Out of hibernation

[stevek]

Hi everyone, Couldn't resist relating the wonderful experience of driving my SVX after a winter of Volvo's. This being my first real experience of the car for any distance after all the work on it now finished I am well impressed. Left in '3' till 80 mph and in power mode it is responsive, silky smooth and quite quick. Had to remove the resonator from the exhaust as I had 2 to choose from, one which 'buzzed' when cold and one that 'buzzed' when hot so slight inside noise increase but no Fiatesque embarassing noises anymore!
Grip level is excellent and in the wet it really shines. Now if it were a lot lighter, manual, and gadget free with brakes that coped..... sorry, it's a good car and best of all, very few know what it is!
All the best, Steve.

[blueji]

[QUOTE=stevek;. Now if it were a lot lighter, manual, and gadget free with brakes that coped.....


Hi Steve,

If it was any of the above then you would have an Impreza, but I know what you mean

It's all the quirkie little things about this car that does it for me, (apart from the buzz in the box) I garage mine every winter and when I put it back on the road come April....it's like getting a new car all over again and after 5 years I still grin like an idiot!

enjoy the summer!

John

[stevek]

[QUOTE=blueji;600374][QUOTE=stevek;. Now if it were a lot lighter, manual, and gadget free with brakes that coped.....



If it was any of the above then you would have an Impreza, but I know what you mean

Hi John,
Never driven an Impreza, nearest I got was a Legacy which sad to say was not for me. Too peaky power delivery which I wasn't expecting from a flat 4 - fine when 'going for it' but wearing when not.
I may be drifting here but wonder if anyone can shed light on my car's history, as it appears in the old pix section - Black JDM 1993 originally on K328 URT? Standard apart from wheels and stereo. Now with '96 engine/box/front and rear suspension/brakes etc from Japan but at least I now have 2 of everything!
Cheers, Steve

[svxistentialist]

[QUOTE=stevek;600485][QUOTE=blueji;600374][QUOTE=stevek;. Now if it were a lot lighter, manual, and gadget free with brakes that coped.....



If it was any of the above then you would have an Impreza, but I know what you mean

Hi John,
Never driven an Impreza, nearest I got was a Legacy which sad to say was not for me. Too peaky power delivery which I wasn't expecting from a flat 4 - fine when 'going for it' but wearing when not.
I may be drifting here but wonder if anyone can shed light on my car's history, as it appears in the old pix section - Black JDM 1993 originally on K328 URT? Standard apart from wheels and stereo. Now with '96 engine/box/front and rear suspension/brakes etc from Japan but at least I now have 2 of everything!
Cheers, Steve[/QUOTE]

Hello Steve.

Some of the guys will know that car, most likely Phil & Belha.

I have it listed as belonging to Matt and Claire [ possibly from Witney?], but unfortunately I have not met them. They are listed as attending the Gaydon meet, and I missed that one. It was probably 2003 or 2004.

It was listed on eBay in Oct '07 with 67K miles on it, that's all the information I have on it at present.

Some of the guys will chime in probably who were attending Gaydon.

Joe

[b3lha]

I know a bit about your car. A few years ago, it belonged to Matt and Claire. Claire runs a turf supply company behind the garden centre at Hare Hatch in Berkshire. We met them by chance when we called in to order a garden shed.

I talked them into coming to the Gaydon meet but they were busy with work and arrived in the evening, just as everyone else was packing up to go home. That's why they are not in many of the photos.

I did some work on the car for them, fitting the chip behind the speedo to convert it to mph and remove the 180 limit. If you pull out the ashtray you may find a bundle of wires with spade connectors. Depending on how you connect them, it will set the cruise control upper limit to 110 mph or km/h.

At that time Matt was replacing the offside rear wheel bearing. He bought a tub of some special expensive grease that he reckoned would make them last forever. He was also looking for some adjustable camber bolts because the aftermarket wheels were rubbing the inside of the rear arches.

Some time later they split up and Claire sold the car. Claire was kind enough to lend me her turf lorry to collect my green SVX from Southampton docks.

http://www.turf-services.co.uk

Phil.

[svxistentialist]

Originally Posted by stevek

Now if it were a lot lighter, manual, and gadget free with brakes that coped..... sorry, it's a good car and best of all, very few know what it is!
All the best, Steve.

Steve, I think we are all agreed that the brakes on the SVX are only barely adequate, even from new. Your remarks about "brakes that coped" prompted me to wonder if you are aware there are a number of things you can do to improve or "optimise" what you have? Your post count is low, so you may not have browsed all the history of posts on brakes.

Putting on a set of Goodridge steel braided hoses costs £55 and improves the feel of the brakes a lot.

While doing this take the opportunity to flush the old brake fluid and replace with Dot 4 fluid. This is necessary because of the age of the car.

If your brakes are feeling juddery or grabby, the discs might benefit from a light skim. Local engineering companies can do this cheaply for you.

You should also consider using EBC pads. Loads of people use the Greenstuff pads, but the Yellowstuff pads work better for the weight of the SVX. Some people worry that the Yellowstuff pads will wear your discs faster; I would rather be able to stop from speed than worry about the longevity of discs. New discs don't cost a fortune, crashes do.

Last, but by no means least, have you taken a look at how your rear discs are marked by the pads? Often as not, you will see rust lines, sure sign of no bite from the calipers and pads. If this is the case your car is trying to pull up using the front brakes only most of the time.

This is an ageing problem afflicts a lot of cars. It is caused by the fact that your car has been run on English roads over many winters, and the councils use ten times, twenty times, no, one hundred times too much salt on the roads!!! [same as here, these days!] The effect of this is your pistons in your calipers will be crudded up, and are not free to move freely and clamp the disc.

The cure is to strip the calipers and free and polish the pistons. Do an overhaul, replace the seals. Stopping power will improve dramatically. If your rear discs are worn smooth and shiny at the back, you may not need to overhaul. In my experience most cars beyond a certain age tend to suffer from ineffective calipers on the back.

Hope this helps,

Joe

[ahmed-abrar]

good advice on brakes, i think when my car is back on the road this summer i will take it up

[stevek]

Hi everyone,
Sorry for tardy response - been in hospital. Thank you very much for both the car's history and the brake advice. When I bought the car the gearbox was not engaging 3rd & 4th. I think I already mentioned buying a car from Japan which I had stripped over there and shipped in - no car import duty. This was a low miles '96 car. Believe it or not it added up to less doing this and transferring all the drive train to my car than the prices quoted for sorting the high gear clutch out on the original 'box. The brakes do have fresh DOT 4 fluid and I appreciate the feel could be improved with Aeroquips but the actual problem is inconsistent vibration. I have to say this is getting better as miles pass. I'm a bit bothered about the tiny clearance the front calipers have though which is about a millimetre from the rim. I don't think any bearing wear will go unnoticed! Wheels are 'Shneider' according to the centre caps.
The previous owner must have completed the camber mod as the rears now do kiss the arches lightly when pushed as we transferred the rear strut/hubs complete. I will change the bolts over. All the best, Steve.