Clio 172 Cup - Track Project

[williamsclio1]

Yeah I used about £70 worth of the stuff, I have heard on the FB page that others that filed up are also facing miss fires? Do you know what this will be down to? Would a fresh full tank of fuel resolve it or do we think it will have buggered something?

 

[Sir_Dave]

Yeah I used about £70 worth of the stuff, I have heard on the FB page that others that filed up are also facing miss fires? Do you know what this will be down to? Would a fresh full tank of fuel resolve it or do we think it will have buggered something?

I originally thought that the octane might simply be a lot lower than the 98/99 my car is mapped for, but it might just be old/stale/knackered etc if a load of clios have issues as well!!! I'm just aiming to use it all/drain it out, then fill back up with the usual VPower that i use, will also need new plugs. My spark plug melted the end off, so ill also have to do a compression test to make sure it didnt munch the valves on the way through the engine

 

[rttam]

just a heads up not sure if they have emailed you but just bought a new pms shifter and the damper and was sent an email saying the damper is out of stock for at least 4 weeks so got a refund for now and see how i get on if its really bad ill either try and make something or wait till its back in stock. hope its not too bad as mines going on my daily lol

 

[williamsclio1]

just a heads up not sure if they have emailed you but just bought a new pms shifter and the damper and was sent an email saying the damper is out of stock for at least 4 weeks so got a refund for now and see how i get on if its really bad ill either try and make something or wait till its back in stock. hope its not too bad as mines going on my daily lol

Yeah i got the email but I said I was willing to wait, hope its no more than 4 weeks, to be honest after the research I have carried out it does seem that mine is a lot louder than others so will be checking the heat shield etc.

 

[williamsclio1]

03/03/2016

Pay day, so purchase black power flex bushes and stranded OEM rear shocks, also picked up some decent HT leads for £65 instead of £80

Mate sent me a thermostat and brake pads:

Going to see how I get on with these Ferodo pads for now as I can get them dirt cheap and will do a comparison with them against Carbone Lorraine CL6 pads in the long run, as I can have multiple sets of the Frodo pads for the price of a set of the others, and I don't mind changing a set each track day as only takes 15 mins a side.

Put the wing mirror Renault Sport stickers on, not to sure about them at the moment but we'll see

Also enquired about having my stripped spare callipers shot blasted and power coated.

Still can connect my OBD2 to the car keeps saying failed, anyone else had this, its powering up from the port just won't connect and really want to see what the ECU says the miss fire is in relation to. Device works fine on other Clio and has previously worked on my 172.

 

[Diego_tit]

OEM thermostat or clio 197?

 

[williamsclio1]

OEM thermostat or clio 197?

My mate works at parts place and it was the one based on my Reg plate so more than likely OEM, whys that mate?

 

[JKING3008]

Nice, like to see the comparison aswell between the rc6.

I will be going cams and ported manifold, though undecided which cams still lol.

 

[williamsclio1]

Perhaps which ever set are for sale when you have the funds :smile: 197 Cams usually go for around £60 but only likely to see about 8bhp ish.

 

[williamsclio1]

08/03/2016

Did a pad change at the end of last week

Really want to get the other set shot blasted and treated so I can have a decent set working on the car.

Finally got the ODBII reader to work

Nothing major just carbon canister and indication that the lamba sensor issues but its not fitted hence the fault.

New rear OEM shocks have arrived for £80 delivered.

Just waiting on the rear bushes and HT leads and that will be the next work to carry out.

 

[JKING3008]

Do you run the rc6/ ds2500 pads just on the front and standards on rear or rc6/ ds2500 front and rear?

 

[williamsclio1]

04/07/2016

So its been a fair while since I did an update, partly due to the fact we have just purchased a house and that has been keeping my busy.

Car still has the misfire but I have found out that there is an issue with the cabling to the ECU so I need to look in to this further, also tonight the car struggled to start and I think the stater motor might be on the way out which is a pain in the ****.

Nothing but electrical issues these French motors.

I have purchased some new standard rear shocks and rear bushes which I will hopefully find time to fit next weekend.

Pair of R888R tyres, still need to get another pair, just waiting until the prices are lower again

Anyway I managed to find time on Sunday to give the car a full detail, it was a hell of a mess as I had been using it to go to and from Glastonbury festival.

Before:

After:

Whats that lurking in the back ground

Also started cleaning the track wheels, going to get the R888R's fitted tomorrow.

 

[Stefan.]

Nice update

Still got the frp i see, love it

 

[Jaymartin10]

Yeah I used about £70 worth of the stuff, I have heard on the FB page that others that filed up are also facing miss fires? Do you know what this will be down to? Would a fresh full tank of fuel resolve it or do we think it will have buggered something?

Where did you get the extended boot carpet from mate?

 

[williamsclio1]

05/07/2016

So managed to get some yellow spray paint today to finally spray the centre caps for the track wheels, not the best colour match in the world but it will do.

Got the R888R fitted today

New Dodo Juice bag and a few more cleaning bits arrived today as well.

 

[williamsclio1]

18/07/2016

Why is it that the easiest of jobs always turn out to be such a *****.

Anyway the bonnet pins are finally in after plenty of swearing and shouting:

Still need to fit the new rear bushes, rear shocks and resolve misfire.

 

[williamsclio1]

30/09/2016

So finished swapping the wheels over this evening, and took the car for a drive, looking forward to testing the tyres out n track, really enjoying the look again with the wheels back on, what do others think?

 

[williamsclio1]

31/09/2016

So its started

To be honest when I first started removing everything I thought it's not actually that heavy, but it soon adds up, that pile has a fair amount of weight to it, will total it up to see how much I've managed to shift. TBH probably won't even be the weight of the cage ��

By tomorrow I should have all the other bits out as there isn't much left.

 

[williamsclio1]

21/09/2016

So sorted out a replacement pedal to eliminate that as a possible issues with the car going in to limp mode.

I let the car warm up and took for some what of a hammering, god what a car, bloody love it, thought after driving the M5 it wouldn't feel as good as it used to, but it felt even better, such a raw feeling of driving, so loud, angry, snatchy, grippy, not to mention I can pedal this where as the BMW its all about straight line for now. However this was short lived as the car went in to limp mode again a couple of times before returning home

The thermostat is obviously still playing up as it was kicking in around 6600 instead of the potential 7200 so thats the next thing, drain the fluid and swap over, hoping that its something to do with that all be it unlikely.

Really hoping to get it sorted now, as really want to attend another track day before the bad wether sets in.

 

[williamsclio1]

27/12/2016

So finally got the Clio sorted took it to Dan Potter at SJMotorsport in Glastonbury and after some time Dan figured out that it was the actual ECU that was faulty, so I managed to source a replacement one with UCH and Key and Dan copied the map over for me.

He also replaced the rear bushes for me which sounded like a complete nightmare. Thermostat also swapped over and had a MOT carried out which is passed

Its sooooo good to have it back and even with the recent purchase of the M5 I still absolute love it, for a start its a car I can actually pedal, where as its all straight line on the M5.

Managed to find time this weekend to give it a good clean, before putting away till the new year in a mates garage.

So until the new year, defiantly going to try and do more track days, only managed two this year Bedford and Rockingham and they were brilliant fun.

 

[williamsclio1]

22/03/2017

I've got a track day at Combe on Friday so it was time to get the car ready, and surprise surprise more electrical issues, this time starting issues again!

I got so fed up, so anyway checked the battery earth, checked the earth strap on the gear box, still not luck, eventually removed and cleaned the crank sensor and still nothing. Battery was literally brand new as I replaced it that morning.

So after taking some advice and instead of just checking the fuses and relays I removed each one and cleaned up the pins and cleaned the holders with WD40.

Anyway once all refitted car fired up first time without anymore issues and has been fine all evening after starting a number of times, so hopefully thats that sorted now moving forward.

So then it was on to the rear nsr calliper as it has seized and caused the rear disc to crack, was also a good chance to replace the rear pads and bleed the brakes.

So that was this evening sorted, took for a drive and I've fallen in love with it again, what a car, the new tyres R888R are fantastic and really looking forward to trying them out properly.

Forgot how noisy it is now what its been stripped, but what a toy. Roll on Friday.

One last thing to mention I have purchased some Ferodo DS2500 track pads and I have a spare set of new Brembo high carbon discs so tomorrow evening I will get them replaced After that what with new tyres new brakes all round and new brake fluid it should be perfect, especially as Combe is a quick track, good brakes is a must.

 

[Bluebeard]

See you at Combe on Friday! ;-)

 

[williamsclio1]

20/04/2017

Better late than never I suppose, so Castle Combe track day.....love it, what a great track. Took a while for the confidence to grow but come the end of the day we where lapping at around 1 min 28 seconds and considering there was 2 extra chicane coned sections it was a respectable time.

R888R tyres and DS2500 Wow, game changer stopping power was stunning and never had the car felt so progressive with tyres and be so controllable.

My mate taking the car out for a heated one:



Great to go with a mate in his newly purchased track car, he has coil overs and I took his out and yeah huge difference 100% a mod for mine in the future:

Had a great day, did have an incident before lunch time where I was crashed into with someone over taking on a bend, however I was very lucky as he hit my wheel and caused only cosmetic damage, he on the other hand knocked out his steering rack and ruined his day:

Here is the video of the moment of impact, some choice language as you can imagine, frustratingly all the go proc footage came out the same in that you couldn't see out of the windscreen, so no hot lap videos to share.

The car that hit me on the flat bed ready to go home as couldn’t be repaired:

To be fair the kiddy came over to apologies.

So few random photos from the day:

Mates Cup:

Few track snaps:

Special thanks to Chaydon Ford for taking these photos for me

Last photo of the day:

Then the journey home:

So things to do:

Starter motor packed up, already sourced a new one so replacing it this week.

Play in the PMS gear shifter, replace plastic joint between shifter selected and bottom of gear box, replace bearings in shifter

Swap front wheel and back wheels

Sort out radiator fan as it wasn't kicking in (hopefully just a rely)

Last special thanks for Simon Joy for coming along with the support vehicle and giving me track guidance.

So next outing pretty soon, 7th May Blyton park on the Clio Owners Club Weekender. Cant wait!

 

[williamsclio1]

05/05/2017

First off thanks for the advice on the spot mode on the Go Pro, I have put that setting on.

So been busy getting a few things sorted on the Cup ready for this Sunday at Blyton, first off was to get the car jacked up and check everything is in order and get ready to change the starter motor:

Managed to change the starter motor over without to much hassle and not having to removed the manifold I also fitted the heat shield so should stop the heat damaging the replacement one. Whilst there I noticed that the bottom of the radiator was lose so I used some trusty zip ties to sort that little issue.

I then removed the front seats and finished stripping out the rest of the interior from where I hadn’t done in properly previously. I also removed the airbag ECU and lots more wiring.

All adds up:

Passenger side:

Should of applied some WD40 to the rear wiper blade before trying to remove, snapped my tool. Eventually had to hacksaw it off:

Took the car out for a spin and the car was limited to 6700 instead of 7200, I replaced the thermostat and I will find out this evening if its resolved the issue:

I gave the engine bay a quick wipe over:

Last thing to do was to swap the front and rear wheels over, it does however seem as if the impact has shifted the rear beam over, it was more to the one side but its defiantly further over now. So after this weekend at Blyton before the next track day I need to get a replacement one.

After that there was just the to give it a wash and a wax:

Applied some stickers from my mates company, highly recommend for Renault and Peugeot parts.

Car all loaded and ready to go:

 

[williamsclio1]

09/05/2017

Blyton, well what a day left the house at 5:30am and didn’t get home till 10:40pm and did over 600 miles but what a brilliant day.

Morning excitement:

Service station to meet the other lads:

Checking tyre pressures and shifting tyres around for equal wear.

Itching to get out on track:

Took a while to get used to the track in the morning and after myself and my mate went out and had done a few laps we decided to re-connect the rear ARB as since I was last used I have replaced the tyres and rear bushes. We are so glad we did as the next few sessions the car felt great and so much more controllable.

Little video of the morning session:

Clio 172 Cup - Blyton - YouTube

Slight issue with the car with the fan not kicking in again but whilst out on track the temperature stayed at the midpoint. Also to note at this point how bloody good the DS2500 pads where, all day absolutely brilliant.

Me and Tom who owns the other Cup where battling relentlessly and god knows how many laps we put in but it was a lot, unfortunately the Go Pro’s ran out of battery so we had no footage of us going head to head but was great fun as they are both very evenly matched. Where he has the better suspension I have the more BHP.

What I have noticed is that as I don’t have a motorsport gear box mount but a motorsport engine mount and dog bone its putting far to much stress on the standard mount and I must get this replaced before the next track day as its allowing far to much movement and its knocking.

Here is a video of me doing pretty well against a lot of the other cars there on the day.

Clio 172 Cup - Blyton (Afternoon) - YouTube

Now around 4pm towards the end of a good few laps and really pushing the car, disaster struck, round the slowest corner of the track (the start / finish) my wheel decided to leave the car, cheap eBay studs snapped. The wheel over took us and went off in to the field. I was expecting to get out to see the whole front of the car smashed up but apart from the disc which was no longer round, the front splitter being smashed to bits and the callipers being on fire lol it didn’t seem to bad.

Can see the smoke from the callipers:

It wasn’t long before the marshalss had the fire put out and had the car removed from the gravel trap:

Meanwhile I went off to find my front wheel:

Needless to say the wheel was ****ed from where the disc had struck the alloy:

Now I was very lucky to get away with the damage I did tbh and that it didn’t happen on a quicker corner, in order to get home I needed to borrow a wheel and drill out the snapped off studs in the hub, we managed to get two out and I careful drove home stopping every so often to check they where done up enough.

So parts now required:
OZ F1 (Purchased)
Spacers
Studs
Coolant temp sensor
Brembo disc
Hub
Gear box mount

So given the fact the bloody wheel left the car I think I got of lightly. I would just like to thank my mates that where with me for helping me out and all the marshals and other Clio owners who lent me tools and a hand to get the car back to a suitable state to drive home.

Limp home:

Thanks to those who took these great photos of my car out on track

So what have I learnt from this event, Blyton is brilliant fun and great for Clios and the most important is don’t buy cheap studs, getting these now instead:

http://www.pure-motorsport.co.uk/cl...-m12-stud-conversion-kit-with-steel-nuts.html

Final note is to the Clio owners club and those that run it as it was a fantastic day and I can see why they keep going back to Blyton each year, sorry if we didn't engage much with people but we just love being out on track so much.

 

[Daz.]

lucky escape, but makes it a memorable trip!

 

[masekwm]

Can't believe you were able to drive it home when I saw the photos on CSOC on Sunday I thought you'd be stranded.

The Weekender has always been a good weekend away, still gutted I missed this one

 

[rainbird]

Shame to hear the bad news, but glad things worked out as well as can be expected for you. Onwards and upwards, it'll be back better than ever

 

[Clio Nabz]

Just read this, brill thread excellent progress keep it up, do you still have/use the Clio?

 

[R29TJR]

Can I ask what stud you purchased from eBay? Not trying to bad mouth company's its the fact I have a set awaiting to go on!