Hi guys

[Mike...]

Hey guys, I'm Mike from Sheffield, many members from round these parts?

Hopefully looking to buy a Ph1 on 80k, cambelt changed at 72k (That's exactly when it should be done, right?).

Unfortunately it has Ph2 alloys on, nothing wrong with that just prefer the Ph1's, so wondering how much can they be picked up for Do they come up often on here or anywhere else?

The car is up for £1750, with 12 months test 6 months tax does this seems right? Wouldn't mind getting the price down a bit if I could, who wouldn't when buying a car, or anything else for that matter! Would offering 1600 and working up in £50 increments be a good idea? Even if i only get 50 quid off its a tank of fuel -ish. Do people run these on 98 ron or standard? How much difference does it make?

Also i'm sure you get asked this often and it much annoy you to f*** but should i look for the same things as you would when buying a phase 2?

Thanks for any help in advance.

Mike.

 

[Rob]

Hi mate, welcome to the club.

The car sounds a good buy, depending upon who changed the cambelt??

Ph1's are coming down in price a lot at the moment, there's some real bargains about, (including on here).

The ph2 wheels are a rare choice of mod, but they're not the worst wheels on the ph1. If they've got good tyres and they're not kerbed the hell etc, you should be able to sell them on here very easily. Set's of the original ph1 wheels come up on here pretty often and are called "O.Z F1's", you're looking for the 15" variant. A good set should be around £250-300 with some half decent tyres.

I personally run mine on 98ron now purely due to petrol prices, previous to it going over £1.20 I was always on V Power.

I found the car ran better on the higher ron, was a little smoother on idle mainly, but there seems to be no harm done by running it on cheapy stuff.

There's not a lot to check on a ph1 that's unique to trying to choose an RS clio, so yes, look for the same things as when looking for a ph2, but bear in mind that with the ph1 being older, check for signs of rust. Common areas are:

Inside of the boot lid where it meets the bumper
Rear arches
Under the bonnet near the suspension turrets.

Hope that all helps.

 

[Mike...]

Thanks mate very helpful.

The guy didn't mention where the belts had been done, is there a list of cambelt specialists knocking about anywhere? He did mention that the water pump had been done too though, one less job i suppose.

Thanks for the tips on the rust. Hopefully I'll be a fully fledged member of the club.