Bumblebee 2 featuring LY R26

[Brigsy]

Gates stuff (apart from belts) seems to have gone to s**t now.

Shame really as they used to be pretty decent. First f4r water pump ive had thats leaked, all rest are oem and never had an issue.

 

[Brigsy]

Quick update

R26 not really moved apart from a couple of local runs out due to leaking water pump/cambelt job due imminently.

I have all the parts ready to go, just waiting for my snap on torque wrench to come back from repair. Hopefully be back mid Jan so can crack on and get that sorted.

Give it a clean up and coat of BH touch on last week.

Still rocking spa sticker

Also booked first trackday for 2025, Croft 18th April. Cant wait.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Finally cracked on with cambelt and water pump replacement yesterday.

Stripped. I checked cam timing before removing belt and it was still bang on had not moved a mm.

Genuine Ren water pump. Never ever use aftermarket or do the job twice could see that the gates pump fitted previously had been leaking badly from the bearing.

New cambelt kit & oem waterpump fitted. Mot 1801 locking the pulleys whilst torquing to spec.

Crank pinned and horseshoe sliding.

Done. No more waterpump noise.

Also fitted new aux kit, changed oil and filter whilst at it for fresh 5/40 valvoline synpower and topped up with febi type d coolant. Overall the job went smoothly, around 5-6 hours in total as was not rushing.

Took it for a blast out. No issues if anything the coolant temps are better/more stable with oem water pump. Felt pretty quick after 64hp of diesel clio all month.

Pov test run with Ray ban meta smart glasses.

Checked coolant levels this morning when cool and all good. Id slightly overfilled it to accomodate thermostat opening and it was now bang on the max. Give it a proper wash off next as was looking a bit unloved due to sitting and wheels were covered in rust from last nights high speed brake cleaning😆

BH autofoam, gtechniq gwash and a coat of BH touch on to finish.

Clean, still comes up nice for an 18year old meg.

With the weather being pretty decent for a change took it for a run out. Done 50 miles or so, no issues.

Parked up at South Gare.

Came back to the car and a Rs line friend had parked near us.

Felt good to use it again, looking forward to Croft at easter.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Small update

When i removed the upper torque mount to do cambelt i noted it was absolutely shot and the large bush was pretty much falling out. I had a slightly less knackered one to fit but needed a new one. Found a new old stock hutchinson one on ebay for £20, arrived Friday morning.

Neww

Between about 3 hours of teams meetings i had a spare few mins so stuck it on. Super easy to change.

15 mins work.

Also give the bay a quick wipe over whilst there and checked fluids, all good.

Clean enough.

Been using it a fair bit this week. Nice to drive something reasonably quick on a daily.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Ian_R]

Need to sort that Dipstick out 👀

 

[Brigsy]

Need to sort that Dipstick out 👀

I keep meaning to buy the metal one to replace it, one day😆

Give the interior a clean today as it was a bit of a shithole and not been done since before Spa.

Cleans up decent enough for 139 thousand miles.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Not a massive lot to update to be fair! Been using it a bit including a run to lincoln 280 ish miles. Great on fuel for 2.0t when driving steady high 30s mpg are easily achievable. Been monitoring coolant level and has not budged since waterpump change so all good.

GIve it a quick clean off.

Have noticed a bit of rear wheelbearing noise from passenger rear, with Croft coming up next month best get it sorted. With this been a r26 it has the larger 30mm rear bearings and generally you stick a set of discs on with pre fitted bearings. Current prices are £250-280 for a pair for discs which made me feel a bit sick as the rear discs are like new and have not done many miles at all, so seemed a shame to change for the sake of a bearing swap.

After a bit of sniffing round discovered @FrogJam Motorsport sell the oem snr rear bearings separate at £45 a piece. Ordered on Monday and arrived today with a free Freddo, Great service.

WIll get it pressed in at the weekend and fitted. Not looking forward to removing the etorx bolts on the caliper carrier, fingers crossed they are ok and not mullered by previous owner.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Weekend update.

Bit of nice weather for a change so its been on daily driver duties. Nice using something fast after diesel all week.

Little & large. South gare with the rc car.

Rear wheelbearing not done yet, its only slightly noisy so not in the danger zone. I might need to remove abs ring when pressing the old one out, so have ordered one in advance incase it breaks which should arrive next week. Once that is here ill get it sorted.

Done a few small jobs today. I bought a r26r washer bottle a while back, cross references with a scenic so cost about a tenner. Its almost half the size/capacity of the original as no headlamp washers, ive binned them and the rear one so dont need large capacity. Gives potential to run brake ducts in the future if i need them as bit of room underneath.

Oem washer bottle top pic, R26r on lower. Typically forgot that washer bottle was full and only took half of it to fill new bottle.

Loom above the grill was looking tatty and the oem pvc tape was falling off. Re wrapped it with loom tape.

Wiring a bit tidier.

I then removed headlamps to give the xenon domes a clean to see if the light output would be improved. I done this on my clio xenons and it made good improvements so thought it was worth a look. Its a simple job on meg2 once headlamp is off, simply unplug bulb, remove 3x torx screws and the full dome comes out the bulb access panel.

Stripped.

Cleaned. Film of muck on them much like window glass when its dirty, quick rub of the cloth and much clearer. Like removing cataracts

Looked much brighter on the drive so took it for a run out to test and the headlamp output is improved on b roads.

Improvements. Meta view smart glasses pic.

Small improvements all round. Makes night driving a bit better.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Small update.

Battery positive cover looked crap so bought a new cover.

New oem ren.

Fitted.

Small wins eh.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Wheel bearing day. Everything stripped off ok and disc off in ten mins. Loads of grease in hub area which did not look like bearing grease but it had chucked some out of both sides regardless, bearing sounded terrible when spinning.

On inspection

Removed abs ring as needed to be off to press the bearing out. Had it in the press and was giving it full send but did not move. Before resorting to heat i took it out and used an old socket and mash hammer to shock it which moved it slightly. Seeing movement refitted to press and it still went with a bang but came out with minimum fuss.

The bearing removed was marked sun - no idea on that one. Cleaned and snr bearing pressed in. Bearing needs to go in one way as seals different too so made sure correct.

Old bearing casing is the perfect mandrel.

Knotty wheel on abs ring recess and new abs ring and circlip fitted.

Refitted torquing bearing to 175nm. I think last bearing was overtorqued, seemed to be pretty tight when i gunned it off. On refit checked brake pads and the verdict was fcuked.

Pad material crumbling assuming heat related from spa.

Calipers had the once over. Noted old pads were tight in the anti rattle shims due to brake dust build up so thoroughly cleaned up. Sliders lubed. Caliper pistons lubed up with red rubber grease and worked in and out. The pistons were not seized and moved easy but just seem to stick in position as always needing light pressure to move. Crap design to be fair!

New pads from the trackday box.

Done.

Used it for some running about this afternoon done 40 miles or so, no wheel bearing noise. Rear discs cleaned up straight away with everything nice and free.

Much better.

Nice easy job. Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Had a bit of spare time so in prep for Croft next week, flushed brake and clutch fluid and fitted the ds1.11 in the front.

Old fluid was around a year old/3 trackdays. Pedal was still solid but needed doing to save any issues. Stuck probe in to check and confirmed.

Not good

Usual position.

Syringed old fluid out of res and filled up to top with fresh Motul rbf600. Used my chinese copy sealey pressure bleeder to flush and it worked great making easy work, no messing about setting up my old easibleed to do the job. Stuck almost a ltr through, old fluid came out looking pretty manky. Clutch fluid looked awful too even though it was bled last time.

Pretty manky.

Front pad change was easy with the ozert pins, ten min job. The ds1.11 pads are about half done now so should last a full day but will monitor whilst at Croft.

Greased lower swivels whilst there. Test driven and all good no issues, braking improved as expected.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[Brigsy]

Updates.

R26 has been in regular use last week as off work. Hit 140k whilst out and about.

Milestone achieved.

I had booked Croft for easter Friday and the weather forecast was constantly changing however it said dry ish, so stuck the technomagnesio/ar1's on. Give it a quick snowfoam and rinse as wheels had not been cleaned after spa.

Croft prep done.

The car needed nothing doing and id been on with other stuff all week, was a case of filling the tank, chuck a few tools in the back and stuck the road wheels in the Kangoo just incase it turned into a wet day. Croft is only 30 mins from me so its no panic.

Come Friday get to Croft and the weather is dry yet cloudy.

Baguettes lined up.

Passed noise test at 97db which is pretty loud considering its a modified stock exhaust. Done sightseeing laps then straight out for hot laps. Took it steady for a few laps to get the pickup off the tyres after Spa which caused a bit of vibration on turn in initially due to running rear tyres on front to get max wear, but soon went after 3 laps or so. After that it was full send and the car was flying.

The car was turning in great and the grip was awesome in comparison to last time i ran it here on older tyres. Brakes consistently good each lap and coolant temps staying stable so ended up doing longer sessions up to 30 mins at a time.

After dinner i went out again and heard noise under braking from the back on the first lap..that familiar noise of pads on the metal.

Baguette life.

Fcuked. Casualty of longer track sessions.

Id meant to upgrade rear pads but had slipped my mind, and just sent it on new motorfactor rears thinking id get a day out of them. The rear brakes do a lot more than expected on the megane and it caught me out. The disc had suffered a bit but was useable, i carry spare pads just incase so it was a 15min fix and back out.

Apart from that hiccup the meg performed awesome. Great day overall.

 

[Brigsy]

A few pics from Croft by RBPS.

Lifting a wheel at Hawthorne on drivers rear, full throttle in 3rd gear.

Give it a post trackday checkup on Sat. Everything ok apart from Brakes..fcuked. Front discs quite badly cracked, with some almost at the edge of the disc so in the bin. Front ds1.11 pads still have another send in them but low ish. Rear discs battle scarred due to metal on metal.

Ive put stock pads back in the front and checked rears over. Id took quite a bit off the 2nd set of pads on the afternoon, if it hadnt rained late on i think i would have also done that set in. Pistons move dead easy, and to mitigate any pad binding in carrier ive binned 1x anti rattle shim so around 1-2mm of clearance/expansion possible. Doesnt appear to make any extra noise when driving so all ok.

Ive got a set of snr rear discs on order and solid brembo hc for the front. Ds2500 rear pads also on order, ill send the ds1.11 fronts again and have another spare set in stock.

Tyres getting low ish. This one has been demoted to drivers rear so it lasts longer.

Overall, moderately expensive day on the consumables.

 

[Brigsy]

With this done i give it a clean. It had metal filings all over the n/s rear wheel, arch and bumper. Korossol soon got rid of that.

Fallout

On comps/road tyres again.

Also give the technomagnesio track wheels a good clean, they had not been done properly since before Spa and had metal all over. Came up pretty good without too much effort using Bh Autowheel.

Clean.

Small list of jobs to do before Anglesey but not too bad.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[RSRowe]

I’m sure the 197 rears fit if you wanted to move to a solid rear aswell Brigsy.

 

[Brigsy]

I’m sure the 197 rears fit if you wanted to move to a solid rear aswell Brigsy.

Bang on the money mate, 197 exactly the same. Ive went for solid/snr rear discs, found a pair new for £180 so not too bad.

Drilled can get in the bin. Not a fan of drilled but was getting my moneys worth out of them, about the only part ive not had to replace on it

 

[Mr Trailer Man]

Can you turn ESP off on these, i think you can?

That's what usually catches people out on the Mk3's as well, it eats the rear pads.

Saying that, your were only road pads so that wouldn't help.

 

[Brigsy]

Can turn esp/asr off on the switch on the r26, i always have it switched off on track. Asr on these is very intrusive and its braking all the time when lively.

The brembo rear pads that it had in (ecp specials by looks of it) did 3x track days and seemed to last so thought id get a day out of a new set of stock pads. I guess the brembo compound handled heat a bit better than the motorfactor specials.

I actually think abs gives a bit of rear bias when yaw sensor detects the car moving, can poss get round that by disconnecting an abs sensor but its occasionally pulled me out the s**t with last min braking.

Interestingly i noted the brakes were still good in the morning but didnt have usual confidence to stand on the anchors last min. Once i changed the rear pads for new/different brand it felt better/was braking later so i guess rears do quite a bit of work on this.

Do wonder if the pad was binding up a little in the anti rattle shims with expansion due to heat, bit like the clio 172 fronts do. Ive binned one shim and hopefully ds2500 rear pads will resolve, and might give a bit more stopping power.

 

[Mr Trailer Man]

Yeah rears do quite a bit on the Megs under heavy braking.

DS2500 or PBS will help a lot. My mate had RC6 all round on his 250 and it stopped like nothing else i'd been in.

Good idea removing the shim, i bet the backing plate does expand a bit when hot.