2003 Chrysler Crossfire - Update 12/11

Weather was nice today, so spent a few hours after work on the Chrysler again. Put some zinc paint over the Hydrate 80 from yesterday, need to find some suitable top coat to chuck on then that particular bit is all good.

I'm a bit stuck with the suspension on the Passenger side now, so started poking about at other bits I'd been meaning to get at. First of which is the two underbody braces that tie the front subframe into the body of the car.

Fairly simple to get them off, 3x big torx screws per brace. My reason for removing them was that the paint was flaking off them in places so was going to get them blasted and repainted. On closer inspection, the Drivers side brace in particular has really suffered with rust





If I get that blasted, I don't think I'll get much back! So I think I'll track down a replacement. My other concern was that the body above these may have started rusting out also, but thankfully it appears solid, with just some surface rust to clean back and paint



It's a similar story for much of the underside really, there's lots of little bits where the underseal has cracked a bit with surface rust starting underneath. It's not terrible, but is time consuming to go round and find all the bits to be sorted. The base of the radiator support could do with a good tidy up as well so I've been debating removing the radiator to make a good job of that...

Before I get carried away with bodywork, I did make a start on stripping the Drivers side front suspension while I was down there, until I got stuck at the same point as the other side, the bottom ball joint for the lower arm. I thought I'd bought a correct copy of the Mercedes tool but it doesn't fit on properly



I'll need to find another tool.

To end on a couple of high notes though, I was thankfully able to remove the remains of the snapped screw from the cam cover using some pliers on the tiny bit of screw that wasn't quite flush with the cover. Bonus of it snapping at such a low torque being that it didn't need much effort to remove!

Secondly, I thought I'd have a look at the Drivers Side engine mount before I put coils and HT leads in the way. I spent a while trying to get spanners on the nut and while I managed to get one in there, I couldn't get enough force on it to turn the upper bolt.

The workshop manual is no help, only mentions that the engine cover assembly needs removing first. After a bit more fiddling I managed to get a 16mm socket on the bolt, and by peering through a gap between the exhaust manifold tracts I could just about see it, so proceeded to construct a convoluted collection of extensions.

As the gap in the manifold was only big enough for 1/4" drive extensions, I had to put a 3/8" UJ on the 16mm socket (I don't have any 1/4" UJ's), place that on the bolt head and hold it while I fed through a 1/4" extension, with a 1/4" to 3/8" adapter on the end and connected it up, with that in place I could add another extension and adapter or two up to my ratchet and get the thing undone at long last







Was quite happy with that ran out of light though so will fetch the mount out another day. While I was under the car I also noticed a lot of oil, some of it might be from the cam covers but I think there might be some leaking from the sump seal as well, so shall have to clean it all up and see if it leaks again.

I have a balljoint splitter that may do the job.

Given that I'm local, I'm happy to drop them off, or assist (y).

Very rare I beat somebody to it! 

Monthly update time, I got the Drivers side engine mount swapped out, was a bit arduous to get it out from the bottom of the engine bay and get the new one in place but it's there and all torqued up. The new and old mounts looked quite different but I'm not sure if that's just a difference between brands rather than the old one being visibly failed.



New on left, old on right. Following that, ChasR came over and with some ingenious use of a puller, an impact gun and a hammer, we got the bottom ball joints to release their hold on the tapers.



Then had a holiday in Belgium with my gf, included a trip to the Autoworld museum in Brussels which I need to make a thread about



Since getting back, the Almera needed an MOT, which went well...



I had noticed the indicators were a bit pale but didn't think they were fails, pretty easily sorted anyway aside from the usual thing that seems to plague all modern-ish cars, one of the front headlight/indicators has decent access behind it, but the other side requires you to contort your hand and get cut up on metal edges but got there in the end. The garage sorted the headlight level, and for speed, I let them take care of the rear suspension top mount. This is what the old one looked like



2 things that were amazing here, firstly how that was still managing to hold the strut to the car, and secondly how none of that rust had transferred to the car's body! It did explain the occasional knocking and other odd noises from the rear end, and I'm sure it's more stable at motorway speeds now.

Sticking with the Almera, I finally treated it to a full clean. Found a couple of broken bits of glass under the rear seat but all the windows look original so not sure where that's come from! Found 21p and a broken wavy washer which explains why the drivers seat buckle flops around, so that will be an easy fix.



The seat backs of both front seats do wobble a bit, and I noticed that someone had wrapped tape around the pins they lock on after being tipped forward as an attempt at a fix, so I might see if theres a fix for that.

I'd also been looking forward to cleaning the engine bay, as it all looked nice and original, but just really filthy





It shines up nice for a cheap runabout



Anyway, back on to the Crossfire. Got the remaining suspension parts off, the lower arms, and the knuckle and upper arm on the Drivers side.



Getting the upper arm out on the Drivers side is a bit of a pain as the long bolt and nut that runs through the "shock tower" has the nut completely hidden on one side, and you have to move the coolant expansion tank to be able to remove the long bolt from the other side



Also bizarrely found a pair of glasses deep in the engine bay (not mine) that looked like they'd been there for years



After some faffing, got the suspension all off as I say. Had a bit more of a poke at the arch rust on the Drivers side, it's certainly worse than the Passenger side but can wait for another day.

While I was doing odd jobs on the car, I got the windscreen surround panels off



The paint is damaged on them from when a previous previous owner had stuck chrome strips on them. So they need paint and I'd like to go black with them to match the rest of the car as a bit of a different look. There was also a couple spots of rust hiding under the central surround panel but it seems to be surface so I'll deal with that now as well



Trying to get back into making more of a concerted effort with the ongoing projects as I've been slacking!

I'm hoping so! The old bushes certainly are looking past their best, no doubt they're originals so 20 years old now..



Just currently trying to devise the best way of getting them out as they don't really fit on my press, will get creative with threaded bar before resorting to the more destructive methods

Last bit of Crossfire work for the weekend was to try and degrease the oil leaks from the underside and give it a bit of a general jet wash as it was starting to look a bit nasty

Some good progress there. I'm glad I could help. The heat also helped with the above .

Wow, that top mount was rusty!

If you have access to an SDS drill, they have a hammer chisel setting on some of them, which could prove handy for pushing the bush in on itself, which will release it .

Yeah, reckoned the void bushes were gone. Deadly on a sweeping A or B road at high speed. Sudden understeer, real sudden. Ask me how I know...🙂

Ha,ha. If it did understeer, say at 90mph+, all you'd need to do is, get quickly off the throttle, don't brake and hope the next bit of road is straight! 😁

Broke the taper on the idler arm to centre link ball joint, but also pierced the boot, the other boots were looking pretty old so figured since I'm this far in, lets just get a new centre link



Pretty easy to drop the old one out, nice shiny new one arrived quite quickly and got fitted after I'd refitted the idler arm



I hadn't anticipated that the idler arm has a pinch bolt to hold the bush in place, made replacing the bush really easy, I just made sure I set it at the correct height in the arm before torquing the pinch bolt



Heat shield for the idler arm had been encrusted in old leaked oil and dirt so got a clean off and a quick spray before refitting. While under the car I also whipped the lower sump off



Spent a good amount of time cleaning it as there was some slightly sludgy looking oil in the bottom of the pan, and the mating faces needed a good clean up with brake cleaner and a razor blade to prep them for resealing.

Refitting the sump was a bit fun, trying to line up the bolt holes while not smearing the bead of sealant all around the top of the pan, but got there in the end



I'll continue building up the suspension tomorrow, had to drill and tap one of the brake dirt shield holes in the knuckle as the remains of the old bolt was not coming out..

Another issue I've been pondering is fitting my wheel adaptors. I encountered an issue with these before going to Germany last year in that while they're designed to fit the Chrysler centrebore, they aren't deep enough to accomodate the hub nut cap.



I would like to fit the hub nut caps so I think I shall have to open up the bores in the adaptors which will mean losing the spigot for locating the wheel but since I'm running studs and taper nuts, I think it should be fine.

Lastly, finally got the H&R front anti roll bar on order which is probably the last missing piece of the front suspension. Got a couple of days off work as well so be good to make some further progress