OK the Rallye has been SORNed and in hibernation since then end of Oct. At the end of Feb (only 3 weeks to go) I'll be taxing it and driving it as I've got some miles left before re-insurance in late Mar. Plans for this year include:

Building up funds to paint the bonnet, bumper and hatch (which I've been going on about in the 3 years I've owned it).

Getting the exhaust sorted - it has been blowing a bit since getting the cat repaired and I'd had several goes at it under axle stands, but difficult to get all the joins sorted so it really needs a pit/hoist.

Getting a Focus Mk2 engine undertray off ebay which I'll reshape and attach to the spare wheel cage to finish smoothing out the underside and see how much the parachute rear bumper does affect fuel consumption.

Recolour (to black) and install Phase 3 interior leather skins I got over a year ago, but have been lying around waiting to be sorted.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Well, it is 3 years today since I picked up the Rallye, so that's 3 years of living for the 306. I've just re-insured for another year too. I've done 12K miles in the 3 years, but almost 7K (and most of the annual mileage allocation on the insurance) were between Apr and Nov last year, so I've made up for lost time as much of the rest of the time it was on axle stands getting cleaned up. Still got more to do though. Now saving for the paint that it's needed doing since I got it.

This forum has been a tremendous help in doing all the work on the car. Thanks to past and present members who have helped out in various ways, and for those who've written the excellent FAQs.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

I'm at home at the moment on parental leave, having just become a father for the first time. For obvious reasons I end up spending a lot of time in the middle of the night surfing the net, and the devil makes work for idle hands as they say. So I put a cheeky impulse bid on ebay and ended up with a pair of these:



...as I had some vague idea about maybe putting them in the Rallye. They are leather Recaros out of a Ford Puma Millennium edition and they are really nice, with only a couple of tiny flaws in the vinyl on the side of the driver's bolster that should be easy enough to sort with some leather magic stuff.

I've read Niall's thread about the RX8 seats and one or two others, but his solution didn't work for these seats as the Ford subframe sat much higher than the 306 subframe. Chiefton also gave me the benefit of his experience with his subframe.

So I am still working out how to get them in the Rallye, I've started with one side and chopped up a spare 306 subframe and lowered it, and removed the massive and heavy Puma-fitment subframe. At present it seems to be OK, and I'm making up some brackets out of some 4mm steel to mount it using bolt holes on the seat and subframe which on 3 out of 4 corners actually lines up pretty well. Some Dremel work has been necessary to get the seat sat anywhere near low enough, and the measurements look OK at this stage, but the proof will be the trial fitment in the car - and I'm not there yet. I can't have it any higher than standard as I am 6'4" and I don't like my head being closer to the roof. If it works it will be worth it though as they are very comfortable and good looking seats. I've got a 306 leather interior that if the fronts do fit I will get some matching dye from the likes of Furniture Clinic and have leather rears to match. The back-up plan is still to refurbish the 306 leather interior and put it in. If all else fails I can put the Puma subframes back on and shift it on.

The seats came with the entire Puma interior including rear seats, door cards and carpets so I might even be able to make the seats cost-neutral if I get a few bucks for the rest of it.

So the other work has moved down the priority list, but I'm sure I'll get around to it eventually.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Cheers for your help - I also studied the seat pic in your thread for inspiration. Went through loads of cutting discs getting the backrest pivot off though!

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

I trial fitted the driver's side Recaro with the adapted 306 subframe in the Rallye this afternoon. It felt too high when I sat in it but once I had the stock seat back in and compared mirror positions, the top of the windscreen etc I realised in reality the height is little different from the stock seat, probably about halfway between stock highest and lowest positions. The unconscious bent back position I seem to adopt to get lower and the fact the leather has less give in it under my backside than the OE cloth largely makes up the difference. The seat felt good though, and looks OK too. I think the colour works as the dark blue-grey leather is about the same shade as the carpet - and my C5 wheels coincidentally.

It would probably be probably OK for the passenger side but for me the driver's seat needs to be an inch lower.

EDIT: Have had another look and could probably get another 12mm or so with relatively little effort, or an inch or so with a bit more effort.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Congrats on becoming a Dad Mik

My eldest 'baby' is 21 this month!!!

Get ready for your life to fly by now

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Red GTB1756 powered Fabia VRS daily driver,LBSC Gti6 eater........

Mac1 ZR R1 kit car build in progress.

Cheers Kev - yes the last 10 days has been a blur, sounds like it is going to be par for the course!




Yeah cheers, they are very comfy. I'd get a matching one for the passengers if I were you!



Cheers silky. I actually expected them to be a bit smaller as they came out of a Ford Puma which is a little car. The Ford subframes are massive, quite a bit taller - and heavy. The Recaros are about the same width as the 306 seats but obviously taller at the back. I think they will look better when I get the plastic trim pieces on and they are lower and properly mounted in the car. I think I need to cut up some steel bits to lower the rear of the seat more, and give daveyboy a call to see if he can find time to weld them on.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Still done nothing more with the Recaro seats. I'm not sure whether I want to put them in now, as it requires some fabrication and I'm undecided on how original to keep the car. I did it in the first place as the 306 seats are not the most comfortable, they are OK but I'm 6'4". I also wanted to get the driver's seat lower for more headroom but that looks like a challenge too.

But it's service time though, so went down to the dealer and ordered some gearbox oil, oil filter, sump plug washer, and a pair of rear shocks. I'm getting some Millers CFS 10w40 ester synthetic from Opie, but the discount code expired while I was faffing with the order. Anyone got a decent valid Opie discount code?

The current rear shocks have probably seen better days and I had a "moment" the other day when someone changed lanes on the motorway at night right in front of me doing about 40 and me doing 75, and it felt a bit squirmy under emergency braking. So I'll get new rear shocks on to match the near-new fronts. I've got no hard standing to jack it at present (in the throes of getting a ma-hoosive double garage - wahey!) but I'll also check the CV boots as this car has needed about 4 in 15K miles. I've had grease contamination of the brake pads before, and I need to eliminate that as a cause of the squirmy-ness. It might have been the sphincter-puckering that caused it anyway.

I'll change the gearbox oil (did it 3 years ago).

It is now 3 years since I did the cam belt (but only 15K miles), so that will get done over the winter.

I also need to check whether the power steering ram is leaking and get that sorted.

Apart from that I still ahven't done the painting that has been on the list for 3 years, but driving it lots over the summer and loving it.

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

Were those OEM shocks you ordered?
If so, do you mind sharing how much they set you back? Could be via PM if you prefer.

As for cambelt kits there are a lot on ebay actually from several brands, I forget which brand supplies OEM ones though. Did you try pricing up a kit from the dealer?

Those seats look lovely.

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61k miles Ph.1 Diablo '6 Project Thread

Hi mate,
I´ve bought the Contitech CT955K2 kit, I like it because you have a tension marker to avoid any over tightening or a loose belt if you are not comfortable with that change and don´t have any tension tool..
I´ve recently bought from Nose a Dayco 136 teeth kit too for another engine what I think it is also a good choice.
Hope I helped you a bit with the cambelt question

Cheers mate, thanks for the help. I'll follow up on those leads.




Thanks for the kind words.

Front shocks were £72 each +VAT. Springs were about £66 +VAT each. I've just caught sight of the amounts on some of the longer invoices. I don't think I'll add them all up!

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Cherry Rallye SOLD

B4's ftw and correct there are cheap as chips and iv found them very good!!!

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cherry rallye daily (the money pit)

I took the Rallye in for its MOT today and it passed no probs. While I was in there I got the new OE Pug dampers fitted that had been rolling around in the boot for 8 months. Just took it for a quick run and feels great.

The only down-side is the right rear disc back plate has a screw missing and it flaps about making a tinny noise going over bumps at low speed. Seems the people who did the rear brakes in 2012 couldn't get the screw out in one piece and installed the new back plate with one missing. Apparently the caliper etc will have to come off to drill out the hole, costing me around £75 - £100. I'll look at it to see if there is any way around it when I get a moment, but no facilities to do under-car stuff around here until the new double garage is built and I can find all my tools etc.

Anyone got any suggestions?

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Cherry Rallye SOLD