Hi, I am thinking of buying a 1998 1 litre Micra. It has done 60k. It looks fairly tidy and drives and stops well. There is a little rust on the sills. Is there anything specific I should be looking at, either from your own experiences or things you have heard about? Thanks
Johnny
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Shouldnt be rusty unless its been abused or badly repaired.
You can get real little gems with micras and theres plenty of them, so id carry on looking unless its £500.
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Rust, timing chain rattle and headgasket (is cooling system pressurising?).
These Micras DO rust - there was not much rust protection applied at the factory. Take a good look underneath and at the front crossmember.
On the plus side they are pretty good mechanically and fairly cheap to fix. Throttle bodies can give trouble - but again its not a dear job to sort out (in fact almost free if you are lucky).
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Why is it that if Micras are such rustbuckets that there seem to be more really old Micras about than just about anything else?
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Why is it that if Micras are such rustbuckets that there seem to be more really old Micras about than just about anything else?
Don't over-react. I don't see anyone saying that they are 'rustbuckets'. They can, however, suffer from structural (mot failure) rusting underneath.
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i replaced a steering rack on a p reg micra last year and the rust on the arms was the worst i had seen since the seventies on an old escort ,where the oil hadnt leaked
as aprilia says good cars let down with occasional timing chain problems (lack of oil changes, im not going there by the way)
rust on-------
front xmember
where you put your feet on the rear floorpans
boot floor
backs of sills
brake compensator valves seizing up
i would recomend them all day over any other small car for a grand unless you can find a minter mk 4 fiesta with hj's favourite engine the 1300 endura da-da, it may not like giving its plugs up, or sound nice, but boy are they one of the best cars fords ever sold for people on a tight budget
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Definately check the front crossmember.
Our 98 micra rusted through although the other bodywork was perfect.
Pics on the link below, so you know where to check.
Other than that it was a great and very reliable car.
www.photobox.co.uk/album/3262964
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Good thread. Useful pics. Well done guys.
cheers,
Ed.
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My '98 Micra had a rusted crossmember as well, other than that was a great little car.
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Definately check the front crossmember. Our 98 micra rusted through although the other bodywork was perfect. www.photobox.co.uk/album/3262964
That is a bit naughty isn't it?
Still, should only be about £150 or so to fix at a decent independent garage. Is the corrosion confined to mainly this part or is it rampant throughout the underside?
Strange that that should happen -- my 14 year old Nissan Sunny's crossmember is still in good nick. It's the sills that are rotting a bit on that one, although that's common on a car of its age.
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off at a tangent i know, but our 2001 y reg primera was rusty in the same places . a good car let
down by poor bodywork. i don't suppose they will improve with renault having their say.
jag.
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Wow ! Thanks for all the advice. Don't know whether to excited at my new found knowledge or scared I don't know what to do with it:-)
Johnny
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off at a tangent i know, but our 2001 y reg primera was rusty in the same places . a good car let down by poor bodywork. i don't suppose they will improve with renault having their say.
I dunno, one area where Renault are really good these days is in rust resistance (they did used to be carp it must be said). Bit of an irony really, Renault makes cars that don't last the course but their bodywork is good, Nissan make (made?) mechanicals that lasted forever in a rust-prone bodyshell.
It must be a coastal thing though this rust problem -- our Nissan has started to rot at 14 years old, but that's because it spent its first 8 years in Sunderland. On the other hand a neighbour's old Bluebird is rot-free at 16 years old. In addition, my 6 year old Accent has not a speck of rot on it anywhere, and HJ says these cars are rust-prone (though have you ever seen an old Accent with panel rot?).
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Most of the Nissan range made since the mid-1990's seem to be realitively rust-free. The Micra can be an exception and I think its due to minimal rust protection at the factory, probably to keep costs down. Once the paint of the front X-member gets chipped away then they do tend to rot. Seen the odd Primera with rust in the sill dog-leg in front of the back wheel, but that's about it. Later Primeras seem to be rust free (or at least I've not seen any rusty ones yet).
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My '99 P11 Primera appears rot-free (for now anyway), yet my old '95 Micra was noticeably worse - it had the typical sill rot (very common on 3-door Micras IME) and was going under the bonnet where the wings are welded on, where rainwater collects. It had no factory rust protection that I could see. Yet my brother's old Bluebirds (16/17 years) had no significant rust at all.
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