Clio Clio dci bargain daily driver

[Brigsy]

My 100 did 18psi iirc, it might be remapped already!

Possibly, it does go pretty well for a small engine

Swapped the insurance over from my pug to the clio yesterday. Ended up paying the £130 to swap the policy over - basically i have changed bank since buying the policy and if i had cancelled the policy they would only refund my old account which is closed (law apparently can only refund the same card - sounded like a load of bollox). It sounded like i would have a right carry on to recover my money from cancelling the policy from my previous bank so paid the thieves the money..

Polished and waxed the bonnet and bumper yesterday - removed the rust marks and fitted the splitter i got from the scrapyard the other day. Came up pretty nice.



The engine has always seemed a little bit blue smokey on boost from cold & cleared up within a mile of driving - as discussed i have checked the turbo and a few other bits they all seem OK. After first warm up yesterday and a good flog about it has not smoked since. No smoke at all today so not sure what was going on there but not worrying about it too much. The tank only had 2 bars of derv left so whacked £20 of the finest shell diesel in and that took the gauge up to 3/4 of a tank range 430 miles. I reset the trip and mpg etc and over 100 miles its showing 58-60mpg under normal driving not bad at all.

Overall the engine seems to be running nice with use so i have ordered a timing belt kit & water pump as it needs doing asap. £50 for a gates belt and water pump delivered, cheap motoring ftw

 

[DaveL485]

Done well here mate. Bargain car.

 

[gtmatt]

nice one mate plus side its a Renault

 

[Brigsy]

So i have used this for a week and done almost 300 miles without too many problems. 56-58 mpg with normal driving which is good - i always give diesels a boot full to get them up to speed too so hardly eco driving

The shakedown list of repairs - Not a bad list TBH typical french used car problems..

1. The boot open light on the dash. This was working fine until a couple of days ago. The door open warning was staying on and not going off, leaving the boot light on. I could have pulled the plug to the wiring but went down the scrappy and got a new boot latch as mine was worn and not triggering the micro switch (common issue apparently). Ten min fix and normal service resumed.

2. Rear wiper has never worked. I did not plan on fixing this but after it has rained constantly this week i was sick of the lack of rear vision. I had the trim off initially to look at this when i got it and the plug was disconnected to the rear wiper motor, Plugged it back in and no worky so left it assuming somebody has been there before assuming knackered motor or UCH issues or whatever even though i could hear the relay clicking under the dash when turning the stalk. With the ongoing boot light saga i revisited this and pulled the white circuit board off the back of the motor which joins the wiring to the terminals and refitted it as slight corrosion but cleaned up OK. Plugged back in and it fired up no issues so nice free fix. This brings me onto the next issue the rubber was shot on the wiper. I had a minty bosch wiper off @Sheryl_O megane so cut and shut the rubber to fit my wiper arm. Free fix


3. Drivers side speaker kept going off. I had already cleaned up the terminals on this but it was going on and off. Had another old speaker out of the megane so another free win.

4. Rattly sunroof which can be highly annoying - pull the handle down slightly and it stops - to be fixed

After this i fitted my alpine stereo in place of the pioneer that came with the car. Sound quality has improved 100% (still rate alpine as the best) and the usb file selection is miles better. i have grabbed another pair of speakers for the rear doorcards as mine is povo spec and no rears fitted. No wiring either unfortunately so need to tap some in when i get chance.

The steering wheel was totally fecked too and kindly got offered a good condition 172 steering wheel for postage, big thanks to Ash Lusty (not sure if he is on here) so got that boshed on. Ten mins job done, its starting to look fairly tidy inside now. Also have a 172 gearknob just need to get round to fitting.

So all in all about an hrs work tops and a tenner for the scrappy parts. I know the lads in the yard well from years ago and all they say is when are you going to stop fecking about with these old renault's

I have also acquired some apex springs for when i fit my williams wheels.

I have also bought a timing belt kit and water pump £50 off ebay for a gates kit and good quality aftermarket pump. As i do not have the locking pins/impact driver to get the bottom pulley off etc i have subbied this out to a good mechanic i know for next weekend instead of laying out for the tools etc. Needs to be done asap as i have no history of a belt swap

I am looking out for some oem upgrades too now it has proven to be a decent little runner. Top of the list is 172/182 xenon headlamps and sport grill - i had the chance before xmas for a cheap good set but did not want to spend any ££ until i knew it was staying so back on the lookout/

So running totals up to now
£319 for previous works
£10 for scrappy parts
£40 for 172 steering wheel, springs & gearknob

New total £369 - To be continued..

 

[andybond]

Fantastic VFM really !

 

[gtmatt]

loving this even though its a daily

 

[Brigsy]

Its awesome for a cheapy, the K9K seems to be a good little engine - still used in the renaults/nissans etc this day albeit a newer version. Had some running about to do yesterday evening clocked up 40 miles mostly urban - after resetting the trip yesterday the new average was 60mpg



Had to pop down to Sunderland this morning to pipe and fire up a gtt for a lad who contacted me via facebook. Freshly painted gtt and a massive box of hoses to fitCouple of hours work and a few quid back in the kitty! Seems to cruise along quite happily at 75-80mph on the bigger roads. The gearbox is short on it though - cruising rpm's of just under 3k but seems happy enough at that.

Another gear would be nice but its rare for me to sit on long motorway runs so not to worry. 56mpg at motorway speeds which is ok, seems pokey enough to put your boot down in 5th and overtake stuff Also nice beadage off the collinite 476s - i have noticed the muck does not seem to stick with a good coat of wax so it stays relatively clean for ages.

To be continued..

 

[DaveL485]

In other poverty spec Clio news this happened to my Mrs car yesterday

Drive-off, while parked. Tossers.

 

[Brigsy]

Shits that like @DaveL485 get the dent man on it, should be able to get that straight again

 

[Brigsy]

Another issue fixed tonight. Since resealing the sunroof it has made the most horrendous creaking/cracking noise when going over bumps when closed. Initially i was just pulling the sunroof handle down slightly which sort of worked but the sunroof kept opening etc. Anyway this week the creaking was worse than ever and on the verge of sending me insane as the stereo would not drown it out.

After a bit of sniffing round on the net and reading what felt like thousands of posts on the same issue i found out that renault done a replacement sunroof handle to cure this. I wanted a cheaper fix and seen this - place a small piece of rubber on part of the handle to nip the sunroof tighter or grease. Armed with the finest piece of silicone hose - slit it down the middle and fitted it on, job jobbed and silence at last. Now its right its staying closed forever I have come to the conclusion renault make the shittest sunroofs going. To be continued - Cam belt time at the weekend

 

[DaveL485]

renault make the shittest sunroofs going

Amen to that. Fed up of mopping water out of the 21!

 

[Brigsy]

So today i have been mostly freezing my bollox off working on the clio when i bought the car i checked the service history and no sign of a timing belt change. This made me a little concerned as the mileage is 120k and belt is due at 75k. 45k overdue so needed doing asap now its staying. Subbied this job out to the mechanic who lives across the road as he has every tool you could ever imagine. I was lacking a few bits (timing pins, need a shit hot torque wrench for the lower pulley etc and maybe impact gun to remove it) so he boshed it on for a few quid.

The aux belt has been chirping from cold for a few days - the clutch pulley on the alternator had seen better days after the stihlsons were used to free it off so whipped the alternator off before he came round. Today we are measuring job times the british way with a cup of tea = 15 mins This was approx a 1 cup of tea job pulley initially seemed fine but on inspection was not locking properly. Check out the stihlson marks, alternator bearings seem ok though!


As you can see shes not the prettiest under the bonnet "unloved" describes it well.

Next job whilst waiting was to fix the airbox - some rough spanner monkey had bust the rear locating pin off that holds the box off the egr. It has been rattling occasionally so drove a screw in with silicone hose to make up the gap. This was a half a cup of tea job and no more rattles

Mechanic is ready now so whip the engine mount & cambelt cover off - original belt as expected. Not in bad condition no cracks or signs of damage. Tensioners and water pump ok too have lasted well.
Crank pin in before removing anything then old belt off and new water pump and belt etc on

Belt tensioned next which is a doddle on these engines due to the pointer on the tensioner. We are ready to torque the floating crank pulley and disaster the pulley bolt is the wrong one (m12 instead of m14) this is a one use bolt as it has to be angle tightened and the kit usually has both bolts. Old bolt vs new Luckily he has a few new spares from previous belt jobs so that found and were good to go. He used his pukka snap on digital torque wrench to torque to the recommended amount. This is a badass bit of kit and you can even set it to angle tighten (£500 new) if i ever come into money ill be having one. After checking the tension and the pins go in OK its all back together for a fire up. A quick crank and the engine fires up straight away no issues and sounds lovely. All in all a 4 cup of tea job

Had to fire it up with no alternator on as the tool to remove the pulley is at another lads garage so its getting sorted tomorrow. Engine sounds lovely and quiet without the screeching alt pulley. The bearing in the tensioner for the aux belt sounded dry so will get a new one tomorrow. Filled it up with type d and bled, pushed it into the garage until tomorrow as dark and cold. To be continued...

 

[TNT Mr Raider]

Good work, defo needed a belt and some love. Must have been the day for cambelts, waterpumps and alternators, done one this morning too, bit fresh lol.

 

[DaveL485]

I have the alternator clutch pulley tool should you struggle for one, i'll post it up.

 

[Brigsy]

Cheers @DaveL485 i should be ok for one hopefully. Just fell on a sunday and all the garages that i know locally were shut. It should be changed today and back together tomorrow if all goes well.

Yes was a little bit brass yesterday @TNT Mr Raider but had to get stuck in and get the job done. Should be good for many more miles hopefully

 

[gtmatt]

I had a night mare getting that clutch pulley of the alt on my scenic 3 , I got the laser socket tool to get mine off and even that was a pain , also had to do one on the laguna as it started to whine another renault common job

 

[Brigsy]

The overrun pulleys are pretty much a service item, i had to do one on my peugeot. They hardly ever last to a cambelt change, Not a massive fan of them @gtmatt

The way forward for getting them off is fit the 33 spline or whatever it is nut in and rattle the pulley off with a battery or air impact driver as they need shocking off. I nearly snapped the tool trying to get one off before with no success. a local lad who does the taxis took it off in ten seconds with a snap on battery impact driver

Not had mine changed as the lads did not use the impact driver even though i told them the best way and fecked the tool with a bar "its welded on was all i heard" im going to sort the job out myself today. Fecking spanner monkeys

 

[Brigsy]

The fecking alternator saga continues

So i take the alternator to my mates garage. gets the tool on and the old pulley is off in 30 seconds with the impact driver. Wind the new pulley on (made by INA oem quality) looks more or less identical and should go straight on. Bang bang and the new pulley is stuck on the shaft half way! Back off again and its started to chew up the shaft as the fecking tolerances are miles out!! After filing the shaft clean again i pondered about making it fit with a die grinder but decided to get anther pulley. I go to euro car parts and a few other places, one could get the exact oem pulley by the end of the week for £40. At this point i have used about £15 worth of fuel running about in the megane so i ring renault on a price for a pulley. They can't get a part number for the pulley but a new alt is £200, with mega discount i could get it for £160 all in, not bad but the price is too hot for me as its double the cost of the car. At this point i examine the alternator and notice there are cracks all over the body which i guess happened when i freed it off with Stihlsons.


Called it a day at this point and went to the scrapyard and got a good used alternator off a 2007 kangoo (same part number etc) £30 guarantee'd with 30 day warranty.

The moral of this story is if you ever need to change one of these pulleys just buy a secondhand or new alternator if they are available, only change if you have some obscure expensive alternator made of gold as you will never get the correct pulley first time in my experience!! Also the new pulley (now returned) was £22 with discount and secondhand alt was £30 not worth the hassle.

I then picked up the new aux tensioner. Searched high and low for one and the cheapest i could get was £36 which is a bit of a rip. Oh well back together tomorrow before the megane bleeds my bank balance dry - £25 in fuel today.

Running totals again

Last price £369
Belt kit and fitting £100
Type d coolant £12
Alternator £30
Aux belt £5
Aux tensioner £36

New total £552. The next update best be a silent squeak free clio or there will be steam coming out of my ears.. To be continued...

 

[andybond]

If carslberg did car update threads ...

 

[DaveL485]

Funnily enough mate I had the same saga with the Volvo. The clutch pulley went on the Alternator, I bought the proper part and tool for about £50 all in. Turns out some chump had rounded the T50 drive off inside the alternator shaft already....i was raging. There was literally nothing there to hold the shaft. I took the alternator off and cut the pulley off, but I had to cut so much of it away I ended up damaging the shaft too. I ended up buying a brand new, complete alternator at £120-odd quid. I got my money back for the new pulley though.