A Monaco Blue 2002 Clio 172

[SiC]

This one certainly put up a fight. Tried hammering a socket into it, chiselling it off, mole grips and Dremel a slot in. I certainly did these up tight! 😳

All this abuse just ended up mullering the head completely.

Only one thing left...

Donned up on PPE

Armed myself with the power file

And went to war with the bolt head.

This was enough left to chisel the remainder out in circles.

Leaving it completely out.

Next up was the second bolt I rounded off. This was further up and a nightmare to get to. A lot easier with the alternator and tensioner off though. Tried a few tricks again, including using a chisel to smash the soft aluminium casting but to no avail. As this was nearer the fuel line and next to the plastic cover, I wasn't too keen on using the power file on it.

However none of that worked and I was forced to go medieval on that too. I used An off cut of cardboard as a shield to prevent metal dust and sparks going where I didn't want them.

 

[SiC]

Ten minutes later and the battle was won.

Thank goodness.

I carefully cleaned up the area with a magnet on a stick and then hoovered.

The new pump is messed up, so this will need replacing too. It's unfortunate but I rather that than either damaging the block or having to pull the engine.

I wasn't going to take any risk with the cambelt. So I removed the pulley (yet again!) to inspected the belt for make sure no coolant leaking on it and ensure no metal filings got in or stuck to the pulley.

Now need to source yet another new pump and a few replacement bolts! Next time I'm going to use my blue Hylomar, despite what the instructions say...

 

[Krarl]

Yeah always goop the gasket, they're absolute shite. At least you found it now rather than after you got it all back together and you've been driving it around for weeks

 

[SiC]

Yeah always goop the gasket, they're absolute shite. At least you found it now rather than after you got it all back together and you've been driving it around for weeks

I don't think I'd be driving around very long at the rate this leaked. 🤣

 

[Robbie Corbett]

Yeah always goop the gasket, they're absolute shite. At least you found it now rather than after you got it all back together and you've been driving it around for weeks

You sound like a man who speaks from experience....

 

[SiC]

What I'm most annoyed about (except the extra expense) is that I was really looking forward to a good hooning around this evening.

Also telling is the RTV that was stuck around the old pump impeller shaft. Someone either had problems before or didn't take the risk!

 

[Krarl]

Never had an issue on clios but I've had issues on worse cars like Ka's😂

Its when the expensive coolant starts pissing out onto the floor and your balls cringe because you're from Yorkshire😂😂

 

[Clio_fool]

This is a great thread! My belts are due next year and I'll 100% be paying someone to do them 🤣🤣.

 

[SiC]

To be fair the belt change has been the easy bit!

 

[SiC]

Time for an update.

Got a new pump. This one is a "GSF Premium" pump but I've forgotten the brand. Some Italian one.


Covers quite a few Renault models this.

Also got £20 (!) worth of genuine Renault monkey metal bolts to replace the originals.

This time I wasn't taking any chances with this pump. I've used Hylomar blue which is a non hardening joint compound. So it should be mushed up by the pump if it ever comes loose.

Gasket on

Block got similar treatment

Pump on and torqued up. You may notice that the top left bolt is original and not a new one. This is because I put a new one on and slipped while torquing it up (access is tight). These are so crap that it rounded off. So I gingerly undid it without completely screwing the head up and put a good old one back in. Next person here will be appreciative of this fact!

Filled cooling system up and no leaks!

 

[SiC]

After the above, a couple of days later I checked the pump again with the system still full. No visible leaks, so much improved from last time.

Drained the oil and changed the filter. For once I didn't get it everywhere. Refilled with this. You know it's good s**t when they have a Laguna II Ph2 estate on the tin.

Fitted the aux belt

Banged in the caps for the cam ends that had the timing tool in.

Removed the fuel pump relay. Tip, it's the brown relay next to the purple on this Clio 172. Later gens have a different fuse box.

Blocked the engine up so it wasn't sitting on the floor.

Fitted plugs and battery. Then went for a turn over...


Good start!

 

[SiC]

Spurred on by that success I continued on putting the car back together.

Fitted the bottom acoustic and road debris cover.

This has a metal clip to hold it against a support. However the clip had rusted off. I did the correct* thing and used a cable tie.

Doesn't hit or rub against the crank pulley thankfully

Top end I'm not going to fit as it's already chewed up and after removing won't go on without risking being sucked into the belt.

Cleaned up the manifold gasket areas and also the big intake manifold. I replaced the rubber seal at the back while I was here.

Engine mount reattached, slam panel back on, reattached dog bone mount undernrath and it is looking like it's nearly there.

 

[SiC]

Oh wait... WTF is this sitting at the end of the garage [emoji31]

It's the alternator support bracket. FFS.

Jubilee clip back on, alternator bolt loosened and alternator tipped towards the front gave enough slack to remove the top bolts.

Top tip: if you're struggling to get a new aux belt on, I've found it easier to undo the alternator and pivot towards the front. This gives extra slack to get it over the alternator pulley.

Reattached the bracket and torqued it all back up again ... For the fourth time.

Replaced the pollen filter while I was under the bonnet. Easy to do by removing the plastic scuttle cover by the wipers. 6mm hex bolt and it slides right out.

Engine air filter turned out to be completely the wrong one. Irritating.

Final step was to pack up the tools and do a check that all were back. Too easy to have a socket fall into the car and be lost for all time. Even worse, get stuck into something moving!

Still need to do the actual start with it all back together. [emoji1696]

Tempted to go out now and give it a go. Especially before it's all back together and on the ground. Rather nervous doing it, I won't deny! It's been such a long job, there is every chance I've forgotten something.

 

[SiC]

Temptation got too much. Sorry for being a bit rambling, I'm no pro for sure!

 

[SiC]

Started to button this up now I'm on the home straight with it. Been just over a month working on this and will be glad to get it on four wheels. Irritating that I forgot to SORN it last month too. Oh well.

Gave a half arsed attempt with some old Mequiar's headlight polishing kit I found on the shelf. Literally 2 minutes on the drill made a remarkable difference. A lot easier doing this with the lights off the car too.

Before

After

Clear headlights really smarten the front end up on any car Vs them cloudy.

While I was underneath I remembered that rusty section by the engine. Took the padding back out to have a look.

I really can't leave it like this. Even though the metal is still super thick, it will only get worse in the winter.

Some finger power file action got the worse off

Then lobbed some Krust onto it

While that dried I set about on the jacking point. Not sure how people manage this but I imagine it's either the OEM jack falling over or a really rubbish jack.

Used a pair of adjustable spanners to bend it all back in shape. Then a flat headed screwdriver to remake the drain hole.

Then lobbed more Krust on ready for painting today. I don't have any blue paint that's any sort of close match, so this will have to be stone chip black.

One thing that has been bugging me is the child seat warning sticker on the drivers visor. These things are all over them. Both on the top and bottom. I seem to remember Renault retrofitted them after NCAP knocked points off for not having them always visible. As Renault was on a safety initiative at the time, they were ticking all the boxes to get the most stars.

Anyway the drivers side had partially come off and looked extremely tatty.

I don't mind removing this as it should be well known by now not to put a child seat in the front without disabling the airbag. Also there still is 3 other identical warning stickers plastered elsewhere on the visors!

Still not perfectly clean but far better.

Hopefully tonight I can get the last bits painted. Providing it dries the bumper and wheels should be able to go back on finally!

 

[SiC]

Sprayed black stone chip on all the cleaned areas that had a bit of crustyness.

Chassis leg above the drive shaft. Much better now. Other side wasn't so bad, so scrubbed off the loose rust and sprayed on there.

OEM jack point area is all straight and much nicer.

This was slightly rusty from the plastic bumper rubbing against it. So this got cleaned up and sprayed too.

PAS pipe is very exposed and gone crusty. This stuff is a bit more waxer than the other and isn't over paint-able.

While underneath I noticed that I put the dog bone mount back on upside down. Oops

Easily done and I wonder how many cars go around with this the wrong way

Sprayed this crash beam with some left over blue paint I had. Perfect colour match as you can see.

To be honest you can't see this bit when the bumper is on and anyone coming to it again would much rather be the wrong colour than rust getting worse. Especially as this is a shelf at the front of the car, so highly exposed.
Fitted new headlight washers. So many people blank these off but spend just as much on the blanks as replacement washers. However these are useful things, especially as I'll be using this car in the winter.

Bumper lined up

Bumper back on

 

[SiC]

Underneath is missing bungs for the seat mounting nuts. No idea where they've gone but these areas lead straight into a box section with holes that go into the cabin. Driving in rain causes spray to be pushed into the carpet. Hence my carpet is rather wet.

Replacement bungs are NLA from Renault. A quick measure made them look about 38mm. That appears to be a standard size for rubber grommets, so I've ordered some and we will see how well they fit. Worse case one that is slightly too small could be Tigerseal in.

As I am getting near to the end of this, I did a quick power up and test all of the functions. One of which was the central locking. Locked it just fine, got out (which unlocks the car) and checked the outside lights all worked. Closed the front door, tried the locks again and noticed that the central locking light didn't stay on. Also the door open light was still on.

Interior dome light was off, so this meant only one thing...

Boot light on. FFS it's actually broken itself while just sat here in the moments I used the lock.[emoji849][emoji31]

Google suggests this is not a pin switch in the boot but a modern all integrated lock catch microswitch mechanism.

Can of petrol is on the shelf, anyone got some matches to hand??

 

[SiC]

While I think about it, if/when I'm selling this car in the future and you're reading this thread looking to buy, I've got all the old cambelt parts in boxes. Kinda mostly for proof that I haven't just bought parts and not fitted them. Even if this thread has been long enough so far that it should be clear I haven't done that! [emoji38]

Anyway future buyer, I've probably forgotten about them so remind me and I can give them. If I remember where I put them...

 

[SiC]

Had a look today at the wet footwell on the driver side.

First off was to plug the most likely root cause of this happening. There are some access holes under the car for allowing removing the seats. Unfortunately the bungs are now NLA from Renault. However they appear to be 38mm which is a standard size for rubber grommets. Thanks Renault for doing something sensible for once!

Ordered a mix box from Amazon.

38mm was a perfect fit.

The rear hole is either been made larger or a post factory mod someone has done.

Before I plugged that up, I drained the water out the back. This underlay was so sodden I cut it out completely.

The front carpet and foam is of a different type. I was trying to avoid removing the seats as I don't have enough room on this side of the car to get it out in the garage. So I pulled the carpet up and gave a good squidge.

Irritatingly I managed to rip the carpet a bit here. Thankfully so many people are stripping these cars still, replacement carpets are ten-a-penny.

As the car was at an angle still on the jacks, handily it drained out the rear hole.

I then found a near enough bung (25mm) that roughly fit and sealed up with some left over Tigerseal I had. I'll spray this under chassis black once it's dry.

 

[SiC]

One of a major common issues on Renaults of this era is the TDC sensor. This is used to inform the ECU of the engine position and thus critical for running.

After going through numerous revisions of sensors, Renault at some point realised it's actually the connector that's at fault. To make it easy to distinguish between the original and new, they made the new version blue.

Bloody expensive nowadays at £85 for a genuine sensor and loom. However it's completely worth going genuine as these tend to fail when the engine is warm and you don't want the car to fail you by the side of the road when your missus is in her best clothes and it's pissing it down!

It lives on the gearbox end under all the coolant pipes. Not easy to get to on any F4R car (Clio, Mégane, Laguna, etc) in my experience.

You need to make sure you get the polarity right. Even though it's just a coil of wire, it really needs to be the right direction around like an ignition coil needs to be. Terminals on the plug and sensor are marked with A and B, so you just need to match them. Colours are different on the new loom.

The supplied joining pieces are heatshrink with low temperature solder in. Simply need to stick the wire in and run over with a heat gun.

Case then of plugging in and refitting.

Filled up the gearbox with some more oil. I intend to have a full dump and refill with genuine stuff. I've got the stuff to do it but the CV boot needs replacing on the drivers side and I CBA to do that. So will get my friendly garage to finish these bits.

Oil is 75w-80 but critically GL4 grade. Must not use GL5 as it has aggressive additive packs that can destroy the brass bits in the box. Not as well known on moderns but very well known in the classic car sphere.

Filler is down under the clutch cable area. I also sprayed some more chassis protector wax on that PAS pipe. Should give it some more life - especially as it looks a bugger to replace if it snaps.

Jacked the car up. This time I used the middle of the front subframe. It's a beefy bit of metal and no damage appeared to be done to it. Admittedly I've not seen anyone do this before so it was bit of an experiment.

I much prefer doing it on here than either the OEM points or chassis rails. When jacking a car it has a tendency to take paint off. Both of which areas are hard to repair with welding. Especially when the subframe is a bolt off and on job if it does rust.

While on the floor I took the fill plug out of the gearbox again to let it level itself off. About 50ml or so came out of it. All in it had about 400ml go in. Box holds 3100ml, so not too much to top it off. Was a bit worried it would have been a bit dry as I don't see any record for it being topped off in quite a few years and these boxes do like to leak out of their seals. Nor any record of it being changed. Hence the intention of having it dumped and refilled soon. Also didn't want to go for any drives until I knew the box had a happy amount of oil in it - had visions of it sloshing around with only a tiny amount in. Thankfully all ok really.

 

[SiC]

Now on to the star of the show that really tried my patience...

After repowering the car this week, the boot light has decided to stay stuck on. Googling brought up that the boot switch has a tendency to fail. So my first step was pulling this off and having a look.

Boot plastic panel is held on with one screw and the rest clip fittings.

Connector for the boot switch is this one.

Two bolts for the catch

And a metal bar that operates the boot release mechanism needs unclipping.

On the bench the switch was pretty temperamental. It's a normally closed switch, which means when the boot is open, the button isn't pushed. So in theory if the boot lock is disconnected it should turn the light off.

Resistance was variable. Best case 34 Ohms

Worse case after a few actuations it got as high as 334 ohms

The joints were pretty corroded and nasty looking

So fired up the iron and resoldered them.

Then doused the switch in contact cleaner, giving plenty of actuations.

Pulled out the terminals from the connector and gave them a good clean too.

 

[SiC]

This made the switch work way better.

Unfortunately this did not fix the boot light.

 

[SiC]

This meant only one thing, there was a short further up in the loom.

Even worse the boot wouldn't open. So ended up having to go in through the back seats

Then forcing the mechanism by hand

Turns out I fitted the lock catch upside down. For reference the microswitch should be at the bottom of the door and the pushrod fitted like this

In my day job there is the popular phrase of "Divide and Conquer". Basically if you have a problem, divide it up into smaller bits to find the root of the issue. No different from car electrical problems.

A bit of searching found a pinout diagram for the UCH (body computer) and that noted pin 39 is the magic wire that goes from the boot lock to the computer. I removed this wire and turned on the ignition to confirm that it thought the boot was shut. This is good as it means this UCH is fine.

Checking continuity on that wire found it was shorted to the body from this point.

I had contemplated splitting the wire at the boot connector as it joins there for both the boot light and wire to the body computer. I could then solder it back up after. However when doing anything like this, you open up the risk it could fail in the future. So I'd rather not chop up the OEM loom if I didn't have to. Thus I went rooting for another areas I could probe and found a new connector for this loom at the front.

Now I knew the circuit is made up of four bits. First is the wire from the boot lock to the boot light. There is also a second wire from the boot to the front. When this gets to the front of the car it hits another connector in the passenger footwell.

Disconnecting this connector and checking continuity from the body computer wire to this connector showed there still was a short. Also removing the wire from the connector and replugging in showed that interior light worked as intended.

Great! I now know that the short is only in this front part. Makes it massively easier to diagnose than having to pull the trim off inside all the way along to find it.

Now at this point I didn't really take anymore photos. Mostly because it was gone midnight, I wanted to sort it and I forgot.

Anyway the alarms on the 172 aren't factory but they're not aftermarket either. They were installed at the port, presumably to meet UK insurance specs. The newer 182 had it wired in and talked over the CAN network. So these only needed two wires and power into the UCH. However these 172 didn't have that and so were installed by tapping into the loom directly.

Thus the loom was mucked about by a third party and how well that was done depends on the person doing it. Thankfully the person that did mine didn't do too bad a job. Especially as they probably had a lot of cars to do and so in a rush. Unfortunately as I mentioned earlier, anytime you cut into a loom wire, you risk it failing later on. After 18 years and 150k miles it seems like that time was when its sat in the garage...

I say it was installed well, some of the installation is a bit shonky. Like this earth connection.

I only have one fob (which is corroded inside anyway) and the alarm has been disconnected shortly after I bought it as I don't trust aged alarms on any car. The car is insured without an alarm and it didn't work properly anymore anyway. If I ever wanted an alarm, I'd get a more modern unit installed. Probably another 5 to 10 years at least though before these are worth enough to do that...

So I ripped out the last of the alarm loom and chopped out the connections into the main loom. Also removed the LED on the dash and the ultrasonic sensors on the A-Pillar. If anything it will mean I don't get passengers questioning what they are everytime they get in!

I'm not entirely sure where in the alarm loom it was broken, but I removed the entire wire from the UCH to that connector and inspected it. There was no damage on it nor anywhere it could rub through into the car body. So it had to be somewhere on that spliced section.

I also took the time to clean up and resolder the loom wire for the boot switch with some heatshrink over the top.

Powered the car up and re-tested everything. Thankfully not only the problem is fixed, I didn't add any new electrical problems in! 😁

 

[botfch]

I’d bet water is getting in somewhere else and the previous owner has made a hole in that bung to drain it out if you haven't inspected the rear bungs and scuttles it may be worth the effort.

 

[SiC]

I’d bet water is getting in somewhere else and the previous owner has made a hole in that bung to drain it out if you haven't inspected the rear bungs and scuttles it may be worth the effort.

I did have a good look in the scuttle area with the drivers side panel off and it's dry as a bone. Couldn't see the centre drain from that panel off though so can't be 100% sure. Don't really want to take the wiper mechanism off if I don't have to.

Where are the rear bungs?

 

[botfch]

I did have a good look in the scuttle area with the drivers side panel off and it's dry as a bone. Couldn't see the centre drain from that panel off though so can't be 100% sure. Don't really want to take the wiper mechanism off if I don't have to.

Where are the rear bungs?

Boot stop things near rear lights, if you do a search it’s a common issue.

 

[SiC]

Boot stop things near rear lights, if you do a search it’s a common issue.
View attachment 1499275

Ah yes thanks for reminding me. I was going to seal mine up and do them but have forgotten. Boot isn't wet but looks like it has been wet before.

 

[SiC]

Boot stop things near rear lights, if you do a search it’s a common issue.
View attachment 1499275

Looks like someone has been here before with the same idea. Explains why there are water marks but it's dry.

 

[SiC]

Fannied around today finishing this off.

First off was to glue in the boot bump stops. Someone had been here before and used sealant. I scraped that off and refreshed with Tigerseal. Hopefully inside my boot won't get wet now.

As you can see, it's another case where I am crap with anything liquid!

I gave the area a clean up and then ended up getting it on the lights too 🤨

While I had the lights out, I gave them a quick polish and used compressed air to blast out the dead spiders. Freshened them a treat.

Noticed the light connector was a bit crusty. These can cause weird electrical issues like the rear fog light on the dash lighting up on braking. Gave it a clean up.

Incidentally since cleaning it, I've noticed the rear fog light indicator lighting up now since! 🤦

I had the radio out earlier so I could remove the alarm wiring to the central locking switch. While I was there I decided to clean off the sticky soft touch stuff.

Pulled the front panel off after disassembling the radio

Then used a product called "Elbow Grease". Worked ok but took a fair bit of scrubbing. However I was worried it would take off the glittery finish, but thankfully it didn't.

 

[SiC]

Wasn't really much left to do now. Reversed the back end out of the garage, let it get up to temperature again and double check underneath for leaks.

No leaks, so refitted the undertray

Sprayed some chassis protector where the jack stands were and scraped off the existing protection.

Pulled outside and recheck fluid levels for the last time.

Bonnet down and a quick wash to remove the dust and dirty from the garage. Then hoon time!

Well not very as it's still very wet outside and after all this work, I don't want to break it. 😂

However it runs really well. Engine is a lot smoother low down and doesn't bunny hop like it did at low revs before. That could be the timing or even the crank pulley breaking up and varying the load. Acceleration is smooth and progressive now.

Once you hit the cam timing zone it still wakes up and gives a extra surge of power. Just not so all or nothing like it was before. Still doesn't feel that quick. My Boxster feels far more planted and brisker acceleration. I think it's simply that the RWD and fat rear tyres is much better at getting the power put down onto the tarmac. Not so much of an issue really as this is just a A/B/C-road runaround.

Quite happily wheelspins in 1st and once on cam in 2nd it starts to break loose - quite unnerving! I have experienced this before with Toyos Proxies. Excellent in the dry but not so reassuring in the wet.

Now time to get some more miles on her!

I'm really keeping my fingers crossed it'll just be a car now and I won't need to update this thread with anything else for a bit.

 

[SiC]

Just come back from an evening walk along the beach. All in I've done about 40 miles in this today. Fingers crossed seems to be running great.

Windscreen keeps steaming up, so have to keep the aircon on. I imagine it's because inside is still pretty humid from all that damp still in the foot well. Perhaps I'll have to get some dehumidifier boxes to leave in there for a bit.

Anyway I always like to have a picture in my post, so here it is in front of a very old postbox.

 

[Tomgilb]

Thanks for these posts, great work. You have an awsome workshop!

My old man had a yellow sprint with a scorpion exhaust back in the day, loved that car. It had the standard leaking overdrive unit which kept failing! Brings back some nice memories. Keep up the good work 👍

 

[SiC]

It's been about 500 miles since the belt change and I've been buzzing around it locally.

First off I changed the power steering fluid with this stuff. Cheapest Dextrin II that I could readily find.

Used my Pela pod to suck the old fluid out. Shoved the pipe down into the return line at the bottom to get most of it out. Fluid is now mostly clear, so seemed to have done the job.

One massive annoyance has been the interior steaming up. Water has been getting into the back footwell and pooling. This evaporates and absolutely soddens the windscreen while making the car fusty. Something had to be done.

Everyone mentions the scuttle drain blocking up. Started off by pouring water into the scuttle to see if it drains.

Which it did

However the back footwell also filled up. I really didn't want to take the centre plastic cover off as need to remove the wiper mechanism. My experience is usually that the arms seizes on the shaft and a right bugger to get off.

Anyway after a fight I got it off.

The centre drain is under the middle bracket where the end of the wiper linkage screws onto.

Down here

It ends up out above the exhaust. I'm pointing to it with the bit of wire.

Water was actually draining through but it was clogged up with gunk, so impeded flow. Makes sense why the car was filling up only in heavy rain. The piece of cable was enough to push out the crap in there.

After that I started to put it all back together. Tightened up the wiper bolts and the final one did this...

Argh!!

Ended up getting a replacement wiper linkage from a local scrapyard the next day.

Put that in and tightened all the fixing bolts up. Final bolt did this...

FFS.

 

[SiC]

Tried using zip ties

This wasn't strong enough to hold it on. I couldn't find a replacement bolt in my stash either.

Thinking I'd seen one of these bolts before on the car, I suddenly remembered where. Air filter mounting bolt!

Fitted in perfectly. Air filter is so packed in there that it doesn't actually seem to really need it to hold it anyway.

Wiper mechanism in all its working glory

Put the wiper mechanism all back on and then found this happened...

This s**t is exactly why I said I didn't want to take the wipers off! Always when I've taken wipers off its ended up being a ballache.

The fix was yanking on the pivot point to bend it back. I think leaning on the mechanism must have bent it slightly.

Finally I took the foam out from under the drivers floor carpet to try drying it out. This is joined together with the passenger side. However only joined at a very small section in the middle. So I slit this and pulled out the foam.

I could have pulled out the seats and took the whole lot out, but the fixing for the seats are on the bottom of the car. You just knew that will be a right fecking nightmare with rusty fixing and snapping bolts.

Anyhow I ran a heater underneath the carpet while I left the carpet in a sink inside to drain and dry.

We seem to be fully functional now. Except one fault remains.

Probably from the moisture getting into the display ribbon. Weirdly often it works fine from cold but as the car heats, the display pixels disappear.

It did fully work one day. Except this one quirk...

To fix that will require pulling the dash top off. Something I really CBA to do atm. Also sometimes you need to leave at least one thing broken as a sacrifice to the car gods.

In other news, I've recently acquired this and is the next project after my Dolomite.

Been pondering about selling the Clio and using the BMW as my main daily driver runaround. Unlike my other classics, the BMW actually has decent rust proofing and isn't likely to dissolve away so quickly.

I like the Clio but I'm glad I only paid a grand for it and it owes me less than 2. They're alright cars to buzz around in but they are bit of a flimsy shitbox. Creaky, rattly, noisy and cheap feeling. Having one has made me realise I wouldn't have wanted to spend more than 3 grand on one of the things. Put me off bothering getting a Trophy to be honest. For what they go for, there are other cars that I reckon would be more fun while not feeling like a poverty-stricken car.

 

[SiC]

Thanks for these posts, great work. You have an awsome workshop!

My old man had a yellow sprint with a scorpion exhaust back in the day, loved that car. It had the standard leaking overdrive unit which kept failing! Brings back some nice memories. Keep up the good work 👍

Thanks! Getting a double garage was a essential thing when we were looking for a house. Bit of a dream come true. Even if it means a big chunk of mortgage to pay off until I get to retirement... 😔

Sprint restro is well underway. Plenty of bodywork left to do! Got a full thread here if you're feeling bored: https://autoshite.com/topic/36899-1974-dolomite-sprint/

 

[jameswrx]

Regards the damage to the windscreen...

You’ve likely fitted the wiper mech wrong, there’s a locating pin on the linkage that goes in a hole on the bulkhead. When it’s not in the hole the mech sits tilted and the wiper arm touches the screen.

 

[SiC]

Regards the damage to the windscreen...

You’ve likely fitted the wiper mech wrong, there’s a locating pin on the linkage that goes in a hole on the bulkhead. When it’s not in the hole the mech sits tilted and the wiper arm touches the screen.

Cool, I'll have a look at sometime. It works at the moment though, so I'm tempted to not fiddle! Perhaps me pushing on it made it locate into the peg?

 

[David Stuart]

I’ve never had any bother like that with wiper blades.

I suggest you get a tool for popping them off if the normal levels of force don’t work.

Also those bolts shouldn’t snap unless you are over tightening them. They don’t look corroded or damaged in any way.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[SiC]

I’ve never had any bother like that with wiper blades.

I suggest you get a tool for popping them off if the normal levels of force don’t work.

I had a tool. It broke on the last time when I was getting arms off a car [emoji38]

Haven't got around to replacing it yet. Thankfully the Clio arms came off with a wiggle.

Also those bolts shouldn’t snap unless you are over tightening them. They don’t look corroded or damaged in any way.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No they shouldn't snap, but it did. I hand tightened both and certainly not gorilla tight either. Didn't snap any of the other bolts...

The arm post you can see rust on the end. Likely the first time it's ever come apart.

Those gold coloured bolts, that are quite common on Renaults, I've had snap before. Usually undoing, not doing up admittedly. They're piss weak and snap at the slight opportunity to.

 

[MRBILLYUK]

Cool, I'll have a look at sometime. It works at the moment though, so I'm tempted to not fiddle! Perhaps me pushing on it made it locate into the peg?

Like @jameswrx said. If it's not located on the peg it'll scratch your window. I know, I learnt the hard way. If you leave it the scratch will just get worse every time you use the wipers.