Thought I'd write an update on our ownership so far.
We are still immensely thrilled with our car choice! Moving from a bigger and more practical car to this did have us worrying as did some family members, but it still manages to do everything the yeti did. - who'd have thought..!
I think we are on around 250 miles now and the engine is feeling slightly more eager. We are still babying it a little, trying to keep the revs down, but with the sound it makes this is proving challenging.
3 car washes in, and the paint still looks showroom, not one lacquer line. I put this down to my OCD washing process of pre-wash, pressure wash, lambsmitt (low pressure), two-bucket...etc... although this is a technique I've adopted from the detailing section.
The performance of the car is everything I've hoped for. The engine is very tractable in lower gears at lower rpm than I expected. Also, fast enough to feel that the car is just on the verge of what is sensible
But the sounds the car makes are the star of the show. The car sounds alive! This car doesn't have a few clichéd sounds engineered in, it has a whole repertoire and they appear organic and analogue. These are the ones that spring to mind:
1) cold start up, on tick over this car sounds like a motor boat!
2) on light throttle manoeuvres the turbo makes a high pitched didgeridoo sound through the exhaust.
3) full throttle then lift off after a few seconds, car makes a loud (really loud) snort through the exhaust (maybe boost pressure fired out?)
4) low revs, lower gear, full throttle, a completely different sound, can't quite describe it but it's like a different car to the other sounds, deeper but really interesting all the same...
5) windows shut, full throttle, Darth Vader style breathing from the front of the car!
6) Trailing throttle when cold in low gear, pops in the exhaust over the burbles!
If I'm in this car, the windows are always open haha!
So I checked the active exhaust flap yesterday and it was seized shut. First of all I was finally glad to have located it! With our Comp alloys you can see the spring if you look through the front half of the rear passenger side wheel.
With a can of WD40 and flat on my back I could easily reach the mechanism. Firstly, whilst trying to loosen the flap, my spring popped off! This was a good thing as it allows the mechanism to move freely (once wiggled around for a while - it moves in a longitudinal plane with the car )without influence of the spring (the spring seems to be used as a return mechanism to close the valve once the exhaust pressure drops below the spring load). Secondly, the spring attaches via a key ring style hoop to the RHS, but on the LHS (as you are looking at it) the spring just hooks on. This makes it simple to remove and install.
What was more interesting is I found when I moved the spring arm forward and backwards, a round hinge closer to me also moved and this seemed to be the corroded part that was preventing the flap opening and returning smoothly. So I focused on lubricating and freeing that part to the point where I could rotate the hinge part and this would move the spring arm on its own.
So flap is now ok. I will lubricate the hinge arm with some ceramic grease today.
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