The Safrane.Info Forum!

Theres been a few comments about rust issues on Safranes,so i wanted to ask what is rusting on your car and how do you plan to stop it?
I can start with what rust i,ve seen on phase 1s...
Lower front wings,below the wing mouldings,its a mudtrap inside the inner wheelarch shield.
Sills behind the outer mouldings,this seems to be a serious area,which goes unnoticed and never gets cleaned,traps water and rusts quitely without anyone noticing
I jacked up the V6 breaker and the rear sill crumbled and was wet,i think this gets missed on Mots.
I,ve never had a phase 1 with rusty doors.
Rear arches,mostly on the front lower sections from the sill up,this can be bad aswell.
Phase 2s seem to be the same but the rear arches suffer worse as i,ve noticed the horizontal part of the arches do rust badly.
i,ve seen a few phase 2 rear tailgate shuts rust at the rear of the roof panel,seems Renault skimped on the paint!
Phase 2 tailgate handle rust,i have my thoughts on this,the handle is plastic and what i think happens is that over the years,owners open the tailgate and use the handle to lift the tailgate open,this slightly moves the handle which rubs though the paintwork over time and creates rust from where the bare metal has been exposed,most i have seen rust have rusted above the handle,this would make sense as the handle flexes upwards and rubs the paintwork in that area.
Rear strut tops,this seems to be an issue,not bad,the breaker was mint inside but had heavy surface rust when i removed the rear shocks.
Any more?

Phase 2 seems to rust underneath pretty easily /quickly, not sure how to deal with that, I suspect #3 may not live more than another year..

Tailgates seem prone to rust around the handle however #1 doesn't have this - instead it has a small bubble looking like someone dropped solder on it! In fairness to renault, they do say not to lift the tailgate by the handle (yet the spoiler isn't really strong enough to support the weight either) so that may be their get out clause / excuse. It is a big tailgate, still bigger than many of the cars out there today and it weighs a lot too. When I broke #2 I lifted the bonnet off myself but when it came to removing the tailgate it took two of us and yes it really was a struggle! That thing is heavy!

Rear strut tops are pretty bad looking on #3 and even one of the front ones has a bit of rust however the last time I looked, #1 wasn't too bad. I suspect it may be worse than I remember it though.. I really need to sort that one out!

My MK2 the dreaded rust has set in the back arches, she is going into the body shop soon to hall this shot blasted and resprayed.

She has slight bubbling on the inner edge of the front arches, this is not to bad just starting to show and a few small bubbles in the tailgate, all this I shoulbe be able to do myself.

The worse is on the underside, at the back there is quite and bit, the front is much better but is showing a few small signs. I plan to deal with this by using a angle grinder wire brush fitting and wire brushing the whole underside of the car, I then plan to paint everything with red oxide paint which should reduce the rust that is there. I will then underseal the whole of the underside of the car.

This seems like a major concern on phase 2s,the rear end rust,again maybe it was Renault cost cutting on the rustproofing that has caused them to rust.
Phase 1s just don,t seem to suffer from rust much,just mechanical/electric problems,phase 2s seem to have a wonderful driveline but rust issues.

the boot handle is a good call. I pop the handle then lift it by the spoiler. Yes it stresses the spoiler a bit but its had 12 years of being opened at the handle.

The bottom lip on the boot is also rusting which is annoying as are the rear arches, the front end of the car is fine.

I also have a hole on the top of the offside rear wheel tub, I have never seen this on a renault, usually japs, fords and vauxhalls suffer from that.