Check yo'self...

While 'The Beastie' is resting, pending new bits, I have focused some attention on the Almera. An opportunity arose on Thursday afternoon to bring it into the college workshop so that I could try and track down an annoying 'clonk' from somewhere in the front. It's quite apparent on uneven surfaces, or when turning right. Given that a lot of Edinburgh still has cobbled streets the noise is beginning to annoy me.

There wasn't a free ramp to begin with during the class so I initially popped the car up onto axle stands at the front so that I could have a good poke about underneath. First impressions were good in that there wasn't anything loose or bushes that were obviously split. One thing I did notice though was that the trailing edge of the front bumper on the nearside was flapping about because of broken mounts. Thinking that might be the cause of the noise I set about repairing it. I used pop rivets through the plastic to secure the bumper ends to the arch liner. It isn't elegant, or permanent, but it will do for now.

Nothing appeared to be amiss under the Nissan so I dropped it back onto the level ground & began checking the fluids while a classmate did the tyre pressures. I'm glad I did the check because I found out there was nearly no oil in it!

Apparently, the garage who sold me the car had checked all the fluids before sale. If that was the case and they were all fine, then the Nissan is either burning oil or losing it some other way. I certainly haven't noted it marking its territory as the Jag normally does so that could indicate the oil is being used by the Almera's gutless 1.5. I fired in a litre of 10w40 to bring the dipstick level up to a more acceptable place then put the car onto a free 2-post for further checks.

Once again, there was no odd suspension travel apparent, no wear or play, but I did see a potential oil leak from around the top of the pump. One to keep an eye on then. I also discovered that the rear gearbox mount is a bit worn which could account for the judder felt while using reverse.

Other than those wee things the Almera is looking good. The 'clonk' seemed to be a wee bit better on the drive home but it was still there. I suspect there's maybe another loose bit of trim or something I'm missing. It might even just be the motion of the heavy bonnet bumping against its stops. My partners old Ka was noisy like that. In any case I'm pleased that the levels & tyre pressures were checked. If they hadn't been it might have led to expensive damage. Just goes to show how important the seemingly mundane checks are. When was the last time you checked your car? :)