Arosa noob here!

[Torquemadder]

Hi peeps. Just introducing myself. I have a '93 Supra twin turbo which gets 17-19mpg so I needed something economical to get to work.
After a lot of looking on the autotrader website and researching each car that caught my eye I settled on a 2002 Arosa 1.4 Tdi
Foned the guy and it was in my town so took it for a test drive and that was it, game over. These wee cars are such a hoot to drive!
I collected it on wednesday 4th June and on saturday took it to Autotune in Ballymena who dyno'd and remapped it
The car made 86.4bhp and 163.8lb/ft before the remap!
After the remap it went to 98.5bhp and 185lb/ft with more to come once the ecu settles down with the new map. The remap has made an already lively car much nicer. Less lag and more of a push in the back when you floor it in any gear.

I want to fit a set of 15" alloys and change the discs to 280mm ones. The discs are pretty worn and need changed anyway so no point buying new tiny ones.
I also have a Blitz front mount intercooler lying unused in the garage. It is meant for a 1.3 Starlet turbo so ideal size endpipes for the Arosa. The mapper said he can turn up the boost a bit if I do this
Has anybody any experience fitting a fmic to one of our wee buddies?
I'm also planning to fit a Jetex exhaust and bmc carbon induction kit to liberate a few extra horses

 

[Layum8]

Hello Torquemadder,

Nice little car you have there, good colour to!. Ive just got one of the older ones and i know what you mean about them being fun to drive.

Good luck with the mods and keep us updated.

Layum8

 

[Boo]

They are ace fun to drive thats for sure ! Mines an auto so it is practically a go kart ! Not many people Map the engines on these but, you have a good base engine to do it with. I think half of that is because there arent many over 1L about. Very interesting project and I will be keeping a beady eye on this get some more piccies up

 

[Lynda]

Nice to meet you-wasted no time did you ? Hehehe....it looks very tidy.

Love Lynda XX

 

[cardaft]

I have a 1.4 TDi Arosa, fantastic engines arnt they!

Seems like you have big plans for it, looks a tidy example as it is too.

Im impressed with your standard bhp.

Ive been in a few now and mine i noticably nippier than the rest, so id like to see what mine is getting standard. I wouldnt mind a remap at some point.

Nice

 

[driveforward]

On the A2OC forum (same engine) someone recently upgraded their IC and found it to make no difference whatsoever power/torque wise..

 

[Torquemadder]

On the A2OC forum (same engine) someone recently upgraded their IC and found it to make no difference whatsoever power/torque wise..

I would totally agree with that, in fact it can create lag if the ic is too big and even more lag if too-large diameter pipes are used. The advantage of the larger ic is felt on a warm day when smaller coolers suffer heat soak and can't cool the air as efficiently. Your car always feels livelier on a cold day than a hot one. The big cooler doesnt suffer heat soak and has a bigger area to cool the air flowing through it. With this greater cooling, the turbo boost pressure can be raised a bit which is where the extra power comes in.

I'm not sure if the fmic I have is too big or not - Its designed for a 1.3 Toyota Starlet but I've just had a look at the tubby on my Arosa and its pitiful! lol. My fist is bigger!

I'll order up some pipes, maybe 0.5" bigger than standard and see how it goes. If it creates lag I'll rip it out and possibly stuff in a Golf Gti one which is at least twice the size of the standard ic

 

[Torquemadder]

I haven't forgotten to thank you all for the warm welcome I just couldnt resist replying to the ic info first lol

Thanks! I hope I can make a useful contribution to the site as well as learning from more experienced members. You seem a friendly lot which is nice. The supra forums can be a little antagonistic and take their cars a little bit too seriously though there are a lot of good guys there too

 

[Torquemadder]

I have a 1.4 TDi Arosa, fantastic engines arnt they!

Seems like you have big plans for it, looks a tidy example as it is too.

Im impressed with your standard bhp.

Ive been in a few now and mine i noticably nippier than the rest, so id like to see what mine is getting standard. I wouldnt mind a remap at some point.

Nice

The guy who did the remap said if a diesel is driven hard over a period of time it produces more power. A guy who worked for him had one and it had 74bhp standard. They couldnt get more than 94bhp from it. I think I benefitted from all the work they did
Its amazing what a good coat of polish can do lol. The drivers door has been replaced and the respray isn't great but thats the only mildly annoying fault I have with it.

 

[Torquemadder]

Update time!

I have bought a set of 16" Mini alloys on eBay. I wanted a set of Dotz Daytona 6.5 x 15" but after placing the order I was told they didnt have any stock. Snapped these up for £149. They were only on a car for a week so practically new. I need to get centre caps and replace the mini logo with a seat one. Cant wait to get them fitted.

I also have a set of new track rod ends and poweflex bushes to go in and managed to buy a pair of G60 calipers and 288mm carriers for £36 on eBay. Bargain!
Just need the discs and pads now

 

[cardaft]

I like the wheels, post come pics up when they are on!

Ive also heard that about the power, and that if they are driven fast from new they will be a faster car. Not sure how true these statements are though!

 

[Torquemadder]

I like the wheels, post come pics up when they are on!

Ive also heard that about the power, and that if they are driven fast from new they will be a faster car. Not sure how true these statements are though!

I honestly dont have much of a clue about cars wot burn 'the fuel of the devil' lol. Been a petrolhead since I was old enough to wobble over and stare UP at the huge domed bonnet of my grandad's morris minor
Must find out more cos i like the big torque hit you get with derv burners even if they cant rev like a petrol car.

I'll postpics as soon as I get the wheels rubbered and on

 

[Torquemadder]

Rimmage!

Well my new rims turned up - packed in 2 flimsy cardboard boxes and with no
bubble wrap or packing round them, just a sheet of cardboard seperating the
rims. When I went to the DHL depot to collect them, the sod behind the
counter brought out one of the boxes and dropped it the last 6" onto the
concrete floor with a mighty CLANG!!! There seemed to be no major damage
done, just a small chip out of the paint on one edge. Did some foning around
today and found a tyre depot with 195/40 R16 tyres in stock and hot-footed
it to get them fitted. The fitter called me out to the balancing machine to show
me that one of the rims had a slight buckle in it. Not happy!!! Anyway I made
sure it went on the back and theres no wobble.

Got home today at 2.30 and it took 4 hours to fit the wheels! Because they
are Mini rims, the spigot hole is 1mm too small so I had bought 9.5mm wheel
spacers and some cylindrical grinding stones to put in my drill in case the
spacers werent thick enough. Sure enough, the spigot on the Arosa is about
13mm thick lol. As soon as i started relieving the spigot hole on the rims, the
grinding stone clogged with aluminium so it was a long job for 2.8 of the
wheels until I found a single cut reamer which made short work of finishing 1
wheel and grinding out the last wheel. On top of this, the longer bolts that I
bought were too long for the drums at the rear and fouled the brake shoes,
stopping the wheel from rotating so I had to take the angle grinder to them
and shorten them by 15mm. The front ones were fine thankfully.

I stopped in at the local BMW/Mini dealers and tried to order wheel centres.
Disaster! R88 wheels are not listed on the parts database. The parts guy has
ordered 1 centre cap from another 16" wheel so hopefully this will fit. The 17"
one we tried had the same fixing arrangement as for my wheel but was just a
bit big.

 

[Torquemadder]

I would recommend fitting the spacers to anyone else thinking about getrting mini rims. They are a different offset and even though they are 6.5" wide, they would sit too far into the arches. I also polished the wheels with Rimwax and totally recommend it. The wheels are shinier than the bodywork and the wax stops brake dust sticking to the wheels.

I bought Marangoni tyres. I've heard good reports about them, apparently as good as Toyo Proxes T1-R and they were cheap - £62 per tyre, including VAT and fitting. I think the price is so good because they are trying to grab a share of the market in the U.K., having only started selling here recently

 

[cardaft]

As ive said in the picture thread, the wheels look great

Hopefully you can get the matching centre caps!

Ive heard good things about marangonis too, ive experieced some myself and they were very good for a cheaper tyre. Yours have a really funky tread pattern too

It looks like there is something wrong with your nearside rear wheel angle though? Looks like its towing out and in at the bottom?

I hope im wrong, it may be the pics?

 

[Torquemadder]

They both do that U mean the camber? They are both straight but lean in a bit at the top. If it was toeing in or out it wouldn't be able to go in a straight line lol

It could be just the perspective. It was taken with my fone camera and its a tiny lense

 

[Torquemadder]

Its funny. The new wheels make the car look bigger! And I think they suit the Arosa better than the mini lol. The tyres are a lot lower profile on mine. Was well chuffed! The new wheels are exactly same total diameter with tyres as the 14" originals

 

[cardaft]

I see, they should be in at the top yup, well slightly. Although on the pics they look in at the bottom and toeing out!

Although ive a thing about having camber and toe right

Oh well, must be the pics!

Keep an eye on your tyre wear to be on the safe side!

 

[Torquemadder]

Yeah, I've the same thing about camber and toe lol. Now u've got me paranoid! rofl. Keep lookin at it an thinkin 'is he right?' I even got my big set square out but it looks ok.

 

[cardaft]

Haha, sorry to have got you thinking!

Maybe worth getting a 4 wheel alignment check done, just to be sure.

I did when i got mine, my ns front camber was out by quite a way, so i got that adjusted. It gripped better afterwards!

I think the back is supposed to toe in a very tiny amount, mine doesn anyway.