Dads made an awesome thing for cup compensator

[nosluom]

Aup all

Bit of a long story, my 172 cup failed its MOT on friday for the following reasons:

Front discs were nailed
Brake compensator missing
Rear brake efficiency

Anyway we changed the front discs and pads. Must say i was shocked at the state of the discs on the inside. There was nothing left of them at all and my inside pads had nothing on them, madness for a car thats only 15,000 miles old. If the MOT place fails your cup for having excessively pitted front discs and they look fine from the outside of the wheel, wait til you take them off, they're definately correct in their analysis!!!

Anyway second point as most of you will know that have a 172 cup, they do actually have a brake compensator but it isn't connected to the axle.

We changed the pads on the rear because they were gone which we thought would improve the brake efficiency but you could still move the back wheels by hand when the brake was on full. I know the cup is set up from the factory to give low rear brake efficiency but its unbelievable really being as its a car for everyday use on the roads as well as the track. The brakes might as well not be there with the amount of force they give, oddest setup me and my dad had ever seen. I know its to stop the back wheels locking up under heavy braking on a track but its a pathetic design for normal roads.

After a long look at things we realised when you pushed the compensator fully up towards the bottom of the car and pressed the brake, the wheels locked solid and brakes were now perfect on the back. If you dont push the compensator up and press the brake, the compensator drops ever so slightly back towards the ground and the brakes are pathetic again.

As was the case we realised the only way to get full braking on the back and good efficiency was to connect the compensator up to the axle, this way the compensator would be pushed back up when the suspension is in force on the car. A couple of hours later and dad has created the most amazing connector thing to connect the compensator to the axle. When connected up the compensator is activated by the force of the suspension on the axle pushing up against it.

I know this is a thing that you can get from a standard 172 but this little device dad has made is totally removable with two bolts and fits in seconds so the car can be put perfectly back to standard once the MOT has been done and cup braking resumed lol. He's thinking of making a few more if anyone else is interested, is a great little thing for getting the cups through an MOT and saves having all the hastle with renault etc

Sorry for the long post, will try and get some pics up of it!!

 

[Ex-User (19928)]

There was nothing left of them at all and my inside pads had nothing on them, madness for a car thats only 15,000 miles old.

I can go through pads on my DCi in 12,000 miles... Not sure it'd be that hard in a 2.0 Clio...

 

[Fred@BTM]

still no need for the connection

 

[DamoWales]

OOoooooh!!

I better check my brake pads then in my dci lol

 

[BenR]

why dont you just adjust the compensator for the MOT then rather than make something to attached, then remove it?

OR......point out to the MOT the VOSA technical notice and get him to pass it like they should of.

 

[nosluom]

just personally think its better because although they should pass you for not having the compensator attached, they can still fail you for the rear brake efficiency. Just think its a good thing to get you through the MOT without all the hassle. Personally myself think its dangerous as well to have that little pressure on the rear brake pads for everyday use, my two thoughts anyway so im a happy chappy lol :approve:

 

[BenR]

well like i said, you can adjust it.

Overbraking a car which has next to no weight on the rear and a stiff rear setup = oversteer and trail oversteer.......not what you want on the road and in the wet, which is probably why they dont have much rear force.

Also its not really designed to take passengers so load compensation isnt an issue.

Add to the fact that weight transfer under braking reduces the need even further to have high rear effort.

You might be making it more dangerous as you dont technically know what effort it needs on the rear, of if you want increased effort on compression of the rear.

 

[caymanr26]

fair play - he sounds a handy bloke - pushing it getting my dad to make me a sandwich! lol!

 

[jimbo666]

MOT newsletter 31 i do believe.

 

[nosluom]

ben mate, the device isn't going to be kept on my car, like i said thats the good thing about it, takes a minute to fit and saves messing with the bias come mot time which you shouldnt touch anyway because its been factory set. Just think its a lot quicker than fully jacking the car up, trying to unscrew the stupid star bolts on the heatshield and having to mess with the brake bias. This nice little device can be taken off in 2 secs after the MOT thats all i was getting at,

I know all about the issue whatever VOSA thing, i just posted this up because i thought it would be handy for people. Im not here to be proved wrong, just thought it was a good device

 

[caymanr26]

I think it sounds great - I had a garage (national tyres cardiff) refuse to MOT my 172 yesterday as it had a non standard exhaust and is apparently too low - these points are a lod of b****cks and had the car mot'd elsewhere without a problem apart from emissions far too high but ill sort that - but my point is MOT's are a pain - especially now you have to pay for a re-test, the testers dont know one car from the next so anything you can do to make it easy is a good idea in my eyes - good on you

 

[caymanr26]

and your dad

 

[nosluom]

cheers mate!! , you're right MOT's are becoming a nightmare with having to pay for a retest, ah well all part of owning a pocket rocket!! Nice oil change before winter and a new filter and mine should be happy during the cold months ahead lol!

 

[caymanr26]

yeah i hope so too - with the warranty just running out I hope mine has got all of its problems out the way and no new ones appear - some of the money i would have spent on modding will end up being spent on fixing it from now on!

 

[Kris 172]

good for you and your dad mate, glad you sorted it.

Had my cup MOT'd a week ago but changed discs and pads first as i knew they were low.

No problems on my part about compensator as the garage I took it too took the initiative to call Renault and checked it first.

However what you and your dad have done I think is great especially with alot of garages becoming fussy with things like this

Again fair play to you and your dad

 

[nosluom]

thanks mate, appreciate your comments!! It was just nice to do something to sort it without having to go through the hassle with renault etc. Pretty lucky i have an in house mechanic that will do all that on my brakes for 15 quid and a couple of speciality beers lol. Next thing is to sort my bloody whirring engine!!

 

[Kris 172]

No worries mate.

Oh dear hope you get the engine sorted, asap

 

[G_F]

Fair paly to you both, but if you are taking it off after the MOT anyway, why not just of printed the sheet out and takin that down with you, 5second job, compared to an hour or so.

 

[Brown.]

70% front 30% back...no more...no less!!!!! dont quote me on that lol