clio cup questions

[182_blue]

hi,i just bought myself a nearly new 2003 clio cup,i have a few questions about the car,the first being that when i accelerate hard in 1st i get a bumping from the front wheels,its probably me and its probably the front wheels struggling for grip ?,does anyone else get this,when i change up its fine and it of course pulls like a steam train and i dont get it in any other gears and have no other problems with knocking etc,i was just worried that it might be an engine mount.

problem 2 is i cant for the life of me find the shift light (gear change indicator),where abouts on the dash is it,a picture would be very helpfull,do they all have them.

other than that the car is amazing and just flys,on my way back from picking it up i chased a bmw z4 up the m42 and the poor bloke pulled over and let me go past him,i think i scared him as much as i scared myself.

anyway any help or info will be greatfully recieved.

thx

shaun

 

[Turkish]

the knocking is probably axle tramp no-one seems to have solved the problem. some people have experienced other suspension noises tho and there are mods that renault can carry out but it seems argued that the mods dont make any difference in some cases. the shift light is at the bottom right hand part of the instrument cluster and only flashes briefly just before the limiter cuts in. you are more likely to notice it out of the corner of you eye when driving at night

 

[blink172]

Quote: Originally posted by 172cup_nut on 21 February 2004


hi,i just bought myself a nearly new 2003 clio cup,i have a few questions about the car,the first being that when i accelerate hard in 1st i get a bumping from the front wheels,its probably me and its probably the front wheels struggling for grip ?,does anyone else get this,when i change up its fine and it of course pulls like a steam train and i dont get it in any other gears and have no other problems with knocking etc,i was just worried that it might be an engine mount. Use the search button on this one, ongoing thing quite a few people have and has been knocked around over several threads.

problem 2 is i cant for the life of me find the shift light (gear change indicator),where abouts on the dash is it,a picture would be very helpfull,do they all have them. bottom right of the dash, when you turn the ignition on its the green light that looks like the gear sick with gator.

other than that the car is amazing and just flys,on my way back from picking it up i chased a bmw z4 up the m42 and the poor bloke pulled over and let me go past him,i think i scared him as much as i scared myself. The more confident you get, the bigger cars youll take on. You will get surprised what they can do, but dont bite off more than you can chew!

anyway any help or info will be greatfully recieved.

thx

shaun

Welcome to the club and make sure you get signed and stickered up

http://www.cliosport.net/club.asphttp://www.cliosport.net/club.asp

 

[Turkish]

oh and yeah its not uncommon for the engine mount next to the battery to loosen so might be worth checking that

 

[lastmanjackson]

Mine had the same problem. One of the gear box mountings was slightly loose and it had moved forward about a quarter of an inch.

It was better, but it can still do it if your a bit heavy with your right foot and let the clutch go to quick.

It is a common problem. Get them to check it out but dont expect a cure.

Just practice your starts with minimal wheel spin and you wont now its there.

 

[Rich-D]

Ive just changed the front tyres on my Cup and I can now boot it away from a standing start without the banging!!!

The standard Contis just aint up to the job IMO and its them struggling for grip and allowing the engine the thrash backwards & forwards in the engine bay.

Got Uniroyal Rainsport 1s on now and theyre much better!



As for the shift light... thats a crappy little thing in the bottom right hand corner of the clocks.

 

[lastmanjackson]

Problem here is too much grip with the Continentals as they struggle to maintain grip they load and unload the suspension, causing the engine to move back and forth.

I tried Michelins and they improved the problem by the fact that once they spin up they keep spinning till you back off (less grip and no good- dont get them- not the 182 specs though). The continentals would spin then find grip then break again which causes this loading and unloading.

I think the hard wall of the tyre contributes to this as well. I went back to the continentals as this is a far better tyre for handling etc.

Cant comment on the Uniroyals

 

[Moby]

Ive never changed from the contis although, I would have considered a change if I had needed all 4 tyres replaced.

 

[KDF]

The contis are the worst tyres.. second worst in the wet giving way to the Toyo proxies, which hold worst tyre in the wet award

 

[lastmanjackson]

How about the dry though.

Different people like different tyre I guess.

What do you run now out of interest and do you suffer the problem posted by 172cup_nut

 

[y0z2a]

gear box and engine mounts - get them checked

get the suspension fix too.

/y0z

 

[lastmanjackson]

Had all this checked on mine. It wont cure the problem outright.

Had the suspension mount mode done as well. This will not help in this situation as it is not related to the problem.

Sorry to be so negative

 

[BikeMan]

Proxes are great in all weather IMO. Didnt have them on my Cup, but now running them on my 306 Rallye.

Worst tyres of all are the Pirelli P6000s that were fitted to my Rallye when I bought it. Hidiously bad - no grip in wet or dry and no confidence.

 

[lastmanjackson]

Dont think KDF knows what hes talking about.

BikeMan - do you ride motocycles?

If yes, what have you got

 

[KDF]

I know exactly what im talking about as I am talking from experience.

In the dry the proxies owned the contis but the compound is very soft and only lasted me 7 or 8 months.

The conti were much better than the proxies in the wet, but still were crap.. im running uniroyal rainsports now. One other thing, the toyos got rid of a lot of tramlining and torque steer, after putting contis back on to try them again all the tramlining and torque steer was back.

 

[lastmanjackson]

Your experiance !!

As I said before different tyres for different people (driving styles)

The conti tramline because their hard walled like the Bridgestone potenza on my Subaru.

I do find the Conti turn in a lot sharper because of this, so its a bit of give and take as to what you like.

 

[Smokey McPot]

Im running on Michelin Pilot Sports on the front and Contis on the back.

So far so good, much better grip in the dry/damp

Yet to take em out in the rain round my parts.

Vast improvement.

 

[Rich-D]

The Contis are not great in any conditions...

 

[KDF]

Quote: Originally posted by lastmanjackson on 24 February 2004
Your experiance !!


What other kind of experience can you get like ?

 

[CUP80Y]

In my experience - rainsports good in wet, not as grippy as the pirellis and tread brakes up driving hard on roads in the dry.

Contis - must say I found them to be pretty good all weathers. Although they did get quite slippy once the tread had worn down significantly!

Pirelli p zero neros im on at the moment are brilliant in the wet, and very good in the dry. I have one sh*t tyre on the back (due to puncture and it was the only one they had in stock) and an older pirelli p z nero which makes for lots of lift off oversteer fun!!!

Tyres dont last very long on the cup anyway so you may as well go for grip and f**k longevity!!!

 

[y0z2a]

I am swapping A539s for GSD3s on a 205 rather than the 195.

/y0z

 

[D-CUP]

Theres nothing wrong with the contis. If youre driving fast enough on the roads to lose traction in the wet then you are an idiot who shouldnt be behind the wheel.

 

[Mark@Ritchspeed]

Ive used the Toyo Proxies in extreme conditions in all weathers and on many wet race tracks . Im not going to say they are the very best , but they rank up near the top .

When you factor in the price , IMO they are a very good tyre . They do work noticeably better if their slightly under-inflated from the car manufacturers specs .

I used to run them at 27/25psi front/rear in wet conditions .

 

[182_blue]

hi,thanks everyone for the help,it seems to me that renault just dont take the problem seriously enough,i know its just an irratation but i took someone out in it today and it was wet therefore it did it twice as i lost traction,i wasnt even going that quick really,and they thought i had broken something,i have begun to pull away a little better by not so much revs and changing up a bit quicker,but this seems to defeat the point of having a car that is supposed to have such a good 0-60 time as you spend most of the time trying not to make is sound like someone is going mental under the bonnet with a sledge hammer.

someone mentioned the suspension fix ??whats that,ive not heard that one before,more information would be good

has anyone tried competition engine mounts,i.e the polyurethene types,not sure if you can get them,but im sure these would help the problem.

thanks

shaun

 

[Rallye-King]

Quote: Originally posted by Rich-D on 23 February 2004


Ive just changed the front tyres on my Cup and I can now boot it away from a standing start without the banging!!!

The standard Contis just aint up to the job IMO and its them struggling for grip and allowing the engine the thrash backwards & forwards in the engine bay.

Got Uniroyal Rainsport 1s on now and theyre much better!



As for the shift light... thats a crappy little thing in the bottom right hand corner of the clocks.

Arent UniRoyal Continentals budget brand??

 

[Brazo]

What tyres would people recoomend for a cup for maximum grip and confidence factor - dry use only

Oh and also to reduce tramlining?



Cheers

 

[Mark@Ritchspeed]

Maximum dry weather grip would probably be something like Yoko a048s . I use these as dry weather tyres for the Williams and they provide more than enough grip .

You could even stick proper rally slicks on which are in theory road legal , but the grip they give would be too much for road car suspension , so wouldnt give any real advantage over the Yokos.

 

[KDF]

Quote: Originally posted by D-CUP on 24 February 2004Theres nothing wrong with the contis. If youre driving fast enough on the roads to lose traction in the wet then you are an idiot who shouldnt be behind the wheel.  

Ye but loosing traction going 15mph round a roundabout in mildly damp conditions, then its a case of sh*t tyres.. not sh*t driver.

As tested on topgear, with budget no-name tyres on they did a lap 1 second slower than with standard tyres, with performance tyres on they did it 1 second quicker. And that was on a very short track so 1 second is a huge difference, plus with the performance they guy was able to hold the proper lines at speed.

 

[TheCake]

Quote: Originally posted by Rich-D on 23 February 2004


Ive just changed the front tyres on my Cup and I can now boot it away from a standing start without the banging!!!

The standard Contis just aint up to the job IMO and its them struggling for grip and allowing the engine the thrash backwards & forwards in the engine bay.

Got Uniroyal Rainsport 1s on now and theyre much better!

Agreed Rich. Im running them to. They rock.

 

[si_cup]

Yep, I too am a rainsport convert