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Initiale dCi Daily Project (yes, diesel.)



Ricardos

ClioSport Club Member
  LY 200 EDC
Love the euro trip and how you've described it, in fact I like the way this whole thread has been done. Keep up the good work and updates.
 
Hi,
what about the drive shafts in regard to the wider Track at the front?

Hi, the driveshafts came with all the stuff I bought. They appear to be similar to my standard dCi ones, I see no obvious differences other than maybe the splines configuration and diameter.

Speaking of driveshafts, today I finally managed to fix my ABS problem, which was the usual broken sensor ring; believe it or not it was one of the first parts I bought in September as soon as I acquired the car, and I've only got round doing the job today, yea.

While I was there I changed the gearbox oil which was the only service tasks left on my checklist.

5a2649023fb7a3f0e9d381f0527ea12e.jpg


New ring vs old broken one

af891efe2d53c4547ed08e047884dce1.jpg


After removing the old ring the driveshaft looked pretty rusty and corroded, wire wheel time

0b60e1c248821b27947170e7b5b99197.jpg


be5ba664b506e39088f035ad413a97fd.jpg


New ring tapped in, some heat helped

ea79ba66b7c1bca45624669498d1d727.jpg


The driveshaft deserved a good clean, looks like it had never been removed

a6fe9460d93bc4f9647f6499f70fc8cf.jpg


Then it was reassembling time and I had the chance of finally get a torque wrench so I could torque everything properly, these things are crucial specially on cars that cost less that £400 lol

25nm on these three

465edd7c3a1e731317d7d3713fa1f11b.jpg


105nm and new nuts on the strut bolts, although I kept the original nuts but used new ones, we'll see if I get killed or these new ones will hold up.

0439a3b063b6319ce7574f818a226ed2.jpg


Then driveshaft nut. In this case I did not trust the new nyloc, I reused the old one, looks a lot tougher. 280nm

b38ddd7cf3406e053e9e565c7289e529.jpg


Happy looking cv joint

000496323fa201b1a55cc1a0895b1615.jpg


Then it was gearbox oil time, this is what I used, let me know if it's junk!

6ae993cdede0d0e356d0d9aeb968bb2d.jpg


I didn't do a whole lot on the bits I acquired last week, the stuff is very corroded so I'm just doing a little bit of aqua blasting during lunch time every day, so far the rear caliper mounts look like this

4231b46ea9860de0cf03b988f08a3da4.jpg


The axle got new bushings although I'm not convinced on how they fit.

60cdea33addfd46069dfa2b572ea58c6.jpg


And these are the machines rear discs with painted calipers

ef9ba03cb2a58a17c5a0be0c15a16c02.jpg



Thanks for all the positive comments, the car still needs some work but is used every si gel day and drives a lot better now with the tracking done and working cruise control (the espace clutch switch fitted straight on).

Very happy, cheers everyone.
 
  Listerine & Poledo
Holy s**t, an EB110!!!!!

f**k, there's only a few of those in the world. Love those things more than any other Supercar.
 
  Listerine & Poledo
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurk.
So far ahead of its time. Not bad for the ditched design of the Diablo. All it's missing is an electric motor somewhere and a few hundred LEDs and it could have been released yesterday.
 
Well I don't know about that! They are extremely over complicated, just because they were made to impress and so every possible engineering feature was "squeezed" in the project. Working on them is a nightmare and parts are beyond expensive.
A Dauer would easily be faster that an F40, maybe even round corners. Wouldn't say so for a standard one.
 
  Listerine & Poledo
Well I don't know about that! They are extremely over complicated, just because they were made to impress and so every possible engineering feature was "squeezed" in the project. Working on them is a nightmare and parts are beyond expensive.
A Dauer would easily be faster that an F40, maybe even round corners. Wouldn't say so for a standard one.
Overcomplicated! No s**t! I can only imagine it works all it's glory through vacuum lines and oil pressure senders. :smile:
I can only imagine the parts woes, surely most things would have to be built from scratch now. The Edonis would have soaked up most of the last of the spare parts bin :(
Book figures say it'd show an F40 the way, but.....well, in that scenario I'd rather be maxing out the Ferrari, knowing that there's a spare clutch at maranello somewhere.
 
The updates in this car are becoming a rare thing; that's because is taking me an age to get ready for the big step, the full Sport suspension swap done "my way" with everything sandblasted and painted. We're getting there I promise.

In the meantime I tried my best to keep the little red thing happy.

First on the list was a replica of those washers that I've seen on sale on eBay. They claim to reduce top mount play and by looking at them I've always been doubtful.
Well, I'm either stupid but you tell me what this is supposed to do. Anyway, we made it following instructions and using measurements found on this forum, I think in doing it wrong, any thoughts ??

21a3ae2e1fd6908e74f70f3d999bb007.jpg


4279312da7402d115e7e73e9ae8bf057.jpg


Then a little update on the sport stuff: these are the rear calipers after sand blasting, you can see the difference. I've got a rebuild kit for each one:

66caf966e90f4749531bd2df9770eb8a.jpg


96b85ab8065e49b237298710cdf34260.jpg


I then tried to fight a cold start problem by fitting brand new Bosch glow plugs found on eBay at £24!!
Two of the old ones were found completely dead and only one of the left ones gave an understandable resistance reading.
New ones in and tested, all good;

e0526b29d8711445e286a99fe65d3313.jpg


b2a84b9a48cdc19e2ae2a47ec1977e55.jpg


fa6cca567b257959a0264b5bf6aae7ee.jpg


although the car still coughs when started after some hours of sitting, I've got almost no doubts now, one or more injectors are leaking internally. They're pricey to rebuild.

Next on the list was the sunroof glass seal that was causing an horrible rattling noise while driving on bumpy roads. Amazingly my sunroof doesn't leak (yet) so I haven't touched the commonly faulty frame seal, will do that when I'm painting the roof.

06ee6c494a21de904098f531ceeb16e4.jpg


Shortly after this I found myself in the same place of some months ago,

5453605d38eaf206430d41cc3c927283.jpg


waiting for a ferry in Dover; that's right, another Paris weekend trip, this time to meet with my family; I managed to get myself a car full of passengers on both trips, it ended up costing me a tenner for the whole weekend!
The star of the long trip has to be the newly fitted cruise control. What an upgrade, she's an international motorway cruiser now!
I even washed it for the first time in 6 months, it didn't do much other than cleaning the wheels, those shine up nice!

cc41b0704fea06572b6eeefecbda1878.jpg


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4ab98610ecbaf6037eb7a71fc2cbc16e.jpg


And here we are, 700 miles later, back home.
Hopefully I'll get cracking with the scrubbing and painting, I want those suspension on ASAP!

b3fac8e2ffec2c667a6038f37650e1f7.jpg
 
Yo!
Update time for this project thread, even though I haven't been as busy as I should be lately.

First of all, the progress on the widetrack conversion is slow but we are moving in the right direction. All I have left is to paint a couple of things and rebuild the rear calipers to finish off the axle. When that goes on I'll concentrate on the front.

A couple of shots of sandblasted stuff that I always like..

8676e7004dbee66adcdd5fa3af2718c1.jpg


d0c27d98883532c3817badd22ff4e874.jpg


5d8120ba5d39b83dc2c30b0cf4e870fd.jpg


To the car itself --->

I finally got round doing the timing belt again so that I could fit the lower timing cover, without which none of the other two can be clipped on. I also took the chance to replace the cam seal which I found leaking while doing the job the first time back in September.

This is how the timing side has looked for the past 7 months

d81e6c877025196e4f1680bfc9c536ce.jpg


And this is me realizing the seal from GSF was the wrong one.

8ae096745bc873aa292716b72529ff5e.jpg


The manual did specify that there are two different seals around, I felt lucky, I wasn't.
Quick run to ECP that had the right one in stock, on it goes, looking lovely and hopefully dry!!

90f729edb8f96ef17a71687b8e43a67c.jpg


Job done again and engine bay looking less pikeyish.

349957443a6739990c95a041e65ae698.jpg


One of the jobs I wanted to do before the Easter trip was another ever procrastinated task: cleaning the seat belts.

443f912cb0ca83a70e5a9b8bae080340.jpg


The car has had 4 previous owners before me, and I think non of them wore clothes while driving as the seat belts have always been veeery grubby. Boiling water, vanish and a bit of persil to do the job, I finished off with furniture polish and they now slide in and out lovely, while smelling the business. I also gave a good scrub to the rest of the interior.

bb530d0bc625cefd9556bbe4751708d1.jpg


Yas!

Time for a big fail which was me trying to fix a little brake judder with the old lathe technic that, as we know, is the wrong one.
Discs off, a quick skim (the machinist ensured me they were on straight and true, yea right..)

81e4b73bb21924e69f4c4b869b527200.jpg


I then sanded the pads again and sandblasted and painted the carriers. Two of the pin boots needed replacing, got some spares off the 182 calipers, a little lube and back on.

61b7521b425a665e0ff8965160f2b2e6.jpg


56126f9509fda7e5a11f3fd9cc3f03d5.jpg


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They may as well be bent 90 degrees, the worst machine job ever. I blame myself for trusting the wrong people with the wrong tools.
Trip to ECP again, Easter sale on meant discs were only 25£, I later got new pads too. What a waste of money, lesson learned.

Trip time, a big one this, 1500 miles and change driving around Scotland. We reached the isle of Skye on Saturday and drove back via Loch Lomond the day after. 4 days of pretty much continuous driving through the worst weather and rough roads, she did well.

57e38605e45dca8fe242493f5280788a.jpg


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On the way back I clocked 10000miles with this car; she smells of old diesel and the roof is faded pink, its got 80hp at best and there's nothing special to it, seriously. But I like the way it just works, which for an old Clio is quite something!
 

497adam

ClioSport Club Member
  clio 172 phase 2
Yo!
Update time for this project thread, even though I haven't been as busy as I should be lately.

First of all, the progress on the widetrack conversion is slow but we are moving in the right direction. All I have left is to paint a couple of things and rebuild the rear calipers to finish off the axle. When that goes on I'll concentrate on the front.

A couple of shots of sandblasted stuff that I always like..

8676e7004dbee66adcdd5fa3af2718c1.jpg


d0c27d98883532c3817badd22ff4e874.jpg


5d8120ba5d39b83dc2c30b0cf4e870fd.jpg


To the car itself --->

I finally got round doing the timing belt again so that I could fit the lower timing cover, without which none of the other two can be clipped on. I also took the chance to replace the cam seal which I found leaking while doing the job the first time back in September.

This is how the timing side has looked for the past 7 months

d81e6c877025196e4f1680bfc9c536ce.jpg


And this is me realizing the seal from GSF was the wrong one.

8ae096745bc873aa292716b72529ff5e.jpg


The manual did specify that there are two different seals around, I felt lucky, I wasn't.
Quick run to ECP that had the right one in stock, on it goes, looking lovely and hopefully dry!!

90f729edb8f96ef17a71687b8e43a67c.jpg


Job done again and engine bay looking less pikeyish.

349957443a6739990c95a041e65ae698.jpg


One of the jobs I wanted to do before the Easter trip was another ever procrastinated task: cleaning the seat belts.

443f912cb0ca83a70e5a9b8bae080340.jpg


The car has had 4 previous owners before me, and I think non of them wore clothes while driving as the seat belts have always been veeery grubby. Boiling water, vanish and a bit of persil to do the job, I finished off with furniture polish and they now slide in and out lovely, while smelling the business. I also gave a good scrub to the rest of the interior.

bb530d0bc625cefd9556bbe4751708d1.jpg


Yas!

Time for a big fail which was me trying to fix a little brake judder with the old lathe technic that, as we know, is the wrong one.
Discs off, a quick skim (the machinist ensured me they were on straight and true, yea right..)

81e4b73bb21924e69f4c4b869b527200.jpg


I then sanded the pads again and sandblasted and painted the carriers. Two of the pin boots needed replacing, got some spares off the 182 calipers, a little lube and back on.

61b7521b425a665e0ff8965160f2b2e6.jpg


56126f9509fda7e5a11f3fd9cc3f03d5.jpg


ae76801cf7dfd1568fea914d3c21ab36.jpg


They may as well be bent 90 degrees, the worst machine job ever. I blame myself for trusting the wrong people with the wrong tools.
Trip to ECP again, Easter sale on meant discs were only 25£, I later got new pads too. What a waste of money, lesson learned.

Trip time, a big one this, 1500 miles and change driving around Scotland. We reached the isle of Skye on Saturday and drove back via Loch Lomond the day after. 4 days of pretty much continuous driving through the worst weather and rough roads, she did well.

57e38605e45dca8fe242493f5280788a.jpg


c4fde5b10a4bb88bc517cb23b1fd854b.jpg


0154252565c12a4f58af443f3f08cbbf.jpg


23279a80c96413f98513dee9ed3fc954.jpg


93b9427202aeef8b14990b5bf8b65731.jpg


On the way back I clocked 10000miles with this car; she smells of old diesel and the roof is faded pink, its got 80hp at best and there's nothing special to it, seriously. But I like the way it just works, which for an old Clio is quite something!

How many miles has the car done ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Quick update today, I was meant to finish the rear axle but got tangled up with some work stuff, I still managed to do some of the things I wanted on the car.

First: while crawling underneath to check my abs connectors, I stumbled across two things.
Number 1:

16416c6e54e017b962b2689214c5dd50.jpg


This saw me going instantly on eBay to check how expensive these sensor are.. very, it turns out!

f9f828efbe251c0ee4e22580b5a1dc0b.jpg


Scrap that, self tapper, big washer and loctite.. we'll see how long it lasts, I'm also expecting the system to work now, can't wait for the evening to come !

Number 2:

361bc631a977dbd4dc6f34182a7cc7fd.jpg


I've ordered a genuine new one, £17.

Then, another spring swap. In this season makes sense.

..

I gave new life to the spring I took off some months ago as I was still having ride height issues. I learned today that springs have a colored stamp on them that will let you work out how hard or long they are. That led me to believe that there is more than one option for springs on the Clio, and that somebody in the past must have swapped a broken one with one the wrong type.

682614928b5feab3ae56f61bc93fbfbb.jpg


Oh well, it all looks leveled and normal now, 4 fingers in both front wheel arches (that'll change soon)

562bb85728981c8dc5627ea613259169.jpg


To finish the day off, another oil change, the lovely £33 kit from smiths, next one in another 5k miles.

eccd2ea3efab739bc835c28da48b2a98.jpg


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I'll have to deal with this broken flywheel. I think the best moment to do it will be during the front subframe swap. I need to find a replacement first, and new ones exceed the value of the whole car. What to do?

Oh wheel, she's got a club sticker now, all is good in the world.

0ebcf9ee15a20a27f8a67cc7867ff45a.jpg


(I need to paint that fekin roof)

Have a good weekend!
 
Rear calipers rebuild and axle back together. All I'm missing are the abs sensors which I removed to sandblast and paint the caliper carriers. A decision that I'm regretting big time, as they are very expensive and rare to find, and mines are in bits...

5cc8dcdd609cd1f00cee1ebd893d2d5c.jpg


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Check out this mad jig set up to reassemble the handbrake mechanism.
Big C clamp hold the bit of steel, welded a nut on it and used a big flathead to compress the spring so that a second person can then drive the lever in position..
No idea how you could do this in your garage.

c47b603acb69cfa3342e11719bc504c0.jpg


This is what's inside the rear caliper pistons

d7d2ce64e980694c26d2f1189ab26dce.jpg


e6a71c63d32f5e90b96ec7c7197b4234.jpg


And everything back on the axle

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A shot of the new exhaust hanger. Genuine you know

41a8d8b46fa0ba67388c57dcf5ab13b0.jpg




Aaaaaand a somewhat big news: I had the car remapped!
I went to a place called London remaps, part of the quantum group.
They say it now has 105 hp and to be honest... it doesn't feel like it.
I'll go there again to see what's what. Any experiences on this topic ??
 
172 axle is in.

I wish I'd just painted the outer bit of the caliper because is all you can see !!

Anyway, I decided I needed to get a move on so I bought some used abs sensors and caliper brackets from Steve at SSS autos, helpful as usual, and today I said to myself that the axle had to be fitted, no matter what god had to say about it.

So sandblast, prime and paint the caliper carriers, and get them on the axle pronto !!



1a369fa0a074966c7ad9510b57b836db.jpg


Then there's a solid two hours of swearing, rushing and praying to get the old axle out but if finally gave up.


e5c4a4633d8c9a886ec10699108dbb6e.jpg


In goes the new one. We re pinned the connector at the abs ecu to try and make the 182 sensors work..

0653f34e52063ac603e9097a25e942b5.jpg


The new axle is the same width. The wider track is from the wheel mounting surfaces and stun axles being thicker.
Looks quite the same though..

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And that's that. Front suspension next.
 

GrahamS

ClioSport Club Member
  335d
nice work buddy, that axle is so nice. I hated rebuilding the rear calipers when I did it, getting the handbrake mechanism in is a total pain. Did you manage to get the 182 sensors work then? I'll be so pleased if you did!!

I certainly wouldn't be remapping. The injectors and pumps are so bad on these cars it's a guaranteed failure point down the line. My last one did really well and died at 150k. This current one with 105k on is flashing all the time for low fuel pressure.
 
These don't run dual mass flywheels. Solid flywheel and sprung clutch.

Looking good tho! Will keep watching

Well if that's the case the culprit of my shacking while pulling away must be the clutch then.. or at least I hope!
I'll know soon enough as I want to be done by the end of the month, and the o lu good moment to pull the gearbox out is when the subframe is out..
Cheers for the feedback !

And no... the sensors don't work graham. The mate that repinned the connector must have done something as the abs light is on straight away, don't need to start rolling to come lit as it did when I had a broken sensor ring at the front.

Don't know, if that's like you say I may have to change all the rings!
I'm useless at electrics more than I am in getting things done quick!

The remap is useless anyway, or at least mine is !
 

Dr HMS Derv Destroyer

ClioSport Club Member
  MK1DTi/vivaro/corsa
AlexW managed to do the disc conversion on the derv I've got now , remember allot of f**king about to sort it. Sure it was second hand Dci 100 sensors, 100 rear sensor rings and some wiring correction.

As regards to remap, going to 105 should of made a difference. The 80s easy map to 120hp.... that's on a good condition fuelsytem tho.

And if it's a generic remap ( no rolling road ) I suspect you've been sold a crock of s**t map that over time can ruin the engine
 
That's why I'm thinking of going back to get the original map loaded.. or maybe spend the equivalent of another Clio to get a proper remap !!

Yeah Graham did say that dCi 100 sensors are the way to go but none seem available, and I've literally looked and asked everyone I know.
There was a dci100 with injector failure selling for 300 two months ago.. lesson learned.
 
Since the rear axle upgrade I haven't done much, other than preparing the rest of the bits that will make the front come together, there's still lots to do until I'm Happy to throw it in the car. Plus I need to buy a clutch, or at least it sounds like it !

The discs I had turned out to be rubbish, as expected. I'll never again consider a lathe good enough to machine brake discs, lesson learned.
Steve at SSS hooked me up again with a decent set of discs then I then proceeded to install on the spot, not bothering with those useless clips, more on this later.

Since then I had the feeling that the NSR disc wasn't actually been "cleaned" by the pad (discs had some surface corrosion on them) and that led to believe that the caliper is either sticking or there's air in the system. Pedal seems solid..


So, today I bled the brakes using my trusty one man pressure bleeder that has been sitting in a box since November. The box had had enough and there's only remains of it now.

9e71b6782a7b603e297f7b4a7670ede6.jpg


In action, I followed the sequence described in the manual. FL>FR>RL>RR. Strange if you ask me, normally is from the furthest away to the nearest wheel.

fcab96c21d012c7fd2546104be528905.jpg


See what I mean about those discs? This is the rear right, doing its job:

e9673fc07d36d83be5478a2bafd5c3f8.jpg


And look at the other one after two weeks of hammering on the brakes

18a69093e92735ec78250a810e4ea3b3.jpg


After circulating a good 1.5 liters of fresh fluid through the system I declared it fully bled.
Only a tiny bit of air came off that very corner.

Did it work? Well, the disc didn't show any sign of improvement , I think there's something wrong in the way I rebuilt the caliper, or the pads are rubbish.

Oh, remember those clips? I found out what they do

580a7897400384a41f12f8c0934c4e05.jpg


They go under that hooky looking thing on the pad and then jam onto the caliper, keeping the pad on the disc.
Make sense now.

And look at my new improved locking tab retainer..

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Yup, it's an R clip that's too big, but it's doing the job! I almost lost one of those silly little bars last week!

Oh, last addition..

5f02f1b043f41b8fad5d0ae8fa1a4a7c.jpg


Cabasse Auditorium... tronic! Probably from a Laguna, here's why the fitment sucks ass.

Will probably chuck some speakers in soon.
Alignment next, going to Belgium in two weeks!
 
Yo.

Made some tiny steps today towards the completion of this never ending wide track saga.. GrahamS could probably build a v6 powered rear engine beast with cruise and climate control starting from a 8v expression with hubcaps in the time that is taking me to get mine done.. and I have all the equipment at work !!

The thing is, I could have just put all these parts on the car as I've acquired them, but the thing is, with access to all this machinery and basically free paint and consumables, I just thought I'd make the most of it while I can. But because of my work position I don't really have spare time at lunch or during breaks. I'm always available, hence the slow progress.

Enough of this nonsense, what did I get done today?

Well, I fell into a trap, and I went... a little stancy..

I bought a stub axle spacer kit from Pure Motorsport. Totally useless now, specially considering the still standard ride height, but everything will make sense once the car will finally sit on sports springs and dampers.
The kit is really nice, the spacers are super neat and the hardware is just as good, it's also made with Allen heads, the stupid torx can burn in hell finally..

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I took the chance of testing the suspect stuck LR caliper and swap the discs left right as I'm having some wear issues. Maybe I just need new components, we'll see.

I also had to add spring washers to the nuts on the axle mounts that worked themselves loose after a trip to Belgium two weeks ago. I could hear the axle clunking while cornering. Not ideal.
Will have to realign the damn thing again.

Looks pretty much the same, the only way to really tell is to look from the back, needs to come down a little to really give it justice.

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This is poser level stuff like the boot spoiler. It was only £30, makes me feel less guilty.


The rest of the stuff is coming together nicely.

The front calipers are now completely bare and rebuilt with new seals and polished pistons. They'll be silver like the rears as soon as I find a free can of silver vht..

4ec7eec21c4a0d59cba6cc461c8e1f60.jpg


The front hub carriers have been finally stripped of everything and almost completely blasted. They had some proper corrosion buildup on them, I spent days on the sandblasted and wire wheel.. they'll be silver too as soon as the new wheel bearings will arrive.

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The wishbones are ready and waiting for new ball joints

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One of the things left is looking at the driveshafts which will be sanded painted and regreased, plus new abs rings while we're there.
New front abs sensors are on their way.

I then need some drop links for the Arb and I think I'm good to go.

Changed the oil again today. 120k.

Look at how pathetic a mint 6000 kms v6 looks next to my rocket !

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Adios!
 
We're getting closer, can't wait for the weekend to arrive, this should have taken maybe 7/8 months less, it's finally happening.

Or is it ?

Lol

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This week has to be the last one these bits spend on a shelf.

Recent jobs:

-blast and paint anti roll bar
-blast and paint anti roll bar clamps
-blast and paint 4th engine/gearbox mount
-blast and paint subframe, I went for red oxide .. poser, again. 80hp diesel hatchback.
-reblast and repaint calipers with proper caliper paint, pain in the ass with them already rebuilt.
-received 172 cup driver side shaft, hopefully will be cleaned and greased like the pass side one.
-new front abs sensors
-new front wheel bearings
-new inner and outer tie rods for my SMI rack, hopefully they'll fit !
-new steering rack boots
-new lower ball joints
-all new hardware, part from ball joint pinch bolts..

Hopefully the dampers have life left in them and the standard springs will make it look cooler and corner better.

I want to get the front suspension done this weekend, it's been way too long I'm fully ashamed of myself, gone are the days of overnight engine swaps on civics.. need to get back on form !
 
Finally, the big job is (almost) done, and what a job!
No words can express how much I respect whoever has done this before me, probably on a driveway with axlestands, you are heroes!
I'm lucky enough to work with cars and sometimes manage to earn enough "bonus points" (10 hours overtime = 0.25 bonus points..) to be able to use a ramp for my silly projects, and this time I made full use of it and I'm thankful I had it.
I had from 9 to 3pm, took a quick snap of the car with his original suspension still on. The 172 axle at the back still sitting on standard dCi springs and shocks.

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On the ramp!

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I apologize for the lack of pictures but, as usual with doing stuff at work, I had a really short time frame and once reached the point of non return I had to get it done!
Also I never had clean hands, and can't afford a new phone!

Here's the point of non return:

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The once rusty corroded pile of old 172 bits is now a nice selection of finely painted and overhauled components, waiting to be fitted to this gem of a motorcar:

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The hubs have been sandblasted, painted in wheel silver (slightly tougher than your standard paint) and given new wheel bearings.
I got new abs sensors that turned out to be the same as the 172 ones that were on the hubs to start with! Thankfully the standard ones are all plastic and can be freed off the hubs to be reused, good luck getting a set of 172 ones off.

The subframe has been also blasted and painted in red oxide that I just covered with layers and layers of clear lacquer.

The calipers also sandblasted, rebuilt, pistons polished, and carriers cleaned and greased.
Everything was painted in silver VHT first, then stripped again and coated with proper (and flipping expensive) silver caliper paint.
Discs were almost new, I just cleaned them and painted the bare metal bits. Pads are almost new too, standard Renault ferodos.

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The steering rack got new boots and new inner and outer tie rods. The manual says to replace the fiber spacers too, I didn't have them.

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The wishbones had good bushings so I just blasted and painted them, bottom ball joints are brand new and required some massaging to clear the driveshafts.

I partially painted the anti roll bar purely to get rid of some corrosion on the ends. I greased the bushings and installed it with sanded and painted clamps both on the subframe and wishbones.

I also sanded and painted the 2nd gearbox mount that I was eager to try on, as I've always been having engine movement issues with this car.

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I haven't touched the driveshafts and I took a risk. One has a hose clamp on that suggests a shady past. We'll see how long they last.

I cleaned, greased and reused most of the factory hardware as it's way tougher than the Wurth stuff we have at work. I just added washers on all the nuts and replaced all the nylocs.

Everything fitted, the only hiccups were the usual subframe captive nuts that I guess just wait for you when you're tackling a job like this. Both the driver side one failed on me, thankfully I was able to squeeze a spanner on the rear one and a ratchet on the little front one. Then one of the bottom ball joint mocked us: physically different from the other one where the pinchbolt goes through. It was touching the abs ring of the driveshaft, we just ground it down old style, no time!

I had to rush the whole time, two spanners quickly become a mountain of tools driving me mad. The boss also popped in and started asking a million work questions and I had less and less time to get the damn car done! I stopped and thought more than once to just put it on a dolly and finish it later, I had moments of confusion purely because of the rush and I almost cried when a fountain of brake fluid destroyed most of my hard work with the spray cans;
but with the help of a good hearted couple of colleagues we managed to get the car out the door only half an hour later than our deadline.
We aligned it with our eyeballs and only bled the front brakes very quickly with a pressure bleeder that also made a mess of the freshly painted subframe.. oh well, wasn't meant to be I guess !!

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The car looks the same! If anything looks taller on those standard 172 springs. I guess with a 16inch rim would look better, but the stockers are staying people, this is a 80hp sleeper after all.
The front track is miles wider, that can be noticed at first glance. The brakes are almost invisible behind the many spokes of the "jade" style alloys. Oh well, is the performance that we're after.

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The car dives better; the rear is still on standard suspension apart from the axle, and I've got a rear arb on the way too. Will look into lowering springs if I find a set at a decent price.
The 2nd gearbox mount is a revelation. Surely makes for more vibrations to reach the cabin from the Diesel engine, but it has partially solved my engine movement problems. Now I know which direction to take !
The tracking is slightly out and the brakes not 100%, more has to be done before I can give an accurate feedback but I'm happy so far.

This is by no means a difficult nor complicated job, it's just a puzzle of bits that should just fit. The challenge of getting it done in 6 hours having never done major work on the car in question makes it.. something else!

Thank you Renault for making the joint at the steering rack so easy to slip on and off. I was genuinely worried about this part, once I saw how easy it is I was relieved;
My civic used to reduce me in tears with those splines..

Thank you to GrahamS, a mega useful source of hints and knowledge that answered some proper silly questions without ever insulting me!

More to come on this £360 rust bucket. I'll finish this suspension conversion soon and fit some ordinary maintenance bits in preparation for a second euro trip in Christmas.

The Beamer has been sleeping in a garage for a full year now.. was this not supposed to be a cheap daily?
 
Just for a bit of a recap, and also as a 1 year report driving, fixing and upgrading this car, I though I'd write a bit of a list of what's happened to it, in a little over 12 months:

bought the car with 106260 miles on it on the 6/9/17

Engine:
  • Genuine major service kit (all filters + Elf oil)
  • Cleaned EGR twice, then blocked it
  • Emptied Cat
  • K&N Panel filter with new inlet hose
  • New glow plugs
  • Type D coolant changed twice
  • Gates timing belt, water pump and drive belt
  • 4x oil changes using Elf Rn-Tech 5w40 and genuine filter
  • Always munches VPower diesel
  • Flash remap to 105hp
Suspension (full Sport widetrack conversion)
  • 172 Front subframe
  • 172 Rear beam
  • 172 wishbones
  • 172 struts
  • 172 hubs
  • 172 anti roll bar
  • Pure motorsport rear beam 10mm spacers
  • new front top mounts
  • replaced all wheel bearings
  • Goodyear EfficientGrip summer tires 185/55
  • Continental Wintercontact TS790 winters 185/55
  • Nankand NS2R "fun" tires, currently on standby 195/50
Gearbox:
  • Tranself NFJ oil changed twice
  • Genuine dogbone mount
  • 172 Cup driveshafts
  • 172 gearbox mount
Brakes: (Full sport conversion)
  • 172 front 280mm discs
  • rear disc conversion
  • 172 rebuilt front and rear calipers
  • Renault front pads, eicher rears
Interior/amenities:
  • Cruise control retrofit
  • 182 Cup steering wheel
  • new Renault mats
  • cleaned the interior at least 5 times including seatbelts, carpet and headliner
  • replaced sunroof glass seal
  • restored headlights
  • Osram dip beam xenon bulbs
  • Lunex yellow fogs
  • replaced headlight washers
  • repaired air conditioning
  • fixed wiper mechanism
  • fixed rear bench latch
  • Connects2 module for AUX input
  • cabasse auditorium headunit
  • new exhaust mount
  • bosch front and rear wiper blades
  • mist washer jets
  • new genuine number plate light
  • genuine roof rack
  • thule roof box for long trips
  • thule bike carriers
  • new boot struts
  • 172 boot spoiler

in all this I can say that I'm treating this car the way I'd like to treat all my other cars but sometimes can't! Genuine parts are cheap enough and working on it has proven doable. I washed the outside once and I'm usually flat out when there's a nice bit of road in front of me. I upgraded the suspension as I can't stand mushy handling and unprecise steering as well as the lack of feeling of cheap tires. My Shell points card looks like has fought in the war and the service history file is thicker than my payslip one.. during this year the car still hasn't left me stranded (just a matter of time i reckon) and all it needs is a couple of sips of diesel. I choose to spend more on parts and consumables with the hope that this will make a difference in the long run.
Unfortunately the body looks very sorry for itself, not that looks are what matters to me, but one thing is dirt and another is rust, and this car has lots of it. I knew this when i bought it, the miles have just been making it worse.
I'm not finished yet, still a couple of bits left to then just stick to the oil change intervals and wait for the turbo of injection pump to go, as that is again, just a matter of time.
 
Cheers man!

I wouldn't mind trying a dci100 front mount on, all I know is that the hose from the compressor housing is different from the 80, but never confirmed it.
Also looking for some cheap sport lowering springs, after all this work the damn thing sits at the same height.. can't have it !!
 

Crayola

ClioSport Club Member
No worries, I’ll have to have a look in my parts shed to see if I still have the intercooler setup. I think the dCi 80 has the best intercooler anyway as it’s a huge one!

I think the reason behind your poor MPG may be the EGR, the easiest thing to do is weld up the connection tube from the exhaust manifold to the EGR as this will just block it off completely. A friend of mine did this on his dCi 80 and it picks up so much better!! With the amount of miles you’re racking up I’d suggest Eibach Proline springs as they’re not as harsh of a ride in my experience :)
 
172 rear springs and dampers are also on, the sport conversion can be considered completed now.

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I've also bled the brakes one more time, but still have a brake warning light on, will look into it.

Feels a lot stiffer with the whole sport setup on, I need to get some people in it to check if it's livable on a long distance trip, will see.

@GrahamS saved me when I needed some brake pad shims after driving 300 miles with some proper squeaking from the smaller 260mm disc shims.

One handbrake cable snapped right on Grahams driveway, sorry [emoji52]

I started restoring the whiteline rear ARB, soon to go on

More pics to come ;)
 
  Clio RS
Regarding the ABS Lights: Its due to different wheel sensor types.

For Non sports you have got rear Sensors magnetic type Ring without teeth. Or usual Type with 26 theets. Which one it is, you have to look in the Old Breake Drum.

If you have the magnetic Typ ABS Ring with belongig sensor, you can change everything back. It will not work.

If you have the 26 theets ring in the breaking drums, the only thing is that you have to change the 44 RS theets ring to the 26 theets ring.


But I think in regard to the repinging of the connector you have the magnetic ring.
 
  Clio RS
Regarding the ABS Lights: Its due to different wheel sensor types.

For Non sports you have two psoibilities of sensors on the rear.

1) Sensors magnetic type Ring without teeth. this one works completly diffrent like the your ones now installed.
2) Usual Type sensor and metal ring with 26 theets.


Which one it is, you have to look in the Old Breake Drum.

If you have the magnetic Typ ABS Ring with belongig sensor, you can change everything back. Otherwise it will not work.

If you have the 26 theets ring in the breaking drums, the only thing is that you have to change the 44 RS theets ring to the 26 theets ring.


But I think in regard to the repinging of the connector you have the magnetic ring.


Regarding the ABS please note that also your automatic breake balance system is blocked. This caused a fixed brake balance of 70/30% front/Rear, and is pure horror.
 
Thanks William I did have the magnetic ring on the old drums I remember.
I'm now looking for dCi 100 (or even 1.6 16v) rear abs sensors that I'm told will solve the problem.
They're almost not available as I've been trying with cash in hand for over 3 months !
 
  Clio RS
no it will not.

You need to change the complete ABS Block in the front and try to teach the ECU to communicate with the new ABS Control unit. Maybe the new ABS Block does have other loom to the ECU.

Its mybe not that easy :(
 


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