Hello!!!!

[smudge340]

Hi, as you can tell im new here, so Id better introduce myself. At the moment im 16 (17 end of august) and have brought my first car(out of my own pocket i would like to add) ,a 1.7L G-reg 340GL!! I love her. the reason I brought her was a) she was £200, b) i needed something to practice in to get my racing licence and c) its different then the saxo's and clio's my mates are running in.
Im sure lots of you have lots of points of wisdom about the GL and i would love to hear them, from what is likley to go wrong (if anything!!) to if and how you've "modded" them ( i dont mean big 2 meter high spoliers or body kits that are heavyier then the car, just subtle changes )
Since ive bought her, a couple of things have gone wrong, for example, the central locking on the passanger side doesnt work and the read window heater/wiper/screenwasher have stopped working. Any ideas? Im guessing the rear window is a fuse job.
I also have another question my Gl has got electric mirrors, heated front seats and electric windows, are these standard on the Gl or more a GLE thing?

Thanks for taken to read this!!!

[redline]

wekcome smudge , glad to see your "daring to be different"

also glad to hear your looking at subtle mods just like me lol

[SteveP]

Nice one! Welcome, theres a few people who have started with a 300 and they're great cars for a new driver (particularly as they'll quite happily humiliate anything else your mates will have!).

The late GL's got specced up with better interior, electric windows, c/l, electric mirrors etc to sell the last of the line cars. There are an increasing number of parts available for the 300 now, such as suspension components. Not so much on the styling front though - mine has the original bodykit and a few other members have this too. I've not seen anything aftermarket that suit them as well. First place to start is looking at late 400 series wheels, they fit straight on and come in a variety of nice styles

[340GLT]

Welcome to the forum mate, i reckon you have done the right thing going for a 300 this is my first car too. My car is heavily modified, upgraded suspension, brakes, interior mods exterior mods and soon a turbo engine, so any questions just ask!!!
Adam

[pettaw]

Hiya and welcome to the V3m madness you'll find that chav mods are not really our style, not very Volvo-like. We prefer to go for understated and practical, wolf in sheeps clothing type mods, apart from one notable exception....ahem....Redline....

The central locking is likely to be the motor on the passenger door, or the connections, once you remove the door panel is fairly obvious where it is. Give the connections a good clean with solvent cleaner, and try again, if still no joy then a replacement motor from a scrappy can be had fairly easily and for not much money.

The electrical problem at the back is the wiring in the tailgate in the hinge part where the joint is continually being flexed, basically, after years of being opened and shut, the wires have internally broken, so you'll need to strip away the outer hard plastic casing and you'll probably see a whole load of cracked wires. You'll need to remake these joints by splicing in new wire, either with screw connectors or preferably crimped ones.

Worn suspension is the big killer on these cars, they never get worn enough to start failing MOTs, well, hardly ever, but they do get increasingly sloppy so new front springs and bushes and new rear shocks will transform the car.

Hope that helps.

[Chris_C]

You'll need to remake these joints by splicing in new wire, either with screw connectors or preferably crimped ones.

Preferably solder If you don't have a soldering iron, then go for crimp, if you don't have a crimper, buy one, it'll cost about the same amount as screw connectors Screw connectors are the bain of all and the spawn of french car wiring standards!

[redline]

Hiya and welcome to the V3m madness you'll find that chav mods are not really our style, not very Volvo-like. We prefer to go for understated and practical, wolf in sheeps clothing type mods, apart from one notable exception....ahem....Redline....

oi , my cars very subtle when you compare it to err Stuntmans

[Cornholio]

[smudge340]

Thanks for the reply guys!! Dont worry, I'm not into "chaving" cars up. The way I see it is if you love your cars fast, the last thing your going to do is place 2 tonnes of stero and bling in it! 340GLT/Redline, love the mods, exactly what im going for!! I'll let you know how the repaires go at the weekend.

[d3k4y0]

Redline, love the mods, exactly what im going for!!

You don't need to be polite to mick, he doesn't even like 300s anymore!

[redline]

You don't need to be polite to mick, he doesn't even like 300s anymore!

Now then David , It isnt a case of me not liking 300's anymore , its purely a case of practicality , the wife cant / wont drive the 300, and i need to use the trajet over the holidays,
its a case of sell the 300 or get a divorce and do you know how much a divorce costs these days lol

[foggyjames]

the wife cant / wont drive the 300

Or should that be...

the wife won't be seen dead in the 300, since I covered it in bling-tastic vinyls

Welcome to the site A good place to start is to get yourself a set of 400 series alloys, then take a good look at it and think about things which need tweaking. Cosmetically, they tend to look tidy with just a set of rims, some attention to the grille, and maybe a spot of lowering. My 360 looks low enough as it is due to its sagged springs Cue picture...the car literally just has a set of rims (externally ):



Good on you on actually buying your car, rather than using a finance company to attempt to prove to your mates that you've got more cash than you really have with some FWD French thing. Plus, you have a family-sized car, which means you can take three ladies out to dinner, then take them back for some hot student loving, while your mates with Saxos are still trying to get their cruise-mingers out of the back of their 3dr barry-wagon. The seat tilt mechanism will probably have broken, being French

See here's the thing I love about 300s. They're terminally uncool with 'lads who like cars', because Max Power tells you you need a Saxo/206 with a mad tyte exhaust and a banging Kenwood stereo in order to pull the 'birds'. In fact, the kind of girls it's worth knowing care about things like, and I quote..."ooh, these seats are really comfy". "They do fold down, y'know...". All for about one months finance payment on a new supermini

cheers

James

[smudge340]

Cheers james, exactly what I was thinking when I got it! Think i will need to get some alloy's plus a nice spolier to go on the back, mine doesnt have 1 Anyway, i just realised I promised some 'updates' on it. Well, Got most of the problems fixed now thanks to the advice on here and the purchase of a Haynes manual. The rear wash wipe not working was simply because the switch for it wasnt plugged in properly! The only remaining problem is the central locking, from the looks of it it is actually to do with the handle mechanism rather then the solanoide (which i replaced)
P.s. just managed to get my insurance premium down to £815!! The joys of being 17!!

[SteveP]

Nice one on getting the majority niggles sorted - check ebay for alloys, the 400 series alloys can be had quite cheaply and 15"'s look the right size on 300s imo. I'm sure someone here could fix you up with a spoiler - they're fairly easy to get hold of.

Nice work on the insurance though. It's alot of cash - but that's a respectable premium for a 17yr old.

Get some pics of the beast