Finally, the big job is (almost) done, and what a job!
No words can express how much I respect whoever has done this before me, probably on a driveway with axlestands, you are heroes!
I'm lucky enough to work with cars and sometimes manage to earn enough "bonus points" (10 hours overtime = 0.25 bonus points..) to be able to use a ramp for my silly projects, and this time I made full use of it and I'm thankful I had it.
I had from 9 to 3pm, took a quick snap of the car with his original suspension still on. The 172 axle at the back still sitting on standard dCi springs and shocks.
On the ramp!
I apologize for the lack of pictures but, as usual with doing stuff at work, I had a really short time frame and once reached the point of non return I had to get it done!
Also I never had clean hands, and can't afford a new phone!
Here's the point of non return:
The once rusty corroded pile of old 172 bits is now a nice selection of finely painted and overhauled components, waiting to be fitted to this gem of a motorcar:
The hubs have been sandblasted, painted in wheel silver (slightly tougher than your standard paint) and given new wheel bearings.
I got new abs sensors that turned out to be the same as the 172 ones that were on the hubs to start with! Thankfully the standard ones are all plastic and can be freed off the hubs to be reused, good luck getting a set of 172 ones off.
The subframe has been also blasted and painted in red oxide that I just covered with layers and layers of clear lacquer.
The calipers also sandblasted, rebuilt, pistons polished, and carriers cleaned and greased.
Everything was painted in silver VHT first, then stripped again and coated with proper (and flipping expensive) silver caliper paint.
Discs were almost new, I just cleaned them and painted the bare metal bits. Pads are almost new too, standard Renault ferodos.
The steering rack got new boots and new inner and outer tie rods. The manual says to replace the fiber spacers too, I didn't have them.
The wishbones had good bushings so I just blasted and painted them, bottom ball joints are brand new and required some massaging to clear the driveshafts.
I partially painted the anti roll bar purely to get rid of some corrosion on the ends. I greased the bushings and installed it with sanded and painted clamps both on the subframe and wishbones.
I also sanded and painted the 2nd gearbox mount that I was eager to try on, as I've always been having engine movement issues with this car.
I haven't touched the driveshafts and I took a risk. One has a hose clamp on that suggests a shady past. We'll see how long they last.
I cleaned, greased and reused most of the factory hardware as it's way tougher than the Wurth stuff we have at work. I just added washers on all the nuts and replaced all the nylocs.
Everything fitted, the only hiccups were the usual subframe captive nuts that I guess just wait for you when you're tackling a job like this. Both the driver side one failed on me, thankfully I was able to squeeze a spanner on the rear one and a ratchet on the little front one. Then one of the bottom ball joint mocked us: physically different from the other one where the pinchbolt goes through. It was touching the abs ring of the driveshaft, we just ground it down old style, no time!
I had to rush the whole time, two spanners quickly become a mountain of tools driving me mad. The boss also popped in and started asking a million work questions and I had less and less time to get the damn car done! I stopped and thought more than once to just put it on a dolly and finish it later, I had moments of confusion purely because of the rush and I almost cried when a fountain of brake fluid destroyed most of my hard work with the spray cans;
but with the help of a good hearted couple of colleagues we managed to get the car out the door only half an hour later than our deadline.
We aligned it with our eyeballs and only bled the front brakes very quickly with a pressure bleeder that also made a mess of the freshly painted subframe.. oh well, wasn't meant to be I guess !!
The car looks the same! If anything looks taller on those standard 172 springs. I guess with a 16inch rim would look better, but the stockers are staying people, this is a 80hp sleeper after all.
The front track is miles wider, that can be noticed at first glance. The brakes are almost invisible behind the many spokes of the "jade" style alloys. Oh well, is the performance that we're after.
The car dives better; the rear is still on standard suspension apart from the axle, and I've got a rear arb on the way too. Will look into lowering springs if I find a set at a decent price.
The 2nd gearbox mount is a revelation. Surely makes for more vibrations to reach the cabin from the Diesel engine, but it has partially solved my engine movement problems. Now I know which direction to take !
The tracking is slightly out and the brakes not 100%, more has to be done before I can give an accurate feedback but I'm happy so far.
This is by no means a difficult nor complicated job, it's just a puzzle of bits that should just fit. The challenge of getting it done in 6 hours having never done major work on the car in question makes it.. something else!
Thank you Renault for making the joint at the steering rack so easy to slip on and off. I was genuinely worried about this part, once I saw how easy it is I was relieved;
My civic used to reduce me in tears with those splines..
Thank you to GrahamS, a mega useful source of hints and knowledge that answered some proper silly questions without ever insulting me!
More to come on this £360 rust bucket. I'll finish this suspension conversion soon and fit some ordinary maintenance bits in preparation for a second euro trip in Christmas.
The Beamer has been sleeping in a garage for a full year now.. was this not supposed to be a cheap daily?