Black 197 Trackday Clio

[Daverb]

How did you get on with fitting the seats?

I had a nightmare with the OMP base mounts. Had to make up brackets to make the seats align properly.

 

[ttrw2]

What've you done to get rid of the AC?

Removed condenser, drier and pipes then gutted the compressor/pump as per the guide on here

How did you get on with fitting the seats?
I had a nightmare with the OMP base mounts. Had to make up brackets to make the seats align properly.

Used the OMP + some universal Sparco sidemounts for the passenger side and that's all in there solid. For driver's side I bought the ones below as they offered more adjustment for my ideal position

Passenger side:



Drivers:

 

[lewishunter98]

I'm gonna do the same with my AC. Gutting the compressor easy to do?

Bought a gear puller/bearing puller for it the other day after reading the guide. Any tips would be appreciated [emoji4]

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

 

[ttrw2]

No it's very straightforward following the guide on here

Cheers, Rob

 

[ttrw2]

The lockdown brought the chance to give the car a bit of a tidy-up cosmetically -


Front grill/nostrils resprayed satin black:









Ditto wiper arms (along with ones off the other car):






Rear wiper and aerial removed + plugged, then rear badges steamed-off (WIP):







And finally - for now - the wheels and bolts refurbished:






All little jobs that were very satisfying and have tidied the car up noticeably. May treat her to a wash/polish next!

 

[ttrw2]

...which I did. Decent clean and polish means she's looking very presentable now.

 

[ttrw2]

Few more bits whilst I wait for the first Abingdon track day.

I spotted, whilst underneath/cleaning out the wheel arches, silver label (non cup) shocks on the rear. The front's have orange label cup dampers on, but decided this was as good excuse as any to refresh.

One delivery of new cup dampers



Orange label (197 cup) fronts


Good opportunity to scrub out the arches and make sure all brake lines etc are good



Gold label (200 cup) rears as they're the highest damping rate of the OE shocks



Nice and clean, but the dampers rust quickly in my experience



So a rub down/key and out with the trusty dinitrol



And a light coat to keep the rust away

 

[ttrw2]

And front's done now - anyone who's replaced the shocks on the front of these cars will know the pain...

 

[ttrw2]

And finally got my CLiP working so I could reconfig the airbag module to recognise they've all been removed (and put out the airbag light on the dash):

 

[ttrw2]

After a last minute panic to add a working horn, car flew through the MOT with no advisories. First one in 4 years!











Now I can drive the car to/from trackdays and test on roads in between, rather than relying on trailering it.

 

[ttrw2]

Continuing the 2020 theme of keeping a diary of my work on the Clio, over the weekend I changed the cambelt, tensioners and pulleys myself.

I've also bought myself a scissor lift for the garage, perfect for jobs like this -




Genuine belt kit, dephaser and water pump from RPD, plus the genuine tools too:







All pretty straightforward working my way through, methodically following the instructions. I forgot the water pump and dephaser were done 3yrs ago with the last belt change so left them for the next change.








Whilst it was up in the air and apart a perfect opportunity to change the oil and filter too.








Also did a bit of tidying around the engine bay, rewrapping some tired parts of loom and replacing some old fasteners that had broken/gone brittle.

 

[ttrw2]

Added a sunstrip as no sun visors got tired quickly. Fiver's worth of matte black vinyl has done the job nicely:




Since MOT'ing the car I've used for the occasional journey/commute/hoon. Not the comfiest but not the worst and fun every time:



Need to change the thermostat next as noted it's only getting to ~65degC when driving around the houses.

 

[ttrw2]

And changed the thermostat today I did. New part from Renault is a motorrad unit and marked 77degC/170degF on it. Takes 5mins to change and top up the coolant. A spin round the block confirms all is well again with temps between 75 and 81degC as the stat cycles.






Doing the above gave me an excuse for a quick engine bay clean. Not too shabby:

 

[ttrw2]

Today was alignment check time as hadn't done it since having the front struts off to change dampers earlier in year. The way I do it is a bit heath robinson but I've compared to Hunter machine measurements over the years and know I can get within 0.1deg accuracy for toe and camber - good enough for me.

Axle stands, string and a vernier measuring to 0.1mm resolution for the tracking:








And a piece of planed wood with two bolts through plus the digital inclinometer on my phone for camber:




Came out as 0.5deg toe-in across front axle and 0.3deg toe-in across rear.
Camber's are -2.1 and -2.0 front (most I can get on compbrake top mounts) and -1.1/-1.5deg camber on rear axle (standard/no shims).

 

[ttrw2]

Much needed!

 

[Dinny1395]

Where are your top mounts from mate?

 

[ttrw2]

Top mounts in the pics are Compbrake, however had to go back temporarily to standard over the winter as the bearings in them failed and punched through the camber plate. Seems like a relatively common occurrence with these top mounts.

Ordered a rear cage from Single Source Motorsport and installed this weekend. Nice bit of kit, fitted well and finished well. When it's warmer and less windy I'll weld the footplates in properly, for now just bolted through:






Car's not doing too many miles at mo (lockdown/WFH) so easy to keep clean. Need to do something about for a front splitter next.

 

[Sean197]

Crying out for a splitter and rear spoiler, as all 197s are imo.

 

[lewishunter98]

Top mounts in the pics are Compbrake, however had to go back temporarily to standard over the winter as the bearings in them failed and punched through the camber plate. Seems like a relatively common occurrence with these top mounts.

Ordered a rear cage from Single Source Motorsport and installed this weekend. Nice bit of kit, fitted well and finished well. When it's warmer and less windy I'll weld the footplates in properly, for now just bolted through:

Car's not doing too many miles at mo (lockdown/WFH) so easy to keep clean. Need to do something about for a front splitter next.

That's a nice cage!

Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk

 

[Addison]

Seconding that, love the cage!