My girlfriend has been looking for cheap transportation to take to grad school for awhile now. While looking through marketplace for old Honda Civics and Toyota Corollas that were both above her budget and total piles my family found her a little white S40:
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It was within the stimulus check budget and had a laundry list of maintenance from all 3 previous owners so it seemed like a decent choice. It also turned out to be rather clean for a Midwest car:
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Normally I wouldn’t involve myself with these Nordcar (I think that’s this generations name?) S40’s, but the 3 other cars we looked at either sold when we got there, had structural rust damage, or had interior mold from water intrusion. I know white block maintenance like the back of my hand at this point so I was pretty confident in this car lasting the minimum of 3 years that she needs for grad school. So that’s why she bought it and took it home a couple days ago:
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When we got back I looked into fixing the passenger side headlight that was out. The PO said he replaced the CEM to fix a headlight error that caused the headlights to go out (I’ve never heard of this issue before but apparently it’s a Nordcar thing) so I was kind of worried about the repair but it turned out to be a corroded connection. Spliced some alligator clips on and it works like a charm. I should have ordered the $2 connector but shipping would have taken too long so I’ll redo it when it needs it. However, after the headlight replacement I stumbled upon this:
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That sucked to see, but I should have seen it coming, especially at the mileage. I considered selling it off but because it’s so clean we decided to tackle the timing belt. Picked up the timing components and a serpentine belt and fixed it, but not without issue:
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When reinstalling the water pump I over torqued the bolts and pulled the threads from the engine block.... luckily they were at the left side, or 9 o’clock position, of the WP. Those are all through holes so I got some high grade longer bolts and got them snug enough for no coolant leaks! Very happy that solved the issue. But if you notice, there’s also a small but apparent oil leak. I cleaned the engine bay as best I could to figure out the location of the leak. I thought it was front main seal at first but I’m fairly certain it’s exhaust cam seal now, so that’ll get done once she gets sick of checking/adding oil. You can kind of see it here, but this is pre-cleaning:
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After the timing belt I chased a squishy brake pedal. I managed to crack open all 4 seized zerc fittings on the calipers to bleed the seemingly original brake fluid out of the system in favor of new dot 4 fluid. Only partially fixed the squishy pedal, so I think the pistons within the caliper are partially seized. All 4 calipers function, but there’s just corrosion within the piston.
And that brings us to present day, she got it insured today and it’ll be taken to pass emissions testing soon! This thread will be for the (hopefully) occasional repair and to look back when it’s all over and see how far it’s come.
It was within the stimulus check budget and had a laundry list of maintenance from all 3 previous owners so it seemed like a decent choice. It also turned out to be rather clean for a Midwest car:
Normally I wouldn’t involve myself with these Nordcar (I think that’s this generations name?) S40’s, but the 3 other cars we looked at either sold when we got there, had structural rust damage, or had interior mold from water intrusion. I know white block maintenance like the back of my hand at this point so I was pretty confident in this car lasting the minimum of 3 years that she needs for grad school. So that’s why she bought it and took it home a couple days ago:
When we got back I looked into fixing the passenger side headlight that was out. The PO said he replaced the CEM to fix a headlight error that caused the headlights to go out (I’ve never heard of this issue before but apparently it’s a Nordcar thing) so I was kind of worried about the repair but it turned out to be a corroded connection. Spliced some alligator clips on and it works like a charm. I should have ordered the $2 connector but shipping would have taken too long so I’ll redo it when it needs it. However, after the headlight replacement I stumbled upon this:
That sucked to see, but I should have seen it coming, especially at the mileage. I considered selling it off but because it’s so clean we decided to tackle the timing belt. Picked up the timing components and a serpentine belt and fixed it, but not without issue:
When reinstalling the water pump I over torqued the bolts and pulled the threads from the engine block.... luckily they were at the left side, or 9 o’clock position, of the WP. Those are all through holes so I got some high grade longer bolts and got them snug enough for no coolant leaks! Very happy that solved the issue. But if you notice, there’s also a small but apparent oil leak. I cleaned the engine bay as best I could to figure out the location of the leak. I thought it was front main seal at first but I’m fairly certain it’s exhaust cam seal now, so that’ll get done once she gets sick of checking/adding oil. You can kind of see it here, but this is pre-cleaning:
After the timing belt I chased a squishy brake pedal. I managed to crack open all 4 seized zerc fittings on the calipers to bleed the seemingly original brake fluid out of the system in favor of new dot 4 fluid. Only partially fixed the squishy pedal, so I think the pistons within the caliper are partially seized. All 4 calipers function, but there’s just corrosion within the piston.
And that brings us to present day, she got it insured today and it’ll be taken to pass emissions testing soon! This thread will be for the (hopefully) occasional repair and to look back when it’s all over and see how far it’s come.
