Yippeeeee, she’s inside.
Finally, for the first time, took the bumper off. What a pain. And what’s behind it needs work.
An finally removed the last bit of the recirculation. This breather is venting to atmosphere (for now?)
Fly-by bonus video 
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Coot boi service
This boi was due for an oil change (again).
Daihatsu, why did you make it so difficult to change the oil filter.
I’m aware Daihatsu uses a special tool and a certain height filter to fit it through the engine mount.
But my old filter did not fit through the engine mount… So the bumper, the airbox and the turbo to intercooler hose had to come off.
It’s certainly not ideal.
As usual, I fitted a magnetic sump plug.
She sure is purring!
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If you use the z443 it will just fit through the engine mount. The z 386 does not. I felt this pain once or twice doing the oil filter in a copen.
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My mom has been dailying Dave (from now on Pikmin car, after a family obsession with the mobile game) for a while. The idea was to give this machine a service before I gave it to my mom, but life got in the way as it often does.
But not knowing if the timing belt was ever replaced and the car hitting 130k, I got a bit stressed. After reclaiming the garage space this was one of the first things on my mind.
But, honestly, it wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t the first belt as this was a Mitsubishi branded one. So it was replaced before 100k at least once.
But a new belt does look nice, shame it’s hidden by the cover . While we were there we also replaced the waterpump, sparkplugs, oil, oil filter. The usual.
The brake discs were still factory original so they got some shiny replacements.
It’s almost inspection time for the Pikmin car. I need to change the exhaust pipe behind the backbox as it’s rusted completely through. It’s in two pieces. Other than that I think it’s fine. One CV boot is iffy, so I’ll replace that as well. Other than that, solid car.
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Mitsuboshi not Mitsubishi 
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Matsubatsu
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I have a week off between jobs right now. I woke up and decided why not drive to the ring!
In the late afternoon I did two laps. It was really fun with this car. She manages quite well with elevation, as long as you keep the revs over 4000rpm. Although most of the track was probably over 6000rpm for me.
Cornering with this car is just bliss. The car just goes where you want, even if you take a bit too much speed with you into the corners. I had a bit of an oversteer slide in the small carousel but that was corrected quickly. Not sure what happened to be honest. The tires suddenly behaved a little different in that section. Maybe I’m not completely used to driving them that hot.
After the second lap the coolant stayed around 105 Celsius on idle. So after a while I just let the car cool down with the fan on and the engine off. She seems to have some problems with heat sometimes after a long highway drive as well. It’s just something I have to look into.
I’ve noticed the fan comes on around 98, and already goes off around 94. But every time it hits 94 and the fan turns off, it jumps back over 100 again. I’m not sure what temp the fan should kick in, but it seems a bit late for a single fan system.
Brakes, tires, oil, etc was all good after what is around a 600km drive and 2 laps . Although I did push some oil out of the open carter ventilation filter 
. It wasn’t noticeable on the dipstick.
Good little car, sorry for the abuse
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I think I sorted out the cooling problem.
I removed the overflow bottle to clean it out as it was yucky. While I was there I made sure the tube to the overflow was clean inside and… it wasn’t. It was completely filled with crap and water wouldn’t pass through it.
It seems to me that the expanding coolant did leave the rad cap and couldn’t get into the overflow bottle, thus it directly left the tube to the floor…
Which meant my radiator was very low on coolant. More than a litre short, after I let all the air bubble out with the heater on.
Simple solution for a big problem. I hope this was the only thing
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It was in fact not sorted. Now that the overflow tube is free it just spits coolant to the road when warm. It does seem to stay on temp but there’s obviously too much pressure on the system. I put the car in the garage today and I won’t be driving it until it’s sorted.
Hoping for the thermostat, scared for the head gasket.
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Tried a new radiator cap?
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Not yet, will try. Thanks
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Thinking about your comment and you might be right.
The car started to overheat on idle and I noticed the coolant level in the rad was too low.
When hot the expansion tank is completely full and it spits it out.
The level in the expansion tank drops after cooling down, bot not a lot.
And I keep refilling the rad after a drive.
Maybe it’s not sucking the coolant back in from the overflow.
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Yeah its a cheap thing to try and tick off the list
And honestly something that should be changed more regularly than people usually do
Even try one from another car temporarily if need be just to see how it goes
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I hadn’t driven the car because of the overheating issues since last week. Today I changed the thermostat and rad cap, as well as replacing as much coolant as I could. Got some help from @Aaron and @Coen with everything. We lowered the engine to change two belt, as especially the alternator belt was slipping. It was necessary because some bolts were stuck af and/or rounded. That combined with very limited space to work with.
I took her home, she read a bit hot again. But it seems I didn’t get all the air out just yet. A quick fill and it seems to be solid at the moment. Temps between 84 and 98. The fan is working fine, but sometimes doesn’t run at full speed on idle. It’s somewhat odd. Either the fan motor or alternator seems to struggle.
Glad to have her home again.
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The Copen is quite dead. It kept overheating after the thermostat was changed. I put it in the garage as I was trying to get the Astra road-legal for the first time in 2 years.
Which I did, yay. I’ve been dailying the Astra, which is nice. Really nice. But I miss the Copen a lot on good weather days.
So, trying to start the Copen after about 3 weeks of standing. It ran on 2 cylinders. Also it smelled like coolant… And it was spouting coolant from the exhaust… After idling for a while it started to run on all 4 cylinders.
Obviously there’s water leaking into the cylinders.
Hopefully it’s just a head gasket and the block isn’t cracked or anything.
Will be pulling the engine soon I suppose. I’ll see if I can do the head gasket and waterpump and probably some more things while I’m there.
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Went to the garage to do some cable loom work. Sadly I needed some parts which I couldn’t find locally. So instead I sanded down the Copeski headlights and gave them a coat of 2K.
They just need a wet sand after it’s all dry to get rid of some peel. But it’s looking good imo.
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Okay so this damn engine is out. A lot of rounded and stripped bolts have been tackled. Sadly it was all previously ugga-dugga-ed in with no regard for the next person. We squeezed out the engine with the side engine mount still on because the bolt was just rounded and we had no space to weld a nut to it or anything.
I broke an inner CV joint while pulling an axle too. And maybe we forgot to disconnect the last bolts of the shifter mechanism which might have been slightly bent now…
Anyways, it’s out. That’s the important part. I’ll get it in the engine stand to start removing the head. I’m the meantime I’ll order new engine mounts, the necessary bolts and look for a new shifter mechanism.
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Time to upgrade the shifter
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That’s in your hands 
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