I can’t leave anything well enough alone, so the Alto once again popped into the garage for some quick upgrades.
The first thing I did in the garage was adjust the Blow Off Valve. Since fitting it I had suspected I may have had a boost leak. There was occasionally a fluttering noise under boost, and when a fellow Alto owner took my car for a run up the road the other day it wouldn’t reach 18psi and felt flat.
There were also the obvious noises the BOV was making. It would “blow off” a lot, even when barely on boost, and if you eased off the throttle when on boost you could make it stay open and venting with a long woooooooooooooosh.
To make adjustments to the preload on the internal spring you need to back off the lock nut on top and screw in the grub screw. It’s not exactly easy to access on the Alto… completely obscured by the slam panel
You can see the adjustment screw on top here
The lock nut was easy to access with a 10mm spanner, but to do the actual adjustment I had to use a ball-end allen key, through the hole in the slam panel to the right of the BOV, on a really tight angle. I backed the lock nut off a few turns and wound the grub screw in. I also replaced the O ring on the vacuum fitting as this was a really loose fit.
A quick test drive shows this may have solved the boost issue, as giving it a couple of quick squirts on the open road I saw at least 17psi on the boost gauge, and it feels a bit more nippy. I’ll need to do some more driving to confirm if it’s resolved or not. The BOV only opens at full boost or high load now, and snaps shut quickly, a much better solution.
While under the bonnet there was another small change I needed to do. When I got the car I noticed the negative terminal was loose where it connects to the ground cable, and if you tried to tighten the nut further the whole stud would spin. I jammed a screwdriver in to hold the stud in place and managed to get it tight, but it wasn’t ideal.
I ordered a replacement
I had a battle to get the nut undone and ended up jamming some random metal into the fitting to stop the stud from turning long enough to remove the nut. Going by the random copper strands around the stud, I suspect it’s been messed with in the past to wire up something else, audio maybe.
The replacement fit nicely and tightened up with no issue. I used some copper grease to hopefully stop the nut from seizing to the stud.
Moving inside, I replaced the interior rear vision mirror. The Alto is so billy basic, that the mirror doesn’t have a dipping function. As you can imagine, having a lowered car, with lowered seats, driving in the dark with a mirror that doesn’t dip, well yeah, it gets annoying quick. Everything is like having a pair of suns behind you.
Thankfully Suzuki used a similar mirror in a few different models, which does allow dipping; P/N 84703-81A14-6GS. There is also a small rubber vibration dampener 84782-76G00.
The mirror is quite easy to remove. Pop the lamp lens off
Remove the two screws and disconnect the wire behind the light (pulls free, no clip)
The replacement mirror bolts right on into the same place. Just connect the wiring first and slip the rubber vibration doodad in too
Another bonus of this mirror is that it moves slightly towards the front of the car, further out of the drivers eye line.
Now I’ll be able to drive in the dark, and Rangers won’t be able to blind me anymore. Ha, take that.
Another interior job, while I was here, was to replace the drivers seatbelt extender. I cocked up last time by bending one the other way, but this made it all go wrong. The belt was binding on the extender and wouldn’t recoil properly.
Another genuine Honda part was ordered
I drilled the hole out to suit the bolt, and fit it upside down, like others had. It worked 100% better in this configuration.
Finally, the last job in the interior was to replace the throttle pedal mount with an aftermarket one which changes the angle of the pedal so it’s more comfortable for lowered seat rails. I had noticed my ankle was less than happy sometimes when cruising, so hopefully this helps.
I ordered a cheap generic brand from Yahoo Auctions, it had an uh, interesting brand name… LSEX-F
Using a deep 12mm socket I removed the two nuts holding the pedal to the bracket
And then the three holding the bracket to the car.
Reassembly was just the reverse. Mount the bracket, and screw the pedal to it. Easy. Don’t forget to plug the pedal back in if you unplugged it. It doesn’t need to be removed or even unplugged, you can just move it aside.
In the quick drive I did it was noticeably more comfortable, but I’ll need to take it for a longer drive to see how effective it is.
Moving outside, I had a pair of Cusco front mud flaps to fit. I had noticed since replacing the suspension and adding more camber to the front, that I was now hearing stones and dirt hitting the doors as the front tyres are more exposed now.
I will say they’re probably fairly expensive for what they are, just two bits of laser-cut plastic, but the fitment was spot on.
They have two height settings and are slotted so you can move them inboard or outboard.
They’re easy to fit. Remove two clips
Line up the holes for the desired option, and reinsert the clips through the mudflap
I set mine to the higher setting, and as far outboard as they go
I think they look quite good. The back of them has a nice textured finish, whilst the “dirty” side is glossy.
It looks like it covers the tread nicely, so should significantly reduce the amount of stones hitting the doors.
And last but not least, I fitted some snake oil.
There’s a lot out there about these “door stabilizers”, originally made by Aisin and marketed by TRD, so they can’t be all bad. Whether they actually do anything, or if they are more of a placebo, we’re yet to see.
The theory behind them is that the car is a box with big holes in the side that are filled with doors, but these doors, although latching on the back edge, don’t really jam up against the frame, so they offer little to no rigidity. The stabilizers work to jam the door against the frame, adding that rigidity back in.
This little diagram is from Aisin. I think the effects are a tad over-exaggerated, but gets the idea across
They’re quite easy to fit. The Alto requires replacement screws for the strikers (or removing the star washers from the existing screws), but all you do is remove the striker
And replace it with the stabilizer striker
This has a spring-loaded wedge thing on it, hiding the screws
The other half of the deal goes on the door itself. You need to remove two screws from the catch
and fit this little bracket
And these little plastic wedges slide onto it
The doors do have a slightly more reassuring “thud” when closing, and coming in and out of my driveway the body seems to creak a little less, but time will tell if I can notice any difference when driving. They’re probably just a gimmick, but I’m willing to give them a fair try. Other HA36S owners in Japan have sworn there are good results when fitting these, so who knows.
That’s all for now. A new SWK intercooler is on the way, so that, and reinstating the IC water spray, are probably next on the list of things to do.
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