James' 172 Cup Project

[Jamess182]

So the Cup failed the re-test:disappointed:
Apparently the n/s caliper is now showing almost no effort whatsoever, still causing an imbalance. One thing I didn't check was the rear compensator, will have a look tomorrow to see if that can solve the situation, maybe there is no fluid getting to the caliper.

What a few days I've had on it. To sum up - 'whatever can go wrong,will go wrong'.

1. As above - had a nightmare getting off and replacing the o/s rear disc
2. As above - had a nightmare removing studs from old rear discs, rounded 3/8
3. Had a nightmare undoing the n/s disc retainers- two T40 heads snapped in the process
4. Had a nightmare removing o/s track rod end, the thread completely seized into the strut

Loving life

 

[dann2707]

Scrap it or sell it to me haha keep it up mate. You're so close to getting it sorted

 

[Jamess182]

Boom

The little Clio has cost me a fair few hours of pain and misery over Christmas, but I believe I've saved at least £200 doing it myself, so happy days.

Scrap it or sell it to me haha keep it up mate. You're so close to getting it sorted :smile:

Now it's got a full MOT the price has trebled I'm afraid, yours now for £150

 

[182_steve]

That's great, got there in the end!!

 

[GrahamS]

Few things to update on this one!
So firstly, the Clio got annihilated on its MOT on Thursday ensive:
Thankfully, a fair few of the failures can be fixed a new set of discs and pads all round. But due to funds it's going to take a while, and with MOT garages closing up for holidays, it likely means I'm going to be car-less over xmas

Cracked on with replacing rear brakes, brand new OEM Brembo pads and discs - would have preferred to go uprated but just can't afford it sadly.
View attachment 1350059

Of course, something always crops up on even the easier jobs, for some inexplicable reason the old O/S rear disc WOULD NOT budge, took a fair bit of hammering to get off, and even worse - the new disc was 10x more difficult to get back on - for some reason the bearing would just not fit around the axle stub. It was like it's expanded over time or something, wtf :expressionless:. Got there eventually with a LOT more hammering (chock of wood and a cloth over the hub to protect it). So weird as the old N/S disc came straight off, and the new one slid straight on. Cannot explain it.

Also managed to round off 3/8 of my studs trying to remove them from the old discs.. fml another expense I could do without!

View attachment 1350060
Hopefully the new rear brakes will sort my MOT issues. (Imbalanced brakes, binding one side and no effort from the other).

In other news, Thanks so much to @GrahamS for turning off my airbag light, even after me bombarding you with emails and texts this last week or so!
Super friendly and helpful guy, would recommend 110%. Cheers @dann2707 for the heads-up.

Fitted a temporary horn button above the steering wheel, looks daft but only done for MOT purposes - I'm used to living without one now. Also fitted a new metal cover to the clutch pedal as the other one had half snapped off somehow and looked really untidy, happy with how the interior looks now.
View attachment 1350061

Front discs and pads next :up: Will hopefully update soon!
Cheers for reading, James

Thanks James Glad we got to the bottom of it as I was totally boggled for a bit! Car looks like a lovely example.

 

[mintno1]

Congratulations on the MOT pass, always good to get it done every year, shame yours is so close to Christmas, never the best time of year :up:

 

[Jamess182]

That's great, got there in the end!!

Thanks James :smile: Glad we got to the bottom of it as I was totally boggled for a bit! Car looks like a lovely example.

Congratulations on the MOT pass, always good to get it done every year, shame yours is so close to Christmas, never the best time of year :up:

Thanks guys, now I can focus on some modifications, soon enough!

Definite requirements...

-Stealth Exhaust
-Rear ARB
-Powerflex front ARB bushes

 

[Jamess182]

Finally got to show the Cup some love this morning. First time it's been cleaned in about a month, forgot just how good this colour is!
Nice before and after :smile:

 

[Jamess182]

Couple of quick jobs done this morning.
New style RS badge fitted
View attachment 1351966

Picked up some Alpines for £20 off eBay, 2 minutes to fit and a great improvement over standard speakers. Should have done this months ago.

 

[mintno1]

Couple of quick jobs done this morning.
New style RS badge fitted
View attachment 1351966View attachment 1351967

Picked up some Alpines for £20 off eBay, 2 minutes to fit and a great improvement over standard speakers. Should have done this months ago.
View attachment 1351969

Looks good, what model are the speakers? Anything else needed to fit them? Have been looking at speakers just couldn't decide which to go for

 

[Jamess182]

Looks good, what model are the speakers? Anything else needed to fit them? Have been looking at speakers just couldn't decide which to go for

SXE-1325S
Straight fit, plug and play, literally took 2 minutes to do both sides. £30 brand new off Amazon, not a huge difference, but for that price you can't go wrong really! Thinking off sound deadening some of the car now, especially the rear just to lose some road noise.

 

[mintno1]

SXE-1325S
Straight fit, plug and play, literally took 2 minutes to do both sides. £30 brand new off Amazon, not a huge difference, but for that price you can't go wrong really! Thinking off sound deadening some of the car now, especially the rear just to lose some road noise.

Much appreciated, will have a look at them, have you got full interior in the rear still?

 

[Jamess182]

Much appreciated, will have a look at them, have you got full interior in the rear still?

Nah stripped rear, got a full boot carpet which helps though.

 

[182_steve]

That's a great upgrade doing the speakers and they sound a good buy for that money! Anything over standard is an improvement but in the standard positions and oem is the way :up:

I went with Audison 225w components (with separate tweeters) in the front of mine and then just Hertz Hi-Energy 140w co-axials in the back. Sounds good! Got a Skinz kit in both doors tho, sound proofing which I thought 'why not!' 😂

 

[Jamess182]

That's a great upgrade doing the speakers and they sound a good buy for that money! Anything over standard is an improvement but in the standard positions and oem is the way :up:

I went with Audison 225w components (with separate tweeters) in the front of mine and then just Hertz Hi-Energy 140w co-axials in the back. Sounds good! Got a Skinz kit in both doors tho, sound proofing which I thought 'why not!' 😂

Yep I was looking for some that would just plug in didn't require any modification, happy with the results!
Does the sound deadening make much of a difference, and is it heavy?
Wow Audison is pretty expensive stuff. But with car audio, I guess you get what you pay for!

 

[182_steve]

I'm not sure if it does make that much difference to be honest! I mean the audio sounds great and it wasn't a massive ££ extra compared to the cost of the system to have done so i'm still glad I got it done

 

[Jamess182]

Haven't had a much of a chance to work on the Clio, or even drive it much recently, hence the lack of uploads.
Got to take it out for a quick blast this morning in the rain and took a few photos to keep the thread updated.

 

[Jamess182]

Few hours polishing, worth the result!
Not bad for a daily on 93,000 miles 😌

 

[dann2707]

That looks fantastic mate

 

[182_steve]

Yes that looks really nice!!!

 

[oVerboost.]

Good work, lovely looking example. [emoji41]

 

[NaplesValver]

Love a good 172 Cup. I genuinely think the value of good ones is only gonna go one way in the future [emoji1312]


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[Photomattbrown]

Few hours polishing, worth the result!
Not bad for a daily on 93,000 miles 😌
View attachment 1356762
View attachment 1356763

Looking good, nice to see another Cup in Derby.

 

[Jamess182]

Love a good 172 Cup. I genuinely think the value of good ones is only gonna go one way in the future [emoji1312]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looking good, nice to see another Cup in Derby.

Thanks guys, this one will likely be up for sale before summer for somebody else to enjoy and hopefully see the value appreciate!

 

[donnylad]

looks great, what paint did you use on the calipers?

 

[Jamess182]

looks great, what paint did you use on the calipers?

Cheers. E-Tech paint, on eBay bud.

 

[Jamess182]

Couple of updates to keep the thread going.

Took probably my favourite ever photo of the Cup not long ago. Forgot to add it to here.

This one's from a while ago, @dann2707 & @Coops Mk1 bleeding the brakes whilst I...erm..

@dann2707 also came around last week to help replace the the rear Stub Axle which had somehow bent, knackering the bearing and causing the disc to sit at a slight angle, causing the rear pads to bind every time it rained. Cheers dude!

Took the Cup out to Carsington Water near Matlock for a blast with my friend and his M135i. Damn that's a stupidly quick car, left me for dead down the straights (3.0L Twin Turbo, not surprising haha) but the Clio held it's own when it came to the twisties. Hopefully the link below works.



Took me a while, but finally realised the tinted yellow fogs looked properly tacky, so off that came. Cleans up the front.

Finally, fitted some brand new genuine Cup shocks this morning, to replace the V-maxx ones. No photos as it was miserable weather!
The O/S V-Maxx shock was knocking terribly, despite no signs of leakage. They're only a year old so that's slightly disappointing. Thankfully the new shocks have sorted the issue. The car's actually riding better than ever before now!

A couple more photos...

That's all for now, thanks for reading!!
James

 

[Photomattbrown]

Looking good @James172C. Out of interest where did you get your rear stub axle from, I need one too.

 

[Jamess182]

Looking good @James172C. Out of interest where did you get your rear stub axle from, I need one too.

Thanks mate,
Renault wanted £240 or something crazy for a new Stub Axle, ended up buying a used one from a member on here

 

[dann2707]

No worries dude.
Those bmws are not twin turbo though

 

[Jamess182]

No worries dude.
Those bmws are not twin turbo though :wink:

ffs, won't even let me change it now 😢

 

[Akay]

Looking good mate!

 

[Jamess182]

Looking good mate!

Cheers bud !

 

[iyrix]

very nice, do like the plate!

 

[182_steve]

Does look very smart as always!

 

[Jamess182]

very nice, do like the plate!

I hate it, it looks like I wanted a private plate but couldn't afford CUP, so had to settle for CVP haha

Does look very smart as always!

Thanks bud.

 

[Jamess182]

Finally happy with how this thing rides and drives. At long last I've eliminated all knocking and rattling noises by installing the new rear dampers and lowering the exhaust down a few mm using a couple of washers. Went out for a drive on Wednesday with my mate and his new toy.

They're quite evenly matched to be fair!

With the sun shining yesterday, and not too much else to do on the car, I got around to sorting out the 'sticky' door handles which are a common problem it seems these days. A bottle of oven cleaner spray, a couple of scouring pads, some plastic trim renovator and a bit of elbow grease later...

Now completely smooth and shiny, makes quite a difference! Happy days.


Fast forward to yesterday evening, I thought I'd take a steady cruise to the pub in the Clio and enjoy the sunny evening... but no.
I was greeted with a misfire about 10 seconds after pulling off. Basically no power and struggling to idle. Plugged in the diagnostic reader and as expected, injector 4 is apparently knackered. Confirmed this by removing said injector and restarting the engine, no change to the idle, so therefore proving injector 4 is the culprit.

Absolutely pissed off considering I'd spent all day cleaning and polishing some stupid door handles just for this too happen, What a joke!

Ordered a new one from ECP with same day delivery, so will update later tonight as long as it arrives on time!

 

[Jamess182]

All fixed! New injector did the job.Nice and easy in the end, just a pain in the arse and another £40 into the endless money pit that is my Clio.

 

[182_steve]

So annoying when these things happen!! But you sorted it quickly and simply by the sound of it :up:

Door handles have come up well!!

 

[dann2707]

Glad you've sorted it mate but you've got to remember the car is what, 16 years old. For it to have just a very simple issue of am injector going is a hugely small inconvenience. Other cars this age have horrendous issues in comparison, rust being one of them so I don't think it's too bad at all.

Nice to see you at the pub the other day, I was so so tempted to grab your chair back from beneath you hahaha.