Ecomodding my winter beater: a unicorn no-rust (*) 2000 Chevrolet Metro 1.0 5-spd

[ChazInMT]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

........

Isn't that the car from post #1? My spidey senses tell me it's the same color and wheels. Congrats!!!! Is it 3 er 4 Cyl?

[MetroMPG]

Spidey senses are correct, sir!

The very same car. I finally heard back from the owner, and went to see it as soon as I could. Made a deal in the driveway.

It's a triple, 5-speed.

The ad was waaaay wrong about the odometer though: it's got 210k kms (131k miles), not 100k kms (60k mi). Too bad! But it runs well enough, and the synchros are OK. And that number of kms is still well below average for the year.

Also the year in the ad was wrong, but in my favour: 2000 not 1998. All the mistakes were because his neighbour posted the ad... the owner, retiree, doesn't have Internet.

Too bad about the odometer.

But here's the thing: it's cosmetically so ridiculously good it was impossible to pass up for $1k.

Mechanicall issues: it's got a CEL for an evap leak, and the front end needs work -- it's really noisy over bumps (ball joints or steering rack, or??).

[freebeard]

You got $500 off?

[Gasoline Fumes]

I have a whole '98 Metro if you need parts. I'll give you the rotten thing if you come get it!

[MetroMPG]

Thanks, Fumes! I shouldn't need anything, now that I've got my doppelganger. You're still stuck with it.

You got $500 off?

Yeah! It's funny: my opening offer was for $250 off, but he refused and countered with $500 off. I don't think that has ever happened to me before.

Not being mechanically inclined, he spent about $1400 on repairs/maintenance late last year - tires & front end work, and I think that plus the recent CEL was the last straw. Plus I pointed out it still had front end problems, and I suspect he may have had an estimate done. Thus the discount. That's my theory. He was a decent guy -- seemed honest. Nice house & other cars (Z3 roadster under a cover & brand new Buick Verano), condo in FLA. He didn't really need the car or the money.

[MetroMPG]

Metro owners will understand the importance of what these pics show, considering where this car lived:



Above: driver's side control arm mount. Only the tiniest amount of surface rust.



Passenger side. Also, shiny new control arm.



Rocker - the spots are road grime.

But both rockers have been re-painted (the rest of the car is all original). I asked if it was for rust repair, and he said: "no - because of damage that a tow truck driver did when it had to be towed to the garage once."

Given the lack of rust elsewhere, it's a believable story.

How could a 15 year old car from Quebec be so rust free?



"Antirouille Metropolitain Rustproofing!"

Also, being a retired snowbird who spent winters in Florida, the car hardly ever saw snow (ahem, salt) after its first few years of life.

Ironically, despite this car rarely seeing snow, Quebec has a mandatory snow tire rule (Oct-March). So in addition to a 1 year-old set of "summer" tires, it also came with a like new set of winter boots & steelies:

[Daox]

That is unreal.

[MetroMPG]

Yeah, cosmetically, this Metro is in amazing shape. In some ways it's much better than the Flea, which has only 37k kms / 23k miles on it.

The Flea has a few more door dings & small bumper scrapes, and its black paint shows every single scratch & scuff. For its first 7 years, it was essentially used as a shelf to pile things on inside someone's garage.

[MetroMPG]

I did a quick 'n' dirty compression "test" when I checked out the car in Montreal:

1) Got a baseline: I know the Flea has spec compression, so I put it in 1st gear on level ground and released the parking brake.

2) With the door open, I pushed against the A-pillar until the car moved a little. I had to push pretty hard -- hard enough that I found I was holding my breath to make it lurch through each compression stroke.

3) A few hours later in Montreal, I repeated the procedure on the Y2k Metro. It seemed like a similar (high) amount of effort, which I did 3 times (once for each cylinder), so I decided it must not have bad compression. Also it seemed to start up quickly, and had "normal" power (for a Metro).

Is that a valid way to check compression? I dunno.

But a pilot friend says he has used a similar technique to check propeller airplane engines.



Actual compression test done this aft with a proper gauge... and it's great:

1st set: 205 / 185 / 210
2nd set: 210 / 195 / 215

Woohoo!

(As predicted by the the DIY method and the stack of maintenance/repair receipts in the glove box that includes lots of oil change bills.)

Also, I discovered one of the spark plugs was loose! And by loose I do not mean "finger tight" - it was loose. But all were otherwise healthy looking, and are only a few years old.

The distributor cap & rotor were disasters though: burnt/carbonized electrodes like you wouldn't believe. Last changed in 2003, if the stack of receipts is accurate. So I cleaned up the rotor, put on a new cap and it now it runs smoother & quieter (the tightened up spark plug might have helped too).

So now I'm even happier with this purchase.

[Baltothewolf]

Hey Metro, what wintertires are those? I'm building a mad max insight and I'm looking for some knobby tires and those fit the bill perfectly.