Renault newbie.... Vouched never to buy one :-S

[goosemann]

Hi all.

Gareth from south wales. Big into cars, track days and I compete in 2 drift championships in the UK.

I have a 1993 BMW e36 M3 which has been fully converted from OEM to a competition drift car by myself.
a Fiat Coupe 20V turbo (290bhp) which is a weekend toy (possibly for sale soon) and im hopefully picking up a Renault Clio 172
tonight in part exchange for my BMW 320D. I also have a transit van for work and the missus drives a Honda S2000.

so yeah very big into cars lol.

I have owned a lot of the mainstream car manufacturers but never dabbled in Renault. Had French stuff before though. Are the 172's reliable or are they like a lot of other Renaults and a nightmare?


if the deal comes off I might pop to a meet soon.

oh and the one im getting has a 'nigel throttle body and inlet'?? whats the deal with this?

 

[Nik]

Welcome to the forum, goosemann!

 

[Matt W]

Welcome!

Which part of south wales are you from?

Never heard of that inlet! Do you have a link to the advert?

 

[Chi]

Welcome mate, also interested in seeing the throttle body.

 

[goosemann]

Welcome!

Which part of south wales are you from?

Never heard of that inlet! Do you have a link to the advert?

From Cardiff originally but live in Risca now.

Im not sure on the guys spelling, he did say niger throttle body but I thought no way lol. Bit too racist for a company name/product.

A friend seems to think its basically a polished and smoothed oem one.

I don't have an advert for it, I had mine up for sale and was offered this in part ex, looks like its been well looked after.

 

[Matt W]

Just check it's had the cambelt changed at a suitable garage

 

[George@RTR_Parts]

Welcome along mate

As Matt has said check if it's had a recent cambelt change by someone that knows what they're doing or knock a few hundred quid off it's it is due one

 

[Diagro]

make sure dephaser is done

 

[Corby G]

Very reliable engines, and cars mostly. Mine (172) ticked over 136,000 when I sold it and yet it never ever missed a beat.

Cambelt and dephaser is an absolute must though, they are expensive to be done and ideally needs to be done by a specialist.

 

[goosemann]

The guy is a ford mechanic by trade and has done it himself.

ive had loads of cars in the past and worked on all of them myself as I come from a trade back ground.

what is so particular about the dephaser that a specialist needs to do it? it is a case of it either working or not or is there something to check when driving it i.e VVT not functioning correctly?

 

[Matt W]

It's just that some garages don't use the correct timing tools when changing the cambelt which results in the timing being out = Loss of power.

 

[Diagro]

The guy is a ford mechanic by trade and has done it himself.

ive had loads of cars in the past and worked on all of them myself as I come from a trade back ground.

what is so particular about the dephaser that a specialist needs to do it? it is a case of it either working or not or is there something to check when driving it i.e VVT not functioning correctly?

Its just that it needs to be done. and when it does you should 100% do the belts at the same time.

So best to do dephaser when main belt change no?

 

[goosemann]

well you should be able to tell if its been mis- timed by noise alone.

 

[mantis946]

Pretty solid cars, just alot of examples are run into the ground or done on the cheap (Because it's essentially a shopping trolley) People not using timing tools (Tipex) or ebay timing tools that bend when torquing the pulleys seems to be more common place on here then you would see on other cars.

The only other thing I can think of is common for all clio's is the bonnet latch needs to be kept clean and lubed or it comes up at speed.

Welcome !

 

[goosemann]

Well I got it and fair play im impressed.

The belts and dephaser were done and he supplied me with the old parts and explained how to do it and what timing tools he used etc.

Car pulls really well and goes around corners amazingly.

For a Renault I am really impressed so far.

I might even keep it for a bit lol