Adidas

Probably looking at a MY 90 RS Turbo in the next few days with a mate of mine.

Any thoughts where I should check for the dreaded tin worm and under the bonnet ?

Ta in advance

Playsatan

iTrader: (2)

In a word, everywhere. The infamous part are the chassis legs, sills, door and boot bottoms but the bulkhead is by far and away the worst place. Pay extra attention to under the battery (take it out) and under the fuse box.

VWscooby

Check the metering head. this can stick leading to starting probs.

Oheyeah, run a mile if it has a bleed valve!!!!

pugoetru

just run a mile fullstop

Johnny50

Some of them are still good that are out there....
But you`ll pay for one !

FASTER MIKE!!

smoke on start up, valve stem oil seals, notorious on cvh's

noobscoob

Tappets. some cvh's rattle like a junkie waiting for a fix.

you can usually tell a good rs turbo by eye. they are either maintained by some rs nut or dogged to death bye some halfwit and 14 previous owners.

i found them to be far more solid than the fiesta turbo.. they rot like a pear!!

Dave uk blue mica

unless its cheap i wouldn't even bother getting one, they always need loads of work done on them come mot time, lack of oil changes mean the black death in the head and thats the end of the engine, i know of a G reg 90 model now in black thats only £500, i've had a few of these over the years and i wouldn't bother with another one now. the main thing to check above anything else is that the numbers in the floor haven't been messed with, years ago these were the ringers favourite, any welding or anything look dodgy around that area walk away.

Patt@firstime

Check the back seat for one of these....

http://www.smartbargains.com/images/...0226484_XL.jpg

You will normally find one

brybusa

Be prepared to feel like a total **** driving it if your over 21.....

Agreed with playsatan re the battery tray, I had a mint one (30k) no rust anywhere, until I had to change the battery.....left me with total dismay at the state of it......

VWscooby

Just try an buy from an owners club. try RSOC.com many are already restored and well looked after. You get what you pay for with thes cars more than anything.

Robbie T

iTrader: (8)

Agree with patt, watch out for elizabeth duke boxes or other signs of advanced chav-ery.
On the other hand i had one some years ago, was only the second owner from new the first being a complete obsessed fruity loopy (best people to buy off).
Don't touch early ones (87-88), were badly undersealed and rotted like a maggoty corpse. Valve stem seals a piece of **** to change so don't worry bout them, make sure you don't miss a gear on full chat and bend a valve or two tho
Real fun but torque steery as **** in the wet

VWscooby

Look at most most motoring websites an the scoob is considerded to be be the most chavvy car.

I owned a heavily modified XR3i which is more chavvy than the the RS and it was a hoot to drive.

Don't listen to people on here.

Good luck with the search!

Senior_AP

The 2 major known problems with this vehicle are:

1. Look carefully for a motif on the rear, or faded paintwork where somebody has tried to remove the evidence of this. The letters F, O, R and D appear. If there is evidence of this - avoid the car at all costs. To verify, please check for the same letters on the steering wheel as this is often over-looked by the owner.

2. Much like above, you may also see evidence of the term "Escort" on the rear. However, this can come in many forms, most famously of which is "Sorted". There is a chance that this particular vehicle is however a VICTIM of this and not the guilty party, in which case the motif will simply say "E cort". Again, if there is evidence of either of the 2 - avoid the car at all costs.

Other than that, the usual checks - Irregular paintwork, Isotta steering wheels, 6 inch tailpipes and/or a unnecessarily loud Bailey dump valve.

HTH.

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

i had an rst before the scooby and regret selling it. yes it's a bit chavy but so is the impreza, who cares!!! rst's are like marmite though, you either love them or hate them!!!

check the battery tray and underneath for signs of welding / ringing. Also make sure you look over the slam panel for accident damage and signs of the vin plates being tampered with. if the seller says it's been reshelled, walk away imo. make sure it's a genuine turbo and not a mk4 escort conversion.

With the engine, if you can, take the turbo hose off and make sure there is no play left to right / up and down in the turbo shaft (front to back is ok). if there is side to side it's most likely that the oil seals in the turbo have gone or going. make sure it's cold when you do this otherwise you'll get burnt fingers!!!

make sure you start it cold and check for smoke out the back. another one is when the engine's running check the oil filler cap. if it pops off you've got problems. you should take it off and it should cut out or run really rough at least, because of the vacum system the chv engine runs. check for signs of blown head gasket. they're prone to this. people run silly boost in them and then wonder why the lump goes pop.

i emptied my shed out the other day and found loads of spares. this is another thing to watch for. treat them nice or they will stop working and cause you greif. so if you get the offer of spare parts cheap, take them you'll probably need them.

all that said though i was thinking about getting another one myself as a second car / track car.

davegtt

A ford badge, if you see 1 walk away

Adidas

It's my mate who's actually thinking about buying it. However it did cross my mind whether to buy it instead and get rid of the Pug.

From a distance it looks in reasonable condtion, just don't know about close up. Thanks for the advice about the battery tray, I'll head straight for that place

As for buying a ringer, I have a few tricks up my sleeve

S2martin

Go and ask the same question on passionford.com and they will give you bundles of info plus there are plenty of tuners on the site too for future mods

HTH
Martin

ukdave

get a series 1 you know you want one lol this is a mates
http://photobucket.com/albums/v365/s...%20rs%20turbo/

V4JDMSTi

iTrader: (2)

think it needs a clean

stunning. i've always liked the series 1.

M5_POWER

I had a series 2, an gotta say it gives me a smile that a V8 M5 cant give ya.

Its just something about em i love.

Would love to have a series 1 though, I think the look much better and are less chav if original, the one above is so mint, but http://www.rsownersclub.co.uk/ is a good site for good ones.

47 NAT

You can pick up some nice near original ones that can be good fun to drive. Forget the ones that look like a snow ploughs from the front or evo lookalikes, badboy kits, etc

As someone said above go and ask on www.passionford.com as it holds a wealth of knowledge...

Nath

Dave uk blue mica

i've got a mint series one that i've owned for years, loads better than the series 2's i've had. these cars still look good on the road but need a bit of work to make them quicker cos 132bhp is a bit slow these days, my series one looks completely standard but its 217bhp

CC

A psychiatrist.

PG

In other words they will be more helpful and less of a bunch of badge snobs who have never actually owned an ERST.

Never owned one but a family member had one. A mint one would be good to have imo.

VWscooby

Erm, not really the RS guys are just badge snobs for Ford. My NA XR3i made over 160bhp but I still got the whole 'it aint an RS though is it mate' sort of attitude.

But at least they are a bit helpful and don't slag off cars they know nothing about

malhpm

bugger all wrong with rst escorts except dont buy a rust bucket battery trays a pain but easliy repaired so are sills but the rear chassis legs rust if they r gone forget it its past its sell buy date try finding a mint shell and dont worry much about engine as its going to cost u anyway. the engines are old and dated bottom end is weak but u can always put a zetec bottom end in or the yanks actully use a 2.0 litre cvh in the yank focus try get hold of one of them , and as for the gearbox who needs a limited slip diff cause to much torque steer anyway and gearboxes out of mk5/6 escorts will fit them after all £50 down the scrappy for a gearbox cost u a dam sight more for a scooby

Swen6

Roof, check the bloody roof!!!!, If your going to look at a '90 Spec check around the back of the sunroof, '90s are well known for the 'bubble' effect. For sellers it's easy to rub the bubbles away and get the roof blown over, but the rust will come through within weeks. the 3 90'd i've know all had the rot thing, and loads i've seen i've noticed it too, beware

******* happened to me brought was seemed a real clean one, within a couple of days there was signs of rust coming through that certainly wasn't there when i went to view it. Dagenham dustbins unfortunatly, the German shelled ones are the ones to go for, the difference is the Uk shells have the mounting holes for the opening rear quaters, the german shells don't.

And to be honest i've had 2 Series 1's, and 2 Series 2's, if you want comfort go for the series 2, if you want a full on thrill go for the series 1, it'll turn heads where ever you go.