New ultra red 200 owner

[stepmeek]

Hello everyone. Bought my first ever French car this week, and I like to use forums to keep track of what I have done and to get advice no doubt.

I've had a variety of cars over the years, mostly BMW's and Honda's. A 325ti, E36 328i, M135i. I've also had an accord euro R, a JDM Subaru legacy and most recently an fk8 type R.

The FK8 was an unreal car, very quick and capable but I fancy doing trackdays and now realise I like to have a toy rather than one car to do everything. So I'm going to keep the Clio for nice drives and trackdays.

I spotted this car in a Facebook group and took a bit of a gamble on it, bought it unseen basically. It's in fairly good condition, has had plenty of maintenance done. Only owned it a week however and I will be replacing the thermostat tomorrow as the engine temperature seems to be all over the place. Big negative is no recaros but then part of me thinks I will end up with bucket seats anyway.

The other big issue is vibration under braking. I was hoping a few good runs would clean up the discs and pads but no luck. However the discs look in good condition and I didn't think worn pads would cause vibration? Any thoughts from anyone?

Many people from Scotland?

 

[Sean197]

Welcome

 

[burrellbloke]

Hi.

It might be worth getting the alignment checked just to make sure the vibrations are not from odd alignment settings?

 

[Foxspeed]

welcome

 

[turkie172]

The pads can stick on the sliders due to the corrosion on the caliper pad mounting surface and cause the pad to stay in contact with the disk over heat one side and warp it the other can be the inside (center) and outside edge not wearing and building up an uneven rusted edge knocking on the pad but The genuine disks are not expensive but give the caliper a good service so the pistons move freely with your thumb (when off the car) but might mean taking them off to do it and might only involve removing the pistons light steel wool clean wet the seals with brake fluid and reassemble I have found most sudden fuel consumption rises has been sticking/ binding calipers just don't throw new disks on without checking calipers they will go the same way. A cheap dial test indicator will show if the disk is warped and its best to know rather than guess. I like the genuine Brembo made pads they are cheap and using the same pads guarantees the braking surface is always the same as some pads can be a few mm's different here and there and the rusted edge buildup can become a problem.

 

[stepmeek]

Hi.

It might be worth getting the alignment checked just to make sure the vibrations are not from odd alignment settings?

yeah good point, I have the car booked in on tuesday so will ask them to give it a check for me, I am fairly sure the front discs are warped the more I drive it.

 

[stepmeek]

The pads can stick on the sliders due to the corrosion on the caliper pad mounting surface and cause the pad to stay in contact with the disk over heat one side and warp it the other can be the inside (center) and outside edge not wearing and building up an uneven rusted edge knocking on the pad but The genuine disks are not expensive but give the caliper a good service so the pistons move freely with your thumb (when off the car) but might mean taking them off to do it and might only involve removing the pistons light steel wool clean wet the seals with brake fluid and reassemble I have found most sudden fuel consumption rises has been sticking/ binding calipers just don't throw new disks on without checking calipers they will go the same way. A cheap dial test indicator will show if the disk is warped and its best to know rather than guess. I like the genuine Brembo made pads they are cheap and using the same pads guarantees the braking surface is always the same as some pads can be a few mm's different here and there and the rusted edge buildup can become a problem.

Thanks for that reply. I would have had them off by now to get a look but its rained non stop here since I got the car unfortunately. Hopefully an easy fix, cheers everyone

 

[stepmeek]

Busy couple of days. New discs on the front as they were badly warped, pads seem good for now. I have a trackday booked on Sunday so I was reluctant to change the pads before then.



Also removed the window tints as I am never keen on them on my cars, and removed the rear badges to clean up the rear a bit. I have ordered a black renault sport badge to go on, just waiting on it arriving.



Had a nightmare with my feet slipping off the pedals when it was wet so got some stick on grippy covers from someone on the facebook page.



One thing I would like to address is the black sticker that is on the pillar at the front doors, it is in a terrible condition. Really not keen on trying to remove it as it looks like it would be a nightmare, anyone got any ideas for this? Experience of removing it or even something to fit over it?

 

[EthanMenace]

One thing I would like to address is the black sticker that is on the pillar at the front doors, it is in a terrible condition. Really not keen on trying to remove it as it looks like it would be a nightmare, anyone got any ideas for this? Experience of removing it or even something to fit over it?

View attachment 148088

It can take a little while to remove these. When I did it the sticker came off in tiny bits instead of all at once because it was so old and cracked.

Removing it is probably the best option though. I went at it with a hairdryer and an old debit card to scrape it off and it probably took about 30mins each side. Yours may well come off easier.

You can get a new set reasonably cheap or if you prefer how it looks you could leave it off.

Pardon our interruption...

 

[burrellbloke]

The black door strip can be removed with a hair dryer and a bank card. Replacement, non-Renault, door strips can be purchased from eBay fairly cheaply. You would be better to remove it than put anything else on top of it.

 

[turkie172]

Did you put new discs on and not new pads?

The seal is away between the back seat glass and the door pillar they are about £13 each the Pillar sticker I think is about £30 each genuine yea I would say a difficult/long job but maybe a bodywork place might be better equipped tools and knowledge to replace that bit. Check the passenger side front it looks like a bulge on it in the picture not a good thing to go to a track day with.

 

[stepmeek]

It can take a little while to remove these. When I did it the sticker came off in tiny bits instead of all at once because it was so old and cracked.

Removing it is probably the best option though. I went at it with a hairdryer and an old debit card to scrape it off and it probably took about 30mins each side. Yours may well come off easier.

You can get a new set reasonably cheap or if you prefer how it looks you could leave it off.

Pardon our interruption...

Thanks mate, I will try and get it off before ordering the new ones. May just leave it off to be fair.

 

[stepmeek]

Did you put new discs on and not new pads?

The seal is away between the back seat glass and the door pillar they are about £13 each the Pillar sticker I think is about £30 each genuine yea I would say a difficult/long job but maybe a bodywork place might be better equipped tools and knowledge to replace that bit. Check the passenger side front it looks like a bulge on it in the picture not a good thing to go to a track day with.
View attachment 148089

Yeah I fitted new discs with the old pads, the pads were rubbed down a bit to remove the glazing, had no issues having done this previously. The tyre is absolutely fine, does look a bit off in that picture but there are no bulges at all having just checked again.

 

[EthanMenace]

Thanks mate, I will try and get it off before ordering the new ones. May just leave it off to be fair.

No worries,

If you want to get the whole sticker off properly you will need to remove the rubber trim around the window and the piece of trim along the bottom of the window as well to get to all of it.

If you're leaving it as is you could just scrape away as much as you can see without removing the trim.

 

[Louis1990]

It can take a little while to remove these. When I did it the sticker came off in tiny bits instead of all at once because it was so old and cracked.

Removing it is probably the best option though. I went at it with a hairdryer and an old debit card to scrape it off and it probably took about 30mins each side. Yours may well come off easier.

You can get a new set reasonably cheap or if you prefer how it looks you could leave it off.

Pardon our interruption...

The rubber that runs the length of the window and is at the bottom of the sticker. Any idea what it's called and where I can get new ones? Thanks

 

[EthanMenace]

The rubber that runs the length of the window and is at the bottom of the sticker. Any idea what it's called and where I can get new ones? Thanks

I'm guessing you mean this bit?



There are some here on Kam racing but they're not cheap for what they are. Has the clip broken on yours?

 

[Louis1990]

I'm guessing you mean this bit?

View attachment 148328

There are some here on Kam racing but they're not cheap for what they are. Has the clip broken on yours?

Yeah. Well kind of. I was trying to remove it so I could put the new stickers on and it's bent outwards. So I thought I'd try and find some before I pulled it off entirely. Unless there are any suggestions on how to take it off properly so I don't mess up the other side ‍ thanks

 

[EthanMenace]

Yeah. Well kind of. I was trying to remove it so I could put the new stickers on and it's bent outwards. So I thought I'd try and find some before I pulled it off entirely. Unless there are any suggestions on how to take it off properly so I don't mess up the other side ‍♂ thanks

Looking at these instructions you have to remove the seal around the window, pop off the door card and poke out the trim clip from inside.

 

[Louis1990]

That's great. Thankyou very much for that. Is that from a Haynes manual? But in all honesty, I think just yanking them off and replacing them might be more withing my skill set. I'd be a bit hesitant at removing the windows, especially since I don't have a garage to store it if it takes a bit longer than planned.

 

[EthanMenace]

Yes, I think it’s from a Haynes manual. You don’t need to remove the window itself just put it all the way down and pull off the seal around it.

To be honest you can’t go too wrong, I can’t remember it being much of a pain when I did it before.