After buying my ST200 over a year ago go now, (doesnt seem like more than a few weeks, how time flies). The time has come to give the car some TLC.
http://www.migweb.co.uk/forums/cars-...tra-st200.html
Since buying the ST its only covered around 6,000miles but thats included trips to both Norway and Germany as well as being my mothers daily driver for a bit.
Since buying the car its had oil & filter changes every 2,000miles, Irmscher x-hatch grilles top and bottom added, a new stereo system added & 4-new Bridgestone RE050;s fitted.
Its also suffered from a few electrical grmlins, in the last 12months its went through 4 crankshaft sensors, knock sensor, idle air control valve & an airflow meter (which is gone again). The cranksahft sensor issue was found to be the cars battery which was found to be faulty (suspected dude cell, when I tried it in my Omega the cars power steering came and went constantly). Im hoping that the airflow meter needing replaced again is just a dude meter as the one there has done 5k where as the crankshaft sensor were only lasting 1,000miles or so.
So up to the present day. The cars bodywork is getting to the stage where its really needing some TLC. and its an area thats been niggling for a while. The front bumper has unfortunately succum to whats seems in the region of 300,000stone chips, the drivers sideskirt has a very small hair-line crack, the front drivers wing has some light rust starting, theres a small rust bubble starting on the roof of the car just at the front window rubber. The other main gripe is that the cars had paintwork done previous in its life as the previous owners prior to me spent a fair bit of money on the car. Unfortunately a few years ago the cars n/s rear wheel arch was repaired and the full 1/4panels been painted. The job itself is very good, but the colour match is not so great and after having the car buffed last year it now stands out a mile on a sunny day.
The other main area was the tailgate, the boot spoiler on the car had been cracked at the mounting point at some time in the past, (by the look sof it the spoilers been over-tightened resulting in the internal thread being stripped out), this has been glued back with a standrd nut inserted. The tailgate itself has also succumb to the old tin worm. Under the spoiler there was some light rust but under neather the number plate the tailgate is fairly rotten around the number plate mounting holes (thankfully I have an A1 boot lid sitting from a Vectra I broke last year.
So thats the outside, sounds like a lot but its really not as bad as it sounds, more being picky than anything.
Move onto the mechanical side. The initial plan was the leave the mechanicals alone, but this is no longer the case.
At the start of the year I was aware that the front brake pads were getting really low. The AP calipers suffer from a dust/general crap build up around the pistons as they dont have dust seals, this causes the pistons to stick/cease as was the case on mine resulting in no 2 pads being the same thickness.
So after putting it off for a while I eventually ordered some Ferroddo pads from Demon Tweeks. Unfortunately this would not prove to be straight forward. After removing the caliper the build of gunk around the pistons was really bad, and the pistons could not retract far enough back in the caliper to allow pad fitment. It was at this point I decided just to bite the bullet and give them a full over haul. With that I called BG developments in Essex and ordered a full AP seal kit for both calipers (£10.20 per side).
Again this was not straight forward, after removing the pistons I found that I had damaged one (oops
) but 2 others on that caliper had marks on them resemble pliers so presumably the calipers been stripped previously and been damaged. Again I was on the phone to BG developments and a full set of new pistons for each caliper were orderd (probably slightly over-kill but atleast I know it will be right, total cost £92 for 4 small & 4 large pistons inc. delivery).
Whilst at it I thought Id measure the discs as to be honest they werent looking that great. Quick pm to MCD on vvoc.com and I had the minimum discs thickness, which mines were under.....****. Once again back on the phone to BG developments who unfortunately were unable to help sourcing the unique 1-piece discs. Thankfully Steve Crook at LMF came up trumps with the discs, so £550 later and 2 new discs were sat on the door step.
However yet again luck seemed to pass me by as when trying to remove the old discs the disc retaining screw rounded on both sides......no problem Ill just drill it out, unfortunatly due to the thickness of the retaining screw they were having none of it, 7 drill bits later and I decided it was easier just ot take the hubs off and get a mate to melt them out.
So thats us up to last night where I set about removing the new hubs......and wouldnt you know it more problems, this time being every bolt was ceased and generally fooked. The car has Eibach camber adjustment bolts on the front, or did until they snapped
. Anywya hubs are now off and dropped off at the mates just waiting on him doing his stuff and getting them back.
Tonights job is to start rebuilding the calipers, one is stripped down ready to be painted before being put backtogether.
Spoke to someone this morning regarding paintwork so thats cool, only decision now is how far to go underneath i.e. just tidy it up or tke some time stripping/cleaning/painting etc. Topside wont be painted until the underside is done. As the cars on SORN its no great deal taking some time to do it. Will be making a list tonight and making some decisions over the coming weeks. Will pop some pictures up tomorow in the meantime a few pictures from when it was bought:
