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The TJM Project
- Thread starter obcuz
- Start date
Thanks very much for that 'P', will be doing an update shortly.....
Now nearing the end of August, the list of 'thing-to-do' is slowly getting the jobs checked off, but as one thing gets done, another one needs adding, so a bit like chasing a rainbow.
Anyway, I include a couple of things getting sorted over the last few weeks....
Having so much hot weather this summer showed up the inefficient air conditioning which I had put up with for a couple of years, this has slowly gotten worse over time and guessed it would need a simple re-gas.
When I started checking around who could do it and how much, realised this is not a cheap thing to get done anymore, for a re-gas somewhere between £50-£65 from most places and seems the norm around here.
I pondered on this for quite a while and after no let up in the daily 30C, I decided to get a 'Groupon' for ATS like a lot of others have done, this worked out really well, and got the Aircon done at ATS for £45 including a disinfect - which it didn't really need, but it was only an extra tenner.
It took a week to get an appointment with the local ATS though.
Great now, the aircon actually blows cold air, although most of the scorching weather had passed by the time I they did it, lol.
A couple of weeks and a couple of journeys later, a bad smell followed me home! Well I mean, that electrical burning sort of smell, like what an alternator makes when it has tuned out it's final volt, no battery light was showing, (that smell seems to linger for ever), when I got back, a quick voltage check across the battery showed no voltage rise and thus suspect alternator.
This could well be the original unit, and lasted 125K, so no real moans on that.
This was another unexpected expense, after much searching for an affordable Valeo unit, I finally sourced one from Renault Wolverhampton, at a really decent price, £189, it may be a rebuilt unit though.
They delivered it the same day at no extra cost, I always get a good deal from Wolves Ren., think I may be able to get a refund on the old unit too.
7711134267 - the new unit ready to go on.
Doing some research on here, looked like the bumper had to come off, I hadn't done this before, so chickened out and passed this job on to couple of local mechanics which have started up their own business and handily only three minutes away, a few jobs they have done for me recently have been spot-on.
That done, and battery charging, I could use the car again however since the change, I have noticed a bit of a whine, apparently from the new alternator, not too big a deal with all the other engine noise, I'm hoping that it's just tight bearings and will run-in, really hope that's the case, we'll see.
Still have a slight blow on the exhaust, this is where the front pipe joins the cat, the cause appears to be a crack around the cat exit pipe, I hoping to get this sleeved up, as I dread to think the price of a new cat.
Couldn't get a photo of the actual broken cat, so just a stock picture of a cat with a crack at the exit, a nice pussy pic . . . .
The last few days have been cleaning the car down, got really messed due to cement dust and every other type of dust coming from the builders next door, some of the time it's spent on a neighbours drive and some with the cover on, but it still got everywhere.
After the big clean down, (I don't want to turn up with a sh1tty looking car), I can finally get my paintwork sorted, I probably mentioned before, but a previous owner had some paintwork on the off-side rear quarter, and for a few years this looked as good as the rest of the paint, but the last couple of years it has faded and now it's pealing and crazing big-time - it's really 'doin' my head' right now, so going to get it sorted pronto.
Hope to have some news and pictures on the paint works next time....thanks for reading through and your interest, not very exciting I know, more of an 'ownership' thread than a project, but hey ho, all chronicled for me and anyone else that may be interested.
Anyway, I include a couple of things getting sorted over the last few weeks....
Having so much hot weather this summer showed up the inefficient air conditioning which I had put up with for a couple of years, this has slowly gotten worse over time and guessed it would need a simple re-gas.
When I started checking around who could do it and how much, realised this is not a cheap thing to get done anymore, for a re-gas somewhere between £50-£65 from most places and seems the norm around here.
I pondered on this for quite a while and after no let up in the daily 30C, I decided to get a 'Groupon' for ATS like a lot of others have done, this worked out really well, and got the Aircon done at ATS for £45 including a disinfect - which it didn't really need, but it was only an extra tenner.
It took a week to get an appointment with the local ATS though.
Great now, the aircon actually blows cold air, although most of the scorching weather had passed by the time I they did it, lol.
A couple of weeks and a couple of journeys later, a bad smell followed me home! Well I mean, that electrical burning sort of smell, like what an alternator makes when it has tuned out it's final volt, no battery light was showing, (that smell seems to linger for ever), when I got back, a quick voltage check across the battery showed no voltage rise and thus suspect alternator.
This could well be the original unit, and lasted 125K, so no real moans on that.
This was another unexpected expense, after much searching for an affordable Valeo unit, I finally sourced one from Renault Wolverhampton, at a really decent price, £189, it may be a rebuilt unit though.
They delivered it the same day at no extra cost, I always get a good deal from Wolves Ren., think I may be able to get a refund on the old unit too.
7711134267 - the new unit ready to go on.
Doing some research on here, looked like the bumper had to come off, I hadn't done this before, so chickened out and passed this job on to couple of local mechanics which have started up their own business and handily only three minutes away, a few jobs they have done for me recently have been spot-on.
That done, and battery charging, I could use the car again however since the change, I have noticed a bit of a whine, apparently from the new alternator, not too big a deal with all the other engine noise, I'm hoping that it's just tight bearings and will run-in, really hope that's the case, we'll see.
Still have a slight blow on the exhaust, this is where the front pipe joins the cat, the cause appears to be a crack around the cat exit pipe, I hoping to get this sleeved up, as I dread to think the price of a new cat.
Couldn't get a photo of the actual broken cat, so just a stock picture of a cat with a crack at the exit, a nice pussy pic . . . .
The last few days have been cleaning the car down, got really messed due to cement dust and every other type of dust coming from the builders next door, some of the time it's spent on a neighbours drive and some with the cover on, but it still got everywhere.
After the big clean down, (I don't want to turn up with a sh1tty looking car), I can finally get my paintwork sorted, I probably mentioned before, but a previous owner had some paintwork on the off-side rear quarter, and for a few years this looked as good as the rest of the paint, but the last couple of years it has faded and now it's pealing and crazing big-time - it's really 'doin' my head' right now, so going to get it sorted pronto.
Hope to have some news and pictures on the paint works next time....thanks for reading through and your interest, not very exciting I know, more of an 'ownership' thread than a project, but hey ho, all chronicled for me and anyone else that may be interested.
September has been quite eventful.
First, the cat damaged around the bell, joint, I guess it could have been sleeved, but as I found a s/h one locally, I went that route instead.
This was probably damaged at this joint for some time -at least a couple of years, it never seemed to affect running, but the noise had gradually became more pronounced, and sounded more like a supercharged' whistle in the end.
It'd just plain rusted away around the joining, this could well have been the original unit.
The low mileage s/h replacement along with a new fitting kit, was dealt with by the lads at the local repair shop to save me rolling around under the car. The note is now restored to its original deep 'thrum' from the Scorpion boxes.
Here's a picture from back in 2010 - with the original OEM exhaust and when it was back on the original registration - the first owner had a personal reg. from new so wasn't bothered waiting for the new '04' plate which most of the 2004 'sports have.
More soon....
First, the cat damaged around the bell, joint, I guess it could have been sleeved, but as I found a s/h one locally, I went that route instead.
This was probably damaged at this joint for some time -at least a couple of years, it never seemed to affect running, but the noise had gradually became more pronounced, and sounded more like a supercharged' whistle in the end.
It'd just plain rusted away around the joining, this could well have been the original unit.
The low mileage s/h replacement along with a new fitting kit, was dealt with by the lads at the local repair shop to save me rolling around under the car. The note is now restored to its original deep 'thrum' from the Scorpion boxes.
~
Now for something completely different.....Here's a picture from back in 2010 - with the original OEM exhaust and when it was back on the original registration - the first owner had a personal reg. from new so wasn't bothered waiting for the new '04' plate which most of the 2004 'sports have.
More soon....
Next little job....
Noisy Climate Control fan, not an uncommon problem and one I had before, where I bought a new one a few years ago, and that fixed it, but just recently the buzzing noise had returned.
There's a really good guide on here on how to fix this, so rather than spend another £45 quid, though I would have a go.
https://www.cliosport.net/threads/diy-stop-that-irritating-climate-control-buzzing.684354/
This turned out to be dead easy, the interior light fitment prises out, as do all the sensor and motor parts that need to, the fan was actually clean with no dust, it's a brushless motor so not much to wear, just a case of some WD40 on the motor shaft and reassembling.
In retrospect I think it would be better with some light machine oil on the shaft, but anyway the fan is now refitted and much quieter, they still make some background noise even when new, but this is only going to be apparent when the ignition is on and engine off.
A simple job and takes only a few minutes, definitely worth doing.
Noisy Climate Control fan, not an uncommon problem and one I had before, where I bought a new one a few years ago, and that fixed it, but just recently the buzzing noise had returned.
There's a really good guide on here on how to fix this, so rather than spend another £45 quid, though I would have a go.
https://www.cliosport.net/threads/diy-stop-that-irritating-climate-control-buzzing.684354/
This turned out to be dead easy, the interior light fitment prises out, as do all the sensor and motor parts that need to, the fan was actually clean with no dust, it's a brushless motor so not much to wear, just a case of some WD40 on the motor shaft and reassembling.
In retrospect I think it would be better with some light machine oil on the shaft, but anyway the fan is now refitted and much quieter, they still make some background noise even when new, but this is only going to be apparent when the ignition is on and engine off.
A simple job and takes only a few minutes, definitely worth doing.
So to conclude work done for September.....
As I mentioned before, there was some paint problems dure to an old repair on the offside rear quarter, although on close inspection in 2011, there was some faint evidence of a repair on this section of the bodywork, it really was not obvious at all.
Over the years, the paint had darkened and lost it's sheen, lately -looking closely revealed lots of tiny X type fractures starting to appear in the finish and some laquer peal in places, I was told it was the result of a 'smart' repair in the past before our ownership.
I never discovered what the 'repair' was there was no sign of any damage looking on the inside of the panel, so perhaps a deep scratch.
The picture doesn't reveal quite how bad this was.
On the nearside rear arch there was a tiny rust bubble which although didn't seem to get any worse over the last three years, this needed sorting too, its probably due to water getting inbetween the double skin seam.
Initially I wanted to have the whole car sprayed as original and to a really high standard, after a year of deliberation, this didn't prove practical as I wasn't confident enough to spend around £5K on a respray, a: if it was superb I know I wouldn't dare to drive the car again, b: if it was less than superb, I would have thought money wasted and not very happy.
So in September, I let the car go to a local spray shop who have a very good rep. to deal with the offside rear and also to repair the rust bubble and respray the nearside arch, after 10 days the car came back and looks pretty good, the match is quite good, the nearside had a postage stamp patched weld repair and sprayed too.
There is still a small niggle as I am very particular, and may take that up with the body shop, but job done and looks so much better than before.
I haven't taken any pictures of the car since getting it back though.
As I mentioned before, there was some paint problems dure to an old repair on the offside rear quarter, although on close inspection in 2011, there was some faint evidence of a repair on this section of the bodywork, it really was not obvious at all.
Over the years, the paint had darkened and lost it's sheen, lately -looking closely revealed lots of tiny X type fractures starting to appear in the finish and some laquer peal in places, I was told it was the result of a 'smart' repair in the past before our ownership.
I never discovered what the 'repair' was there was no sign of any damage looking on the inside of the panel, so perhaps a deep scratch.
The picture doesn't reveal quite how bad this was.
On the nearside rear arch there was a tiny rust bubble which although didn't seem to get any worse over the last three years, this needed sorting too, its probably due to water getting inbetween the double skin seam.
Initially I wanted to have the whole car sprayed as original and to a really high standard, after a year of deliberation, this didn't prove practical as I wasn't confident enough to spend around £5K on a respray, a: if it was superb I know I wouldn't dare to drive the car again, b: if it was less than superb, I would have thought money wasted and not very happy.
So in September, I let the car go to a local spray shop who have a very good rep. to deal with the offside rear and also to repair the rust bubble and respray the nearside arch, after 10 days the car came back and looks pretty good, the match is quite good, the nearside had a postage stamp patched weld repair and sprayed too.
There is still a small niggle as I am very particular, and may take that up with the body shop, but job done and looks so much better than before.
I haven't taken any pictures of the car since getting it back though.
The original steering wheels on these are well known for the melting and thumb grip problems, and this car has suffered the same over the years, when we first had it, the wheel was badly melted, and one of the first jobs was to get and fit a replacement, that was back in 2011, around that same time I bought yet another near mint wheel, and has remained in storage since then.
I jumped up yesterday and had a 'heck -I'm going to do that' moment.
The wheel fitted in 2011, was still good with only minimal signs of melting, but the right thumb grip was starting to come apart as you can see, I did attempt to reglue that ugly little bit, but that failed ....
.
This is a job I had done before so was reasonably confident removing and fitting. Disconnected the battery, prise out the Airbag, disconnect all the leads, T50 on and partly removed the bolt, bit of wiggling and smacking, and off it comes - the only thing that threw me, despite having done this before (memory fade) was the airbag connectors, I started to disassemble the plug before I realised that the whole connector just pops out upwards once the catch is removed.
Anyway, fitting back the new(er) steering wheel posed no problems.
The wheel looks and feels good, and totally original, I had considered getting a wheel recovered in leather, but as I had this wheel spare, seemed an unnecessary expense and I like the fact that it is OEM and looks as it should, guess there are not too many 182's with the original wheel still in good condition?
This was followed by a quick run out to check that the c/c was working and all was as it should be.
Most jobs that I have intended to do this year, have been done now, I am very pleased with how the car looks, runs and drives, it will soon will be mothballed, pity it has to be stored outside, but not much to do about it.
While the car is layed up over winter, may get the inlet and fuel rail guard powder coated as the bare alloy always looks unsightly and spoils the under-bonnet area.
Thanks for reading ....
I jumped up yesterday and had a 'heck -I'm going to do that' moment.
The wheel fitted in 2011, was still good with only minimal signs of melting, but the right thumb grip was starting to come apart as you can see, I did attempt to reglue that ugly little bit, but that failed ....
This is a job I had done before so was reasonably confident removing and fitting. Disconnected the battery, prise out the Airbag, disconnect all the leads, T50 on and partly removed the bolt, bit of wiggling and smacking, and off it comes - the only thing that threw me, despite having done this before (memory fade) was the airbag connectors, I started to disassemble the plug before I realised that the whole connector just pops out upwards once the catch is removed.
Anyway, fitting back the new(er) steering wheel posed no problems.
The wheel looks and feels good, and totally original, I had considered getting a wheel recovered in leather, but as I had this wheel spare, seemed an unnecessary expense and I like the fact that it is OEM and looks as it should, guess there are not too many 182's with the original wheel still in good condition?
This was followed by a quick run out to check that the c/c was working and all was as it should be.
Most jobs that I have intended to do this year, have been done now, I am very pleased with how the car looks, runs and drives, it will soon will be mothballed, pity it has to be stored outside, but not much to do about it.
While the car is layed up over winter, may get the inlet and fuel rail guard powder coated as the bare alloy always looks unsightly and spoils the under-bonnet area.
Thanks for reading ....
Jekyll
ClioSport Club Member
Nice work. It's all these little things that make the difference.
As for the engine parts, what colour you thinking? A nice, bright silver would look oem.
As for the engine parts, what colour you thinking? A nice, bright silver would look oem.
Thanks for your interest Doc.
...for the upper manifold etc, nothing garish, present thinking is a grey and a polished 'Renault' emblem
I was thinking of an anthracite grey or similar like the standard wheels, anyway something subtle maybe even silver as you say, but not bright, I will have to look around a some threads and see how it looks, whatever it is, it's going to look better than a the stock finish which always oxidises with powdery white patches.
I SORN'd mine last year till after Christmas. It's now nearly next Christmas... be careful.. taking cars off the road is the worst.
Ah, finally got the car Taxed again 1 August, probably for a couple of months, so thought would update this thread, although nothing much ado at the moment.
Went through MOT in March without any problem despite being stood for six months, and although not been out in it yet this year, it appears all is well.
Fetched a few parts, rear hatch lifter, the original ones are getting weak and have walked into the hatch a couple of time already!
Nearly fifty quid each at Ren, so only got one for now, will order the other when got some more dosh to spend, yes, I know there are some cheaper aftermarket ones, but hey ho.
AND a new front bonnet seal, fitting that was more like the difficulty level of job I like to tackle.
Whilst I was under the bonnet, give it a wipe over....
As you can see, I still haven't had the inlet or injector covers painted, it does spoil the under bonnet appearance, must get that done.
Another expense was a new set of injectors, the car was running fine but as there was an opportunity to get some genuine Marelli IWP042 at a decent price, decided it was better sooner than later when the prices go up, and sure enough the price did go up quite a bit shortly after I bought them.
I fitted these myself using my own 'guide' on here, lol. Everything went well except I couldn't release the fuel feed connector for some reason, but actually managed to fit all injectors without detaching it anyway.
Last job, which I had been dreading, was to check out the nearside wheel arch for rust, I knew there was a problem in there, but wanted to see the extent of the damage.
This meant taking out the rear seats, and rear cards, to see into the inner arch where it joins the outer.
Looks like at some point in the past water had got laid up in there, no gaping holes but some serious rust.
I scrapped away as much loose stuff as possible, and pulled out the seam sealer and treated all over with Hammerite Rust Remover gel, about three doses over a couple of days, it is supposed to clean back to bare metal - I've used this in the past but never seen it do that!
To make sure it go right down into the seam, afterwards I gave the area a very liberal dose of Jenolite acid, this definitely does what it does, and being thin liquid soaks into the seams
After the first look into the inner arch, I could see this was only going to be a temporary measure, it looks like the outer arch is going to need replacing when this gets a bit worse so decided not to attempt to paint this area, but just to smother in Waxoyl for now.
That's after finally soaking in Jenolite, before the waxoyling.
Now the Offside, fortunately it didn't require any attention.
This was definitely less ugly, and still looks in good order, I gave the whole area a thick coat of Wayoyl whilst at it.
The downside of the Waxoyl is that it stinks, and stinks, It'll go away eventually when the solvent evaporates (I hope)
Rusting on nearside rear arch is something that most cars seem (seam!) to suffer, so anybody with a car over 15 years old is likely to have an attack of the tin worm, so if you are keeping yours long term then suggest you get to it before it's too late, so far I haven't been able to source a new replacement panel or repair panel, and even so, this will be an expensive repair.
While the seats were out, cleaned the entire boot floor area of all the old crud.
There you go, that's all folks, and now to get some miles in.
Went through MOT in March without any problem despite being stood for six months, and although not been out in it yet this year, it appears all is well.
Fetched a few parts, rear hatch lifter, the original ones are getting weak and have walked into the hatch a couple of time already!
Nearly fifty quid each at Ren, so only got one for now, will order the other when got some more dosh to spend, yes, I know there are some cheaper aftermarket ones, but hey ho.
AND a new front bonnet seal, fitting that was more like the difficulty level of job I like to tackle.
Whilst I was under the bonnet, give it a wipe over....
As you can see, I still haven't had the inlet or injector covers painted, it does spoil the under bonnet appearance, must get that done.
Another expense was a new set of injectors, the car was running fine but as there was an opportunity to get some genuine Marelli IWP042 at a decent price, decided it was better sooner than later when the prices go up, and sure enough the price did go up quite a bit shortly after I bought them.
I fitted these myself using my own 'guide' on here, lol. Everything went well except I couldn't release the fuel feed connector for some reason, but actually managed to fit all injectors without detaching it anyway.
Last job, which I had been dreading, was to check out the nearside wheel arch for rust, I knew there was a problem in there, but wanted to see the extent of the damage.
This meant taking out the rear seats, and rear cards, to see into the inner arch where it joins the outer.
Looks like at some point in the past water had got laid up in there, no gaping holes but some serious rust.
I scrapped away as much loose stuff as possible, and pulled out the seam sealer and treated all over with Hammerite Rust Remover gel, about three doses over a couple of days, it is supposed to clean back to bare metal - I've used this in the past but never seen it do that!
To make sure it go right down into the seam, afterwards I gave the area a very liberal dose of Jenolite acid, this definitely does what it does, and being thin liquid soaks into the seams
After the first look into the inner arch, I could see this was only going to be a temporary measure, it looks like the outer arch is going to need replacing when this gets a bit worse so decided not to attempt to paint this area, but just to smother in Waxoyl for now.
That's after finally soaking in Jenolite, before the waxoyling.
Now the Offside, fortunately it didn't require any attention.
This was definitely less ugly, and still looks in good order, I gave the whole area a thick coat of Wayoyl whilst at it.
The downside of the Waxoyl is that it stinks, and stinks, It'll go away eventually when the solvent evaporates (I hope)
Rusting on nearside rear arch is something that most cars seem (seam!) to suffer, so anybody with a car over 15 years old is likely to have an attack of the tin worm, so if you are keeping yours long term then suggest you get to it before it's too late, so far I haven't been able to source a new replacement panel or repair panel, and even so, this will be an expensive repair.
While the seats were out, cleaned the entire boot floor area of all the old crud.
There you go, that's all folks, and now to get some miles in.
Since last years post, the only problem encountered last Autumn, was a small tickle from the ABS under very light braking, no ABS lights coming up, just the occasional tickle.
It turned out to be a cracked ABS ring on front drivers side, Renaut will only sell the complete driveshaft at some big cost too, so begrudgingly got the local garage to fit an aftermarket one, didn't fancy doing that job myself, and total repair cost was only a fraction of the Renault part
Apparently there are two sorts of rings, a narrow and a wide type, the 182 has the wide type, but other than that initial problem, it was sorted
It's been fine since.
Car was SORN'ed at end of last year.
Got the car out of the covers today, after a quick spin to warm up the engine (hadn't been run for about three months), it felt good, hotfooted down to MOT station, glad to say passed with no advisories.
Still SORN for the winter months, only 330 miles covered since last MOT, but was only on the road four months last year, the car is currently on 124900 miles, so should be able to crack the 125k next time it's taxed, lol.
Thanks for reading.
It turned out to be a cracked ABS ring on front drivers side, Renaut will only sell the complete driveshaft at some big cost too, so begrudgingly got the local garage to fit an aftermarket one, didn't fancy doing that job myself, and total repair cost was only a fraction of the Renault part
Apparently there are two sorts of rings, a narrow and a wide type, the 182 has the wide type, but other than that initial problem, it was sorted
It's been fine since.
Car was SORN'ed at end of last year.
Got the car out of the covers today, after a quick spin to warm up the engine (hadn't been run for about three months), it felt good, hotfooted down to MOT station, glad to say passed with no advisories.
Still SORN for the winter months, only 330 miles covered since last MOT, but was only on the road four months last year, the car is currently on 124900 miles, so should be able to crack the 125k next time it's taxed, lol.
Thanks for reading.
Although I did spend some time cleaning up and painting the four engine mount bolts, more out of boredom!.....My other RS has also been laid up the whole time too, I'm not even bothered about driving ATM.
As for this year - who knows.....
Hey, it's got an MOT again! - October 2023, did all of 11 miles since last MOT in February 2020.
Just needed a bottom ball joint due to the gaiter being perished.
Since last post on this project, the only event was the n/s quarter glass got smashed (whilst parked up and no idea how). That was sorted last year along with new windscreen glass too, other than this not much been going on it being parked up for more than three years. Still starts, runs, drives well (as far as I can tell driving down to the test centre.
Hope to it will be on the road again next spring.
Just needed a bottom ball joint due to the gaiter being perished.
Since last post on this project, the only event was the n/s quarter glass got smashed (whilst parked up and no idea how). That was sorted last year along with new windscreen glass too, other than this not much been going on it being parked up for more than three years. Still starts, runs, drives well (as far as I can tell driving down to the test centre.
Hope to it will be on the road again next spring.
