First Car and Project - Clio MK2 1.2 16v

[Ryan M]

Hello Everyone,

After passing my driving test a couple of weeks ago I was eager to buy a vehicle like most people after passing their test. I managed to get myself a cheap runner for driving to college for only £300 and with only 65k on the clock. I know the car isn't the best bodywork wise but it beats getting a bus and standing in the rain. The insurance is also quite reasonable especially for a first time driver commuting to and from college.

You can probably see in the pictures of the advert the interior was a mess and the wheel trims were half attached and almost broken. Arriving home after buying the car, the interior was given a heavy clean and the outside was cleaned down to unfortunately uncover some more dents. The wheel trims have been removed currently until I either save up for some alloys or possibly some newer looking wheel trims.

My main question about the whole thing is, should I spend money on upgrades and improvements if the car isn't in its best shape or should I just leave it until next year when I can possibly afford a newer Clio or a Sport? If not I'm planning on getting the car to a newer looking stock version of the vehicle.

Advert Pictures (I'll manage to get some better pictures soon!):
PS(The seller covered the numberplates in MS paint :tongueout:)

Anyway after browsing the ClioSport forums and seeing alot of good projects I've got some ideas on what to do to the vehicle including:

• RS Grille
• Colour Coding
• SilverVisions
• New Front Bumper
• New Passenger Wing
• New Rear Boot
• Alloys/Wheel Trims
• If you've got any suggestions list them below

Thanks for reading
Cheers!

 

[Mar172]

No leave as it is and save while your building up your no claims bonus and get a better car

 

[Ryan M]

No leave as it is and save while your building up your no claims bonus and get a better car

Thanks for the feedback man. I'm probably going to follow your advice and get the car back to it's stock look but in a tidier manner!
Cheers!

 

[Mar172]

Thanks for the feedback man. I'm probably going to follow your advice and get the car back to it's stock look but in a tidier manner!
Cheers!

Yer that's what I would do just clean it up a bit and when the time comes look for an 172 or 182 or 197 the choice is yours

 

[Jack Parke]

Hello Everyone,

After passing my driving test a couple of weeks ago I was eager to buy a vehicle like most people after passing their test. I managed to get myself a cheap runner for driving to college for only £300 and with only 65k on the clock. I know the car isn't the best bodywork wise but it beats getting a bus and standing in the rain. The insurance is also quite reasonable especially for a first time driver commuting to and from college.

You can probably see in the pictures of the advert the interior was a mess and the wheel trims were half attached and almost broken. Arriving home after buying the car, the interior was given a heavy clean and the outside was cleaned down to unfortunately uncover some more dents. The wheel trims have been removed currently until I either save up for some alloys or possibly some newer looking wheel trims.

My main question about the whole thing is, should I spend money on upgrades and improvements if the car isn't in its best shape or should I just leave it until next year when I can possibly afford a newer Clio or a Sport? If not I'm planning on getting the car to a newer looking stock version of the vehicle.

Advert Pictures (I'll manage to get some better pictures soon!):
PS(The seller covered the numberplates in MS paint :tongueout:)

Anyway after browsing the ClioSport forums and seeing alot of good projects I've got some ideas on what to do to the vehicle including:

• RS Grille
• Colour Coding
• SilverVisions
• New Front Bumper
• New Passenger Wing
• New Rear Boot
• Alloys/Wheel Trims
• If you've got any suggestions list them below

Thanks for reading
Cheers!

I've been told the exact same mate, I love my 1.2 a lot. I've spent about half on modifications that I paid for on the car itself.

It makes it worth while especially when you're looking to upgrade to a more powerful car, then you look forward to doing everything all over again

Do what you want, if you can afford it do it. If it's a lot of work, leave it and get a faster car in a year or 2

 

[S-JM]

Great first car mate, I had a 1.2 Dynamique as my first motor and just bombed around in it stock for a couple of years, I was then able to afford to insure a 172 Cup, worth the wait!

Edit - 'Bombed' as in 'careful driving to build up my no claims'

 

[Ryan M]

Hey guys,

I've been having some problems recently regarding the ABS Light and the SERV (Fault) Light on my Clio.
I've tried to connect to the ABS Pump module with no luck unfortunately. Is there a way I can test the connection and see if my module is still alive or completely dead and will need serviced.

I also know there's currently a wheel bearing away in one of the back wheels and I've heard that can cause sensor problems, but not being able to connect to the main module itself is a little weird overall.

I'm also having another problem regarding the Handbrake and Stop Light. They're constant from startup and don't disappear once the handbrake is engaged.
I know about these lights appearing when brake fluid is low, but having checked the fluid it's full and doesn't need topped up.
I'm tempted to buy a sensor and see if it fixes the problem but I'm unsure where to go.

Picture of the Lights:

I know the problems aren't major as I've been driving around for a month now with no problems to the vehicle at all, but after checking modules and seeing missing lights I thought it was time to remove the clocks and see what lights were actually covered up by the previous owner(s). I guess you can't have everything perfect for a £300 car but it does the job and it gives me something to do!

What do you think my next course of action is guys for both scenarios?

Thanks for Reading
Cheers

 

[Will16V]

You sure its not something simple like a faulty ABS sensor?

 

[Ryan M]

You sure its not something simple like a faulty ABS sensor?

It possibly could be, I'm not ruling it out at all and is something to check . The whole process would be a thousand times better and faster if the module worked overall to easily see what sensor could be away. The module may not respond to the OBD Reader and Software I'm using so I'm not ruling that out either. I had a look at the module and it looks perfectly fine but it's on my list to have a closer look.

The ESP light does come on and then goes off thereafter, is the ESP system linked to the ABS system in any way at all, perhaps a nooby question but I'm not going to get anywhere without asking!

Thanks for Responding
Cheers!

 

[Will16V]

If you're unsure and your code reader is not giving any indication as to what exactly is at fault, I would first start searching Google for people who've had similar problems in the past. Maybe you can find someone who's been in a similar situation and resolved it.

If you've already done that and found no definitive answer to your problem, I would maybe look at the least expensive option first, but why would someone take the time to cover up the lights on the dash anyway? Either they had no idea or it was too uneconomical to fix!

Re: the ABS/ESP systems being connected, not sure about your car, but they were on a Citroen C4 VTS I owned recently. A fault kept appearing with 'ABS Fault' then 'ESP fault' directly afterwards. £14 and a new brake switch later, both faults cured.

 

[Ryan M]

If you're unsure and your code reader is not giving any indication as to what exactly is at fault, I would first start searching Google for people who've had similar problems in the past. Maybe you can find someone who's been in a similar situation and resolved it.

If you've already done that and found no definitive answer to your problem, I would maybe look at the least expensive option first, but why would someone take the time to cover up the lights on the dash anyway? Either they had no idea or it was too uneconomical to fix!

Re: the ABS/ESP systems being connected, not sure about your car, but they were on a Citroen C4 VTS I owned recently. A fault kept appearing with 'ABS Fault' then 'ESP fault' directly afterwards. £14 and a new brake switch later, both faults cured.

I'll definitely follow your advice and see what I can find regarding the matter and hopefully provide good news in the future. As you've said if it's too costly and uneconomical to fix the fault the light may require covering back up but before that happens I'll try my best to fix the matter!

 

[Ryan M]

I've got some good news regarding the ABS Situation. Luckily enough after the software I use got updated regarding a problem reading ABS Modules on Clio 2's I managed to connect to the module and receive the error codes for the vehicle. Unfortunately most of the speed sensors are broken apart from the front right so after cleaning and inspecting the sensors it seems that the reluctor rings have been grinding the sensor due to rust excess and worn them down causing them to fail. I'm surprised the previous owner went through all the effort to cover the lights instead of replacing the speed sensors and fixing the airbag fault.

So to be on the safe side I'm going to replace all the sensors and all the reluctor rings for each wheel to eliminate the problem in the future and hope this cures my ABS problem.
Hopefully the STOP, SERV, ABS and Handbrake Warning lights will go off after the rings and sensors have been replaced and I'll finally have a fault free vehicle and can finally work towards sourcing better bodywork parts.

I also managed to fix the Airbag fault light that was present after removing the covered up lights. A simple solution was to insert a 3 OHM resister to simulate an airbag and after replacing both the passenger and driver the fault was cleared with success.

I'll provide another update once the parts have arrived and ready to be fitted!