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What to look for on a Williams?



  RB 200
Seen a Williams for sale & I quite fancy buying it to keep the 200 company, is there anything I need to watch out for ? any serviceable bits I'd need to consider changing etc?

Any help would be great! Thanks :)
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
I wouldn't buy one these days for anything other that top dollar i.e 4k +...

Anything that price will be a mountain of work - I know these things inside out.
 
  RB 200
Aye I was hoping for a bit of a project, I've just asked the guy he said it's had the arches filled and painted so there obviously dead! Ha, IM just looking for something cheap I can tinker with and use as a bit of a toy. Doesn't have to be a Renault I've just always fancied one and it fell in my 4k total budget :)
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Willy projects are great but you can soon end up spending a whole lot more than you wanted!

Mechanicals wise there's not much that goes wrong...
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
RUST

Mechanically they are really simple and very cheap to fix, its just the bodyshell that needs to be in good order really.
 
  PB Clio 172
Rusy arches

Why not get a 16v and do that up? Much cheaper to buy and its pretty much the same engine and you have the choice of colours
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Getting a valver isn't cost effective - plus it would come with the shittest thing ever to grace a mk1 - a sunroof.
 

Cookson

ClioSport Club Member
  Mk1 Audi TT 3.2 V6
Trying to find a decnt one of either is becoming hard work these days
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
Getting a valver isn't cost effective - plus it would come with the s**ttest thing ever to grace a mk1 - a sunroof.

The Williams 1 and 2 didnt have a sunroof but the williams 3 did have.

So all the newer ones, have got a sunroof anyway.
 
  clio diesel
Unless you are an obsessional person like myself who is prepared to get under one of these things with a dremel and cut out every patch of rust, i wouldnt touch one with someone else 10 ft barge pole.

They are a minefield bodywork wise. Even so called 4k+ cars will have extensive rust in the hidden places such as the area around the aux fuel tank, jacking points and lots of the underneath seams.

Many people own a williams without actually knowing how good they are because they are driving a car with 10 year old rubber parts on it. I drove one 'enthusiasts' car once at a meet and there was 1 cm or so play in the steering column he was unaware was not meant to be there.

Unless you change all the bushes and mounts at the same time, you never get a feel for how good they are.

Buying a 1700 williams will give you an impression of how a worn out williams will handle.

So what is the point?

And dont bother with anything that has been modified with poly bush crap or runs the wrong 195 tyres. It will drive like a bag of nails, whatever the previous owner tells you.

Having said that, a standard williams in good condition on the right road (witht he right tyres 185's only please) is an amazing experinece, which i have never seen properly recreated in any other renault clio.
 
Last edited:
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
I agree that price is no guarantee of condition.

You are unlikely to get a very good one cheap anymore, but just cause you pay lots doesnt mean its any better, might just be a greedy seller not a better car.
 
  clio diesel
I agree that price is no guarantee of condition.

You are unlikely to get a very good one cheap anymore, but just cause you pay lots doesnt mean its any better, might just be a greedy seller not a better car.

I would say 70 % of ads are like this at the moment.

Most cars on the net are WAY overpriced. Hence they are for sale for long periods (years sometimes) and are continually readvertised due to 'time wasters' When in fact it is the seller that is the timewaster because he thinks he has a right to charge 5k for a 20 year old rust bucket.

The 5k williams 3 on ebay on 105000 is a good example. Its probably worth around 1500.

Anything with rusty arches should instantly be worth no more than 1500 quid.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
The Williams 1 and 2 didnt have a sunroof but the williams 3 did have.

So all the newer ones, have got a sunroof anyway.

See a willy 3 for me is the parts bin special Williams - that's probably the reason why 3's seem to rust the worst of the lot!

I had a 2 but if I ever got one again I wouldn't have anything other than a 1 unless a ridiculously mint 2 came up.
 

Jamie

ClioSport Club Member
I used to think a Williams 1 was more 'special' now I'd take the one in best condition.

Personally, I prefer the Monaco blue on the 3.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
And you're right about the steering columns! I couldn't believe how much better it was when I had mine done.

Another thing that made mine was getting a new proper Williams (double skinned) subframe - my old mounting points for the rad where practically non existent!



The problem is a lot of the areas they do rust are hidden, you really do have to rip it apart to check which sellers simply won't let you do!


As above but where I found issues too:

Under A pillar seals
Under Jack/ECU
Inner wings
Bottom of doors where the internal wiring clips sit
Around door side impact bars (not an issue on a ph1 door as they didn't have them)
Under rear quarter window seals
Under fuel filler instructions trim
Boot lid (around drain holes/nozzle)
Boot floor especially around the drivers side (i.e around the tanks and filler)


Some of the more decent ads I've seen from sellers are highlighting these points but some you cannot see without removing bits.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
I used to think a Williams 1 was more 'special' now I'd take the one in best condition.

Personally, I prefer the Monaco blue on the 3.


It's a shame, it is a mega colour and the 3's do tend to look more 'fresh' but they're still regarded as the poor relative in the chain!
 

Cookson

ClioSport Club Member
  Mk1 Audi TT 3.2 V6
Most of the steering issues seem to be the U-joint. Easy fix with a dab of weld
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
Most of the steering issues seem to be the U-joint. Easy fix with a dab of weld

And the wishbone bushes and track rods etc same as the 172 suffers with.

Also welding the U-joint is pretty bad in a big front impact, its actually there for very good reason in the first place.
 
  clio diesel
Can we put the 'welding the universal joint' on a williams myth to bed forever please?

Google a 'universal joint'. Then look at a williams steering column. You are welding a 'damper joint' in the column, not the 'universal joint', which is lower down. If you welded the universal joint the column would not turn left or right.

The damper is there to take the harshness out of the road on the steering wheel, it has nothing to do with accident prevention.
 
  clio diesel
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]'Bodywork is reasonable, usual rust starting on bottoms of doors. Rear arches are ok with some minor bubbling.'[/FONT]

Minefield. Asl for pictures of the drain holes on all doors and tailgate and the jacking points from under the car.
 
  182/RS2/ Turbo/Mk1
Can we put the 'welding the universal joint' on a williams myth to bed forever please?

Google a 'universal joint'. Then look at a williams steering column. You are welding a 'damper joint' in the column, not the 'universal joint', which is lower down. If you welded the universal joint the column would not turn left or right.

The damper is there to take the harshness out of the road on the steering wheel, it has nothing to do with accident prevention.

Yeah if its just the damper joint giving play then thats not an issue safety wise, but if you weld up the UJ (which DOES get done too, but more on race cars where the column has been altered in angle so doesnt need it) then its a safety issue.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Sills and arches look shagged from the pictures.

Ph1 grille instead of ph2 for some reason and it's missing it's heatshield. Can't really tell much from the pictures.

Front door cards haven't been butchered which makes a change!
 


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