Shakin' that RS - plastic surgery

[loserone]

This sounds a fuckton more reliable than a 182.

[mintwth]

Oh and scuttle drains cleaned out. Only need to take the wiper arms and various bits of trim off to get to them. 

 

The top mounts are also hidden under all that trim. From the 1 out of 3 strut mount bolts on the OSF top mount that looked loose and wouldn't tighten, it must be time for new top mounts. 

What about the rest of the suspension? 

It all looks a bit crusty but I hear that's fairly normal for an RS. 

Just failed the MOT on a broken NSF spring but it's fairly hard to see or tell it's broken. Also the OSF shock is weeping a bit of oil.

 

Time for some new bits all round

[mintwth]

16 minutes ago, loserone said:

This sounds a fuckton more reliable than a 182.

Shhh....don't tempt fate. 

[mintwth]

While doing these bits of work I have discovered that I am excellent at remembering to take photos of the work in progress. Unfortunately, I'm excellent at remembering after I've done all the work, put it all back together and there being nothing to see here. 

Instead have a Tarty shot of the French Fancy

[stuboy]

37 minutes ago, mintwth said:

While doing these bits of work I have discovered that I am excellent at remembering to take photos of the work in progress. Unfortunately, I'm excellent at remembering after I've done all the work, put it all back together and there being nothing to see here. 

Instead have a Tarty shot of the French Fancy

these are really quite quick, my bro had 3 dr in tago and sister had 1 in black 5dr, my bro would drive it hard..

[MrGTI6]

A shame to hear it's lived up to the Megane II stereotype of being an ungrateful needy bastard!

If it's any consolation, I had the cambelt done at the beginning of last year, so that's one expense that won't arise any time soon. 

Found a couple of photos from the day I bought it. 

The previous owner must have been in his late-70s. From what I can recall it was a retirement present to himself 10 years prior. 

He'd "adorned" it with numerous stickers, badges and a pair of hideous spotlights, all of which went straight in the bin later that day! 

Interestingly, he put 'RS 300' badges on the back. I never found any paperwork relating to it being mapped/chipped, but to me it always felt like it was pushing more than 225bhp.

[mintwth]

For what it is, I don't feel it's been that needy. Sounds like it's been a lot less hassle than a 182. 

Yep, I knew you'd had the cambelt done. That's been very useful because the garage you used isn't that far from me and really knows these cars. They've been a gold mine of advice and have become my RS whisperer of choice. They'll be fitting the new bits for me next week. 

Great to see some earlier pics. I certainly wasn't expecting the previous owner to have been in their 70s. It does look better without the extra stickers, badges and spots.

I reckon the RS300 badge was just for looks. Doesn't feel anywhere near 300bhp to me. There was an RS300 in the 4th gen Megane but I think that used a different engine. 

[mintwth]

The RS225 has the excellent engine code of F4RT.

Maybe that's why RS225s feel so quick. "Powered by farts!" 🚙💨

[mintwth]

 

[mintwth]

12 hours ago, MrGTI6 said:

yellow R26 and a Clio 182 project

He's working on a Clio Williams restoration project now but still has the R26. 

[mintwth]

I wonder how many of these are 5 doors

[mintwth]

From

🙁

To

😀 With no advisories

[mintwth]

Shiny new bits fitted 

[mintwth]

The RS has decided to thank me for the new suspension by bunging on the check airbag light

[mintwth]

And when I was on the way to collect some new boots for it too

[stuboy]

what was the product on the lense?

[mintwth]

Oxidised plastic

[mintwth]

The fun* of replacing the boot struts.

Got some cheap replacements months ago since the originals seemed to be struggling a bit. This turned out to be a bit of a false economy since one of the replacements turned out to have a dodgy fitting. All seemed OK until the strut pinged off and, when I next opened the boot, I discovered it'd punched a hole through the top of the NS rear light unit.  

No bother, I'll whip the rear light unit out sometime and glue/tape it back together 

Except..... one of the thumbscrew fixings for the light was seized and there was no way to remove the light without undoing it.

Deploy more force..... 

And...shear the thumbscrew and the insert it screws into out of the light unit! The two had rust welded themselves together. 

Found a replacement thumbscrew in the local scrappy but couldn't find anything that'd work as a replacement for the insert so ordered a replacement light unit (from what looked like a UK scrappy but turned out to be in Lithuania instead - must read the listings more carefully).

The light unit finally turned up today and after swapping all the best bits into the one unit has been fitted.  ✔️

[mintwth]

Finally got round to replacing the trim clips on the pieces of trim either side of the scuttle cover. The white plastic parts of the clips had mostly failed and were only loosely holding the trim in place. Despite the plastic of the green parts of the old clips also being old enough to fracture and shatter easily, they did not want to come out of their home in the wing for the last 19 years and put up quite a fight. 

Less trim to rattle and might prevent as much stuff getting in to block the scuttle drains (which need clearing out again). Will get that done when I have the time and repaint the wiper arms while they're off. 

Also swapped the passenger side wing mirror for the old one with the broken trim. The 'better' one decided to fold itself forward on the return journey from Flower Farm. Feels like I'm going to strip the teeth off gears if I try forcing it back to where it should be. Can't see a way to dismantle it to get to the motor or gear so thinking of a way to apply 12v to the pins. Haven't found a pin out yet but if I try random pins, it'll either go bang or I'll find the pin combo that'll motor it back to where it should be. 

For now it's rocking the one orange and one black wing mirror look. 

Went for a drive afterwards and started wondering if the rattle from the passenger side door is being caused by what I found when I removed the driver's door card. Broken clips and most of the screws that should hold the door card on floating around in the bottom of the door. 

Still haven't sorted the airbag light. Code reader seems to confirm it's the clock spring.