Rusty Sills

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

A clio I was looking to buy quite cheaply has a few issues, one of which is rusty sills. The rust is on the rail type bits that stick down from the sills. I know that's a crap description but you might be able to tell what I mean from this photo (crap photo as well), it's the black bit in the photo I mean.

[img:400:300:d8eec8420e]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/donsrno1/4969b75b.jpg[/img:d8eec8420e]

The black bit is quite rotten for the length of the sills on both sides and I just wondered roughly how much it would be likely to cost to have this fixed so that I wouldn't have any problems come MOT time, as I guess this rust would spread to the rest of the sills?

Are the rails even needed for the mot or could they just be cut off?

Thanks.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

yes they are needed and if they hole when tapped witht he corrosion assement hammer then it will fail.

95% of mk 1 clios are like that or worse by mow btw.

As for cost it depends on whos doing it.

if you get the car then bring it over and I will have a look over it for you, or if you don;t go for it let me kow how cheap cheap is and I may have it.

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

Thanks mate, I'll bear that in mind. It's not uber cheap, but for a Clio it's not too bad as I reckon a lot of the problems with it could be sorted reasonably cheaply. So far all the problems I know of are:

Oil Leak
Rusty Sills
Missing Rear Wiper
Bit missing from loom
Tracking Needs sorting (I pressume it's that as it's had uneven tyre wear - one side of the tyre is totally bald, the other is only a bit worn)
Leaking Sunroof

A few problems as I say, but most of which I could hopefully sort myself (or at least try, only to make it worse Wink

).

The other positives for it is that it comes with a private plate I could sell, a full suspension kit and some alloys (though I would probably sell them too).

Hopefully I'll go for a test drive tomorrow, just going to suggest I put my front wheels on the car as the tyres on the one on it now are fucked.

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

Just realised that I was wrong about it needing a new loom, I didn't realise the phase 2 16v has a CTS on the head itself and on the thermostat housing.

Here's a few pics of the car that I took the other day:

[img:400:300:f3f541b095]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/donsrno1/PDR_01052.jpg[/img:f3f541b095]

[img:400:300:f3f541b095]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/donsrno1/PDR_0109.jpg[/img:f3f541b095]

[img:400:300:f3f541b095]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/donsrno1/PDR_0104.jpg[/img:f3f541b095]

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

could do with a bloody good wash

Site Subscriber Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 4722

bucket and sponge please!

and that is EXTREAMLY low

gonna have fun on speed bumps

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

your not wrong about needing a wash!!!! it's just been sitting there for a couple of months.

It is VERY low at the front, but it looks lower that it would usually be as the tyres are flat.

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

Just found out that it's not got the original cylinder head/whole engine in the car. All explained in THIS thread on williamsclio. I suppose it could be good or bad as it means the milage on the clocks is wrong for the engine, but I'll just see how it drives.

The other problem I have now is that I don't have the owners phone number, lol. Previously I had been using a number through the place he used to advertise it but his advert has run out and the number he gave me is missing a digit. So, I need to find a way of getting his phone number from just his address.

Site Subscriber Joined: 13 Oct 2004 Posts: 4722

or just go round and ask??

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

lol, yeah that's what I'm probably going to have to do. I just can't be arsed spending 20 mins driving there and another 20 back when the guy might not even be in.

Level 6 User Joined: 27 Apr 2005 Posts: 154

If the guy isnt in just put a note through his letterbox with who you are and your number. Just remember to write the note before you leave your house because you inevitably wont be able to find a pen or paper for love nor money when you arrive (or is that just me)!

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

Right, went round again today to try it with my battery in it. The guy wasn't in but his gran just gave me the car keys to fiddle abou with it myself, I must lok like a trustworthy kind of guy Wink

. It fired up fine and despite being left for about 10 minutes or so no battery light came on, so I'm guessing that would mean the alternator is OK.

However, I noticed that there is a bit of a knocking noise which appears to be coming from the bottom end, the exhaust it blowing and in general the car sounds like a diesel TBH. As the car had quite a bad oil leak my guess would be that the car has been starved of oil at some point which would cause the bottom end knocking.

As for the oil leak, I couldn't see properly down the back to see where it had come from so i put the camera down there and took some random photos. Looking at this would you say there is a good chance it's the h/gasket that the oil is coming from?

[img:400:300:0b12bf01f0]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/donsrno1/PDR_0047.jpg[/img:0b12bf01f0]

Don't know what this photo is of, or what way round it should be TBH but thought I would put it up anyway:

[img:800:600:0b12bf01f0]http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y293/donsrno1/PDR_0048.jpg[/img:0b12bf01f0]

At the moment the guy wants Â£550 for it and won't really budge as he says he will keep the car if he doesn't get Â£550 and just sort it himself. It is tempting to buy as I could sell the private plate and the alloys to recoup some of my money, which means I'm swithering about whether or not buy the car.

The other thing is that I've realised the car has a 19 16v cylinder head on it, but the owner knows nothing about it. I was told about that on williamsclio as the car has a CTS on the thermostat housing, and on the side of the cylinder head which I am told was only on the 19 16v.

Decisions, decisions ....

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

erm where is this oil leak? thats possibly the cleanest one in a car I have ever seen.

Its missing the starter heatshield.

williamsclio eh, yeah they know everythign on there, maybe its time I made anothe rvisit.

the 19 head as you call it was also used on the clios with the CTS and temp sender holes plugged with bolts. The heads exactly the same so its not an issue.

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

Chris H";p="91442 wrote:

erm where is this oil leak? thats possibly the cleanest one in a car I have ever seen.

Its missing the starter heatshield.

williamsclio eh, yeah they know everythign on there, maybe its time I made anothe rvisit.

the 19 head as you call it was also used on the clios with the CTS and temp sender holes plugged with bolts. The heads exactly the same so its not an issue.

Actually, looking at that photo it does look rather clean, TBH it looked a bit worse in the higher resolution photo but doesn't look anywhere near as bad as the bottom one.

As for the head I knew they would be pretty much the same as the engines are the same, just asked about it becaus I wondered why there wee sensors without any connectors going to them. The thread on WC is HERE btw

really starting to think I can't be bothered with it - especially with the knocking noise I could hear today which I imagine would mean engine out to fix. On the other hand, I could probably even make some money if I were to buy it and break it.

Forum Moderator Joined: 02 Mar 2004 Posts: 19978

I can;t get wc to work for some reason.

thats a pretty clean one, most of them are covered in thick sludgey oil.

make money on breaking it when it cost you 550? lol I think not unless you sell to some right muppets.

Level 10 User Joined: 04 Nov 2005 Posts: 575

The reason I say i would make money is that it's got the alloys (even though they aren't the best), private plate, aftermarket suspension kit and a few other aftermarket things you could sell on before you have to think of the usual things. Probably wouldn't make enough for it to be worthwhile though.

I tried to get some valuations on the plate but most places won't give you one unless you actually own the plate. Once place said if they sold it they would give me Â£400 and another place valued it at Â£700 (but that one was an instant valuation online so I don't really know how accurate it would be).