Garage P*** Takers

[robo_#1]

Hi everyone,

Got my 197 from a local car dealership, but after a day or two of driving iv noticed some very minor niggles, the balancing was off as was the tracking. and the brakes were juddering slightly when braking.. Iv taken it back to the dealer to be looked at, and after a whole 2hours they got back to me with this...

"the exhaust is always like that"
"the tracking is fine, and weve put your real offside wheel onto the front to make 'a matching pair' to fix the balancing"
"the brake skimming machine is out of service till next week so we'll fix the brakes then"....

now im know im picky but the exhaust does seem a little odd.
as for "matching wheels" am I just being stupid but surely all four wheels are the same and putting the front wheel on the back to me just says they couldnt be arsed to balance it properly??

gonna piss me off having odd tread levels on all my tyres if I leave it like this too..

has anyone had their brakes skimmed? never had it dont myself tbh...

 

[The Boosh!]

What dealer was this mate? Sounds a bit dodgy skimming brakes to me

 

[Dave..]

What was wrong with the exhaust?

 

[robo_#1]

Direct Cars in Sheffield, just picked the car up, maybe the guy on the phone wasnt the brightest spark. brakes arent gonna be done for another week (no bigy) they swapped the wheels BECAUSE they were wrong, previous owner/garage must have put them on odd. so now all the treads are right. got it on my dinner hour, so will figure out the balancing on the M1 slog home. its supposed to be going back in a week anyway so if the exhaust annoys me i'll have em take another look. Thinking about a trip into renault soon anyway to maybe get a replacement Recaro and ECU remap for the cold start problems..

God now I do sound picky

Dave the exhaust just seems to rattle at idle, if your stood behind the car you can hear a little "clinking"

 

[Daniel]

Why didn't you notice any of this before you bought it??

 

[Gumby]

Too excited to think clearly probably

 

[robo_#1]

the braking isnt really noticeable untill you start braking at high speeds, Im not anal enough to check the tread depth on all four tyres and then compare them on a garage forecourt? or maybe I was just too excited to think clearly

 

[Sargara]

Should have picked up on all of this on the test drive to be honest and then agreed to collect the car after the work has been done. Or taken someone who knows abit about cars with you when you went.

Oh well if those 3 things are the worst of your worries id say you will be fine.

 

[Fred@BTM]

for the price of discs for them i don't see the point in skimming them!

 

[Gally]

Did it handle terrible before the wheel was changed?

 

[mugglesquop]

let us know how u get on with the brake shuddering... dad has exactly the same problem on his Merc. We managed to get rid of some of it by taking the discs off and cleaning up the hubs etc, make sure there wasnt any rust/s**t stopping them sitting level. Still shudders a little bit tho.

 

[robo_#1]

No it didnt handle terribly Gally why you ask?

To be honest they're pretty minor niggles, I did take it on a fair test drive but didn't do any A/M road driving so didnt really pick up on them. TBH they're fairly petty some other people probably wont bother/notice them. only really picked up on them after a few longer journeys etc.

I'll let you know how I get on with the brakes. it is an odd one as it seems to have gotten better, I suspected it might have been rust or a slightly seizing caliper. but its still there JUST, and these kinda things irritate me lol!

 

[D2501]

Hi mate, this is interesting for two reasons:
1) I almost went to look at a black 197 from Direct Cars 2 weeks ago, glad I didn't now!
2) I'm originally from Barnsley, so thought I'd say hey!

 

[robo_#1]

P.S out of curiousity how much are discs and pads for the 197's I thought it odd they were skimming, figured they were just being tight especially since when I was in there they were complaining its costing them thousands to fix the skimming machine...

 

[robo_#1]

Hi D2501, to be honest mate the car so far is spot on, these are tiny niggles. If id have known about them before id still have bought it! (although Id have had them fixed before collection rather than after but hey ho..)

was It my one you were going to look at? they had two in, both on 57 reg's one standard and then mine with cup packs, xenons, recaro's.

 

[D2501]

Standard one mate:
http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/200950348165600/sort/priceasc/usedcars/engine-size-cars/2l_to_2-5l/maximum-mileage/up_to_40000_miles/maximum-age/up_to_3_years_old/colour/black/seller-type/trade_adverts/model/clio/make/renault/radius/1500/page/1/postcode/al51ny/keywords/sport%20?previous=%2Fsearch%2Fused%2Fcars%2Frenault%2Fclio%2Fpostcode%2Fal51ny%2Fradius%2F1500%2Fkeywords%2Fsport%2520%2Fengine-size-cars%2F2l_to_2-5l%2Fmaximum-mileage%2Fup_to_40000_miles%2Fmaximum-age%2Fup_to_3_years_old%2Fcolour%2Fblack%2Fseller-type%2Ftrade_adverts%2Fpage%2F1%2Fsort%2Fpriceasc&logcode=p

 

[Lo x]

oh right, didnt know they still had that one in mate, when I went it was gone and they told me it was sold.. I was wanting the cup packed one anyway, being the chav at heart that I am I couldn't say no to red brakes and recaro's lol!

 

[robo_#1]

haha ^^ that was me mate, back home on the missus' laptop didnt realise she was signed in