Thank you
@20vKarlos!
Oh hello, a whole year rolled by and we're in 2019 already.. that didn't take long!
What went down then?
Last time you saw my beloved pile she was alive and happy after some track abuse and a suspect gearbox fault that turned out to be a loose wheel.
With not much time on my hands I decided to go back to winter prep as my annual Christmas trip to Rome was getting closer and closer. I could only get stuff done in the evening after work with not much light and constant rain. Could be worse
My list:
-change the oil, again
-top up coolant
-fix leaking headlight washers
-getto patch a hole in the sill created by my foot
-grind offside rear arch lip
-spanner check front end because of a weird clunking while going in reverse
-change a snapped handbrake cable
-change rear springs back to dCi ones
-winter tires back on
-roof box back on, without forgetting to ghetto seal the sunroof, important bit this.
Managed to do it all believe it or not, only found a not-so-tight front wishbone bolt, everything else was just stuff.
Still have not fixed the headlight washers, I'll do it asap as it's super annoying and makes me look like a knob every time I fill the bottle up.
A couple of pics of my late nights on the ramps.
Oil change night this one, along with front end spanner check and coolant top up, all good here.
Oil change was a 1000miles under due, but considering the track abuse I though it was the right time. Genuine elf and genuine filter as always.
The following night was bodywork time. While on the track I showed a friend how horrible the rust was on my car, and a slight tap with my canvas Vans turned the already destroyed sill into a tunnel.
You can now see the expanding foam used back in the day when this car was cheaply repaired to go back for sale, nice job Bob the builder !
please do admire the racing patch, lightweight aluminium obviously, that I made to temporarily patch the hole. This is purely so border control doesn't pull me over like it did in the past questioning the roadworthiness of the car.
I will properly fix this, I haven't got the money now.
Spring swap next, the eibachs are already quite low with no weight on the car, I assumed they were just too much for carrying passengers long distance. I took a risk and installed the standard 172 springs which are roughly the same as the standard dCi ones but have thicker coils. They handled the weight fine.
I also had to grind some of the arch lip, most of it is body filler from when Bob the builder fixed the damage from the accident in 07.
Next was a new handbrake cable that turned out to be a standard one (non sport); waay shorter than the one on the other side now. Does work but would be nice if people took more care of what's written in their eBay adverts !
Thule box on, winter continentals back in service and we're ready for the trip!
The dodgy tape job is unfortunately needed even with the new sunroof seal, this is the new improved version, worked as good as it looks shyt.
I even washed the car, what's gone into me !?!?
The trip was an interesting experience. Drove to Luxembourg via Bruxelles on the way out to drop a passenger, then woke up the next morning at 4 to drive all the way to Rome with two friends that live in Lux.
Love fueling up there..
Made it to Rome at 10pm mainly because of traffic but also because of a weird vibration that made me stop twice, I thought the famous circlip had come off the diff housing, nothing I could do about it so I bravely decided to keep going.
Jacked the car up in my garage in Rome, couldn't find anything obvious, usual noises from the gearbox but no driveshafts falling out or loose bolts.
Set off for the alps on the 26th.
made it 150 miles until the vibration turns into steering wheel shake, and while pulling away for another check in a lay by, I lost all drive and officially broke down for the first time in my life.
Broken NS cv joint, the gearbox was fine, or at least that wasn't the problem.
This fault manifested itself for the first time on the way out in Belgium with a slight vibration, and only turned into steering wheel shake twice during the 1200 mile outbound trip towards Italy.
It all made sense when it finally broke, as I remembered one of the cv boots had a pinhole in it, I simply forgot about it, and paid the price.
It's impressive how long it held up with virtually no grease in it.
So?
Called the Italian AA, slept for a night in Grosseto, no 172 driveshafts or cv joints to be seen, part stores all closed.
Circlip still alive, not the problem
But
The brilliant Moroccan mechanic managed to find a Scenic driveshaft that looked almost the same and crucially was the same length.
Slapped that in, good to go.
520€ all in. Ouch.
Can't blame the car, totally my fault.
I'm so grateful this happened in Italy where I could at least speak the language. I also was with my brother only, no carpooling passengers, that means no dishing out money for backup transport.
Not happy to pay 500€ for a driveshaft job, but could have been a lot worse, considering I had to be recovered at night on a bank holiday and wasn't a member of the car club, so can't really complain.
Back on the road, still some vibrations coming from "somewhere down there" but I wasn't worried.
Annoyingly the cruise control decided to intermittently stop working. I later found out that the used Espace clutch switch could be the culprit, will fix it asap. It worked almost all the way once I found out the trick (tap the clutch until the light stays on lol).
Once in Chamonix I decided to give the little car a proper cool down. Mother Nature exaggerated a bit.
Because of the brake down I lost some confidence in the little clio so I cancelled the blablacar trip from Chamonix to London via Paris that was fully booked and would have made the journey virtually free, and decided to go on my own. My already beaten up wallet suffered some more, but hey..
Made all the way to London with no hiccups. 2447 miles this time, 100 less than last year. Average mpg around the 54 figure, pretty poor but the roofbox plays a big part in that. Total range is around 600 miles, this is with cruise control always on. Priceless bit of kit on a journey like this.
Many lessons learned of course, still a great time and will probably to the same exact thing next year if I know me, love long distance road trips.
Happy new year everyone!