French cars... reliably unreliable

[oliver9523]

Every single damn time I need to go somewhere that's more than a couple of hours away the b*****d 172 throws a wobbly.

Today I went to get my wheels rebalanced as I had a little steering wheel shake at ~70mph and on the way home it started cutting out (sometimes) when pulling up at a junction and dipping the clutch. It was also a bit hesitant when pulling away, as if I'd lose power for half a second. Then to top it off it went into limp home mode...
I used one of those Android Apps+Bluetooth OBD things to look for fault codes but nothing came up.
Timing belt was 5 years old last week, but I've done less than 30k on it so was going to do it after this trip.

I'm this --> <-- close to just sticking it on eBay for £1 nr.

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

Sounds like it needs a service tbh. 172s are on the whole reliable.

 

[Fletcher]

My Clio 172 hasn't let me down in nearly 10 years and 100k of ownership.

 

[oliver9523]

It was serviced about 8k ago. I've had electrical gremlins since 2009.

 

[Poopensharten]

As said, they genrally are fairly robust/reliable outwith the electrical niggles - in no way shape or form are they anymore unreliable then their counterparts.

 

[Gally]

They're probably one of the more reliable french cars if serviced, barring electrics of course.

 

[JAMason]

Iv had 8 cars as daily drives and 6 have been French, their no less reliable than any other car from any other county in my experience. Get it properly looked at by an auto electrician.

 

[Dr HMS Derv Destroyer]

You think the electrics are bad in 172's. Go buy a 2004 Citroen C4 and then tel me which is worse....
Yellow looms and just yellow, break for fun aswell

 

[Gally]

Or a 206. I doubt there is one left that doesn't have an airbag or engine management light on!

 

[oliver9523]

I agree mechanically they're ok, it has been fine so far, but as mentioned before the electrics are dire.

 

[Marcos999]

Or a 206. I doubt there is one left that doesn't have an airbag or engine management light on!

Lol, my 206 GTi didn't but it did have an air bubble in one of the con rods which led to it snapping and what was left smashed two great holes through the block!

 

[Cub.]

I'll buy it off you for £100.

 

[Addicted]

Just sounds like a crap example, as per the other people here not had a single issue electrically. :].

 

[VXR killer]

The cutting out sounds like crank sensor, remove it and give the tip a clean