Please, just go OEM.... Trophy breakdown

[James__H]

Evening all, hope you're having a better weekend than #167 is!



The car started to overheat after having some other (possibly unrelated) issues:

• Stalling at junctions or when dipping the clutch during normal driving
• Intermittent OIL STOP light (which has always been a feature of this car as far as I can tell from the history - oil levels are fine)

Weirdly the temp needle dropped to zero when the engine MiL came on. Throttle response was poor. Then the temp gauge read max after an ignition cycle. I could smell hot engine and pulled over.

So, after giving it time to cool (water blew out of the expansion bottle), I limped it to a garage that was luckily open at 8pm last night. James at Dales Garage in Hawes was kind enough to trailer the car back to my parents place.

Symptoms were:

1. Temp reading high
2. Fan on
3. Radiator cool
4. When cabin heater was on full, engine temp started to drop again
5. Fuel rail guard lodged in the gap between radiator and alternator/head (nuts not present....)

The obvious suspect was the thermostat. Which I believe was replaced with OEM parts at 105,000 miles (the car is now on 124,500). An OEM part failing only 20,000 miles ago? Hm.....

And, drum roll.



Another close up



So, two things:

1. It's not Renault, it's an aftermarket FEBI part, with PN 24028.
2. The centre pin has punched through the centre strap!

You can see that there must be some metal fragments in the cooling system now. The thermostat has failed shut.

An undamaged FEBI part, note the central pin:



Luckily, there's no oil in the water, or water in the oil. A compression test will hopefully set my mind at ease for the potential of any lasting damage.

I'll be off to Renault in the morning to get a new thermostat and seal. One of the three thermostat bolts was clearly not original Renault either.

So if you get a few minutes spare one evening soon PLEASE check your thermostat! Especially if you know it's not Renault.

And if it's not, for the sake of the price of a few beers - just go Renault OEM!

Happy Sunday,

James

 

[Oracle]

I always had a faith with Febi products untill I fitted this very same thermostat, 24028, though not with the same horrific outcome.

It was apparent from the outset that something was wrong, as my engine never got up to temperature.

Testing it in a saucepan of water on the stove revealed it opened at 75 degrees C, not the specified 89.

8200772985 is the OE part number.

Available from Ebay at a saving from Renault`s price, even including the extravagant postage charge for what is frankly the worst service available,

so not recommended if you need one urgently, but OK if you are just doing preventative maintenance.

Genuine Thermostat, coolant For DACIA/RENAULT 8200772985 3276428200255 | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Genuine Thermostat, coolant For DACIA/RENAULT 8200772985 at the best online prices at eBay! Free delivery for many products.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[markfishy]

That does sound abit early 75 degrees for sure. Check the new renault one next to the old febi one, and do a back to back.
What is the febi stamped temp?
My experiences over the years of checking actual opening temps and stamped temps often shows a big difference.
They were not all febi ones
Typically a 89 degree stat will need to be saucepan boiling bubbling, certainly to open fully.
Just out of interest how are you measuring the water temp?
regards mark

 

[James__H]

Evening all, some more incredibly disappointing engineering from Febi Bilstein to share, with the same message to add as the subject of this thread.

Recent work on #167 included replacing the inner and outer roll bar bushes, including outer clamps.

Why did I do this? As you can see from the photo below, the inners were heavily cracked. Date stamps indicate they were manufactured in December 2019.

@where.is.lee had them replaced in October 2021, at 119,915 miles (i.e. 5,000 miles ago) on good authority from a member of the Clio community that the Febi Bilstein items were a decent and possibly better alternative to the Renault parts.

The part number (40875) on these Febi items when cross-referenced against the OEM part, on their own site, matches the Renault part number 7700847383 for Clio 2 RS models.



It gets worse, Two-Techs serviced #167 in April this year and noticed that the bushes were cracked then (122,562 miles).

So here are the Febi parts on my kitchen table tonight. 5,000 miles and ~2 years old:




Utter, utter crap.

Febi might as well pour in last year's stale Christmas Allsorts liquorice into their moulds. Actually, that might be an improvement....

I knew they were bad when I looked underneath the car, but I was shocked when they came off. The bar end bushes have also started to disintegrate. At least they fail at the same rate, so I guess they're consistently terrible? There's impressive capability there, but only in the worst sense possible.

So, another warning - please stay away from Febi Bilstein. I cannot say this enough.

Not only did their largely metal thermostat fail in a mode that took out the engine and left me stranded, they can't do elastomers either. The images shown above show categoric part failures. My bill with Mick at Diamond Motors is in the thousands because of their shoddy products.

Granted, they will outsource to another supplier for these parts. But they are responsible for warranting their parts. No engineer in their right mind would sign off on the above.

I sincerely hope someone from Febi Bilstein reads this and takes note.

But I've written this rant as a cautionary tale for those on this forum, please just forget Febi. And check you haven't got their parts on something you care about. Which is why mine now has the Renault logo and name stamped into the genuine parts on my car. It's the ultimate false economy as #167 has ably demonstrated.

/rant over

P.S I feel no ill will to the previous owners (and they know this!), they just received poor advice, which may have been given with the best intention.

P.P.S If someone from Febi Bilstein reads this, you might want to ask your suppliers to include rubber compounds with wax to include ozone inhibitors. You know, because of this weird thing called Earth's atmosphere that external automotive applications are generally exposed to. Have that one for free. You're welcome.

/rant actually over