Grand Vitara – Page 3 – Electric Vehicle Conversion

Moving into the Garage

Posted on January 14, 2016

So now it’s time to give the Vitara a permanent home in the garage. Problem is my 3 bay garage has a bathroom in the 3rd bay and although it was close I needed an extra few inches to get it to fit.

So the rear tire comes off, and the bumpers come off. This is when I realize that the “bump” the old owner talked about of the barn, was actually more of a slam into the barn. The left rear bumper (the metal part) was bent and quite rusty, and the pieces that secure the plastic under the bumper were broken off. Seems like it’s fixable but I’ll see what the wreckers have to replace these parts. May just be easier to buy a new couple pieces.

Once the bumpers were off, I have 2 inches to spare and pull the vehicle into it’s semi permanent spot.

Cleaning

Posted on December 29, 2015

My plan with this Vitara is for it to be a nice vehicle that I’m going to drive on a daily basis. I spend a lot of time in my car (25 km commute each way) and then usually more on top of that. My busiest day of the week is 84 km Round trip. I usually put on 25,000 km+ per year. I want to paint the engine bay black to make it look clean. In order to do that I had to clean it. 2 days of scrubbing finally got it to this point…

Lesson learned. Oil leaks suck.

Dismantling the Vitara

Posted on December 23, 2015

Christmas time now and I’ve taken a week or more off work, so time to go to the garage.

When you are buying a $1000 vehicle, you figure you are going to find things that you maybe didn’t see the first time. It’s not like you’re seeing it multiple times (especially when it was over an hour from my house).

Now was time to take it apart. I’ve never taken an engine out, but I was lucky to have easy access to an engine hoist so that made the job easier. Started at the back of the car and removed the gas tank, then made my way to the front. Just started unhooking (and labeling everything I could just in case). Took two days, but the engine is now free! That’s when I really found out how bad that oil leak was. They must have been dumping oil in for a long time as it was everywhere.

Luckily found a story of a guy changing the engine out of one of these to figure out why it was so tough to lift out. The front Diff needed to be dropped. Once that was out of the way we were good to go.

Got it out of there and onto a skid in the back of the truck to be transported to storage. After about a month and no bites on Craigslist I took it to a wrecker for $46. Good thing it was aluminum or I would have received $10!

All the rest of the parts were listed on Craigslist and sold to buy tools that I would need in the near future!

I disconnected everything except the A/C compressor. That was for a couple reasons. 1 is that it’s charged and really bad to discharge it without the proper tools, and 2 I’m hoping to keep it in my conversion afterwards. Leaving the system in tact hopefully I can do that. Everything else was removed… what a mess the engine bay is. All that dark stuff in there is a slick of old burnt up oil. Nice and thick.

Purchasing the 2000 Grand Vitara

Posted on October 30, 2015

Well the story starts with the purchase of a donor vehicle. After a few months of looking at multiple cars, I decided on a mini SUV (as they are known apparently). I decided against a car as it just doesn’t seem to fit my lifestyle. Looking at the future, a 4 door is a necessity in case I have kids and I mountain bike a lot and run a soccer team. These all demand space, so a mini SUV is a good compromise.

I found this Grand Vitara on Craigslist and I’m pretty sure the guy thought I was crazy. Engine made quite a racket when it ran (good old timing chain issue) and had a massive oil leak, but I was more concerned with rust, and shape of the vehicle.

Overall the vehicle had never been in a serious accident, had always been maintained by the same family and the son who owned it now was moving away in short order. $1000 and the car was mine. Drove it home and parked it in the driveway till I could deal with it.