Renault engine question:

I think you bought the wrong type of car - its a performance hatchback and will have spent most of its life being thrashed.

Regardless of Smokey McPot has convinced himself of, it is not completely normal for cars to lose so much of their coolant that the engine overheats. There is something more serious wrong with the car than just having an empty header tank.
 
Aye leaking sunroof and aerial are common mate on the Mk1. Just use some sealent to stop the leaking. :) Oh, and my heater was rubbish too. lol. You can get a new matrix but you have to take your dash apart first to find out what type, as iirc there are two types which you can get.


MrMatteh said:
the only way to get the expansion tank looking like that is to buy a new one... i don't think it's possible to remove rust stains from plastic?
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It's not impossible, just take it off and give a good blast from a powerful hose. It blows most of the rust away. :)
 
KNiVES said:
I will definitely be coming back here to ask for advice on what motor to get next, because I don't think this car will be lasting much longer past Christmas, and I badly need it for going to college with, and etc.
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That's why I sold mine, well partly why. With starting a full-time job and finishing Uni I just couldn't afford to have it off the road. Mine used to be on the road for 2 weeks and off for 1. lol.

Still, I do miss her. She was a hoot to drive!
 
[TW]Fox;12877018 said:
It means something on the car is broken and should be fixed.
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I'm not sure what I should be doing - should I ask somebody to take a look at it and risk the expensive costs of getting it repaired, or simply get a new motor? It's not guaranteed that further problems won't appear down the road, making my maintenance expenditure shoot up through the roof, when I could have simply bought a new, more reliable motor instead (I should have done this some time ago :().
 
KNiVES said:
I'm not sure what I should be doing - should I ask somebody to take a look at it and risk the expensive costs of getting it repaired, or simply get a new motor? It's not guaranteed that further problems won't appear down the road, making my maintenance expenditure shoot up through the roof, when I could have simply bought a new, more reliable motor instead (I should have done this some time ago :().
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Visiting a forum for owners of that type of car may be a better bet if you wish to keep it. Plenty of people willing to help for free.

If you're looking to sell it, given the work that needs doing, you'd get more by breaking that selling it whole.
 
Ahhh good old valvers. They are damn fun to drive.

Also there is no way you can get the OP's header tank looking newish no matter how hard you try. There's bits a hose can't reach and the tank is permanently stained. Just by a new one they are like £20.

Oh and the roof does leak through the sunroof as said but it doesn't affect the immobiliser? That's in the ECU. It does affect the central locking receiver module though, is that what you meant?

Headlight lenses falling off and overheating oil are not common problems, sounds like you bought an abused one, although in the engine bay pic it looks pretty good.
 
Firegod said:
You can get a new matrix but you have to take your dash apart first to find out what type, as iirc there are two types which you can get.
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Not true, there are 2 (official) types, yes... a valeo and a behr unit, but they are the same fitment. Renault have even recently combined the two part numbers iirc.

Also, changing the matrix is a job that's overhyped imo. it took me 2-3 hours tops to change my matrix, having never done one before. nice job too, cause you don't get covered in oil :D

Firegod said:
It's not impossible, just take it off and give a good blast from a powerful hose. It blows most of the rust away. :)
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it really won't...

and unless u strip and clean out the whole engine, the expansion tank will just turn brown again!

with regards to coolant dropping.. it should'nt. just because it's old doesnt mean it should be losing coolant :o
 
Guys, the picture in the OP isn't mine. I said
it's the same car as the one I've got
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I have a 1995 1.2l Renault Clio. It's old. And crap. I posted a picture of it in the show your motors stickied thread.

Change the 'I couldn't be more happy with it' to thoroughly cheesed off' now though. It definitely ain't easy on the wallet either, what with all the repairs needed so far (damn good for petrol is one of its few good points).
 
Ah, no wonder you've got us all barking up the wrong tree. The car you've posted a picture is NOT the same as the one you've got at all, you've posted the engine bay of a Clio 16v, the hot hatch model.
 
All common faults being described here. Nothing major though.

Get a new expansion bottle cap, they are £3.50 from renault. An old crappy one can evaporate easily due to crappy cap. Don't over tighten the new one. It may be a leak though, check this out!!!! I ran my car for about 17k miles and it used water but the engine ran lovely, and this wasn't easy driving a lot of the time!

Heater motor going wrong is the contacts burning out, get a second hand one from ebay or wherever and solder in a new motor and switch :)

Drip from the roof corroding stuff? Get the phase 1 (or which ever your's is) immob and circuitry from inside the another car/key and swap them over. Also.. seal up (as in not permanently, just to seal the joints) the sunroof, and seal up the aerial.. really not hard. Don't cut your hand on the sunroof though.. sharp edges in there.

Clutch cables are a bug bear.. deal with it. Constantly snapping can be a sign the clutch is on the way out though. You could try making up a hydraulic clutch setup if you are handy with fabricating stuff :)

Also.. to enjoy the car.. keep the revs high.. otherwise the car WILL feel slow. You REALLY have to use the gears in this car.
 
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Oh.. noticed it's not the 1.8 16v. lol. They are cheap to fix, don't see the problem, what did you expect for £500? Your lucky to get a reliable car for that money. As long as it runs and you check the fluids often (esp the ones you have issues with..

As long as it runs and your getting good fuel economy then don't worry about it. It's not gonna be a performance/luxury car. The brown stuff is normal inside the expansion bottle. If you add water, don't forget to add coolant as well!!!

I may have a manual you can have for free if I didn't throw it away in the move :)
 
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