The DS3

[DeeTurbo]

Hi all,

So I finally done it, I've bought a car to replace my much loved HDI Dturbo daily.



I feel the car now needs a lot of bodywork to keep it looking as good as I'd like, I thought something a bit better on fuel and cheaper tax would be a good idea to.

I also thought it would be nice to have something with some modern features.

At first I was thinking I'd get 207, there was a nice one at work that I though would be a nice replacement but Karen didn't like them.

Next I thought the Fiesta would be a good choice but they are so common and bloody everywhere. There are always three different one parked next to each other at work. Yes I know they are a really good car and that's why there are so many of them.

Some how I thought of the DS3.

There were a few I was looking at all around the £4k and all around the 100k miles plus mark.

I'm not sure how but I got Shpock on my phone and I had a look on there. I found one that a lot of people were interested in and I thought it had sold but the next week someone messaged the guy asking if it was still for sale and I saw that he said yes so I got straight in there with an offer. The accepted as he needed the funds for his new replacement car. 

The car is a Dstyle Plus, so Dstyle is mid range on the trim but then the Plus gives it digital climate control, parking senors, auto wipers/light, auto dimming rear view and heated electric wing mirrors.

It's powered by the e-HDI 1.6 90bhp and has the 5 speed.

I would have like the Dsport trim but this Dstyle with the Plus pack is not far off.

I popped over to his, 45 minutes up the road from me the Monday night. He told me that the car had some rust on the front wing before going up, I thought I'd have a look and I'd probably just get a replacement off a breaker.

On seeing the car you could tell it had a bit of a bump in the past and the wing had been replaced with a cheap pattern part. The front bumper wasn't lined up well ether. I thought it could be adjusted to fit better.

We went for a test drive and the car was very comfortable but you hear a sight knocking on the front suspension. I'm thinking this could be just drop links.

The HPI came back all clear and I thought I might as well go for it and bought it Saturday morning.


When I collected it


The rust

I drove it straight to work to get it looking more presentable. I didn't find a wing in time and thought I'll just clean up the rust a little and replace at a later date.

I'm not that keen on the drive at the moment, there is bugger all feel through the steering wheel and the gear shift isn't nice, I think that's mainly down to the cable shift and the electronic power assist for the lack of feel.

On removing the bumper you could see a lot more damage. The main slam panel was slightly bent and god knows how the AC is still working with the condenser in such a bad state.

There was also some bad hackary with the cable to the DRL and fogs.

The rest of the car seems all good.

First on the priority list is sorting the rust out, then if I can get the cable lubricated to see if that helps. Not sure what I can do with the steering.


I rubbed down the area to remove as much as possible treated the rust, sprayed zinc primer and then white primer. I thought I'd leave that to dry and harden over night.

I gave it a good going over with the vacuum as it looked like it hadn't been done for a long time I later found out the previous owner had it valeted before I viewed. I would like to remove the carpet to wet vac it. The guy lives in apartments so couldn't vacuum it and the valets have been doing a pretty rubbish job. I must have spent an hour hoovering, it was pretty bad.


Later I gave it a quick wash.  

The next day I sanded down but found that I should have used some high build primer as the rust had pitted quite deep, so a few more coats had to be applied. I was a bit pissed off with myself as I wanted to start using the car this week and it would have been done if I had used the high build primer but I'd have to remove the bumper off again when applying the base coats so I couldn't be bothered to put the bumper and arch liners back on to take them off again later this week when I work on it again.

Thank god GSF, ECP and CP4L having their sales on so I've bought all items required for a full service all filters (air, fuel, oil and cabin) oil, pads front and back, discs front and back, drop links, Philips head light bulbs, some new carpet mats, aux belt and a full set of wipers for just over £300.

Bloody rear discs have the ABS ring and wheel bearing built in so were a lot more then I'm used to.

So that's where I'm up to at the moment. Hopefully get the paint work done this weekend and then service it.