Bringing 172 back to life after 4 years

[Ad172UK]

Hi all,

Long time since I've been here.

Pretty simple question; my 172 has been sat for 4 years without being started, its been sat in the elements in a parking space.

What are the chances of all of the seals in the engine being dried out beyond any chance of the engine running properly again?

Id quite like to get it back up and running again but I'm not prepared to throw infinite amounts of money and time at it, neither do I have either of those things, at present ive been furloughed from work so have some time to spend on either save or strip.

Any info or input would be appreciated!

 

[Amos91]

Put some fresh oil / fuel in it, unplug all the injectors and turn it over for a bit to get the oil pump circulating fresh oil through. You could also unplug the fuel rail & pump out the old fuel in the lines if you wanted to.

Otherwise, just fire it up and see how it goes!

 

[Kev@KAM]

I think its a case of try it as plenty of cars are mothballed for long periods. Personally I would be tempted to drop the oil and refill, getting oil into the head
Do a check on the belts
Take spark plugs out - use a small amount of thin oil to lubricate the rings (dont forget to refit)
Turn over with the leads disconected.

 

[Ad172UK]

I think i'll throw some cheap oil in there to get some through the head, run it and then drop and put some decent oil in with new filter.

I was expecting to have to drop the fuel tank to empty old fuel, is emptying via the fuel rail a viable option or best to just clear the lines by that method?

Thanks for all the advice and input so far!!

 

[Kev@KAM]

I would just get the car started on the old fuel personally then once running do a full tank to dilute the old stuff.

 

[Bankrupt_drunk]

How does the coolant look? Might be worth changing that before running it for any length of time. Not sure if this is applicable to clios but do you get rust on the valve seats if they sit for too long? If you've got a compression tester I'd check before firing it up.

 

[Daniel]

I’ve had some cars in storage 10 years and I just put the battery on charge the night before starting it up! 😂
(I then drive them very gently to be serviced and MOT’d)

 

[Ad172UK]

Update time!

So managed to get it turned around as it has been driven into where it was parked so couldnt get leads onto it.

Got it turned around, checked oil and topped up to just below maximum line and then turned it over without the coil pack plugged in, turned over fine so put £6 of fuel into it and started it (I'd run it empty before parking up)

It runs fine, bit lumpy but I'm thinking thats because there's still some old fuel in there and the new fuel hasn't 'watered down' the old fuel enough.

So far so good, apart from something is still running once the engine starts that shouldn't be, ive been away from the clio for a while so can't remember what preps when the ignition is live but it sounds like a guinea pig which im sure was headlight leveling mechanism?

 

[Ad172UK]

Double post

 

[Ad172UK]

Been quiet as i've been gathering parts.

Can't remember why I actually stopped driving car but believe its because it started to become a bit of an advisory gatherer at MOT time and could see if coming up with an expensive fail bill. Someone offered me a fairly cheap car and as I worked relatively far from home I needed something that wouldn't be interfering with getting to work.

Hence it got parked up with the plan to take it for an MOT and have the necessary work done before selling the cheaper car id bought.

As its been sat for so long i've decided to do an oil change and coolant change, radiator had a pinhole leak which had been fixed with radweld shortly before it got parked up so have got a new radiator to go on too.

As im doing coolant change I was wondering, is it going to be worth removing the thermostat housing to get as much fluid out of the system as possible or is it relatively pointless regards to coolant expelled vs cost of new gasket?

Thinking of starting a project thread also.