Danith's Clio RS 220 Trophy ph2

[Danith]

Another one of my threads. Sorry. But this time it's a Clio

They always come back - as they say (or did) on here. After a number of Renaultsports, mainly clios - 1 x clio 1.8 16v, 2 x ph1 172, 1 x 172 Cup, 1 x RS Twingo 133, 1 x R26 Megane - I'm back in an RS Clio again, this time in mk4 guise.

Did I want another Clio? I'd have liked a mk3 200 to be honest, I used my brother's during my stay with him and really liked it. But this time I needed an auto with 4 doors, which I tried with a Seat Leon Cupra 300 ST, which was nice, but expensive to buy and was a bit excessive for what I needed it for. Plus it was a bit lacking in involvement and quite poorly built. Another Octavia VRS Mk3.5 DSG was out of the question as the prices had rocketed. I don't do DERV so that ruled most of the autos out for the price point I was looking at.

So decided I wanted to try one of these. Petrol, auto (sort of), 5 doors, within budget, fun and in a decent colour (I won't buy black/grey/white cars if I can). Useable for everyday commuting on the motorways, space for my little one, trips away and fine for a track day if I ever fancied it.

It's a 2017 (66 plate) ph2 Clio EDC 220 RS Trophy - James' old car. 70k miles in Liquid yellow, with the optional BOSE stereo, heated leather interior and Akrapovic exhaust. I've had it 5 months now and done a fair bit of refreshing/tidying as well as taken it on Oulton to see how it got on, on track (very very good platform).

Here it is when I got it back in Sept 23 and some shots from it at Oulton in November - totally standard, just ATE typ 200 fluid. It did destroy my pads and scrubbed the walls of the tyres, but apart from that it was faultless.

 

[Danith]

So as I do with all my cars, to give it some sort of maintenance record and history, here are the updates since I bought it back in Sept.

First things first - to bring it into this decade, I went straight to Stage X in Coventry to have the RS monitor and android auto installed. £200 and an hr later, all good and now could plug my phone in to use google maps, YT music etc. Plus I could keep an eye on coolant temp, oil temp, clutch temps, etc.
When I got it home, I started to give it a clean up and remove the ITG induction kit. Wasn't for me with all the whooshy noises, so stuck the OEM airbox back in and dropped a K&N panel filter in there instead.

I had also noticed (and worried like I do) that there was an issue with the steering as the car pulled to the right on acceleration. Looking at the tyres, it seemed these may be the cuplrit. Driver's side had about 4mm whereas the passenger was on the limit (same on both axles). So swapped them around and it was sorted - phew. But for good measure I decided to put new rubber on all corners and a much more comfortable size (OEM are 205 40 18) in 225 40 18. Opted for a set of Continental premium contact 7s in 225 40 18 and they're a massive improvement in looks and comfort. They're a brilliant performing tyre too as I found out at Oulton.

Had a clean up underneath too. Seems a common theme with renaults to have the front subframe/rad support dissolve away. So I cleaned up the front rad support with a wire brush attachment, some kurust rust converter and repainted it with some black paint I had in the garage.

The rear beam will need cleaning up in summer too, but it's only surface rust so no urgency. However there was an annoying rattle noise from the passenger side - turns out that one of the handbrake cable brackets had snapped and was clanging on the beam itself. So removed that for now, will sort properly when I tidy the rear beam.

It's a Renault, so it's not without it's niggles. Chasing the interior rattles has become a full time job like whack-a-mole, you get rid of one and another turns up. Slowly getting there though although some I'll just have to live with as the Bose stereo, although excellent, is too solid for a car like this. I also discovered that the AC wasn't blowing cold and the front end had a clunk noise that got noticeably louder (and could feel it through the floor) after Oulton - all sorted now by Mick at Diamond motors (but what an absolute BALLACHE it was after going to multiple garages/ac specialists to fix - more on that later).

Soon after buying it I got it straight in to a place near me for a major service - new plugs, aux belt, aux tensioner, oil and filter, gearbox oil, cabin filter, coolant flush (with the correct Renault Type D this time), bosch wiper blades. Just to be "belt and braces" as I am with everything, especially cars. So that's done now. All genuine parts of course.

Over the last 5 months I've also:

- Had the wheels redone in silver as I really don't like black wheels
- New PBS prorace pads in the front as Oulton killed the OEMs (have some PBS to put in the rear)
- Replaced the main upper engine mount for new (just to refresh)
- Fitted powerflex inserts to the gearbox and main engine mounts (yellow)
- Changed the lower dog bone for a complete Powerflex unit (yellow)
- Swapped out the old red stitched mats for plain OEM Renault ones
- Added gloss black diamond covers front and rear
- De-badged the rear tailgate and replaced the chrome badges with anthracite 'Trophy' and 'R.S.' decals
- Bought a used RS steering wheel to send off to @snappy
- Stuck a £7 ebay EZ lip to the front end (makes a big difference to the looks)
- Replaced the hot side intercooler pipework gasket as it was whistling after Oulton
- Painted the front calipers (crap grey colour, will be getting done properly again)
- AC diagnosed/investigated 4 times and finally fixed (details below)
- new driver's side ball joint

I've got another track day in it this month on the 21st at Oulton and have bought some used 17" tibors off Mick, so I can fit the MRF semi slicks (hopefully) to use.

Then after that my plans are (with parts I got in November):

- Fit new rear Brembo discs and PBS pads
- Fit the stud and nut conversion
- Fit stainless braided lines (from Proline)
- Fit the rear 10mm stub axle spacers and front 16mm Eibach spacers
- Fit a Forge boost hose pipe kit I have in black
- Fit the Airtec aluminium cold side boost pipe (oem plastic ones tend to fail)
- Fit a yellow silicone intake elbow (KTEC one)
- Replace the driver's side rear caliper (current one looks like it's starting to stick)
- Repaint all the calipers (DIY silver or properly in LY)
- Treat and paint the rear beam
- Snappy steering wheel and gear stick retrim

As for mapping and mods, I really don't think I'm going to bother other than the above. Maybe a 4 pot Brembo setup off a mk3 if a cheap set comes up.
It'll be the first car since 1998 that I've not lowered too I find the stock height almost perfect. Ideally I'd like the front end 10mm lower but I've been told Grams/Cooksports will do this, but because they are a softer spring. With 225 tyres and spacers this may cause rubbing issues which I don't want.

 

[Danith]

The AC issue:

As mentioned above, I noticed that the AC wasn't blowing cold air when I got it. And it was a hot day, so everything in the car was sticky

So first major thing to sort was that, for me (other than tyres). I can't live without working AC (and android auto/cruise control), even in winter. It gets all clammy in the car and I can't stand it.

Timeline of fix (hope this can help other users):

1. Week later, mobile guy comes out and regasses (R1234lyf gas too!). £60 which is way too cheap for R1234lyf and says compressor isn't kicking in so suspects compressor
2. AC specialist - very good bloke. Spent ages on the car and only charged for a regas (as bloke number one just added a little bit with an ECP recharge kit apparently). Said he'd checked everything, no leaks, holding gas, etc. Compressor was kicking in but it's a wiring issue as it's just not playing ball. Advises to go to an auto electrician. £120 gas charge
3. Booked in with highly recommended auto electrician nearby. But I got spooked when heard of massive labour rates and no idea of how long it might take to diagnose and repair. Cancelled that
4. Garage locally told me to try another garage that is good with electrics. Left it with them and they charged me £100 for their time saying they'd spent a couple hrs on it and switched the relays which was apparently now making the compressor work, but it still wasn't blowing cold. FFS
5. Got in touch with Magic Mick at Diamond. Went down, plugged it in. Weird error code. Needed further digging with Renault on the error code. Advised to order a valeo compressor and condenser from autodoc (£500). Booked back in for December. Mick spent god knows how many hours diagnosing with the help of Renauly UK. Long story short but it wasn't the compressor or condenser, it was a wiring fault. A + wire had rubbed and shorted out the AC control module under the dash. £60 used part ordered, fitted and WE HAVE WORKING AIRCON! Cheap parts but very labour intensive, so that was a big bill but it's done! He or Renault have never had that before (lucky me) so hopefully that learning can be passed on. Sent the compressor and condenser back to Autodoc and got money back for those, at least


I can now drive the car in comfort and don't feel all sticky and minging when driving it

 

[Danith]

Back from Diamond after a wash and the 17 inch track wheels I snagged

 

[S-JM]

Looks outstanding on silver wheels, great writeup .

 

[Krarl]

Looks great on silver wheels!

@Ol’ Tarby selling dodgy motors as usual👀

 

[Danith]

Looks great on silver wheels!

@Ol’ Tarby selling dodgy motors as usual👀

Used Renault innit. I'm sure something else will raise it's head soon.

Silver wheels are a must, so much nicer.

 

[Ol’ Tarby]

Was it one of the front tyres that was on the limit? I replaced those both together, odd

I miss that car so much though. Glad you've gone your usual OCD with it 😁

 

[Danith]

Was it one of the front tyres that was on the limit? I replaced those both together, odd

I miss that car so much though. Glad you've gone your usual OCD with it 😁

Can't remember they lasted a couple of days with me. Was always gonna got 225.

Think 2 were like 2mm maybe 3. Other 2 were 4 or 5.

The conti 7 are such a good tyre for the cost. 380 fitted I think I got them for after cashback etc. Did kinda scuff the fronts up a bit at Oulton, quite soft walls.

 

[imprezaworks]

Looks ace.

 

[Matt Cup]

Silver wheels.

Gonna mention that stagex to my bro see if they can do adaptions to his head unit? Do you know if it’s just android auto or can they do CarPlay too?

 

[RSRowe]

I like these alot

 

[Danith]

Silver wheels.

View attachment 1679242


Gonna mention that stagex to my bro see if they can do adaptions to his head unit? Do you know if it’s just android auto or can they do CarPlay too?

There are a few folk who can do it now. @Adey. Has managed it. I think it's android only though, as they're an android unit.

 

[Danith]

.

 

[Danith]

What's a thread without photos.......

 

[Krarl]

What's a thread without photos......

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

I really wasn't a fan of these when they came out, but they've grown on me a lot over the last couple of years. The facelift front end with the little chequer DRLs lifts them a lot especially.

 

[Danith]

Braved the cold today to tidy up the brakes and get it (more) ready for Oulton on the 21st.
I will have to renew the rear calipers (got a rebuilt pair in the garage) and fit the braided lines another time, didn't fancy getting brake fluid all over me today.

New brembo rear discs, pbs pro race rear pads to match the fronts, pure motorsport rear stub axle 10mm spacers, stud and nut conversion kit with 16mm front eibach hubcentric spacers.

Not too bad a job. Getting the old oem stub axle bolts was the biggest ballache. Looks a lot better now, only issue is that I now need to get some camber shim(s) as the driver's side has a tiny bit of negative camber but the passenger side has a good degree or so, eyeballing it. Will get it measured and order a/some shims from pure.

Also, had a horrible clicking noise since I was last at Oulton in November, that I could feel when turning the wheel on the spot (was fine when on the move). No where near as bad after Mick fitted a new ball joint. But it'd still make a nasty click every now and again. Forums suggested it was a common issue of needing to tighten the 2 steering rack subframe mounting bolts. Did them up - they definitely needed a nip - and all sorted. Buzzing. It was a horrible noise/feeling.

 

[Danith]

Cheap parts? Not really. But these days you're thankful they just have them in the country and not on back order like 80% of Renault parts.

 

[Danith]

Another (and finally the last at the moment) annoying clunk sorted.

PBS pads up front are about 0.5mm smaller backing plates and were moving in the caliper when braking. Causing an irritating clack when pressing brakes.

Had it on other cars, pretty common for track and aftermarket pads. Guess it's to let them expand with heat.

However I can't deal with it, driving everyday. So caked the ends in copper grease and all sorted.

Makes a good case to buy some mk3 clio brembos though 😁

 

[aldo_87]

Thats excellent on silver wheels!!

 

[Danith]

Proline braided lines on, thanks again to @JamesBryan for coming over to fit them.
Didn't realise it was the ones under the car on the rear, what a ballache.

Fronts a bit easier but such a messy job. Might have to do it all over again if I get some front brembos.

Oulton on weds.

 

[JamesBryan]

Love brake fluid me 😂

 

[Danith]

Glad we fitted those front braided lines 😂

Sold some parts from the loft. Why not, can't beat brand new bits.

Man maths - I saved on a caliper repaint, new road pads and will have sorted the annoying brake pad click. Easy to take off when selling the car or put them on the twingo.

10 minute camber/toe shims for the rear too, to get it all square, well as much as you can on these.

 

[Danith]

A decent day at Oulton on Wednesday. As expected, it was wet with an ever changing forecast. So I loaded up the 17s with MRF on, seeing as I had boot space and had paid to have them fitted.

Straight away there was a red flag, thought this is going to be the way it goes all day. But no, I think there were only 4 red flags the whole day, so plenty of chance to stretch the legs. However it was a very busy day so clean laps weren't a regular thing, but I kind of like to see other cars on track with me so all good.

Met up with @SCJM21 in his tidy Mk4 Cup and the resident @JB21 in his trusty Mr2 2zz. There were a few others I know from track days, Honda days, etc so was quite a social event which is always fun.

Wet morning and the Continental premium contact 7's did excellently again. Very impressed with these tyres for the road and wet days, especially for the price.

The PBS pads/braided lines were a massive improvement over the stock brakes. However, my silver wheels soon changed colour

As Steve said, entering druids was quite sketchy, so that took some building up of confidence over the day. At first it felt like I needed to tip toe around it.

3.30pm ish a dry line started to appear so thought I'd chuck the MRF on and see how it was. Only did one session as I pushed the car a bit too hard a couple of times at Lodge, resulting in erratic gear changes and overshooting the apex by miles, under pressure from a tidy R26 megane (see pm vid). As usual I got paranoid about damaging the car and called it a day. The MRF were a massive improvement however, so definitely saving those for another day, when it's dry.

Videos are a bit crap, used a headrest mount thingy that isn't very stable. The GPS threw a wobbler (again) and the spot metering is terrible. Will never get the hang of these gopros.

Good day all in all, car was absolutely faultless. Oil temp stayed around 100, coolant 95 ish and clutch temps 140. Brakes didn't fade once, used just under 2 tanks of fuel for the day. Looking forward to the next one.

 

[Sunglasses_Ron]

Also, had a horrible clicking noise since I was last at Oulton in November, that I could feel when turning the wheel on the spot (was fine when on the move). No where near as bad after Mick fitted a new ball joint. But it'd still make a nasty click every now and again. Forums suggested it was a common issue of needing to tighten the 2 steering rack subframe mounting bolts. Did them up - they definitely needed a nip - and all sorted. Buzzing. It was a horrible noise/feeling.

I’ve got this same issue. I took the car to Alex at AW Motorworks and low and behold I couldn’t get it to make the noise while I was there.

Mine generally makes the noise while on full lock and pulling away off my drive.

This steering rack mount bolt does make sense because he thoroughly checked just about everything else.

 

[Danith]

I’ve got this same issue. I took the car to Alex at AW Motorworks and low and behold I couldn’t get it to make the noise while I was there.

Mine generally makes the noise while on full lock and pulling away off my drive.

This steering rack mount bolt does make sense because he thoroughly checked just about everything else.

It's awful isn't it. Mine did it one in 10 times or so, seemed to unsettle it if going up or down a drive or similar.
Honestly give it a bash, takes 5 mins on the ramp. Remove the 2 10mm nuts holding the engine cover and you can pull it down enough to get to them. Remove the nut cages and tighten them up.
I guess folk over look them as they assume that the cages will have held the nuts in place, but mine definitely needed a turn or 2 despite the cages still being on. Weird.
@Sash says hers doesn't have those cages, probably rusted out.
Best to do it sooner rather than later so as not to damage the threads on the rack I believe.

 

[S-JM]

Great write-up mate, was good meeting you and again thanks for taking me out.
Super impressed with the car, you made it look easy. Need a ride in that MX5 now 🙂.

 

[Danith]

Prep. Hopefully stick these on over the weekend if stays dry and get time.
Ran out of c5 sealant, still have some carbon collective glass ceramic but not sure it'd work?
So gave this stuff a try off ebay, tipwerx vht ceramic caliper sealant.
Supposedly these pure brackets like to rust, but I'm not keen on painting them if I can avoid it. Will see how this coating holds up. Will put some acf50 on too.

 

[Danith]

And on. Only issue being that the pins I was sent absolutely refuse to go in so I've asked the question to pure. May have to get some Mr pinks.

Cheers again to @JamesBryan for turning up, just as I started to bleed the brakes.

10 min camber shim rear driver's and 10 min toe in rear shim on rear passenger.

Wheels are going back to get redone in the week so on track wheels and parked up for now.

 

[JamesBryan]

Stupidly tight those pins, no way they should be that difficult to get in. You'd never get them out again.

 

[Adey.]

looking good, interested to see what you think after some anger as to if the upgrade is worth it.

 

[Danith]

Boost pipe kit has been sat in my loft for months. Was bored today so attacked it. Easy job except the access to bolts and screws.

Also, pikey intercooler shroud mod done.

 

[PP200t]

You need to get the hot side pipe replaced with a metal one too. The original ones are prone to breaking.

 

[Danith]

That's the one I have. The airtec, but not sure I can be arsed fitting it as it rubs the front slam panel.
@Adey. Has donated me his unwanted oem one in case my oem pops cos he's a very nice man.

 

[PP200t]

That's the one I have. The airtec, but not sure I can be arsed fitting it as it rubs the front slam panel.
@Adey. Has donated me his unwanted oem one in case my oem pops cos he's a very nice man.

I don’t recall mine rubbing the slam panel, it was a tight fit but didn’t cause any problems in my time with it.
Good that you have a spare though

 

[Danith]

If I get bored I'll slap it on and see how it is. Car's still not on the road yet, only just got my Brembo mr pinks pins and collected (finally) my wheels from the powder coaters. Need to seal them before fitting.
Miles better finish this time and the correct metallic sports silver I'd asked for. Previously it was a very flat boring silver and the finish was terrible.

 

[Danith]

Spotted this 'mod' on the pages. Renault Zoe heater controls plug and play swap for the standard ones in the mk4 clio. Lights up blue when the lights come on, snazzy.

 

[Danith]

Ceramic coated and decals on.

Get them on tomorrow 👌

 

[Daz.]

Spotted this 'mod' on the pages. Renault Zoe heater controls plug and play swap for the standard ones in the mk4 clio. Lights up blue when the lights come on, snazzy.

View attachment 1683799

now change the leds on it