vtec-e's base Clio for daily duties

[vtec-e]

 

I bought this3 door Clio as a run about and in a sorry state in need of some tidying up. In addition to exterior scrapes about the corners, it had some well scuffed plastic wheel trims, one had 20% missing, and a musty smell of damp in the interior. Mechanically it was in good condition and only 50k miles after 13 years. Plus it had full length rubber strips down the sides, so ideal for use as a park anywhere car, which my previously daily and just retired Civic had done. By making lots of little improvements I now have perfectably acceptable transport for pan UK trips. It has its own charm, a small smooth engine, not much in the way of mod cons, but includes PAS, central locking, 2 electric windows, a trip computer, ABS and skinny tyres. Having saved it, it is now a keeper.

 

 

 

Here are the boring waffly details, so scroll down to just view any photos.

First job was to check the scuttle drains, which revealed plenty of compostable material in the scuttle and fresh green vegetation nicely sprouting - a 'green' Renault.

 

 

 

Once the compost was removed then the drains came into view, and could be cleared.

Looking better, even the scuttle drain is visible.

With the drains working, next was removal of the interior carpet and foam insulation underneath. Fortunately the water had collected in the rear, and not where the large electrical connector under the passenger seat is. Once the connector begins corroding, all sorts of electrical gremlins start, so a bit of a lucky result there. Also luckily the foam could be saved and dried out after several days. I used gaffer tape to hold it together, since removing it had caused many tears just by the weight of water in it. The brown cardboard sections, once stiff as a board, were now just wet mush.

No obvious rust on the rear floor despite being flooded for some time.

Just before the MOT, whilst poking my head underneath I saw a cable hanging down, so securely cable tied the O2 sensor wire before it got ripped off.

And sealed up the chipped rear light assembly to stop the water.

The mechanism to release the spare had never been used as far as I could see, so needed a few hard bangs to drop the spare on the ground (it lives on the underside of the boot like the old Maxi's). The spare was unused, and still had the coloured bands around the exterior after 13 years! So that had to go on, pre-MOT, of course.

The wheels had a rust clean up and a couple of coats of black Hammerite.

 

The MOT was passed with 1 advisory, the rear exhaust bracket was broken and the exhaust hanging on by just the back-up grey cable. So I made a temporary bodge by threading plenty of blue wire round the rubber support (indicated by the green arrow) and the exhaust mounting. This bodge stayed in place for the next 9 months whilst waiting for a suitable part to be in stock at Autodoc. The first part to arrive was broken, so had to go back, and then they had no stock!

Then it was on to a general clean under the bonnet.

Afterwards

The next job was moving on to cleaning the misty and cloudy fog lights. Straight forward for the near side, front off to do the driver's side.

 

 

There was no evidence of a cam belt change, so with the probability it was 13 years old, it got changed by my friend/mechanic. New water pump etc, coolant and aux belt too. Afterwards the engine felt much smoother, especially at motorway speeds.

 

Something I noticed after it rained and the hatch was opened, was drips of water. I removed the plastic trim inside the hatch, and thought it was coming through the Clio badge. The badge could be unclipped/prised out, so I added some sealant around the old rubber seal. This seems to have solved the problem.

While all these improvements were being made during the first 4 months of my ownership, I was also drying out the wet foam on the front bulkhead/firewall. I did this by lifting up the foam at the floor and getting as much air into to it as possible. The musty smell has gone, and the interior is now all dry. There is still some condensation during the winter months, but I expect that, with what is now a 15 year old car.  

 

I bought some new rubbers for the rear quarter lights to replace the flaps of torn rubber when I bought it. Making this small upgrade made a big difference to the feeling of ownership.

For the next MOT, the old noisy 7 year old value tyres were replaced with new Falkens. Driving from the tyre garage to the MOT tester, the right front suspension clonked away a treat, the sound was like loose wheelnuts inside an old steel hubcap. However the car passed with no advisories, even with the original Bridgestone on the rear, I'm pleased to say.

Next up was to investigate the intermittent clonk(s) on the right suspension. Putting the right corner on an axle stand, and the wheel off, and the trolley jack under the hub, I could see and hear the play in the top mount as hub  was lifted. So with help from my friend/mechanic and his tools, I changed the top mount. As well as stopping the clonking, a lot of background noise was removed, so I replaced the left hand top mount as well. This wasn't so straight forward as the drop link nut did not want to come undone, so we had to cut it off and replace the drop link and top mount. Again another reduction in noise from the suspension area. Together with the application of some sound insulation lying around from previous projects, a big reduction in noise, vibration and harshness was made.

 

For the next MOT, just 1 advisory to look into, excessive travel on the handbrake. So it was out with the centre console, and take up the slack. A job I should have done a while back!

Talking of jobs that should have been done earlier, there was the occasional squeak from the front brakes when driving on the motorway, that stopped with a gentle application of the brakes using the left foot. I suspected a sticking caliper pin, and after finding a dry caliper pin, and lubricating it with Ceratec lubricant, the squeaking  has stopped. Another win!

Jobs done recently were to tidy up the plastic wheel trims that had been kerbed. A bit of rubbing down with various grades of wet & dry, and then several coats of Euro Car Parts Aluminium spray, followed by a couple coats of Toolstations clear lacquer. There is a reasonable colour match, and looks OK when walking by, so we'll see how long it lasts. As the trims looked tidier, I refreshed the black Hammerite on the wheels too.  

Its not perfect, with a few imperfections, but perfectly adequate for daily duties and parking in any supermarket car park. 

That brings the story up to date, and all these fixes, improvements means the car is much quieter and smoother on the motorway, and is used regularly for long journeys. The radio can be heard at the default low volume setting and a small amount of wind noise is evident. The Clio is a much nicer and enjoyable drive, keeps up with traffic, with the added bonus of still sipping petrol and doing over 50mpg  

A definite win.

Thanks for reading.

[Brigsy]

Recognise your name off cs! Tidy runabout, cant beat a clio for daily use imo.

Ive not ticked the mk3 box yet, maybe in the future if my blue dci gives up.

 

[vtec-e]

5 hours ago, Brigsy said:

Recognise your name off cs! Tidy runabout, cant beat a clio for daily use imo.

Ive not ticked the mk3 box yet, maybe in the future if my blue dci gives up.

 

Spot on. The Clio was my first Renault and I'm pleased with it as you tell I'd run a dci, but obviously ULEZ dictates it would have to be a EURO 6 engine now. No reason why your dci's shouldn't continue to rack up the miles. The only part that seems to go rusty underneath on the Mk3 is the front subframe to support the radiator, but ask me after the next MOT 😄

[vtec-e]

The Clio joined a few other classics and moderns in the local club for a day of autotesting and other driving tests in the sun. Most fun test of the day was the driver having to thread their way through a series of cones and garages to burst some balloons, with a pillow over their head so they couldn't see! The driver did have a passenger to direct and burst the balloon 😄

Two 6 cylinder engined beauties caught my and others attention, a Rover 95 and pre-war Riley 15/6

Thanks for viewing.