Hey guys,
I'm gonna tell you a story about how getting a clio 172 has turned out to be the worst decision I've made in a looooong time. I was planning on making a thread on things I've done to it, things I'm planning on doing to it etc... but I haven't yet had a chance.
Get a snack it's quite a story!
So I got the car in sept 2011, paid £1250 and it had no service history (should have left it well alone) had a few months of driving it, booked it in for a service (not cambelt), cost me about £300 but it felt much better after, a month goes past and I booked some time off work to take the car down to Ktec to get the cambelt / dephaser and some other bits and bobs done.
Then 3 days before Christmas the first problem occurs! The car just randomly cut out with no signs as to why, it wouldn't start again either, checked the oil and it was down alot (even after the service less than a month prior) so I had a garage come and collect it to look at it. Turns out the bottom end had literally eaten itself. They took the sump off and just found chunks of metal throughout.
This is over christmas period so the garage was technically closed, but the owner was kind enough to have a look at it on the odd day when he was popping in and out.
I sourced another engine, had it sent over to them (which took ages because instead of sending it to Bristol they sent it to Newcastle
) had them change the cam belt, dephaser, clutch, water pump, head gasket, few other little bits like throttle cable, lower engine mount. Having that done cost more than the car cost originally, but my argument was with it being done I would have a car that wouldn't go wrong for months so I wouldn't have to worry.... how wrong I was!
Got the car back, drove it incredibly slowly, not taking it over 4k rpm then after 2 weeks of driving it, all seemed ok, I was on my way to work for an early again, it was about 06:10am I was getting off the main road to get into the back lanes to take me to work, when all of a sudden the oil pressure light came on and all the engine power went, the revs were dropping no matter whether I pressed the throttle and regardless of what gear I was in, so within about 20 seconds I pulled over to the side of the road, locked the car and started running to work (had about 20 mins to run about 2.5 miles in a shirt and tie -.- )
Had the garage pick it up again, they had a look at it, and then told me that a follower under the cam shaft had come loose, lifted up jammed under the cam shaft for a split second, causing the timing to slip and the piston to bend 6 of 8 exhaust valves... RAAAGE. So, had them fix that, they changed the head set, head bolts, coil pack (because during the time they were working on it, it started misfiring which they narrowed down to the coil pack) exhaust valves, and the usual stuff like sealer, oil filter, oil cam bolt etc. Thankfully, there proper nice chaps so they said if I pay for the parts, they'd worry about the labour as they felt bad for me, for this to happen so soon.
So after all that, I picked it up today! It still had one problem where the oil pressure was dropping on idle after the engine had warmed up. They said the engine was running spot on, except for this one issue with the oil pressure light flickering on when the pressure dropped to 0.6bar on idle.
...
That's not the end...
On the drive back, I notice some smoke, white smoke, very faint, couldn't pin point where it was coming from, or if it was coming from my car, so I carry on, as I'm about a mile away from home I notice more smoke... quite a lot more smoke.... coming from under my bonnet... I get home and open the bonnet to find the oil filler cap off, and oil EVERYWHERE. I rang them immediately to tell them what had happened, I was then instructed to check the oil level, put the oil cap back on, clean off excess oil, let it run for a bit and see if there are any issues, I had to put 4L of oil back in to get it between the marks.
I let it idle for 10 mins, all seemed ok so I went for a drive, everything seemed ok, It was a reasonable temp, just below halfway, oil level ok, went down quite a steep hill, and I kept putting the clutch in to try and get the oil pressure light to come on (still hadn't happened since I got the car back) got to the bottom of the hill, put it in 3rd to pull away and notice it seems to be a bit down on power, so i head for home, the more I drive it the more it seems to be losing power, then I get to a hill which I have to go up in 2nd because of the lack of power, when all of a sudden the exhaust starts billowing white smoke, huge amounts of white smoke! I immediately stop, check under the bonnet, coolant level was ok, just over min, so I drove it back home (2 mins away) and as I was driving, white smoke was still coming out the back.
When I got home I left it to cool for a bit, went back and checked the oil, it was ok, checked the coolant level, it was ok, took the cap off the coolant and there was white smoke coming out of the tank. So now I'm thinking the head's cracked or the head gasket has gone (even though it's brand new :/)
long story short, anyone want a PoS 172?
If you got this far, thank you for reading!
Ben
I'm gonna tell you a story about how getting a clio 172 has turned out to be the worst decision I've made in a looooong time. I was planning on making a thread on things I've done to it, things I'm planning on doing to it etc... but I haven't yet had a chance.
Get a snack it's quite a story!
So I got the car in sept 2011, paid £1250 and it had no service history (should have left it well alone) had a few months of driving it, booked it in for a service (not cambelt), cost me about £300 but it felt much better after, a month goes past and I booked some time off work to take the car down to Ktec to get the cambelt / dephaser and some other bits and bobs done.
Then 3 days before Christmas the first problem occurs! The car just randomly cut out with no signs as to why, it wouldn't start again either, checked the oil and it was down alot (even after the service less than a month prior) so I had a garage come and collect it to look at it. Turns out the bottom end had literally eaten itself. They took the sump off and just found chunks of metal throughout.
This is over christmas period so the garage was technically closed, but the owner was kind enough to have a look at it on the odd day when he was popping in and out.
I sourced another engine, had it sent over to them (which took ages because instead of sending it to Bristol they sent it to Newcastle
) had them change the cam belt, dephaser, clutch, water pump, head gasket, few other little bits like throttle cable, lower engine mount. Having that done cost more than the car cost originally, but my argument was with it being done I would have a car that wouldn't go wrong for months so I wouldn't have to worry.... how wrong I was!Got the car back, drove it incredibly slowly, not taking it over 4k rpm then after 2 weeks of driving it, all seemed ok, I was on my way to work for an early again, it was about 06:10am I was getting off the main road to get into the back lanes to take me to work, when all of a sudden the oil pressure light came on and all the engine power went, the revs were dropping no matter whether I pressed the throttle and regardless of what gear I was in, so within about 20 seconds I pulled over to the side of the road, locked the car and started running to work (had about 20 mins to run about 2.5 miles in a shirt and tie -.- )
Had the garage pick it up again, they had a look at it, and then told me that a follower under the cam shaft had come loose, lifted up jammed under the cam shaft for a split second, causing the timing to slip and the piston to bend 6 of 8 exhaust valves... RAAAGE. So, had them fix that, they changed the head set, head bolts, coil pack (because during the time they were working on it, it started misfiring which they narrowed down to the coil pack) exhaust valves, and the usual stuff like sealer, oil filter, oil cam bolt etc. Thankfully, there proper nice chaps so they said if I pay for the parts, they'd worry about the labour as they felt bad for me, for this to happen so soon.
So after all that, I picked it up today! It still had one problem where the oil pressure was dropping on idle after the engine had warmed up. They said the engine was running spot on, except for this one issue with the oil pressure light flickering on when the pressure dropped to 0.6bar on idle.
...
That's not the end...
On the drive back, I notice some smoke, white smoke, very faint, couldn't pin point where it was coming from, or if it was coming from my car, so I carry on, as I'm about a mile away from home I notice more smoke... quite a lot more smoke.... coming from under my bonnet... I get home and open the bonnet to find the oil filler cap off, and oil EVERYWHERE. I rang them immediately to tell them what had happened, I was then instructed to check the oil level, put the oil cap back on, clean off excess oil, let it run for a bit and see if there are any issues, I had to put 4L of oil back in to get it between the marks.
I let it idle for 10 mins, all seemed ok so I went for a drive, everything seemed ok, It was a reasonable temp, just below halfway, oil level ok, went down quite a steep hill, and I kept putting the clutch in to try and get the oil pressure light to come on (still hadn't happened since I got the car back) got to the bottom of the hill, put it in 3rd to pull away and notice it seems to be a bit down on power, so i head for home, the more I drive it the more it seems to be losing power, then I get to a hill which I have to go up in 2nd because of the lack of power, when all of a sudden the exhaust starts billowing white smoke, huge amounts of white smoke! I immediately stop, check under the bonnet, coolant level was ok, just over min, so I drove it back home (2 mins away) and as I was driving, white smoke was still coming out the back.
When I got home I left it to cool for a bit, went back and checked the oil, it was ok, checked the coolant level, it was ok, took the cap off the coolant and there was white smoke coming out of the tank. So now I'm thinking the head's cracked or the head gasket has gone (even though it's brand new :/)
long story short, anyone want a PoS 172?
If you got this far, thank you for reading!
Ben
