Track day preparation

[The Wizard]

Evening all. I thought I would start a little project thread which I will update over the next few weeks ready for the Clios first track day in my ownership. I live about 15 minutes from Donington Park, so naturally this will be its first outing.

The car is a 2010 Clio 200 cup with aircon, speedlines and Recaros, and it has really impressed since picking it up in February. it has alrady played a part in a cracking days driving in North Wales in a Evo magazine style group test, easily holding its own with some much more exotic machinery. A few of the lads we went with are Aston Martin engineers who have the added benefit of counting on advanced driving courses. With a couple of track days under my belt and a weekend at the Nurburgring, the little Clio was absolutely sublime to drive.




Wales blast






To start off the list of track day prep I stripped and cleaned up the rear calipers yesterday. I had already had one corroded slider which was flagged on the MOT. Along with adjusted nitrogen filled tyre pressures the car now feels much more stable under braking. It's amazing how little adjustments affect these 200's, almost Elise like going from previous ownership.

This weekends jobs include a strip and clean of the front calipers. The car already has Castrol React performance fluid (original owner changed for his track days) which has been faultless so far (if you can judge a fluid on the road) so this is going to be flushed through with some fresh (over two years old) as the pedal feel is absolutely fine. Can anyone tell me the size of the punch needed to remove the Brembo caliper pins?

List of jobs:
24k service-Done
Strip and clean rear callipers-Done
Strip and clean front calipers
Bleed brakes
Chage gearbox fluid
Clean air filter


Have fun!

Cheers

 

[ken182]

i just did my front and rear calipers prior to my first trackday (today)

i used the biggest drift i have - if its too small it can easily slide off the pin and damage the caliper paint

i squirted the pins with brake cleaner then gt85 to try and loosen the baked on brake dust but 2 of the pins were solid and 1 required cutting

i would make sure you have access to spares before you start this job unless your sure they have been cleaned at some point recently




my car and brakes especially feels way better since i stripped and cleaned ad fitted ds2500 pads. all 8 pads were siezed in the callipers and needed a hammer and chisel to remove, the rears were binding on really bad.

 

[Ashton]

I strip and clean mine every 3/4 months

To give you an idea i have had 3 sets of brake pads, nearly 30,000 miles a boat load of track days and im still on the original pins and brackets. No probs what so ever. Just make sure that you copper gease up the leading edge of the pad and also the face that is in contact with the piston.

Prevention is better than a cure IMO

 

[ECG1000]

I love it how the Clio doesn't look at all out of place in the company of more exotic machinery.

 

[The Wizard]

Update:

The exhaust was blowing at both ends of the decat so I have had this sorted this morning with new genuine clamps/sleeve both ends. These are not cheap as I found out from Renault but did manage to wangle a discount as the price quote was simply ridiculous. The exhaust was put back together with a black exhaust paste which has a rubber/elastic type property resulting in a much better seal. Fingers crossed I won't need to revisit this for a while. At the same garage I also had the gearbox oil replaced with Fuchs from Opie Oils. First impressions are a slightly smoother change. My concern was the condition of the oil which came out the box at only 23k miles... It's quite worrying if this is a fill for life which may explain some of the notchy gearbox threads in higher mileage cars.

Lee

 

[ken182]

I bought some Fuchs from opie as well as motul 600 brake fluid and goodridge hoses which I will be fitting when I'm home

I'm doing my next trackday at croft in a couple of weeks


Also have my new ultraleggera wheels and AD08's to try!

 

[The Wizard]

Also have my new ultraleggera wheels and AD08's to try!

Very nice! What day is your Croft outing?

 

[ken182]

Imthere 14 July and 14 September

Need to book a track day for August. May do RS day at oulton in August but need to take time off for that.

 

[The Wizard]

Sounds Good. A friend and I are going to book 19th July at Donington Park, the GP circuit. Very handy having it 10 mins up the road!

 

[ken182]

I think I'm there in August though not booked yet

 

[The Wizard]

Just a quick update. I have removed the caliper from the hub and cleaned up the front brakes. I was fortunate enough that the pins came out quite easy with a suitable punch. This was clearly the first time they had been serviced since new (3yrs and 23k). I took the opportunity to clean up the whole caliper and degrease/re-grease components. Both inside pads seem to take slightly more load than the outer. The original pads were in the car. They have gone back in but i suspect the track day will finish them off. Anyone notice similar on their front Brembos? All 4 pistons were absolutely fine and moved with what seemed equal force by hand when pressed back in slightly.

A quick tip for any newbie attempting brakes. 1. Press the retainer to help aid the pin removal and stop it from flying around the arch. 2. The job is much easier when the whole caliper is removed using the two hex bolts.


TW

 

[Foxspeed]

when I have stripped various 197/200/225 front brakes the inner pad always seems to be the one that corrodes and seizes in position more and this will contribute to the greater wear of that pad due to it not releasing fully from the disc

 

[The Wizard]

when I have stripped various 197/200/225 front brakes the inner pad always seems to be the one that corrodes and seizes in position more and this will contribute to the greater wear of that pad due to it not releasing fully from the disc

Good to know, cheers.