Monaco Blue 172 :-)

[Reshard1977]

Hi All,

After being into german cars for as far back as I can remember, and being into Scoobies for the past 10 years, i decided to get a little Clio 172 Since reading about how awesome they are on Scoobynet, I knew I had to get one, and experiance one!

Although I joined Cliosport.net a while back, and read lots of posts, today is the first time i'm posting, since I bought my addition to the family over the weekend

I bought my Clio with my heart, rather than my head, I just LOVE the Monaco blue Clios!!

My Clio polish up well, but has a few dings, idles rough, wear on seats, trim, all wheels scuffed, brake discs rusted and worn, AC doesnt work, BUT, none of it majorly bad. I want to keep most things standard, or make slight upgrades if i'm having to replace anything!

The car had a sticker on the wind screen, that i thought was suspicious, but loved the colour, and completely trusted the seller (seemed super nice). Turns out the sticker was hiding a big stone smash in the windscreen. I didnt check the car anywhere near as much as I should have! But, i'm happy overall, even though I know i paid over the odds for it.

I'm booked to Two Techs Mechanics next week for a full service, general check, and hopefully diagnose the idle problem. I'll keep the build and fixes up to date on here

Sticker hiding something very ugly! Seller told me afterwards he knew nothing about it, obviously didn't offer to put towards new windscreen.

£200 later :-( and new windscreen is in!

More updates to come!

 

[Louis]

Welcome to the forum. Shame about screen, couldnt you see it from the inside?

200 is a lot! Couldnt you do the 75 excess on your insurance?

 

[Reshard1977]

Welcome to the forum. Shame about screen, couldnt you see it from the inside?

200 is a lot! Couldnt you do the 75 excess on your insurance?

Thanks for the welcome! Loving this forum! So many subjects and topics have been covered! Learning a lot about these lovely little cars!

Couldn't see the damage from inside, the back of the sticker camouflaged it perfectly. I had a sneaky suspicion something wasn't right, but felt like I trusted the seller a lot, he seemed so genuine.

I paid a lot for the car, because i love the colour, the windscreen cost pissed me off. But, i should have checked everything more, before deciding i wanted it. I was seduced by the Monaco Blue!!

Insurance wouldn't do anything, because its not on the drivers side, in my direct view.

 

[Louis]

Thanks for the welcome! Loving this forum! So many subjects and topics have been covered! Learning a lot about these lovely little cars!

Couldn't see the damage from inside, the back of the sticker camouflaged it perfectly. I had a sneaky suspicion something wasn't right, but felt like I trusted the seller a lot, he seemed so genuine.

I paid a lot for the car, because i love the colour, the windscreen cost pissed me off. But, i should have checked everything more, before deciding i wanted it. I was seduced by the Monaco Blue!!

Insurance wouldn't do anything, because its not on the drivers side, in my direct view.

Should have accidentally dropped a screwdriver through another part of the window

 

[Clio_fool]

Monaco is a lovely colour when polished up. Nearly as nice as black gold eh @Louis ??

 

[Louis]

Monaco is a lovely colour when polished up. Nearly as nice as black gold eh @Louis ??

I agree, monaco looks wicked clean. @YorkshireKyle 's looked fantastic on track.

 

[Krarl]

Best colour!

Bit of a shitter about the windscreen, I'd put the old windscreen on the sellers driveway in 1000 pieces!?

Lemme know if you need any bits, I have plenty of parts laying around?

 

[Reshard1977]

Monaco is a lovely colour when polished up. Nearly as nice as black gold eh @Louis ??

To be fair, for me personally, Monaco blue comes a very very close second to black for me. Black really suits the car somehow. BUT, the thing I like about Monaco blue, apart from being gorgeous, is that they seem a bit more rare than the other colours.

 

[Reshard1977]

Best colour!

Bit of a shitter about the windscreen, I'd put the old windscreen on the sellers driveway in 1000 pieces!?

Lemme know if you need any bits, I have plenty of parts laying around?

View attachment 1430286

Agreed! And thanks for the offer! Might be taking you up on some of your parts in the future ;-)

 

[Reshard1977]

OEM brake disks, pads, brake fluid and service parts turned up today, ready for the check over at Two Techs Garage in Dartford Hopefully they can sort the rough idle out easily and cheaply!

 

[Reshard1977]

So, after the windscreen cover up scandal, after owning the car for a week, this happened! The front part of the exhaust has come away from the mid pipe!!!

pic from the opposite end, looking down the car from the front, looks like a bolt is jammed in the flange of the mid pipe.

This is making me wonder what else the seller didnt tell me, its only been a week in!

Lesson learnt, never trust a seller on Facebook, regardless of how genuine they look, sound, even if they have cute dogs and kids!! Scammers everywhere!!

He's even selling another clio! That he has, that he didnt tell me about. Not that he had to, but told me about everything else about his other cars.

 

[Chris15]

I bought my black 172 off a guy on Auto trader. Lovely guy, had a 6 month old child, wife was lovely. Car looked mint bar and drove fine. He said it had a service history and tons of receipts. He also said the only reason I'm selling is because i have a new job.... sounded legit right?
Agreed a price but didn't go through the service book. Went back a day later to buy and no service book, just receipts. GREAT! The only reason I carried on with the sale was because he had spent £1800 on the car in the 6 months he had owned it with receipts to back it up. (new brakes, exhaust, drive shaft, engine mounts, belts. etc).

Got it home and the similar to you after a week i put my foot down quite hard in 1st and 2nd and heard this noise.... no idea what it was but was horrible. Found out was the exhaust slapping the subframe. A quick search on here and it seems that when doing engine mounts & belts that the 1*2 is prone to this happening. Paid a local Renault "expert" and all was fixed.

I found a receipt, with notes from a mechanic, said something along the lines of "investigate noise from under the car". They charged for a new exhaust and mounts..... problem persisted. Going through the dates of the receipts, belts were done, then this work, then took it somewhere else, they replaced the driveshaft and fixed other problems that they found that clearly needed doing. Neither place fixed the knocking so he sold it on to me... who fixed it for basically a hours labor. But shame on this guy for not telling me that there was an underlying problem. Just be honest?!?!

 

[Reshard1977]

I bought my black 172 off a guy on Auto trader. Lovely guy, had a 6 month old child, wife was lovely. Car looked mint bar and drove fine. He said it had a service history and tons of receipts. He also said the only reason I'm selling is because i have a new job.... sounded legit right?
Agreed a price but didn't go through the service book. Went back a day later to buy and no service book, just receipts. GREAT! The only reason I carried on with the sale was because he had spent £1800 on the car in the 6 months he had owned it with receipts to back it up. (new brakes, exhaust, drive shaft, engine mounts, belts. etc).

Got it home and the similar to you after a week i put my foot down quite hard in 1st and 2nd and heard this noise.... no idea what it was but was horrible. Found out was the exhaust slapping the subframe. A quick search on here and it seems that when doing engine mounts & belts that the 1*2 is prone to this happening. Paid a local Renault "expert" and all was fixed.

I found a receipt, with notes from a mechanic, said something along the lines of "investigate noise from under the car". They charged for a new exhaust and mounts..... problem persisted. Going through the dates of the receipts, belts were done, then this work, then took it somewhere else, they replaced the driveshaft and fixed other problems that they found that clearly needed doing. Neither place fixed the knocking so he sold it on to me... who fixed it for basically a hours labor. But shame on this guy for not telling me that there was an underlying problem. Just be honest?!?!

Mate! I feel for you, because i think i'm in exactly the same boat!!

I 100% bought with my heart and not my head, which is not like me.

But, i loved the colour, and also, there hardly any clios for sale in London, EVER!! I was trying to not to have to travel for hours and hours and hours on a train to see a Clio, that could end up being a waste of a day!!

Oh well, its done now, and wallet is much lighter than it should be... but, nothing i can do.

At least i'm going to learn about clio's while i'm fixing it, and also get the chance to upgrade bits.

New SS exhaust is on the way

 

[Coops Mk1]

Everyone knows the best blue is odyssey, followed by racing.... Monaco a distant third 😜

Joke aside looks a good base motor and end of the day better to find issues now and fix them if you intend to keep the car.

What I find is owner maintained by an enthusiast counts for more, I do all the work I can on all of my cars as then I know it's done right, reciepts are for parts only, any labour is a red flag to me as it won't be done right unless from one of very few specialists I'd trust.

However, welcome, enjoy and it seems this little Monaco now has a new diligent owner who will lavish love upon her hence forth

 

[yeecup]

Welcome to Clio ownership. You will get used to things breaking, they are old cars, but when they are working they are awesome.

 

[Usr117063]

Its not too bad.. Now you have an excuse to buy a shiny new exhaust

 

[Chris15]

Mate! I feel for you, because i think i'm in exactly the same boat!!

I 100% bought with my heart and not my head, which is not like me.

But, i loved the colour, and also, there hardly any clios for sale in London, EVER!! I was trying to not to have to travel for hours and hours and hours on a train to see a Clio, that could end up being a waste of a day!!

Oh well, its done now, and wallet is much lighter than it should be... but, nothing i can do.

At least i'm going to learn about clio's while i'm fixing it, and also get the chance to upgrade bits.

New SS exhaust is on the way

All you can do is learn from it. The problem is most of us will buy a car like this with our hearts and not our heads. We arn't sales people or procurement specialists, just want our toys lol.

 

[Reshard1977]

New PMS exhaust arrived today! And new Ktec brake lines! Ready to fitted at Two Techs Garage in Dartford, as well as a check over to make sure everything else is running right!

I got the sports cat and silencer, hopefully its not loud!

 

[Reshard1977]

Wow, not having much luck with this car, in the space of 2 weeks, while parked up, both corners of the rear bumper have been hit by numptys who cant drive! Doesnt make any sense, the car is so tiny!! How do people struggle to get past when parking or getting out of a parking?!?!

 

[LOK]

The beauty of living in London! Every single week I have new scratches on mine

 

[Darren61]

Because there’s many people that should not have a driving license...

Nice Monaco though!

 

[Chris15]

Shame about the numptys!
Interested in your opinion on the PMS exhaust! These look the business!

 

[Reshard1977]

The beauty of living in London! Every single week I have new scratches on mine

To be fair, i've always parked carefully in car parks and havent had many bad experiences. I have a a5 and thats never been hit on my street. But, the tiny clio has been hit twice in 2 weeks!!??

What part of London are you in?

 

[Reshard1977]

Shame about the numptys!
Interested in your opinion on the PMS exhaust! These look the business!

I really really didnt want to spend money on an exhaust, but knew i wanted a quiet one, so bought the sports cat, silencer, straight exit version of the PMS exhaust. I'll let you know what its like once its on.

 

[LOK]

To be fair, i've always parked carefully in car parks and havent had many bad experiences. I have a a5 and thats never been hit on my street. But, the tiny clio has been hit twice in 2 weeks!!??

What part of London are you in?

I live in SW London. My R never gets any marks but somehow people must think it's okay to hit a clio

 

[Reshard1977]

Right! Great News

Car is back from Two Techs Garage, they checked the car over fully, at the same time as doing a full service, brake refresh, exhaust swap and gearbox oil change.

Only a few of things that needed to be sorted, nothing major!

- CV Boot split, now sorted
- Bolt missing from Alternator, so it was rattling, now sorted
- Passenger side ball joint slight play, will sort that in the future
- Aircon needed re-gas, now sorted!

Apart from that, the car is all good! Happy days!! Hopefully it will be a reliable now, and in a good place to upgrade stuff in the future!

So far, I've spent just over half what i've paid for the car on service and making it realiable, but happy its been checked, and all has been given the OK

Time to enjoy the car!

I'll clean her up and post some pics soon!!

 

[Reshard1977]

Wow, I'm going to try and avoid looking at Clio's for sale, I paid a bit above the norm for mine, because it was close to London. But, seen some real crackers for less, just REALLY far away. Weird, how people dont seem to have them in London.

 

[Reshard1977]

Didnt get to wash the car today :-( So didnt take any pics :-(

But, picked up a re-trimmed steering wheel. Mine is so sticky, its disgusting!!

Really happy with the new wheel, it has cruise control button's on it, my car doesnt have cruise control, but it looks like the air bag is the same size and would be a straight swap. Does anyone know if that is the case for sure? I'll find out the hard way soon enough though

 

[Reshard1977]

After my exhaust fell apart, i've finally got the Pure Motorsport sports cat, mid silencer and back box with a straight exit on.

It sounds nice at top revs, but not as quiet as I had hopped low down. But, its not obscene by any stretch of the imagination.

BUT, the tail pipe pokes out by quite a bit!! I'm going to send this pick to PMS to ask if this is normal!? Looks weird!

 

[Clio_fool]

The airbag will fit no problem mate. I've seen pics before of pms exhausts being quite long in the tailpipe. Are you certain all the joins are pressed all the way in?

 

[Krarl]

Airbag is different for non cruise control cars because they have cut out parts for the buttons

Although you can be a pikey and cut those bits off... lol

 

[Mbeau]

Easier to remove the cruise control buttons and use your origional airbag. The buttons are just held on with a couple of torx screws either side.

 

[Reshard1977]

Easier to remove the cruise control buttons and use your origional airbag. The buttons are just held on with a couple of torx screws either side.

Top tip!! Thanks!!

Hopefully the airbag fits now!

Thanks again

 

[Reshard1977]

Right!

Cleaned the old girl up!

She looks OK from a distance! But, when you get closer you see all the little scratches. But, then she is 16 years old!

 

[Reshard1977]

The car didnt come with mats!?!

So got some Ebay specials to go in

 

[Krarl]

Not keen on the 'sport' badge

Deffo needs the Renault bit

 

[Reshard1977]

Not keen on the 'sport' badge

Deffo needs the Renault bit

View attachment 1432324

I agree, i bought it like that.

As i was cleaning it today, i was thinking it would actually be better without the Sport, so badgeless on one side.

 

[welshname]

Best option for them is the 200 badge carefully placed to cover the holes that the clio one leaves.

Like so...


Monaco 172 Rear by Rhys Bartley, on Flickr

 

[Krarl]

I agree, i bought it like that.

As i was cleaning it today, i was thinking it would actually be better without the Sport, so badgeless on one side.

Yeah quite a lot of clios have the RenaultSport removed

 

[Reshard1977]

The airbag will fit no problem mate. I've seen pics before of pms exhausts being quite long in the tailpipe. Are you certain all the joins are pressed all the way in?

I emailed a pic of the exhaust to PMS, mentioning that the exhaust in their video doesn't stick out so much, and i liked, wanted one that looks discrete like that that.

They wrote back saying:

HI Resh,
That looks normal as the video is on a PH1 which has a different rear bumper design. The stealth exhaust is designed for applications where you want the discreet look though.
If it sits on the mounts all OK and isn’t stretching them backwards then everything is as it should be.


So I guess its designed to poke out a lot. Not really what I wanted, and a little miss leading considering the video with exhaust sitting nicely is on the page for the Clio 2 ph2 172 exhausts.

Oh well, guess I'm stuck with it. On the plus side, it does sound very nice.