Keeper 182 Project

Little while since I have updated but managed to find a perfect condition climate control unit for £20 delivered



All fitted so just need to be careful with the buttons to keep them from getting worse!

Also bought some spacers - 18mm front and 5mm rear which are now fitted








In truth, I think the rear could do with a little more so will probably end up with stub axle spacers at some stage. Am I likely to end up having issues with the rear wheel bearings when removing the discs as these were brand new a year ago..?

I am having some issues with the front arch clearance below on the lip of the bumper. Any tips or is the answer to simply raise the car / live with it?



Also feel like the front could benefit from a tad more camber, currently measured at -2.4 across the front. What's the general consensus on this?
A friend has suggested staying below 3 degrees as at that stage he sees excessive wear. Its purely an aesthetic decision as the car drives really well still..

Going to give it a little love this weekend in anycase as I havent been using much given the lack of air con!

Looks spot on 👍

scash88 said:

Am I likely to end up having issues with the rear wheel bearings when removing the discs as these were brand new a year ago..?

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Assuming the rear discs are genuine Renault, the bearings are built in.

With regards to handling/ride/setup, Renault Sport tuned them so they were Road compliant and progressive when pushing on.

As soon as you start messing with springs, spacers, bushes etc you’re naturally going to be fighting with it, unless you spend on a good set of coilovers and set up everything correctly. Even tyres make huge differences on these cars.

But I guess you’ll already know that having them before.

Mr Underhill said:

Assuming the rear discs are genuine Renault, the bearings are built in.

With regards to handling/ride/setup, Renault Sport tuned them so they were Road compliant and progressive when pushing on.

As soon as you start messing with springs, spacers, bushes etc you’re naturally going to be fighting with it, unless you spend on a good set of coilovers and set up everything correctly. Even tyres make huge differences on these cars.

But I guess you’ll already know that having them before.

Click to expand...

In truth I find my BC’s just as compliant as the OE suspension with Eibach springs but then that may be the slightly softer 5kg & 8kg road bias spring rate I went for…

It’ll be going for another alignment soon in anycase to bring back to spec 👍

Re the bearings I removed a disc off of a spare beam and understand they are pressed into the disc? Had a nightmare many years ago so am keen to avoid any further issues!

scash88 said:

In truth I find my BC’s just as compliant as the OE suspension with Eibach springs but then that may be the slightly softer 5kg & 8kg road bias spring rate I went for…

It’ll be going for another alignment soon in anycase to bring back to spec 👍

Re the bearings I removed a disc off of a spare beam and understand they are pressed into the disc? Had a nightmare many years ago so am keen to avoid any further issues!

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Yeah genuine ones are pressed into the disc. There might be some 3rd party variants like that as well but I’ve only ever fitted genuine on the rear.

Ah my bad reference the coilovers. I wasn’t aware you had BC’s installed. Apologies 😊

Mr Underhill said:

Yeah genuine ones are pressed into the disc. There might be some 3rd party variants like that as well but I’ve only ever fitted genuine on the rear.

Ah my bad reference the coilovers. I wasn’t aware you had BC’s installed. Apologies 😊

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Not to worry! As you rightly said I’m very much down the rabbit hole in making it all work together now though!

Hopefully with all the right bits I can build some compliance into it as my days of crashy setups are long gone!

Looks great. Nice turnaround from how it was.

Something I have wanted to do for a while was to address the driving position and find a decent set of bucket seats
Just so happened that I saw J3_sgy on IG selling his Corbeau Clubsports which are my favourite seats alongside pole positions and had to go for it



To say they are mint would be an understatement so super happy with them & set about replacing the armchairs
Once the front seats were removed I took the opportunity to wet vac the carpets



Glad I did due to the amount of crap that came out of them



With everything smelling fresher I built up the side mounts onto new Jon Foz X Low subframes



And quickly realised I needed to shorten a floor vent in order for them to sit flat in the car



After that it was relatively straightforward and got them both in

https://flic.kr/p/2oMYWog

https://flic.kr/p/2oN13Yu

Massively happy with the new driving position, if anything I'm angry I didn't buy some sooner as now the standard driving position seems unacceptable!

Still a couple of things I need to figure to complete the job
Seatbelt buckles - On the way Thanks John
Resistors for the airbag light / Find someone local with Clip...? Alternatively book in with Alex @ AW Motorworks over winter
Lowering the steering wheel slightly - Does anyone have any links to bolts/spacers they used? Alternatively the Wheeler Motorsport kit..

Thanks for reading

Not sure why the last pics weren't showing

scash88 said:

Seatbelt buckles - On the way Thanks John
Resistors for the airbag light / Find someone local with Clip...? Alternatively book in with Alex @ AW Motorworks over winter
Lowering the steering wheel slightly - Does anyone have any links to bolts/spacers they used? Alternatively the Wheeler Motorsport kit..

Thanks for reading

Click to expand...

They look so cool. @frayz lowered his steering I think?

I got my airbags clipped out.

Has J3_sgy put the originals back in? I follow him but he doesn't post as often as he used to.

Thanks
The steering position isn't awful, but as I'm 5ft8 I could do with the position being lowered by an inch which would be perfect!
J3_sgy has something in the works, I wont ruin anything but its going to be seriously cool

I lowered my steering column (it’s somewhere in my old thread) and it makes a massive difference. Lowered column, small wheel, low subframes, PMS shifter and pole positions really change the driving position for the better. The only thing that frustrates me with the Clio at that point is the pedals are slightly offset as the whole seating position, pedals and wheel are not square.

Don’t call me Dave said:

I lowered my steering column (it’s somewhere in my old thread) and it makes a massive difference. Lowered column, small wheel, low subframes, PMS shifter and pole positions really change the driving position for the better. The only thing that frustrates me with the Clio at that point is the pedals are slightly offset as the whole seating position, pedals and wheel are not square.

Click to expand...

Thanks
I'll have a nose around for some M8 8mm standoffs and give it a go!
Probably measure the standard bolt length and account for the above though or is there enough to play with the standard bolts?

scash88 said:

Thanks
I'll have a nose around for some M8 8mm standoffs and give it a go!
Probably measure the standard bolt length and account for the above though or is there enough to play with the standard bolts?

Click to expand...

There is plenty to play with iirc. You have to bend the locking tabs down to allow for the drop. But it’s simple if not fiddly to do. Worth it though

Small update,
I decided that with the addition of the Clubsports above & considering that the seats are solidly mounted it renders the rear seats useless.
Even throwing a coat onto the rear seat is hard work to retrieve so I decided to commit to the 'Clubsport' route and remove the rear seats all together



In my mind, the rear seats have never and would never be used, and the idea of a 2 seat Clio with the practicality of a boot closer to that of a 5 series is much more useful to me, not to mention any weight saving.
I think I remember reading the rear bench, ISOFIX bar, belts etc nears onto another 15-20KG?

In anycase, I didn't like the exposed metal from the rear seat so quickly sourced some carpet from work and made a boot mat to fit





Still some tweaking to be done but overall happy with how much tidier everything is back there.

I've got some longer M8 bolts and 8mm spacers on order so hopefully will be able to drop the steering wheel height enough to get it where it needs to be

And just when I though I can go enjoy the car I noticed a noise from the NSR when moving slowly to a stop which seems to be the rear wheel bearing
These were new approx. 1500-2000 miles ago when the recommissioning work was done at KTEC... Is this normal or just unlucky?

Been looking round as the discs were also brand new and have found a Febi Bilstein bearing from Autodoc.
Anyone used this one before? Measurements I believe look all correct and at £12.70 I cant complain for the price..

Thanks for reading!

scash88 said:

Small update,
I decided that with the addition of the Clubsports above & considering that the seats are solidly mounted it renders the rear seats useless.
Even throwing a coat onto the rear seat is hard work to retrieve so I decided to commit to the 'Clubsport' route and remove the rear seats all together

Click to expand...

Looks good, I went down the Clubsport route too and ended up fitting a @CFAB Clubsport bar and net in the back of mine! Stops the shopping going everywhere on the drive home

Looks great! Something along those lines will definitely be on the cards at some point I'm sure!

Small update
The Clio hasn't been seeing much use of late, partly down to, work & holidays & partly needing to sell the 911 for something more practical for our upcoming arrival 👶
Always been a fan of the 'do everything' ability of a Golf so decided on a MK7.5 Golf R



Overall super impressed, but the Clio's space is safe & will not be going anywhere!

Also been reluctant to drive the Clio until I can get to the root cause of a noise Ive been hearing. At very low speed (sub 10mph) under braking im getting a rotational 'knock' from the rear. A quick look says both rear wheel bearings are ok, and no noise when driving along at any speed if off the brakes so hopefully ok there.
Discs and pads have done sub 1500 miles and no obvious signs of scored discs etc.
However, when removing the rear slip on spacers, I did notice the OSR caliper was binding preventing the wheel from spinning freely when in the air so suspect it needs a rear caliper..?
Any recommendation as to where & what brand? Assuming there is nothing else to check before pulling the trigger on it?

To cheer myself up I decided to polish the headlights as it was that time of year again. Got myself a free Holts headlight restoration kit below so thought Id give it a go



Got bored with using the drill so decided to attach the sandpaper & polishing pad to my DA and overall pleased with the results despite covering the car in polish residue. Will give me a good excuse to give it a scrub over the weekend in any case!





Thanks for reading

I bought Febi units for mine and they're spot on.

Part numbers for the OSR are - 7711135714 (exchange) or 7701204847 (non-exchange) but NLA unfortunately.

There are some Febi ones on Autodoc amongst other brands, but I can only speak for what I've used.


Autodoc never supplied mine, they came from a local motor factors (DMFX) in Darlington.

I'm toying with the idea of selling this, purely for lack of use (Despite the title I know..)
Unfortunately a recent addition to the family means I just don't have time to use the Clio anymore in favour of the Isofix'd Golf.

Currently 86k miles.
Body wise, the roof will need painting, due to lacquer peel however rust wise all arches/sills seem in very good shape.

Seems a shame, and I really don't want to given the amount of time and money I've put into it, but think its the right thing to do..

What would the consensus on value be?

Brief spec

Nearly new BC DR racing coilovers (700 miles ago)
Speedline Turini's recently refurbished (mint) with nearly new Advan Ad08RS (205/40/16)
Ktec Induction Kit
Powerflex, engine mount insert, dogbone mount, inner & outer ARB bushes, exhaust hangers & camber bolts)
New brakes all round (brembo HC & OEM rear) with wheel bearings (less than 1500 miles old) & KTR braided lines
Scorpion RS192 resonated cat back
Corbeau Clubsports XL on Jon Foz subframes (perfect condition)
Scenic shifter with short shift pin & Quaife gearknob

Thanks for reading

Photo as it stands now

I have decided to stick with the Clio, despite it not doing many miles (sub 150 so far this year!)
At this point nothing else at this price point interests me and really think id miss it if I let it go.

So took it out today for a good hard blast to see if it would break, & it didn't & had a good time despite the lack of aircon.
The power flex dog bone has certainly improved the gearshift and made things much more positive
I also lowered the rear back down, as since removing the OEM seats and replacing the buckets, the rear arch gap had increased.
Also a new number plate to the correct size..

How it looks now







Also had a unexpected gift in the form of a Momo Race 320mm wheel





Had a Momo in the Caterham and always liked it & although a different wheel & size the quality feels good.
I have bought a Volantech hub & 2 button panel for the horn so hopefully in the coming days will be going on to address the last issue of the standard size wheel.
Have a feeling its going to make an enormous difference, but that I may need to fit a 20mm steering wheel spacer as my driving position leaves me reaching a little too much IMO

I have spoken with a friend about what to do with the centre hole in the wheel and am looking at 3D printing up a OEM style Renault logo/something similar OEM ish rather than fitting a horn button that will not be connected.

Also debating on whether to paint the frame of the wheel black so it is more like the Sabelt/OMP wheels..?

Thoughts welcome, thanks for reading.