Link's Racing Blue 197
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It's been a while since I updated this, not sure where the time has gone but here goes...
Back in 2018 I picked up some second hand rear calipers cheap, I stripped them down, bead blast, repainted, resealed and rebuilt. Not too shabby:
So the hunt was on for some front calipers too, fast forward another year and I picked up set cheap just before this happened...
I hijacked someone else's thread about it so you can read more here, as for the calipers I had them aqua blast, stripped them down, repainted, resealed and rebuilt, not bad for a fizzy can:
Jump in the delorean and head to a few weeks ago. I heard a knocking from the rear which turned out to be coming my from a broken spring:
Well it's about time I pulled my finger out...
I hijacked another thread about the springs here, lots to do so it's going to be a very busy week!
Whilst waiting for correct top mount to arrive I did some cleaning today, started with under the scuttle panel which was absoluty filthy!!! Before and after:
You might have noticed the inlet manifold's been removed, I noticed a load of grubby oil on the top of the cam cover so I got busy with the degreaser... Can't see an oil leak persay so not sure if it's just overspill from garage servicing
Whilst I had it out I regressed the wiper mechanism, running sweet even though it looks a little bit rusty in places, I also took the PCV valve apart to clean but this is how it looked after 97k...
A while ago I fitted some Philips UltraWhite lamps, the steering lights were impossible to get at without taking the bumper off! Needless to say the wing bolts sheared off so I've drilled them out today and order some new ones from Renault...
As for tomorrow I'm going to finish the suspension then onto the brakes, watch this this space...
Back in 2018 I picked up some second hand rear calipers cheap, I stripped them down, bead blast, repainted, resealed and rebuilt. Not too shabby:
So the hunt was on for some front calipers too, fast forward another year and I picked up set cheap just before this happened...
I hijacked someone else's thread about it so you can read more here, as for the calipers I had them aqua blast, stripped them down, repainted, resealed and rebuilt, not bad for a fizzy can:
Jump in the delorean and head to a few weeks ago. I heard a knocking from the rear which turned out to be coming my from a broken spring:
Well it's about time I pulled my finger out...
I hijacked another thread about the springs here, lots to do so it's going to be a very busy week!
Whilst waiting for correct top mount to arrive I did some cleaning today, started with under the scuttle panel which was absoluty filthy!!! Before and after:
You might have noticed the inlet manifold's been removed, I noticed a load of grubby oil on the top of the cam cover so I got busy with the degreaser... Can't see an oil leak persay so not sure if it's just overspill from garage servicing
Whilst I had it out I regressed the wiper mechanism, running sweet even though it looks a little bit rusty in places, I also took the PCV valve apart to clean but this is how it looked after 97k...
A while ago I fitted some Philips UltraWhite lamps, the steering lights were impossible to get at without taking the bumper off! Needless to say the wing bolts sheared off so I've drilled them out today and order some new ones from Renault...
As for tomorrow I'm going to finish the suspension then onto the brakes, watch this this space...
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To follow up, whilst I had the bumper off I cleaned the bonnet locking mechanism which was full of grime and grit, silky smooth now...
And inbetween showers I cleaned behind the rear light clusters, again pretty filthy! Before and after:
I got the suspension finished off earlier in the week too, pretty happy with the final look by all accounts:
Today I swapped out the calipers. Used an Eezibleed for the first time and I've got say it worked wonders, flushed about 1.5l through the system with ease:
One thing I will say about having painted calipers is you have to treat them with kid gloves!!! I wouldn't have thought twice about attacking my silver ones with a wire brush but not anymore...
So what to do next, how about go for a drive
And inbetween showers I cleaned behind the rear light clusters, again pretty filthy! Before and after:
I got the suspension finished off earlier in the week too, pretty happy with the final look by all accounts:
Today I swapped out the calipers. Used an Eezibleed for the first time and I've got say it worked wonders, flushed about 1.5l through the system with ease:
One thing I will say about having painted calipers is you have to treat them with kid gloves!!! I wouldn't have thought twice about attacking my silver ones with a wire brush but not anymore...
So what to do next, how about go for a drive
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Haven't updated this in a while as life is pretty much like groundhog day everyday at the moment...
Anyhoo back in August I got to the bottom of a high pitched squeek coming the OSR, this turned out to be a rusty ABS sensor housing, tbh this is still on the "to do" list but I managed to clean it up for now...
Back in October I had a strange feeling something wasn't firing right, a quick look on CLiP seemed to point to the camshaft sensor so I've had it out to clean and so far no more issues...
Not long ago the dreaded day had finally come, she's reached 6 figures! never had a Clio this old...
And bringing us back to today, I noticed a strange grinding noise coming from OSR when braking, to my horror I seem to have lost an entire pad!
Luckily ECP had some Brembo ones in stock for £18, so these were hastily fitted in a force 10 gale
Now oddly enough I remember back during the snow jumping in the car one morning and the rear brakes felt siezed up and there was one hell of a clunk as I backed out the drive... I'm guessing that was it. Not long after I noticed an odd stain on the spokes of that wheel and just assumed it was muck but it isn't, it's like molten metal embedded in the alloy!
The alloys need refurbishing anyway but now more than ever! I still think there's something amiss, after fitting the new pads I went for a few laps just to bed them in and upon return the front discs were both at 30deg.C, NSR 50deg.C and OSR 70deg.C
Now there's a little bit of binding on the rears but the handbrake seems to be releasing ok, the arm on the caliper is returning back against the stop every time so I'm a bit puzzled why they're binding so much
Anyhoo back in August I got to the bottom of a high pitched squeek coming the OSR, this turned out to be a rusty ABS sensor housing, tbh this is still on the "to do" list but I managed to clean it up for now...
Back in October I had a strange feeling something wasn't firing right, a quick look on CLiP seemed to point to the camshaft sensor so I've had it out to clean and so far no more issues...
Not long ago the dreaded day had finally come, she's reached 6 figures! never had a Clio this old...
And bringing us back to today, I noticed a strange grinding noise coming from OSR when braking, to my horror I seem to have lost an entire pad!
Luckily ECP had some Brembo ones in stock for £18, so these were hastily fitted in a force 10 gale
Now oddly enough I remember back during the snow jumping in the car one morning and the rear brakes felt siezed up and there was one hell of a clunk as I backed out the drive... I'm guessing that was it. Not long after I noticed an odd stain on the spokes of that wheel and just assumed it was muck but it isn't, it's like molten metal embedded in the alloy!
The alloys need refurbishing anyway but now more than ever! I still think there's something amiss, after fitting the new pads I went for a few laps just to bed them in and upon return the front discs were both at 30deg.C, NSR 50deg.C and OSR 70deg.C
Now there's a little bit of binding on the rears but the handbrake seems to be releasing ok, the arm on the caliper is returning back against the stop every time so I'm a bit puzzled why they're binding so much
Yeah all that's fine, pads and pins are all free, think I'm gonna slacken the hand brake cables right off first to see what it does, if nothing then I'll have to strip it out and see what's going on inside...
suj
Paid Member
If you take off the calipers and spin the disc, does it spin smooth and freely? If not then it will most likely point to the stub axle bracket rubbing on the ABS sensor (you said you cleaned it up, but sometimes the bow out and just need replacing, I did both of mine as they were ruined and it drove sooo much better).
suj
Paid Member
Gotcha, then yeah as you said back off the handbrake and see if pistons are sticking, fingers crossed it's an easy fix!
I'm not really into football so whilst everyone else is watching England I think I'll update the old progress thread...
My rear brakes sorted themselves out, no more scoring hot disks etc. I did get an ABS warning a while ago which was the same issue as before but this time on the passenger side, cleaned up the rust around the sensor housing and it's ok (for now) but deffo need to bump it up the priority list...
In more recent news I spent a couple of days giving the car a thorough clean inside and out, clay bar treatment and full wax with Simoniz Original Wax (my elbows are still aching, not the easiest stuff to use). The results...
Amazing how much grime came out the steering wheel and seat fabric... Yuk!
My front lenses were looking worse for wear, very milky so I gave this Maguires headlight kit a bash... Tbh it's cleaned them up quite well but nowhere near perfect, probably gonna try buffing them some more until the Plast-RX stuff runs out.
Before...
After...
Whilst I was meddling I did the usual maintenance, unblock the scuttle panel once more etc. Then it was time for a bit of spot the difference...
My rear brakes sorted themselves out, no more scoring hot disks etc. I did get an ABS warning a while ago which was the same issue as before but this time on the passenger side, cleaned up the rust around the sensor housing and it's ok (for now) but deffo need to bump it up the priority list...
In more recent news I spent a couple of days giving the car a thorough clean inside and out, clay bar treatment and full wax with Simoniz Original Wax (my elbows are still aching, not the easiest stuff to use). The results...
Amazing how much grime came out the steering wheel and seat fabric... Yuk!
My front lenses were looking worse for wear, very milky so I gave this Maguires headlight kit a bash... Tbh it's cleaned them up quite well but nowhere near perfect, probably gonna try buffing them some more until the Plast-RX stuff runs out.
Before...
After...
Whilst I was meddling I did the usual maintenance, unblock the scuttle panel once more etc. Then it was time for a bit of spot the difference...
Not much to report of late, Clio sailed through the MOT with no advisories a few weeks ago so that was a bonus!
Beforehand i decided to give the door handles a repaint as they were looking a bit shabby, ordered some fizzy cans from https://auto-paint.co.uk/ and got to work... my local DIY shop only had 800 wet and dry but I don't think they came out too bad, if I had some more time I would have probably given then a rub down with 1500 and a final top coat but 400ml was pushing 2.5 coats...
So after a bit of planning I've decided to give the Clio a bit of a stretch, managed 36mpg chugging along at 62mph... But after a very long arduous drive up north today's stop over has arrived, the weather's being traditionally Scottish but the view ain't half bad.
Clio in the mountains...
Clio in the forest...
Clio by the loch...
My home for the night...
Beforehand i decided to give the door handles a repaint as they were looking a bit shabby, ordered some fizzy cans from https://auto-paint.co.uk/ and got to work... my local DIY shop only had 800 wet and dry but I don't think they came out too bad, if I had some more time I would have probably given then a rub down with 1500 and a final top coat but 400ml was pushing 2.5 coats...
So after a bit of planning I've decided to give the Clio a bit of a stretch, managed 36mpg chugging along at 62mph... But after a very long arduous drive up north today's stop over has arrived, the weather's being traditionally Scottish but the view ain't half bad.
Clio in the mountains...
Clio in the forest...
Clio by the loch...
My home for the night...
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Few more travel pics from today, started off with an early escape to try and avoid the traffic, driving around the rough stony forest drive I was dreading a puncture (or worse)... But the Clio persevered and was treated to some tight and twisties around the three lochs, 3rd <> 4th gear all the way baby
Thankfully the sun came out today...
Loch Lomand for breakfast...
Onwards and upwards to Fort William...
p.s. Passed an LY Megane R26 along the A82, no other RS spotting so far... We're a rare breed
Thankfully the sun came out today...
Loch Lomand for breakfast...
Onwards and upwards to Fort William...
p.s. Passed an LY Megane R26 along the A82, no other RS spotting so far... We're a rare breed
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Well another year passed, another update. This week has been very expensive! But before I get to that, I'll skip back to last year when I finally got around to replacing the ABS sensor housings...
The old ones were totally shot:
Not long after I noticed a brake fluid leaking from the rear, I put a post about it here but basically the fixed pipe had corroded through at the clip:
Nothing much to report over winter as I'd been busy, skip forward to last week and some usual Clio TLC; took the scuttle panel off to clear the drains, cleaned the engine bay, then stripped down all the brakes to check the pistons and grease the pins/sliders etc. The calipers were absolutely pitted with brake dust but some Muc-Off degreaser seemed to do the trick:
Then it was time for some elbow work, the annual wash, wipe, clean, dry, clay, and wax... Since its been so hot I started late and it was pretty much dark by the time I'd finished:
The day after the bills started to come in... I've finally took the hit on a full set of Pilot Sport 4's, ATS have a deal on until the end of this month; £64 off fitting + £50 cash back, but thats still left a dent of £400.
Then it was time for the big one, after 15 years and 112k miles the dreaded cambelt service has come around for a third time, so full service + cambelt kit + Aux. belt kit + water pump + MOT etc. Just set me back the whole sum of £750.
And to top it off my clio197 membership has expired, having been a gold and basic member (numerous times) I'm now kicking myself I didn't get platinum first time around... Maybe if I cry enough a mod will feel sorry for me and bump me up?
The old ones were totally shot:
Not long after I noticed a brake fluid leaking from the rear, I put a post about it here but basically the fixed pipe had corroded through at the clip:
Nothing much to report over winter as I'd been busy, skip forward to last week and some usual Clio TLC; took the scuttle panel off to clear the drains, cleaned the engine bay, then stripped down all the brakes to check the pistons and grease the pins/sliders etc. The calipers were absolutely pitted with brake dust but some Muc-Off degreaser seemed to do the trick:
Then it was time for some elbow work, the annual wash, wipe, clean, dry, clay, and wax... Since its been so hot I started late and it was pretty much dark by the time I'd finished:
The day after the bills started to come in... I've finally took the hit on a full set of Pilot Sport 4's, ATS have a deal on until the end of this month; £64 off fitting + £50 cash back, but thats still left a dent of £400.
Then it was time for the big one, after 15 years and 112k miles the dreaded cambelt service has come around for a third time, so full service + cambelt kit + Aux. belt kit + water pump + MOT etc. Just set me back the whole sum of £750.
And to top it off my clio197 membership has expired, having been a gold and basic member (numerous times) I'm now kicking myself I didn't get platinum first time around... Maybe if I cry enough a mod will feel sorry for me and bump me up?
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It's been another couple of years and the Clio continues to soldier on, nothing much to report in 23' as I was busy with other stuff and other than a handful of advisories at MOT time the only major milestone was clocking up 123 thousand, 4 hundred and 56 miles on the odometer...
So being a lazy bugger I left everything to the last minute, que lots of online purchases and swearing
For reference I got new track rods from Febi and steering arms from SKF, along with a new brake pipe as the old one had been picked up on MOT, and oddly one of my cornering light bulbs had blown so there's another fun job to add to the list!
For info there's not much difference between SKF and TRW, having the right tools for this job is essential:
Another item picked up on MOT was the radiator support bracket, last done under warranty about 5 years ago this is how it looked today:
As most people know these are now unobtainable and standard ones are different so I bought a cheap pattern part for £50 and opted for some fettling...
I decided easiest option would be to drill the spot welds on the old bracket and swap it over to the new one, I managed to get two of them bang on but the third one was a bit of a guess...
Then I marked up the new one to match the hole centers and drilled/bolted it back on...
Couple of things to note if you plan on copying this, use flat head rivets for the bottom bolts as the bumper sits flush to the bracket. I was pushed for time so the bolts were only temporary, also the other bracket still needs cutting down as it fouls the undertray on the bumper...
Swapping the radiator support isn't too much of a hassle, yes you need bumper off but I needed it off anyway to change a bulb (top marks for that one Renault).
Moving on, new steering arms and track rods fitted. If your going to be a cheapskate and reuse the steering arm boots the inner clips are about 60mm diameter... I foolishly ordered some too small and had to reuse the old ones
I also bought some new front brake pins from fleebay but I always forget what a f*cking pain these can be to knock back in, note to self buy some Mr Pink Pins!!
The rear brake pipe was a nice easy fit, Eezibleed worked a trick once again but I had a slider pin stuck in on one side and bent it trying to get it out... so back to fleebay we go for rear pins too!
It's fair to say brakes aren't looking as fresh as they once did but as the cars approaching 130k and I'm getting too old to be crawling around on driveway i think the clio's days are numbered...
I also forked out for some new PS5's on the front as the old PS4's were looking a little less than legal on the inside edges:
The good needs is it sailed through the MOT this year with no advisories, which is surprising considering I didn't even do anything with a couple of them
So being a lazy bugger I left everything to the last minute, que lots of online purchases and swearing
For reference I got new track rods from Febi and steering arms from SKF, along with a new brake pipe as the old one had been picked up on MOT, and oddly one of my cornering light bulbs had blown so there's another fun job to add to the list!
For info there's not much difference between SKF and TRW, having the right tools for this job is essential:
Another item picked up on MOT was the radiator support bracket, last done under warranty about 5 years ago this is how it looked today:
As most people know these are now unobtainable and standard ones are different so I bought a cheap pattern part for £50 and opted for some fettling...
I decided easiest option would be to drill the spot welds on the old bracket and swap it over to the new one, I managed to get two of them bang on but the third one was a bit of a guess...
Then I marked up the new one to match the hole centers and drilled/bolted it back on...
Couple of things to note if you plan on copying this, use flat head rivets for the bottom bolts as the bumper sits flush to the bracket. I was pushed for time so the bolts were only temporary, also the other bracket still needs cutting down as it fouls the undertray on the bumper...
Swapping the radiator support isn't too much of a hassle, yes you need bumper off but I needed it off anyway to change a bulb (top marks for that one Renault).
Moving on, new steering arms and track rods fitted. If your going to be a cheapskate and reuse the steering arm boots the inner clips are about 60mm diameter... I foolishly ordered some too small and had to reuse the old ones
I also bought some new front brake pins from fleebay but I always forget what a f*cking pain these can be to knock back in, note to self buy some Mr Pink Pins!!
The rear brake pipe was a nice easy fit, Eezibleed worked a trick once again but I had a slider pin stuck in on one side and bent it trying to get it out... so back to fleebay we go for rear pins too!
It's fair to say brakes aren't looking as fresh as they once did but as the cars approaching 130k and I'm getting too old to be crawling around on driveway i think the clio's days are numbered...
I also forked out for some new PS5's on the front as the old PS4's were looking a little less than legal on the inside edges:
The good needs is it sailed through the MOT this year with no advisories, which is surprising considering I didn't even do anything with a couple of them
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