Small update from the fun packed weekend i had...
God i forgot how good this car was
On Saturday morning i had chance to drive the Clio properly, the last few weeks its been filling in as a station car for the Mrs and has been used for general pottering around, in other words it needed a good thrash.
Out on some of my favorite roads i had chance to really open it up, i forgot just how good the car is. It loves to rev and the chassis has a really nice flow to it when your pushing on, it's got real character in the way it drives and that really does matter.
Time to break out the spanners
So it was now time for some light servicing and general titivating.
First job was to drain the oil, easy enough. Luckily I had done my research before hand and had the 8mm square socket for the drain plug. Oil was drained without a hitch and i then moved onto the oil filter and that's where it went all wrong.
Geoff Capes with a 12 foot long wrench
That is how i presume the oil filter was last attached, when you reach up to unscrew a filter and it doesn't come off with your hand its usually a bad sign.
Not to worry, i'll try the old screw driver trick, so hammered a screw driver through, Would it turn? No
Chisel? No
Oil filter wrench? No
Right F this where is the crow bar?
After a couple of hours of hammering and general b*stardization me and dad managed to get it off.
The resulting mess:
View attachment 113288
New filter was screwed on hand tight and car was then filled back up with oil.
This disaster kind of set the tone for the rest of the day.
I don't really care anymore
The the next bits i had to do were to fit a few powerflex engine mount inserts. Or as they shall be known the evil yellow lumps of doom. I had popped out the lower engine mount dogbone and put the inserts in easy enough. Coated them in copper grease hoping they would slip in, not a chance! It looks like the gap is real tight with these fitted so i'm going to need to lever it in. However the chassis brace bolts are seized meaning i cant really lever it in... Popped the powerflex inserts out and put the dogbone back in. I will revist those seized bolts with fire and my breaker bar.
So how about the upper torque arm insert? No that's not going in today that sodding metal collar wont come off right i'm done with this!
Dont you need to do the spark plugs/ Arghhhhhhhhh
View attachment 113289 Yes i do, luckily this only took 10 minutes...
Aaaaaand relax
Car was put back together and i'm pleased to say it all works! Seems to drive a little better and the "fix" for the map sensor has lessened the flat spot but not eradicated it.
A very frustrating weekend, but you learn from these things i suppose! I'll have another crack at these parts at some point but for now the car at least has had a service.
t mental 400bhp Octavia and the other was a tuned fabia running about 220bhp. For most sessions I went to the front of the queue, as it was a novice day and I had been to Oulton before i didn’t want to get held up. These 2 lads were impressed with the clios pace and wanted to come out with me. So we queued up and headed out. 
