Just had my tin top in a garage to check it's condition in order to get ready for MOT in March.

Total: 900 quid to fix.
Parts: 500 quid
labour: 400 quid

I need a new car now.

What the hells wrong with it??

whats wrong with it cant you do the work?

And lo... your call was answered!

LINKY

Steering Rack
Track rod end o/s
Ball joint o/s
Rear discs and pads
Rear Caliper
Timing belt
Cat
anti roll bar link

Timing belt and cat are a bit of a PITA... Depending on the car the belt can mean a whole load of removing and the cat bolts are (in my experience) rusted and seized solid making removal a nightmare).....
Rest is cheap and quick.....

Ouch!

What is it?

Mk1 Clio RSi

Steering Rack 140
Track rod end o/s 8
Ball joint o/s 11
Rear discs and pads 45
Rear Caliper 68
Timing belt 150
Cat 48
anti roll bar link 3

come on if you can build a kit that lot is a piece of pxxs.

check your local motor factors out and yoyu will probably get another £50 to £100 of the price. Remember its a buyers market out there.
Did you take it to a dealer ??

Flippin' eck... £400 labour

Do the bits you can yourself and only pay for anything a bit trickier.

Shop around for the parts too... you'd be amazed at the price differences.

Might save a few quid.

went to a garage. If i went to the dealers, it would have been 2K.

All the parts have been sourced from ebay. Cheapest i found. About 100 quid is on postage!!

get your ass down the scrapyard and see if aladins cave will let you have some treasure!

would you trust a second hand steering rack?

How can you test it?

quote:

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Originally posted by l0rd
Mk1 Clio RSi

Steering Rack 140
Track rod end o/s 8
Ball joint o/s 11
Rear discs and pads 45
Rear Caliper 68
Timing belt 150
Cat 48
anti roll bar link 3

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Yeap. 150 and 110 quid fitting

sell it

Go to a local motor factors, sometimes tinternet aint that cheap.Cheapest price I found last year for bits I needed was £98 plus postage (£28) got em all from my local guy for £72 the added bonus was If they were wrong I could take em back.
As for the labour I wouldnt trust any garage, If you can build a car for Petes sake.
Cheers,
Bob

[Edited on 29/1/09 by splitrivet]

I can and have bought clios and pugs for 200 mot and taxed..........I would never pay much for a car ever again......there is so many you can choose

I can find plenty of clios. I need something that will have some good power. Last year i did 30K on the bloody clio.

Let me know details of the car, year exact model etc and I'll see if I can save you a bit on parts. Postage shouldn't be a problem as well if you decide to fix it. U2U me if you want

I'd echo everyone else and have a go, at that price. Ca$h is an excellent motive to d-i-y.

You're a member of LCB - this and the Cliosport forums if you need advice as to what to look out for.

I've found Partco, Andrew Page and (if there's one local to you) Wilco to be about the cheapest cross-mfr factors. Anyone else care to comment on their findings...?

And try Eurocar if you need a cheap runabout while you fix yours. My last one cost about £13 a day - no comment on the reason I needed it...

Francis.

GSF is hard to beat for price and availability.

Although, the real skill of bangernomics isn't fixing them cheaply, it's knowing when to walk away and cut your losses. How much will it be worth once it's done ? Cars are "cheap" at the moment.

Thank you for letting me know that wilco is cheaper on parts. I will give them a ring.

GSF S**ks big time. Got a starter motor which proved to be faulty. Now they do not compensate for the labour of the mechanic who fitted 2 starter motors in the end and charged me double.

Dude you need to get down to the scrapyard, I honestly could get all that fixed for far less than £100. There’s no point in putting new parts on an old car, even the back disks can be replaced by second hand parts so long as their within limits, I take the pads too as they match the surface of the disks, just don’t mix them up. You should try being a student with barely enough cash for the fuel and trying to keep a car going. Scrapards at the place to go.

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr Whippy
You should try being a student with barely enough cash for the fuel and trying to keep a car going.

---

I would be very dubious of this test station.

Timing belt is not an MOT testable item.

However the tester can refuse to continue the test if he thinks the belt will break durring the test --- but for that the belt would have to be obvious looking pretty knackered.

[Edited on 30/1/09 by britishtrident]

I know timing belt is not an MOT test.

But. Mileage is allready 128K. Needs changing soon. These is no point sorting everything else apart from that in case it fails.

Hence why i got the car to the garage for inspection, just to see what else it is going to fail on.

I can't find any scrapyards around where i live as i am still new in the area. I have only found dismantlers (breakers) and what they have normaly told me so far is (you might get it cheaper at the dealers)

Called the Motor factors earlier, as many as i could find.
So quotes so far:

Unipart: 559.50
Part Co: 707.89
Trowbridge Ltd: 511.89

Ebay:361.51

BuyPartsBy have the RSi timing belt kit for £46+vat. Look harder!

Biggred have rear caliper repair kits for £20

http://www.biggred.co.uk/renaultshop.html

Are you sure the garage you took it to didn't decide to find work that didn't really need doing? I got done by that when I was young and green.

For example has the steering actually got any play/notchiness in it, if not why have the decided it needs replacing?

Are the rear discs warped, if not why can't you just stick some new pads in, they don't need to be expensive pads as the rears don't do much of the actual stopping. Some garages try to insist you have need discs at the same time as pads without even inspecting them.

Finally are you getting quotes on new or refurb parts? Steering racks and calipers are often available as both.

Yes, i know that there are cheaper timing kits available, but reason for looking at the expensive one is due to warranty issues. Gates timing belts, have warranty in case it breakes under the milleage, they replace the engine.

I have sourced a rack today. £20 and £8 for the caliper.

I can say that there is a bright spot in the horizon.

The rack feels like it has some play. All clios are supposed to have a problem with the steering column though, not the rack.

Also, while the car was tested, i was there looking at it and i did see the rack play, i did see the caliper leaking, i did see the CO emissions that were high.

It was a true quote.

[Edited on 30/1/09 by l0rd]

I asked if i can repair the caliper. The answer was no.

They said new caliper. Either way, i found a second hand one for £8 quid.

Let's hope i's ok.

quote:

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Originally posted by l0rd
Yes, i know that there are cheaper timing kits available, but reason for looking at the expensive one is due to warranty issues. Gates timing belts, have warranty in case it breakes under the milleage, they replace the engine.

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That's why, i would have it fitted in a garage and not diy. Just in case i c**k up.

Would there still be issues?