January 2015 - Update #1
It's been a little while since I've updated this thread (and a few people have been asking where things are currently at) so I thought I'd take a moment to bring you lovely people up to speed. But first a warning... it's been kinda quiet, a bit boring in fact, and many of the niggles still haven't been sorted for one reason or another.
A few days after Christmas my good lady and I made our way to a local pub / restaurant to have a meal with my sister's boyfriend and his family. It was a very cold and icy night and, upon arriving at the restaurant, we parked up in the middle; well away from anyone (although there were only two or three cars in the entire place). I must add, we were in the Type-R on this occasion. To cut a long story short it was towards the end of the and I noticed a flurry of lights in the car park, followed by a crash and the tell-tale signs of a car alarm going off; the Type-R's. Despite a pretty much empty car park a young guy (a chef at the restaurant) had managed to crash his car into it. Maybe if he'd cleared his windows before setting off and tried to keep it at a sensible speed it wouldn't have happened... I shot out just in case he had decided to make a run for it but he had stopped and details were exchanged. Despite a rather hefty bump that knocked it out the parking space, the suspension was fine (later verified at a garage) and it was just panel damage that needed attention. Being a young lad he decided not to go through his insurance (he already had a fault claim against him) and wanted to simply for repairs. As I type this, the Type-R is being repaired at a local bodyshop. So, not a good end to the year nor the start of a new one.
Thankfully, the Trophy remained safe
...at least until the next day. My parents were staying over for a few days and - unfortunately - my mother hadn't put the handbrake on.
The result was their car rolling down the drive into the Trophy. Admittedly it's not a huge slope by any means but I was worried about my brand new radiator setup and the front bumper was hanging lower than it should. I was too p***ed off to check it so I uncoupled the cars and left it to the next day. Luckily there didn't seem to be any damage apart from a few scuffs, but the bumper is now a bit loose and sits lower than normal.
*sigh*
Even so, with it being New Year's Eve, I decided to break out the washing gear and give the Trophy and Type-R some love. A few shots (sorry they are driveway shots; I've not had much chance to get out recently).
Here you can clearly see the damage on the Type-R (I managed to pop some of it out myself).
As mentioned an update or two back, my Trophy had started getting very damp inside and the windows would be frozen inside on the colder, icy mornings. It wasn't obvious why this was happening as the seals, etc. seemed fine. Fast forwarding to a couple of weeks ago I now know the reason why... I discovered a puddle of water in my passenger footwell
There's obviously a leak somewhere so it needed to be found and sorted out.
Having spoken to a few people it seems most likely that there is a blocked drain somewhere at the foot of the windscreen, possibly the central drain. Water appears to be collecting somewhere and then entering the car through the heater matrix. Sadly though I'm still carrying an injury and that makes working on the car quite tricky at the moment. Thankfully the driver side drain is easy enough to check so I decided to have a look at that side and to make sure it was clear... and it was. BUT, I was surprised at how loose the scuttle panel was and even more surprised when it literally just pulled off with little to no resistance! On closer inspection it became obvious why. It seems the clips are not in great condition and the plastic screw (I'm assuming it was plastic) is no longer holding down the panel. You can see the missing screw in the picture below. It looks like the head has snapped off basically. New panel needed I think.
I was hoping to get some help from one or two friends but sadly poor health and this...
...has hampered efforts. It doesn't help that the Trophy is not garaged and thus feeling the full force of the crap weather. I'm just attempting to keep the footwell as dry as possible until I can get it sorted. Heated driveways FTW... :tongueout:
The ongoing gearbox problem still hasn't been looked at as I haven't been able to get the car over to Fred's at BTM. I am hoping to get this done in the next fortnight or so but continuing to drive the car in the meantime. It's all good apart from the 3rd gear... so I miss it out when I'm pushing on
Talking of driving it, that brings me on to the next problem.
It really doesn't seem to be running so good at the moment. It's verging on being undriveable on cold mornings and, even when warmed up, it's having real issues if the revs drop below 2.5k. I don't know what's going on so will be getting this looked at as soon as possible. It's fine above 4k rpm (or so it seems) but struggling otherwise. The mpg continues to decline... and this is driving steady!
I've not got much more to add at this moment as I want to get these outstanding issues sorted. I'm starting to get really frustrated again with the car at the moment as it's now been TWO YEARS TO THE DAY since I've been able to drive it properly! *sigh* Oh yeah, I still need to get the Sachs dampers rebuilt, new header tank fitted, new pin from Jenvey to replace the one that broke on my ITB throttle assembly, get a new steering wheel (or get it refurbed), sort the scuffs and dents on the bodywork, put my 'everyday' tyres on as the Fed 595 RSR's aren't great in the ice and snow, replace my centre console as the paint is flaking off, and a few other things as well.
Le Clio Bast*rd Rouge.