What the dealers reckon about the Willy!

[Ben H]

Just spotted this on the Evo forum - made me chuckle (and never want to take my Williams near Renault!). Ive lifted the quote totally from the forum, but I think thats fair as other threads link over to here and to some of my posts!

"The first batch of williams came out when I was working at a Renault dealership. We were really looking forwards to driving one when they came back for servicing. When one did (1k) we jumped in it & took it for a blast & were gutted. Whilst it stuck to the road much better than the valver (thanks to upgraded shockers & a double skinned front & rear subframe (not a lot of people know that one) etc) the peformance was worse than the valver. We put this down to the engine being tight & were not wrong. At 6k it was on par with a valver & at 12k it would outstrip it easily. It got better & better each time it came in.

Our performance test was up a long hill out of Amesbury where you would select 2nd gear at 30mph & floor it all the way to the top & check your speed as you passed a parking sign at the crest. The valvers used to get between 80 & 85mph up the hill, but the williams held our record at 98mph. Very quick car. Even my 306 GTi-6 couldnt beat it (95mph). Top speed can be attained by hitting the limiter in 5th as we found on more than one occasion on the A303 due to the shortened ratio gearbox.

Usuall things that went wrong were wheel bearings, squeeks & rattles (suprise suprise) & the occasional power steering pump failure ( tho that was mostly valvers for some reason, tho not the 19s)

Head gaskets only fail if the wrong coolant is used & its not bled properly. Renault engines are notoriosly hard to bleed & if you get it wrong, or miss just one bleed nipple, kerching!£££. If you buy one, check the colour of the coolant & header tank. If its an orangy rust colour in & on the outside of the expansion tank, then it has overheated in its past & may have had gasket problems or still have them. This goes for the williams, clio valver & 19 valver as all use idendical cooling setups.

Fantastic cars IMO. Get a valver & youve missed out on one of the greats."

 

[aaronc]

lol doesnt surprise me ben!

 

[peter182]

should of kept ur valver ben

 

[Rajk]

cool, the bleed thing is soo true! such a pian in the bottom

 

[cat171]

dont think id take my car to that garage know he rags the ar$e of the car !!

 

[2 live]

lol an u think all the yung muppets in the reno workshops up n down the country are any difrent with any other type of clio?????????

172s must get sum real abuse

i used to work at a lada garage lol

we got a lot of probs with the sh*te solex carbs, so we used to fit webber 40s

teh samaras, 1500s speshally, used to go like fuk after these were fitted lol

an that was over 12 year ago lol

 

[Viv172]

This is the reason I wait for my car whilst they do any work. Their eyes light up when I arrive in my 172, "oo nice, we dont get many 172s!" yeah, not in my car you dont!!

Im hoping that theyll only be interested in the 182 from now on!!

If they asked if they could give it a blast then as long as their insurance covers it and I was in the car I wouldnt mind too much, giving the car a blast is good, abusing it is not on. Rant over!!

 

[king.stromba]

Just clock your milage and tell them if it comes back with any more miles on the clock you will see them in court.

 

[Tom_16v]

yeah I always clock my mileage when someone has my car....even the missus lol!

 

[lofty]

then will disconnect the speedo and make an example of your car for making such a suggestion!

king.stromba was it your car i have seen thrashed by Mike Brewer on the telly? supposed to be williams number 002!

 

[Swervin_Mervin]

That was in response to a post of mine on evo. I did ask about the double-skinned sub-frames on here but no-one seemed to know.

Anyone know? Presumably theyre stiffer.

 

[king.stromba]

Quote: Originally posted by 16v - 2.0 on 16 December 2003


then will disconnect the speedo and make an example of your car for making such a suggestion!

king.stromba was it your car i have seen thrashed by Mike Brewer on the telly? supposed to be williams number 002!






Nahhh mate, mines number 0003

 

[Pete]

Quote: Originally posted by 16v - 2.0 on 16 December 2003


then will disconnect the speedo and make an example of your car for making such a suggestion!

king.stromba was it your car i have seen thrashed by Mike Brewer on the telly? supposed to be williams number 002!

Thought this was electronic on the 172 and thus couldnt be disconnected?!

 

[woots]

According to Renault the clio 16v and Williams have different part numbers for the subframe. According to Hill Power, cliospares in wolverhampton and Infinicar the williams subframe has some strengthening plates welded to it. I ordered my williams subframe (2nd hand) off Infinicar last friday turned up today so cheers to all there! Might mean I get to have a car with heaters and stereos and stuff after a month freezing on the zxr.

 

[RS-Steve]

Not sure bout the 172s but my boss used to be a renault mechanic and he always used to take the cars out for a boot and disconnect the speedo.

He said when you collect the car from new and its only got say 5 miles on the clock thats cos the speedo was only connected for that many!!

 

[Ben H]

Maybe thats why some cars are so quick! Apparently, those that are thrashed from day 1 are the fastest!

 

[Swervin_Mervin]

Cheers woots. Might be something to consider changing on the Valver then?

How much was yours?

 

[andrewm]

Quote: Originally posted by 2 live on 16 December 2003


lol an u think all the yung muppets in the reno workshops up n down the country are any difrent with any other type of clio?????????

172s must get sum real abuse

Ive only taken my 172 to Reno Manchester twice, both times to get the washer bottle replaced. The first time it came back with another 10 miles on the clock, the A/C on full blast and the radio tuned Galaxy and turned right up. I went back in and asked why my car had been driven 10 miles when it only needed the washer bottle replacing (which they couldnt do as the replacement was cracked as well!). After being greeted by blank stares from the servicing department I asked them to tell their grease monkeys that if they want to drive a 172 then they can save up and f**king buy one! The second time it went in I didnt have a problem, if itd happened again I think id have had a go with the general manager.

I still dont think they forgave me for making them give me test drive in their 172 demo car after which i then went to Motorpoint to actually buy one.

 

[woots]

£100 plus 15 delivery 2nd hand or £370 plus vat for a brand new one off renault. I think all you need is 19 16v wishbones (£30 each off gs&f) and driveshafts and a williams steering rack and dampers and you have a cheap williams. It would be interesting to price up converting a valver to a williams. If anyone has some pics of a normal valver subframe then Ill post some of the williams for comparison, looks pretty obvious where the plates have been welded on.

 

[Swervin_Mervin]

And if they are double-skinned that would make them considerably stiffer. I wouldnt be too fussed about the extra power, but the handling would be more useful.

 

[Ben H]

I can confirm that the handling is better - although with the 16V were talking about a supreme handling car in the first place.