Clio RS
First thing should be to compare partnumbers of the ABS Block with magnetic sensor Ring to ABS Block with metal theeth Ring
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Initiale dCi Daily Project (yes, diesel.)
Great thread!
GrahamS
ClioSport Club Member
335d
@william.. you’re wrong I’m afraid. Non sports came with both 26 and 44 tooth ABS systems. The change occurred in about 2003. For cars with 44 tooth ABS systems you need standard front sensors and dci100/1.6 sensors for the rear beam, I.e sensors without ESP. For 26 tooth cars you can use standard 172 sensors. You cannot simply change the module as the pipework is different. Likewise you also can’t swap between rings, the speed multiplier is hard coded in the ABS module firmware.
Krarl
ClioSport Club Member
Clio RS
But if he had magnetic ring, as per my optinion its not posible to have discs at the rear, because its not possible to install a magnetic ring and a magnetic ring sensor.
The complete ABS Controler for the magnetic system does have an other output. Also the Main engine loom. We should keep in mind the ABS Control unite is direct on the Bus system. And not connected wire by wire.
That the non sports came with 26 and 44tooth at the rear is new for me. I Thougt they all have 26 as a maximum.
How ever i Think due to fact its magnetic rear system, it will not work. Major Item is the breake Balance system, wich is now not regulated. Its fixed
The complete ABS Controler for the magnetic system does have an other output. Also the Main engine loom. We should keep in mind the ABS Control unite is direct on the Bus system. And not connected wire by wire.
That the non sports came with 26 and 44tooth at the rear is new for me. I Thougt they all have 26 as a maximum.
How ever i Think due to fact its magnetic rear system, it will not work. Major Item is the breake Balance system, wich is now not regulated. Its fixed
Christopher
ClioSport Club Member
Z4M
Fantastic read! So much effort into a car that most people would scrap!
Ye boi!I think I have 1 dCi 100 rear ABS sensor mate
Thank you !
Krarl
ClioSport Club Member
I’ll let you know which side it is. I’ve got a shed full of parts mate haha
Better than nothing!
Cheers !!
Cheers !!
Clio RS
Ok, thats true, but!
He has an third systems which works with an magnetic ring without tooth!
The thing is, Steel tooht ring systems are activated by an external voltage from the control unit. The Sensor is Pole pin with an coil surrounded and connected with an permanent magnet. When the steel ring rotates, there can be an alterntaing voltage be measured when the coil is activated by the external voltage. The number of thooth has to be implemented in the software as an indication for the radiations.
When the Ring is magnetic, that means a permanet magnet, this magnet creates an square wave Voltage in the passive coil of the sensor. This sensor dont need to be activated.
If you mix up his passiv measuring ciurcuit, with an sensor which needs to have an perment voltage, and with a tooth ring, it will not work, because of the ABS Control Unit wants to have this passive sensor and there is no permanet voltage availabe at the sensor which he requires.
Also the measuring prinziple is different, and last but not least, the Magnetic Ring ABS System wants to have an square wave Voltage, with other amplitude and frequency than each of this tooth rings can create.
Once again, if there was an Magnetic ring installed before, an steel Tooth ring will not work dosnt matter how many thooth.
The complete control Unit needs to be changed, and i dont know if this can be done so easily
Clio RS
Here is an Example for an Magneting ring
Clio RS
Sorry i Mix this a litle bit up.
Inductive passive sensors Sensors with steel Rings dont need voltages
Active sensors with magnetig multipole rings need an perment voltage for creating the square wave voltage.
https://www.hella-pagid.com/hellapa...d_Raddrehzahlsensoren_im_ABS_System_10.15.pdf
Good explained, but in german, sorry
Inductive passive sensors Sensors with steel Rings dont need voltages
Active sensors with magnetig multipole rings need an perment voltage for creating the square wave voltage.
https://www.hella-pagid.com/hellapa...d_Raddrehzahlsensoren_im_ABS_System_10.15.pdf
Good explained, but in german, sorry
Thanks @william.. for the input, these things are waay beyond my understandings of car electronics!
Back to the oxide red beast.
Got a whiteline 19mm ARB from Mark Corsa on FB. Black bushings, the good ones from what I've read, and in fairly good condition.
I took it apart and gave it a quick resto job, usual sandblast and paint, heatshrink on the ubolts to prevent corrosion, grease in the bushings and all new nylocs and washers.
bish bash bosh on it goes !
I'm not really happy on how it fits. Those U bolts should really replicate the shape of the axle instead of being just U shaped.
Oh well, I know nothing!
This is how the car looks right now...
I'd say pretty similar to when it didn't have £500 worth of suspension and brakes fitted to it!
I'm on the look out for a set of springs that would make the rear arb more justice and also drop the car enough so I can still load it up with people and luggage without making anyone suffer. As soon as I find a set of eibachs at the right price will slot them in!
Back to the oxide red beast.
Got a whiteline 19mm ARB from Mark Corsa on FB. Black bushings, the good ones from what I've read, and in fairly good condition.
I took it apart and gave it a quick resto job, usual sandblast and paint, heatshrink on the ubolts to prevent corrosion, grease in the bushings and all new nylocs and washers.
bish bash bosh on it goes !
I'm not really happy on how it fits. Those U bolts should really replicate the shape of the axle instead of being just U shaped.
Oh well, I know nothing!
This is how the car looks right now...
I'd say pretty similar to when it didn't have £500 worth of suspension and brakes fitted to it!
I'm on the look out for a set of springs that would make the rear arb more justice and also drop the car enough so I can still load it up with people and luggage without making anyone suffer. As soon as I find a set of eibachs at the right price will slot them in!
You'll have to excuse the quality of my pictures. I've only got an iPhone 5, and autofocus has recently decided to go on holiday.
part of the reason why I drive around in a £300 Clio i guess !
part of the reason why I drive around in a £300 Clio i guess !
back to boring stuff for today.
I had a couple of maintenance tasks that I wanted to get done, time wasn't on my side thanks to an unexpectedly long GP visit..
First thing was to quieten down the brake pads. The brakes work fine, but at As most of the items in the conversion they're old, but have loads of meat left and are Genuine Renault stuff which shouldn't be bad.
The once nicely painted caliper is already a dusty mess.
I'm actually happy about that, means that the pads are actually wearing and doing their job.
All I did is smear with copper slip all the surfaces that need it. Works for now.
Second on the list was the AirCon receiver dryer that probably was never replaced.
Bumper off, I took the opportunity to clean some greasy areas that are not normally exposed, also took off and cleaned the arch liners as well as the wheel arches themselves, tons of dirt out, good job Renault for the plastic wings! There would be nothing left of them with that much dirt at the bottom..
The low pressure side had a fitting I've never seen before.
New orings and shrader valves (did the top ones too)
I've also put in a new Bosch fuel filter, 15k miles from when the Renault one went in a year ago. No pictures of that, but I'll look in the filter like a did last year.
A/C still to be regassed, I've also got a new cabin filter and a spray that claims to kill bacteria in the hvac system..
Alignment also to do, replace the Ns handbrake cable and STOP SPENDING MONEY, the most difficult task of them all.
Oh I've just bought another drive belt.
[emoji23]
I had a couple of maintenance tasks that I wanted to get done, time wasn't on my side thanks to an unexpectedly long GP visit..
First thing was to quieten down the brake pads. The brakes work fine, but at As most of the items in the conversion they're old, but have loads of meat left and are Genuine Renault stuff which shouldn't be bad.
The once nicely painted caliper is already a dusty mess.
I'm actually happy about that, means that the pads are actually wearing and doing their job.
All I did is smear with copper slip all the surfaces that need it. Works for now.
Second on the list was the AirCon receiver dryer that probably was never replaced.
Bumper off, I took the opportunity to clean some greasy areas that are not normally exposed, also took off and cleaned the arch liners as well as the wheel arches themselves, tons of dirt out, good job Renault for the plastic wings! There would be nothing left of them with that much dirt at the bottom..
The low pressure side had a fitting I've never seen before.
New orings and shrader valves (did the top ones too)
I've also put in a new Bosch fuel filter, 15k miles from when the Renault one went in a year ago. No pictures of that, but I'll look in the filter like a did last year.
A/C still to be regassed, I've also got a new cabin filter and a spray that claims to kill bacteria in the hvac system..
Alignment also to do, replace the Ns handbrake cable and STOP SPENDING MONEY, the most difficult task of them all.
Oh I've just bought another drive belt.
[emoji23]
more little fixes in the last week and today.
Wednesday a new glow plug relay went in. I decided to just whack one in without any sort of diagnosis on my smokey cold starts.
It's either injectors or leaky turbo, but hey the pre-heating circuit as all new now!
Second was a little fix for which I have to thank the ClioSport forum.
My heater was often getting jammed on full hot or even full cold sometimes. I found on this forum how to rectify the problem, and all that was needed was a cable tie.
I swapped the two motors just because who knows..
Today I wanted to bring the AirCon back to life, polish the headlights AGAIN, find out why I had a brake warning light on and do a proper geometry after the eyeball tracking adjustment three weeks ago.
I also have a weird creaking sound coming from somewhere between the rack and the steering column.
I decided to grease the steering rack with some new grease, I was hopeful..
The creaking is still there.. the steering joint is tight and fully seated, more investigation needed I guess !
While I was on the scissor lift I chucked some sensors on the wheels and did a front toe adjustment. I wanted to get the rear axle spot on too, but after looking at the figures I decided it wasn't worth it.
This is the front axle, the graph is intentionally exaggerated, it's fine.
While adjusting the tracking I realized why my dashboard was a Christmas tree of brake warning lights..
Then it was time to regas the A/C, fit a new cabin filter and test an odor eliminator..
I then went for a proper drive around surrey and Sussex. Happy with the car, although I'm sure a set of springs could help reduce body roll.
I also need to find some dCi 100/1.6 rear sensors, as I do like my abs !
Wednesday a new glow plug relay went in. I decided to just whack one in without any sort of diagnosis on my smokey cold starts.
It's either injectors or leaky turbo, but hey the pre-heating circuit as all new now!
Second was a little fix for which I have to thank the ClioSport forum.
My heater was often getting jammed on full hot or even full cold sometimes. I found on this forum how to rectify the problem, and all that was needed was a cable tie.
I swapped the two motors just because who knows..
Today I wanted to bring the AirCon back to life, polish the headlights AGAIN, find out why I had a brake warning light on and do a proper geometry after the eyeball tracking adjustment three weeks ago.
I also have a weird creaking sound coming from somewhere between the rack and the steering column.
I decided to grease the steering rack with some new grease, I was hopeful..
The creaking is still there.. the steering joint is tight and fully seated, more investigation needed I guess !
While I was on the scissor lift I chucked some sensors on the wheels and did a front toe adjustment. I wanted to get the rear axle spot on too, but after looking at the figures I decided it wasn't worth it.
This is the front axle, the graph is intentionally exaggerated, it's fine.
While adjusting the tracking I realized why my dashboard was a Christmas tree of brake warning lights..
Then it was time to regas the A/C, fit a new cabin filter and test an odor eliminator..
I then went for a proper drive around surrey and Sussex. Happy with the car, although I'm sure a set of springs could help reduce body roll.
I also need to find some dCi 100/1.6 rear sensors, as I do like my abs !
Another Saturday, a little bit more work on the poor red clio.
Last week I found some eibach sportlines from a guy on fb that was breaking a 182.
Jumped on them and today they finally got fitted.
I took pictures of the whole car and of front and rear axle purely to see the difference in looks.
Front
Rear
Compared to the standard 172/182 springs only the rears are noticeably lower, the fronts have different springrate.
On the car
Then a new toe adjustment, might need camber bolts at the front if I want to get it bang on. Rear camber looks quite aggressive !
There isn't much else left on this thing.
Winter tires went back on last week, fixed rear demister too.
I need to look at the glow plug feed as I suspect they're not getting the right amount of current.
I'm also looking for a cheap passenger seat to nick the bottom half of it, my foam is tired!
Still looking for rear abs sensor, replace the left handbrake cable and really that would be it !
Last week I found some eibach sportlines from a guy on fb that was breaking a 182.
Jumped on them and today they finally got fitted.
I took pictures of the whole car and of front and rear axle purely to see the difference in looks.
Front
Rear
Compared to the standard 172/182 springs only the rears are noticeably lower, the fronts have different springrate.
On the car
Then a new toe adjustment, might need camber bolts at the front if I want to get it bang on. Rear camber looks quite aggressive !
There isn't much else left on this thing.
Winter tires went back on last week, fixed rear demister too.
I need to look at the glow plug feed as I suspect they're not getting the right amount of current.
I'm also looking for a cheap passenger seat to nick the bottom half of it, my foam is tired!
Still looking for rear abs sensor, replace the left handbrake cable and really that would be it !
what a legend Martin! I was trying to spot my car in all the video but you did all the work for me!
Nice to meet you too, hopefully this won't be the last time!
Nice to meet you too, hopefully this won't be the last time!
this is what bad influence does..
Let's rewind a couple of weeks
It was all going so well with my rusty red shed, now driving how a car should, a little on the harsh side but nothing I couldn't cope with at 28. The big annual Christmas trip is closing in, I though I'd do some prep work by mounting the winter continentals back on (already seen in the last update) and maybe getting a front undertray which is always been missing.
Im also doing the Mongol Rally in 2019 so need to start saving up.
Instead, a couple of weeks ago, Mr. @GrahamS hits me up with an open pit lane ad Bedford, probably the last of the season, for £99...
I used to do as many trackdays as I could back home with my Civic, always loved it and always felt like that's the thing to do if you like driving fast.
Here though, there's rent to pay, and feels silly to spend all that money when there's nobody buying food for you, that's all it is for me.
£99 though... on a Saturday as well....
Let's call this the last one before sewing the wallet shut!!
Scrap winter prep, the mission was to get the rusty 80hp daily in race mode.
One thing for it --> semislicks. Got myself two A048R fronts, and slapped some mildly flatspotted NS2R at the back.
I thought about shedding some weight, but wanted to see how lively she could be in the wet (forecast was bad the whole time) so would have done it on the day.
Couple of spares packed and ready she was.
The day went smoothly, I drove most of the time and also gave a mate the chance to experience a bit of track driving, which was interesting as I've never tried to "coach" anyone while driving, and I'm obviously a rookie myself.
All good until a bad spin generated a somewhat weird noise from the gearbox area that scared me at first.
Turned out to be an arch liner rubbing a driveshaft and the passenger side front wheel falling off, nothing major. I only found this out at the end of the day, so decided in the meantime to leave my trusty workhorse alone for the afternoon and enjoy some quick laps with Graham and a friend with a quick JDM MX5 NA.
Thank god I came in, another half a lap and I would have lost a wheel.
(The only time I have not used my torque wrench..)
All in all a top day, I love trackdays and I'm up for it even with a silly 80hp diesel, it's all about driving on the edge for me, and you have far more chance of doing it with an underpowered little car than with a gt3, unless you know what you're doing behind the wheel, and most of us don't, but I should just speak for myself.
Had the pleasure of also meeting @Martin., top guy behind the camera and a pleasure to speak to.
Now it's winter prep time, next time she'll probably be on the way to Italy and then some slopes, again!
Let's rewind a couple of weeks
It was all going so well with my rusty red shed, now driving how a car should, a little on the harsh side but nothing I couldn't cope with at 28. The big annual Christmas trip is closing in, I though I'd do some prep work by mounting the winter continentals back on (already seen in the last update) and maybe getting a front undertray which is always been missing.
Im also doing the Mongol Rally in 2019 so need to start saving up.
Instead, a couple of weeks ago, Mr. @GrahamS hits me up with an open pit lane ad Bedford, probably the last of the season, for £99...
I used to do as many trackdays as I could back home with my Civic, always loved it and always felt like that's the thing to do if you like driving fast.
Here though, there's rent to pay, and feels silly to spend all that money when there's nobody buying food for you, that's all it is for me.
£99 though... on a Saturday as well....
Let's call this the last one before sewing the wallet shut!!
Scrap winter prep, the mission was to get the rusty 80hp daily in race mode.
One thing for it --> semislicks. Got myself two A048R fronts, and slapped some mildly flatspotted NS2R at the back.
I thought about shedding some weight, but wanted to see how lively she could be in the wet (forecast was bad the whole time) so would have done it on the day.
Couple of spares packed and ready she was.
The day went smoothly, I drove most of the time and also gave a mate the chance to experience a bit of track driving, which was interesting as I've never tried to "coach" anyone while driving, and I'm obviously a rookie myself.
All good until a bad spin generated a somewhat weird noise from the gearbox area that scared me at first.
Turned out to be an arch liner rubbing a driveshaft and the passenger side front wheel falling off, nothing major. I only found this out at the end of the day, so decided in the meantime to leave my trusty workhorse alone for the afternoon and enjoy some quick laps with Graham and a friend with a quick JDM MX5 NA.
Thank god I came in, another half a lap and I would have lost a wheel.
(The only time I have not used my torque wrench..)
All in all a top day, I love trackdays and I'm up for it even with a silly 80hp diesel, it's all about driving on the edge for me, and you have far more chance of doing it with an underpowered little car than with a gt3, unless you know what you're doing behind the wheel, and most of us don't, but I should just speak for myself.
Had the pleasure of also meeting @Martin., top guy behind the camera and a pleasure to speak to.
Now it's winter prep time, next time she'll probably be on the way to Italy and then some slopes, again!
a couple of proper shots from saturday:
Quality read! Rather enjoyed the updates that I’ve missed!
Just goes to show that a genuine car enthusiast, will maintain his car to the best of his ability, regardless of the worth of that car!
This has been great!
Also, feel free to post the routes that you take down to Italy, I’m rather interested in taking the family wagon across the pond next year and I’m sure you’ll have some great pointers for those of us that haven’t travelled over the pond yet
??
Just goes to show that a genuine car enthusiast, will maintain his car to the best of his ability, regardless of the worth of that car!
This has been great!
Also, feel free to post the routes that you take down to Italy, I’m rather interested in taking the family wagon across the pond next year and I’m sure you’ll have some great pointers for those of us that haven’t travelled over the pond yet
??
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!
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!
182
Mazz, i have read through this many times now as it is such a fun project to read. I have been on the hunt for a dci for a few months now and managed to pick up an Initiale 100 at the weekend. I hope you dont mind but i may ask you some questions at some point soon when i start working on it.
Thanks Austin!
An initiale 100 would probably be a phase 3 so you might just have the ultimate mk2 dCi in my opinion !!
182
Cheers Mazz, its a very unique find and I look forward to getting it in as much of a perfect condition as i can. Please keep your thread updated as its a brilliant read!
Time for a quick update,
During the whole of January the Clio has been fine, I'm still chasing a weird vibration at speed, and a weird clunk while doing the first 2/3 meters in reverse, almost like something is moving on the front end, will have to investigate..
Big news though, she broke again, this time because of something that has nothing to do with my work!
One of my colleagues needed a car for a week and he happens to be named driver on my insurance, so I lent him the Clio, I drove my housemate car in the meantime.
Two days in the clutch pedal goes to the floor and stays there.
Nice.
I though the cable had come off the fork on the bell housing, as two nights before I tried to change the top gearbox mount and had to put everything back together (wrong part..) so maybe it was just me hitting it.
It wasn't, the stupid ball joint linkage on the pedal was worn out, an uprated replacement part was sent in less than 24h.
I hate working under the dashboard, this was a painful job.
The replacement linkage comes with safety pins that are almost impossible to insert once the ball joints are in, my colleague finished it off, I just wasn't good enough.
So here we are, left me stranded twice in the space of a month.. she remembered she's a Renault I reckon.
--
Today I changed the drive belt. It's only 15k miles old but was starting to squeak on cold weather and I can't have that, makes me look like a proper idiot.
New one was £5 on eBay, Dayco this time instead of Gates.
Another b**ch of a job, luckily I could use the ramp at work.
All in.
--
Bought a 5th jade alloy, couldn't resist. Now the spare won't clash with the other wheels. Lovely.
Bye!
During the whole of January the Clio has been fine, I'm still chasing a weird vibration at speed, and a weird clunk while doing the first 2/3 meters in reverse, almost like something is moving on the front end, will have to investigate..
Big news though, she broke again, this time because of something that has nothing to do with my work!
One of my colleagues needed a car for a week and he happens to be named driver on my insurance, so I lent him the Clio, I drove my housemate car in the meantime.
Two days in the clutch pedal goes to the floor and stays there.
Nice.
I though the cable had come off the fork on the bell housing, as two nights before I tried to change the top gearbox mount and had to put everything back together (wrong part..) so maybe it was just me hitting it.
It wasn't, the stupid ball joint linkage on the pedal was worn out, an uprated replacement part was sent in less than 24h.
I hate working under the dashboard, this was a painful job.
The replacement linkage comes with safety pins that are almost impossible to insert once the ball joints are in, my colleague finished it off, I just wasn't good enough.
So here we are, left me stranded twice in the space of a month.. she remembered she's a Renault I reckon.
--
Today I changed the drive belt. It's only 15k miles old but was starting to squeak on cold weather and I can't have that, makes me look like a proper idiot.
New one was £5 on eBay, Dayco this time instead of Gates.
Another b**ch of a job, luckily I could use the ramp at work.
All in.
--
Bought a 5th jade alloy, couldn't resist. Now the spare won't clash with the other wheels. Lovely.
Bye!
182
Another cracking update! Good shout on the spare jade alloy, great minds and all that....
Where did you get it from out of interest? The one i bought a few days ago was the only one i could find for sale anywhere online.
Where did you get it from out of interest? The one i bought a few days ago was the only one i could find for sale anywhere online.
found it on ebay at the end of november, the guy had 3 for sale ! paid £25
I've been wanting to update this for a long time but really.. there isn't much to update, the car has just been plain working, which is the whole point of it, at the end of the day it was bought to be a daily driver and and after all the upgrades it drives beautifully and stops properly.
We're just shy of 130k now, 129200 to be exact, and the first European road trip is due next week, off to Paris again !
Looks good too, but that's subjective.
The latest upgrade is a set of Pilot Sport 3 in 195/50 R15, probably the best rubber for the mk2 Clio.
When I bought the car I needed tires so I went straight for the standard size, 185/55 R15, without realizing that I'm not in Italy anymore, and I could have gone for the much more popular (and performance oriented) 195/50.
Back home you literally go to jail if you change your wheel or tire size to anything that's not in the V5.
So, last week I found a set of these bad boys for a little over £100 and today I fitted them.
I'm happy now with proper rubber on, just need to find a 5th one to go on the spare, and hopefully sell my 185/55 GoodYears.
Two things need addressing:
-I have a nasty vibration coming from somewhere in the driveline, it's most evident above 100mph, found this out on an autobahn naturally.
-the bodywork is a mess, the whole driver side of the car needs serious help and the roof is disgusting.
Bits of body filler have started to fall off the wheel arch that was hit back in 2007, showing copious amount of rust underneath, no surprise. Need to find two good driver side doors and a whole sill/rear quarter panel, and get the whole thing painted.
I know these cars are cheap and the color is not even that great.
But I get attached to things, I'm the kind of guy that bodyshops love.
Anyway, all this isn't getting done anytime soon; I'm doing the Mongol Rally this summer, and if you've never heard of it then really YouTube is your friend.
I've put a team together with some mates from high school, and we're doing it in a mk1 Fiat Uno.
Feel free to head over to our social media pages, and if you like what you see please spread the word; that would make you a badass.
Bye
We're just shy of 130k now, 129200 to be exact, and the first European road trip is due next week, off to Paris again !
Looks good too, but that's subjective.
The latest upgrade is a set of Pilot Sport 3 in 195/50 R15, probably the best rubber for the mk2 Clio.
When I bought the car I needed tires so I went straight for the standard size, 185/55 R15, without realizing that I'm not in Italy anymore, and I could have gone for the much more popular (and performance oriented) 195/50.
Back home you literally go to jail if you change your wheel or tire size to anything that's not in the V5.
So, last week I found a set of these bad boys for a little over £100 and today I fitted them.
I'm happy now with proper rubber on, just need to find a 5th one to go on the spare, and hopefully sell my 185/55 GoodYears.
Two things need addressing:
-I have a nasty vibration coming from somewhere in the driveline, it's most evident above 100mph, found this out on an autobahn naturally.
-the bodywork is a mess, the whole driver side of the car needs serious help and the roof is disgusting.
Bits of body filler have started to fall off the wheel arch that was hit back in 2007, showing copious amount of rust underneath, no surprise. Need to find two good driver side doors and a whole sill/rear quarter panel, and get the whole thing painted.
I know these cars are cheap and the color is not even that great.
But I get attached to things, I'm the kind of guy that bodyshops love.
Anyway, all this isn't getting done anytime soon; I'm doing the Mongol Rally this summer, and if you've never heard of it then really YouTube is your friend.
I've put a team together with some mates from high school, and we're doing it in a mk1 Fiat Uno.
Feel free to head over to our social media pages, and if you like what you see please spread the word; that would make you a badass.
Bye
Krarl
ClioSport Club Member
If you're gonna repair the rear quarter then find someone breaking a 5 door and just cut half the car off and take it home mate ?
Reading this makes me miss my dCi and how much time I put into it
Reading this makes me miss my dCi and how much time I put into it
Thank You Gez !
the tires were used of course, they are not even 3 years old being late 2016 dot number. I found them on gumtree purely because I wanted to get something local, otherwise there's always a set or two for sale on ebay from a guy up in Norfolk that uses them for track testing. They're usually pretty good and around the 135?150 mark plug shipping.
there's a set now for £80 !
----
FOR OUR MONGOL RALLY ADVENTURE
these are the links:
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Romazz-to-Mongolia-1178392152328787/
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU9g9ohhUjp3FIP_Vv_B7KQ/featured
On instagram we are the RoMazztoMongolia.
cheers boys
I’m back !
The Clio sat almost a full 2 months while I drove to Mongolia and back in my Uno, now time to resume normal life !
After a quick trickle charge everything came back online no problem, air con works, tires held air.. we’re in business !
No MOT, no tax, no insurance, had to sort all this first.
After a bit of haggling I was able to insure the Clio at a reasonable (enough) price, next was the mot
We passed, but unless I fix the driver sill is likely to be the last one..
Once I sorted the tax (£20 [emoji38]) it’s back to being a car !
And now it has to properly prove itself: I moved close to Gatwick airport, and my commute is now 35miles each way, 70 total 5 days a week.. will see how economical this old thing can really be.
I also serviced it as it was long due.
Bought a cleaner for the K&N, and look at what came out after a quick air blow !
Also fixed a wire that broke during the oil filter change
And now onto commuters life !
So far OBC says 69mpg average, I’ve done 400 miles with exactly half a tank.. will see how she does.
The Clio sat almost a full 2 months while I drove to Mongolia and back in my Uno, now time to resume normal life !
After a quick trickle charge everything came back online no problem, air con works, tires held air.. we’re in business !
No MOT, no tax, no insurance, had to sort all this first.
After a bit of haggling I was able to insure the Clio at a reasonable (enough) price, next was the mot
We passed, but unless I fix the driver sill is likely to be the last one..
Once I sorted the tax (£20 [emoji38]) it’s back to being a car !
And now it has to properly prove itself: I moved close to Gatwick airport, and my commute is now 35miles each way, 70 total 5 days a week.. will see how economical this old thing can really be.
I also serviced it as it was long due.
Bought a cleaner for the K&N, and look at what came out after a quick air blow !
Also fixed a wire that broke during the oil filter change
And now onto commuters life !
So far OBC says 69mpg average, I’ve done 400 miles with exactly half a tank.. will see how she does.
