MOT Time!!

[helmik]

Took the wifes car for its MOT, its a 54 reg 1.6 CC. Failed on front pads, nearside rear brakes binding, front n/s driveshaft boot adrift. Advisories for all 4 tyres, rear pads and n/s/r disc pitted.

£182 from Eurocarparts for discs and pads all round, n/s/r brake was down to stuck caliper, freed off, cleaned and rebuilt. Now brakes are brilliant. Getting the tyres on Monday, found a place locally charging around £260 for the 4, choice of Pirelli, Bridgestone or Avons, cheapo option of Firestones about £10/corner cheaper.

What tyres do people run on their CC's, any recommendations or any to avoid like the plague??

When we got the car the wife tells me i said the tyres and brakes will need doing in about 5/6 k miles. When i complained about the money we needed to spend on her car she told me she has done just under 6000 miles since she got it. Nice to be right every now and then!!

Cheers

Mick.

[ChrisM]

I have 16" rims and run Toyos on the front, good tyre handles well in the wet, no road noise as such, they wear out around 22/25k not bad for a 1.9 diesel I am told as it is a hefty car.
Rears: well not sure on these, I had moved the milleniums from the front to the rear when I bought it, handled well, ran quite silent, not sure on ware range, changed them around 8 months back for barum bravarus, not so good, they seem to be wareing quite quickly, they always look like they are low on air, I don't think the sidewalls can hold the CC up fully, and I get a lot of road noise from them, not the best buy.
Price:
Toyos per pair from Black Cirles - fitted £130
Barum per pair from tyreshopper - fitted £120 ( should have shelled out the extra £10 for the Toyos from Black circles)

[helmik]

I ended up putting 4 Bridgestones on it. Massive difference, where before it would veer slightly when you left a m/way and hit the white line, now it tracks perfectly. Brake peddle is higher too and the brakes are vastly improved. Metal ring on the driveshaft was an easy fix too. Car now passed the MOT, wife happy, i am skint.

Mick.

[ChrisM]

Drive shaft boot adrift!!!!! Renault seem to have major issues with CV boot clips, we have two Reanults a 1999 Coupe so far had two clips come off and eventually two drive shafts becasue the CV joint eventually starts to knock due to the fact it ran out of grease whene the boot came off, I have a 2004 Meg CC and it has also lost a boot, not much grease around the wheel so hopefully might of saved joint for a few years, standard repair seems to be a jubilee clip, zip cables don't seem to hold them for long.
Funny really, as refurbished drive shafts seem to have tighter clamps, so the boot don't come off, so why can't Renault do this as well, our workshops fail quite a few Renaults on this CV boot thing, must be a standard issue as I have a Meg 1 and a Meg 2 both showing the same problem.
Anyway glad you got it sorted.

[wildboar]

Drive shaft boots coming adrift is a "standard issue" on pretty much any front wheel drive car. The boots have to be soft enough to flex which means that eventually they soften up to the extent that they slip out of the clip. I agree that jubilee clips do a better job of holding them in place, but the flip side is that they are prone to corrosion, which plastic ones aren't. Check metal clips regularly and give them a spot of grease or WD40 (making sure you don't spray the boot of course).

[ChrisM]

Drive shaft boots coming adrift is a "standard issue" on pretty much any front wheel drive car

We very rare if ever have problems with Audi or Suzuki with these boots, I also had a Fiat for 5 years, with original D/Shafts and the boot clips still intact, not a problem, also you will find refurbished drive shaft boot clips don't come off either.
The standard method of holding all these boots on is either a"tag n slot" or squeeze metal clip, the plastic "cable tie" type of fixing can not really be pulled tight enough and when on full lock will be more prone to pop off when the boot is at full streach.
Renault have always been prone to popped off CV boots, and many years back as a Renault franchise (before we booted them out) we often had technical bullitins to check and replace certian models CV boot clips, poped off or not.
Some Mazdas we think depending on where drive shaft was assembled and some Kias are also prone to this poping off.
I have had jubliee clips on my wifes Meg 1 one for 5 years and the other 3 years before we had to change drive shafts none of these clips where rusty as such, I also have found that none of my older cars I have owned (front wheel drive) through my life have sufferd this poping off thing, they usually split, and I still think that the manufacture clips are not quite tight enough to hold the boot in place, I do wonder if it was a cheap trick to get the car back to the franchise (manufactures think you will NEVER go else where for repair, they also asume once you bought a say Renault you will buy anything else ) funny really how the refurbed ones hold to the boot ok as they have no interest in return work, where as the car manufacture wants you back at the dealership, buying more genuine parts, bit of a conspiracy theory I know, but you do sometimes wonder when you see how cheaply some of these cars are actually put together and common sense tells you that is not destine to last long, yet they still make it the same way and the same models come in for the same problems year after year, facelift after facelift.
Nothing changes.
Seems to be the way all manufactures are going these days, when you see all these vintage cars on rallies, and then I take a look at my Renault, I know that will NEVER make it to "vintage" state infact it will be lucky to ever make it to the tax free state, it will have fallen apart long before that and be rotting in some scrap yard.
Lets face it mine nor the poor chap across the road from me who has bought a 05. 5 door hatch meg2 last year can't actually get past 6 months max without something falling off them or breaking in some way........ It is getting close to time to say goodbye and buy something that works more constantly, My Fiat which everyone panned me for buying knocks spots of this CC for build quality and by the looks of the chap across the road also the hatch, I must have spent just over a grand on this CC in 9 months, I never spent that on the fiat in 5 years and 108, 000mls of owner ship, yet the wifes Meg 1 does not miss a beat, 2 drive shafts, 2 front wheel bearings (1 went replaced wrong one) and a back box in 7 years, you win some you lose some. Mine is vibrating inside now, seems it may be the top engine mount gone at £100 of course, so the spend goes on!

[wildboar]

I can't comment on Fiats or Suzukis, but I've had a couple of Audis that have been as bad as any. As far as Renaults go it seems to vary by model, and of course by how much abuse and lack of maintenance they receive. For example my Mk1 2.0 16v Coupe never had any problems in this respect. My RX4 regularly needed the boots re-clipping. My Mitsubishi Legnum never has any such niggles. Then again my Honda CRX had the original clips replaced with cable ties and never complained again.

Make of it what you will