My LY 200

[petercronin]

I've been on here quite a while now and thought it's about time I get round to doing this, so here goes and you'll have to excuse the lack of pics as I haven't thought to take many...

My current 200 is my second one, I owned one from new and sold it for an M135 which was a big mistake which I regretted within a few weeks (nice car don’t get me wrong but nowhere near as fun). I didn't do anything to it other than an ITG panel filter and de-badge it. This was it (FF, cup chassis, Recaro's):




I actually ran into my old car when on holiday at Centre Parks and left a note on the windscreen asking to buy it back but whoever owned it contacted me saying they weren't wanting to sell just yet. So after a bit of a search I found a replacement one in a spec I was happy with. Liquid Yellow, full fat with cup chassis, Recaro's, GT spoiler, tinted windows, braided brake lines, H&R springs, centre silencer delete, full history and best of all at a garage 10 mins from my house.



So price agreed along with a full service/belts and a bit of paint work I bought it in April 2015. I haven't done much with it (yet) other than a few small mods and maintenance.

Mods in my ownership in no particular order up to now have been:

Powerflex torque mount and gear box mount bushes.
Superpro adjustable drop links.
Shuv’s shiny bonnet alarm bracket (not so shiny now as I painted mine black.
B pillars trim was removed and replaced with 3m gloss black vinyl.
Spoon front and rear rigid subframe collars.

As for maintenance other than scheduled serving in the last few years. It’s had:

Thermostat replaced that was stuck open.
Front and rear brakes. Fronts a couple of times thanks to o DS2500’s ruining them!!
Full belt kit changed early after some concern over the aux belt as mentioned in a different thread.

Which brings me to now where it’s running like a sack of s**t when cold / no throttle response and stuttering a lot. Thinking it’s a lambda issue, so as I write this is sat at a local specialist about to be plugged in to see if there’s any codes.

As for future plans I’ve got lots of ideas some of which will depend on how the car gets used (at the moment it’s a toy mainly but I do commute to work in it but that only involves a mile or so of housing estates and then a well surfaced B road) but these are the definite ones:

Coilovers (undecided on what)
Diff (again undecided)
Oz Alleggerita’s
Akra

Thanks for reading

 

[petercronin]

Add to the list of mods above raptors lightweight crank pulley - how could I forget. It’s the most recent one too.

 

[Pav]

good start to your project thread..so the BMW wasnt fun to drive??that's surprising..glad you came back to the RS division..
good plans for the future..will you be tracking your car?

 

[petercronin]

good start to your project thread..so the BMW wasnt fun to drive??that's surprising..glad you came back to the RS division..
good plans for the future..will you be tracking your car?

It was alright, I guess I just compared it to the Clio and it’s just wasn’t as fun. Fast, comfy, sounded nice, good quality but quite numb feeling and disconnected from the driving experience.

Thanks I’m glad I have too, I owned the first Clio 3 years, about a year for the BMW and now my current Clio for a bit over 3 years.

I’ve done a few track days in it so far, haven’t done any for about a year mainly down to lack of money but I’m booking one or two in the next couple of months.

 

[Pav]

good good..some members are going to Donnington this August..would be good to see if you could get there...

 

[Wolf197]

Nice car.
I really like Liquid Yellow.

 

[trackspec197]

good good..some members are going to Donnington this August..would be good to see if you could get there...

When’s that @Pav ?

 

[Pav]

When’s that @Pav ?

http://www.clio197.net/threads/donington-park-august-13th.60489/

 

[-Eddie-]

That is lovely. Top choice of mods !

I have a used set of Alleggeritas I may sell if the offer was good enough!

 

[jasekid]

Nice car Peter, do you mind if I ask your opinion on the Spoon subframe collars, do they add a lot of noise and vibration or does the car just feel stiffer. My car is primarily a daily drive (light track usage) and have thought about adding those.

 

[petercronin]

good good..some members are going to Donnington this August..would be good to see if you could get there...

If I can get it off work I’ll be there. It’s a pretty decent price of Donington too.

That is lovely. Top choice of mods !

I have a used set of Alleggeritas I may sell if the offer was good enough!

Unless you’d accept about a fiver posted I think I’ll have to wait a while. As much as I want them I think the wheels have to be near the bottom of the mod list unfortunately. Thanks for the offer though.

Nice car Peter, do you mind if I ask your opinion on the Spoon subframe collars, do they add a lot of noise and vibration or does the car just feel stiffer. My car is primarily a daily drive (light track usage) and have thought about adding those.

I’m still undecided on them to be honest and I’ve ran them a couple of months now. They definitely do not add any vibration, noise or harshness to the ride that’s for sure. I think they do do what they claim, as in allow the suspension to work sooner than it would do without them. If you do want them don’t buy direct from spoon, I found a company called blackhawkjapan who were much cheaper and used an overseas credit card to avoid horrible exchange rates.

 

[riddzz]

Was the first owner of that car I believe

 

[petercronin]

Was the first owner of that car I believe

You were? I’ve spoken the two other previous owners actually and one of them wanted to buy it back.

 

[riddzz]

Yep bought it from Crawley down near Gatwick
Had it for year and changed for R.S. meg
Needed new steering wheel as started to peel
And Recaro bolster had worn

 

[petercronin]

Yep bought it from Crawley down near Gatwick
Had it for year and changed for R.S. meg
Needed new steering wheel as started to peel
And Recaro bolster had worn

Oh right they’d obviously been replaced by the time I seen it as the whole car was in really good condition. I’d imagine the dealer would have done it before they sold it on, I don’t imagine there’d be too many people who’d accept that on a year old car.

 

[riddzz]

My dealership had parts ordered
About six months after it went I had phone call saying could I bring car in

 

[petercronin]

My dealership had parts ordered
About six months after it went I had phone call saying could I bring car in

Ah good old Renault dealer customer service!

 

[petercronin]

Well little update, doing a bit of a once over for an upcoming track day has turned into a little bit of a nightmare. Went to remove the battery and the clamp bolt sheared - oh good!! Not the end of the world I’ll use an easy out - easy out snapped, great!! So some creative use of tie wraps is going to get me home from work until I figure out a plan. Possibly ask a garage to weld something onto the bolt and try that.

 

[Pav]

outside a box thinking..like it.

 

[Doogle]

Lovely looking car! LY is one of my favourite colours. Came with a good list of modifications too by the sound of it.

Ive had a few BMWs and I know what you mean, very capable machines but a bit sterile and numb. Not an involved driving experience really.