If you need to work on the engine, you drop the whole engine subframe. You can by a "special" tool, which are 4 long bolts. You drop the subframe bolts out, fit the long bolts, remove the clip on the hand brake, oh and remove the rear bumper. Then jack up the car, the engine and gearbox remain on the floor, and gives you loads of easy access. When lowering the body back down, make sure the handbrake thingy goes back up the tube. Ex smart car master tech !
Datsun did this nearly 50 Yrs ago with the 100A (Cherry) No special tools .... just a better take on the Mini. I know this because "I was there" ..... I earned my wages via Datsun.
My son had a Smart Brabus recently and the alternator had seized and he just sprayed a copious amount of WD 40 into it and turned the alternator nut by hand with a spanner and within 10 minutes it was turning easily and the engine started instantly, and the alternator still worked and charged perfectly. All the best from Wendy and Jon
If you factor in the fuel for Chemmy and the cost of delivery, it's already a long way from free ... then there's the tools Ian had to buy ... I'm thinking free might be over-priced!
My wife loved her Billy, her smart. Once she mastered the gearbox, by getting the gear change in early, she never looked back. The smart club were the best owners club in the way of help and support and I suggest you contact them for any assistance
Nice addition to the fleet. Some access to the engine with the rear bumper removed. This also gives you access to the other set of spark plugs as they have 6 not three. The whole engine and subframe can drop on special lengthened bolts which makes the bigger jobs a lot easier. A ramp is required though
Well done you. I’ve had three of these cars and each one has given me fantastic performance, reliability and economy not to mention the fun factor. Look forward to seeing it on the road, enjoy!
This is a win:win situation. I LOVE the concept of smart cars (pre-2015) but have never had the faith to get one as have always been too wary about their stories. This is either going to show that it can be done... or it cannot!. Either way great to know. Many thanks for "taking one for the team" to confirm the situation.
@@johndilloway9762 The ones owned by the kind of people that think if an engine can't be seen it doesn't need to be checked or serviced certainly tend to suffer.
Had several since last century. Biggest and only issue was our last but one having brake failure-caused by non dealer incompetence. Other than tyres and brakes plus wiper blades during servicing nothing has failed on any of them…
I am a Smart Fortwo owner. 2010 petrol chocolate brown with the leather heated seats and flappy paddle gearbox. It's the start stop model so has a starternator which is quite fun when the belt goes. It has the light grey Limited Edition interior which I think is a bit nicer than the darker one. I've had it about six years now and use it pretty much every day. It certainly has its flaws but I still get the same enjoyment out of driving it now as I did when I first got it, and I wouldn't want to part with it. It has cost me more on maintenance than my Fiesta, which I've had for longer, but I bought the Smart for less the half the price, so it's all relative. No, it's a go-kart with a bodyshell. Four wheels and a seat. It's my zippy commute to work and I don't want for anything more. 🙂
From driving a Crossblade to acquiring this little Cabrio - I sense a bit of Smart thinking going on here! Get it going and those are cracking wee things, and remarkably strong. I hit a deer head-on doing just shy of 60mph in mine. Once the swearing was over and I pulled off to the side of the road, I saw the extent of the damage. Thank you very much and about four hundred quid's worth of replacement panels, and the wee beastie was back to full health! The body shop guy said the underlying structure was totally undamaged...
Want to watch that leak on the rear window.One of my mates had one of these a few years back and he was getting all kinds of random faults/issues with it.After much toing and froing to the main dealer,it turned out that there's a box of electronic gizzmos in the boot,or whatever you call it in one of these,and it had water in it but the faults would only occur on up or down inclines,obviously from it slopping about,so it took an age and a fair few of His Majesty's finest folding to put it straight
There's nothing complex in the boot area itself, though the engine (and ECU) live directly underneath the boot. Edit: wrote this before I realised this was a cabrio, the motor and mechanism to retract the roof is somewhere in the back.
My sister absolutely loved her Smart and as far as I know had no problems with it. She kept the roads hot with it so maybe that is the key. Don't let them sit longer than overnight....
Highly recommend joining evilution… a fantastic resource for all things Smart. You should be able to get a deep ring spanner on the alternator, spray it full of penetrating fluid and wiggle it both ways by hand. It may well free it off. Another common fault that can affect starting on these is the crank position sensor.
I bought a 451 diesel Smart back in 2011, 150000 miles later, it's still going strong, I do a 60 mile commute on a daily basis, it's extremely economical and cheap to run
Brilliant cars and the engines are surprisingly strong. Add / adapt an oil drain to the sump. Be aware of two SAM unit (ECU) issues: 'tin hair' that shorts them out and dry solder joints on back of plugs. Both give similar symptoms, both easy / free fixes. Chassis much under-rated, these are fantastic driver's cars. I've had fast Subaru's / 911's etc but would never sell my City Coupe (pre-4/2).
@misterthegeoff9767 the only disadvantage was Smart put the incorrect gearbox in the Roadster they should have had a manual transmission in it as a option.
Brilliant! A great addition to the Hubnuts fleet, I hope it sticks around for a while and we get some good videos on it. I've always wanted a Fortwo (I've had a Roadster) but haven't yet, one of the few cars I've always wanted but haven't yet owned.
Love smart cars and I'm on my second one,they are definitely a quirky vehicle with many little tricks to driving them smoothly (as possible). The best tip I can give is don't rush the gears,give the box time to change and if yours is the mhd version (I wasn't able to tell) switch off the stop/start function as the starter isn't strong enough for constant use,nice one.
Is this perhaps the beginning of what might one day become the Hub Nut Micro Car Collection? This should be very exciting - one way or another. Great choice. Thank you.
Having owned a ForTwo and Roadster for 6 years and 10 years respectively, and still have both, keep it and use it. Just learn their quirks and stay on top of servicing.
Mate of mine did the same as you - Grabbed a smart car in similar state, but after a few checks drove it straight to Scotland in one take! Thankfully he was warned that all the gearboxes in all the smart cars are broken.
My wife still misses her little 2015 For two Smarty, which was written off after she tried to redesign it with the back end of the car in front. That car could take an amazing amount of shopping by the way. Breaking front road springs was a bit of an issue, I had to change two of them. Smartune in North Wales were very good in the supply of various parts. Be careful not to spill any liquid on the passenger parcel shelf, the ECU is directly underneath, and it doesn't take kindly to a soaking.
You are Brave Ian. Good Luck. I hope you and Miss Hubnut enjoy it. You are a sucker for a 3 Cylinder engine. I can´t say I blame you. Half an in line six!!
Smart move Ian, don't take too long to get her up and running, you'll find it a very handy economical run about. Ideal for tiny roads and towns as only needs half a parking bay. A local Estate Agent had 2, they both fitted in the parking bay together outside the agency.
Hi Ian, South Port smart for all your spares are very good. Make sure thee alternator is exactly the same or problems with happen. The key is a flick type which leads people to think that the starting is slow. Join evolution smart for all your information requirements. Don't forget to get the clutch re learnt with diagnostic for smooth gear changes. Above all enjoy your fun journeys ahead.
I love my Smart fortwo called Hinny, she's 2008 451 not the 450 like your one. Only way i can tell them apart is the door handles are horizontal on the 451 and vertical on the 450 lol. I find them great fun to drive, use mine for work commute and longer motorway journeys too.
Same as our last smart, an 03 reg red Passion cabrio. The RHD wasn't as good as the original LHD model it replaced, too many changes when they moved the wheel to the other side. They can be remapped to 90-100 bhp easily and working on them isn't too difficult if you learn how to remove the rear bumper panel and crash bar. I remember fitting performance exhausts and swapping turbos in pub car parks and at car meets. a full panel change could be done in about an hour, fastest I saw was under 30 minutes!
There was a 'hire a Smart car' business in Beaconsfield in the early 2000s. I hired one to experience and drove to Lowestoft for a work conference in it. Other than the delay in change in gearbox i found it a pleasure and fun to drive. Mk1 interior is better with its Mickey Mouse ear rev counter and clock than the mk2 .
I remember working on these when i knew someone that was bringing them into the UK in lhd form. He had a self adhesive overlay we used to fit to the instrumets to make them mph. We also had to cut up the rear light lenses to move the clear and red lenses over and swap the wiring to move the rear fog lamp across to the rhd side to make them UK compliant.
Alternator seizing is quite common if car if infrequent use coincides with a long spell of damp weather! I had this on my Smart Roadster last year. And, as you have discovered, replacement is nowhere near straightforward! It looks a bit rusty underneath (suspension components) so a good derusting/rustproofing session would be well worthwhile. However, these a great little cars (I have had 2 cabrios like yours as well as the Roadster) and I have found them to be generally extremely reliable providing servicing is not neglected. Frequent oil changes are a must (Mobil One). Getting a pair of pods (tacho and clock) highly recommended. Once you have it sorted you and Mrs Hubnut will love it, especially being the cabrio. Fun to drive and sips fuel. When I had my cabrios I had three sets of body panels (red, yellow and silver) and with practise could change the colour in around an hour! And, yes, def worth looking out for an early interior in funky colour. Easy swap. I agree with you, later interiors are very dull.
This is why hubnut is the best car channel on RU-vid 😉! Content is always fun and interesting ! Cars everyone else give up on, find a home in hubnuts fleet, and soon become members favourites. hoping one day there will be a meetup with hubnuts fleet along with furious Matt's rusty fleet and tasty classic Ben's cars!
One of the most fun cars to drive. Quick, hardly ever sees a petrol station, and has heating in Winter! Much as I love the classic Beetle, The Smart beats it. I drive a Civic as a daily, but on the hunt for a Smart again. Really miss it.
Ian great purchase love a smart car! Smart technic in Birmingham are a good source of parts and tech advice look forward to seeing this come back to life
Should have seen this coming with the recent review of the crossblade. Very interesting little thing can't say I've ever been a smart fan but if ever a car from more recent times was hubnut this would be a good contender.
I always liked Smart cars as they were just different. My mate still has a Brabus Smart Coupe that he must have had 10 years possibly more he swapped his Mazda RX-8 for it when in the late 2000's fuel prices were going up. The engine bay design is horrific though. How on earth that was deemed to be serviceable know one knows. Your going to need to develop extra finger. wrist and elbow joints by the look of it. I'm a great believer in saving cars hence I have a 1969 mini based kit car (my first car) a 1971 Triumph GT6 (needs a full resto) and a 2005 Jax X type estate. Plus a 1992 Suzuki GSX600F. I'm lucky to still have a wife too I add. Looking forwards to seeing you get the Smart back up, running and back on the road :-)
Well done on your purchase Ian and Carly, if you can remove the alternator yourself then get it reconditioned, might be wise to check/replace the timing belt if it has one, nice little project for your channel 😊
Interesting addition, I do have Smart ForTwo, but it's 1/43 model, haha :D It's in fact red and silver colour, made by NewRay, but I guess it's hard top version. Looking forward to see more videos about this car.
You've got a moneypit there Ian. My neighbour had one for awhile. Couldn't get rid of the thing quick enough. The price of parts made his mind up. You should contact 6D Diesels, he's picked up a few old cars he's fixing up, especially a old Trabant. Also Al and Fudgy are a couple of sound blokes. Keep up the good work.
Loved my 2004 Smart Coupe (pre Fourtwo branding). I had a few issues, one of the keys lost its coding. The Smart specialists could not recode it so it was a Mercedes job and then a new key was required (hope you have both keys?). Hill start assist switch broke (I believe this is common). A coil spring also broke. It was still a great car and still miss it. The gearbox is better in “manual” as you can keep the revs higher. This will be a future classic, so worth spending the money and doing it right. The Evilution website is a great place for info on this little car.
Mighty Dacia is also when I first discovered and subscribed to this channel. Didn't seem all that long ago. And now six years later, HubNut is joining the will it start and drive us xxx miles home, crowd.
I just LOVE the looks of the first gen Smart - late 90s design at it's very best! I do agree of the lack of funky colours in the interior being a major fault on this one, but as I remember, much of the trim-pieces were inter-swapable to be able to personalize your Smart experience - I guess said trim-pieces are close to unobtainuim now... but still.
The ground cable that goes between the rear of the gearbox belhousing and the rear panel can rot and cause sluggish starting. It's one of those braided copper types with no insulation. Copious amounts of your favourite penetrating oil into the alternator and some persuasion with a spanner or socket on the alternator can often free them up, so might not need to drag it out. Check/replace all six spark plugs, it's extremely common that the lower six never get changed as they are harder to access (rear bumper has to come off, very easy as long as no bolts seized). Check the one way crankcase ventilation valve is working, they tend to stick open allowing boost to pressurise the crankcase and causing high oil consumption, though oil consumption can also be caused by sticking piston rings. This leads to exhaust valves being burned and 65k is about typical for this to happen if they haven't been looked after well. Check the wastegate actuator is secure on the wastegate arm, there is a small circlip that rots and causes them to disconnect giving no boost and very sluggish performance.
Hi Ian and Carly just watched the show nice smart car do you remember that heavy snow in around 2000 it took me 4hrs from London to Luton I spotted about 8 or 10 smart cars abandoned on the M1 to Luton better design now good luck with yours. Cordia will be historic 1st April. Cheers Mick.
I'm interested to know whether you have a better one than me... Only owned mine 6 months, looks fabulous, strong engine that uses no oil but I have signed of rust hidden behind inner wheel arch linings and plastic sill covers. MOT time in 2 months.... Please document your journey with this little car, lots of people won't understand but they are absolutely infectious!
Brilliant choice no doubt you’ll be tinkering but get under the skin of them and Smarts can be very rewarding. We’ve found them very good fun around Eryri. You should try the EQ. It’s very surprising 😉
Always loved the Smart for 2 - I hope you get it sorted.. I did have a brief perion=d of 'ownership' - (actually rentership) that was in Taragona - covered quite a few miles in it too.
Once you have sorted this out it will be a great car. I had exactly the same problem and managed to fix the car up and now it’s a brilliant runner mine had 64k on its now 100k plus. The best place for a Smart Car repairs is a place called Smart Tecnic in Birmingham. Also you cannot just go fitting any old alternator to these you need the correct alternator, they come with a code to match the right Car don’t buy one off the shelf because you’ll end up with errors on the screen
Just to add, you may find that someone has continually tried to start the engine with the alternator seized or nearly seized and it could have weakened the starter motor, that can happen with them, but my son was lucky because the solenoid wire had come off the starter solenoid and was only touching now and then and therefore it wouldn't operate anyway, so the starter was still good and he even managed to get a screwdriver and carefully push the spade connector back on without stripping anything down.
Future classic material, be interesting to hear what it's like once you've had a proper look at it. The previous owner's abode reminds me of a "driveway ornament-spec" E28 that I've been making the odd enquiry about, to no avail mind.
I used to whizz around Brumagen in a Smart. They are great roller skates for the urban rat race. More importantly, Carly’s outfit today is very stylish.
My best friend had one of these. I remember she drove us down the A14 for a day out in Cambridge and everything was rattling and I thought by the time we got there we would just be sat on the chassis with no body shell left. I was terrified! 😂
A friend of mine did get 160k out of a Smart Roadster so they can get decent mileages but that transmission is absolutely awful. Good luck....at least cheap tax is on its side.
My dad had one, he had an early one. He used to travel 170 odd km all the time on the motorway, told me he would often plant his foot and pass cars like they were standing still, they would all stare. At my old place the drive was as big as the Smart is long, I went to the garage one day to find he had driven the Smart neatly between the garage door and the foot path. He would still have it if the river didn't come up suddenly and flood that and another car he had.
Interesting little things Future classics? I know of one person who had one, didn’t live far away and was able to get to do 60mph up one of the local hills that I’m familiar with….and that was impressive.
I've never seen such a tired, worn out looking Smart Car. Their owners always seem to love & take care of them. Poor little car, hopefully will get a new lease on life 🙂👍
Knew it was going to be a fortwo after the recent video. Weirdly I've always liked these. Look forward to more content on it and for Free (well price of recovery) you can't go wrong
The first thing as a viewer we see the thumbnail and the title of the video which draws a viewer in.. then at the start of the video you're playing guessing games as to what the car is😊😅😅 you even say it in the video that you haven't chosen the thumbnail😅😂😂❤ great to see such an eclectic mix of old bangers..
