Clio 172, phase1, unseen ebay purchase...

[anonymous-user]

That looks like a good job on the sills. These wee beasties are worth saving. Can't be many ph1's on the road now

[Darkslider]

Jonny-Jimbo said:

Probably are great cars... this is my one. Was cheap. Got it for £330... then the dephaser went on the way back from the MOT which it failed on a few other things too. I'm now 2k in the hole and just want shot of it. Driven it 20 miles if that... what a pisser haha.



Good luck with yours, hope you have better luck than me!

Similar story with my ph2 172. Bought for £580 with a noisy dephaser, I'd heard it was an awful job to put right but how hard could it be?

Very hard turns out! Even with the genuine Renault locking tool kit it must have taken me ten attempts to get the belt tension perfect and everything aligned, which is crucial if you want to make anywhere near the claimed 172 bhp. Apparently there's plenty of these running around with circa 150bhp because the dephaser timing has been set with DIY tools or just got 'close enough'.

In the end I took the engine out to do it to improve access and fix a multitude of other issues, steering rack mounts and gaiters, valve stem seals all needed replacing, rebuilt the gear linkage with the pivot mod to try and cure the common gearbox leak, did a clutch while the engine and box were out etc etc. After months of it being stuck in the workshop I hated it before I'd even driven it, and was still plagued with electrical niggles after. I must have spent upwards of £1500 on it in the end and ended up letting it go for £950, not one of my better success stories


Engine coming out



Lots of 'almost there' with the timing


Cylinder pressurising while using a modified valve spring compressor to change the stem seals, not a job I want to repeat!



The finished article


I'd always intended on tracking it too but the car always felt too flimsy and fragile for that, whenever I gave it a pasting on the road it would always develop another fault or a new rattle that needed fixing so I never really had any trust that it would hold up to any serious abuse. That was my last French hot hatch experience after various Saxo VTS/106 GTIs, and I've sworn I'll never let myself be tempted by another one!

[zedx19]

Some bad tales being told on this thread, makes me question whether sinking money into it is a good idea! However, past 6 months I used it most days, had no issues at all, seems to take abuse without any problems, just feels like there's plenty of life left in it.

[Trophy Husband]

zedx19 said:

Some bad tales being told on this thread, makes me question whether sinking money into it is a good idea! However, past 6 months I used it most days, had no issues at all, seems to take abuse without any problems, just feels like there's plenty of life left in it.

These are strong little motors. I took my 172 cup to 160k ish from new and my brother put another 40k on it. Still pulled like a train at 200k.

Don't forget the F4R730 engine lugged Lagunas around!!

[uncleluck]

Trophy Husband said:

These are strong little motors. I took my 172 cup to 160k ish from new and my brother put another 40k on it. Still pulled like a train at 200k.

Don't forget the F4R730 engine lugged Lagunas around!!

Indeed, I’d say it’s renault’s finest hour.

Most of these cars have had years of neglect and thrashing from kids (especially when they dropped to silly cheap) yet they still soldier on.

My car has 135k and has just started life (after I bought it 8 years ago) as a track car now. It does get looked after though but I’m a maintain rather than repair kind of guy. Millers CFS before every track day,

If they’re maintained, very little will go wrong. The trouble is people spend a load on getting maintenance up to date from prev neglect and tend to grumble about it.

After all these years I’ve only just lowered the seats (have 12mm spacers stock) and fitted a momo steering wheel and it’s removed the only two things I hated about the car.

[Darkslider]

uncleluck said:

Indeed, I’d say it’s renault’s finest hour.

Most of these cars have had years of neglect and thrashing from kids (especially when they dropped to silly cheap) yet they still soldier on.

My car has 135k and has just started life (after I bought it 8 years ago) as a track car now. It does get looked after though but I’m a maintain rather than repair kind of guy. Millers CFS before every track day,

If they’re maintained, very little will go wrong. The trouble is people spend a load on getting maintenance up to date from prev neglect and tend to grumble about it.

After all these years I’ve only just lowered the seats (have 12mm spacers stock) and fitted a momo steering wheel and it’s removed the only two things I hated about the car.

In my defence I never liked the red it just came up cheap locally, if mine was a blue Cup I might have persevered more with it

[zedx19]

I like the red, lovely colour!

[Court_S]

Enjoyed this OP.

I was never that much of a fan of the phase one cars having always much preferred the phase two cars but these are starting to look really good. All off our work is making it look better and better and it seems like a car worth saving.

[zedx19]

Another update, this is turning into more of a progress thread for myself to look back on now, glad some people are finding it interesting though.

So yesterday nipped over to a mates garage, for him to supply and fit some new genuine Renault engine mounts, plus a new bush to tighten up the gear linkage. Well known in Renault forums, Diamond Motors, so handy having him local. New engine mounts stopped the slack and occasional knock I was getting, plus the gear shift is so much tighter now.

While it was up on the ramps, gave me a chance to check over the newly welded underside, which is now looking fresh. Shame it got caked in mud on the way there, driving past a building site that had trashed the road. Need to get underneath and clear all the mud off now, which is annoying. Had a good look round though with Mick and struggled to find anything wrong with it now mechanically and structurally. For a 20 year old french can on 127k, it's look pretty good underneath.

I've also purchased some Brembo HC discs and Brembo pads, which I'll fit myself when I have a spare hour. After the discs and pads are done, it wants for nothing else, have nothing else that's worn, nothing else that needs doing for me to be able to enjoy it.

[zedx19]

Further developments this weekend, decided to tackle the brake discs and pads as they'd all seen better days. As expected, it was much harder than it needed to be, due to various reasons.

Rear discs should be simple, but there's a big cap over the hub nut, which had rusted itself to the disc. I'm guessing the rears have been on for 10+ years, judging by how worn they were and how rusty all the bolts were. Managed to get it off, hub nut off easy, wound the caliper back easy, the reassembling was not easy. Getting the slide pin back in took a bloody age.

Then onto the fronts. Some plep had tightened the grub screws up with the power of grey skull, so obviously they rounded straight off. Had to drill the grub screws out on one side, other side managed to get them off.

Felt like I won a battle though, got them all changed. Brembo HC front discs, genuine Renault rear discs (due to integrated bearings), Brembo pads all round.

Photos, amazed it was braking fine on the old ones, plus passed its MOT like this. However, MOT just takes braking ability and it braked ok.

[zedx19]

Further minor update, got a genuine Renault air filter for 11 quid delivered, 5 minute job to fit. The one on it was a very, very old ITG filter.



Been using it daily, brakes bedded in nicely, 35mpg average, loving driving it tbh, it's a great little thing.

[Armchairracer]

This was for sale last week , I enquired about it and was very tempted to buy it, the only thing that stopped me was , well , two things , I have 3 cars already and the need for 7k+ this year to do my front drive ..Usually id say the drive can wait another year , but I think I'm growing up a little now ...did anyone on here buy it ?? Looks a great car and well worth the money .

Edited by Armchairracer on Wednesday 30th December 21:20

[zedx19]

Yep, sold within a few days of putting it on ebay, mainly as I had nowhere to store it anymore and it was just sat on the street. First person that came had it, someone into Renaults, an ex Renault mechanic and MOT tester. Had a poke round, took it for a spin and made an offer. Mechanically it was spot on, just the arches that let it down really. New owners happy I think!

Also got my 5 pot ST for sale, although I'm not sure I want to sell it, just fancy a change after 4 years with that. Mechanically perfect in everyway, bodywork near perfect as well but had very little interest. Priced that high though, Clio was priced a bit low I think!