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VO54 FFS



Gus

ClioSport Moderator
  182Turbo,DCi90
Havent seen this car mentioned at all in ages, has whoever has it now managed to fix her up?
 

GiT

ClioSport Club Member
  Shit little Yaris...
vo54ffs.jpg
 
  SQ5
Didn't someone on here buy it recently with plans to get it to normal? They googled the number plate after buying it.
 
  SQ5
It had a Ph1 engine with cable throttle IIRC, then dual controls too I think, Fred did a report on it for one of its owners I think.
 
  SQ5
Original, most informative thread.

http://www.cliosport.net/index.php?...LEAGE-LIQUID-YELLOW-CLIO-182-VO54-FFZ.627166/

Vehicle Report

Customer - Andrew Morley
Vehicle - Renault clio 182 - VO54 FFZ
Mileage - 32160

Mr Morley recently visited us so we could inspect a knocking noise coming from the front suspension, during conversation with Mr Morley he asked if we would cast our eye over the entire vehicle whilst it was in the workshop and see if the vehicle was mechanically sound incase of any future problems he may encouter with the vehicle (brakes, ball joint etc etc)

On first glance the car is in very good condition bodywork wise, the liquid gold paintwork was a factory option (cira £1100) and certainly offers the wow factor!

Unfortunatley for Mr Morley the bodywork is the only good thing we found with the car.

After removal of the engine undertray the starter motor heatshield was found sitting on the undertray, not where it should be! - a strange inital problem we thought! On inspection of the heatshield it seems to have been damaged, repaired poorly and then not fitted back onto the car properly (impossible to do without unbolting the exhaust manfold from the cylinder head).

starter motor heatsheild image - http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/... Inspection/?action=view&current=fcf4a305.jpg

We also found a wheel speed sensor had been fitted very poorly to the OSF inner half shaft bearing, this certainly was an after market part, what was it doing there?

driveshaft sensor image - http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/... Inspection/?action=view&current=45cfd0b7.jpg

We traced the wire back through the bulkhead into the vehicle and to our surprise found a very bizzare installation under the passenger footwell carpet and strange moddifications to the foot pedal on the drivers side

passenger footwell installation image - http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/... Inspection/?action=view&current=70927ad3.jpg
clutch pedal moddification image - http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/... Inspection/?action=view&current=83640b0f.jpg

chain mechanism behind clutch pedal image - http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/... Inspection/?action=view&current=625bcf4a.jpg

After a bit of investigation we found the car had been installed with an electronically activated "twin clutch" aka - the vehicle at some point had been moddified for disabled user.

The problems highlighted thus far are relativley easy to rectify, removal of the motability unit we estimate at approx 3 hours, a new starter motor heat shield is £48 and takes 1.3 hours to fit.

On further inspection of the engine bay we found a few relativley major issues - the main one being that this 2004/2005 182 (F4R 738 engine) car has been fitted with a 2001 engine from the older 172 (F4R 730/2/6 engine)

as you can see from the following images -

note the raised breather tube in the middle at the back 172 engines had this, 182's did not - http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/... Inspection/?action=view&current=047ec81c.jpg

To compare, a 182 engine looks like this - http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y116/Fredmrsclio/?action=view&current=182engine.jpg

date sticker on the rear of the block (VO54) ending in 01 - http://s200.photobucket.com/albums/... Inspection/?action=view&current=20982ca8.jpg

Without doubt this car VO54 has been fitted with the incorrect engine and isn't worth anywhere near market value


I ramble on for a bit longer, but you get the idea ;)
 

BoatNonce

ClioSport Club Member
wasn't this just an ex mobility car that had just had an engine swap and everyone thought the world was going to come to an end?

Yeah, that's the one.

No cable throttle AFAIK. The motability kit would take about an hour to remove at the absolute worst. Definitely not dual controls.

Engine wise, there would be absolutely NO difference that you could ever tell unless you knew that the breather hole is in different places. The exhaust is one of the main contributors to the power increase over the 172, which would of course stay with the car.

I'm certain that there are dozens of 182 drivers who are driving around blissfully unaware that their cars have 172 engines, purely because they haven't had Fred do an in depth technical examination on them.
 
  dan's cast offs.
typical cs...car not 100% perfect and the end of days!! fair enough not a 182 engine but as you say look at how many cars have an engine swap for whatever reason.

wouldn't put me off buying it that's for sure.
 
  SQ5
I think the fact parts have been butchered to fit motability parts would put people off, but it was never priced accordingly.

A bit like buying an old automatic or a LHD drive car, will always be a lot cheaper, this was always priced high.
 

Daniel

ClioSport Moderator
  Whichever has fuel
typical cs...car not 100% perfect and the end of days!! fair enough not a 182 engine but as you say look at how many cars have an engine swap for whatever reason.

wouldn't put me off buying it that's for sure.
So if you weren't clued up and paid top whack you'd be happy?

Forget that you are who you are and you do what you do, to an unsuspecting buyer this is a monstrosity of a car.
 
new owner is extremely happy with the car, he said he got it for a good price, the remnants of the 'disability mod' is gone, and he has taken it to a renault specialist who has confirmed it has a PH2 engine in. He quite often posts pics of it up, looks good.
 

Gus

ClioSport Moderator
  182Turbo,DCi90
new owner is extremely happy with the car, he said he got it for a good price, the remnants of the 'disability mod' is gone, and he has taken it to a renault specialist who has confirmed it has a PH2 engine in. He quite often posts pics of it up, looks good.
I know but he will always have that niggly feeling in the back of his mind that the car is a known lemon.
And the moment any potential buyers google the plate they will run a mile.
 
I know but he will always have that niggly feeling in the back of his mind that the car is a known lemon.
And the moment any potential buyers google the plate they will run a mile.
Im pretty sure he doesnt. He seems to be really enjoying the car. I dont see how it is a known lemon unless your referring the fact its yellow? Its not like its been cut and shut lol.
 

Daniel

ClioSport Moderator
  Whichever has fuel
new owner is extremely happy with the car, he said he got it for a good price, the remnants of the 'disability mod' is gone, and he has taken it to a renault specialist who has confirmed it has a PH2 engine in. He quite often posts pics of it up, looks good.
So it's now on it's 3rd engine??

He must be chuffed to bits.
 
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Jack!

ClioSport Club Member
That car must've had at least 10 registered keepers by now? Surely if you were buying that would concern you? What makes anyone buy it?

I'm not one who is too worried about amount of registered keepers, but when you've got a car that is the desirable one (in this case because LY) hence the owners are more likely to keep hold of it, at least for a while, you'd have to be thinking, 'this car changes hand yearly - why?'.
 
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That car must've had at least 10 registered keepers by now? Surely if you were buying that would concern you? What makes anyone buy it?

I'm not one who is too worried about amount of registered keepers, but when you've got a car that is the desirable one (in this case because LY) hence the one owners are more likely to keep hold of it, at least for a while, you'd have to be thinking, 'this car changes hand yearly - why?'.
At the end of the day, its a great possibility (and shame) people bought it and then sold it just because of whats it about it online, at the end of the day unless youve seen it, driven it, inspected it etc - its hard to pass judgement on it. The original thread was a long time ago now, and the current owner is happy with it and has no issues bar a handbrake cable.

/CSneverforgets
 

Jack!

ClioSport Club Member
At the end of the day, its a great possibility (and shame) people bought it and then sold it just because of whats it about it online, at the end of the day unless youve seen it, driven it, inspected it etc - its hard to pass judgement on it. The original thread was a long time ago now, and the current owner is happy with it and has no issues bar a handbrake cable.

/CSneverforgets
But no-one wants to throw away money? So most owners just tried to flog it on to the first person they could who wasn't sharp enough to have a quick gander online, rather than deal with potential problems later down the line trying to get rid of it.

Nearly every time it's come up on this forum, the general consensus has been, if someone buys it, is honest about it, gets the thing sorted, they'll have a perfectly good car - but no one wanted to do it because you were effectively throwing at least a grand away, you were buying it for £3k+ from someone who didn't accept or understand it wasn't worth that much because of the problems/history with it, then if you were honest about it, you'd never get much more than £2k+ back when you came to sell it because of the diminished market for it.
 
But no-one wants to throw away money? So most owners just tried to flog it on to the first person they could who wasn't sharp enough to have a quick gander online, rather than deal with potential problems later down the line trying to get rid of it.

Nearly every time it's come up on this forum, the general consensus has been, if someone buys it, is honest about it, gets the thing sorted, they'll have a perfectly good car - but no one wanted to do it because you were effectively throwing at least a grand away, you were buying it for £3k+ from someone who didn't accept or understand it wasn't worth that much because of the problems/history with it, then if you were honest about it, you'd never get much more than £2k+ back when you came to sell it because of the diminished market for it.

I dont get what youre trying to say? the new owner does have a perfectly good car. And im 90% sure he said he got a good deal on it too.
 
  172
The problem was never the clutch mechanism or the engine - it's brilliant that someone didn't let a disability get in the way and went to a lot of effort to be able to enjoy owning something he was passionate about in the most sought after colour/spec/combination etc.

What was never OK was independent dealers constantly advertising the car as low mileage, mint condition, few owners and commanding a premium for it.

As long as he paid a fair price & it wasn't mis-sold, everyone's happy.
 

Knuckles

ClioSport Admin
The problem isn't that it had a disability mod, or the wrong engine.

It's that a lot of work was bodged (according to Fred's thread) and no dealer declared it had the wrong engine (why would they to be fair) and continued to try and flog it for top money.

It'd have been a brilliant car for half of what they were advertising it at.

The body work looked mint and it had the ph-quick (throwback, ryt?) engine.
 
  dan's cast offs.
So if you weren't clued up and paid top whack you'd be happy?

Forget that you are who you are and you do what you do, to an unsuspecting buyer this is a monstrosity of a car.

probably wouldn't bother me that much to be honest?

also hardly see it as being a monstrosity though? and to be honest i'd quite like to have a fiddle with it and see exactly how the clutch set up worked.
 

Jack!

ClioSport Club Member
What was never OK was independent dealers constantly advertising the car as low mileage, mint condition, few owners and commanding a premium for it.

What would you do?

"For sale, yellow Clio, has disability mods, replacement older Ph1 engine and generally a lot of bodge work, I'll take 500 quid"

As I said earlier, no one wants to lose money, especially large amounts, it's all good being subjective, but the amount of people who wouldn't try and flog it on and get their money back by selling it to a clueless buyer is small.
 
  172
As I said earlier, no one wants to lose money, especially large amounts, it's all good being subjective, but the amount of people who wouldn't try and flog it on and get their money back by selling it to a clueless buyer is small.

It's completely irrelevant what you, I or Noel Edmonds would do. Doesn't change the morality or legality.

Turn it on it's head: you buy a duff car from an independent dealer for £5k and I tell you not to resent the dealership because "most people would do the same." Doesn't work does it.

Anyway, by the sounds of things it was bought for a fair price this time.
 


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