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What to ask?



Ask who?I presume your buying a clio?


If so, don't take the sellers word for anything. If there isn't an invoice/proof of said work then assume it hasn't been done
 
  Rusty Cup
Ask who did the belts and dephaser (a lot of people won't know what a dephaser is but this will make you sound like you know what your talking about) Ideally you would want them done by a Renault specialist. Look under the boot carpet as the boot floor will crease if the cars had a rear end knock. Look for crunchy gear changes, 2nd to 3rd gear change at high revs may show up a faulty syncro mesh. This crunchy change will eventually result in needing a gearbox refurb/replacement.

thats a start I'm sure there are plenty other worthwhile checks.
 
  172 Cup
All the usual stuff for any car.
Special attention for timing belt because they do let go. Make sure the timing belt and aux belt and dephaser have been done by a specialist, phone the seller and ask first, that way you can check here if they're a trusted specialist before you waste your time looking at a car that's been done wrong.
Ask about wheel bearings and when they were last done as they can go quickly too.
Other than that you can tell more from a good test drive than from anything they tell you.
Be suspicious if the cars been warmed up before you get there. Check the oil (I've seen one with oil halfway up the dipstick, literally half way up the whole length, and that hadn't been run for a while).
Ask the seller to push the hazard light button. Chances are it'll break and the lights will be stuck on. No big deal but let them pay for it. CD players can be iffy too, sometimes they won't read discs, sometimes they won't eject them (take a blank for testing).

Check the exhaust isn't hanging off and don't be shy about lying on the floor and taking a peak at the underside, I did when I bought mine. Although I didn't know to look at the exhaust rubbers so I didn't see the cable ties and sockets holding it all up.

You could always take a local CSer along, I'm sure there'll be plenty of offers :rolleyes:
 
  172 Cup,Gtr,gttdi
Wow a lot to look at then.....

Still unsure what mk I should get...

£2k tops

So either a £2k car or a £1k car then £1k for extras....
 
  172 cup
History and receipts are everything, the more the better. Personally I would spend as much on the car as you can, there is no point trying to polish a turd!
 
  172 Cup
Basically for 2k you're looking at Williams,Ph1 172,ph2 172 or ph2 172 Cup. All are fantastic cars and I don't think there's a lot in it, horses for courses and I think you'll find a clean example of any of those for 2k (I might be wrong about the Williams, they may have started going a bit "classic"). Anyway I got a nice fairly-clean Cup for just over 2k and a colleague got a nice clean ph1 with alloy bonnet and fast road cams for 2k.
Maybe start by asking yourself if you want aircon, traction control, ABS, crash safety, multi CD changer etc.
Or maybe just wait and see what nice clean examples come along in your area at a good price. Or hold out for some kind of fantastic bargain.
Or pick based on which you think looks nicest? Or try and find one of each at a dealer and test drive?

and if you mention the dephaser to someone and they ask you what it is, it's an intake cam phasing (timing varying) pulley. It goes on the end of the camshaft and uh.. phases it :p
 


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