My Clio 172 PH1 Daily Progress Thread

[ben_r1]

Well its about time i introduced the latest addition to the fleet, i've been a little lazy as i've owned this for 2 months now but i'll start from the beginning.

So after 2 loyal years of ownership my little runabout had expired its welcome with me. I was bored of it, hated driving such a slow car ( dangerous at times ) and it did little for my street cred. It just so happened the wifes old man had just blown his van up and was desperate for a replacement, so i kindly gave this away for nothing. Ignore the wife posing, she tries to jump in every photo!

For the replacement i was initially looking at either a 206 GTI 180 or even a Laguna 1.8. Then this came up on Cliosport for a reasonable price, viewed it that weekend and fell in love with it at first sight, tried to haggle the owner down but he wasnt having any of it and rightly so as i think it was under sold anyway. £1700 later she was finally mine.

There she is again haha,

Spec when purchased:
2000 W Reg Titanium silver RenaultSport clio 172, 83,000 miles ( Alloy bonnet/shift light model )
Bilstein B14 coilovers
KTR solid top mounts
KTR stealth exhaust system
RS tuning module remap

The first weekend i had ownership she was up the ramp at work for a good old inspection. To my suprise for a sub 2k, 12 year old RenaultSport it wasn't a dog! I was genuinely suprised how little was wrong with it. Anyway with all that in mind every car has bad points and the list of work involves:

1) Stealth exhaust needed repositioning, it was not stealth! someone at work asked if it was a diesel car. It was also knocking on the rear beam due to poor fitting.
2) Oil was clean but half a litre overfilled, also had a cheap filter on. All in all a bloody good reason for some fresh slippery stuff.
3) Rear pads worn, may aswell fit new discs at the time
4) Front wheel bearing rumbling
5) Throttle occassionally got sticky, common fault with ph1s
6) Those fancy Bilstein coilovers have worn out already on the front, common issue. Will be either rebuilt or replaced with different brand.
7) Many other little niggles that need to be tidied up ( Decent mats, fresh wheelnuts, engine cover was missing etc ).

Anyway thats it for now, next update coming immediately! Thanks for reading my essay.

 

[ben_r1]

Right first update. Collected a few parts for a good service and refresh, these include:

Motul 300V 5w-40 oil, this was in storage at mine for the 197s next oil change but im sure she wont mind

Brembo HC front discs, genuine renault rear discs and CL RC5+ pads all round. Reason for choosing this pad? Use them in the 197 and the cold bite, fadeless performance, pedal feel and overall stopping power are untouchable with any other pad i've tried.

Powerflex front lower arm and ARB poly bush kit, along with new lower balljoints for a suspension refresh.

Genuine RS 182 mats, very flash.

Demon Tweeks heatshield to replace crappy old bulkhead mat. IMO easiest way to tidy up the bay. Also picked up a mint engine cover from eBay.
182 silver metal interior door handles, originals had cracked.

Front wheel bearings.

Genuine spark plugs with fresh inlet manifold gaskets and lots of silver VHT paint for under the bonnet.

ITG panel filter and genuine pollen filter/fuel filter.

Prima racing uprated exhaust mount.

New Toyo T1R tyres fitted on all four corners.

Anyway down to work:

Unknown brand of oil removed:

In with some stuff i can trust, only the best for my ph1:

Quality filter, i hate using cheap filters:

Genuine discs and CL pads fitted all round:

VVT controller seal was also seeping, i hate a messy bay so had to be sorted:

The old exhaust mount had seen better days, nice effort from previous owner though! Replaced with Prima racing mount now:

Stealth exhaust twisted round and fiddled with to actually hide it, also doesnt knock on rear beam anymore, result!:
Before:

After:

Sticky throttle had become worse over the past month. I tried multiple 'cheap fixes' but they were all only temp bodges, so bit the bullet and bought a new TB, potentiometer and cable from renault at honour of £350 ouch:

Also managed to fit the new engine cover and heatshield on the bulkhead. Gave it a little scrub up under there too. The original airbox was missing 2 clips and i didnt like the 2 way riveted inlet, looked messy. Had an old JMS V6 airbox in the garage so whacked that on to tidy it up with the ITG panel filter inside.

Next plans are to sort the worn coilovers out, they make a very annoying noise on lock and over bumps. Also looking at taking it on a trackday next month so possible preps for that.

Thanks.

 

[dmallett]

Looks very tidy! Loose the stickers on the boot though...

 

[Wick]

I viewed this one ages ago Ben! Not a bad price you paid in the end IMO, as you've pointed out it was a bit rough around the edges though and needed some work.

 

[ben_r1]

Stickers are all gone, was a before shot. Had to keep the ph-quick ones though, luv em

Yeah it does need tidying up here and there and it'll be a minter. Mechanically now it's nearly spot on, after that I'll start getting stone chips and dents repaired and finally a decent set of wheels.

I won't be going mad though, it's still 'only a daily'.

 

[imprezaworks]

Nice car mate. What do you think of the c/l pads? Im looking at getting some for 182.

 

[ben_r1]

I absolutely luv the RC5+ pads, have them in all my motors regardless of track use or not. On track they are strong, fadeless and have excellent pedal feel and moderation. I'm yet to abuse them past their capabilities lol.

On road they have excellent cold bite although on cold mornings the do require a little more pressure to slow down, nothing as bad as EBC Redstuff though! They arent as responsive as road based pads but more than accecptable performance for safety. Once you start to press on you can physically feel the brakes biting harder and harder as they heat up, the middle pedal can become quite aggressive.

Bad points:
1) squeal at low speed/light applications ( queuing traffic ). RC5 arent too bad compared to RC6 though!
2) the brake dust is unreal, I've heard people say on here the RC5 don't dust alot!? What am I doing wrong then cos my wheels ge coated in coppery dust inches thick in a matter of miles, shocking.
3) in the 172 they tend to overload the abs quite abit, in the 197 I don't suffer this problem.

All in all? Try a set you won't be disappointed

 

[imprezaworks]

Apart from point two I was looking forward to trying them lol. Ordered them now with brembo discs so will see how I get on. Wonder why you are getting alot of dust though as like you I thought they wouldnt be too bad

 

[ben_r1]

Another added bonus no bedding in lol, just fit and go racing

 

[ben_r1]

Update 2.

Just a quick addition to the thread. Engine bay tidiness is a biggy for me so thats where most my efforts will go. So far its just the airbox swap, engine cover and heat shield fitted. Future plans include alloy header tank, black silicone coolant hose kit, powercoated inlet, VibraTechnics engine mounts and a bloody good scrub up.

When purchased:

As it stands:

Whilst we're on the subject of ph1 clios, WTF is up with those cats lmao? Somethings gotta be done about that!

Cheeky firm fave shot aswell, cant beat the front end of the ph1:

 

[Daniel]

That bay looks superb!!

Can't beat clean and standard.

 

[ben_r1]

That bay looks superb!!

Can't beat clean and standard.

Thanks mate thats what im going for. It'll be even better once the black hoses and catch tank are on lol.

 

[domjolly]

f**k me how have you managed to get your exhaust that high up i have tried and tried and tried

 

[brownyboy]

2 of my mates previously, cracking little car

 

[BBC-Jan]

+1

 

[ben_r1]

Right been a while since the last update, too busy using it and enjoying it!
Since the last aux belt disaster when i disabled my own car i decided for ease of fitting and future work to bin the air con and hopefully gain a few bhp and tidy up the bay. So i bought one of these from Pure motorsport:

The new setup will look like this, all pulleys replaced with lighter versions, the alternator is re located as low as possible and also fitted with a bigger pulley for less rpm ( less drain on engine when charging battery ):

So out with the heavy and useless ( well for this time of the year ) A/C equipment:

And in with the new setup:

Crank pulley requires locking the engine up and then checking timing afterwards to ensure timing wasnt disturbed:

Used the opportunity to refresh the manifold gaskets and other related seals and fixings:

Verdict:
Can't really feel any more 'revviness' in the engine which is dissapointing as the pulleys felt significantly lighter than the originals. I also had a lot of trouble correctly tensioning the belt up, at one end the belt slipped with heavy steering inputs and on the other end it was piano string tight and hummed when driven. In the end i accepted some slip on full lock and even then it still whines a little bit at high rpm and when rolling down from 6k+. Anyone else with this kit noticed this?

Next update will include this parcel i picked up last week :

Thanks for reading...

 

[Daniel]

This thread should be renamed: The million pound Clio!

Looking good mate, keep it up.

 

[ben_r1]

This thread should be renamed: The million pound Clio!

Looking good mate, keep it up.

I was thinking TDF ITBs, V3 Kws, Quaife diff, R888s, Wilwood 4 pots lol. Then the misses caught me and set me straight

 

[Silent_Scone]

You should notice it being a bit more free to rev really. Also the twin barrel cats are fine even though they look pants lol. You won't gain anything by removing it

Great spec for the money, nice find!

 

[yeecup]

id be dissappointed too if id spend that money on the pms aircon delete kit and didnt notice any real difference. cheap cup set up would of been a better option imo. looking good though.

 

[ben_r1]

Is there such thing as a 'cheap' cup setup lol? Ktec wanted £400! Perhaps I'll notice it more when I give it some beans around track anyone recommend PAS delete ?

 

[Daniel]

PAS and aircon delete cost me £12. £7 for a Renault 11 alternator bracket and £5 for a belt.

Its a lot cheaper than just deleting Aircon!

 

[ben_r1]

I've driven a few non pas track cars on the road and they didnt bother me to be honest but the ph1s my daily and i dot know if i'd regret it or not. Is annoying on a cold morning with full lock off the drive it either squeals or bogs the engine down...

 

[Silent_Scone]

Don't remove the PAS dude. Especially if it's a daily. Dan's is a mk1

 

[yeecup]

pms do a cheap set up which is basically the bracket to remount the alternator, its on the website. i picked up a cup set up from ebay they were breaking a cup got all the bits including the alternator for £70, ended up selling it on without fitting it for a nice profit. anyway your car is looking good anymore updates?

 

[ben_r1]

Kws are fited courtesy of AmD Essex who did a fantastic job. Wouldn have fitted them myself but i rarely try to work on myown motors, always a ball ache.

I'd post pics but it kinda look the same as it was on Bilsteins anyway lol. Getting them sent off for refurb and then refitted to Vickys cars to replace the cheap ones.

 

[ben_r1]

Right here we go anyway, took it down to AmD Essex Wednesday for coilovers to be fitted, the Bilsteins were knocking so bad i thought they were gonna snap! So ride height was raised a little bit, fed up of catching the bumper on speed bumps and ripping the cat off on pot holes! Also makes it look a little more OEM.

So out with the old worn crap:

On with the new Kws:

 

[ben_r1]

 

[Rob]

I'm not sure how I've missed this up until now, but very nice job. You don't half throw a lot of money at cars though, some commitment! (Especially given you have other people fit things!)

Love the side skirt stickers, really old CS feel to those and you got a decent fitting front bumper (rare!).

Don't remove PAS, it's really not worth it in the ph2's, well not a daily anyway.

Man I miss my ph1 (sort of).

One last thing, get some wet and dry and a machine polisher on those headlights, seriously it'll make the front end look years newer.

 

[Toby]

Some awesome work in this thread.

Wish I was capable of doing all this stuff myself. Credit to you my friend, makes my urge for a PH1 even stronger.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Going all out on this one!

Although B14s > KWs

Should of got them refurbed, would of saved you a penny too.

 

[ben_r1]

Going all out on this one!

Although B14s > KWs

Should of got them refurbed, would of saved you a penny too.

I thought the B14s were far too stiff for daily use. The KW V1s are softer but more comfortable plus the Bilsteins are being rebuilt and put on vickys car to replace her knackered ktecs.

Only reason i got AmD to fit them rather than myself was it needed tracking after anyway and they have the correct gear to adjust the camber correctly. So easier to just leave the whole lot to them and pop to the cinema

 

[Silent_Scone]

Fair enough, would be a waSte to throw them out!

 

[ben_r1]

Car seems to have sunk a little on new coilovers now, looks much lower than in the pics

Went over to france for the weekend and it performed faultlessly and was a joy to tour with!

 

[GeorgeH]

That is lovely, proper nice ph1. I'd have one even more so after seeing this...just can't get past the dash..

 

[ben_r1]

That is lovely, proper nice ph1. I'd have one even more so after seeing this...just can't get past the dash..

Call me biast but i quite like the dash, possibly even prefere it...

Simple and functional works nicely in a dash.

A few updates coming soon, Cup spoiler arrived this evening and hopefully off for painting early December

 

[alex-avfc]

I agree Ben, better dials, better gearknob and no floppy glovebox like on PH2's, PH1 interior is cool.

 

[hsustyle]

Looking good. Had a few plays with it back in the day. Plenty of car for the money

 

[.GAZ.]

Love it!

 

[ben_r1]

Only one small update today, things have been going smooth. Used everyday for commuting and is yet to miss a beat

Got some new door badges off eBay to replace the yellow painted ones, this is the beginning of operation de-yellow! ( after much debate amongst friends i've decided im not a fan ).

Cant take pictures of car as its too dark

Also repaced front diamond and rear 'Renault Sport' and 'Clio' badges which were painted were with OEM standard chrome