HI ALL! - 197 Albi Blue

[JoshV]

Hi all,

I bought my Clio 197 about 2 months ago, see the pics below; 25k on a '56 plate (I have changed my plate as you can see ). Im absolutely loving it so far! I am hoping to:

- Get new Stereo (getting http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/products/2...0BT/index.html)
- Spray trim above glove box/next to steering wheel (white, gloss black, or anthracite?) and wrap the centre console as it has a big scratch on it (I have 3M carbon wrap)
- Get new rear number plate LED lights (http://www.twingo133.net/post36625.html#p36625 possibly)
- Get new Panel filter (any particular advice or is KTR one ok? http://www.k-tecracing.com/show_product.asp?id=2667)
- Get new tyres (any ideas on best ones to get/pricing, currently have conti sports 3's)
- Tax for Year (August - £235 odd )
- THEN...
- Get new exhaust - KTR Pro or Milltek?
- Spray alloys Anthracite or get some R26 18" alloys
- New steering wheel/get retrimmed (right hand side has melted ...)
- Remap
- Get a Ktec Sprint spoiler (or that style).

Any advice welcome on the above, I know Im a bit slow not to have done any of that yet, but been very busy!

I havent had any real problems with it so far, not getting great miles per gallon though, only averaging about 24mpg But then I do no motorway driving; all around town and down country lanes, and my foot has a tendancy to get stuck to the floor BUT as they say, its SMILES PER GALLON and not miles per gallon

My only problem, which I hope someone may help me with, is with my Aircon. I have the climate control w/screen, but it doesnt put out cold air at all. When I bought it and tested it, it was the same, so the dealer said he would get it topped up. However, he couldnt find a problem and until the hot weather recently I didnt really see the severity of the same problem - Its colder if I have the window down! Are there any known problems with the Aircons or anything I can look for or a possible leaking pipe? *UPDATE* Aircon now fixed

I live in the South East in Dartford by the way!

Josh V

 

[Willis]

Welcome!!!

Looks very clean and the plate is pretty smart too.

Apart from the obvious turn the temp' down (blue button), I can't help much with the aircon apart from to say it might need regassing!?!

 

[Foxspeed]

welcome fella :thumbup:

aircon - gas 530g +/- 35 oil 135ml +/- 10

had mine done to these limits and its cold - also make sure they compensate for the amount in the supply pipes when filling it

 

[JoshV]

Welcome!!!

Looks very clean and the plate is pretty smart too.

Apart from the obvious turn the temp' down (blue button), I can't help much with the aircon apart from to say it might need regassing!?!

Haha yeah I turned it down to 15c, but still no luck.

 

[chappo]

welcome to the site Josh,

 

[Roy]

:welcome:mate
nice looking motor:thumbup:

 

[Arran]

Mate, my a/c was a total pain. All sorted under warranty fortunately, but had it topped up, then it stopped working again. So they refilled it and added dye. Then had to take it back to see where it was leaking from and they found a leak on a seal apparently. It is still quite noisy though.

 

[Gandy]

Welcome to the site mate!!

 

[porsche_gregory]

Welcome to the site mate !! Only had my clio for approx 2months and the first few tanks i was only getting approx 24mpg now im driving like a granny on a sunday and getting about 28mpg (mainly town/country roads). IMO these cars are just thirsty !! :-p

 

[go_fast197]

Welcome buddy!

Great looking car!
Air-con- where to start?! picked my car up in july 2010 and the aircon was great through out the summer. Going into September it was making a horrible noise so i told the garage to look at it. They regassed it to find the fault and told me to bring it back for the service to check it out. They said it was working fine but had put dye in there to find any possible leaks. Come this year and the nice weather i put the air-con on and nothing! rebooked it into the garage who diagnosed a leak but guess what!? i was out of warrently. they couldnt find one when i was in warrenty (warrenty expired Jan 11) but found one straight away and were going to charge me £60 for diagnostics, £107 + VAT for labour and the part would be in excess of £200. Fortunately i took out extended warrenty which saved my life! All fixed now and working a treat- TOUCH WOOD!

 

[tiababy]

my car is identical to yours. milage, reg and colour. Only visible difference is I have a sunroof.

lovely car though, looks so clean and clearly the best colour

my air con gets cold but not as cold as the golf. when I first picked it up it didn't get as cold as it does now but the more I've used it the colder it seems to get.
I think mine had been sat for a while.

I averaged 24mpg the first week or 2 I had mine (NSL and town driving) but I now average 28-30. MPG isn't a massive concern to me as I brought the car knowing that wasn't what it was made for.

 

[Roger200]

Welcome mate.
Car is looking sweet, very clean and nice few mods you've got lined up

 

[Mike]

:welcome: to the site dude!

Car looks very nice indeed

 

[RalphyBMW]

Hi, my car was very similar to yours when I got it, but bigger miles.

RE: the A/C / climate problem, what happens with these is that if the system detects low charge it shuts down. Resetting can only be done with a Renault Clip system. While I get most of my stuff done at my parents independent garage, this unfortunately had to be sorted at a Ren dealer. Cost me the £36 diagnostic fee, problem recurred a few weeks later and a section of wiring loom which amazingly was picked up under warranty.

 

[JoshV]

Thanks for the welcome guys! The dealer I bought it from provided me with a 3 month warranty so I will get him to sort it - he did say that the bloke he got to top it up said it was already fully gassed, so he took it to a renault dealer in Maidstone and they said it was fine 'compared to another car' and renault gave some old rubbish about it being hard to test because it was quite cold outside anyway.

Apparently there are quite a lot of problems with aircon in the 197s, as some of you have said on this thread too, but it doesnt take a rocket scientist out of one of the people who have looked at it to work out its clearly not working!--its worse than having the fans on in my old '99 1.25 fiesta haha .. Hopefully it will be sorted properly this time!

 

[edd1e]

welcome to the club mate

 

[JoshV]

Thanks for the welcome guys!

Got a long list of things to do over the next year which will hurt my pocket (I have updated my intial post with this list now):
- Fix Aircon
- Get new Stereo (getting http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/products/25/121/61/MVH-8300BT/index.html)
- Spray trim above glove box/next to steering wheel and wrap the centre console as it has a big scratch on it (I have 3M carbon wrap)
- Get new rear number plate LED lights
- Get new Panel filter (any particular advice or is KTR/ITG one ok?)
- Get new tyres
- Tax for Year (August - £235 odd )
- THEN...
- Get new exhaust - KTR Pro or Milltek?
- Get Ktec sprint spoiler or equivalent
- Spray alloys Anthracite
- Remap

Any advice welcome on the above, including my issue with the Aircon Absolutely loving the 197 though, a good move!

 

[RalphyBMW]

ITG panel filter, Camskill were cheapest.
Yours is an early car so will probably have C5W festoon bulbs for the rear plate, not 501's like the later cars.
Stick with ContiSport CS3 or CS5
Get your wheels done at the same time as the tyre change to avoid removing the tyres unnecessarily.

 

[minesaturbo]

welcome

 

[JoshV]

Good news was I got the Aircon fixed. There was no power getting to the electromagnet/compressor so the bloke changed a switch at £110 and charged £305 all-in-all and its working now. Luckily I didnt have to pay a penny! I do notice though that when I put the Aircon on and put it down to say 15/16 degrees that there is a slight whine when you accelerate. Does anyone elses do this?

Next on the list to do is the simple bits like number plate lights (http://www.twingo133.net/post36625.html#p36625 maybe??), panel filter, stereo, dash/front fascia respray