1995 Renault Clio RSi 1.8 8v
Summary:
Very nice car, but to be honest, once you own one, you want either the 16 valver or the Williams
Faults:
Front wheel bearing - Needed replacing when I bought the car. Can pick up a wheel bearing for about £20. Easy enough to remove the upright from the car, (jack it up and undo some bolts) then take the upright to the garage to have them press out the old bearing and insert a new one.
Thermostat - Thermostat was sticking, causing the engine to overheat.
Water pump - The seal around the spindle was leaking, probably due to overheating of the engine due to the thermostat sticking. Can buy a new water pump for about £17, but make sure you have an 11mm small ratchet spanner, as the working space is quite small.
Coolant hose - Hose burst because engine had been running very hot, due to the thermostat sticking. Cost £40 for the part direct from a Renault dealer, because I couldn't find anywhere else to get it from, and thought it best to go with a new hose.
Radiator - Radiator was leaking slightly, so replaced it with a new one costing £60.
Leaking sunroof - Costs about £5 to reseal properly, and took a good few hours to remove the necessary interior trim etc to allow full removal of the sunroof. I think the sunroof seal deteriorates from driving fast with the sunroof open.
Steering column - Worn bush within column, leading to excessive play in the steering. Sourced another column from scrapyard for £15; took about 3 hours to remove and refit.
Drivers seat worn - Have to push quite hard to fully disengage the clutch, which pushes you back in the seat, and so wears out the seat faster.
Lacquer flaking off the RSi's standard alloys. Long job to sand down each wheel, and respray and lacquer. It cost me about £30 to do this on all 4 corners, and I would recommend spending the £35 per wheel to have them professionally done.
Auxiliary drive belt perished after 95,000 miles. Tell tale signs of this belt wearing are squeeling on cold start up, which disappears once up to temperature.
General Comments:
This car is fast; 0-60mph in 8 seconds, top speed of approx 115mph, because of the close gearing.
Economy is good, I've been averaging 37mpg. These cars are generally good on economy, because they run quite hot (still the middle of their temperature gauge though).
Emissions are low. Mine runs with 0.00% CO and 7ppm HC as standard, which is very good!!
Road tax is high at £180 a year, considering the low emissions!
In the dry this car handles very well, and there is good feedback from the wheels as they begin to lose grip.
In the wet it is very easy to spin the front wheels. I also find it handles very poorly, but this may be a lack of experience with front wheel drive cars at the limit. I've lost the front end round a shallow bend at 40mph, but coming off the power bought it back to my side of the road. My friend was pulling away from me in his 1.2 Fiat Punto Sporting when driving the country road bends in the wet though.
The sills are known to rust, but mine have no rust. The boot does have a very small amount of rust beginning to come through now. An easy fix if sorted early though.
Bucket seats so it's a very comfortable drive.
Has sunroof, electric windows and electric mirrors, so high spec.
My Infinity 6x9's work fine in the back, so not sure what the other people who mention 6x9's not working are having troubles with.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 10th July, 2007
30th Jun 2009, 06:08
The emissions based road tax bands don't apply to cars made before 2001/2002. Your 1995 Clio will still be taxed under the age old capacity tax system, and you're probably better off for it! The engine is old now, and even in top notch condition would put out more CO2 emissions than modern equivalents.