Lewis's RB Clio 197

[lewishunter98]

Need opinions please..

Basically, after hitting a pothole on the left, my front left rose joint has smashed through the top mount, weirdly still drives perfectly fine. So i've had to buy a new rose joint. However i'm a bit sick of the issues with the top mounts now so i also bought some rubber oem ones to replace..

I think i'm going to just stick the OEM back in, but what would you guys do? replace the rose joint and stick with the compbrakes or go back to OEM?

Super frustrating as i really do like the way the car handles with the Compbrakes but it just isn't working for me using the car on the road to go out on drives with mates etc. Plus i can't keep spending money on rose joints if i'm going to hit potholes (By accident of course) and Geo setups which also wasn't cheap to get done.

 

[rSilva]

are the shocks bottoming out on the top mount when you hit the potholes? do you run bump stops on the shock?

 

[lewishunter98]

are the shocks bottoming out on the top mount when you hit the potholes? do you run bump stops on the shock?

No mate it doesn't feel like it's bottoming out! Sometimes it can be a bit of an impact though. The pothole that did the damage sounded like a very loud bang when it went. There should be bumpstops in there I'd imagine, only thing with the B14's is I'm pretty sure they're hidden away inside the shock body so I'm unable to see but they were rebuilt recently so everything is fresh also

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[sevenfourate]

What an utter pallava M8. I'd be raging by now.

Decided your plan yet ?

 

[lewishunter98]

What an utter pallava M8. I'd be raging by now.

Decided your plan yet ?

Funnily enough just came to update haha!

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[lewishunter98]

Update:

Swapped back to rubber/OEM top mounts.

Car is a hell of a lot more fun on the roads. I'm not as paranoid anymore and it's just so much more driveable. Don't get me wrong though, the Compbrakes were so good once I had them setup. The handling was second to none



I still think it looks cool without the additional camber too so [emoji2371]

I've also changed my door handles and gear gaitor surround for some black pieces instead of the horrible silver they come with as standard.

Much happier with the interior now. Just needs a retrimmed wheel and some different clocks then I'll be set.





Ignore how dirty it is in there. Could do with a clean [emoji23]

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[sevenfourate]

I've been there with 'race suspension set-ups' on motorbikes, running no mirrors on bikes because of the cleaner look', having race-exhausts on cars because of the awesome noise, and having lowered to fuck / dropped suspension on cars because it 'looked cool'etc etc........but at the end of the day even with an odd track day i've done in the past; all of those were 95%+ road-going. So now (Especially as i'm an old fart) i base them around the 95% not the 5%.

****Just means your going to lose 10% performance on those 5% of times when you're 'really on it'. No sweat in my book.

Great news and hopefully confidence in the whole shebang is increased and enjoyment climbs !

 

[VolumeX]

Yeah well said... we all crash and burn and ...'learn' LOL

 

[lewishunter98]

Yeah well said... we all crash and burn and ...'learn' LOL

It's been one hell of an expensive lesson!

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[lewishunter98]

Been out enjoying the Clio a lot recently. Just literally going on spirited drives to random places and getting good photos!

Also, I sent an RS splitter. I realise it could have been £200 better spent on other things but the cupra lip/splitter always made me not like the look of the car and I'm so happy with it now.

Proper photos to follow from today over the next few days!

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[sevenfourate]

Looks well that buddy. Like it grew there

I'd possibly like something similar for mine. But 200 options seem to comprise of hoofing great 'look at me coming splitters' and not much else. So i'm quite jealous of you 197 boys in that respect......

 

[lewishunter98]

Looks well that buddy. Like it grew there

I'd possibly like something similar for mine. But 200 options seem to comprise of hoofing great 'look at me coming splitters' and not much else. So i'm quite jealous of you 197 boys in that respect......

Thanks mate! Means a lot coming from you with the condition of yours haha!

Yeah, but the RS splitter is realistically the only "good" option for the 197 though I find! There is the maxton one which is nice too but I just didn't fancy it.

Feel like I just need a set of wheels and a paint correction for the exterior now.


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[lewishunter98]

Couple bits done today. Bought some arch liner clips off of eBay for a whole £2.50 compared to the £12 from renault and they're bang on.

Also. For about a month or so now I've had a bit of a knocking sound when driving along on the front right and it's been driving me insane as everything up front is literally brand new.

I had a little look this afternoon to see if I could find what was causing it but again there was literally no play anywhere at all! I did find the bottom of my drop link, the boot has fully come off though and grease has gone everywhere so I figured that's probably it.



Started doing bolt checks anyway just to make sure everything was good, actually managed to nip up the wishbone rear bolt slightly on both sides (had seen people report the same after switching to powerflex) and this has actually stopped a squeak when turning stationary!

Also managed to nip up the nut on the bottom of my drop link. (Which will be getting replaced due to the boot) When I took it for a test drive, it was knock free and the car actually feels much tighter and nicer to drive? Not sure if the wishbones had something to do with that also or what but I am not complaining [emoji23]

While I was in there I got a bit carried away and cleaned the inside of both arches out. And the calipers.





Suppose it's all good maintenance!

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[Beany]

Haha I got the same ones too for my arch liners

eBay bargain

 

[lewishunter98]

Haha I got the same ones too for my arch liners

eBay bargain

Yep! Absolute bargain. Rather £2.50 than the potential £100+ because my arch liner fell off on the motorway [emoji23]

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[lewishunter98]

Went to castle Combe for summer action day today, didn't get many pictures but did fit a sprintbooster which popped up cheap on Facebook last week

Crazy, I never thought they had bad throttle response or atleast for it to be as bad as people make out. But after fitting it, it's made me realise how laggy they really are and how long they take to pick up in the lower revs especially

On the drive home from Combe it kept catching me out at roundabouts etc[emoji23], pulling into other lanes on the motorway is 10x better however.

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[lewishunter98]

Spent the weekend changing all the brakes on the Clio.

Considering I've had the car since April 18, never stripped the brakes down before. It all came apart relatively easy! The front right caliper pins were a bit of a pain. Top pin hammered out with a lot of persuasion. Bottom had to be cut out as it bent instead [emoji23]

Left side both hammered out straight away! No fighting at all. Rears weren't too bad either. Made sure everything saw grease and was cleaned up prior to putting new bits on.

Anyway, I went for PBS pads and pagid blanks up front (got a really good deal on eBay) and SNR discs (gen bearings) and pagid pads in the rear.

Also made sure all four corners were bled properly too. Wasn't done long ago but figured I may aswell.

The braking performance now is just ridiculous, the PBS pads are absolutely crazy. Once you've got a little heat into them they stop on a dime. And I've only done 50 miles tops.

Very happy with the brakes now and would recommend PBS to anyone!

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[lewishunter98]

So since fitting the PBS pads and realising how dusty they are after such little use, and the fact I hate cleaning wheels. Worst part about cleaning a car. I figured I'd whip them all off and put a bit of sealant on them just so they're easier to clean for next time.

The wheels themselves are far from good condition but it's just so everything is easier to clean!

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[lewishunter98]

Forgot to add the before pictures! Think this is after 60 miles or so of use. [emoji23] Bedding in procedures obviously don't help but still!

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[petercronin]

Wow that’s bad after such little road use. I thought they’d not be as bad on the road but I guess not. I did a track day a while ago with a mate who had these fitted and the difference in terms of dust between these and my DS1.11’s was night and day - maybe consider them next time if you want less dust.