General What to look for on a cinq

[MrBlonde]

Hey there, off to look at a 899cc Cinq in a few days, (can't afford a sporting yet ) what should I be looking out for on it as most advice leans towards the sporting....

Ta

 

[rallycinq]

The things to look at on an 899 are very similar to those to check on a Sporting, and actually on any car you are looking at.

Evidence of service history would be nice, but to get to the technical bits:-

Head gasket/overheating probs,
Handbrake, or lack thereof,
Poor running
Noisy tappets
Rear suspension bushes
Wheel bearings
Alternator noise
washers/ wipers

And so on

Cheers

D

 

[BlackSei]

check the passenger side seat lever - dont know why but they are ALWAYS missing

on a more serious note - tappets will always be noisy on the 899cc, if you fix them they only start being noisy again in about 3 months (if that)

check for overheating, should be sitting at around 70 mebe 80 degrees after its warmed up and driving around

check for oil leaks - erm, what else went wrong, oh yeah ask about the fuel tank and whether it was replaced or not.

all the usual things when testing a car, look on black seals to see if the car has had been resprayed and theres overspray - sign of an crash or rust. check the wheel arches they can start rusting.

there will most likely be a spot of rust on the bottem right side of the windscreen (underneath the windscreen not the glas itself!!)

check tyres, check service history, ring a previous owner to ask about the car if possible

take it on a really good test drive

 

[alainax]

dont count on the handbrake workin!! never knew one that does. check back parcel shelf for signs of water damage, common problem, means u got a leak from top of back window. xxx

 

[MrBlonde]

Cheers everyone - I was gonna check all the obvious stuff, but wanted to make sure I looked out for stuff specific to the 899. I know about the handbreak thing - went and saw a car yesterday, with the handbreak full on you could push the car backwards, uphill with ease!

Ta for the advice, and if anyone else has anything to add to look for please feel free (maybe could be sticky'ed for future ref?)

 

[Liam]

If it's an older 899 then look for corrosion underneath and signs of poor crash repairs.

Liam

 

[paul_treg]

Hi,
Some other things to look for are rust around where the drivers side wiper pokes through body (mainly green ones for some reason), rust in the boot where the boot floor meets the wheel arch and get one with a good interior, no ripped or stained seats.
M reg or later ones have the mk2 dash board with all the switches illuminated, so go for one of these at least........plus there will be plenty of other silly problems like loose this or cracked that......

Thanks
Paul T

 

[project-cinqy]

I agree on the wiper. The easy way to tell if it's had the rust painted over is to put the wiper on fast(er) spray the washer jets (check both front and rear work as the connection can be dodgy) and then get out of the car. If the wiper:

1. swings further when the screen is wet,
And:
2. rocks the metal around the spindle,

Then it's rusty and will only get worse!!

The problem can be prevented by swapping the bendy plastic washer that sit's under the spindle nut, between the metal and the nut. This useless washer wears and once thin it gets loose. As you tighten the nut to stop it wobbling it pulls the washer into the metal which cracks the paint. then it rusts!! A metal washer will not deform and should not need tighting once fitted.
If you haven't got any rust I recommend doing this before it starts! if it does and it goes to far it's expensive to fix. 3 of the 5 cinqs I see in my local scrapyard have this problem, on was "fixed" with an aluminium plate riveted to the panel, with a hole drilled for the wiper. Of course this only stopped the wobbling, and the panel has collapsed underneath! It looks horrendous and I'm sure it would drop the re-sell price by a stupid amount.

Jon+em