GOODBYE BLYATSU… FOR NOW
To get straight to the point: no, I’m not getting rid of the already legendary Blyatsu 2. However, I am going to put it away for a while, but for a good reason. As you would’ve read earlier, I have that ECU issue where the CAN system doesn’t work properly/at all. And even though that’s probably the biggest item on my to-do-list, it’s not the only thing on the list. Wouldn’t be a projectcar if it was, would it? No, the list consists of quite a lot of items.
The problem is that, even though the tasks themselves aren’t that challenging, most of the task require taking the car apart (partially). This means I’d have to go to my garage, take the car apart, fix a minor issue, put the car back together, and go back home. This is a very inefficient use of time, so I decided to just put the car in my garage, so I can take it apart once, and then cover all items on the list.
This created a new problem though, because with the car in the garage, I wouldn’t have anything to drive. And since I didn’t want to ‘borrow my way through winter’, I decided to take a different approach. A friend of mine was planning to ‘K-swap’ his L7, but the timing wasn’t right. However, this created an opportunity! I offered him to buy a car together with me, which would serve as my ‘winter beater’, which he could then use it as a donor vehicle for his swap! And so…
Say hello to Daihatsu #5: a Sirion 1.3 M1! It set us back €700, and for that money we got… exactly what €700 of car can offer.
To be honest, it’s a bit of a shitbox, but that’s okay! In the end, it’s the inside that matters, right? Having said that, the drivetrain does actually need a bit of TLC. I don’t know if it’s a Dutch thing or something that happens all around the world, but over here people often seem to buy/have bought these cars thinking "Oh that’s great! A cheap car that is also reliable. It doesn’t require that much maintenance ". And no maybe that’s not exactly the way things go, but I know plenty of people who only take their car to a garage when something’s wrong, or go like “yeah I just put in a bit of oil every now and then, and then it’s good to go!”. Not everyone is into cars or understands cars the way we do, I totally get it, but it’s a shame to see how some cars’ lives come to an end prematurely, just because it wasn’t serviced regularly/properly.
Alright, end of rant. What I wanted to say, was that it’s in need of a good service and wrenching. The thermostat is broken, I don’t want to know how long the oil has been in there, all pedals feel weird, and the engine feels a bit lazy sometimes. All parts should be here within a few days, so hopefully I can get to wrenching soon!
I don’t think I’ll be posting a lot (or any) of updates for a few months, but we’ll see. Until next time 
(Also: 100th post 
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