project 2002 Renault Clio II 172

[bigfella2]

When you do get round to changing the gearbox oil, just check that the reverse lights work, as the switch that operates the rear lights sits in the side of box, and to change it means losing a fair bit of gearbox oil, unless your quick. 

Easier to change when the box is empty.

[SiC]

Now on to the star of the show that really tried my patience...

After repowering the car this week, the boot light has decided to stay stuck on. Googling brought up that the boot switch has a tendency to fail. So my first step was pulling this off and having a look.

Boot plastic panel is held on with one screw and the rest clip fittings.


Connector for the boot switch is this one.


Two bolts for the catch


And a metal bar that operates the boot release mechanism needs unclipping.


On the bench the switch was pretty temperamental. It's a normally closed switch, which means when the boot is open, the button isn't pushed. So in theory if the boot lock is disconnected it should turn the light off.

Resistance was variable. Best case 34 Ohms


Worse case after a few actuations it got as high as 334 ohms


The joints were pretty corroded and nasty looking


So fired up the iron and resoldered them.


Then doused the switch in contact cleaner, giving plenty of actuations.

Pulled out the terminals from the connector and gave them a good clean too.


This made the switch work way better.


Unfortunately this did not fix the boot light.

[SiC]

This meant only one thing, there was a short further up in the loom.

Even worse the boot wouldn't open. So ended up having to go in through the back seats


Then forcing the mechanism by hand


Turns out I fitted the lock catch upside down. For reference the microswitch should be at the bottom of the door and the pushrod fitted like this



In my day job there is the popular phrase of "Divide and Conquer". Basically if you have a problem, divide it up into smaller bits to find the root of the issue. No different from car electrical problems.

A bit of searching found a pinout diagram for the UCH (body computer) and that noted pin 39 is the magic wire that goes from the boot lock to the computer. I removed this wire and turned on the ignition to confirm that it thought the boot was shut. This is good as it means this UCH is fine.


Checking continuity on that wire found it was shorted to the body from this point.


I had contemplated splitting the wire at the boot connector as it joins there for both the boot light and wire to the body computer. I could then solder it back up after. However when doing anything like this, you open up the risk it could fail in the future. So I'd rather not chop up the OEM loom if I didn't have to. Thus I went rooting for another areas I could probe and found a new connector for this loom at the front.

Now I knew the circuit is made up of four bits. First is the wire from the boot lock to the boot light. There is also a second wire from the boot to the front. When this gets to the front of the car it hits another connector in the passenger footwell.


Disconnecting this connector and checking continuity from the body computer wire to this connector showed there still was a short. Also removing the wire from the connector and replugging in showed that interior light worked as intended.

Great! I now know that the short is only in this front part. Makes it massively easier to diagnose than having to pull the trim off inside all the way along to find it.

Now at this point I didn't really take anymore photos. Mostly because it was gone midnight, I wanted to sort it and I forgot.

Anyway the alarms on the 172 aren't factory but they're not aftermarket either. They were installed at the port, presumably to meet UK insurance specs. The newer 182 had it wired in and talked over the CAN network. So these only needed two wires and power into the UCH. However these 172 didn't have that and so were installed by tapping into the loom directly.

Thus the loom was mucked about by a third party and how well that was done depends on the person doing it. Thankfully the person that did mine didn't do too bad a job. Especially as they probably had a lot of cars to do and so in a rush. Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier, anytime you cut into a loom wire, you risk it failing later on. After 18 years and 150k miles it seems like that time was when its sat in the garage...

I say it was installed well, some of the installation is a bit shonky. Like this earth connection.


I only have one fob (which is corroded inside anyway) and the alarm has been disconnected shortly after I bought it as I don't trust aged alarms on any car. The car is insured without an alarm and it didn't work properly anymore anyway. If I ever wanted an alarm, I'd get a more modern unit installed. Probably another 5 to 10 years at least though before these are worth enough to do that...

So I ripped out the last of the alarm loom and chopped out the connections into the main loom. Also removed the LED on the dash and the ultrasonic sensors on the A-Pillar. If anything it will mean I don't get passengers questioning what they are everytime they get in!

I'm not entirely sure where in the alarm loom it was broken, but I removed the entire wire from the UCH to that connector and inspected it. There was no damage on it nor anywhere it could rub through into the car body. So it had to be somewhere on that spliced section.

I also took the time to clean up and resolder the loom wire for the boot switch with some heatshrink over the top.


Powered the car up and re-tested everything. Thankfully not only the problem is fixed, I didn't add any new electrical problems in!

[KitKat]

More invaluable nitty gritty knowledge, thanks for sharing @SiC

Drying out interiors is never fun. Took me a week to dry out my Puma's sodden mats . At least a missing grommets a cheap fix though.

[SiC]

43 minutes ago, sickboy said:

Drying out interiors is never fun. Took me a week to dry out my Puma's sodden mats . 

My Smart Roadster was quite easy to remove the seats and in my last house had a handy conservatory to dry in! That took a good week for it to dry off. 

For this to dry more I'll need to pull the interior. Not going to do that just yet though, need to get on with my other projects! I'm hoping I've got enough out that it'll dry through normal use. Especially as the heater will be on now it's coming into winter. 

[SiC]

Fannied around today finishing this off.

First off was to glue in the boot bump stops. Someone had been here before and used sealant. I scraped that off and refreshed with Tigerseal. Hopefully inside my boot won't get wet now.




As you can see, it's another case where I am crap with anything liquid!



I gave the area a clean up and then ended up getting it on the lights too

While I had the lights out, I gave them a quick polish and used compressed air to blast out the dead spiders. Freshened them a treat.

Noticed the light connector was a bit crusty. These can cause weird electrical issues like the rear fog light on the dash lighting up on braking. Gave it a clean up.



Incidentally since cleaning it, I've noticed the rear fog light indicator lighting up now since!

I had the radio out earlier so I could remove the alarm wiring to the central locking switch. While I was there I decided to clean off the sticky soft touch stuff.


Pulled the front panel off after disassembling the radio


Then used a product called "Elbow Grease". Worked ok but took a fair bit of scrubbing. However I was worried it would take off the glittery finish, but thankfully it didn't.

[SiC]

Wasn't really much left to do now. Reversed the back end out of the garage, let it get up to temperature again and double check underneath for leaks.


No leaks, so refitted the undertray


Sprayed some chassis protector where the jack stands were and scraped off the existing protection.


Pulled outside and recheck fluid levels for the last time.


Bonnet down and a quick wash to remove the dust and dirty from the garage. Then hoon time!


Well not very as it's still very wet outside and after all this work, I don't want to break it.

However it runs really well. Engine is a lot smoother low down and doesn't bunny hop like it did at low revs before. That could be the timing or even the crank pulley breaking up and varying the load. Acceleration is smooth and progressive now.

Once you hit the cam timing zone it still wakes up and gives a extra surge of power. Just not so all or nothing like it was before. Still doesn't feel that quick. My Boxster feels far more planted and brisker acceleration. I think it's simply that the RWD and fat rear tyres is much better at getting the power put down onto the tarmac. Not so much of an issue really as this is just a A/B/C-road runaround.

Quite happily wheelspins in 1st and once on cam in 2nd it starts to break loose - quite unnerving! I have experienced this before with Toyos Proxies. Excellent in the dry but not so reassuring in the wet.

Now time to get some more miles on her!

[SiC]

I'm really keeping my fingers crossed it'll just be a car now and I won't need to update this thread with anything else for a bit.

[SiC]

Just come back from an evening walk along the beach. All in I've done about 40 miles in this today. Fingers crossed seems to be running great.

Windscreen keeps steaming up, so have to keep the aircon on. I imagine it's because inside is still pretty humid from all that damp still in the foot well. Perhaps I'll have to get some dehumidifier boxes to leave in there for a bit.

Anyway I always like to have a picture in my post, so here it is in front of a very old postbox.

[Split_Pin]

Meticulous work. Auto electrics mainly baffle me and mostly because I'm just not that bright.

Enjoy !

[SiC]

18 hours ago, Split_Pin said:

Auto electrics mainly baffle me and mostly because I'm just not that bright.

Just turn on the light

(There must be a better pun than that)

[Carlo_Raffo_TDS]

Ooo nice car and postbox, seems a VR postbox. Both doing splendid service

[SiC]

Ooo nice car and postbox, seems a VR postbox. Both doing splendid service

A bit of Googling disappointingly says it's a reproduction:
https://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/disappointment-as-unusual-green-weston-super-mare-post-box-is-painted-red-1-5692252

Not surprise really as I imagine originals are worth a fair bit now. Far more than you'd want to risk on an open sea front.

[Carlo_Raffo_TDS]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

A bit of Googling disappointingly says it's a reproduction:
https://www.thewestonmercury.co.uk/news/disappointment-as-unusual-green-weston-super-mare-post-box-is-painted-red-1-5692252

Not surprise really as I imagine originals are worth a fair bit now. Far more than you'd want to risk on an open sea front.

Ahhh shame, nevermind eh.

They seem to attract parking Clios whenever photographed too

[KitKat]

Been looking at 172/182's again myself recently.  What was being said earlier in this thread about prices soaring and cars with fitted interiors becoming an endangered species couldn't be truer. These were £800 cars two years ago! 

[SiC]

2 hours ago, sickboy said:

Been looking at 172/182's again myself recently.  What was being said earlier in this thread about prices soaring and cars with fitted interiors becoming an endangered species couldn't be truer. These were £800 cars two years ago! 

This is exactly why this thread is so many pages long fixing this one! 😆

Despite the high mileage and tatty paintwork, it was a good price and has had quite a few expensive parts thrown at it. 

[KitKat]

Indeed, you’ve illustrated perfectly what’s involved in fixer upper Clio 172/182 ownership.

After all the work you’ve done, the parts and time and busted knuckles, do you wish you’d spent more to start with on a lower mileage, more up-together car,  or are you still glad you’ve done the work  yourself and you know what’s been done?  With the market for these such a minefield, awash with track-abused and hanging  examples, I suspect you did it the right way 🙂

 

[SiC]

Just now, sickboy said:

After all the work you’ve done, the parts and time and busted knuckles, do you wish you’d spent more to start with on a lower mileage, more up-together car,  or are you still glad you’ve done the work  yourself and you know what’s been done?

Simple answer is that I couldn't find one that was right! The ones that were, I couldn't get to in time before they sold.

More complicated answer if that my experience of a low-mileage car is that they're generally money pits as when you start using them everything breaks. I wish the body was in a bit better condition though with less scuffs. However at the same time it does allow me to be less precious driving it, which is the whole purpose of me owning it. If a car doesn't have a purpose in my fleet, it tends to sit and not get used. I have enough toys to not be able to justify having a Clio as solely one! 

A lower-mile example (e.g. ~70-110k) would be nice, but again its a minefield of modified crap, stripped out crap, general crap and highly polished examples that mechanically are a bit crap. I'm about £1850 all in on this one. Even though the Clio 172 is cheaper, I'd struggle to get one for £2k that is completely sorted mechanically and in good condition body wise.

Remember I bought this car working (apart from minor things like the remote central locking). Just unfortunate that it broke within 300 miles of buying it. I don't blame the seller for that at all. Part of the game buying 18 year old cars and I always expect something wrong on any second hand car I buy. Also I did go all out on this, when I could have just re-timed the existing belt, new aux belt kit and stuck a £30 second hand pulley on it. Could have got it sorted for under £200. But then the stuff was due next year and just as importantly, I've learnt how to do it. 

With all that being said, I am on a lookout for a low mileage one. Especially a 182. Now that I've learnt how to do this work, I would be 100% prepared to take one on that is cheap after someone is running away because the belts need doing.

There was a 2002 172 42k barn find example that came up on the Facebook group selling by a breaker. However the guy responding to a few posts made him sound like a cock and not someone I would want to deal with. Plus it would have required a good £1k+ throwing into it to get it to this mechanical standard and then anything on top. He wanted £1.5k. Add on £500 for delivery. 4xTyres, belts, fluids,etc will be another £1k. I'm in at £3k then and anything else on top. Which for a car being sitting for 7 years, you can bet there will be other problems.

If I find an excellent 182, I would have a dilemma to store it as a toy or use it as a car. Realistically though, even though they are going up in value, if a decent one is worth £10k in say 5-10 years, you still have to pay running costs during that time. Buy a nice one now for £3k and then easily spent £7k on tyres/fluids/parts/insurance/tax in that 5-10 year period, you haven't actually made any profit. Something that many people forget when they say "Oh I wish I bought one of those cars as I'd be laughing now on how much they're worth"...

Best thing on these cars is to buy a car to use imo. If I got one that was pristine, I probably wouldn't want to bomb it around backroads here like I do. The fact that there is scratches and scuffs on mine means I can drag it across a single track road hedge without shedding a tear every time. 

E.g. like the fact the other day on a back road, a woman in a rather new Audi A6 decided to push her way through and not pull in when she could have easily have done. I just carried on going at the same speed and squidged past along the holly-bush hedgerow … which by the look on her face she didn't expect was possible. 🤣 

If I was in an immaculate Trophy, I probably would have never done that.

So yes I would like a nicer one, but at the same time this one suits me perfectly.

[SiC]

As another note is that they are still pretty under valued pricewise. They're way better than the equivalent era Fiesta Zetec-S and even the generation after Zetec-S. Likewise on much of that era hot hatches - like the Golf 4 VR6/etc, Leon Cupra, S3, etc is worth a lot more yet is a slow, wobbly piece of crap in comparison. Yet the Clios still can be had a fair bit cheaper than them.

I also don't understand why the 197/200 is still worth more than the 172/182 given the older generation has better reviews. That being said, I am partial to the 197 and do quite fancy one at some point.

[SiC]

It's been about 500 miles since the belt change and I've been buzzing around it locally.

First off I changed the power steering fluid with this stuff. Cheapest Dextrin II that I could readily find.


Used my Pela pod to suck the old fluid out. Shoved the pipe down into the return line at the bottom to get most of it out. Fluid is now mostly clear, so seemed to have done the job.


One massive annoyance has been the interior steaming up. Water has been getting into the back footwell and pooling. This evaporates and absolutely soddens the windscreen while making the car fusty. Something had to be done.

Everyone mentions the scuttle drain blocking up. Started off by pouring water into the scuttle to see if it drains.


Which it did


However the back footwell also filled up. I really didn't want to take the centre plastic cover off as need to remove the wiper mechanism. My experience is usually that the arms seizes on the shaft and a right bugger to get off.

Anyway after a fight I got it off.


The centre drain is under the middle bracket where the end of the wiper linkage screws onto.


Down here


It ends up out above the exhaust. I'm pointing to it with the bit of wire.


Water was actually draining through but it was clogged up with gunk, so impeded flow. Makes sense why the car was filling up only in heavy rain. The piece of cable was enough to push out the crap in there.

After that I started to put it all back together. Tightened up the wiper bolts and the final one did this...


Argh!!

Ended up getting a replacement wiper linkage from a local scrapyard the next day.

Put that in and tightened all the fixing bolts up. Final bolt did this...


FFS.

Tried using zip ties


This wasn't strong enough to hold it on. I couldn't find a replacement bolt in my stash either.

Thinking I'd seen one of these bolts before on the car, I suddenly remembered where. Air filter mounting bolt!


Fitted in perfectly. Air filter is so packed in there that it doesn't actually seem to really need it to hold it anyway.

Wiper mechanism in all its working glory


Put the wiper mechanism all back on and then found this happened...



This shit is exactly why I said I didn't want to take the wipers off! Always when I've taken wipers off its ended up being a ballache.

The fix was yanking on the pivot point to bend it back. I think leaning on the mechanism must have bent it slightly.

Finally I took the foam out from under the drivers floor carpet to try drying it out. This is joined together with the passenger side. However only joined at a very small section in the middle. So I slit this and pulled out the foam.


I could have pulled out the seats and took the whole lot out, but the fixing for the seats are on the bottom of the car. You just knew that will be a right fecking nightmare with rusty fixing and snapping bolts.

Anyhow I ran a heater underneath the carpet while I left the carpet in a sink inside to drain and dry.


We seem to be fully functional now. Except one fault remains.


Probably from the moisture getting into the display ribbon. Weirdly often it works fine from cold but as the car heats, the display pixels disappear.

It did fully work one day. Except this one quirk...


To fix that will require pulling the dash top off. Something I really CBA to do atm. Also sometimes you need to leave at least one thing broken as a sacrifice to the car gods.

Been pondering about selling the Clio and using the BMW as my main daily driver runaround. Unlike my other classics, the BMW actually has decent rust proofing and isn't likely to dissolve away so quickly.


I like the Clio but I'm glad I only paid a grand for it and it owes me less than 2. They're alright cars to buzz around in but they are bit of a flimsy shitbox. Creaky, rattly, noisy and cheap feeling. Having one has made me realise I wouldn't have wanted to spend more than 3 grand on one of the things. Put me off bothering getting a Trophy to be honest. For what they go for, there are other cars that I reckon would be more fun while not feeling like a poverty-stricken car.

[Split_Pin]

Good work as always on this, it has wanted for nothing in your ownership.

I get what you mean about the flimsiness of it, that annoyed me about mine. All was forgiven when the dephaser kicked in though!

I may have another one day.....

[SiC]

24 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

it has wanted for nothing in your ownership.

Well ...except a pulley, aux belt + tensioner, full cambelt kit, 2x water pumps (ok one was my fault), (removing) alarm, steering wheel grips, thermostat, crank sensor and wiper linkage (possibly my fault too...). That's in less than 500 miles of ownership 😆

Given I'll probably only be doing like 2k per year in this, it will probably be alright for a good while longer though. I didn't think I'd say this, but I'm unsure if it's a keeper. Especially if values ever did rapidly climb.

[KitKat]

Those wiper linkage and water leak conundrums sound like quite the ball-ache. The optimistic way of looking at it is you're improving the car every time you fix something like that which gives wrong. Apparently.  But that's easier said than done when it's this time of year, it's dark and wet and your freezing your fingers off outside mending it    Was the wiper linkage tight to remove, or not so bad? 

I guess they are flimsy by modern standards (anything post-2000 is modern to me), but I stepped from a Citroen AX before I got my 182, so I felt frankly cosseted in comparison.  The added complexity has me a bit scared though!!

23 hours ago, SiC said:

For what they go for, there are other cars that I reckon would be more fun while not feeling like a poverty-stricken car.

Funnily enough, if I am being truly frank with myself, that's precisely the feeling I've had in the back of my mind since buying mine.  There's a lot to be said for cheap thrills in a £500 car, and the recent 172/182 price boom has in many ways taken some of that fun away. 

But speaking for myself, I just feel the Clio's revvy engine and track car handling are a little wasted with my relatively slow, steady, pottering-along driving style . I know they need revving to 5000+rpm and throwing into corners etc to get the best from them, but that's simply not my bag. It's just too shouty and high-liability for me. Finally owning a Renault Clio 182 has made me realise how much I like old Volvos  🙂 

In other words: I'd want another 940 

[SiC]

 

2 hours ago, sickboy said:

Those wiper linkage and water leak conundrums sound like quite the ball-ache. The optimistic way of looking at it is you're improving the car every time you fix something like that which gives wrong. Apparently.  But that's easier said than done when it's this time of year, it's dark and wet and your freezing your fingers off outside mending it    Was the wiper linkage tight to remove, or not so bad? 

It wasn't too bad in the end. Just the usual thing where if you disturb things that haven't been removed in ages, you end up with it being a faff of a job. The plus point is the much dryer interior. Mrs SiC was moaning about it feeling damp and humid before. To be fair I didn't find it terribly pleasant either. Now it's dry, it's comfortable.

2 hours ago, sickboy said:

I guess they are flimsy by modern standards (anything post-2000 is modern to me), but I stepped from a Citroen AX before I got my 182, so I felt frankly cosseted in comparison.  The added complexity has me a bit scared though!!
Funnily enough, if I am being truly frank with myself, that's precisely the feeling I've had in the back of my mind since buying mine.  There's a lot to be said for cheap thrills in a £500 car, and the recent 172/182 price boom has in many ways taken some of that fun away. 
But speaking for myself, I just feel the Clio's revvy engine and track car handling are a little wasted with my relatively slow, steady, pottering-along driving style . I know they need revving to 5000+rpm and throwing into corners etc to get the best from them, but that's simply not my bag. It's just too shouty and high-liability for me. Finally owning a Renault Clio 182 has made me realise how much I like old Volvos   
In other words: I'd want another 940 

I can't remember how much you said you paid for yours, but even with the price hike they are still pretty cheap for the performance. I still would have preferred a 182 as those rear dual exhaust look far more purposeful. The 172 is a bit more of a Q-car in comparison.

In terms of my driving in it, this picture I've just taken probably sums up my style:


In truth most of the time I get stuck behind some in a Mokka that's doing 40mph in a 60mph and the like. The power is extremely useful at blasting past when you see an opportunity. My exhaust I find a bit drony too, so I end up putting it in higher gears. As it's a big N/A engine in a small car, it feels really torquey - diesel torquey. It's quite happy in 4th gear at 30mph and under 2k rpm. Even at that revs, it's quite happy to pull away without dropping down a gear. This is the advantage of a small hot hatch. It also why my fuel economy is as above. That's with a broken thermostat thats running a bit cold too.

For me, I already have a big comfortable cruiser in our A4, for when we do long distance travelling in all climate conditions. The Clio is small and nimble which is great for the back lanes/narrow roads around here. Also parking is a doddle and hassle free. Especially as it's got scuffs and dings, so not overly worried where I park it. The reason I sold the Laguna was because of having two big cars and no real advantage of using it over the A4.

So even though it has great performance both handling and acceleration, you really don't have to use it all the time and it's nice to have it on tap ready for when you do. Probably also why my insurance is only like £220 p/a, zero excess with no NCBs on this policy. 😆

[Essex V6]

On 10/8/2020 at 9:41 AM, SiC said:

Simple answer is that I couldn't find one that was right! The ones that were, I couldn't get to in time before they sold.

More complicated answer if that my experience of a low-mileage car is that they're generally money pits as when you start using them everything breaks. I wish the body was in a bit better condition though with less scuffs. However at the same time it does allow me to be less precious driving it, which is the whole purpose of me owning it. If a car doesn't have a purpose in my fleet, it tends to sit and not get used. I have enough toys to not be able to justify having a Clio as solely one! 

A lower-mile example (e.g. ~70-110k) would be nice, but again its a minefield of modified crap, stripped out crap, general crap and highly polished examples that mechanically are a bit crap. I'm about £1850 all in on this one. Even though the Clio 172 is cheaper, I'd struggle to get one for £2k that is completely sorted mechanically and in good condition body wise.

Remember I bought this car working (apart from minor things like the remote central locking). Just unfortunate that it broke within 300 miles of buying it. I don't blame the seller for that at all. Part of the game buying 18 year old cars and I always expect something wrong on any second hand car I buy. Also I did go all out on this, when I could have just re-timed the existing belt, new aux belt kit and stuck a £30 second hand pulley on it. Could have got it sorted for under £200. But then the stuff was due next year and just as importantly, I've learnt how to do it. 

With all that being said, I am on a lookout for a low mileage one. Especially a 182. Now that I've learnt how to do this work, I would be 100% prepared to take one on that is cheap after someone is running away because the belts need doing.

There was a 2002 172 42k barn find example that came up on the Facebook group selling by a breaker. However the guy responding to a few posts made him sound like a cock and not someone I would want to deal with. Plus it would have required a good £1k+ throwing into it to get it to this mechanical standard and then anything on top. He wanted £1.5k. Add on £500 for delivery. 4xTyres, belts, fluids,etc will be another £1k. I'm in at £3k then and anything else on top. Which for a car being sitting for 7 years, you can bet there will be other problems.

If I find an excellent 182, I would have a dilemma to store it as a toy or use it as a car. Realistically though, even though they are going up in value, if a decent one is worth £10k in say 5-10 years, you still have to pay running costs during that time. Buy a nice one now for £3k and then easily spent £7k on tyres/fluids/parts/insurance/tax in that 5-10 year period, you haven't actually made any profit. Something that many people forget when they say "Oh I wish I bought one of those cars as I'd be laughing now on how much they're worth"...

Best thing on these cars is to buy a car to use imo. If I got one that was pristine, I probably wouldn't want to bomb it around backroads here like I do. The fact that there is scratches and scuffs on mine means I can drag it across a single track road hedge without shedding a tear every time. 

E.g. like the fact the other day on a back road, a woman in a rather new Audi A6 decided to push her way through and not pull in when she could have easily have done. I just carried on going at the same speed and squidged past along the holly-bush hedgerow … which by the look on her face she didn't expect was possible. 🤣 

If I was in an immaculate Trophy, I probably would have never done that.

So yes I would like a nicer one, but at the same time this one suits me perfectly.

Totally agree with this. My cars are tidy but not so mint that I would be afraid to use them

[SiC]

Bored

Did not expect me to say that with this. After wanting one for so long I thought it would be a long term keeper.

Not sure why. Possibly feeling not that great at the moment isn't helping things. Can't decide if it's the cheap nasty interiors in it or if just the driving experience either. Doesn't feel special or really that fun to drive.

Funnily enough @gm alluded to it in another thread with his feelings on his Bini Cooper S and I am completely in agreement. When pushing on I don't find FWD cars enjoyable to drive. Torque steer on heavy acceleration, steering going light when the front wheels are scarpering all over the place to get traction and cornering feels like you are being pulled around rather than pushed.

Genuinely think I would prefer buzzing around in a MK1 MX5 or something else small RWD like. Especially in the crisp winter days we've been having. Just wished they were a bit faster (yes I know I missed the super charged one!). Did think about swapping it around in storage with the Boxster for a bit. However no point with yet another lockdown meaning you're not really allowed out for playtime. 😕

Maybe a spring/summer b-road blast would help. But probably not as I've been giving it some beans recently on my week off. 

Completely surprising myself here and I don't think this will be a long term keeper. 😬 

Is my love affair with 00s-era Renaults finally over? 😦

[SiC]

...maybe I just need to cut a few random wires in the loom to make it more exciting for myself again? 

[Jenson Velcro]

I think there are plenty of us around at the moment struggling for enthusiasm and not getting much enjoyment out of things. It’s certainly a crazy fucked up world currently, but hopefully give it a few months and restrictions might lift and the days become warmer and longer. All the crap can then be pushed to the back of the memory.

[KitKat]

22 minutes ago, SiC said:

Bored

Did not expect me to say that with this. After wanting one for so long I thought it would be a long term keeper.

Not sure why. Possibly feeling not that great at the moment isn't helping things. Can't decide if it's the cheap nasty interiors in it or if just the driving experience either. Doesn't feel special or really that fun to drive.

 

Glad you said that Si!! I thought  I was mad!!

Truth be told, were it not for lockdown and winter, my 182 would be on the market already 🙄

Maybe I just haven’t driven it enough yet. I hardly drive at all during the week anyway, and am doing even less miles because lockdown, but I’m not feeling the hype either. 

[Split_Pin]

I found the savage delivery of the power very much part of the fun! But I appreciate it's not for everybody.

The shit interior annoyed me a bit but the spec was good on mine and it was comfy. It looked and sounded great too although mine had a snazzy exhaust of some sort.

I'd have kept mine if my Corsa hadn't required so much welding and I'd have got the 172 welded but as it stood one had to go. Plus I wanted another 75 and the perfect one came up right on cue.