I bought a new to me Clio with not much service history but it ran well and it was cheap as the owner thought the head gasket had gone, I knew it was actually the thermostat seal.

As there wasn’t much paperwork history and I’ve never had a petrol car before (I do 5k km a year at the mo) I decided to get the car fully serviced at a dealer instead of doing it myself, where timing belt&water pump, thermastat seal&housing, filters, sparks, oil, coolant, brake pads etc were changed at quite savage hourly rate.

I had to take it back because it sounded like a boy racer accelerating and was rough when left to idle. Some air pipe hadn’t been attached, no boy racer but still a bit rough at idle. 3 weeks after the service the front left wheel made some awful grinding noises, I checked and 3 nuts were finger tight and the 4th very easy to move with the wrench.

I didn’t go back to the garage with the car after the wheel but struck them off the list of places to trust.

Yesterday at 60mph a spark plug popped out of the engine and the coil pack banged the bonnet. Which was a littel alarming. I had to pay 100 quid to get the car to the garage and wasted 5 hours of my life.

Surely this is the garage not torqueing the sparks plugs in correctly? On the phone they were already weaseling around how it might not be anything they have done. The tow truck driver says the car might be ok, just add a new spark plug correctly or it might have destroyed a load of threads and metal bits might have gotten into the cyclinder and scored it to bits.

Any advice? I can’t wait to try to get the 100 quid back off them, I’ll get a credit note knowing my luck.

I knew it was actually the thermostat seal.

so rather than pay the seller a fair price based on this info you let him think he was selling a HG-car.

Karma?

You went to main dealer . That is all.

If your not going to be helpful, go away hora.

This isn’t helpful either, but I can’t resist…..

Karma?

Carma, shirley?

IGMC

You should have done the service yourself, then you’d know exactly what was wrong with it. Most likely the garage saw all the faults and asked the apprentice to give it a quick once-over. I hope the spark plug thread isn’t goosed on that cylinder head.

You’ll get sweet FA out of them without proof that the work was below standard. After the first problems with hoses not connected and wheel nuts lose you should have had an AA/RAC check done on the car detailing the service work you’d had done then gone back armed. As it is now they’ll blame the garage that it was towed to for the work and back and forth it will go whilst you’re waste time and money.

First rule of Renault ownership ……. Avoid Renault dealers at all cost!!! They are clueless!!

Lots of independent specialists about that offer a far better and cheaper service.

@bristolbiker – I appreciate humour, cheers.

@globalti – As a completely new type of engine to me, I thought going to the dealer and asking them to service and check it for faults would be better then me potentially making things worse.

@craig – Car was straight onto the back of a towtruck and down to the garage the bonnet was lifted to have a look/ponder by me, the now 6″ high coilpack wasn’t even touched.

@gav – No specialists around here unfortunatly.

Do the work yourself next time.

Can’t believe the wheels were loose!

@gav – No specialists around here unfortunatly

You don’t need a Renault specialist for a Clio unless it’s one of the more exotic ones, any decent indy garage will do.

Unfortunately, this happens with main stealers dealers.
Any decent techs will be working on the new and high value stuff.
If you turn up with a p.o.s. Clio and are not a valued customer (i.e. You didn’t buy the car from them) your car will be given to the most junior mechanic. Normally this isn’t a problem as a more senior mechanic checks the work, clearly this didn’t happen in your case. You’ll have a real problem proving it though, and I don’t fancy your chances of getting your £100 back.

You don’t need a Renault specialist for a Clio unless it’s one of the more exotic ones, any decent indy garage will do.

That is true. I have a 182 so have to be a bit picky. They don’t appreciate Cambelt changes using paint pen dots for allignment!

@Saccades – Where abouts are you?

@bikemike – that’s looking obvious to me in hindsight, bloody annoying.

@gav – Not in the UK unfortunatly. I’ll see what warrenty I get on the work for this repair and then see how it drives for a while and then probably trade it in for the scooby I had my eye on.

trading standards?