Renault Clio 1.4 RT stiff steering & difficult gear change

Hi,

Would some kind soul please help me with my annoying car? It's the original model Clio - 1993 - and has a few problems, but just the major two for now would be great to get right...

Steering has always been stiff. Changed upper strut bearings but no difference. Low speeds are worse and three-point turns are giving me arms like Popeye. Steering wheel does not centralise itself properly. Don't know if this helps, but if I jack the entire front of the car up so wheels off the ground, the steering wheel will fly from lock to lock using my little finger, so does that rule out seized UJ at end of steering column, and pinion or balljoint trouble? Tyres are at correct pressure and new ones, but car was same with old tyres.

The gears have slowly been getting worse and now 1st and 2nd are becoming very difficult to engage, I have to keep smacking the stick forward trying to get them in. 2nd is worst and wouldn't go in at all the other day so had to go back to 1st and try again. No grinding or crunching noise when having this trouble, it's silent but simply like you're pushing the gearstick into a brick wall repeatedly.

Well, there you have it. I'll happily supply additional info as requested. Just please help me find the cause of these problems, especially the steering as I am out of ideas!

Many thanks indeed, James

Reply to
HandyMan
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lower ball joints. clutch going or needs adj.

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Reply to
Neil

Thanks for advice.

So the lower balljoints coupling the lower suspension strut to the swivel hub? What about the track-rod balljoints, might they be the trouble?

Is there anyway of getting grease or oil into balljoints so replacement isn't necessary?

I do hope the clutch isn't going :( as for adjustment, it seems to be automatic on this car and I wouldn't know what to change it to. The pedal is stopped from going higher than a set level, so any adjustment I might do would not affect pedal height but would start pulling the pressure plate from the clutch disc, so I'd be afraid of overdoing it and having the clutch partly disengaged the whole time...

Reply to
HandyMan

Hi (again!) James,

You need to look towards components which have a load imparted on them when the wheels are on the ground. The lower arm ball joints fit this bill very nicely. The track rod ends don't fit it quite so well, but they will have a greater load on them with the wheels on the ground so are a possibility.

Perhaps remove the track rod balljoints and try turning the wheels by hand (in the air and on the ground) to see if any ware especially stiff.

Quite honestly, get yourself a manual as it will help with all sorts of basic information - especially clutch adjustment. It will probably have the cable length of the clutch cable to compare against as if the cable has stretched too much it will need replacing.

Cheers, Mark

Reply to
marpate1

The message from " snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk" contains these words:

Also, try holding the lower arm up with a jack while doing the same thing, to put some load on it.

Reply to
Guy King

Nice idea :)

PS. I sincerely apologise for my atrocious spelling previously. I obviously meant anywhere's, not ANY WARE!

Reply to
marpate1

Great ideas there, thank you. I will put them into action when I have the time and energy.

Incidentally, if the joints do seem stiff, is there any way of making them better, injecting oil or grease or anything? It's just difficult and expensive to gets parts like that over here. The local Renault garage spares department bloke looked at me like I was a looney when I asked for the throttle housing gaskets and said he'd have to order them from Madrid for me (after he'd eventually found that said gaskets do exist on his computer blow-apart diagrams...). If I ask for balljoints, I think he'll slap me.

Reply to
HandyMan

Hi James,

Replace them any attempted remedial action would be short lived at best.

Have you any friends coming over for the summer? If so, can't they bring them with them?

Take a look at

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for your car, the ball jointwill be under the suspension menu. If it is anything like the Xantia,the ball joint screws up into the suspension strut and can be hard workto remove!

Cheers, Mark

Reply to
marpate1

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