Kit’s New Ph1 172

Next problem….massive fuel leak from this pipe


Not sure how as it was fine after Anglesey. I hope a mouse or anything hasn’t chewed it.

I had to replace mine recently, it had gone further up though closer to the rail, I got a replacement (new to me) from Stuart at Renomotive

mintno1 said:

I had to replace mine recently, it had gone further up though closer to the rail, I got a replacement (new to me) from Stuart at Renomotive

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You can see it spraying out from that bend when the car is on so I’m confident it’s there it’s leaking from.

What is annoying the car had half a tank in it yesterday. I started it and walked off and left it running like I usually do every few weeks, could smell fumes but we had just a heating oil delivery and that smells a bit. Went to use it today and same smell and a trail of fluid and then no fuel 🤦‍♂️ What’s annoying is that I was off to look at the gear box as I can’t jack it up on my drive. So now I have this landed at the top of the drive which has given me some access so will see when I get home later.

@mintno1 is the outside diameter pipe at the fuel filter the same as at the fuel rail?
I have found some left over fuel hose from my ITB conversion but the inside diameter is bigger than the inside diameter of standard hose. But standard hose does fit inside the hose I have and I’m thinking of splicing it in and just putting the old inside the new with a few jubilee clips. But I have to be 100% confident it is fine as soon as I cut this hose and it’s wrong I’m screwed as the AA won’t recover my incompetence.

Yes I could measure but I don’t have verniers and I have an off cut of the fuel rail end in my spares that I’ve trial fitted to the new hose.

Actually this won’t work. Just checked exactly where the split is and it’s so close to the connector into the filter my hose won’t go over the old hose and barbs on the fitting


Need to source the right hose and fittings

Fuel leak sorted 👍🏻 need to keep an eye on it just in case.

Next up is me giving myself a reason to get an LSD which is summed up by this picture

I’ll explain why…this is now on daily duties after going from 4 cars down to this is the only “working one” (holding off taxing the E34 but that is a back up plus I don’t want that to break going on the luck I’m having at the moment) as I sold the E60 and having viscous fan problems on the Z3. But the Clio seemed to have lost a lot of gear box oil at Anglesey. I was going to investigate it on Saturday but that was scuppered by the fuel leak. So I’ve just chucked nearly 1ltr of gear box oil in it so I can take it to work. Got more oil and the pump in the car ready to check it is still full when I’m at work. So yeah, this might blow up and the only logical response is to get an LSD put in.
I might have time on Thursday, failing that Saturday, to investigate properly the gear box leak.

I hate cars.

KitsonRis said:

Fuel leak sorted 👍🏻 need to keep an eye on it just in case.

Next up is me giving myself a reason to get an LSD which is summed up by this picture
View attachment 1692427
I’ll explain why…this is now on daily duties after going from 4 cars down to this is the only “working one” (holding off taxing the E34 but that is a back up plus I don’t want that to break going on the luck I’m having at the moment) as I sold the E60 and having viscous fan problems on the Z3. But the Clio seemed to have lost a lot of gear box oil at Anglesey. I was going to investigate it on Saturday but that was scuppered by the fuel leak. So I’ve just chucked nearly 1ltr of gear box oil in it so I can take it to work. Got more oil and the pump in the car ready to check it is still full when I’m at work. So yeah, this might blow up and the only logical response is to get an LSD put in.
I might have time on Thursday, failing that Saturday, to investigate properly the gear box leak.

I hate cars.

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I could always be tempted to sell my LSD which is sat waiting to go in box.........................

gudger12345 said:

I could always be tempted to sell my LSD which is sat waiting to go in box.........................

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Stop. Just stop I’m not in a position to buy anything fancy at the moment which is annoying. Otherwise yes I would be interested…

KitsonRis said:

Stop. Just stop I’m not in a position to buy anything fancy at the moment which is annoying. Otherwise yes I would be interested…

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Good hahaha
but i could always be tempted as i have had to surrender my licence on medical grounds for 12 months so i might just break the clio to fund an elise purchase.

Little success on this.
Fuel pipe sorted so now I am not losing fuel at an alarming rate! Might need a more permanent fix but the hose I have kicking about home did go over the original hose but I might need to use actual brass joining fittings. It’s holding and that is all that matters.

Gear box hasn’t exploded. I had time today to do some investigating. It’s not actually that bad once I took the under tray off. It’s coming from the selector seal as the drive shaft is bone dry. Can the selector seal be changed without taking the box out the car? So what I’ve done it dried it all up, chucked about 2ltr of oil in and see what happens in a week. Now I have a reference point it will be easier to see how bad it actually is.

My under tray was a bit damaged and the trailing edge was bent and it always scrapped on the road down the lane at home. So I took a saw to it and cut it off and now it doesn’t scrape!


When I was at Anglesey there was a rubbing noise on right hand corners. My old Ph1 used to rub drive shafts so I thought it was that. Nope. Drive shafts looks clean and no rub marks on the chassis. Only thing I can see is this rub mark above the wheel


Tyre looks fine and doesn’t look or feel damaged. Can’t be that surely?

Been using it for work and it’s a really nice drive on the motorway tbh. So much so I’d consider another 1*2 for commuting in! Mine has just returned 36mpg on the last tank of fuel which is good! And at roughly 20p a mile which is the same as my E60 was returning. Swapping to E10 and not using 99 fuel this will only go down and having a standard one should return more MPG so it is cheaper to run on long motorway journeys than a big diesel!

Project Clio has been paused following gear box issues. Realistically it will be about 18-24 months before I have the funds to sort this out as my mantra is "whatever comes out new or better goes in" so this means a nice rebuilt gear box, LSD, lightened flywheel and new clutch. And with an upcoming wedding next year to fund and the typical plan of starting a family soon after that means funds for very expensive things for the cars will need to be diverted to being a grown up adult
I have SORN'd it and taken the precautionary measure of taking my number plate off it in case I need to sell it in the interim as the MoT test runs out this month and I don't see it passing with the amount of gear box oil that comes out of it. This does mean it isn't coming to CSF which is a little dissapointing as I enjoyed Angleysey when I did a track day there earlier this year. Still undecided what to take instead as I really want to do at least one stint in my E34 but I don;t really want to do half a day in it.

After writing the for sale advert I did I did a bit more gear box investigating and can confirm the oil comes out as quick as it goes in. Drive shafts all look dry so it has to be something else but it is really hard to see with using a trolly jack and not properly being able to get under it. When I drove 3hrs home from my parents the last time I used it you could smell how hot the gear box got and it is now whining (which stops when you fill it then it comes back). So yeah, highly likey its fubar. My step dad convinced me not to sell it with the prices only going one way on these, even for broken ones. And I know if I sell it, because owning a Clio is a disease you cannot shift, I will want another in the future and I couldn't bring myself to part with the money they are likely to get to (and it would have to be a Ph1, none of that Ph2 crap). At the moment I am in a lucky position I don't need the money so it can sit there until I am able to save up for the necessary things, which I think will include welding when I go to put it on the road. This is how it currently looks, little sad on the drive all covered up. Thankfully the drive has just been re-done so it is actually on hard standing and not some mix between what should be gravel and dirt and grass.

I'll start it every now and again and might move it back and forward to keep things free and moving as we all know cars do not like being sat still for long periods of time!
Few little jobs I want to do in the next 12 months otherwise they won't get done:

• Finally sort the fuel lines out as I was never happy with them when I changed them to fit the ITB set up. They work but they are not perfect.
• Replace the dephaser solenoid or just it's seal as it is weeping
• Fit a better negative battery terminal as it is looking a little worn and miss-shapped, it is as if it isn't designed to be removed a lot which I have been doing to help maintain the battery life
• Tidy up some wires in the engine bay with some wrap or similar
• Fit a plug to the TPS as it is currently hard wired into the loom
• Remove the dash and finally sort out the horrible centre trim
• Remove the aerial and plug the hole with something seeing as it doesn't have a radio
• Source parts when they come up for sale or hav got some spare funds - maybe some dedicated track wheels, Cat Cams (will likely need a new cam belt due to age when it is back on the road as it was done back in 2020 so why not chuck some spicy cams in and join the +200bhp club), LSD, gear box, fly wheel......

Little sad but definately not down and out!! This will live on and will come back in better form and condition than it currently is.

Small progress on this today.

Wrapped some of the wires up for the injectors to tidy it up a bit. This was because I had to move them when fitting the ITBs so more of the wire was outside that little casing. Also wrapped the wires for my radiator fan switch too. Just neatens it up a bit

Made a start on the battery isolator switch.
The idea is to have the key switch in the wiper scuttle on the driver’s side…. So I did a trial fit to make sure it was all wired up correctly. All fine and kills the battery as intended. Go to place it to mark up where I need to cut the scuttle and work out how to get the cables through the bulk head and fail - the switch won’t clear the bonnet. Oh and one of the bolts that hold the blanking plate thing on the bull head where the air con pipes goes just spins. I’ve already used the one hole in the bulk head for my radiator fan wiring. So I decided to remove the top dash to see if there was anything obvious there. Nope. Was greeted with an after market alarm under the passenger air bag

Not sure I should be worried about this as I always thought after market alarms from this era are a nightmare!
Ran out of time to take the lower dash out as I have a feeling I’ll need to remove that to put a few holes in the hill head to put the switch on the dash instead. And maybe run a pull leaver thing in the scuttle. These kinds of jobs is where I’m rubbish - I have an idea and know what the end result I want but it’s the execution I struggle with. I don’t know where to start or ways of doing it. Plus if I mess it up then I’m scuppered as I can’t call my brother up anymore to fix my mistakes seeing I live 3hrs from him. I’ll get there though.

Need to get a tool tray so I can carry tools and that up to the car as I’m far from my shed with all the stuff and the walk adds up if you need to be in and out getting stuff.

Gutted it’s not coming to CSF next weekend. Don’t think I will be too popular leaking gear box oil everywhere.

Spent some time on the Clio this morning while it was sunny.

Took the wheels off to work out what I am going to do with the arch liners. Have a plan now so just need to order some of the plug fixings. Going to run the curved part and the front sections I’ll cut off the bit that attaches to the bumper which are broken on mine (and nearly all Clios) as this will cover up the “holes” where the gear box and the aux belt are.

While the passenger wheel was off had a quick look at the gear box, still no obvious signs of a leak from the drive shaft so I’m going with the selector seal has well and truly left the building.

If the drive shaft seal was leaking I would expect this to be covered in oil and really dirty.

Oh I finished the battery isolator and it’s now working as intended!

Might have to put at least the standard passenger seat and rear seats in. For some unknown reason the girlfriend said to use this as a back up car but will need to be able to fit a baby seat in it for when the little one arrives in March. She hates this car so to suggest using it as a family car really confused me, I’m blaming her hormones being all over the place.

Great build @KitsonRis, I’m a bit late to the party but enjoyed flicking through all 5 pages mate - lovely work.

Can I ask, earlier in the build you painted the centre console around the stereo, how did you remove it? I need to do mine.. had a look at removing it the other day and looked to be riveted in at the top under the clock and possible a dash out job? Surely not just to remove that wanky trim piece! Haha

Thank you, it’s been enjoyable and annoying at times but I do have long term plans for it and progress has slowed due to life.

It is a dash out job unfortunately. However I just masked up as best as I could and painted in situ and then when the dash ever comes out I’ll do it properly.

Finally changed the phaser solenoid seal. What a prick of a job

Ended up using a punch to bend it enough to come out. Quick clean and then used a socket to push the new one in. Feels a lot more snug. Had the car running for 10mins and no oil on the rocker cover so take that as a win.

Forgot how good it sounds.