RE: Shed of the Week: Renaultsport Clio 172

[moskvich427]

Aused said:

35yo RS172 owner here and I absolutely adore mine, it has never missed beat throughout 40k miles of sometimes very hard track days and driving, along with being my daily. It has outlasted 2 MX5s, a 911 3.2, a WRX, and a Focus ST 225 simply because it is so much fun and so capable. no plans to sell it ever! Naysayers just haven't owned one or properly maintained the ones they had IMO.

Took me a few moments to realise that isn't a weird-looking roof-rack on it...

[320touring]

Air con 172 belt /tensioner and an engine mount fitted for £460 was what I paid.

I believe the Air con ones need the bumper off to get the compressor out the way

[Skylinecrazy]

Cheaper on the cup, 'tis about 350 quid iirc because there's no air con.

[DaveL485]

BBS-LM said:

Limpet said:

Dayco cambelt and tensioner / pulley kit is £130. Can't be impossible DIY, surely.

Famous last words, the Cambelt on these car have to be setup right or they run like st, and you need special tools to do the job, £600 is about the going price. I know!

I did mine, and several others. Fiddly but not impossible but you DO need the right tools/locking kit.

[Skylinecrazy]

I'll remember that you do them at a cheaper rate Dave

[scarble]

Will echo the belt comments.
Got to be done right, £500 and they really do snap if left. The number of posts on cliosport along the lines of "help my engine made a noise and now it dont work what happened!?!1" is frightening.

harsh ride, loads of noise, flaky CD player, airbag lights really common, exhaust mounts last about a year if you're lucky, standard exhaust system doesn't last much longer, runs like s**t when cold and there's a good chance all the bushes are dead or will be soon, it's built to be light (well.. cheap) and that's why we love them.
A real working class hero and 172ps from a production N/A 2L is still fairly impressive today and that doesn't come at the expense of reliability, the engine its self, aside from the belts actually needing replacing as per the manual, is very reliable and there are loads on 100k+ today which are still running sweetly, mine included

Part of the high wear is probably down to how they're driven too!
Currently at the point where there are loads about, many a bit tatty looking and many being owned and crashed by chavs. But I'd like to think they will attain future classic status soon and start to go up.
Loads about with hideous exhausts too

eta: anthracite turinis are so 2012

[DaveL485]

320touring said:

Air con 172 belt /tensioner and an engine mount fitted for £460 was what I paid.

I believe the Air con ones need the bumper off to get the compressor out the way

Bumper off and headlight out for ease of access, which is about 15 mins work but the AC unit stays in place.

The aux belt is actually much, much harder than the cambelt because of the access/clearance and the spring loaded tensioner. Cambelt is about getting the timing right, as the pulleys are floating (ie, no woodruff keys). You have to lock the cams, crank and pulleys with separate tools. Great idea that ensures precise timing, but only if you have the locking tools.

[DaveL485]

Skylinecrazy said:

I'll remember that you do them at a cheaper rate Dave

...no money back, no warranty....

[320touring]

DaveL485 said:

Bumper off and headlight out for ease of access, which is about 15 mins work but the AC unit stays in place.

The aux belt is actually much, much harder than the cambelt because of the access/clearance and the spring loaded tensioner. Cambelt is about getting the timing right, as the pulleys are floating (ie, no woodruff keys). You have to lock the cams, crank and pulleys with separate tools. Great idea that ensures precise timing, but only if you have the locking tools.

Thanks for that explanation

All I knew previously was that after reading the work required, I paid someone!

[Flashmurder]

So much discussion about how much it would cost to get it up to scratch.. I don't see why you would bother. Buy it for 600 quid, give it a wash, thrash it for a few months until it dies. You will easily get 600 pounds worth of enjoyment out of this car.

[Limpet]

A mate and I did the belt on a Busso V6 in a 156 having never touched one before. It's a very optimistic 4.4 hrs according to Autodata, and widely regarded as a bit of a pig. We used the right locking tools and got it done in a full day, including coffee breaks, and changing the mickey mouse plastic impeller water pump. The point being, even "difficult" stuff isn't impossible for mechanically minded DIYers if you work methodically and don't panic/rush. I can't imagine the Clio four pot's belt is any harder to do than the Alfa's quad cam V6 that's been fitted into the engine bay with a shoehorn (and which also requires special tools).

It would be a bit daft to spend £600 having a belt replaced professionally on a £600 Clio, but £130 and a reasonable amount of otherwise free time doing the same is an entirely different proposition. Surely the ability to do a DIY belt change would be critical in determining whether this is good value even at £600.

[320touring]

Limpet said:

A mate and I did the belt on a Busso V6 in a 156 having never touched one before. It's a very optimistic 4.4 hrs according to Autodata, and widely regarded as a bit of a pig. We used the right locking tools and got it done in a full day, including coffee breaks, and changing the mickey mouse plastic impeller water pump. The point being, even "difficult" stuff isn't impossible for mechanically minded DIYers if you work methodically and don't panic/rush. I can't imagine the Clio four pot's belt is any harder to do than the Alfa's quad cam V6 that's been fitted into the engine bay with a shoehorn (and which also requires special tools).

It would be a bit daft to spend £600 having a belt replaced professionally on a £600 Clio, but £130 and a reasonable amount of otherwise free time doing the same is an entirely different proposition. Surely the ability to do a DIY belt change would be critical in determining whether this is good value even at £600.

I do the cambelts on my e30 no bother- piece of pish, but anything that needs "Locking tools" is not cost effective for me- E.g. if the tool costs say £50, I'll only use it once every 5 years- hardly worth the investment.

Agreed re it being a £600 runner, and can see the logic in that

on my Mrs car, the plan was to have it as a daily for several years-so the investment made sense

[valverguy]

As many have said, buy it drive it until june 2014, and either break it or track it. Awesome

[Digga]

Just thought I'd drop this off.



Better late than never.

[Limpet]

320touring said:

I do the cambelts on my e30 no bother- piece of pish, but anything that needs "Locking tools" is not cost effective for me- E.g. if the tool costs say £50, I'll only use it once every 5 years- hardly worth the investment.

I see what you're saying, but the other way to look at it is that your £50 tool is saving you £200-£300 in labour charges so it's already paid for itself. Plus, there is nothing to stop you selling the tool on when you're done with it and getting probably half the money back that way.

[scarble]

Digga said:

Just thought I'd drop this off.
Better late than never.

I was a bit concerned when I found out mine was near 100k miles and 10 years without this ever being checked. Phoned my local stealer and booked it in. No charge but it took them over two hours
Don't remember now if they replaced it or not but I don't think the original was at all corroded. I do remember it came back with a full trade-size can of wd-40 emptied onto the catch and surrounding area.
It's just prone to sticking with dirt and rust, the typical clio owner may have something to do with it too (bearing in mind it's not limited to sports but is equally if not more prevalent on the "power by fairy dust" variants).
Though mine does have a slight indent on the bonnet where a previous owner has made damn sure it's latched

[320touring]

Limpet said:

I see what you're saying, but the other way to look at it is that your £50 tool is saving you £200-£300 in labour charges so it's already paid for itself. Plus, there is nothing to stop you selling the tool on when you're done with it and getting probably half the money back that way.

ahh- see, you're confusing me with a motivated person

it'd go one of 2 ways, either tool sits unused, or I'd buy loads of 172's..


also, remember that the labour charge= warranty plus the shift of risk to a 3rd party (200+ labour is likely cheaper than an engine rebuild should 16 valves decide to meet with 4 pistons)

either way, at £600 for the car, its a decision you make after running it for a while

[Rumple]

yonex said:

DannyScene said:

I hate to do this and I've managed all my time on PH without suggesting this but most overrated car on PH has to be the MX5 surely?

or 3 series BMW's

[320touring]

Rumple said:

yonex said:

DannyScene said:

I hate to do this and I've managed all my time on PH without suggesting this but most overrated car on PH has to be the MX5 surely?

or 3 series BMW's

heh

I reckon all the mx5 is missing (apart from sills/chassis legs etc) is enough oomph

[trails]

on my second 182 as a daily shed...great fun almost everywhere but they do encourage hooliganistics