Omega Owners Forum
Omega Help Area => Omega General Help => Topic started by: terry paget on 27 June 2017, 19:00:07
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Having treated my 3.2 police special to a new exhaust system I was expecting an easy MOT pass. All went well until the tester began hammering at the rear of the cills. He made a large hole in each, right next to the rear suspension mounting.
Oh dear. This is a 2003 car, the youngest of my Omegas I hope it can be saved.
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Hope you get it sorted Terry you do well keeping 6 on the road i have enough trouble with one!
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I wonder how I remove the cill covers. I do not see it listed, either in Haynes, or the maintenance guides. I conclude it is trivial. Do I just prise them carefully off?
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Like this?
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/o3njh3624uryz2s/CrustyMess%5B1%5D.jpg?dl=1)
Which turned into this:
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/75qs9i6ugm4apdl/CutOut%5B1%5D.jpg?dl=1)
The sill itself is rotten too, but the plastic cover hides it. The other side isn't much better. They're jobs for the summer: the worst bit of replacing sills is removing all the trim so you don't raze the car to the ground.
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Thanks Nick. I am becoming resigned to scrapping this car. I ask again - how do I remove the cill covers? I once bought a Senator lscking cill covers, and my memory is that some sort of spring clip attaches to the cill, and holds the cover on upper and lower edges. If so, I can 'unclip' the covers.
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I normally remove the sill end cover by the rear wheel. Remove the pins/screws underneat the sill cover, then gently tap the plastic sill with a hammer where the end cover used to be. As it slides forward about an inch or so it should come loose without breaking the clips.
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Having had to attend to both of the sills on mine, I started by removing the rubber seal that runs the length of the car, pushing forward from the back I think, anyway whichever way doesn't foul the wheel arch as you remove it. Remove rear wheel first. Plastic filler inside the arch will probably just pull off. Drill the face off the plastic rivnuts holding the sill end finisher on. Drill the faces off the rivnuts all along the bottom of the sill and gently push the sill cover off the plastic mounts underneath, again forward from the back IIRC. There will be rust galore mainly from electrolytic corrosion where all the non steel pins have been attached to the steel sills. Give yourself a week per side to sort it.
The rivnuts underneath may be metal, may be plastic. Mine were metal on a 2003 model. They are a great route to wax injecting the sills when you've finished so drill them out and replace with plastic.
Remember you can always cut the outer sill away and weld up inner sills from the back then weld the outer sill back on. By no means the end of the road.
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Firstly the clips underneath are plastic caps... the metal part is a stud welded onto the sill ::)
Secondly there's a torx screw under the front end.
Thirdly tap in the centres of the two clips on the rear finisher. Retrieve once cover off and reuse.
Finally shove the sill cover forward and it will fall off... alternatively pull it off from underneath.
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I'm so glad that I didn't find that sort of rot when I removed my plastic arch liners.
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Thanks to all for help. I have removed nearside cill cover.
Cill does not look too bad to me.
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtzzy0px7rzuu3p/hole21%25.jpg?dl=0)
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl6bq7x7b7rp7ug/cill21%25.jpg?dl=0)
I would not care to jack the back of the car up on the jacking point though.
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no pics. will try again.
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/gtzzy0px7rzuu3p/hole21%25.jpg?dl=1)
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/tl6bq7x7b7rp7ug/cill21%25.jpg?dl=1)
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Pretty easy fix that
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Couple of hundred should get that sorted if you can't weld ;)
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Have seen much worse on Carltons and Vauxhall`s in general lol
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Mine has started to go in this area on both sides but isn't as bad as that yet. if you can find someone who will cut out the rot and weld in fresh metal and paint it properly then you're doing well as all I ever seem to find is the bodge it and scarper brigade.
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It took me an hour to get off the first cill. The second took 10 minutes, piece of cake.
I see how the hole is near rear suspension mounts; it doesn't look too bad yet.
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/wf8k20vln2sldb2/HOLEinCILL.jpg?dl=1)
My friends tell me to get a welder and get welding, but we'll see.
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Get in there and grind everything away until you either have good metal or no metal or metal that's too thin to weld to. Once anything weak or non existent is cut away you can see the extent of the problem properly. Also get in behind the suspension mounting where the doughnut bush is to check the vertical face of the inner sill. You'll probably need a dremel type tool +/- flexi wand to get in there even if you drop the mount.
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Thanks to all for advice. Fault is now repaired, and MOT passed. I think I made hard work of it, and paid too much, but it was my first time, next time I shall do better. The MOT outfit claimed they could do the job, I do not weld, so I removed the covers, took pics, it did not look too bad, mainly one hole each side near rear suspension mounting. They quoted between £200 and £300, I said go ahead.
They put a patch on the rear of each cill, and charged me £250; bit hot I thought for 2 patches, but I would know next time.
I ordered some more clips as I had damaged some removing the cills, learned they cost £2.58 each so only ordered 12. Back came the message 'no stock, on back order', so I made do with the ones I had, which seemed quite adequate.
Pic follows of a patch.
(https://www.dropbox.com/s/oxp2mk7i2bmd7ua/cillPATCH21%25.jpg?dl=1)