After an eventful Anglesey in my sometime 2wd sometimes 1wd Clio, then turning into a no wheel drive Clio at Newport Pagnell, it is repaired
Gone is the plate diff, in it’s place a quaife
As I am currently between jobs, I decided to take out the gearbox myself, with no idea how to do it as I’ve not seriously taken cars apart in 20 years I was quite pleased it only took me 5 hours to get the gearbox out.
Off the gearbox went, taken to the transmission shop, within an hour the bad news came, I had broken the LSD and had eventually broken the crown wheel free of the diff, hence no drive.
A few phone calls chatting on some forums I managed to source a quaife LSD with crown wheel installed and a matched pinion gear on the main output shaft
A week later it turned up and was fitted back in the gearbox, I collected it last Friday. Saturday comes and I think it will be a great idea to put the gearbox back in, first challenge is how to lift a gearbox up into the car when it is on axle stands and the front suspension beam is in the way? Answer is a ratchet strap and a long piece of wood to hold it up whilst it was jiggled back into place. Reconnect everything put all the bolts back in the right places, fill it back up with Redline MT90 and it is ready 6 hours later. Very dirty but very pleased with my work, take it for a road test and all seems well, then OMG I realise I had not torqued up the front wheels
Gently drive back home and fix that, a longer drive and all is well, still not the fastest car about, but not bad for £8k invested.
Now the choice, do I keep it or not? Only time will tell on that, but I do have some options to consider to replace it with.
Sadly not, he does hope to look at it this week, his problem does appear to be a standard problem on 172 Clios, there is a circlip in the diff that just pops out leading to a total loss of drive, apparently you can just fiddle it back together and insert a new washer and circlip, we are hoping to have a go at it later this week. This is aided by me now knowing how to remove all the right bits to be able to get at it. Crossing fingers it all just works.
That’s pretty good going fitting the box yourself. Had a plated diff in the last 205 I had years ago and couldn’t get on with it. Was only in the car for about 10 days before I switched to a quaife. Transformed it.
Guy that eventually bought it off me was disappointed though, as he wanted a plated diff so that if he broke a driveshaft he’d still be able to drive it out of the stage. It was going rallying.
I must admit, I went with a plate diff from a lot of advice on the clio forums, but when it did work it wasn’t good, then the 1wd was a laugh, I’m hoping the quaife has the same effect on mine as it did on your 205, so far it does look promising.
love the 205 by the way, never owned one but have driven a few over the years
Well we managed to get the dreaded circlip of doom refitted on Steve’s Clio, sadly the diff has bitten the dust, it does still drive, but it is rather clonky and noisey
Well I seem now to be an “expert” in removing and refitting Clio gearboxes in my garage.
Steve’s car is now repaired with it’s new gearbox, he just has the most god awful vibration tizzing noise from the gear lever, I think I leave it just to annoy him for a while
