Hi Everybody, I thought I would just add a little update.
I thought it wise to do some essential maintenance, or more, checking to see if was going to break before driving this with any particular vigour so since popping home at the start of Feb and back to work, it has been on axle stands outside of work.
The first thing was just to do regular stuff like change the oil since these at the things that very much get ignored when a car gets to a certain level of ownership. There were various warning messages too, such as "check injection"
I had ordered a set of Brembo pads, but ended up fitted EBC Blue Stuff along with fully bleeding the whole system. I expected the brakes to be in a sad state, but apart from someone being far less than accurate with their drift technique they were free and pistons and rear sliding pins all moving freely. The rear pistons confused my for a while, as they look very much like they need to be rotated to retract the pistons but do just press in. Given that I have to fit this around other work, being self employed, much of this was done in the dark and super cold!
On from that, I very quickly found that the heater was as effectual as lighting a candle on the dash, so the matrix had to come out along with a new thermostat. The old was was working but was opening really early. I bought a new heater matrix from a motor factor, assuming that a new Renault one would make my eyes water, but this did not fit due to the end cap design. So I needed to service the original. I filled it full of Viakill, but unsurprisingly this had no effect. Neither did blowing compressed air through and repeatedly flushing. The main issue was not having a clear OEM design matrix it was difficult to know what the flow should be like as the individual end cap design looks far less "free" than a single header. I tried the silly first, using some ketchup to see if it would dissolve anything, which unsurprisingly it didn't, so I filled it with vinegar and left it in the oven for about 45 minutes at about 100. This did bring a lot of bits out and very obviously clean the necks of the hose tails of scale and so it had done something. Lots of flushing now kept "bits" coming out and I could now feel quite rapid temperature changes when I switched from hot to cold water and blowing through was definitely easier. I never got to the ease of the attempted replacement, but as above, don't know what an OEM new one flows like. However, the important bit, the heater now works.
It would have been nice to have stopped there, but one of the other essential jobs was to realign the drivers door which had dropped significantly. There was no play in the hinges, it was just low at the back edge. If you have ever done this before, as with most things of cars, you need to take half the car off to do this, so wheels, obviously, arch liners. OH, forgetting of course, the under trays needed to come off to change the oil, which surprise, surprise, needed snapped bolts to be drilled out and re tapped. So back to the door, after the arch liners, was the front bumper and then RHS wing, although I didn't take this right off. By practising gynaecological skills, I could loosen the rear edge wing bolts and remove them enough to give access to the hinge to body fixings that are required for the up and down movement of the door. It is never easy aligning bodywork, but it was quicker than refitting the wing bolts!
So, thin in for a penny, in for a pound, with the front bumper off and the rest, I thought I should do the timing belt, water pump and see if I can service the dephaser, however then finding that they were only about £80 I bought a new one. The annoying bit afterwards however was it probably didn't need changing
although the accessory belt definitely did.
The next problem came when the cam pulley locking tool, for "Clio F4R engines" actually wasn't. So by the time the discussion with the supplier happened and then the inevitable wait for the right one etc had happened a week had gone.
I'm sure this seemed like a good idea to some French engineer at some point!
Anyway, moving forward, as the upper engine mount was showing signs of sagging a bit, I added the Power Flex bushes to all the mountings including the lower arm. Of all the jobs I expected to take a ling time, I think all four took less than an hour so was pleased with that.
To finish all that part off, I changed the plugs and cleaned the dephaser valve and it mainly all went back together well.
I did get somewhat perplexed by trying to find out what the flexible conduit under the battery tray was for. Having found it a right pain to get the battery housing back and clip home it wasn't coming back out.
The two conduits were hanging, one had a small hose tail on the end and the other looked like a socket. I was thinking ABS? Pressure Sensor? I couldn't see anything they could plug into, so eventually I plugged them together, but that was not right. It wasn't until I blew down one and could hear a whistle from the other that I realised they weren't doing much at all, if anything, so just left them alone.
So it was all done! The engine fired first time and everyone lived happily ever after! Almost. The clutch, which I had bled, what a pain that was as the bleed connection had been pretty stuck, felt very light. So I pumped it a couple of times hoping it would firm up. (The front wheels are still up on stands at this time) No, only to find a rapidly growing puddle of fluid under the car.
I either had forgot to close it again, or it hadn't latched. So fortunately I could get to it from underneath to seal it again! It did cure the over filled reservoir!
Then fitting all the covers back was easy. I did have an ABS and ESP light on all the way home which was annoying me, until I realised it was because the front wheels had been in the air rotating and the rear on the ground static, which messes with most car brains. It was fine after restarting.
So everything is good apart from I have one M8 by about 75mm long washer faced screw left over. It has grease on the head, so will have come from under the bonnet, but cannot for the life of me think where it has come from. Every hole seems to have a bolt in that should. maybe the new timing belt idler pulley came with a new bolt. Any way, I am lost for what it came off.
So road driving. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed with the road performance. The car felt flat and was actually out dragged in third gear by an Audi A6 diesel pulling a trailer with a Caterham on it on Saturday morning! Part of the problem is that the exhaust is quite noticeable, not super loud, but just obvious even at 2,500rpm and so to be using 5,000 and more on the road just seems to be very obviously trying, and ultimately the lack of low to mid range torque and relatively loud exhaust can make it look like you are trying and then losing! So yes, somewhat disappointing in that respect.
However, through my good friends at Circuitdays, I went to Silverstone GP today for a little play. Faith was restored. What a sublime little (actually quite big really) car. It is certainly not quick in a straight line, you most definitely need to keep it about 5K, but boy does it have a chassis. What really surprises for what is quite a heavy car in road form is how well the front goes in. Helped very much by a wonderfully mobile rear. Abbey and Farm are flat at over 100, the BC Blue Stuff are surprisingly good with instant bite. The slower corners show the need to use second to keep the engine cooking but it was a joy to exact revenge in Brooklands and Luffield on the cars that had stormed past on Wellington Straight. What was equally a pleasant surprise was the traction out of corners without having a slipply diff. All the thoughts of Megane engines are now gone. For a car that has 172,000 on the clock and said to have done over 220,000 the engine was taught, reved, didn't smoke or misbehave. The gearbox felt fine as was only let down by a clutch that only just released.
Best of all, it drove home without any drama.
I look forward a lot to driving this car a great deal more.
I thought it wise to do some essential maintenance, or more, checking to see if was going to break before driving this with any particular vigour so since popping home at the start of Feb and back to work, it has been on axle stands outside of work.
The first thing was just to do regular stuff like change the oil since these at the things that very much get ignored when a car gets to a certain level of ownership. There were various warning messages too, such as "check injection"
I had ordered a set of Brembo pads, but ended up fitted EBC Blue Stuff along with fully bleeding the whole system. I expected the brakes to be in a sad state, but apart from someone being far less than accurate with their drift technique they were free and pistons and rear sliding pins all moving freely. The rear pistons confused my for a while, as they look very much like they need to be rotated to retract the pistons but do just press in. Given that I have to fit this around other work, being self employed, much of this was done in the dark and super cold!
On from that, I very quickly found that the heater was as effectual as lighting a candle on the dash, so the matrix had to come out along with a new thermostat. The old was was working but was opening really early. I bought a new heater matrix from a motor factor, assuming that a new Renault one would make my eyes water, but this did not fit due to the end cap design. So I needed to service the original. I filled it full of Viakill, but unsurprisingly this had no effect. Neither did blowing compressed air through and repeatedly flushing. The main issue was not having a clear OEM design matrix it was difficult to know what the flow should be like as the individual end cap design looks far less "free" than a single header. I tried the silly first, using some ketchup to see if it would dissolve anything, which unsurprisingly it didn't, so I filled it with vinegar and left it in the oven for about 45 minutes at about 100. This did bring a lot of bits out and very obviously clean the necks of the hose tails of scale and so it had done something. Lots of flushing now kept "bits" coming out and I could now feel quite rapid temperature changes when I switched from hot to cold water and blowing through was definitely easier. I never got to the ease of the attempted replacement, but as above, don't know what an OEM new one flows like. However, the important bit, the heater now works.
It would have been nice to have stopped there, but one of the other essential jobs was to realign the drivers door which had dropped significantly. There was no play in the hinges, it was just low at the back edge. If you have ever done this before, as with most things of cars, you need to take half the car off to do this, so wheels, obviously, arch liners. OH, forgetting of course, the under trays needed to come off to change the oil, which surprise, surprise, needed snapped bolts to be drilled out and re tapped. So back to the door, after the arch liners, was the front bumper and then RHS wing, although I didn't take this right off. By practising gynaecological skills, I could loosen the rear edge wing bolts and remove them enough to give access to the hinge to body fixings that are required for the up and down movement of the door. It is never easy aligning bodywork, but it was quicker than refitting the wing bolts!
So, thin in for a penny, in for a pound, with the front bumper off and the rest, I thought I should do the timing belt, water pump and see if I can service the dephaser, however then finding that they were only about £80 I bought a new one. The annoying bit afterwards however was it probably didn't need changing
although the accessory belt definitely did.
The next problem came when the cam pulley locking tool, for "Clio F4R engines" actually wasn't. So by the time the discussion with the supplier happened and then the inevitable wait for the right one etc had happened a week had gone.
I'm sure this seemed like a good idea to some French engineer at some point!
Anyway, moving forward, as the upper engine mount was showing signs of sagging a bit, I added the Power Flex bushes to all the mountings including the lower arm. Of all the jobs I expected to take a ling time, I think all four took less than an hour so was pleased with that.
To finish all that part off, I changed the plugs and cleaned the dephaser valve and it mainly all went back together well.
I did get somewhat perplexed by trying to find out what the flexible conduit under the battery tray was for. Having found it a right pain to get the battery housing back and clip home it wasn't coming back out.
The two conduits were hanging, one had a small hose tail on the end and the other looked like a socket. I was thinking ABS? Pressure Sensor? I couldn't see anything they could plug into, so eventually I plugged them together, but that was not right. It wasn't until I blew down one and could hear a whistle from the other that I realised they weren't doing much at all, if anything, so just left them alone.
So it was all done! The engine fired first time and everyone lived happily ever after! Almost. The clutch, which I had bled, what a pain that was as the bleed connection had been pretty stuck, felt very light. So I pumped it a couple of times hoping it would firm up. (The front wheels are still up on stands at this time) No, only to find a rapidly growing puddle of fluid under the car.
I either had forgot to close it again, or it hadn't latched. So fortunately I could get to it from underneath to seal it again! It did cure the over filled reservoir!
Then fitting all the covers back was easy. I did have an ABS and ESP light on all the way home which was annoying me, until I realised it was because the front wheels had been in the air rotating and the rear on the ground static, which messes with most car brains. It was fine after restarting.
So everything is good apart from I have one M8 by about 75mm long washer faced screw left over. It has grease on the head, so will have come from under the bonnet, but cannot for the life of me think where it has come from. Every hole seems to have a bolt in that should. maybe the new timing belt idler pulley came with a new bolt. Any way, I am lost for what it came off.
So road driving. I have to say I was somewhat disappointed with the road performance. The car felt flat and was actually out dragged in third gear by an Audi A6 diesel pulling a trailer with a Caterham on it on Saturday morning! Part of the problem is that the exhaust is quite noticeable, not super loud, but just obvious even at 2,500rpm and so to be using 5,000 and more on the road just seems to be very obviously trying, and ultimately the lack of low to mid range torque and relatively loud exhaust can make it look like you are trying and then losing! So yes, somewhat disappointing in that respect.
However, through my good friends at Circuitdays, I went to Silverstone GP today for a little play. Faith was restored. What a sublime little (actually quite big really) car. It is certainly not quick in a straight line, you most definitely need to keep it about 5K, but boy does it have a chassis. What really surprises for what is quite a heavy car in road form is how well the front goes in. Helped very much by a wonderfully mobile rear. Abbey and Farm are flat at over 100, the BC Blue Stuff are surprisingly good with instant bite. The slower corners show the need to use second to keep the engine cooking but it was a joy to exact revenge in Brooklands and Luffield on the cars that had stormed past on Wellington Straight. What was equally a pleasant surprise was the traction out of corners without having a slipply diff. All the thoughts of Megane engines are now gone. For a car that has 172,000 on the clock and said to have done over 220,000 the engine was taught, reved, didn't smoke or misbehave. The gearbox felt fine as was only let down by a clutch that only just released.
Best of all, it drove home without any drama.
I look forward a lot to driving this car a great deal more.
