I'm always short of as I'm usually at work around 5.30am to see the night shift off and close at 4.00pm to get home around 4.40pm and on Saturdays close around 11.00am, so any holidays are always busy catching up on jobs to be done.
When I 1st came to Kano there was an active motor club, and as I was familiar with them, built an off-road race 998 Mini, as soon I found a 1275 (like hen's teeth here) it was rebuilt as a race 1399 engine and replaced the 998. Later another Mini owner left Kano and I bought his car and rebuilt his 1275 into a 1380 engine, this was later installed to make a twin engine Mini with a full roll cage supporting the rear engine installation, the more modified 1399 engine was put into the rear as I wanted to promote oversteer to help cornering, its gear box mounted under the engine was modified, to allow the gear linkage to come out of the front of the gear casing, as it would normally come out of the rear in a Mini, this 1399 engine is now in the Cox GTM.
In the "spare" time I also built a USA made Chenowith Baja Buggy with a race Beetle engine, twin port heads with big valves, Scat cam, Porsche distributer, twin Dellorto 40mm downdraft carbs. 2 other projects were a Panhard 24ct found abandoned without its engine and bonnet (hood to you), a Fiat Abarth 124 Ex Gr4 rally car, with lots of special bits, 5speed Collotti none synchro 'crash" gear box, GRP bonnet, hardtop, and boot lid, aluminium door skins, fully adjustable suspension, castor, camber and toe in.
Motor bikes Gilera Nordwest, Saturno and RC600, Motor Morini 500Sie, I've also had a Yamaha 600XT, Kawasaki 650KLX, Honda Xr400, much modified to 440cc FMF exhaust, Mikuni carb, Vortex programable ignition, CRF USD forks.
This is just in Kano, In the UK I run a Jedi Kawasaki 998 single seat race car, which is towed to events with a much-modified L-R TD5 Defender camper truck.
Not bad for a geriatric old fart.