1998 Renault Clio RL Biarritz from UK and Ireland - Comments

My clio leaked into the offside rear foot well.

My solution:

Carefully! check under car to avoid brake hoses etc, then drill hole through floor! job done.

Oh yeah, wear hat when it rains.

Don't you just love french cars!

I'm in despair.

I thought I had earlier identified the source of the leak and dealt with it (where frame is fixed to roof at sides) but I opened the car yesterday after heavy rain and found the proverbial 1" of water in the passenger's footwell behind the driver's seat.

I'm now (when it's dry) going to force roof and gutter sealant into the channel all round the sunroof. The sunroof is a joke anyway so I don't care if I never open it again.

If that fails then either I rip out the whole thing and get a metal panel welded in; or... I give up and sell the thing.

Definitely the worst car ever in my 39 years of ownership.

I didn't realise this was such a big problem! My 1997 Clio RT has had water in the footwell for a while, and today a load of water poured out of the IR sensor and sunroof switch housing. Maybe it explains why the central locking doesn't work properly.

After the heavy rain in NI over the weekend, I noticed that my drivers side was soaking. And also under the drivers seat. Where my sun visor is also wet.

I dried it out last night and got into the car this morning; there is a puddle under drivers seat!! It's a total nightmare, plus it just passed MOT at the weekend.

Drive 04 1.5 DCI Clio!! HELP!!

My clio is a 1998 R plate, I hate it sooo much!! Roof just won't stop leaking, Tried the old sealant trick but only worked for a short while, My IR is permanently pulled out of the housing as previously it stopped working and 4 days of hair dryer action was required to get it working again.

Does any one know how to remove the roof so that I can fill it properly with sealant before sticking it back on?

Just DO NOT BUY a French car, I lost a lot of money with my Clio. If they can't sort out this problem they shouldn't be selling Clio's at all. Model after model have leaked, what is wrong with them?!! I will NEVER buy a french car again and DEFINITELY not a Renault.

I have ANOTHER leaky Clio (1997)!! Small amounts of water coming from the plastic casing around alarm IR receiver which stopped working due to corrosion. Consequently couldn't turn the alarm or immobiliser off so couldn't move the car. Renault dealer changed the batteries in the keys first and then wanted £80 to diagnose the problem, re-code the keys and failing this said they would get new keys at a cost of about £150 per key!

The problem is actually the aerial seal which I will now fix with silicone. IR now working again with drying and cleaning. Having talked to several people it seems that the aerial is the most common cause of all water leaks and a serious problem for many years with Clio's. Why has nothing been done by Renault??

I will never buy Renault again or take a car to a dealership!

I also have a leaking sunroof on a 51 plate Renault clio, and the immobilizer is starting to play up when we start the car. Does anyone have a definite solution to the leak? Is it worth contacting a Renault dealership or manufacturer. Surely if so many of these cars have this fault there must be something we can do to get Renault to help?

Alison.

Incredible -- so many of us? Mine's a 1997 P reg.

I've resealed around the frame of the sunroof -- onto the roof -- wondering if I need to do in between the glass and the seal as well?! I've sealed the aerial -- so now I'll be dehumidifying the car every night --...

Have cleaned up the white corrosion on the circuit board --- remote appears to be sending a signal as I looked at the blipper through my mobile camera... shines blue -- might replace the batteries all the same!

What an altogether useless design.

Fingers crossed it'll work now -- thanks to all for the comments -- might just steer clear of these in the future.

All the best...

Just joined the leaky roof club with a 98 Clio I bought for my daughter. Also have a leaking fuel tank which is much more serious.

Some really good suggestions to follow up, thanks.

Hi all you leaky Clio owners.

Are you getting rained on inside your car?

Renault couldn't find the leak after 2 hours, but they did say it wasn't the sunroof!!!

Stressed out, I pulled down the roof lining and there was the leak... drip drip drip S U N R O O F.

After the pouring rain stopped, I opened the sunroof, drains were dry, seal was dry.

Local garage mentioned to me about it's a common problem with Clios where the sunroof attaches to the car roof.

I got out the black electrical tape and taped up around where the sunroof meets the car roof.

I could have cried with relief in the morning when the car looked dry, even after more heavy rain.

It's been 2 weeks now and the car has dried out completely.

Give it a try and you could be dry.

I have an S Reg 98 Clio.

Found dripping near the internal roof light. Checked the sunroof, no leaks there. The leak was coming from where the aerial is attached. I took the aerial off, cleaned the muck from the seal and attached it. Never had a problem since.

After seeing the leak, I decided to take off and clean the rubber seal from the sunroof, couldn’t believe the amount of mildew and muck that gets stuck in there. Worth cleaning it. Only takes 5 minutes

Write to:

Roland Bouchara.

CEO Renault UK.

The Rivers Office Park.

Denham Way.

Maple Cross.

Rickmansworth.

WD3 9YS.

Tell him what you think!

A postscript:

After fruitless work on sealing where the sunroof frame fits to the roof, I used 2 tubes of the most expensive Loctite silicon adhesive in completely sealing the whole roof from the outside. The sunroof is a silly design with only 2" of opening so I thought who cares, seal the wretched thing.

Result: when the next heavy rain came... it leaked! The usual area at the front side of the headlining.

Carefully reading all these comments, I then took out the aerial, cleaned it all up (roof as well) and cut a rubber grommet from an old cycle inner tube, and then coated all surfaces liberally with aforementioned Loctite silicon. Then refitted tightening up well.

In the old days all components had rubber washers or grommets. Everything these days is junk designed to last just a few years.

So far, and after a few bouts of rain, so good.

So the moral is: don't overlook the aerial. As well as the hole for the cable, there is also another hole in the roof to take a locating peg. So there are 2 holes there to leak.

Having said all this, I still believe the sunroof to be a highly suspicious design so there are definitely 2 areas to investigate.

And it would still be a good idea to check every year the tightness of the junky aerial fitting.

Hi there.

I have a leaking Renault Megane coupe 1.6. Nightmare - leak leak leak.