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Cheers Gregg...i think its stupidity on my behalf, if i didnt love the car so much id have just got rid but the thought of not having something exciting and different puts me off. The only cars id trade for is a new focus st, focus rs or a new golf gti...none of which i can stretch to haha.

Theres no one local that has one so they can drive mine to see if its different. Atleast Danny agrees there is an issue.

Service manager contacted me. Trying to keep to emails now for proof of whats going on..

Good afternoon Lee,

I remember your Clio coming in to us in October 2012 with the complaint of a steering noise. The car was here for some time whilst we road tested the car to see if we could reproduce the problem. Looking at the notes on the jobcard it would seem we were unable to hear any noises and you were unable to reproduce the noise for us either. The issue was left for you to monitor and return to us if you could reproduce the issue or narrow down when it happened. It would be impossible for us to diagnose a fault that could not be demonstrated and that we could not reproduce ourselves on test. Whilst I do remember you mentioning the car felt skittish the bulk of our investigations centred around the noise. Clio RS can be a skittish car in certain circumstances and road conditions and nothing obvious was found during our investigations into the noise that could relate to this.

With regards to the camber issue, manufacturing tolerance are surprisingly wide on camber settings. When you combine this with the varying results that can be recorded from different wheel alignment checks its impossible to tell if there is an issue with your car from the information supplied. If you feel the problem stems back to the gearbox replacement then you will need to return the car to wherever that work was carried out for them to re-check what they have done.

If Danny felt that the steering wheel bolt wasn’t tight, then he wouldn’t have let you drive the car away as clearly this would be extremely dangerous. However, this needs checking as a matter of urgency for safety reasons. We have never had the steering wheel or upper column apart on your car, however I can see that you have a lot of work done elsewhere but we are not able to see the complete detail of this. Regarding Danny’s diagnosis, there really hasn’t been one made from your email. Simply saying the steering rack or steering assembly is at fault purely casts a net over many components without narrowing down which part is at fault.

I want to help you as much as I can but the water has been somewhat muddied with repairs and visits to other dealers/garages. My suggestion is that we have the car in to look purely at this loose steering wheel bolt first as this must be addressed as soon as possible. Once we have established what is loose and we have rectified this, so we know the car Is safe, we can test the car with you and see if your concerns are still present or not.

I am away from the dealership until Monday the 18th but if you wish to speak to me before that then you can call me on my mobile number ********** to discuss the best way forward and most importantly to get the steering checked.



Kind regards
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I don't think it's stupidity, it's just because you love the car, you just want it to work and drive the way it should. I'd be exactly the same, it's a new car with a warranty so the problem should be sorted out without any fuss. Unfortunately it's not always the way things work.

They're all nice cars but I reckon you'd find them boring in comparison with the 200. I even found my dad's old RS250 pretty boring to drive compared to my 197 hence me opting for a newer 200 rather than buying it off him. The RS250 is/was a great car, it's just nowhere near as exciting.

I feel your pain as I had a massive issue with Renault as they didn't fit the Tunepoint module into my car that should've been there from new. It's impossible to retro fit one despite them taking half the dash apart on several occasions to check the wiring, even the factory didn't know what they had done! Lets hope Danny at 519 can get the ball rolling for you and you can have the car back to the way it should be in no time!
 
Bumppppppp

Went into Renault the other friday. Ill give the service manager his due, he spent 2 hours with me, driving the car, comparing to another etc and he heard and felt the knock a couple of times.

Sent off a video to Renault Technical Dept and i got a reply this morning

Good Morning Lee,

I have spoken with the guy dealing with your Clio and Renault Technical department.

They have asked us to carry out a specific operation on the lower joint of the steering column and to report back on any difference this makes to the noise.

We will need the car for 1 day to carry this operation out. Let me know When is convenient and I will arrange a car for you. We are booking from Monday the 25th onwards.
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Sounds asif we may be getting somewhere.

Its not like i havent had various people suggesting that its to do with where the column meets the rack, but trying to get renault to listen is like talking to a brick wall!

Fingers crossed
 
From reading your first post, I think I may have the same problem, mines a 197 mind you, but at low speeds 1-5mph when I turn left the steering makes a grating/screech noise, I can feel knocking through the steering, mine wanders across the road, and when I turn left, on a long fast bend ie on a motorway, I can feel that there's something not quite right.

I don't have warranty but my mechanic says there is obviously something not right with my steering rack, I had lower dog bone mount things changed recently which cured knocking noise but now it's developed this, 200 cup rack is £350 and fitting will be most likely a £100, this could get very expensive :worried:
 
Well after a chat to the service manager, it turns out what they are going to do isnt what Steve Murr and R-Sport have been suggesting.

The pinion is inside the steering rack, and as such isn’t related to the repair we are looking at. We will be looking at the lower column clamp, and bonding it on to make sure there isn’t any movement.

It’s a modification we used to do on Scenic but its never appeared before.
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Wonder whats next if "bodging" the clamp doesnt work.

Ive already checked its tight myself and can see no movement.
 
Ye got a price off of Karl, 250 for rack 80 surcharge and like £10-20 postage!

He did say if you send your rack back then the 80 surcharge would be refunded, but as mines a 197 it has to be like for like, I got a price for a normal 197 rack and it was like £400!!

How hard would it be to change rack? Not something I'd want to touch, I do have a bit of mechanical knowledge but wouldn't want to mess with that lol!
 
Atleast the rack is mounted right down on the subframe not right at the back of the engine bay up behind the engine like some cars.

Id pay to get it replaced, wouldnt fancy it myself.

Might end up with a day trip to R-Sport and get Steve to sort it as he seems to be the only one aware of this issue!
 
marshall said:
Well after a chat to the service manager, it turns out what they are going to do isnt what Steve Murr and R-Sport have been suggesting.



Wonder whats next if "bodging" the clamp doesnt work.

Ive already checked its tight myself and can see no movement.
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sounds like a proper "cheapo" repair does that - what they going to do - just use some thread lock on it :poke:
 
Lol at only paying 100 for the rack to be fitted. At a stab 4/5 hours labour. My man charged me 200 sheets and that was mates rates. Foxspeed might know book time?

Whatever they do it wont work.

The feedback given to me was simple and up front. Your steering rack has failed because it is ****. Its **** because its not uprated enough v the task asked of it.

End.
 
Can't believe the amount of hassle your having with this, I took mine in and they said it was the steering rack after driving it and looking at it on the ramp for a few minutes
 
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