Discussion
I had a 197 from new in 2007 to 2009 - it was a great car; only traded due to having our first baby. It only lost me £3k in depreciation in 17,000 miles, which really isn't bad for any new car in 2 years.
RenaultSport fans had a tendency (which, admittedly, may be right for the latest model) of slating the newest product and holding up the last one as the best. It happened with the 16V, Williams, 172, 182 etc - and the 197.
I owned all of them and think that the 197 was the best, so long as you didn't mind the slightly lower spec than was standard on the 172 and 182.
Lovely car.
RenaultSport fans had a tendency (which, admittedly, may be right for the latest model) of slating the newest product and holding up the last one as the best. It happened with the 16V, Williams, 172, 182 etc - and the 197.
I owned all of them and think that the 197 was the best, so long as you didn't mind the slightly lower spec than was standard on the 172 and 182.
Lovely car.
Looks nice.
The gearbox issue is a common one, has the car got full Renault service history? You may get a contribution from Renault if it doesn't fail.
Those stainless manifolds are a common swap when the car needs a cat, the genuine cat (built into the manifold) is around £1000 and those toyosport ones are around £300
Hope you get the niggles sorted, I had a 2011 200 as a company car and loved that damn thing!!
The gearbox issue is a common one, has the car got full Renault service history? You may get a contribution from Renault if it doesn't fail.
Those stainless manifolds are a common swap when the car needs a cat, the genuine cat (built into the manifold) is around £1000 and those toyosport ones are around £300
Hope you get the niggles sorted, I had a 2011 200 as a company car and loved that damn thing!!
Very nice, been looking at (obsessing over) these for the past couple of months. Would love one in red or racing blue. I have a black car at the minute and it is the absolute worst to keep looking clean. Also, I believe that melting steering wheel is a common Renault 'quirk'.
What are your thoughts on the car so far? I'd like to get a 197 or 200 early next year. As much as I like the current range of hot hatches, for me they're bordering on supercar levels. 0-60 in ~4s? Crazy. These are the last of proper hot hatches for me, along with the EP3, maybe the FN2, for obvious reasons (3 door, NA, usable amounts of power, affordable).
Hope it treats you well, enjoy.
What are your thoughts on the car so far? I'd like to get a 197 or 200 early next year. As much as I like the current range of hot hatches, for me they're bordering on supercar levels. 0-60 in ~4s? Crazy. These are the last of proper hot hatches for me, along with the EP3, maybe the FN2, for obvious reasons (3 door, NA, usable amounts of power, affordable).
Hope it treats you well, enjoy.
Love it, I ALMOST bought an older 187 a few weeks back. Decided to go for the 'other' french hot hatch and picked up a 207 GTi, which im absolutely in love with. You just cant beat wee cars like these for smiles/gallon factor. Doing a wee bit of work on mine before shoving it up on a readers cars thread.
horsemeatscandal said:
Very nice, been looking at (obsessing over) these for the past couple of months. Would love one in red or racing blue. I have a black car at the minute and it is the absolute worst to keep looking clean. Also, I believe that melting steering wheel is a common Renault 'quirk'.
What are your thoughts on the car so far? I'd like to get a 197 or 200 early next year. As much as I like the current range of hot hatches, for me they're bordering on supercar levels. 0-60 in ~4s? Crazy. These are the last of proper hot hatches for me, along with the EP3, maybe the FN2, for obvious reasons (3 door, NA, usable amounts of power, affordable).
Hope it treats you well, enjoy.
I was one of the many that took advantage of the £199 per month Clio 200 Cups back in 2010 and own one of the current crop of hot hatches (2016 Focus RS). The Clio's handling was sublime. It needed to be taken by the scruff of the neck; revved out and thrown around to experience it's charm. For daily driving, I found it quite juicy. I swapped it for an E46 M3 and they both averaged the same mpg.What are your thoughts on the car so far? I'd like to get a 197 or 200 early next year. As much as I like the current range of hot hatches, for me they're bordering on supercar levels. 0-60 in ~4s? Crazy. These are the last of proper hot hatches for me, along with the EP3, maybe the FN2, for obvious reasons (3 door, NA, usable amounts of power, affordable).
Hope it treats you well, enjoy.
On track, the Clio taught me power isn't everything. It's handling shone through.
I had one of these for 5ish months and absolutely loved it. Mine ended up being a bit of a pup though and cost me more that 2 grand in maintenance in that time.
Get it up on a jack and give the front wheels a wobble, horizontal play, but no vertical means that you could be in for a very expensive repair, as that is indicative of the lower ball joints failing. Unfortunately there are very few places that will just replace these, as Renault and most indies will recommend that you replace the entire hub carrier assembly. The forums on Clio197.net were an invaluable resource for me.
Enjoy it no car has made me smile quite as much on a good twisty backroad.
Edit: the picture i inserted was the upper half of the hub carrier assembly, i've managed to lose half a picture somehow :S
Get it up on a jack and give the front wheels a wobble, horizontal play, but no vertical means that you could be in for a very expensive repair, as that is indicative of the lower ball joints failing. Unfortunately there are very few places that will just replace these, as Renault and most indies will recommend that you replace the entire hub carrier assembly. The forums on Clio197.net were an invaluable resource for me.
Enjoy it no car has made me smile quite as much on a good twisty backroad.
Edit: the picture i inserted was the upper half of the hub carrier assembly, i've managed to lose half a picture somehow :S
EdHall697 said:
I was very fortunate Chongwong. The last owner had the expense of the lower ball joints and the hubs on its last MOT, it was a hefty bill. The only advisory it has is the steering rod ends, and I will be sorting them next.
Enjoy! the twistier and bumpier the road the better they get 
Afternoon!
So I thought it was about time I gave my Clio 197 a bit of an update. But all my lovely photos have been removed courtesy of thumbsnap or whatever I was using. So its time to rebuild my thread, but shorter and sweeter... Well I will try and keep it short!
So here it is its a 2007 Renaultsport Clio 197. I bought in July 2016 from a garage in Birmingham for £3,600 which at the time and even now isn't too bad, yes you can get the cheaper, but in no way are these a cheap toy so you have to expect a few niggles and things to put right or to your liking. It had 73k on the clock and it's now just gone over 80k. At the time it was straight piped.
First got it:
Now:
July 2016:
So the first thing I wanted to change was the exhaust. Straight piped it was just insane! But I felt it was too loud and so I replaced it with a Milltek Sport Resonated System. It was loud in multi-storey car park but unnoticeable on the road.
The steering wheel was re trimmed by RoyalSteeringWheels as the old wheel was peeling really bad. Its perforated leather on sides, Black Alcantara 9040 top/bottom + Yellow center stripe at 12 o'clock, Yellow stitching.
I managed to get complete new set of interior dash console, vents, and the radio for I think £70 off ebay. The originals were silver and faded and tired looking, so the anthracite grey is a bit of change, but having searched for weeks these rarely come up in such condition.
October 2016:
I had it serviced and the auxiliary belt changed at a local garage. Some would argue to use a specialist, but they did a good job and rightfully so with their £150ph labour charge. Before it went in for its service I managed to find on ebay an original air box and resonator pipe work. It had a K&N Vortex jobby but it had well and truly seen better days! Whilst it was in for the service they also duly noted the battery clamp was missing, handbrake cables were poor condition, the brake pins needed replacing, and the steering ends needed replacing. But I got the parts in relatively cheaply and a local tyre place which does servicing etc did the work for two hours labour at £45ph.
Fitted an ITG panel filter, which is lot better than the filter the garage put in:
December 2016:
I bought the Renaultsport Cup Spoiler! I had that fitted and painted (£240 and £195 to paint and fit), literally transforms the rear end, and it actually does actually help the rear end in the twisty's!
February 2017:
MOT Time. Well it would seem that I bought the car with a dodgy MOT. Now in between the above I managed to find the old owner and found out quite a bit about his ownership. He had the Toyosport Manifold
fitted and a KTR Cat, but he got fed up when it failed two MOT's because of emissions and having just done the ball joints he threw in the towel. So when I took it in for MOT I got the dreaded call to say it had failed on emissions. After a bit of investigative work, it was narrowed down to the KTR Cat.
The garage the previous owner had taken it to had rammed the lambda sensor into the cat and sheered all the metal inside, and completely wrecked it. So a new Milltek Cat was fitted with a new sensor and hey presto it passed its emissions before it had even got hot.
May 2017:
PH Sunday Service - Santa Pod - 15.574 - Not too bad...
I fancied a bit of noise and brought the Milltek straight pipe, and had the resonated pipe taken out for now. I am still undecided on this, as the resonated system isn't too bad. The difference being its a little louder in the mid range, a few pops and crackles and it really rasps when you want it to, but it is manageable, it can cruise quite quietly when needed.
June 2017:
I had the door handles repainted:
I painted the grills:
July 2017:
Remap!!! So I found with the exhaust changes that it a flat spot at 3k to 4k, and the car was also popping like mad. So I started looking into the issue and it became more evident that the car really needed setting up properly. So I had a bit of a read on Cliosport and 197 and basically there were a few reputable remap companies out there - RSTuning, EFI, KTR and Engine Dynamics. Engine Dynamics are the closest to me, so on a Saturday morning I took a trip down and got talking to them. A date in the diary and two weeks later it was on the rollers it started out at 185 BHP and tweaked it made a healthy 194 BHP.
It's been smoother to drive since, it now has a warm up period when starting so revs are slightly higher for a minute or so and it gets rid of the kangeroo'ing and it doesn't pop as much from the exhaust, you get the odd pop but nothing like as bad as it was.
Future plans:
- Steering Rack for next MOT was an advisory
- Alloy wheel refurb (Silver or Anthracite)
- New calipers or refurb the old ones
- New pads and discs - Brembo HC and Ferodo DS2500 pads?
- Cup front bumper splitter
- Possibly lower with springs and spacers
So I thought it was about time I gave my Clio 197 a bit of an update. But all my lovely photos have been removed courtesy of thumbsnap or whatever I was using. So its time to rebuild my thread, but shorter and sweeter... Well I will try and keep it short!
So here it is its a 2007 Renaultsport Clio 197. I bought in July 2016 from a garage in Birmingham for £3,600 which at the time and even now isn't too bad, yes you can get the cheaper, but in no way are these a cheap toy so you have to expect a few niggles and things to put right or to your liking. It had 73k on the clock and it's now just gone over 80k. At the time it was straight piped.
First got it:
Now:
July 2016:
So the first thing I wanted to change was the exhaust. Straight piped it was just insane! But I felt it was too loud and so I replaced it with a Milltek Sport Resonated System. It was loud in multi-storey car park but unnoticeable on the road.
The steering wheel was re trimmed by RoyalSteeringWheels as the old wheel was peeling really bad. Its perforated leather on sides, Black Alcantara 9040 top/bottom + Yellow center stripe at 12 o'clock, Yellow stitching.
I managed to get complete new set of interior dash console, vents, and the radio for I think £70 off ebay. The originals were silver and faded and tired looking, so the anthracite grey is a bit of change, but having searched for weeks these rarely come up in such condition.
October 2016:
I had it serviced and the auxiliary belt changed at a local garage. Some would argue to use a specialist, but they did a good job and rightfully so with their £150ph labour charge. Before it went in for its service I managed to find on ebay an original air box and resonator pipe work. It had a K&N Vortex jobby but it had well and truly seen better days! Whilst it was in for the service they also duly noted the battery clamp was missing, handbrake cables were poor condition, the brake pins needed replacing, and the steering ends needed replacing. But I got the parts in relatively cheaply and a local tyre place which does servicing etc did the work for two hours labour at £45ph.
Fitted an ITG panel filter, which is lot better than the filter the garage put in:
December 2016:
I bought the Renaultsport Cup Spoiler! I had that fitted and painted (£240 and £195 to paint and fit), literally transforms the rear end, and it actually does actually help the rear end in the twisty's!
February 2017:
MOT Time. Well it would seem that I bought the car with a dodgy MOT. Now in between the above I managed to find the old owner and found out quite a bit about his ownership. He had the Toyosport Manifold
fitted and a KTR Cat, but he got fed up when it failed two MOT's because of emissions and having just done the ball joints he threw in the towel. So when I took it in for MOT I got the dreaded call to say it had failed on emissions. After a bit of investigative work, it was narrowed down to the KTR Cat.
The garage the previous owner had taken it to had rammed the lambda sensor into the cat and sheered all the metal inside, and completely wrecked it. So a new Milltek Cat was fitted with a new sensor and hey presto it passed its emissions before it had even got hot.
May 2017:
PH Sunday Service - Santa Pod - 15.574 - Not too bad...
I fancied a bit of noise and brought the Milltek straight pipe, and had the resonated pipe taken out for now. I am still undecided on this, as the resonated system isn't too bad. The difference being its a little louder in the mid range, a few pops and crackles and it really rasps when you want it to, but it is manageable, it can cruise quite quietly when needed.
June 2017:
I had the door handles repainted:
I painted the grills:
July 2017:
Remap!!! So I found with the exhaust changes that it a flat spot at 3k to 4k, and the car was also popping like mad. So I started looking into the issue and it became more evident that the car really needed setting up properly. So I had a bit of a read on Cliosport and 197 and basically there were a few reputable remap companies out there - RSTuning, EFI, KTR and Engine Dynamics. Engine Dynamics are the closest to me, so on a Saturday morning I took a trip down and got talking to them. A date in the diary and two weeks later it was on the rollers it started out at 185 BHP and tweaked it made a healthy 194 BHP.
It's been smoother to drive since, it now has a warm up period when starting so revs are slightly higher for a minute or so and it gets rid of the kangeroo'ing and it doesn't pop as much from the exhaust, you get the odd pop but nothing like as bad as it was.
Future plans:
- Steering Rack for next MOT was an advisory
- Alloy wheel refurb (Silver or Anthracite)
- New calipers or refurb the old ones
- New pads and discs - Brembo HC and Ferodo DS2500 pads?
- Cup front bumper splitter
- Possibly lower with springs and spacers
Edited by EdHall697 on Sunday 6th August 20:29
ECG1000 said:
Nice! This thread has made me miss my old 200.
The 197/200 looks great lowered with spacers, or even better - the race series Clio Cup Speedlines. If my memory serves me right, they're 1/2 an inch wider, negating the need for spacers.
A set of the Clio Cup Speedlines would be cool. I kind of have come to the conclusion to keep the car slightly OEM with a few tweaks, so may be a set in silver or anthracite. I am following RenSportSolutions on instagram and sometimes they have a few sets up for sale. The 197/200 looks great lowered with spacers, or even better - the race series Clio Cup Speedlines. If my memory serves me right, they're 1/2 an inch wider, negating the need for spacers.
I know people are split on the spoiler but I love it big fan of Renaultsports here... had 2x 182s (and a R5 GTT)
Now have an R53S and I'm the same with you about the Milltek! Bought a res section first, but it was very quiet so bought the non-res and swapped it over and it sounds insane. I just love the pops and bangs, although it does annoy me from time to time. I only commute a few miles each way though so I think it's staying on
the only time it really did annoy me was on track!
Lovely looking car there. The 197 is my favourite, especially the R27.
big fan of Renaultsports here... had 2x 182s (and a R5 GTT)Now have an R53S and I'm the same with you about the Milltek! Bought a res section first, but it was very quiet so bought the non-res and swapped it over and it sounds insane. I just love the pops and bangs, although it does annoy me from time to time. I only commute a few miles each way though so I think it's staying on
the only time it really did annoy me was on track!Lovely looking car there. The 197 is my favourite, especially the R27.
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