FAO Carl

not carl but...

Rust on early models, warped carb gaskets causing rough running, propshaft clonks, worn suspension.

Pretty tough cars overall, but not quite a 240 tank!

On the 1.4s...leaking liners.

Check for rust as thats probably the most common reason for them going to the scrappie. Common for the front dampers to be shagged. You will notice this as soon as you drive the car. Check the odometer works. Not essential but they can stop working so a low mileage car may not be as low as you think!! Water pump are also weak on the renault engines so asked if its been changed. Worth checking if its been converted to unleaded too. And all the normal stuff you'd check on any car (smoke, tyres, oil, engine bay etc).

Doh just realised you sent that yesterday. So did you get it? If so i'm expecting either a snapped propshaft and melted brakes by now :)

No rust at all except for a bubble or two on the front valance.

Yep, I reckon they're shot as it doesn't exactly pull up in a hurry even with the wheels on the verge of locking.

Righto. I've said I'll have it, but I'm going to give it a final and vaguely thorough check over before I hand over any cash (not checked the wipers / lamps etc. work. Quite expensive things to fix in relation to a £100 car).

Good stuff, nothing to worry about then

I found the brakes were excellent on mine, even with the front dampers knackered. You could get an interesting see-saw motion going if you kept tapping the brakes though, which was most amusing.

Good luck! Just remember how the transmission is layed out (ie gearbox at back). Not only does this mean more weight at the back (which actuallys makes the car suprisingly balanced), it also means the prophaft is spinning at engine speed so hard gear changes can actually break propshafts (had a mate who did it in a 1.7).

Hmm. Perhaps it was just me then. Gradually pushing the brakes on to the point where the tyres were starting to squeal a bit didn't seem to give astounding retardation, making me wonder about the front suspension. Perhaps the tracking's out. They're a very different feel to the Ka's brakes though - Ka brakes are about an inch of travel that does very little, and then the pedal firms up and is pretty sensitive. And no, they didn't need bleeding. I'll give em another go.

In dire need of a rev counter IMO. Massive f*ck off clock where the tacho should be... Wonder if I could swap the speedo panel for one from a better model. Or get bidding on a MONSTER TACHO on ebay. Sure Norwich Union would like that ;).

I think you could probly get away without declaring a tacho :)

Personally, I'd not risk it if it's a permanent modification... :(

Then we're getting into stupid things tho, like is using pattern parts a modification?!

Yes, well to a point and I've had the argument with a previous insurance company. I told them that I wasn't using a standard Ford battery, amongst other things... essentially they said if the item is a permanent fixture and was not factory at the time of purchase, they needed to know about it. So you can imagine how I had a field day with them... :)

But seriously, it brings all sorts of difficulties to mind, especially when some Japanese manufacturers had dealer fit air conditioning, so on and so forth. Changing the dashboard for one from a different model is probably not going to cost you a bean, but it's worth checking.