Mr Trailer Man
ClioSport Club Member
Don't forget to remove the hub insert from the track rod end before you bin them 😅
ClioSport.net
Register a free account today to become a member!
Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
-
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Read more here.
Paul’s Pearl
- Thread starter Clio_fool
- Start date
RSRowe
ClioSport Club Member
Megane 250 Cup
First thing I thought when I saw the pic
Mr Trailer Man
ClioSport Club Member
First thing I thought when I saw the pic
Easily done, see it all the time on Facebook posts.
Finally it was time to start putting it all back together and all the pics I took while dismantling it became priceless. New parts fitted:
Genuine Renault bottom arms.
Genuine Renault tie rods.
Trw track rod ends.
SNR wheel bearings.
New wheel hubs.
BC Racing BR coilovers including new arb links.
Ocap swivel hub bearings.
Plus line ac condenser with Renault seals.
Some very expensive Renault nuts.
New radiator support.
Used nearside headlamp.
Service kit from RPD.
Putting it all back together was pretty straightforward but still had a few hiccups.
Ta-da! Suspension all refitted.
Obviously the discs needed a quick de rust with a wire wheel and the arches and other parts you never see got a bit of a clean. Looks easy but what went wrong?...
Genuine Renault bottom arms.
Genuine Renault tie rods.
Trw track rod ends.
SNR wheel bearings.
New wheel hubs.
BC Racing BR coilovers including new arb links.
Ocap swivel hub bearings.
Plus line ac condenser with Renault seals.
Some very expensive Renault nuts.
New radiator support.
Used nearside headlamp.
Service kit from RPD.
Putting it all back together was pretty straightforward but still had a few hiccups.
Ta-da! Suspension all refitted.
Obviously the discs needed a quick de rust with a wire wheel and the arches and other parts you never see got a bit of a clean. Looks easy but what went wrong?...
Well the brake pipe bracket didn't want to fit on the top of the hub again 🤔. Why could that be?
Well there the pipe runs between the damper and the arb droplink.
And there it doesn't 🤦. A bit of faffing and I managed to remove the droplink and replace it with the brake pipe where it should be.
The headlamp wasn't a straight swap. The new one:
And the old one:
Looks broken but it's actually trimmed so the bumper fits because apparently they are different to a regular mk3 bumper fitment. It worked out easier to remove that bottom part and swap them over then the new headlight bolted on nice and secure with all the fixing points intact.
After a panicked search I located the screws for the ac condenser and fitted that along with the new rad support. I dropped on Wheeler Motor sport doing a run of their aluminum supports on Facebook so I won't have to worry about that rusting away before Xmas.
All the air ducts refitted and new push clips that I didn't know I had holding it together. Just had to remove the last of the old rusty rad support.
The old bolts just broke part of the support off and stayed on the bumper under lip. Ridiculously they both unscrewed easily and the bumper was finally back on the car and. After nearly 7 months the car was back sat on all four wheels.
Briefly 😆...
Well there the pipe runs between the damper and the arb droplink.
And there it doesn't 🤦. A bit of faffing and I managed to remove the droplink and replace it with the brake pipe where it should be.
The headlamp wasn't a straight swap. The new one:
Looks broken but it's actually trimmed so the bumper fits because apparently they are different to a regular mk3 bumper fitment. It worked out easier to remove that bottom part and swap them over then the new headlight bolted on nice and secure with all the fixing points intact.
After a panicked search I located the screws for the ac condenser and fitted that along with the new rad support. I dropped on Wheeler Motor sport doing a run of their aluminum supports on Facebook so I won't have to worry about that rusting away before Xmas.
All the air ducts refitted and new push clips that I didn't know I had holding it together. Just had to remove the last of the old rusty rad support.
The old bolts just broke part of the support off and stayed on the bumper under lip. Ridiculously they both unscrewed easily and the bumper was finally back on the car and. After nearly 7 months the car was back sat on all four wheels.
Briefly 😆...
Onto the rear end to fit the BC kit. That meant turning the car around because the garage is a bit full at the back. It was a lovely sunny day and I was tempted to just jack it up on the drive but that would definitely have attracted rain.
Ah that made seeing the garage a bit tricky. If only I could find that bloody cat I'd use it as a rag. Best clean the windscreen then.
Oh the wipers are somewhere in the garage 🙄. Got it in there safe and sound and set about jacking it up using the rear beam 🫣😆.
Unbelievably the most time consuming part of the whole rear end was removing the bloody diffuser and it wasn't anything to do with these rusty nuts!
They came off easy but the clips into then bumper are a real pain to get out.
With the diffuser off it's time to take a brave pill and have a look at what lies below (or above?).
The floor doesn't look bad at all but the exhaust hanger brackets and the diffuser brackets are really crusty.
Anyway onto the job at hand. I never got around to buying new rear dampers. When I swapped the front ones the rear non cup dampers were out of stock and I didn't want to stick with the stiffer cup setup. Ironic that I did in the end by not changing them 😂. I'm not sure they had much life left in them.
They compressed really easily but rebound was very slow. The eibach springs are still in great condition which is nice but the rear beam is as crusty as any 182's beam. Nice work Renault 😆. The spring platforms had to be cleaned up and given a lick of paint because I just couldn't fit new springs into that mess!
No pic of it painted unfortunately but a rear beam refresh is certainly going to have to be a future job...
Ah that made seeing the garage a bit tricky. If only I could find that bloody cat I'd use it as a rag. Best clean the windscreen then.
Oh the wipers are somewhere in the garage 🙄. Got it in there safe and sound and set about jacking it up using the rear beam 🫣😆.
Unbelievably the most time consuming part of the whole rear end was removing the bloody diffuser and it wasn't anything to do with these rusty nuts!
They came off easy but the clips into then bumper are a real pain to get out.
With the diffuser off it's time to take a brave pill and have a look at what lies below (or above?).
The floor doesn't look bad at all but the exhaust hanger brackets and the diffuser brackets are really crusty.
Anyway onto the job at hand. I never got around to buying new rear dampers. When I swapped the front ones the rear non cup dampers were out of stock and I didn't want to stick with the stiffer cup setup. Ironic that I did in the end by not changing them 😂. I'm not sure they had much life left in them.
They compressed really easily but rebound was very slow. The eibach springs are still in great condition which is nice but the rear beam is as crusty as any 182's beam. Nice work Renault 😆. The spring platforms had to be cleaned up and given a lick of paint because I just couldn't fit new springs into that mess!
No pic of it painted unfortunately but a rear beam refresh is certainly going to have to be a future job...
I had a good look around online for new top bushes but finding a pair was impossible and I done want to fit poly bushes anywhere really. A couple of bolts and the rear springs and dampers are done.
Diffuser needed a good clean while it was off too.
The rear discs are like new thankfully.
Just not in appearance 🤣. I gave them a pre mot brush up before putting the car back on all four for the final time.
With the M2 pissing it's pants the clio needed to be MOT'd ASAP and I was fearful that it would miserably fail on the emissions. Turns out finding a friendly MOT man is hard work these days so I took a chance and rang the nearest garage who had a cancellation the next day. Yay!
I didn't get much sleep at work that night but I was confident that apart from the emissions it wouldn't be too bad.
😭😭😭 Bolloks.
Diffuser needed a good clean while it was off too.
The rear discs are like new thankfully.
Just not in appearance 🤣. I gave them a pre mot brush up before putting the car back on all four for the final time.
With the M2 pissing it's pants the clio needed to be MOT'd ASAP and I was fearful that it would miserably fail on the emissions. Turns out finding a friendly MOT man is hard work these days so I took a chance and rang the nearest garage who had a cancellation the next day. Yay!
I didn't get much sleep at work that night but I was confident that apart from the emissions it wouldn't be too bad.
😭😭😭 Bolloks.
Well it didn't fail on the emissions which was a shock. I even asked him 3 times while he was going through what it did fail on 🤣. But let's rewind a little bit. I dropped the car off at 8:30 and told the guy what I'd done to it and that it had been parked up for 18 months and asked that they made sure it was fully upto temp before testing the emissions and asked they didn't ring me before 2pm as I was going to bed. I woke up at 13:20 and while browsing on my phone they rang. It was 13:35. "Hello Paul we've tested the clio, could you come down while it's still on the ramp?" isn't what you want to hear. So half an hour later i meet the other guy who did the mot test and he says to me "do you work for vosa?". Pardon me? "I thought it was a vosa set up car because they deliberately loosen something to see if we check properly, or it was a piss take". Oh 😳.
I know some of you have run the reg to see what went wrong, well that doesn't work because I bought a personalised reg for it which I'll share later. So digest this for a moment!
First up @Mr Trailer Man yes I did forget about the bloody bushes and as soon as the mot man said the track rod ends had loads of play I knew why😂. So that's that one easily fixed.
The steering rack play he said he couldn't tell if the rack had play or not because of the rod ends 🙄. Steering wheel uj excessive play meant I had to stand on my head and overtighten the bloody thing in the foot well. Sorted. Sidelight bulb not working in the new headlamp, it bloody was when I fitted it! And the headlamp aim he said was the bulb isn't fitted right, so a couple more easy ones. Brake hoses twisted? He reckons they should be the other side of the arb droplink but they don't fit like that and they are correct as they are. My spare tyre is a 215 and the others are 225. I inflated the missing one and it lost half the pressure overnight. It'll do for the retest then. Lower suspension locking device missing a nut? It doesn't need one as the knuckle is threaded, but the other side is the one I had to drill out so it's got a nut and bolt through 🙄. Just put a nut on it he said because there thread exposed to be able to do so. Abs wires were zip tied on the tre's as I had painted the brackets and didn't have time to fit them for the test. Number plate bulbs can f**k off. The tyres and exhaust are getting swapped anyway and he said if I want a clean pass I should wipe the oil off the gearbox, to which I replied if it doesn't leak gearbox oil it's not a clio 😂.
So although it looks horrific it's really not that bad and shouldn't be hard to sort out. Should it?...
I know some of you have run the reg to see what went wrong, well that doesn't work because I bought a personalised reg for it which I'll share later. So digest this for a moment!
First up @Mr Trailer Man yes I did forget about the bloody bushes and as soon as the mot man said the track rod ends had loads of play I knew why😂. So that's that one easily fixed.
The steering rack play he said he couldn't tell if the rack had play or not because of the rod ends 🙄. Steering wheel uj excessive play meant I had to stand on my head and overtighten the bloody thing in the foot well. Sorted. Sidelight bulb not working in the new headlamp, it bloody was when I fitted it! And the headlamp aim he said was the bulb isn't fitted right, so a couple more easy ones. Brake hoses twisted? He reckons they should be the other side of the arb droplink but they don't fit like that and they are correct as they are. My spare tyre is a 215 and the others are 225. I inflated the missing one and it lost half the pressure overnight. It'll do for the retest then. Lower suspension locking device missing a nut? It doesn't need one as the knuckle is threaded, but the other side is the one I had to drill out so it's got a nut and bolt through 🙄. Just put a nut on it he said because there thread exposed to be able to do so. Abs wires were zip tied on the tre's as I had painted the brackets and didn't have time to fit them for the test. Number plate bulbs can f**k off. The tyres and exhaust are getting swapped anyway and he said if I want a clean pass I should wipe the oil off the gearbox, to which I replied if it doesn't leak gearbox oil it's not a clio 😂.
So although it looks horrific it's really not that bad and shouldn't be hard to sort out. Should it?...
Mr Trailer Man
ClioSport Club Member
Quite a list that 😂
I only thought it would need help with the emissions, all that s**t is easily fixed.
With the M2 booked into the garage on the Friday I set about sorting the clio on Thursday. Simple job, undo the tre and fit the bush then remember to put the abs wire bracket on and tighten the tre up again. Right?
Well that's not what was supposed to happem. Stupid f**king chinesuim shyte just spun the Allen key and fucked any hope of an easy job. There would be no way of getting it back on tight if I could get it off in one piece so out came the quick removal tool.
And we have a dead brand new track rod end. Fantastic. Unfortunately the only place that listed them as in stock nearby was ECP. But only one side and obviously not the side I desperately needed. Even more annoying was that I'd put the car in the garage off centre thinking I'd quickly do one side and then move it over and it the other so I had a bit more space to move which meant I couldn't even do the other side as I can't move the car🤦. Soa pair tre's ordered for collection Friday at ECP. Friday was a busy day, gym then go drop the M2 off and then wait far too long for the gf to pick me up and take me to ECP. Quick look at the parts as we all know half the time the parts they say fit don't and they look OK. Get home, shag, eat, see her off and then set to work on the car. That's when it turns out the new parts aren't the right parts. And I've got no way of exchanging them that day. What a farce. Shut the garage and ignore it all. Saturday I have to summon my daughter to taxi me to ECP where I take one of the old tre's for comparison and after checking it turns out they don't have one that's the same in stock and I cba ordering from them and risking more delays with parts that are wrong. So I go home and scour the Internet again hoping to find somewhere trustworthy to supply the right part. Kam we're out of stock of the side I'd killed, RPD didn't have them on the website at all and waiting for an email enquiry to be answered was time I don't have, and then a ray of light shines through. Don't let me down lads @FrogJam Motorsport!
With that fiasco on hold I set about sorting some of the other little issues. I de rusted the brake disc I had access to. I pumped up the tyre thats gone flat again and then I searched for the spare bulbs I know I have for the number plate light.
f**k right off 😡. I'll order two new ones then as I've now got one with a super bright led and one with a f**king candle in and the broken cover is glued on. I'm not touching the other one as it will probably fall apart too.
Thats the tail of woe upto date. I'm sat waiting for the tre's to arrive so I can finish off the list and get it back in for retest before my 10 days are up.
Well that's not what was supposed to happem. Stupid f**king chinesuim shyte just spun the Allen key and fucked any hope of an easy job. There would be no way of getting it back on tight if I could get it off in one piece so out came the quick removal tool.
And we have a dead brand new track rod end. Fantastic. Unfortunately the only place that listed them as in stock nearby was ECP. But only one side and obviously not the side I desperately needed. Even more annoying was that I'd put the car in the garage off centre thinking I'd quickly do one side and then move it over and it the other so I had a bit more space to move which meant I couldn't even do the other side as I can't move the car🤦. Soa pair tre's ordered for collection Friday at ECP. Friday was a busy day, gym then go drop the M2 off and then wait far too long for the gf to pick me up and take me to ECP. Quick look at the parts as we all know half the time the parts they say fit don't and they look OK. Get home, shag, eat, see her off and then set to work on the car. That's when it turns out the new parts aren't the right parts. And I've got no way of exchanging them that day. What a farce. Shut the garage and ignore it all. Saturday I have to summon my daughter to taxi me to ECP where I take one of the old tre's for comparison and after checking it turns out they don't have one that's the same in stock and I cba ordering from them and risking more delays with parts that are wrong. So I go home and scour the Internet again hoping to find somewhere trustworthy to supply the right part. Kam we're out of stock of the side I'd killed, RPD didn't have them on the website at all and waiting for an email enquiry to be answered was time I don't have, and then a ray of light shines through. Don't let me down lads @FrogJam Motorsport!
With that fiasco on hold I set about sorting some of the other little issues. I de rusted the brake disc I had access to. I pumped up the tyre thats gone flat again and then I searched for the spare bulbs I know I have for the number plate light.
f**k right off 😡. I'll order two new ones then as I've now got one with a super bright led and one with a f**king candle in and the broken cover is glued on. I'm not touching the other one as it will probably fall apart too.
Thats the tail of woe upto date. I'm sat waiting for the tre's to arrive so I can finish off the list and get it back in for retest before my 10 days are up.
Mr Trailer Man
ClioSport Club Member
Do you have an impact gun?
Won't need to counter hold the TRE thread with an Allen if you have a gun to buzz them off. If they spin just stick a jack under the bottom of the ball joint and add some preload.
Won't need to counter hold the TRE thread with an Allen if you have a gun to buzz them off. If they spin just stick a jack under the bottom of the ball joint and add some preload.
Mr Trailer Man
ClioSport Club Member
Try the jack trick next time, enough load on it that it's almost picking the car up and it usually does the job.
Well I can't see the other side going any easier so I'll remember that 👍.
Mr Trailer Man
ClioSport Club Member
If it doesn't work, just swear at it more 😂
Silver lining and all that 😂.
Now where did I put those bushes 🤔😂. Kidding I'd put them safe and sound in my toolbox. I even remembered to put the abs wire brackets back on too and while looking through my photos to see which way they went I realised I'd actually fitted the tre's on the wrong sides 🤦. Well that's assuming they were correct in the first place. Anyway it's back on all fours now.
MOT retest booked for Friday so I need to crack on and sort the other side. And the headlamp bulb and the rusty discs and the tyre that's flat again and then persuade him that the brake pipes are correct and the exhaust isn't blowing anymore 💷😉.
MOT retest booked for Friday so I need to crack on and sort the other side. And the headlamp bulb and the rusty discs and the tyre that's flat again and then persuade him that the brake pipes are correct and the exhaust isn't blowing anymore 💷😉.
Mr Trailer Man
ClioSport Club Member
Tell the tester to stop being a dickhead and use his brain.
You have them routed correctly.
This is factory location.
You have them routed correctly.
This is factory location.
I told him they didn't fit the way he suggested and that they aren't against any moving parts so won't rub as he said.
Mr Trailer Man
ClioSport Club Member
He's probably not used to the swivel hub setup.
He'll soon see for himself if he was to turn the steering.
