Hello from Brighton

[Bill]

Hi guys and galls,

Just wanted to say hello as I've just joined the forum. Just bought my first Smart car, an 02 450 with electric sunroof.

Already in love with it and looking forward to my commutes into London from Brighton (makes a change).

Here's mine (hoping pics work using my normal forums method)



Like I say its an 02 in basically in as new condition with only 18k miles on the clock.

[Ocracoke]

Hello Bill, welcome to the forum!

Nice looking car you've got there. Quite rare to see a coupe with the electric sunroof I think.

[problemchild1976]

hello and welcome to the forum

JJ

[Z06-LITE]

Welcome from the colonies!! Great looking 450 you have.

[Bill]

Cheers guys the sunroof and crazy low mileage is what kinda drew me to this one.

Had it nearly a week now and loving it soooooo much, the smiles and waves from other smart users (hadn't thought of that happening) and also found myself caught between a rock and a hard place........ That being enjoy the kick down and nippiness and/or hyper-miling lol, as I'm doing motorway and town driving on my commute I think I'll do the obvious between the two.

Anyway I've been throwing a few quid at it...... So far

Fitted a Pioneer CD player with Bluetooth with handsfree microphone which works perfectly with my iPhone (thats fitted and working).
Removed the ash tray as I have given up smoking recently and fitted a smart duel cup holder for all my costa's.
Popped some smart mats in.
Still to arrive.... arm rest, head unit surround, brodit phone holder and smart bracket.
I've also got the LED Halo kit DRL's to fit when I have an hour or two spare to take the front apart.

Now about to buy:

Upgrade the speakers to either door, dash or rear or all of them and an under seat subwoofer
Upgrade the wheels and tyres to either roadster steelies or something else wider

I'm 6'5" and suffer with a bad back (my age) and these seats really support me well..... very comfy car



Trouble and squeak having fun

[adrimo]

Nice motor seems you have lots of plans already, keep us posted on how you get along. I have found these little cars very addictive

[Bill]

Thanks mate. I've got the smart speakers with bass bins and tweeters coming from eBay and fitted a Vibe slim active subwoofer today. Have simply laid it in the boot for now but will play with positions once I know how good the others are (expecting to replace the speakers though too), to get the sound just right. To be honest using the pioneers EQ settings and seriously lightening the load on the pap current speakers it's already a vast improvement.........vast. The "rare" electric sunroof played up today. An absolute scorcher of a day.....black roof it just wouldnt open. A few minutes driving fiddling with the switch and it decided it would.........but wouldn't close, doh. Got home checked fuses, took the switch apart.......nothing. The car then got some time in the shade and bosh it worked....close, open, close, open. So is there ever an issue with the soft top doing anything like this. I can't find anything anywhere on this apart from a YouTube video of a working one lol.

[Bill]

Sorry did out gaps in the last post but it's all squished into one paragraph

[137699]

Having had the sunroof on our last car - fortunately for us it was trouble free. But I did hear that unless regular maintenance was varied out on the runners it was likely to jam or twist on its mechanism. That said, your issue sounds like a power or faulty switch rather than anything with the mechanism itself.

[Bill]

Thanks for that. The cars 12 years old and done 1.5k miles per year so it's probably lack of use too. I've silicone greased the runners but will really keep an eye on that now thanks. Hopefully it's a dirty contact that will sort itself but will get it properly looked at on the next service. I took the switch apart yesterday and one of the pins was barely in but sadly that wasn't the fix.

[adrimo]

Bass bins are a massive improvement and I shoehorned some 6.5 orion mids in their and they are much better than standard, I also fitted a jvc DVD unit and a slim line sub in the boot.

for some reason now to get gaps you need to use < p > with no spaces I think it's HTML code very frustrating at times, like you said roof issue could be due to under use.

[Bill]

Ah cool I was thinking I was stuck with having to fit 13cm in the base bins but if you've fitted 6.5's I'll have a bash too!

[Bill]

Right then, all of my bits have arrived and heres how she sits now.

First up the carbon fiber "effect" air intake. I've also removed the original centre disc and dremmeled out the lip as well for smoother air flow. I had some 2mm hex drive stainless steel screws of my own so used those instead of the standard rusty in a week ones it came with.




Next up the head unit is now nicely sat in its surround, the brodit iPhone bracket is fitted and theres a pic of the handsfree microphone.




The Vibe subwoofer is in the boot as mentioned earlier. I've got the front base bins and tweeter housings which I've got Vibe 5" components to pop in.


Next up is the arm-rest, still to be properly screwed down but functional till then.


Then my favorite bit.......my new alloys with brand new conti's on, had to use Eibach 30mm spacers on the rears, kwik fit did me proud and swapped em over at lunch time.
You might notice my stumpy radio antenna from Halfords which works a treat so far.







Massive thanks to Evilution as his site made all the above easy to research and source parts, then also big thanks to Kate at smart-stuff for supplying most of that equipment.

[Bill]

Quick update. I got time today to fit the dash speaker upgrades. Everything new in in box it took me from 11:30 till 2:15 so just under 3 hours. The dash itself was actually I think the easiest part by far to get out and then in, the speedo and centre pod proving time consuming with all the screws and offering up pulling out etc.

The base bins though used came with all the fixings so they went straight in though the 4 screws (of the 6) that hold the base bins in had to essentially self tap their way in so was quite hard work with my crappy torx set (since been and bought another).

So the base bins in and crossovers wired, next was the tweeters. A dash made for the tweeters would have holes and locators to take them but mine didn't. What it does have is the fixings reinforcement underneath so I could clearly see where to drill. So two holes per side, one for the holding screw and the other for the speaker cable to pass through and job done.

I opted for Vibe 5" component speakers in the end. Great choice, under £40 and my system cannot make them distort.

Being a sound engineer I really like to play with all the settings (for ages and ages.....weeks) till I get it to a point that I stop adjusting it. This system actually less so. I think I've actually got it about as good as I can without any rear speakers and it sounds great.

I've got the EQ set up to be really punchy on the low mid levels and high end, and then have lowered the sub to kick in at only 63Hz so it again is really punchy not just sat be behind me farting along to the music.

If I do go for rear speakers they will be mounted in the headlining firing down (electric sunroof car) as thats pretty much the only surface I have.

All in all really happy, sub £140, speakers £39, speaker boxes with tweeters (loom and all the speakers unused by me) £80, Pioneer head unit with proper handsfree £120........Total £379.00

Shamefully I can't get the wire in the second picture (for the mic) up to the headlining any neater........I hate it lol, it won't even sit nicely in the panel seam doh.

[adrimo]

Great work bill, what plans you got next, I have loads of bits still in my cupboard so when I get some free time I indulge myself.