buyer_s_guide_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_models_2007_2014¶

4 excerpts.

Excerpt¶

youtube.com/auto_knight/buyer_s_guide_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_models_2007_2014 · p. 1 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike

if you were looking to buy a smart for 2 4551 then you really need to see this because there's way more to these cars than people realize the 451 was the second generation smart for 2 which ran from 2007 to 2014 although it had a very similar silhouette to the 450 which it replaced there were many differences and it was very clear right off the bat that this was a much better built car and felt a whole lot more grown up still remounted three-cylinder units the petrol engines went from the rather fragile and sometimes shortlived Mercedes-Benz units of 600 or 700 CCC to a far more substantial 1 lit unit from the Mitsubishi 3B 2 family of engines the 800 CC diesel engine was carried over from the previous model the six-speed automated Transmission in the 450 was often criticized for having a gear change so slow that you had to request your next gear in writing this was improved upon considerably in this model with a new 5-speed gearbox although it is still the subject of some criticism some people are just never happy the trian which is this structure here usually in silver or black was redesigned for better crash safety and the removable plastic body panels felt a whole lot more substantial on these later cars the length width height and wheelbase were slightly increased so it is a slightly larger car and it weighs a little bit more between 750 and just under 800 kg depending on the model door handles became horizontal instead of vertical in the earlier cars this improves the ergonomics these cars now benefit from a removable Bonnet section which makes it far easier to check levels and replace bulbs it fits neatly into two cutouts here and it's even held by a strap so it doesn't fall to the ground certainly a lot easier than then removing the two vents on the 450 and then reaching down through that tiny little hole and pulling your hand out with cuts and things towards the end of 2010 there was a mild facelift to this model and you can tell these cars very easily because the badge here moved down into the grill it was quite a big badge at first I thought it looked a bit silly when they first came out but we soon get used to these things and now they look fine they have different um bumper arrangements as well different side skirts and there are some interior differences fa lifted cars had different vents different radios and for reasons I'm yet to understand they did away with the temperature gauge and while on the subject of the Interior the 451 did gain a kind of real car dashboard rather than the strange toy like Arrangement that the 45's had it just feels a much more substantial place to be excluding the Bravos and limited edition models which I won't be covering in this video these cars were available able in pure pulse and passion trim specs now the pure was a very basic car we're talking steel wheels a solid roof and a semi-automatic automated gearbox it also had a really cheap seat fabric that you could Mark just by looking at it and you often see used examples of these with seats with more stains than a tramps trousers it's not a good look the door trims were very cheap on the pure they were all hard plastic they didn't have these fabric inlays and right here you had actual window winders as well something you don't see didn't have electric windows like this they were very basic cars as I said but less to go wrong the pulse was the sporty model it had alloy wheels a sport steering wheel with paddle shift and a rev counter and clock in pods on the dashboard the passion was the luxury model seen here in convertible form had it have been the ordinary hardtop version it would have had a polycarbonate roof much like this they even had a blind you could pull forward but it does reduce the Headroom though these cars also had something called Soft Touch which is a fully automated transmission was a much nicer Driving Experience engines ranged from the 71 brake horsepower mhd which stood for micro hybrid drive this was essentially a stop start system and it wasn't without its problems some of the early 2007 and 2008 cars were a aailable without the mhd they're quite sort after cars the next engine option was the 84 brake horsepower turbocharged unit that's what I have in my car I think that's the best to go for there's also an 800c diesel which produces a whopping 54 brake horsepower along with a lot of vibration think Massie Ferguson and you won't go far wrong now let's take a closer look at these cars starting with the body work check

Excerpt¶

youtube.com/auto_knight/buyer_s_guide_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_models_2007_2014 · p. 2 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike

the trian really carefully this is the main structural part of the smart it forms almost a safety cage around you so it's important that it's not damaged it hasn't been repaired it is normal for there to be some seams visible on it it's not fabricated from one piece of Steel so you will see some joins but check the overall condition and make sure it's not dented or full of fill the chassis number on the smart is here on the door shut that sticker should be present it gives you some codes on here which tell you the colors eb2 and E A and those translate to Silver tridion and silver panels so you can tell from these codes if the vehicle has ever been repainted or if it's ever had a panel change these trons are far less Rock prone than the 450 which used to have all manner of problems where they' rust out in the wheel arches but you can still get a bit of scabb at the back on the inner seals these polycarbonate roofs can go opaque it's quite common and the vehicles that have a solid roof can delaminate they have like a stippled finish that's then laquered and that can peel it's all largely caused by UV so unless you can find a car that's spent its entire life in the garage you will find this on these vehicles now as they are getting old these vehicles are also prone to wind screen seal failure the bonding of the screen can leak and that will let water into the car it'll cause wet foot Wells and it can let water into the Sam unit which can be very costly water effectively trickles down here and can find its way under here into the electrical nerve center known as the Sam this little seal here on the tailgate where the wiper spind door passes through the tailgate can also cause a leak and you can have issues with some cracks forming around the plastic part of the tailgate at the top which can cause a leak into the vehicle over time these door seals can compress which can allow water to trickle in not too much of a problem on these but it can happen the locks on these vehicles are vastly improved from those on the 451 which had cables and those cables used to sometimes get water in them and they would freeze so you'd open the door and the door would stick and you wouldn't be able to shut the door cuz the lock would freeze um don't seem to have so many problems with these the electrical part of these locks have been known to fail and this usually means that you still hear the click but the door doesn't actually lock or unlock with the rest of the car and you do also have this little cap here that can be removed so you can open this door with a key if you have some sort of electrical failure that's a vast improvement over the 4550 where the only place you could enter by key was on the tailgate and as you can see looking at that it would be a very undignified entry into the car if you're anything other than a very small person while we're in the area of the tailgate these little lock tabs here that you pull to release they can snap off and you can reduce the chances of that happening by just pressing slightly against the tailgate when you release takes a tension off the lock these are often missing on cars only the better spec models would have this blind is certainly a nice thing to have if you're ever curious under this carpet you can find the build date of your smart in this case 10th of June 2008 for those who don't know about smarts the engine lives under this cover you twist and you lift make sure this insulation isn't dangling down can be a fire hazard and there's more of it under here and it can drop down this is the 84 brake horsepower turbocharged unit in this car sometimes the cam cover gaskets can fail and that can fill up the spark plug recesses with oil not too difficult a job the engine front mounting can go on these cars which causes a lot of engine movement which you'll notice in the form of a judder or a shuddering when you pull away or when you change gear that can also be a clutch problem how ever but it's often that mount notice the alternator on here while the mhd models have a combined alternator and starter and there have been some problems with the mounting of that combined alternator starter I think Dino start if you know old cars uh they can throw the belt which causes them to overheat if you're interested about that look it up because that can be a problem and it does put some people off buying an mhd car I personally prefer this 84 brake horsepower version sometimes these

Excerpt¶

youtube.com/auto_knight/buyer_s_guide_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_models_2007_2014 · p. 3 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike

intercooler fans can seize which blows the fuse which is shared by the air conditioning system so if you've got to charge model that is a consideration especially if your air conditioning isn't working the sump can also crack when you try to remove the drain plug if it's been overtightened in the past or not removed for ages exhausts can also be quite Rusty now these cars are quite old after all later cars will have a flexy SE ction that can deteriorate and disintegrate beware of some terrible aftermarket cheap exhaust systems that are only good for a year or two if possible it's always best to buy a secondhand genuine exhaust for these cars it's a far better proposition oxygen sensors in the exhaust can also burn out which can bring an engine management light on if you ever find that you've got a smart that has a fuel smell the first thing to check is the seal on the filler cap that O-ring can crack and when it does it gives you a fuel odor technically it's a whole new cap from smart but I have found those O-rings on eBay the clutches on these cars do not last forever and the actuator can also fail that needs to be adjusted both mechanically and also electronically as the clutch wears it's something to consider you can get gear selector faults on these cars and the dreaded three lines on the dashboard is probably one of the worst it can be a bit of a devil to diagnose when driving these cars in order to select a gear you need to have your foot on the brake so if the brake light switch ever fails that signal is missing and you can't select gears so that's always something to check if you have gear selector problems check you've got brake lights the reluctor Rings or ABS rings can corrode and split on the drive shafts on these cars and that tends to cause dashboard lights to come on ABS traction control um even reductions in speed CU it it thinks that there's um wheel sliping or there's a differential in wheel speed between one side and the other drive shaft oil seals can also sometimes leak on the gearbox on the differential they're fairly straightforward to do gearbox fluid is fairly straightforward to change on these cars and whilst it's not a service recommendation it's a good thing to do in terms of the rear brakes the brake shoes can sometimes stick to the drums on cars that aren't used very often or laid up when they're wet this uh can be difficult to release and the car tends to release with a jolt this is why I don't leave my vehicle for long periods of time with the handbrake on Wheel cylinders nearly always leaking when you perform a brake inspection but they're cheap to replace the rear most section of the brake pipes can also corrode but you can buy these fairly easily and they can be replaced on their own front brakes don't cause too many problems just bear in mind that the brake discs are pretty thin from the start so you tend to need to change the discs with the pads as they go below minimum thickness very quickly suspension on these cars is very hard and they are prone to snapping front coil springs you can also see how skinny these front wheels are so the wheels themselves are quite prone to damage from potholes so it's one to check top suspension mountings can also compress over time and this can cause a knocking from the front and the anti- rollar inner bushes can fail which causes an oinking noise over bumps very easy to replace it's definitely worth being aware that there is only this plastic panel between the FR suspension and the rest of the world so it doesn't take much for to crash into something and damage suspension components so even relatively small speed knocks can damage suspension components so it's really important to just have a good check while we're on the subject of this it's always worth checking behind if you can look behind to make sure that these panels haven't pushed in and damaged the cross beams that go across behind here there's one at the front and one at the back and there there first line of defense against uh knocks and small crashes sometimes they can be damaged but the panels spring back out and you don't know it check for any warning lights on the dashboard you can get problems that need a scanner heater Motors can pack up they can go intermittent to start with if you bash around at the dashboard they come back on relatively easy to change and inside here for the heater temperature control there is a rear stat that fail inside as well which makes it very hard to regulate the temperature of the vehicle as previously explained the Sam unit which has all the fuses and the relays lives under here it can have issues solder joints can deteriorate on those and cause all sorts of electrical issues uh and that is exacerbated by any windscreen leak cuz if water gets into that it will really mess it up the air conditioning system on these cars is quite weak the condenser lives just in here I've got a new one on my car

Excerpt¶

youtube.com/auto_knight/buyer_s_guide_smart_fortwo_451_pure_pulse_passion_models_2007_2014 · p. 4 · Applies to: 450, 451, 452, 453, 454, #1, ebike

there's a video about that that can easily be damaged by Stones flying through the grill and that can let out your refrigerant under here in the heater box is a small sensor with a couple of wires on it it's very easy for someone to kick that off cuz it's well within reach of the of the left foot on a right hand drive car or the passenger if um you've got a left-hand drive car that can be damaged and that takes out the air con and of of course there's also on the turbo models a chance that the intercoler fan could have seized and that can blow the fuse I think it's think it's fuse 14 from memory but double check uh and if that blows then the airon just does stop working too it's always good to buy a vehicle with the best interior that you can find but the good thing about these is that the seats are really easy to remove and it's always a good idea when buying a new car to take the seats out and give it a really deep clean due to the style of the carpets there isn't a trim that goes across here as there is in many cars so you find all manner of things under these carpets things just get under there it's always a good idea to get a car with good service history unfortunately a lot of people don't want to work on these vehicles because possibly because they don't understand them they're not to be feared they are fairly straightforward but they are quite niche as a result a lot of people take care of their own cars and I found that the smart Community to be a particularly friendly one so if everything else Stacks up and the car looks good it's always a good idea to give it a good road test as I said earlier the clutches on these don't last forever so focus on that initially make sure it's not juddering it's not slipping and that gear changes uh smooth also make sure the car drives in a straight line as I said the vulnerability of the front suspension components mean some of them have had a knock and if the steering wheel is to one side and it's not straight when you're going in a straight line or if the car pulls to one side then those are kind of red flags the brakes should also be smooth you might find that there's a little bit more brake travel than you used to with conventional cars the brake pedal is odd on these it comes up out of the floor but like an old Beetle there shouldn't be any knocks or clunks but if there are you could be looking at suspension components especially at the front as I mentioned earlier the anti-roll bar bushes make a very distinctive noise over speed bumps if they need changing and the suspension top mounts can also knock over bumps too if they need change it's probably also worth mentioning that it's quite common on these cars for there to be a really odd smell at the back end when you've been driving it for a while like a rubbery smell that's quite normal and a lot of people have mentioned it I think the rear wheels kick up all sorts of muck and bits of rubber from the tires onto that exhaust that goes right the way across the back of the car uh so it's quite common for that to be the case so don't be too alarmed at that providing it's within the Realms of acceptability uh and also you you will get a ticking noise when you switch off as all the components Co down quite normal so I hope I haven't put you off buying one cuz they do have their quirks they are quite unique people seem to either love them or hate them and one thing's for sure people won't want to be behind you it doesn't seem to matter how fast you're driving one people want you out of their way even though you can outrun a lot of cars on especially on the 84 brake horsepower model they already are quite quick so I hope this has been useful I've made a number of videos on many of the issues that I've mentioned in this buyer guide so please feel free to subscribe to my channel have a look through and see if there's a video there for whatever problem you might have I look forward to seeing you again in another video very soon meantime thank you very much and goodbye