Renault clio 197

[ross1993]

Put my car in for a service and Mot the other day and there were a few issues.just thought id vent my frustration here.Car needed new pads , ball joint and a cv joint.

Didn't think this was that bad at first.How wrong I was. ball joint is not sold separately comes part of the hub . hub is dealership only.managed to contact a Renault specialist and got a seperate ball joint for 78 pound...

next problem , cv joint.. nobody will supply one. bought one off ebay £60 (wishful thinking i know) surprise surprise doesnt fit.
Ended up contacting a different specialist £120 for a nearside drive shaft if I return my old one.
thats 258 for parts a week without a car and 250 pound for the the service and mot.

rant over .

 

[gordon stephenson]

Thats modern cars for you, Cr@p for what used to be cheap easy jobs.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

Been there with a VW and often had to pay double the price for bits than if a normal model.
Moral of story - own a version of a car that isn't common and you can expect to pay a lot more for parts than the cooking version

 

[ross1993]

£250 for service and mot?

They'd better be mixing gold leaf in with the oil for that much

was quite a big service that needed doing

 

[AndyStobbs]

Takes the micky just changing the spark plugs in those things. The 2.0 N/A engine I think?

£500 spent in a year isn't that bad.

How did they fail the cv joint - ie. Because of what was it rejected?

 

[ross1993]

yeah thats it . should see what its like trying to change exhaust manifold...
that was expensive.
and all the tyres and at 26mpg not to cheap to run either.

 

[Kayos]

Running costs is a non issue IMO, if you don't like it, buy something else.......

As for expensive parts, I had a 206 2.0 diesel, everytime there was 2 options on parts it was the more expensive one, even the heater resistor module was £30!

 

[AndyStobbs]

Have done a few jobs on one of those cars. Nippy but never found it fun enough or practical enough to justify all the awkwardness.

 

[V6BOY]

My friend had a 197 back in 2007 really have the rev the hell out of them to get them going, but they are really fun cars. My mate got rid was sick of £200 V6 Mondeos sitting on his bumper.

 

[ross1993]

yeah they're flat as a fart until your 5000 revs up.does get a bit tiring having to wind up up but i love it at 7000 revs

 

[BrokenBiker]

i had a borrow of a mates 182 a while back, my megane was being its usual french self and i needed to get up to swindon the next day, he used the term 'treat it like your own, but dont get any tickets...' it was a fun car to drive but got a bit boring after a while. seemed more suited to windy country roads than blasting up dual carriageways and motorways quickly

 

[BrokenBiker]

My friend had a 197 back in 2007 really have the rev the hell out of them to get them going, but they are really fun cars. My mate got rid was sick of £200 V6 Mondeos sitting on his bumper.

i also had the pleasure of driving an st24 and the newer st220, the st24 was a much beter car imo and plenty quick enough to have fun in

 

[BrokenBiker]

You'd like my mates Vec....
running a 205Bhp remap and somewhere north of 440nm torque...
my saab ain't much slower...given a few people a fright...methinks they don't realise its running 180-200BHP and 420ish nm torque...

my father had a sierra when i was about 6, it was a standard 2.0 gls i think, but some clown drive into it while it was parked outside the house and the insurance wrote it off because the exhaust was damaged...he bought it back and put the engine and running gear out of a cossie into it, but lef tthe body standard...that gave a few people a shock at the lights...after that he decided to put a cossie bodykit on it, but wanted it to look like it was a replica rather than the real thing so left the interior standard and sprayed the body kit grey to look like primer against the white body...it looked good in all fairness but even so it did its job of making people think it was a standard 2.0 with a bodykit on it...until he put his foot down

 

[ross1993]

not sure what the next car will be , thinking maybe an e46 330d .would be nice to have some torque

 

[AndyStobbs]

My (petrol) vec is at 230hp 257Nm.

Still got a couple of mods I want to do in the inlet side, but it'll never have the torque of a diesel.

 

[AndyStobbs]

3.2v6, such dissapointing figures for such a big engine. Need to fit the 2.6 heads on it, to bump the compression ratio up where it belongs, instead of the dreary figure its on now - but it does mean it needs no EGR system. Wining.

 

[BrokenBiker]

Didn't realise the 3.2 was so low on ponies. Thought it would have been much higher than that

 

[AndyStobbs]

Its not new, the thing is 14 years old, but standard is 217bhp