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Clio 172 timing belt



  2003 Clio 172
Anyone know how i can guess if this has been done on my car if there is no evidence in the servcie book?

Car has 49k on it, its 2003......

Regards
Andy
 
  Clio 197
Is there any way you could have alook at the condition of the belt?

Failing that ring the garage who last stamped the book, its worth a phone call
 
  2003 Clio 172
Well......i have only had the car for a month or so.

I think i have left it too late for detective work tbh....its in to Reno tomorrow for both belts, pulleys etc.

The car has been in limboland for a bit as far as i know...

Last serviced at Rutland Prestige Centre @ 35855 miles.....that was 01/2008

Car now has 49K on it.....2003 motor....

The car whirrs like a git when i first start it in the mornings....not sure if thats a tell tale of old belts/pulleys??

JJ
 
  2003 Clio 172
Will pull the belt cover tonight.....

What are the tell tales of old belts pulleys?

Can i see this, would appreciate as much info as possible here.....need to know before i commit to half a grand tomorrow :S

Anyone know people in Rutledge Prestige Centre etc?



Cheers
jj
 
D

Dj Annihilation

I had the same issue, was unsure...people who i got it off told me it had been done and stamped but was not re-assured as i didnt know the garage, i ended up spending 90 quid to have it checked.....They said they could onyl check as it was said to be done recently, if your talking years i imagine it would be very difficult.
 
  2003 Clio 172
Oh great, Renault have had a "technical issue" when doing my belts.

The had my car all day.

I have been told to expect a call tomorrow.

I have a BAD feeling about this :(

Jj
 

lemonnobby

ClioSport Club Member
I had the same issue, was unsure...people who i got it off told me it had been done and stamped but was not re-assured as i didnt know the garage, i ended up spending 90 quid to have it checked.....They said they could onyl check as it was said to be done recently, if your talking years i imagine it would be very difficult.

LOL i doubt if anyone could tell you that and it depends if it done right. where abouts in bristol you from

Oh great, Renault have had a "technical issue" when doing my belts.

The had my car all day.

I have been told to expect a call tomorrow.

I have a BAD feeling about this :(

Jj


i hope they have done one before where do you live?
 
D

Dj Annihilation

LOL i doubt if anyone could tell you that and it depends if it done right. where abouts in bristol you from

Live close to town, church road area, garage was in Brislington though.

Well they are a part of the good garage scheme so I doubt they are up for taking the piss lol. They have a lot of fantastic feedback and customer base, they specialise in high performance cars.

Not just that, why would they charge me £90 quid and say its been done properly when they could of said either way, nah not done right and charge me like a full kit price lol? they seem to know what they were talking about as he was going on about the tools required etc and how it being a percision job.

The belt had only just been changed under a month of the time I took it, they could see it looked brand new. If it hadnt been fitted right I am sure there would be signs etc, car runs perfectly.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Oh dear, Renault main dealer fitting belts is never a good thing.

They've probably done it wrong and lucky you now has to pay mucho pennies to fix it!
 
D

Dj Annihilation

Oh dear, Renault main dealer fitting belts is never a good thing.

They've probably done it wrong and lucky you now has to pay mucho pennies to fix it!

Very worrying that the car manufacture cant fit their own belts properly lol. What the hell is going on lol!
 
  2003 Clio 172
She's back, apparently it was a time issue. Everything is changed though.

Just out of curiosity, is it possible for them to do it wrong?

Possibly placebo effect, but I have myself convinced it's not as rabid as it was.

It seems a wee touch flat until about 6k

Does that sound right?
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Search the forum, theres been many people who have had the belts done wrong on F4R's - although you'd think that renault would have at least used the correct tools...
 

Ol’ Tarby

ClioSport Moderator
  Clio 220 Trophy
She's back, apparently it was a time issue. Everything is changed though.

Just out of curiosity, is it possible for them to do it wrong?

Possibly placebo effect, but I have myself convinced it's not as rabid as it was.

It seems a wee touch flat until about 6k

Does that sound right?

possibly timed up wrong but like daz said, you'd think they'd use the correct tools...but who knows
 

Ol’ Tarby

ClioSport Moderator
  Clio 220 Trophy
you need someone with the correct renault tools to check it. or take it back to the garage and tell them somethings not right still? you say they had problems doin it?
 
  2003 Clio 172
Yeah, they had it a whole day and werent finished at 5:30......

I am confident that its not right now, its definately not as vivid as before.

This is a renault dealership ffs, surely if the tools lock the cams and crank in place and then tighten the belt, how can they get it wrong?

If they didnt get it right that time, how confident am i that they will get it right again?

Would i be better taking it to another reno dealers and getting them to check.

Is this somethign a visual inspection will reveal?

I.e. lock the cams and crank and see if something is wrong?


This is like, the BIG main dealer in Northern Ireland.....if they have got it wrong i will flip like. I spent £500 just to have a bit of peace of mind that it WOULD be done right.


EDIT: Just to add, i dont notice the idling is any worse than before. It is flat as anything below 6k though.

CHeers
Jj
 
Last edited:
  2003 Clio 172
So looking at the Renault site, this dealer is not a RenaultSport "specialist" whatever that means.

I do have one about 20 miles away.

Whats the best thing for me to do here, contact the dealer that did it first or go to the specialist dealer and get them to check it?

Not sure what else a RenaultSport offers but i am just not happy :(

Jj

Jj
 
  ITB'd MK1
Yeah, they had it a whole day and werent finished at 5:30......

I am confident that its not right now, its definately not as vivid as before.

This is a renault dealership ffs, surely if the tools lock the cams and crank in place and then tighten the belt, how can they get it wrong?

If they didnt get it right that time, how confident am i that they will get it right again?

Would i be better taking it to another reno dealers and getting them to check.

Is this somethign a visual inspection will reveal?

I.e. lock the cams and crank and see if something is wrong?


This is like, the BIG main dealer in Northern Ireland.....if they have got it wrong i will flip like. I spent £500 just to have a bit of peace of mind that it WOULD be done right.


EDIT: Just to add, i dont notice the idling is any worse than before. It is flat as anything below 6k though.

CHeers
Jj

You'd be surprised, it's not just having and using the tools, it's knowing how to use them. I've fixed a fair number that were done with the right tools but still miles out
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Why did you take it to renault in the first place? plenty of specialists on here would have done it far cheaper, far quicker and far better! Renault must have cost you a fortune!
 
  2003 Clio 172
Nah mate.....

Not too many specialists on this isle that i would really trust and managed to get Reno to do it for 500.

Remove the price of belt and tensioner kits and the cost for labour was only a few pound more than quotes from some indy's

Jj
 
  2003 Clio 172
So, sorry to resurrect this, im sure you are all bored of hearing about it....

What eactly is involved in checking the timing? Is it a full strip down again?

Are the "RenaultSport Specialist" dealership going to stiff me a fortune to get this checked?

Or do i just hit up the dealer that did it?

Jj
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
More money for a start.

Why don't you complain to Renault firstly and say its down on power now they've changed it and you believe the timing is at fault? Suggest to them if they feel nothings wrong then you want a second opinion at the sport specialist.
 
So, sorry to resurrect this, im sure you are all bored of hearing about it....

What eactly is involved in checking the timing? Is it a full strip down again?


Nope, you can pull the two camshaft oil seals off (the black caps on the right hand side of your engine as you're looking at it) and see if they're both at the same angle. Obv you wont know if the engine is at tdc but you'll be able to see if they correspond with each other. to check its at tdc i think you need to plug the hole in the gearbox and turn the engine by hand with something down the hole for plug one so you can see when it reaches the top. Not very technical sorry, sure someone else will be able to explain better than me!
 
  2003 Clio 172
So from speaking to a friend who works on Reno on the mainland, it sounds like it's the rotating of the engine and tensioning that has the potential to put things out of timing, well on the dephaser at least.

I might be being a dick here, but checking it doesn't sound anywhere near as big a job as replacing it then, would that be a fair comment?

Essentially, they will be pulling the bunts, locking the cams and crank and fitting the tensioning tool and doing the tensioning procedure?

Is that right?

Incidentally, gave it some beans yesterday and it went well, not much till 5k then full on.

Perhaps a dyno run would reveal it easier? Cheaper too tbh

Thoughts?

Jj
 
  2003 Clio 172
Cheers Fred, might bob up to the local RR and see if they can do a quick run...

Ill get back to you all

Jj
 
  2003 Clio 172
Hmm....well, ok.............if its out it cant be that much out.

2 good runs on a reputable dyno there.

I asked if the dyno was typically optimistic and they assured me not.

View attachment 42697

View attachment 42696

You can see the torque curve being a little bumpy and id nearly swear that is what im feeling.

What on earth causes that?

Could this be down to poor timing? Or a lambda sensor or something? Or am i being a tool?

Thanks

JJ
 
Has anyone any thoughts about my bumpy toreque curve?

I've got graphs for when mine was mis timed and for when it was timed properly afterwards.. they're both lumpy but the mistimed version just emphasised the bumps more.. only difference being that in the mistimed graph there was a fairly big dip at around 5.2krpm (torque)
 
  2003 Clio 172
Could you actually feel those dips when you were driving James?

Did you have any other symptoms?

See my car idles and goes well once im on it......I can just feel hesitations in the lower regions when i expected (and think i remember) big lumps of torque

Jj
 
I cant really remember the one around 5.2k as you can appreciate I didnt spend that much time at those kind of revs cos it was running like a pig.
Other symptoms - the engine juddered around when idling. (Couldnt get it to idle for ages but found there to be a big air leak out of my brake servo vaccum pipe thing) so once the air leak was fixed it idled but wasnt smooth and sort of hiccuped every 2-3 secs.
also seemed to have not much torque or power until 4k when it seemed to go mad and the change in noise at just over 5k seemed much more defined (now my cams are timed properly the noise isnt as loud/noticeable)
My MPG was shockingly bad also. once timed properly i'd say its at least 25% better. The engine bay was also very very hot, the inlet manifold and top cam cover thing (where the engine mount is) were far too hot to touch. And it smelled very rich out of the exhaust (which it was - RR graph showed it to run much richer with the mistimed cams)

Cant think of anything else... lol
 
  2003 Clio 172
Balls....

Took it for a "spirited drive" this evening and i just dont know.

It sounds like a bag of piss when revving and really doesnt seem that keen to get to the limiter....

From what I can remember, these engines go ballistic and headbutt it is quick as you can say "fuuu....!"

Could timing really change the noise and characteristics like this?

Also, i revved it up the range at standstill and it almost sounds to go off a cylinder at about 3K

Its back into the dealer on wednesday but i just need to know if these are all symptoms that i should expect to leave teh car when timed right.



Jj
 


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