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Austin’s Clio dci 100 Initiale



Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Welcome to the project thread for my dci 100 Initiale...

As a brief background... I had a dci 65 a couple years ago. It was amazing, ran on fresh air and allowed me to keep the miles off my 182. I filled it with petrol one night by mistake and sold it on. I was looking for something bigger and 5 door anyway so it wasnt all bad. I then bought a 2011 qashqai, had it for a year and loved it but needed to free up cash so sold it a couple of months ago.

I then went on the hunt for a mk2 clio dci again and realised how difficult it is to find one! Not many for sale, and most are ready for the breakers yard.

just over a week ago, I bought a 3 door dci for £675. It was rough, but it seemed like it would do the job. 20 minutes later the dash was flashing with warning lights so I took it straight back and got my money back. Such a lucky escape! I had taxed and insured it before setting off so that was a mess on to sort, but i was just relieved that I had got my money back!

So the hunt continued. Autotrader, gumtree, facebook and ebay daily still returning nothing decent, and that was hundreds of miles away! Until Saturday late afternoon.... one popped up that looked brilliant. 5 door which i wanted, Initiale model so the best spec you can get and also on insurance check it showed it was the dci 100 model! It was advertised for just £250! The advert was vague. It said sold for repair or spare but no description what was wrong orher than it only had a few weeks mot left and the engine management light was on. Pictures below from the advert...
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I rang the seller, and he said he had just took it in part ex. He said it was in ok condition and drove fine, but was worth scrap value to him and if it didnt sell, thats where it wuld be going! He told me the guy who part ex’d it in had travelled from Bristol to him in Grimsby so i felt hopeful it was in working condition to travel the 200+ mile journey!

It would be a 148 mile journey for me to Grimsby, but thought it was worth a look so I agreed to travel down the next day and if all was well, i would take it away with me.

We arrived sunday early afternoon and it was parked up in the middle of his yard, within the grounds of his massive farm house surrounded by a load of Teslas. Turns out he trades in more expensive used cars and did only take this clio in as part ex, which I assume was probably so the guy picking his new car up could get there easily.
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I had a quick wal around and it looked in decent condition for a 15 year old car. Had a look underneath and no obvious leaks of any kind. Sump was dry, suspension was dry but could tell it was old. One front tyre was bald on both the edges. It has the xenons which worked. The guy said there is a loud noise coming from the rear and he didnt know what it was.
He gave me the key and said take it for a drive. He was surrounded by country roads so the perfect location to test it and see if any warning lights came up when reaching speed! I floored it through all gears! No noises, no smoke and no warning lights! I was surprised at how well it drove! I knew at this point I was going to take it with me.

I had a look underneath the rear and as expected, the loud noise was a perished exhaust mount. Easy fix. Brakes look like they could do with being changed, but it atill stopped well enough! I put the passenger windown down just as we started the test drive and it wouldnt go up but wasnt worried as i knew it would be an easy fix whatever it was.

I pulled back into the sellers yard and told him about the window. I said i would take it away as it was of he would accept £200. (In reaity i would if paid £500, never mind the £250 he advertised it for). He said yes straight away, but said he wouldnt let me drive it away with the window stuck down so got some tools and took the switch out. A wiggle of the wire and the window button worked again and the window went back up. Brilliant, an even easier fix for me than expected!

I also plugged it into my basic fault reader to see what the engine management was showing. The seller said he had no objections to this at all. The faults shown were;

-P2413 which I believe is egr valve
-P0670 which is glow plugs

Both should be an easy fix.

There is one main problem, which the seller did tell me about on the initial phone call whoch was to do with the key and starting the car.
Strange one really, the symptoms to me indicate immobiliser, but im not 100% and dont have any experience with this. Although very strangely, just a few days ago my 182 did a sinilar thing! Scary...
Anyway, when you turn the key, it will turnbut wont start, the little red light flashes fast and lights, radio etc fires up, but no the engine. You have to then turn the key back as though you are turning the engine off, and then turn it again and it starts. When it starts you then have to turn they key very slightly nack onitself so the radio, climate control etc work. Also, when it does start, its strange, its like they key just smoothly turns and it starts automatically, not the normal feeling of giving it that final twist and firing the engine up.
Anyone have any ideas what this could be????

Anyway, I went into the office paid the guy £200 and he gave me a profesional invoice lol. Such a strange feeling for such a cheap car.

I stopped a mile down the road to put some diesel in and then got on our way home for the 148 mile journey. This would be the test to see if it was actually a bargain or not. We sat at a steady 80mph, and sometimes higher for the first 90 mile and it was faultless! No noises, no smoke just a very wnjoyable drive. We stopped for a quick drink at some services.
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Then we continued the rest of the journey and after almost 2 and a half hours in total, we arrived home safely.
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Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
The interior is filthy! And so is the engine bay but i look forward to giving the whole car a good clean.
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I have booked it in for an mot this weekend so will see what comes from that. I will put the spare wheel on until i decide what i want to do with the tyres as its just the one that is bald.

Then im going to give it a good service and hopefully correct all of the little issues.

The list so far is;
Bulbs (sidelight and wing indicator)
Front tyre (maybe 2)
Exhaust mount
Oil
oil filter
Air filter
Pollen filter
Egr valve clean
Glow plugs
Mot
Headlight correction
Key start immobiliser issue
Rear window switch
Front window switch
Standard cd player

And i founf a £2 coin in the boot so I think I have a £198 bargain! Hope you enjoyed the read so far...
 

Clio_fool

ClioSport Club Member
Sounds like a good buy. How many times has it been around the world? I nearly bought one last year that my mate bought new in 04 and his mother has run since 07. He said they were going to part ex it and I told him don't bloody let them, I'll have it! Didn't happen in the end and they are still running it. And my offer still stands?. I didn't know they were getting hard to find.
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Sounds like a good buy. How many times has it been around the world? I nearly bought one last year that my mate bought new in 04 and his mother has run since 07. He said they were going to part ex it and I told him don't bloody let them, I'll have it! Didn't happen in the end and they are still running it. And my offer still stands?. I didn't know they were getting hard to find.

I forgot to mention that above. Its on 147k, with 4 previous owners. The last 2 owners had it one year each, i know that as i have the logbook and can see both their details. So the 2 before that have had it for at least 6-7 years each and im assuming it has been looked after. The negative is that the service book is missing so i dont know any of its history.
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Them Jade alloys are worth more than the £200 you paid for the car mate. f**king right bargain haha

Let me know if you need any dCi 100 bits, I have a shed full lol

Nice one mate! I will probably be in touch at some point then. Not had a 100 before so not sure if / what the common issues are. And i will know more on Saturday after the mot.

Are the alloys sought after?
 

Crayola

ClioSport Club Member
Nice one mate! I will probably be in touch at some point then. Not had a 100 before so not sure if / what the common issues are. And i will know more on Saturday after the mot.

Are the alloys sought after?
Not sought after massively but they made very, very, very limited numbers of Paris Initiale's and only did them in dCi 80/100 and 1.6 engines for the MK2/PH2. You're lucky to find any Jade alloys for sale in Europe, I've been looking for 3 years for some for a friends dCi 80 Initiale. It took him 4 years to find a new rear bench for it?

I have too many parts for 100's laying about? It looks nice and straight though, what's the mileage on it?
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Not sought after massively but they made very, very, very limited numbers of Paris Initiale's and only did them in dCi 80/100 and 1.6 engines for the MK2/PH2. You're lucky to find any Jade alloys for sale in Europe, I've been looking for 3 years for some for a friends dCi 80 Initiale. It took him 4 years to find a new rear bench for it?

I have too many parts for 100's laying about? It looks nice and straight though, what's the mileage on it?
Yea i knew they existed but always wondered why there was so few of them.

Ah, i need a rear headrest as one is missing lol. Do you have one spare? If not i dont imagine i will find one then if thats the case ha ha.

Mileage is 147k.

Also i noticed the rear brakes are discs and pads, is that normal? As i saw an initiale 80 on here that had drums?
 

Crayola

ClioSport Club Member
Yea i knew they existed but always wondered why there was so few of them.

Ah, i need a rear headrest as one is missing lol. Do you have one spare? If not i dont imagine i will find one then if thats the case ha ha.

Mileage is 147k.

A dCi 100 Initiale is rarer than a LY tbh haha. They just don't have the same buzz lol

I don't mate but I can ask around. Are they the grey leather ones? Plenty of miles left in it, I sold mine on 250k and I think it's still going haha
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
A dCi 100 Initiale is rarer than a LY tbh haha. They just don't have the same buzz lol

I don't mate but I can ask around. Are they the grey leather ones? Plenty of miles left in it, I sold mine on 250k and I think it's still going haha

Haha pretty cool. Im going to get it as immaculate as i can. I bought a machine polisher a couple months go so i will test it out on this.

Yea if you could that would be great cheers. Yes, the greyish colour. Half leather half alcantara. Really compfy tbh

Ha 250k thats good to know!
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
I got home late this afternoon from being at London all week since Monday with work. We have had a load of ice all week and snow yesterday and last night so i was interested to see how the clio would start since it hasnt been started all week. It started straight up with no delay, well other than the strange potential immobiliser issue thing where i have to turn, then turn off then turn again for it to start!

Its booked in for an MOT tomorrow morning so i will see exactly what / if it needs anything. In anticipation for this, i have put the spare wheel on tonight as the front driver side is smooth bald on the edge which would be an instant fail. I also changed the 2 bulbs that weren't working and put the new rear exhaust mount on. All in the dark on the freezing cold floor ?
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Im getting a bit of a sharp judder when changing gears and accelerating. Im not sure what it is but feel like its some sort of mount. Maybe engine or gearbox?
 
Super balla spec... ! Xenons, wooden dash trim and sport type steering wheel? rear electric windows? Or what are those switches on the console?, seat type very decent and it's colour coded with silver bullets. Looks like it had the Cabasse set up in looking at the door cards? Shame they removed the headunit. Also the door handles, whats going on??

Door card lights are awesome, I want them ?
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Super balla spec... ! Xenons, wooden dash trim and sport type steering wheel? rear electric windows? Or what are those switches on the console?, seat type very decent and it's colour coded with silver bullets. Looks like it had the Cabasse set up in looking at the door cards? Shame they removed the headunit. Also the door handles, whats going on??

Door card lights are awesome, I want them ?
Super balla spec... ! Xenons, wooden dash trim and sport type steering wheel? rear electric windows? Or what are those switches on the console?, seat type very decent and it's colour coded with silver bullets. Looks like it had the Cabasse set up in looking at the door cards? Shame they removed the headunit. Also the door handles, whats going on??

Door card lights are awesome, I want them ?

Yes mate it has the sport wheel with cruise control too lol. Rear electric windows but they aren't working! Need to figure out what it is.

Whats the Cabasse set up? Yes, aftermarket cd player is shocking! I have a tuner list on its way in the post to replace it.

It has a 6 cd changer under the passenger seat but i cant work out how to get thing thing out.

Haha! Door handles have the same wood effect that the dash strips and wheel insert has!

I agree, the door lights are really good!!
 
Yes mate it has the sport wheel with cruise control too lol. Rear electric windows but they aren't working! Need to figure out what it is.

Whats the Cabasse set up? Yes, aftermarket cd player is shocking! I have a tuner list on its way in the post to replace it.

It has a 6 cd changer under the passenger seat but i cant work out how to get thing thing out.

Haha! Door handles have the same wood effect that the dash strips and wheel insert has!

I agree, the door lights are really good!!

6 Disc won't power up until it's got the OE headunit in. Slide the lid across and press the button. They are Alpine I think?

On the speaker grills does it have little Cabasse emblems? Under the lights on yours? Looks like it in pics?

My 5 door looks poverty compared with this ! Same two tone dash though

First time I've seen the dCi 100 sex toy knob in wood trim too... got wood indeed, ha !
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
6 Disc won't power up until it's got the OE headunit in. Slide the lid across and press the button. They are Alpine I think?

On the speaker grills does it have little Cabasse emblems? Under the lights on yours? Looks like it in pics?

My 5 door looks poverty compared with this ! Same two tone dash though

First time I've seen the dCi 100 sex toy knob in wood trim too... got wood indeed, ha !

Haha its horrific tbh mate. I know its 15 year old, but was wood trim even a thing back then? I thought it was at least 30 years ago style ha ha!

The gear knob is so strange! Its massive! And also reverse is not in the usual clio position, next to 1st? Its as if it is in the space for a 6th gear. Do you know why?

Yes it does have that emblem on the lights. What does it mean? Just upgraded speakers?

Ah ok, yes its Alpine. Hopefully the tuner list will make it work...

The interior is filthy though! Would look quite smart if it was clean. I will get the carpet clearner onit all but need to wait for warmer weather otherwise it will never dry!
 
  320d
Change the battery in the key. I had the same what I thought was an immobiliser issue in my 172 and it was just a dying key battery. Changed it and never had an issue again.
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Change the battery in the key. I had the same what I thought was an immobiliser issue in my 172 and it was just a dying key battery. Changed it and never had an issue again.

Tried that mate, still the same.
 

Crayola

ClioSport Club Member
All JR5 boxes are 6th for reverse, same with the MK3 tCe boxes

The dogbone will probably be the culprit for the movement, my dCi used to kill standard ones because I drove it like a c**t lmao
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
The clio passed its MOT this morning. A few advisories but nothing major and no rush to sort. Im going to order the service parts now I know it doesnt need anything major.
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@YorkshireKyle very kindly posted a standard headunit to me! Thanks again mate.

It looks a lot better than the adtermarket but theres a big problem! Code in, all works great but then when getting back in the car and starting it, its asking for the code everytime! And i have to actually turn it on with the button, rather than automatically starting. I believe this is down to the issue mentioned in the initial post of this thread, about the strange problem im having when starting the car and having to knocl the key slightly back on itself to power up the radio and climate etc etc.

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Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
I decided to see what the egr valve was like and give it a clean. Massive thanks to @Brigsy who pretty much talked me through it step by step via messenger ??

It was straight forward when i understood exactly what i needed to be removing. The valve was covered in thick gunk. The shaft part was also really oily and when previously watching youtube videos on this, i think this may be a bad sign as it should be dry and not wet?
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The pipe wasnt anywhere near as bad as i thought it would be after seeing the egr. I still gave it a good clean before putting it back on.
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Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
I picked up the service parts and made a start on that. I have changed the pollen filter and air filter. I will do the oil and oil filter tomorrow. I also bought 4x new glow plugs and will be getting a Delphi fuel filter.

You can see it has been a while since it was last serviced by the look of he filters!
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Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Also have just managed to fix the issue of the radio not working and requiring the code everytime I start the car. Along with the clock resetting to 00:00 and the interior lights only working when the key is in the ignition.

It was a blown fuse!

The lights in the door cards are brilliant! Give so much light off!
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gez 172

ClioSport Club Member
  Defender 110
Good progress buddy ?

Mine gets a bit puffy after 3,000rpm full throttle, so I’m going to have a look at my EGR to see if it’s blocked too.
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
I think i have solved / identified what the strange starting / flashing red imobiler light might be....
I took the chip out of the key to find the microswitch has been fixed with bluetac! As its the only key i have, i didnt want to mess about so put it back in and closed the key. Since then, for some strange reason the car is starting first time, with no flashing red light. This makes me 99% confident that its a key problem. However, the barrel is also broken as the return mechanism doesnt work and when started i still have knock the key slightly back on itself for the radio and climate conteol to work. Not sure how it works when changing a barrel and what has to be swapped etc.

I changed the oil and oil filter on sunday, have a delphi fuel filter on the way to me in the post and have 4x glow plugs but im scared to change them as i have heard they snap easy!
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Although i dont know when the cambelt was last changed, im sure it needs doing as the aux belt looks really old with visible cracks in it! I will get a price for this from a garage for this to be done.

On my commute to work on Monday it saw upto 74mpg driving very carefully. Since then im averaging 58mpg which is still great.
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I had a look online for the jade alloy wheels after hearing how rare they are, and i could only find one single wheel for sale which very strangely happened to be 2 miles from work! It was on ebay for £40 but he agreed to £22.50 after making a few offers. Thought it cant harm having a spare as if anything was to happen to one of the wheels it would be difficult to find a spare and would result in having to buy a full new set of a different type of wheel.
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Nice!

Regarding the key issue... I would buy a complete set from a breaker. Easy way to get two keys then and swap the igniton whilst your at it. Then it's just door lock/fuel cap, UCH?/ECU? and key transponder I believe. Do some research and fit it yourself and it'll be a total bargain this car
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Nice!

Regarding the key issue... I would buy a complete set from a breaker. Easy way to get two keys then and swap the igniton whilst your at it. Then it's just door lock/fuel cap, UCH?/ECU? and key transponder I believe. Do some research and fit it yourself and it'll be a total bargain this car

Thats the bit i dont understand mate. If you change the barrel, can you just use the metal key part that comes with the barrel, door lock and fuel cap and continue using the current microchip i have in the current key? Or would that not work? If it would work, then i could just get a new key (microchip part) made up. And would that take away the need to start messing with the ecu/uch?

At the minute, its working fine anyway, just a little loose in the barrel but im happy to live with that if it continues to work. I wonder if the current barrel can be repaired? I read something about it being a loose spring.
 
Thats the bit i dont understand mate. If you change the barrel, can you just use the metal key part that comes with the barrel, door lock and fuel cap and continue using the current microchip i have in the current key? Or would that not work? If it would work, then i could just get a new key (microchip part) made up. And would that take away the need to start messing with the ecu/uch?

At the minute, its working fine anyway, just a little loose in the barrel but im happy to live with that if it continues to work. I wonder if the current barrel can be repaired? I read something about it being a loose spring.


You could swap the key blade/fuel cap/lock to fix the ignition spring issue with another barrel, but of course your chip problem would remain so would still need a new key and coding which would be pricey for a genuine one etc as they are ordered direct from Renault in France.

ECU/UCH swap wouldn't be hard but I guess it's making sure it's the right ones for the car which could be tricky in your model/spec !

I would look to swap the ignition/fuel cap/and lock then swap the blade to your chip and just hope for the best. Keys cannot be recoded from one car to another so would need the transponder, and everything else.

Or just leave it and hopefully the ignition doesn't collapse to pieces and the police find you hot wiring your own car lol.
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
You could swap the key blade/fuel cap/lock to fix the ignition spring issue with another barrel, but of course your chip problem would remain so would still need a new key and coding which would be pricey for a genuine one etc as they are ordered direct from Renault in France.

ECU/UCH swap wouldn't be hard but I guess it's making sure it's the right ones for the car which could be tricky in your model/spec !

I would look to swap the ignition/fuel cap/and lock then swap the blade to your chip and just hope for the best. Keys cannot be recoded from one car to another so would need the transponder, and everything else.

Or just leave it and hopefully the ignition doesn't collapse to pieces and the police find you hot wiring your own car lol.

I would rather not mess around with the uch / ecu, so i agree the best option if anything, would be to just do the barrel, blade and lock / peteol cap. Then get a new key made which im sure you can get for around £60 if not genuine.

I think i will keep going as it is for now unless anything stops working.

What do you mean by the transponder?
 

Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
I've got a full dCi 100 ECU kit here with 2 keys, you could just change the barrel, blade and fuel cap though which would be easier

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
Im going to just keep going with it as i want to spend as little as possible. If the barrel gets to a point where it is no longer useable, then i will do that and the locks, with the ecu stuff as a last resort.

Do you know what needs changing for the major cambelt service? And what sort of price should i expect from a garage?
 

Crayola

ClioSport Club Member
Im going to just keep going with it as i want to spend as little as possible. If the barrel gets to a point where it is no longer useable, then i will do that and the locks, with the ecu stuff as a last resort.

Do you know what needs changing for the major cambelt service? And what sort of price should i expect from a garage?
See if you can blow the barrel out and lube the key with some WD

I paid about £100 for my gates cambelt kit and just got a mate to check it over and give me a hand. Never taken my car to a garage so I have no idea on prices[emoji23] You need to replace the cambelt, waterpump and tensioner along with the auto tensioner and the aux belt. Pretty easy job tbh

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
 

Martin_172

ClioSport Club Member
It's a double unicorn! Awesome, I tried to buy one of these, a dci100 too, but red, off a boy at the mot station when it had failed it's mot. I think he was intimidated by me because of how excited I was over it. Think he thought I was taking the piss out him
 
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Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
See if you can blow the barrel out and lube the key with some WD

I paid about £100 for my gates cambelt kit and just got a mate to check it over and give me a hand. Never taken my car to a garage so I have no idea on prices[emoji23] You need to replace the cambelt, waterpump and tensioner along with the auto tensioner and the aux belt. Pretty easy job tbh

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

Haha! Its a clio enthusiast thing... If i tell someone its rare they just look at me confused and i can see they are just thinking its a 15 year old Clio, what are you talking about!?!? Which tbf is true, but it is cool to have one and know how rare they are.
 


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