Nubira II from Budapest (English)

[Martriden]

Good day everyone!
I hope most of you can understand English and even though I'm not Romanian I can stay. I also have a Nubira II and like some of you I also have a mental disorder that blocks me to sell it and I keep spending money to maintain/improve it. :)

[VAXXi]

Welcome ! I've split your post into a new topic under "Masina mea" (that means "My car", a sub-forum for each to present its own car). Feel free to add more !

[VAXXi]

Also, do let me know in a PM if you want a topic title change.

[mirceajo]

Welcome to the club!

Please share with us your mental disorder :)) and if you want more druggs check out my topic for any crazy ideas 

If you have any questions please sent PM.

[Martriden]

9 hours ago, VAXXi said:

Welcome ! I've split your post into a new topic under "Masina mea" (that means "My car", a sub-forum for each to present its own car). Feel free to add more !

Hi Vaxxi! Thank you very much! 

Can you please specify the title: "Nubira II from Budapest (English)". Thank you very much in advance. And a special thank you for maintaining Daewoo forums for Romania! 🙂

[Martriden]

5 hours ago, mirceajo said:

Welcome to the club!

Please share with us your mental disorder :)) and if you want more druggs check out my topic for any crazy ideas 

If you have any questions please sent PM.

Thank you Mircea! I checked your thread and remembered your glorious burgundy Nubira with leather because I saw it in the Daewoo Nubira Club Hungary Facebook group. 🙂 You've been inactive in your own forum thread and in the Facebook group too! What happened? 

[vrazvanc]

Nice car! 😁

 

There are Daewoo's in Hungary anymore?

In Romania there are a few more, but most of them are in poor condition.

Edited April 11, 2023 by vrazvanc

[Martriden]

5 minutes ago, vrazvanc said:

Nice car! 😁

There are Daewoo's in Hungary anymore? In Romania remained a few, but most of them are in poor condition.

Thank you very much! 🙂

Yeah, there are. I think there were more Daewoos imported to Hungary than into Romania altogether.  I can find more Daewoos for sell in Hungary than in your country, I still see dozens of Daewoo Lanos and Matiz on the streets. They're reliable workhorses so people like them, but there are a few Nubiras and Leganzas left. Most of them ended up in scrapyards sadly. 

[Martriden]

So the history of my car!

(Hope et least 1 person reads it 🙂 )

I bought my first car in May of 2017, it is a Maruti 800, which I think is non-existing in Romania. I still have/love it though. (The one in the front) 

But it's not really for traveling home to my parents, so I needed another one which is comfortable and can handle higher speed. Since comfort was my number 1 priority (I'm not old, I just appreciate comfort over agility) I started to look at Citroen C5s (still not giving up on a nice C5). 

One day when I was walking home I saw a woman trying to park a Nubira II while reversing and she hit the curb, so the car started rocking vigorously, much more than an ordinary sedan would, it was like a Caddilac. Than I knew that was my type of car. So I started to read reviews on it and most of them were about how cheap, reliable and comfortable this car was. I started looking for ones for sale, and chose one which looked nice and wasn't too expansive. 

I managed to choose one from a mechanic (unintentionally). There is a saying in Hungary "the house of the maid is always dirty, the shoe of the shoemaker always has holes, etc..." So there was a lot needed to be replaced, coming from a mechanic. I spent a lot of money on fixing major issues, and also minor ones. Also the previous owner (the mechanic) smoked in the car, so I went through the interior with an upholstery cleaner and this was the result:

The car seemed grateful until April of last year, when the head gasket was blown. I took it to a friend of my dad who (kind of repaired) the engine. Unfortunately he only changed the oil once. So there was still some water left in the oil, and the oil pump could not tolerate any water, so it gave up and the engine locked when I was driving on the highway. That was the only time she broke down. 

I decided to fully redo the engine, since the rest of the car was OK. The rust was previously was taken care of, and every option worked well. By the way, "unrusting": 

So the car was repaired and after that it passed the inspection without problems. 

In November of last year I stumbled upon a factory leather interior on Hungary's biggest "online scrapyard". I HAD TO buy it, so I did. Well, there was huge room for improvement to say the least 😄

I took care of it myself with professional leather care stuff (Fenice), but the leather is still a bit stiff, but it always has been in Daewoos, right? My Nubira might be the only one with factory leather in Hungary, it is unbelievably rare in Europe. Very elite group with me and @pompiliu92. 

Right now it functions well, there is slight friction sound in the timing, might be a pulley, so I'm goin to the mechanic tomorrow. Today she tricked me though. After a few days of sleeping she didn't start, and I was gonna carpool some ppl back to Budapest. I thought the battery was low, but I moved the battery lug a bit and it came alive. So the lugs might me somewhat corroded. But the ppl I carpooled complemented her, that it was a comfortable and calm ride. 🙂

I took these pictues today. 

 

 

Thank you for reading. 🙂

[Martriden]

Sorry didn't get the mention right. So the elite goup @pompiliu92 and also now that I think of it @mirceajo, if he still has his

[Andrei.ss]

Welcome to the club and thanks for sharing info about your car. It is incredible what you achieved with the leather seats; when you bought them they looked as if they had been lying for 10 years under the open sky. Keep us updated please.

[Martriden]

10 hours ago, Andrei.ss said:

Welcome to the club and thanks for sharing info about your car. It is incredible what you achieved with the leather seats; when you bought them they looked as if they had been lying for 10 years under the open sky. Keep us updated please.

Thank you! Yes, they were in quite rough condition, but given how rare they are, they had to be saved. 😃

This is the picture from the scrapyard. 

But now they're reborn and that's what matters. (Not only dusted, I soaked them in leather reviver for days) 

Do you still have a Daewoo? Your topic of your Nexia/Cielo is kind of dead. 

 

[Martriden]

Now a bit from the dark side. The AC always breaks when the weather starts to get warmer and the heat always goes away when winter kicks in. So it's a pattern she has sadly. The heater core was changed (again) and the heater box was repaired in March, let's hope the fixes will hold this time.  

Yesterday I noticed that the AC compressor doesn't really give a crap about being turned on or off. It's always in the cycle. The compressor clutch might be broken, but the compressor was renovated two years ago, and the clutch was replaced three years ago. Tomorrow I'm going ot visit an AC specialist. Hope it won't be an expansive fix. 

Last thing for now, when cold started it has an ugly clicking noise. Mechanic conformed that some of the hydraulic valve lifters are worn. So I'm gonna try to get some valve lifter cleaner and see how they affect.

Anyone has any experience with hydraulic valve lifter cleaners? 

[Andrei.ss]

11 hours ago, Martriden said:

Do you still have a Daewoo? Your topic of your Nexia/Cielo is kind of dead.

Technically I still own the Cielo from the topic, however, I have not used it since I emigrated from Romania in 2015. Last time I actually saw it was in 2018 and the picture is also available there. It's in my garage and a friend sometimes starts it, takes it our of the garage and then parks it back in, but nothing more. Some might argue that simply keeping a car in a garage means a slow death for the car, but given that selling it would probably bring me only a few hundred euros, I simply don't see any reason to do it...

[Salex]

16 hours ago, Martriden said:

Last thing for now, when cold started it has an ugly clicking noise. Mechanic conformed that some of the hydraulic valve lifters are worn. So I'm gonna try to get some valve lifter cleaner and see how they affect.

Anyone has any experience with hydraulic valve lifter cleaners? 

Don't waste money with "magic potions" ! There are very very few chances to solve the problem. If your service history is good and you changed oil and filters with good ones and in proper time, chances drop to ZERO. Possibly a lifter is damaged or the cylindered itself is damaged. Either way, some concentrated oil derivate will not make miracles, especially when the problem is clear at cold starting.

My advice is to investigate the lifters and replace the "sick" ones. 

You may have another solution, but first tell us what oil  and filter you use. 

Edited April 14, 2023 by Salex

[Martriden]

9 hours ago, Andrei.ss said:

Technically I still own the Cielo from the topic, however, I have not used it since I emigrated from Romania in 2015. Last time I actually saw it was in 2018 and the picture is also available there. It's in my garage and a friend sometimes starts it, takes it our of the garage and then parks it back in, but nothing more. Some might argue that simply keeping a car in a garage means a slow death for the car, but given that selling it would probably bring me only a few hundred euros, I simply don't see any reason to do it...

I get it. So not even an oil change since 2015?

[Martriden]

4 hours ago, Salex said:

Don't waste money with "magic potions" ! There are very very few chances to solve the problem. If your service history is good and you changed oil and filters with good ones and in proper time, chances drop to ZERO. Possibly a lifter is damaged or the cylindered itself is damaged. Either way, some concentrated oil derivate will not make miracles, especially when the problem is clear at cold starting.

My advice is to investigate the lifters and replace the "sick" ones. 

You may have another solution, but first tell us what oil  and filter you use. 

I honestly have no idea about the make of them since my mechanic does all that. But they are a Daewoo-Chevrolet specific shop, so I'm guessing they use correct ones. 

[mirceajo]

On 4/11/2023 at 8:51 PM, Martriden said:

Thank you Mircea! I checked your thread and remembered your glorious burgundy Nubira with leather because I saw it in the Daewoo Nubira Club Hungary Facebook group. 🙂 You've been inactive in your own forum thread and in the Facebook group too! What happened? 

Thank you for remember my car :))

I’ve been inactive because I’ve sold it in october 2020. To many cars for me to manage at that time 🙂

Now I only have a Daewoo Evanda, please check my topic, and a Citroen C2 VTR 1,6 Sensodrive.

[Martriden]

14 hours ago, mirceajo said:

Thank you for remember my car :))

I’ve been inactive because I’ve sold it in october 2020. To many cars for me to manage at that time 🙂

Now I only have a Daewoo Evanda, please check my topic, and a Citroen C2 VTR 1,6 Sensodrive.

Oh I see. Is the new owner also on the forum?
And how is the Evanda? I see you keep it in good shape. Is it much better than a Nubira? 

[mirceajo]

21 hours ago, Martriden said:

Oh I see. Is the new owner also on the forum?
And how is the Evanda? I see you keep it in good shape. Is it much better than a Nubira? 

Nope, new owner didn’t care so much for it and now its for spare parts. He has a blue one now.

Evanda is the mercedes of Daewoo :))

[pompiliu92]

Seems you really revived that leather. Looks a lot better than before. Regarding the stiffness, try using Koch Chemie Leather Star.

I think you should replace the AC compressor with a new one. It's much more practical, instead of "patching" the old one until it starts failing again. If you can find an original one, that would be great.

[Martriden]

Oh Hi pompiliu!

Yea there are some new ones for sale, but they're really expensive. For now the AC specialist just said they were going to replace the gasket set and  the bearing for the compressor, because the rest of the compressor looke like new. And also a new AC evaporator. This was also costy, but let's hope the AC will hold now. 
Does that Koch Chemie stuff really softens the leather that much?

Also, how is your car nowadays? 🙂 

[pompiliu92]

Keep an eye on Ebay or other parts website, because you can find a new AC compressor for decent money, like this one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/185378892224?hash=item2b297169c0:g:sO0AAOSwa~BYZATx

5 years ago I bough my AC compressor from the same seller. The Koch Chemie solution softens the leather over time. It's not instant. You need to apply it every 1-2 months to see some results.

My Nubira is still in the garage. I usually take it out during the summer and leave it to "hibernate" during the winter. I'm waiting to change the manual AC for the automatic climate controls version and looking for an USA style front bumper cover, plus a korean style front grille. Besides that, I'm planning on changing the brake pipes, but it's no easy job, since the rear ones are over the fuel tank.

[Martriden]

I see. I have a bad experience with ordering from ebay. I once ordered a compressor house gasket set that wasn't fit for my car, even though it was indicated so. 

By Korean front grille do you mean the one that has stripes on the sides as well? Like this one? 

[pompiliu92]

13 minutes ago, Martriden said:

I see. I have a bad experience with ordering from ebay. I once ordered a compressor house gasket set that wasn't fit for my car, even though it was indicated so. 

By Korean front grille do you mean the one that has stripes on the sides as well? Like this one? 

It looks like this:

Edited April 19, 2023 by pompiliu92