Link's Racing Blue 197

Another year, and the clio still plods on... it recently passed its 18th birthday and has now covered 134k

I've been at odds whether or not to move the clio on for something new, took a new Renault 5 for a test drive and was quite impressed, if our salary sacrifice scheme at work was better I'd have probably gone down that route...

Instead, my top three options are a GR Yaris, Mk 7 GTI clubsport, or an F-type. Having seen a couple of lemons, and struggling whether or not a £30k car is going to give any more smiles than a 197 that owns me nothing I've bottled it and committed to another 12 months... even though I begrudge the £395 a year road tax!

So back to the clio, service and MOT pending I decided to splash some cash on a few items:



The rear disks have been looking a bit pitted for a while, after a bit of man math I ended up biting the bullet for some MTEC discs with new Brembo pads:



I've seen mixed reviews on the MTEC discs but felt like I needed to get something for my money so opted for grooved discs with black coating... I'll report back once I've bedded them in, initial thoughts are they look OK but the coating is a bit odd, I thought they might be chemically blacked but it looks like a light dusting of powder coat...



I spent yesterday fitting them, when I got to the last disc I thought it had all gone too easy and suddenly realised the grooves are handed and I'd fitted the rears the wrong way around... que F1 style pit stop





I'd also mention that brembo have changed the design of their pads, they now have a clip on metal backing plate and the middle groove has disappeared:



In other news I'd noticed the VVT acting a bit sluggish, very loud but lacking power as though the car was still cold... a quick look on CLiP and the camshaft sensor fault had returned so I decided it was time to buy a new one from RPD:



By all accounts the genuine one is a Valeo sensor, so you could get one for a 1/4 of the price from autodoc



I've also recinded Green cotton air filter for a standard one, hoping it might quiten the induction roar a little as anyone who gets in comments how loud it is



Sadly, as I went to jack the car up I noticed a stain on the driveway near the rear quarter which looks to be from a leaking damper, so I've now got a set of dampers on order from RDP



By all accounts my old discs wern't that badly worn, the rear ones just looked shit so I'm putting that down to being cheap Pagid discs. Obligatory job done picture:

First review of the MTEC discs, been out today for a good run, about 100 mile round trip and got rid of most of the black coating. These are the instructions from MTEC:



What they don't tell you is the coating will splatter all over your alloys and freshly cleaned calipers, so as soon as I got back I had to wash it off:





On the way back home I was a bit more forcefull with the brakes and overall no dilemmas, the brakes feel strong and there's no juddering or disc warp etc. There's a tiny sort of chuffing noise with the grooves but it's barely noticable, so far all is good.

@burrellbloke how's GR ownership been so far, had any issues with Toyoya dealers/warranty and the 6000 mile inspection/servicing etc. Any scary bills to be aware of, I think the front disks are about £1k?