Jason473's Titanium 182

[Jason473]

So I picked this up at the start of January. Have been after a 182 for a while now to have as a bit of a project. I love my french sh!tboxes having had fun 106's in the past, I still have my S1 Rallye engined XSi to sort out once this is done...

The aim is to tidy it up and make it into a fairly tidy but useable roadgoing 182.

Took me a while to get my hands on a 182, they seemed to be selling like hotcakes (I was looking at the bottom of the barrel up to £2.5k - which disappointingly does not seem to get you far from the bottom of said barrel). I must have tried to view 3 or 4 cars with them all apparently selling before I had a chance to even view the car or me giving up because of the seller was a helmet. My preference is usually to buy something cheap but straight and spend my time/ cash putting it right so I know its been done properly.

This cars an 05 plate on 112k that after first impressions seems to be OK. Rough round the edges but no horrors so far.

Currently spec highlights include:
-Ktec coilovers
-PMS Race exhaust (decat)
-Obligatory Ktec/ Ramair induction setup

Driven it around for a bit to get to know the car. First impressions are it goes well but needs a little work. Coilovers are set way too low and exhaust sounds awesome but is probably too loud for what I want. Gearbox changes fine with no crunching which is a bonus.

The plan now is to take it off the road and give it a thorough going over.

Immediate list of jobs and things to diagnose and fix:

-Front sidelights don't work
-Reverse light doesn't work
-Drivers dipped beam doesn't work
-Interior is grot and needs a deep clean/ freshen up!
-Replace the coilovers with standard Cup suspension on lowering springs
-Find a way of toning down the exhaust, its not massively loud but do I want something more standard (but still a bit 'sporty')
-Service (fluids/ filters/ plugs & leads)
-Whip off all the plastics and see what gremlins are lying beneath and address as required. There are some great pointers in this thread on common problem rust areas: https://cliosport.net/threads/rust-proofing.836275/
-Centre caps for front wheels + refurb


Will keep the thread updates as I make progress!

Cheers

 

[Jason473]

So after driving it around for a bit probably only 150 miles or so I decided to take it off the road and tackle all of the jobs in one hit.

First job was to give it a bit of a clean. Paint mostly looks ok but the bonnet and front bumper are quite heavily stone chipped - not massively concerning or unexpected so a problem for future Jason.

Found some almost new Brembo disks and pads on the front (pic is before cleaning obviously):

I also discovered the front hub bolt spacing is 54mm. This was slightly annoying as I had been under the impression this car had the Cup suspension, however after reading many threads on here the consensus seems to be it doesn't actually make a great deal of difference to the handling.

The plan now is to fit 172 Cup suspension on Eibach Sportline springs. I'll replace anything perishable in the process, so time to put a shopping list together!

The bay came up ok after a degrease and Jetwash.

I had some fun and games trying to get the car started a couple of hours after cleaning the bay (the engine was running all the time I was cleaning it). When trying to start the car. All I would get was a single click from the glovebox relay and the engine would crank for 3 seconds then stop. I figured that I had probably got some electrics wet and the problem was most likely a fuel pump relay as I couldn't hear it priming. Spent about an hour spraying every electrical connector I could find with WD-40 along with all of the relays behind the passenger headlight. Huge sigh of relief when it did eventually burst into life!

I will probably take out all the relays and clean the connectors properly and reinsert with some electrical grease to hopefully avoid further water related issues!

 

[Jason473]

So first job was to sort out the front side lights and drivers side dipped beam. Bumper and headlights out:

Cause of the sidelight issue found. Oik spec HID's had been 'fitted' to the main beam. I use the term fitted loosely as they were just wedged in there. They seem to share some wiring with the sidelights and were probably drawing too much current which must have blown the sidelight bulbs.

Easy fix was to replace the gash HID units with standard H7 bulbs and fresh sidelight bulbs.

The drivers side dipped beam not working was caused by the ballast being full of water (this was confirmed by swapping ballasts with the passenger headlight). Absolutely stupid design. This sits under the headlight with the connector at the top. Just asking for it to fail IMO. Currently being dried out in the hopes that it will magically fix itself!

 

[RustyMojo]

They look like 60mm cup spacing buddy but with camber bolts fitted?

 

[Louis]

They look like 60mm cup spacing buddy but with camber bolts fitted?

I was about to say the exact same thing!

 

[Jason473]

They look like 60mm cup spacing buddy but with camber bolts fitted?

I was about to say the exact same thing!

Ahh I think see what you mean now, not come across camber bolts efore. I just measured the distance between the centres of the bolt heads and it was nigh on 54mm so I immediately assumed non cup suspension. Here's a clearer picture:

So this is good news as a) I have the Cup suspension pack and b) I have a set of camber bolts which will help when I come to get it all aligned correctly

Slightly less good news is that I'll need to return the 172 Cup dampers I received today but on balance I'll take this as a win. Cheers @RustyMojo and @Louis

 

[Jason473]

Had a productive couple of hours continuing to strip the front end and giving the arches, sills and underside a good jet wash. All looking ok, bit of surface rust on the bumper brackets and jacking points which will need treating but mostly looks ok.

Also removed the remnants of the acoustic valve from under the passenger headlight and blocked off the vacuum feed to the inlet manifold.

Much crud fell out:

Before:

After:

Gammy bumper bracket (similar condition both sides):

Nice and clean now:

 

[Jason473]

The A/C condenser and rad were looking worse for wear. Rad still held water fine but I didn't trust it for much longer after seeing how corroded it was! The A/C system had lost all its gas so decided to replace this too along with the dryer as it was in pretty ropey condition!

Managed to grab an hour to spend on the car last night so whipped them out and got new replacements on order. Took a while to track down a suitable condenser and dryer. I'll share suppliers and part numbers when it has arrived and I can confirm they fit!

Current situation:

Waiting on a few parts now so will make a start on treating the rust I've found so far in the meantime

 

[Greeny.]

Car will feel 100 times better when you get those terrible coilovers off, I made the mistake years ago of buying these for some stupid reason, I can't think of one good thing about them apart from 'getting some lows' for cheap.

What HID kit is that? I mean they came with Xenon's which use D2S bulbs from the factory anyway...

 

[Jason473]

@Greeny. Yeah looking forward to driving it with the revised setup. I agree, great for moar lows but having them set that low ruined the handling. It really was bump steer city!

The main beams had aftermarket HID's fitted - cant remember what make but definitely aftermarket. I replaced those with the H7 bulbs. The dipped beams are the factory D2S Xenons.

 

[Greeny.]

Ah I get ya, misread the post

 

[Jason473]

So found a couple of hours over the weekend to chip away at a few more jobs.

First up was to check the fit of the new radiator. I went for an EIS Radiator - Product Code: 203745700. This is slightly thicker than the OEM unit but fits fine with no modifications required. A sensor blanking plug is required to block off an M22 hole, there are some good suggestions in this thread on which blank to go for: https://cliosport.net/threads/clio-182-radiator-help-needed.833395/

I'm still waiting on the new A/C condenser and dryer unit to arrive so final fitting and coolant fill will have to wait until then,

Next on the list was a spark plug change. I was pleased to see the correct plugs were already fitted to the car and in OK condition

So in went a new set of NGK PFR6E-10 plugs which were torqued up to 25N

Seeing as I had to have the inlet manifold off to do the plugs I thought I'd give it a refresh, so in the dishwasher it went (along with the fuel rail cover)

Came out nice and spangly so maksked up:

Etch Primer:

Graphite grey:

Cleaned up the lettering:

Back on the car once i repaired one of the rear threads with a helicoil. I suspect that this is why oil had been spewing out the back of the manifold.:

And finally back on the car (along with a new gasket!)

 

[Jason473]

After spraying the inlet manifold and fuel rail cover I realised that the drivers side mount was really letting down the appearance of the bay. So out it came along with the retainer for a clean-up and paint.

Glad I did this job as I discovered the rearmost thread had previously been stripped, so I repaired with a helicoil.

Starting to look much better now IMO

I then set about tackling the rust spots in the arches and along the sills. Luckily only surface rust at this stage and not too bad. Ground back and treated with Kurust before Red Oxide primer and then topcoat.

Jacking point was pretty mangled but this straightened up ok

I decided that I would replace the crappy wheelarch liner clips with some 3d printed washers fastened with M6 bolts. This will make removing the liners much easier in the future.

I also installed M5 rivnuts along the sill to replace the rivets that hold the side skirts on, again making future maintenance a doddle:

I also checked the hub bolt spacing. Definitely 54mm!

Camber bolts had been fitted but these must be specific to the ktec coilovers. I'll be replacing them with the proper nut and through bolt. 172 Cup struts on order, part number 8200681108

 

[Jason473]

Productive weekend on the 182 ticking another few jobs off the list.

First up was the front suspension refresh.

I went for a pair of new wishbones as these included the ball joints and bushes. I discovered that the old ball joints were absolutely shagged. I suspect this is where the knocking on the front end was coming from - by far the most worn ball joints I've ever come across! The old wishbones looked to have had some sort of polybushes fitted but I decided that brand new standard bushes would be better than questionable polybushes of unknown provenance.

I got a set of Eibach Sportline springs off a mate which went onto the new 172 Cup dampers along with new top mount bearings. I put these on the car and fitted the topmounts... I spent the following couple of head scratching, measuring parts and finally searching on here. I couldn't understand why they weren't sitting tight against the strut tops. Finally come to the conclusion that apparently they're supposed to have a few mm clearance?

There's a 5mm gap between the strut top and the topmount:

I was doubly confused as the ones on the coilovers fitted tight to the strut tops and the new topmounts I received were also different to the old ones!

Topmount I ended up fitting (separate nyloc nut)

The other type (this one has an integrated nut, the new ones I received)

I also fitted new ARB end bushes. I had a look at the inner ones and decided that access looked like an utter ballache and the ones in there looked acceptable. I think I'll save that job until I can get the car over a pit at my dads place.

I also whipped off the front callipers and front brake flexi's in prep for a refresh.

 

[Jason473]

When I got the car it had a pretty hectic oil leak, after cleaning the engine as best as I could it was obvious the sump gasket was leaking - enough to be leaving a couple of 50p sized drips on the garage floor overnight after being wiped clean.

So a new sump gasket was in order!

Fluids drained - thought I may as well to the gearbox at the same time!

Dogbone and drivers engine mount removed so that the engine could be jacked enough to allow the sump to be bought past the subframe. If anyone is interested, the clearance required is 1 fence post plus one tile batten!

Sump off:

Enough clearance between the subframe and oil pump to remove the sump pan

Cleaned up and new gasket fitted

Sump back on, torqued up in correct sequence and Powerflex'd dogbone refitted.

Pretty straightforward job TBH and not too messy. Can see how it would be a pain if the engine isn't lifted high enough tho.

Whilst the gearbox was empty of oil i though i may aswell replace the reverse switch to see if it fixed the reverse light issue:

Which it did ( the eagle eyed will spot next weeks tasks stacked up and ready to go in the boot!):

New Renault oil filter fitted and topped up with the correct fluids:

Thought i'd reward myself with an easy job to finish the day off so swapped the absolutely minging cabin filter with a new one:

 

[Jason473]

Some progress and a hell a lot of frustration this week.

The Aircon condenser and dryer arrived (Went for a NRF one from Autodoc, apparently Brexit/ Covid delays meant that it took a while to arrive from Germany!)

Went all project Binky and made a bracket to support the coolant pipes (Previously held in place with a cable tie)

All starting to come together now:

So far so good. Time to fill up and bleed the coolant rad. Not a problem I thought, having driven the car into the garage under its own steam a mere few weeks ago.

Cant start, won't start
​

So the first few attempts to start the car resulted in nothing but a clicking relay from the glovebox. This was the exactly the same issue I encountered right back at the start of my ownership after jet washing the engine bay. I thought id solved the issue and the car has since been started and has lived inside a dry garage for the past 6 weeks!

I disconnected the battery and cleaned the contacts on all of the relays in the engine bay fusebox. I also cleaned the contacts on the white plug below the relays.

Reconnecting the battery and trying again meant that the car would now crank for 3 seconds and then stop. I could not hear the fuel pump prime either. I did notice a whirring noise coming from the rear the bay - possibly the throttle body stepper motor or coilpack, are either supposed to make a noise?

After going round in circles taking the relays in and out again and contacts cleaned, I swapped the order of relays E, G and J and gave them a couple of taps to free up any possibly stuck contacts.

Still no luck.

I did some searching on here, lots of similar threads but frustratingly few are ever closed out properly with solutions identified.

I then decided to see if it was the immobilizer on the key, so after reading some advice on here I held down the central locking button on the key for 10 sec with it in the ignition and turned on. (I cant remember the exact order I was pretty frustrated/ trying to babysit at the same time)

The 3 second cranking limit is now not an issue, it now just cranks and cranks every time I try. I still cannot hear the fuel pump priming and the electrical issue warning light is now illuminated. The whirring noise from the engine bay has also stopped when the ignition is switched on.

Quick vid of what warning lights I'm getting:


Reading through threads on here people are mentioning crank position sensor could be an issue but I'm convinced its something to do with the fuel pump not priming. I specifically remember the fuel pump not priming when I initially had starting issues. Can anybody confirm if relay J is the one that should control the fuel pump?

I will investigate fuel pump wiring/operation further to see if that is the issue.

Any advice appreciated, will post updates if/ when I discover anything.

 

[Jason473]

The cars now running and the coolant system has been bled.

I started by checking the relays in the engine bay, had them all out and checked that they clicked when 12V was applied. They were all fine. I also checked all of the ground points and again no problem. My plan was to also check that the pump was getting power but never got that far along in the system.

Reinstalling the relays and having another go at starting but the electrical warning light persisted along with everything else as per the previous post.

Heading back over to the engine bay I noticed that the Fuel and Injection Locking relays were clicking really quickly. These are fed by the Small 30A fuse - wiggling it resulted in the clicking stopping. So at this point it seemed that the issue was caused by an intermittent connection from this fuse.

So trying to rule out anything else causing the issue I removed all fuses, relays and separated the white connector beneath them to give the contacts a good going over. I used a hair dryer first followed by rubbing the contacts with emery cloth then a generous application of contact cleaner finished with another round of drying.

I also replaced the 3 smaller (30A, 5A and 15A) fuses with new ones as the contacts on the originals weren't in the best condition. This seemed to fix the intermittent continuity fault from the 30A fuse and on reconnecting the battery no fast clicking from the relays could be heard.

Trying to start the car resulted in all the warning lights going out but the immobiliser staying solid. Waiting for the lights to go out and then trying resulted in nothing but a click from the fusebox, but trying to start the car straight away from the key in the off position meant that it would crank for 3 seconds and then stop.

At this point I turned the ignition key to pos 3, waited for all the lights to go out (except the solid immobiliser) then held down the central locking button on the key for 10 seconds before turning the ignition off and removing the key.

The car then started fine next try and has done several times since.

 

[Jason473]

In other news I have finished refurbing the front callipers ready for them to be refitted at the weekend.

''Eww Gross''

Mid attack with wire wheel attachments

Clean (Replacing the nipples and pipes so these were used as glorified hole bungs)

Silver

Rebuilt with new guide pins/ rubbers, new stainless nipples and braided lines. Pads are the Brembo ones that came on the car but are basically new.

Also thought I'd remove the washer bottle for cleaning as it was absolutely gross and figure out why the windscreen washer wasn't working. Washer pump motor was seized so I have a new one on order.

 

[RustyMojo]

In other news I have finished refurbing the front callipers ready for them to be refitted at the weekend.

''Eww Gross''
View attachment 1524664

Mid attack with wire wheel attachments
View attachment 1524665

Clean (Replacing the nipples and pipes so these were used as glorified hole bungs)
View attachment 1524666

Silver
View attachment 1524667

Rebuilt with new guide pins/ rubbers, new stainless nipples and braided lines. Pads are the Brembo ones that came on the car but are basically new.
View attachment 1524668


Also thought I'd remove the washer bottle for cleaning as it was absolutely gross and figure out why the windscreen washer wasn't working. Washer pump motor was seized so I have a new one on order.

We seem to be treading a very similar path mate! 😂 same colour, similar issues! The washer pumps have literally fired my brains over the weekend! I had a fair bit planned but spent basically the whole day sorting the problem out. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t taken the whole system out several times already!

I cleaned my tank with a truck load of bleach and a dishwasher tablet leaving it to soak all day in hot water. Seemed to get it up like new. The 2 way valve in my pump was seized solid which is likely a result of the tank being completely gunned up!

 

[Waitey]

As good as this all is, would you like to sell me your XSI. I really miss the one I had 12 years ago!

 

[Jason473]

We seem to be treading a very similar path mate! 😂 same colour, similar issues! The washer pumps have literally fired my brains over the weekend! I had a fair bit planned but spent basically the whole day sorting the problem out. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t taken the whole system out several times already!

I cleaned my tank with a truck load of bleach and a dishwasher tablet leaving it to soak all day in hot water. Seemed to get it up like new. The 2 way valve in my pump was seized solid which is likely a result of the tank being completely gunned up!

Haha we certainly seem to be. So frustrating when something gets in the way of plans isn't it!

I'll try your trick with the bleach and dishwasher tablets, cheers for the tip.

As good as this all is, would you like to sell me your XSI. I really miss the one I had 12 years ago!

Far too attached to it for some reason. Needs some major loving, cant wait to get started on it after being laid up my parents house for the last 10 years. Such a fun car!

 

[Waitey]

Haha we certainly seem to be. So frustrating when something gets in the way of plans isn't it!

I'll try your trick with the bleach and dishwasher tablets, cheers for the tip.



Far too attached to it for some reason. Needs some major loving, cant wait to get started on it after being laid up my parents house for the last 10 years. Such a fun car!

View attachment 1524688

WANT

 

[Jason473]

Been slowly plugging away and making progress with the 182 over the last few weeks.

So picking up where I left off...

Grot.

Washers no working was caused by seized pumps!

Gave the washer bottle a good cleaning as per RustyMojo's advice and it came up pretty well. New pump fitted for the windscreen washers, refitted a dud one as a hole bung as I'm not running headlight washers.

Made the most of the sunny weather and sprayed the wiper arms satin black

All refitted to the car with new wiper blades.

 

[Jason473]

Made some new brackets to bolt the front bumper too as I had to cut the old seized bolts off

Sprayed the arches a sills with Waxoyl and refitted the arch liners using M6 buttonheads with the washers that I 3d printed

Brakes callipers back on and bled as well as fitting the new suspension bolts that took an age to arrive.

After much deliberating about exhausts I decided to go for a Scorpion RS192. I wanted something a bit quieter and closer to standard that I could run with a standard CAT, so off came the PMS system.

Side by side comparison:

Fitted to the car along with Powerflex Red hangars

No 'above ground' shots yet as its not quite sitting right in the bumper cutouts but at least its on now!

Whilst I had the beam dropped down I attacked some of the (luckily) surface rust on inaccessible mud traps just in front of the rear beam. Ground back and treated with Kurust and black Hammerite. Access wasn't too bad with the car jacked up high and the beam dropped right down. I used wire wheel attachments on a drill.

I'm glad that I caught this when I did as fortunately the rust hadn't taken hold fully and I could grind a good deal off and get some protection on there.

I was pleased to see that the rest of the underside was pretty clean rust wise with on surface rust in a few places. I'll address this later as well as the filler cap and inner sills. Will Waxoyl the rear underside once this is done.

Final job was to fit the rear Eibach Sportline springs that replaced the K-Tec coilovers.

 

[Jason473]

Front bumper was heavily stonechipped and I couldn't bring myself to put it back on the car. The drivers side fog lamp glass was also smashed:

Decided to get it resprayed:

Cleaned up all the plastics, resprayed the Renault diamond and fitted a new pair of fog lamps:

Looking much better:

I've also refurbed the wheels the correct shade of grey (Gris Metal Froid - 205110). They came up pretty well I think. I'll most likely be swapping the wheels out for a set of Turinis so just wanted to get them presentable for the time being.

 

[RustyMojo]

Cracking job mate! Suspect you’ll be over taking my progress now everything is on hold.

 

[Jason473]

Cheers buddy, yes its getting there but still plenty to do! I cant wait to drive the bloody thing but I know that as soon as I do all the annoying little jobs will probably never get done.

Your car is looking ace btw, hopefully see you at some meets when we're allowed!

 

[Jason473]

Quick WFH lunchtime spanner session whilst the Mrs was out has got the car sitting back on its wheels.

Also managed to refit the splitter and affix the obligatory small front plate.

Remaining jobs on the current list are:

-Get the exhaust sitting correctly in the bumper cutouts.
-Rear calliper refurb.
-Underseal the rear and check for rust/ protect in the usual places (Inner sills, filler flap etc).
-Fit new rear plate to replace the current chavtastic carbon effect one.
-Work out why the rear fogs come on with the reverse lights.
-Fix boot lock.
-Deep clean of the interior.
-New gear knob and gaitor + fix the radio display.
-Full paint correction/ detail.

I also noticed the stop and handbrake warning light are flickering when idling. Playing with the brake pedal seems to sort this. Have a suspicion its the brake pedal switch, will investigate further.

 

[Krarl]

Rear fogs with reverse will be a corroded bulb holder. Clean each connector up with a needle file and contact cleaner the whole board

Stick some new foam stripping on them too to future proof it

 

[Jason473]

So I spent a couple of frustrating and unproductive hours on the 182 this afternoon trying to get to the bottom of the combined fog and reverse light issue.

Symptoms: The reverse and rear fog lights seem to be linked. When reverse is selected the rear fogs come on and the rear fog light warning is illuminated on the dash. When the rear fogs are turned on, the reverse lights also come on.

First port of call was check the bulb holders and connectors. No obvious corrosion but gave them a clean anyway. Also checked the earth's, all fine. This made no difference.

With both the rear clusters disconnected, putting the car in reverse makes the rear fog light warning light illuminate on the dash.

I also disconnected the reverse light switch as I recently changed this and thought I'd rule this out. With the reverse switch disconnected but the rear clusters attached turning the rear fogs on also illuminated the reverse lights.

Thought I'd check the fuses as why not? Can't seem to find a reverse light fuse but the rear fog has a dedicated one. With the rear fog fuse removed, selecting reverse illuminates both fogs and reverse lights!

Anyone come across this before?

 

[Louis]

So I spent a couple of frustrating and unproductive hours on the 182 this afternoon trying to get to the bottom of the combined fog and reverse light issue.

Symptoms: The reverse and rear fog lights seem to be linked. When reverse is selected the rear fogs come on and the rear fog light warning is illuminated on the dash. When the rear fogs are turned on, the reverse lights also come on.

First port of call was check the bulb holders and connectors. No obvious corrosion but gave them a clean anyway. Also checked the earth's, all fine. This made no difference.

With both the rear clusters disconnected, putting the car in reverse makes the rear fog light warning light illuminate on the dash.

I also disconnected the reverse light switch as I recently changed this and thought I'd rule this out. With the reverse switch disconnected but the rear clusters attached turning the rear fogs on also illuminated the reverse lights.

Thought I'd check the fuses as why not? Can't seem to find a reverse light fuse but the rear fog has a dedicated one. With the rear fog fuse removed, selecting reverse illuminates both fogs and reverse lights!

Anyone come across this before?

Did you try cleaning the earths on the rear lights? I cant say I've seen it as bad as you're suggesting before!

 

[Jason473]

Did you try cleaning the earths on the rear lights? I cant say I've seen it as bad as you're suggesting before!

Yeah cleaned up the earth points for each cluster.

I think it's a problem with the wiring further up the system. With both of the rear clusters connected and the connectors just left dangling the fog light warning still illuminates on the dash when reverse is selected!

Will hunt down some wiring diagrams

 

[Louis]

Is the stalk original or been replaced before?

 

[Jason473]

I have no idea tbh. No obvious signs that it's been changed but that's not to say that it hasn't!

 

[Clio_fool]

Great work so far, it's looking much better now. That 106 though😍. I was skilled enough to persuade my mum to swap her shitty micra for a red xsi just after I passed my test. What a lucky 18 year old I was driving mums car then😂. I got smoked by an R5 GTT though and that started my love hate relationship with Renault's.

 

[Euan Baguette]

Check the plug on the rear light clusters. They become loose and move around.
You can bend them back together a bit.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jason473]

Great work so far, it's looking much better now. That 106 though😍. I was skilled enough to persuade my mum to swap her shitty micra for a red xsi just after I passed my test. What a lucky 18 year old I was driving mums car then😂. I got smoked by an R5 GTT though and that started my love hate relationship with Renault's.

Cheers buddy, cant wait to get restarted on it, sounds like you were definitely living the dream!

I've made some progress on the combined reverse and fog light issue. I have ruled out basic stuff like earths, bad connectors, holders etc. The issue I have is that pins 2 (Reverse) and 4 (Rear Fog) are connected somewhere upstream from the rear cluster connectors. The question on everybody's lips is WTF is the fault?

I got hold of a copy of Visu so I could see the schematics for rear fog and reverse.

Looking at the schematics the most likely point at which there could be a fault is 'R2' or the Dashboard left rear connector. This seemed especially likely as fog and reverse are pins 5 and 6 respectively.

More internet digging to locate connector

So last night I found the R2 connector on my car and used the multimeter to check for continuity between the load side of the R2 connector and the rear cluster connector.

I sketched this top notch diagram to keep track of connections.

Great news! R2 pin 5 has continuity to cluster pins 2 and 4, as does R2 pin 6. R2 pins 5 and 6 also have continuity between them. This was a relief as it means that there is a fault somewhere between the pins on R2 connector and the rear of the car.

I double checked that there was no continuity between pins 5 and 6 on the R2 connector on the supply side to confirm I was super pleased about this as I really didn't want to go digging behind the dash.

The connector itself looks absolutely fine - no corrosion, damaged wires etc so I will now work back along the loom and hopefully the fault will present itself in an immediately obvious manner.

 

[Jason473]

So I cut one of the wires from pin 5 on the R2 connecter and checked for continuity back to each of the rear light clusters to enable me to isolate which side of the loom the fault was on. Turns out it was the drivers side.

I then pulled out the interior as I wanted to give this a deep clean anyway.

Working back from the rear drivers side light connector, it didn't take me too long to find the issue:

A budding automotive electrician has clearly changed the connector but made an absolute balls up of it. Just why? I don't understand! They did however do a pretty thorough job of wrapping the whole lot in electrical tape and managed to get a pretty good visual match to the rest of the loom...

At least this will be an easy fix

On another positive note, I removed the rear door cards to check the inner sills for rust and am pleased to report the passenger side is as clean as a whistle and there is only a small patch of surface corrosion on the drivers side. I'll clean this up and treat it then cover both sides in Waxoyl for future protection.

Passenger side:

Drivers side:

So the jobs for the weekend are to tidy up the wiring mess I've found and sort the surface corrosion inside the drivers sill.

If I get time I'll move onto cleaning the interior.

 

[RustyMojo]

Nice work buddy, well done on finding the fault. Lucky with the arches too! I need to check line out this weekend

 

[Jason473]

Nice work buddy, well done on finding the fault. Lucky with the arches too! I need to check line out this weekend

Cheers mate, wasn't as bad as I was expecting, hope yours are OK! I think I've been pretty lucky with rust on this one, final place to check is the fuel flap, looks ok but wont know for sure until I go digging!

So finally sorted the rear light wiring issue over the weekend. Chopped out the old joints, resoldered and actually used some heatshrink! Also tidied up the rear speaker wiring whilst I had the soldering iron out. Someone had replaced the connectors and just twisted the strands together. To give them credit they did at least wrap the joins in insulation tape.

Great success, reverse and fogs now operate independently - as they should!:

Next job was to treat the drivers side sill. Mid cleanup:

Rust converter:

Red oxide:

Will give both sills a good smattering of Waxoyl this evening. Should be protected for a good few years now, glad I caught this when I did.

I then started on the deep clean of the interior which I always find strangely thereputic.

Used Vanish carpet cleaner to attack - funnily enough - the carpet. Never used this before but it foamed up really well when worked in with a brush. Vacuumed out after a couple of hours and am really impressed with the results!

I used hot water and upholstery cleaner on the headlining, scrubbing with a microfiber cloth. The water quickly turned filthy. Repeated this a couple of times until the water remained clean.

Scrubbed all of the interior plastics with hot soapy water, refitted to the car and applied interior detailer to them. Also fitted a new leather gearstick gaiter and gearknob.

Seats got some loving. Impressed with how well these came up too. I might have a go at shaving the bobbles on the alcantara to fully finish these off.