Bad Weekend :(

[Jesse16v]

Okay so where do i start....

I've been after a Valver for sometime now and have been saving for sometime too, so this weekend i finally managed to raise enough to buy one, had been looking for ages in good condition and i finally found one, only problem was, it was 200 miles away!

But my determination was strong, so i booked a coach which luckily cost me and my mate both £25 each one way. okay so 6 hours passed and we arrived, the sellers met us at the station and took us back to their place to go over the car and documents, he was pretty fair and honest with me with noting just silly things like a tear in the seat and that the altenator was playing up a bit but it still charged the battery, and that the boot had a small dent in it, had a little drive and was amazed, fell in love straight away.

Went inside, signed the documents, paid and off i drove, took about 3 hours to drive back but during the last 10 miles whilst breaking there was a sudden thud, thought we ran over a small rock but then pressed the brakes again to realise they wasnt working! Yup the pads flew out the back calipers so me and my mate was s**t scared, no hand brake and no brakes, i had to revert to changing gears to slow us down!

The next day i took it straight to my local garage to get new brakes (£70) and he rang me up with news that i was driving a "DEATH TRAP" , he said the brakes were tampered with (no pin in the calipers), he then showed me how the rad was just flopping all about in the engine bay, engine mounts were on their way out and that the steering column was held in with Screws!!! he couldn't express more just how lucky i was to be alive.

There is now a repair list of about £400-500 worth, thats the garage supplying and fitting, so i ring the seller up and tell him all about this and how the garage said there is no way on earth it was MOT'd 2 months ago, insisting it was a Dodgy MOT and insisting some money back he would not comply saying it was sold as seen. We contacted the garage where the car was MOT'd and the person who had MOT'd it had been sacked a few weeks ago! and there is now a formal investigation into this person giving out fake MOT's.

So here i am, stuck with my dream car ....

With christmas coming up and not alot of money in the pot & no car, this is my little cry out for help

If there is anyone on here who could get me some cheap mounts, caliper for hand brake, cheap good condition rad, steering column & good altenator please let me know.

 

[mini-valver]

Rage on here has just wrote his off. Might be worth a PM mate.

Chin up.....

 

[WillC788]

If it's any consolation, you aren't the only one who's had a rubbish time trying to privately buy the car they want. I almost bought a clocked car and wasted my time travelling to the edge of Scotland in another incident because a forum member (not this forum) offered me an ideal car which turned out to have a dodgy cambelt tensioner and was in 'perfect condition,' yet the key didn't work, the windows were jerky, the interior light was non-existent, the headrests were gone... The list goes on. That same night I went to look at another and found THAT had been clocked too. Great. So all in all, not a great time. I have the car I want now though.

You have my sympathy and I'm glad it didn't kill you though!

 

[edde]

The next day i took it straight to my local garage to get new brakes (£70) and he rang me up with news that i was driving a "DEATH TRAP" , he said the brakes were tampered with (no pin in the calipers), he then showed me how the rad was just flopping all about in the engine bay, engine mounts were on their way out and that the steering column was held in with Screws!!! he couldn't express more just how lucky i was to be alive.

If there is anyone on here who could get me some cheap mounts, caliper for hand brake, cheap good condition rad, steering column & good altenator please let me know.

Sorry about your bad luck.

The rear pads can come out.

Rad flapping about itsn't a huge issue depend how bad it is a bit of tape etc for a cheap repair etc.

Engine mounts are wear and tear persoanly buy brand new ones and idealy get the 4th one the R19 use from the subframe to the gearbox for some extra regidity.

Alternator try Halfords etc for a rebuild if you cna get a friend etc to help you on cheap priced trade parts

As for the rack how bad is it truely?

 

[Jesse16v]

Well im no mechanic but there was no braking at all when the pads came out the back, so does that mean something was wrong with the fronts too? To be honest i've looked at the rad and i think the mechanic is acting a bit OTT as there is just a little bit of play where the rubbers are??

How much would the set of mounts set me back? and do you know anyone with them?

Halfords to a rebuild? wow so how much does that normally cost? and is it an all day job? If not how much to new altenators go for?

I will try my hardest to find the lead to my phone to upload a picture of the column, basically what it looks like where the steering colum is near the bottom there is a screw holding another section in? this is giving the steering wheel alot of play, the mechanics say if the screw snaps there will be no steering and i could die.

 

[Mostro]

Wow. Sounds like a call to Trading Standards re. the MOT?

 

[MazzaR26]

Okay so where do i start....

pressed the brakes again to realise they wasnt working! Yup the pads flew out the back calipers so me and my mate was s**t scared, no hand brake and no brakes, i had to revert to changing gears to slow us down!

Getting a feeling of deja vu! This happened to me mate and ive owned the car for a while had no idea the pins had even come out, so might just be a problem that comes with age. Also ive lost a engine mount or two, again age problem. My rad is also quite wobbly. I change my alternator no long ago aswell. The only thing I would worry about is the steering rack, its obviously gone and has had a shitty repair job. If your looking for valver parts, PM Winston i get most of my spares from him, top bloke.

Well im no mechanic but there was no braking at all when the pads came out the back, so does that mean something was wrong with the fronts too?

When I thought I had lost all my brakes I just pumped the brake and they came back, cos I lost a pad the piston came out and all pressure in the brakes was lost causing them to fail.

 

[rclio2006]

Okay so where do i start....

I've been after a Valver for sometime now and have been saving for sometime too, so this weekend i finally managed to raise enough to buy one, had been looking for ages in good condition and i finally found one, only problem was, it was 200 miles away!

But my determination was strong, so i booked a coach which luckily cost me and my mate both £25 each one way. okay so 6 hours passed and we arrived, the sellers met us at the station and took us back to their place to go over the car and documents, he was pretty fair and honest with me with noting just silly things like a tear in the seat and that the altenator was playing up a bit but it still charged the battery, and that the boot had a small dent in it, had a little drive and was amazed, fell in love straight away.

Went inside, signed the documents, paid and off i drove, took about 3 hours to drive back but during the last 10 miles whilst breaking there was a sudden thud, thought we ran over a small rock but then pressed the brakes again to realise they wasnt working! Yup the pads flew out the back calipers so me and my mate was s**t scared, no hand brake and no brakes, i had to revert to changing gears to slow us down!

The next day i took it straight to my local garage to get new brakes (£70) and he rang me up with news that i was driving a "DEATH TRAP" , he said the brakes were tampered with (no pin in the calipers), he then showed me how the rad was just flopping all about in the engine bay, engine mounts were on their way out and that the steering column was held in with Screws!!! he couldn't express more just how lucky i was to be alive.

There is now a repair list of about £400-500 worth, thats the garage supplying and fitting, so i ring the seller up and tell him all about this and how the garage said there is no way on earth it was MOT'd 2 months ago, insisting it was a Dodgy MOT and insisting some money back he would not comply saying it was sold as seen. We contacted the garage where the car was MOT'd and the person who had MOT'd it had been sacked a few weeks ago! and there is now a formal investigation into this person giving out fake MOT's.

So here i am, stuck with my dream car ....

With christmas coming up and not alot of money in the pot & no car, this is my little cry out for help

If there is anyone on here who could get me some cheap mounts, caliper for hand brake, cheap good condition rad, steering column & good altenator please let me know.

If I were you I would fix the car and then promptly sell it...the car seems like it has been abused...and is probably hiding a multitude of other problems...

p.s. how much did you pay...?

 

[Jesse16v]

As much as i would love to sell it i really don't want to, its hard enough to find a valver in blue in good condition for £1k.

Well the garage want £100 to fix the steering, going to ring VOSA tomorrow and file complaint but the MOT garage said they are not held responsible for the MOT as the guy was sacked?

Its a lil obvious its been raced about a bit, as it has 17's, decatted, scorpion exhaust, superchipped, 50mm drop (with shocks and springs) , think its something like 170bhp.

Interior is completely mint.

 

[Gumby]

Fix it up and keep it You'll love it once it's all working!!

As someone else said, PM Rage about his, or MATT BLACK too

 

[edde]

Its a lil obvious its been raced about a bit, as it has 17's, decatted, scorpion exhaust, superchipped, 50mm drop (with shocks and springs) , think its something like 170bhp.

Won't be anywhere near 170hp on a stock 1.8 realy even a 2.0 bottom end would need a few more bits and pieces for 170hp.

 

[GarethM]

hope you get it sorted

 

[Timmay]

thats really bad news - hoep you get it sorted out okay

 

[Ian_182]

Thats a shocker

 

[Winston]

This valver wasn't off someone called clio2004 was it?

PM and i can sort most of your bits out too mate!

 

[JoelDee]

Sorry to hear that mate

 

[Jesse16v]

I don't know if the person was a member at cliosport but i did talk about cliosport to him and he didn't seem to know anything about it.

When i rang the MOT garage they said they knew the car and that it had been thrashed about a bit around town

Im not to happy with the current suspension setup though, i can feel every bump in the road lol so i think janurarys pay day calls for some coilovers, its currently at 60mm on 17's so it has a turning ratio of a lorry lol! which means i will also have to buy some arch liners as it doesnt have none so the wheels fit. God knows how much thats going to cost and how hard it is to refit liners.

Bit of an update so far, the car is going in the garage for the steering column repair on sat morning so real glad about that!

It sounds a bit tappety at the moment, dont know if thats because of the exhaust or that valvers sound like that just hope tappets arnt the next thing to go wrong.

So as far as i can see i will need a new altenator and some engine mounts, the guy in the garage is going to have a once over on some things too to make sure everything is safe

P.S If anyone has a spare boot lid (the boot door) for 16v blue i need one

 

[Peperami]

£500's worth of problems?

As for MOT/ Seller etc, you're on your own to fix it, as you've no come back.

Arch liners are very cheap, and easy to fit. Why not just find a scrappy/ breakers with a valver/ williams in, and buy a load of bits off that?

 

[Leeshez]

Sorry to hear that

 

[arj256]

Yeah the rear pads can fall out if the securing clip isnt put in correctly.
If you had pumped the pedal a couple of times you would of built the pressure up so you would of had some braking.

Just need a fitting kit and some rear pads to sort that out.
If you go to gsf ( www.gsfcarparts.com ) you can pick those up cheaply and there simple enough to fit.

The radiator probably is missing the top rubber mounts and L shaped brackets.
Either source replacements or temporarly zip tie them till you can source a replacement mount.
Double check that the subframe below the rad hasnt rusted on the lower mounting points though.

Steering column is usual wear in the joint. You can get these welded up and it will sort out the play which is there.

The engine mounts you can pick up all 3 from gsf for around £100.
Alternators are also cheap from gsf.

If its tappety then it could be clogged up tappets.
Best bet is buy some cheap oil and use it for a short while and then change it.


Thing is if the car has been neglected, it could be sensible to quit while your ahead.
These cars once neglected are money pits and once your committed its hard to stop.

 

[Bluebeard]

It all sounds hard work mate but theres nothing on your list a half decent 'hobby mechanic' can't sort. (apart from a new steering colum! f**k that!)

Chin up dude. It'll be worth it in the end.

 

[edde]

It sounds a bit tappety at the moment, dont know if thats because of the exhaust or that valvers sound like that just hope tappets arnt the next thing to go wrong.

P.S If anyone has a spare boot lid (the boot door) for 16v blue i need one

Chnage the oil and use the right poil filter will make a difference.

Boots might eb an isse try matt brown on here or Matt black they might eb able to help they rust there though so can be difficult to get.

 

[Jesse16v]

Updates!

Took the car to the garage today to sort my steering out and by 1pm, hey presto! it was time to collect it! well pleased with the results the steering is nice a firm and doesnt throw you everywhere now and can go in a straight line!

Got a bootlid sorted now and will be collecting that soon!

So my next major concern is this knocking, i can only imagine it is what the mechanic said as the engine mounts, whenever i change gear or put my foot down theres a loud knock, same if i come off the pedal, the gear stick wobbles all over the place too?? not sure what thats about?

I filled her up today and put some STP valve treatment in and haven't really noticed anything with the noise, still sounds husky, im guessing that it could also be fuel filter? when i purchased the car the seller had just filled her up with oil?

Also looks like im going to need a new altenator as the battery does run flat if the engine isnt on, i know its not the battery as its new, so does anyone know how much a new altenator will set me back?

I remember from my old clio the clutch was stiff too but this one is mega stiff and is uncomfortable, anyone got any tips on loosening up the clutch?

Thanks for all your comments, they are keeping me going, making my smile grow everyday

 

[Iridium]

Get the oil changed, and the fuel and oil filters. The knackered engine mounts would give a knock like you suggest for sure. Keep an eye on the oil level too, if he's just topped it up it might be that it uses a bit... Also, if I were you I'd get rid of the 17s onto eBay asap, and get some Williams/Valver wheels on there - or the 15" 172 PH-Quick wheels. That will give a MASSIVE ride improvement and probably will hardly cost a thing once you've flogged the 17s. Perhaps find some cheap new lowering springs that are only -40 instead of 60 as well?

Dan

 

[MazzaR26]

Steering column is usual wear in the joint. You can get these welded up and it will sort out the play which is there.

IIRC im pretty sure welding the steering column is highly dangerous as if you have a crash it might not collapse and will probably kill you...

Updates!

I remember from my old clio the clutch was stiff too but this one is mega stiff and is uncomfortable, anyone got any tips on loosening up the clutch?

They are all very stiff mate that's just the way it is, I used to hate it when I first got the valver but trust me you will get used to it and not even notice. You will also notice your left leg will become alot more muscular :rasp:

 

[LIL B]

im soo sorry to here wat happened wen i was lookin for my valver i saw bout 3 2 out of them were compleate sheads one of the didnt have the original interior and 2 sets of diffrent alloys and then tried to sell it to me for £1200 try a parts shop were sometimes u can get the bits at trade price :dapprove:

 

[Beef-Mc]

Winston is your man if you need any parts for a Mk1, he always seems to be breaking one!

 

[lisa16v]

it sounds like you should sell it for parts and get another 1 because its costing you a fortune, i would chuck it in and get another 1

 

[Laura]

buying privately is dodgey these days i nearly bought a cat C being told it was hpi clear

luckly i got my deposit back