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Clio saved. A happy ending


D Spares & Tyres

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To be honest, I can't take any credit for saving it as that must go to D Spares firstly, then BeEp. He quite literally snatched it from the jaws of the crusher and got it tested, therefore turning it from a car that really only scrap dealers would want, to a car Autoshiters were fighting over! (well two anyway).

 

It is a great little car though, far better than it appeared initially. Obviously I intend to keep it running forever.

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Apparently one of the previous owners of this little car still has the parcel shelf and interior light! Pity Mr Spares wasn't privy to that knowledge when it left Shropshire. It's up for grabs if anyone can figure out the logistics.

 

PM sent - would be good to reunite these missing bits with the car.

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Did a bit of work on the Clio this weekend. First up, oil and filter change as it's done about 10k since it was last done. Had to grind down the flats on an old 3/8" drive ratchet to make a tool to undo the sump plug - which was very tight. I suspect the previous garage had used a Pela pump to change the oil. I went at the oil filter expecting a right old battle, however it came off quite easily by hand. Had to replace the sump plug copper washer as it was properly mullered and I couldn't get it to seal properly. I considered annealing it, but it was too far gone really. Went to the local car spares shop and he sold me a steel and rubber composite washer of the right size, never used these before but fortunately it seems to be sealing well.

While I was under the car, I wiped an oily rag over the sump to clean it up and spent some time brushing mud off/looking for rot. Pleasingly there isn't really any, however there is a bit on the chassis above the front subframe that is starting to go. I couldn't get it to go through under thumb pressure, so have brushed some old engine oil on it to preserve it as access for a grinder is impossible without dropping the subframe. The other side was perfect, strangely.

The radio from my sister's Perodua is now fitted and working well. It's only got two speakers, both in the dashboard but they work very well. Also replaced the missing screw-in part of the ariel so it can actually find stations.

The air filter was like new so I removed some leaves and refitted it.

While I was buying the sump plug washer, I also bought a numberplate fixing kit, as rusty screws bleeding down number plates is a pet hate of mine. The front one was easy to do (having been fitted recently by BeEp) the rear was the original plate and one screw had turned to a rusty mess, the plastic cap having long gone. I managed to get molegrips onto it and did all four with new screws and caps, which looks much better for less than £1 outlay.

The clutch has always been on the heavy side. My dad managed to lubricate the clutch cable, which didn't do much to start with, but now I've driven the car back to Suffolk from Southend last night, the clutch is noticeably easier to push down. I'm sure it's still heavier than it should be, but I think it's just a bit tired. 

Have started a giffer style service book in a 'Happy Shopper' branded notebook where I've listed the oil change along with the date and mileage. New (or decent part worn) front tyres are next on the list as they're close to the wear limit.

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  • 2 months later...

Last night, this happened:

post-3865-0-40792800-1547308492_thumb.jpg

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Only problem to report is that the heater blower stopped working. After checking the fuse I immediately thought the worst and started pricing up a new resistor, but I first wiggled the multiplug onto the heater motor, which made it kick back in. Its been fine since.

I've had absolutely no luck finding an interior light for this thing, and its most annoying at this time of year.The owner prior to Dspares stripped anything he thought would be useful off prior to parting with it, the battery, radio, parcel shelf, hubcaps and for some reason the interior light?

I've looked at various Renaults in breakers yards and they're all either too big or have different plugs (bloody French). This is a small basic light fitted to a base model and it has a small three pin plug (but a different plug to the boot light, I've already checked that) Anyone have one they're willing to part with? Or at least a photo of one so I know what I'm looking for?

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  • 4 weeks later...

I saw the previous owner the other day. He has have the light somewhere but it's not high on his list of priorities to look for it!

 

Try PT Moore breakers in Leominster. They have loads of old sh ite stacked up. Bound to have one. They will post it too

I found a Clio breaking on ebay, same year and spec. Paid £15.00 for the interior light and after two weeks it hadn't arrived. Chased him up and he said if it didn't turn up by the end of the week to let him know and he'd refund.

Today it turned up and the sodding thing is wrong. It's a much larger double light which doesn't fit in the aperture in the roof, plus the multiplug is wrong. It's the same as the others on ebay. I went to the Renault breakers in Ipswich and looked through two boxes of Renault interior lights, to no avail. The amount of different ones used is ridiculous. They had one from a MK1 Espace which had the same multiplug but was a larger double light like the one I've just bought.

 

I've spent four months looking to no avail, I'm going to need the correct one so if you could keep on at him it would be appreciated! 

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Right, I've had a message back already, he said he'll have a look at the weekend IF he remembers. He also sent me a link to an horrifically expensive Ebay item.

Does the hole in the roof lining look like that will fit? If so it looks like most of the lights fitted to cheap French cars of that era. Can't you just get a light from a scrappy and snip the wires so you get a connector too and just join them together?

 

 

 

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  • 8 months later...

Holy thread resurrection!

Not much has happened with Chloe the Clio. I’ve just been using it, doing some quite long trips in it including nearly every weekend to work on the Royale which is at my parents in Southend. In the last month I’ve also been to Wolverhampton and to Oxford in it. Hasn’t missed a beat.

Mindful the MoT was approaching fast, I bought a new back box on eBay as the old one was really rotten and blowing badly. It had a slight blow until I clobbered a nice fresh and large piece of roadkill on my way to work and broke BeEp’s homemade hanger on the centre pipe. I repaired his hanger using a bracket from some old dexion shelving. I then fitted the back box myself one Saturday, not too bad a job and chucked a couple of new mountings on there. Much better, nice and quiet now!

I also had a look at the heater blower, which worked when it felt like it but reaching down past the wiper motor and wiggling the multiplug usually got it going again. I took the wipers off (discovering the splines on one of the arms are all stripped, amazingly it doesn’t slip) and the plastics to gain access. Managed to get the plug off and one of the pins was quite burnt. Cleaned it up the best I could with a small screwdriver, and it seems ok now.

I had some trouble with the engine getting sluggish to start when sitting for a few days. I decided the battery was kaput, bought a new Yuasa battery, re-engineered either DodgyTom or BeEp’s earth terminal bodge so it’s actually tight, and it was great for a few days but now it’s getting sluggish to start in the morning. So must be some kind of current drain, not sure where.

i chucked it in for an MoT today at my usual place and this happened: 

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That was reassuring but it wasn’t all plain sailing. I was asked to come and have a look at the car on the ramp. The tester showed me the drivers side calliper was binding and had worn one of the pads right down. I guess this is the source of the scraping noise under braking, I had convinced myself was the rear brake shoes until I pulled a drum off to have a look. In my defence, 10 months ago when I last checked them all four pads were fine.

The tester reckoned it was the slider rather than the piston that was sticking, so I’ve ordered a slider kit and a set of pads, will tackle the job later in the week. She said it should have failed but passed it because she knew I’d repair it.

I also had my attention drawn to a very worn steering rack (with plenty of play on the drivers side) and a leaky front shock. The rack is a job I’ll do in the spring - it’s far too cold at the moment.

Ive also just had two new ditchfinders put on the back as the old ones were very old and one of them had a puncture. They go with the two new fronts I had fitted shortly after purchase.

The plan for the near future is a full service including plugs and leads, and obviously the calliper and pads as mentioned. I took the Renault 11 trimz off mostly to clean them which I’ve done and also because it’s so difficult to get the airline on the valve when you’re pumping a tyre up all the time. I actually quite like the utilitarian look without them, being a base RL model it shouldn’t have full trims anyway, it had centre caps originally.

i just took these pictures so you can see it still exists!

To be honest, we all know this is an end of life car and has been for at least the last three years,  but I’ve never scrapped a car and don’t intend to start now. So, it will be repaired!

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Good point, they are getting very thin on the ground now. I imagine the scrappage scheme hoovered most of them up.

There are two in Southend. One, an immaculate pre-facelift in a metallic Aqua colour, with a personal plate. It's obviously a fairly high spec one with smart wheeltrims and colour-coded bumpers. Lives in the car park of a block of flats, obviously well cared for but never seen it on the road though. The second, a red 3dr RL, R955 YHJ I think it is, locally supplied by Godfrey Davis and looking very tidy with its hubcaps intact. That one is driven by an elderly couple.

Only seen one in Suffolk, a tidy low mileage auto one in a car park in Bury St. Edmunds but I was driving another car at the time and didn't have my phone with me to snap a pic!

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2 minutes ago, Angrydicky said:

Good point, they are getting very thin on the ground now. I imagine the scrappage scheme hoovered most of them up.

There are two in Southend. One, an immaculate pre-facelift in a metallic Aqua colour, with a personal plate. It's obviously a fairly high spec one with smart wheeltrims and colour-coded bumpers. Lives in the car park of a block of flats, obviously well cared for but never seen it on the road though. The second, a red 3dr RL, R955 YHJ I think it is, locally supplied by Godfrey Davis and looking very tidy with its hubcaps intact. That one is driven by an elderly couple.

Only seen one in Suffolk, a tidy low mileage auto one in a car park in Bury St. Edmunds but I was driving another car at the time and didn't have my phone with me to snap a pic!

There's a red one with bad lacquer peel on Bellhouse Road near me. Will try to get a picture. 

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