Trophy Damper Rebuilds

[Nik]

So I was chatting with Bernard Olivier the CEO of Renault Sport at the weekend (as one does :lol: ) and he brought up the subject of the Trophy dampers.

Apart from talking about how good they are he mentioned that the one negative is the need for them to be replaced / rebuilt more often than a standard damper. g40steve was with me at the time and he asked how often he thought they would need to be rebuilt. Bernard estimated around every 30,000 km (= 18,641 miles), but obviously that would obviously vary depending on how hard it was driven.

As someone who's now done 19,000 miles on them including about 10 trackdays, i'm now thinking i'd better start saving up :shock:

Discuss.....

 

[Slugger]

Renault should do it free of charge if thats the case cos it never said that in the brochure :shock:

 

[Tomx]

When I had the damper on my motor X bike rebuilt years ago the chap who did it showed me the what he had done. The seals had perished and the oil inside had been cooked for excessive heat and use, as above extreme heat on track days could cause this over time. The bike was completely different to ride afterwards.

 

[Johnny415]

Would this be covered under warrenty or maybe as part of a regular service?

Maybe a phone call to Renault uk is in order to find out what the score is with the rebuilds.

 

[Steve]

That makes a lot of Trophy owners overdue for a re-build. We shouldn't be publishing it on here either, you can imagine it being the 'standard' question asked when purchasing a Trophy in 5 years time - "When were the dampers last re-built?" and it being a deal-breaker if they haven't.

Personally? I couldn't give a monkeys nat. If it costs me a few hundred squid to get them rebuilt every couple of years - so be it. A small price to pay for running the performance bargain of the 21st century (so far) and having utterly sublime handling.

 

[ryanaldo13]

Standard Renault serive is 2 years/18000 miles - or so they tell me.... so they surley must be replaced / rebuilt then (?!) But if Sachs only made limited numbers then we might be fukked and have to revert to a standard set.

Dampers must be covered under the existing warrenty, I for one would not have bought the Troph' knowing the dampers (one/four of the most expensive parts of the car) had to be rebuilt because of a short lifespan - especially if you cant buy new ones and if I had to pay for them. :evil:

Folk bought the Ferrari Enzo knowing that the gearbox will only do 3 F1 style starts and then it's toast and they need to buy a new one. If they did'nt know this an uproar about it would be on the cards. > I have to say that Renault never told me i'de be shelling out $$$$$ for short lived Dampers so I hope to god(bank manager) that I dont have to.(swear)

Maybe we'll get a responce from Renault and get the real lowdown on this, before i have a nervous breakdown.... again!

 

[Nik]

We shouldn't be publishing it on here either, you can imagine it being the 'standard' question asked when purchasing a Trophy in 5 years time - "When were the dampers last re-built?" and it being a deal-breaker if they haven't.

If its something related to the Trophy, then it should be discussed on here in my opinion. With all this talk over the last few weeks about things they've posted on this site affecting their sales, I'm wondering what the point is. I might as well shut the site down if nobody wants to discuss anything about their cars.

 

[ryanaldo13]

If its something related to the Trophy, then it should be discussed on here in my opinion

My opinion too, the Trophy is rarer than an Aston Martin DB5 (1000+ still actually work) if another owner has useful info on the Trophy ie: changing wiper stalk, understanding the passenger seat rattle is normal along with the 30mph whistle from the wing mirror then why not share it!

It's better asking a Trophy owner about a Trophy than asking a Williams owner about a Trophy....past topics are proof of this.

 

[corneyman]

Where would you take the car to? Its hard enough finding a dealer who'll do a decent service let alone rebuild the dampers! I know Jeremy at Renaultsport contributes to this site so can we have his thoughts please?

 

[oliie]

Hmm. Well I've 22k miles and the dampers are as tight as they were on day one. Maybe it depends on how it was driven too? I've pretty much been on the M1 for half of my life so maybe this helps?

I would agree that I would happily pay £200 to rebuild every 20k miles (it is after all just the front dampers) but anything more than this and Renault would have to cover; the car is no longer fit for its intended purpose, especially considering that it is the second most expensive Clio you can buy and marketed as a road car for daily use.

If they really do have to be rebuilt I think it should be made clear who we can approach to get this done so as not to affect warranty. After all, they could still fail due to a manufacturing fault after being rebuilt which would entail a warranty claim. However anyone other than Renault rebuilding the dampers would likely invalidate the damper warranty.

As such we need to have a definite list of who can do this work and preserve the warranty.

The only definite answer I can see us getting is that 'officially there is no guideline to having the damper rebuilt/replaced after 18k miles' and therefore having to deal with an underperforming shock when we get to 30k miles...

I will be watching this thread very carefully...

O.

 

[g40steve]

Nik, send him an email & get him to clarify the position. :?

Also ask for company contact details, regarding rebuilds, so you miss out the MUPPETS at Renault.

Seeing as you got his card & he got yours

 

[T7PHY]

I asked about damper maintenance 10 days ago in a thread I created full of questions from a potential owner... People were unsure then but now things are becoming clearer.

I wonder if someone can pin this issue down definitively with costs, timings etc? Can we get Bernard Olivier on the case, Nik? :wink:

 

[Cue]

as MD he's either ill informed to say this or he's let slip something that Renault didn't want customers to know about. Either way i suspect that it'll be us carrying the can of the cost!!! (swear)

at no point in the literature or marketing surrounding the car did Renault make mention to the fact that the dampers would need this rebuild, or even mention the longevity of the dampers. As one of the selling points of the Trophy was the dampers I feel that owners would have a case for false advertising. might be cheaper for them to cover the rebuild under warrenty, making sure it's not the usual clueless spanner monkey that does it!

 

[OliS]

Apart from talking about how good they are he mentioned that the one negative is the need for them to be replaced / rebuilt more often than a standard damper. g40steve was with me at the time and he asked how often he thought they would need to be rebuilt. Bernard estimated around every 30,000 km (= 18,641 miles), but obviously that would obviously vary depending on how hard it was driven.

:shock: :evil:

My view on this that if the maintenance of the dampers is not in the service schedule (which as far as I am aware it's not), then I will hold Renault responsible for the replacement/service/rebuild of my dampers until the warranty has run out...Once out of warranty I will take full responsibility for the maintenance of the dampers, the same as all the other parts that are covered by the 3 year warranty.

This type of subject has to be disucssed on here, this is what this forum is for!

 

[pacey]

Think i'll take more care over speed bumps in the future . 8-[

Didn't we say at the time though that these 18000 miles would have to be track/hard driving ! Cant see trips up and down the M1 with occassional B road blast warrent sub 20k rebuilds :shock:

 

[Lee]

Good job I had 4 new ones at 6k then!! That means the current ones have only done 12k miles. Plenty of track days though. They are doing better than my 182 dampers did, they leaked after 18k miles!!

 

[Steve]

We shouldn't be publishing it on here either, you can imagine it being the 'standard' question asked when purchasing a Trophy in 5 years time - "When were the dampers last re-built?" and it being a deal-breaker if they haven't.

If its something related to the Trophy, then it should be discussed on here in my opinion. With all this talk over the last few weeks about things they've posted on this site affecting their sales, I'm wondering what the point is. I might as well shut the site down if nobody wants to discuss anything about their cars.

Sorry Nik, I was taking the psis a bit after all the speak recently of not posting due to re-sale problems. Obviously it needs discussing and this is the place to do it. What would we do if you shut the site down? We'd be homeless!

I think a 30,000km rebuild of the dampers from everyday road use is ridiculous. If it turns out this is the case, I will be getting Renault to pick up the bill as there is no literature pertaining to special service intervals for suspension components, and in my mind this is a warranty issue. I think I'll post this on Renaultsport, see what the 'experts' say.

 

[Cue]

aye let us know the results steve

 

[tholman]

Think i'll take more care over speed bumps in the future . 8-[

Didn't we say at the time though that these 18000 miles would have to be track/hard driving ! Cant see trips up and down the M1 with occassional B road blast warrent sub 20k rebuilds :shock:

I have to drive over 5 speed bumps every day and I alway take them at <5mph, much to the annoyance of those following me :-({|=.

But I did knacker the shocks on my old VW Polo after a couple of years hammering the speed bumps so I don't mind being very careful with my Trophy shocks.

 

[Steve]

FAO future buyers of No.298 - I only ever get mine out of the garage (heated and air conditioned) to run it around for a few miles and to give it it's 100 mile/3 month service, which is done by the Renault F1 team. It has never seen a speed bump and if I approach a corner, I stop the car and push it round as to not create undue stress to any of the moving parts. The engine has never been taken above 3000rpm and the brakes only squeezed lightly on returning to garage to keep them running free. On return it is polished by a naked supermodel under my close inspection and vacuum shrink-wrapped until it's next outing, which is only ever in 0-5% humidity, with an ambient temperature of 17-21C and no atmospheric dust.