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Initiale dCi Daily Project (yes, diesel.)



Brigsy

ClioSport Club Member
  T.Turbo
@Mazz

7701473629, number 3 in the pic.


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quick update, I finally managed to get off my ass and do something productive.

2 months on furlough have absolutely killed my productivity that was already close to zero..

But here we are:

Driver seat renovation:

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This is the seat out of the black car already out and half stripped.
The plan is to remove all fabric and foam and get the same components off the passenger side one off my old red car, still trying to make the most out of two half good cars to create one decent motor.


To be fair the seat on this new car wasn’t as bad as the old one, the foam felt ok but the fabric had let go on the seat base and was letting the rest of the car down, couldn’t have it.

I stripped down my old seats and washed the cushions and fabric from the passenger side one:

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Both upper and lower parts had a good scrub and rinsed for a few hours, then a good 3 days of drying in the sun.. I just hoped nothing got out of shape !
The bottom cushion had to be left attached to the fabric as the clips used are very difficult to remove without tearing into the foam, so I decided to chuck the lot in the bathtub and be done with it, luckily the weather was nice a couple of days ago so they could properly dry.

It is quite a challenge to remove both upper and lower part (the upper being the trickier), many clips are hidden and before you know it you can tear something apart ruining the final result. That’s why practicing with a wasted seat gave me the edge.

Here’s my old seats foam:

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Luveleh

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Working my way slowly trying to reattach all the clips the tension the fabric up, using cable ties instead of the stock metal fixings. Renault does use cable ties for some sections too so they must be good.


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New base on the right about to go on.

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Poked two holes for lumbar and back adjustment

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And voila, plastic covers back on and in the car.

It looks somewhat baggy on some areas, I hope both use and heat will improve things, if not I know now how to strip it down quick and make adjustments.

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Happy !

Downsides:

The airbag sign is now on the wrong side, facing inwards, but let’s face it only a guy like me would spot it.
Also there is a small hole where the back adjustment lever used to be on the other side.
I will cut a small round patch from all the leftover material and try to make a neat repair for it.

Other jobs?

Well I got busy with my cup spoiler, I bought it a couple of months ago from a guy on eBay called “dangretto”, hopefully not on this forum, that assured me it was a working unit.

Well it isn’t and here’s why:

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3 burnt out resistors. I ended up buying a second LED strip, also described and working and of course it wasn’t, yet again, for the same reason. What is wrong with people !?

I have tried to de-solder the resistors from one to solder back on the other but I just cannot do it with the equipment I have at home, so I’m looking for some PC repair shop that will make short work of it, or at least I hope. Then it will go back on the car and hopefully work.

That’s it for now, more little fixes before a big summer trip planned for august, I’ll attemp the longest drive ever on a clio heading down to Sicily for some sun and waves.

Cheerio

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I was going to do a write down of everything done to the car lately but with this 10 image limit I’ll have to split it in more parts.

1st task:
I have only recently realized there’s two versions of the xenon headlights, one grey the other black. My old red Clio had the black type, this new one came with the greys. I decided to run the newer ones since my old set had developed the classic broken adjuster issue.

Once learnt from good old GrahamS how to fix this kind of issue I went in there and got my old black headlights fixed

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I then decided to re-polish both sets as the grey ones are now for sale, and the black ones had faded yet again (not fond of these 3M kits or I just don’t have the patience).

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While the front of the car was in bits I decided to get stuck in task n.2:

My drive belt was still squeaky even after a new genuine tensioner and the belt itself replaced recently.
Turns out alternators have freewheeling pulleys that can seize up and cause all sorts of havoc. I have to admit I did not know that was even a thing, so I dug into it and decided to go through the alternator replacing both the pulley and the tension regulator while I was in there... kicking myself for not doing this while I had the engine out of the car four months ago!

Getting the alternator out is quite a challenge, and while It was very close to coming off I discovered it was not the original one.

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Sometime in the 17 year life of this engine Somebody had swapped on a unit from a 67 Plate Megane.. at this point I had my doubts this was the right part from my car, and with that I wasn’t even sure the pulley was the right one as there’s many options for those too: some models even had solid ones. As far as the alternator that also varies, I’ve seen 130a units as well as 110a like mine..

What to do?

I decided to stick with mine, and got a new pulley, same style, and a new voltage regulator.

When they arrived I realized the voltage regulator had a bigger plug for the signal wire and therefore I could not fit it.

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To swap the pulley I got myself a special tool, took me a while to figure out which direction to turn what but in the end I got there (undo the spanner on the hex bit and hold the center bit steady).

Once the old pulley was out I could find nothing wrong with it. The center piece can rotate independently from the outer section.. the old and new pulley did not differ much in this. Plus, once the new part was on and tight, I still could not get it to freewheel in either direction.

Must be me, as after all was back on the car and the battery charged the engine ran the smoothest it’s ever had. Very happy, no more embarrassing squealing belt, result.


Task3 was to fix my cup spoiler brake light.
I bought the spoiler back in January, from a nice chap on eBay that made me pay £80 for what was, according to him, a working unit.
Well, it never worked, and after dissecting the light I found out many resistors had given up a long time ago.
I’m rubbish at electrical repairs so jumped straight away on a £30 working unit found on Facebook Marketplace, and sure enough, that was also buggered.

I decided to make one good light out of two, and repaired the best looking one.
After some very poor soldering work and a bit of fiddling with the rubbish connector behind the light I got it to work !

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I’m still not convinced but after a test drive and lots of very scientific punch tests it still works... success !!

Task4 wasn’t really something I was planning to do..
the auto wipers had never worked on the new car, and I’ve tried to fix this by swapping the rain sensor from the old red wagon. No luck there as I made a mess of it trying to get it off.
I incredibly managed to find a brand new genuine unit on eBay for £6. Went straight on, auto wipers work now.

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New coolant, the engine had been tuning on almost straight water since the reshell, about time I gave it what it needs:

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Now what ?

Well, I decided that because of lockdown I haven’t been driving as much as I’d like, and so instead of flying home for the summer holidays, I decided the black Clio will try to drive the furthest I’ve ever gone with my daily commuter: all the way down to Sicily, In the middle of summer.

Only a couple of jobs left, need to change top mounts, fit camber bolts, swap PS3s on and get the thing aligned.
I might even get it properly detailed just to try and impress my parents, will see if the budget stretches that far.

Cheerio !
 
the fact that every couple of months I end up saying “only a couple of jobs left..” makes me laugh.

Been working on diesel clios for 3 years now [emoji38]

This black one really just needs two or three panels changing and a head unit with CarPlay and it’s all the car I can ever want (with 300 less hp)
 
more work tonight, time to get back to those shiny new shocks for some unfinished business.

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Here’s what’s left of the off side top mount bearing, noice.

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New Febi top mount kits go on on both sides, as well as some new bumpstops.

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Happy shocks, now back on.

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I also fitted some Eibach camber bolts, that I will try to properly set tomorrow or next week when they’ll let me use the alignment ramp. The aim is to set the camber back to the factory setting after dropping the car on the Sportlines. I do primarily motorway miles, not interested in lap times for now.

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Happy turd, next tyres, washer pump and a proper detail.

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Had the car detailed to see if it would come up any good, and it did. Clay bar, compound and polish and this is the result, I wish I was better at taking pictures !

I’m sure this is the best it will ever look, as I won’t probably be changing the dented panels to make it perfect.

I’m getting carried away with this thing, need to stop and focus on the BMW !!

PS3s are now back on, I fixed the exciter wire on the alternator so the warning light works properly now.

A new pump brought the dead light washers back to life too.

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I need to also aim the dip beam after fixing the adjusters, set camber and toe and maybe change the oil before leaving on Friday.
 

497adam

ClioSport Club Member
  clio 172 phase 2
more work tonight, time to get back to those shiny new shocks for some unfinished business.

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Here’s what’s left of the off side top mount bearing, noice.

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New Febi top mount kits go on on both sides, as well as some new bumpstops.

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Happy shocks, now back on.

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I also fitted some Eibach camber bolts, that I will try to properly set tomorrow or next week when they’ll let me use the alignment ramp. The aim is to set the camber back to the factory setting after dropping the car on the Sportlines. I do primarily motorway miles, not interested in lap times for now.

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Happy turd, next tyres, washer pump and a proper detail.

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Just had my geometry set up by Blink Motosport - the way it drives is amazing now. Obviously I’m now running more camber on the front .
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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

497adam

ClioSport Club Member
  clio 172 phase 2
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What I was running prior to suspension refresh


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

497adam

ClioSport Club Member
  clio 172 phase 2
thanks for the info adam, will hopefully get in on the gemo ramp on saturday, this time using a 172 preset instead of the non sport last time..

I’m yet too see if the extra camber causes any additional tyre wear. As it was they wore perfectly even bar a bit on the shoulder from spirited driving.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
so, summer trip recap.

In my last post I said the car was going to be aligned before the big journey. Well it was, 3 times in total, and it’s still not right.

I had the car on the Hunter ramp a week before leaving and sorted front toe and camber but, as always, had to rush it first thing in the morning before the angry boss turns up. That meant no test drive, so I was very upset to realize the steering wheel was still on the piss when I drove home from work a couple of hours later.
With no spare time left and 4 days my only option was to book the car in at the local tyre place, which ended up working on it twice, after failing to straighten the steering wheel on their first go.
The second attempt was also a waste of time but by then I had no option but to live with it since there was literally no time for other fixes.

I’m thinking the rear axle could be out. With all the swapping around suspension stuff and having had both the subframe and the rear beam in and out a number of times, I think this could have thrown all the stock alignment figures off, and that to be 100% straight, the car needs a proper 3/4 hours spent on, with no pressure, to be properly aligned.
Both rear beam and front subframe are fastened by very long bolts that fit very loosely in holes that allow for a certain degree of movement. My theory is that everything needs to be looosened up and reset on a ramp.

I guess this is the price to pay when you mess with components that are not meant to be taken off the car after it leaves the assembly line, or maybe I should just accept the fact that geometry work is something that I’ll have to farm out from now on.

All I managed to do was to properly aim the headlights after fixing the broken lens adjusters

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And so, on the evening of the 24th of July, I left for a 3000+ miles trip with a car that wasn’t properly aligned.

Oh well, at least everything else was fine.
And I mean it! There isn’t another thing that I’m not happy with: every other component that needed fixing/upgrading has been, and finally I had a nice seat to sit on, the climate control was bang on, the newer rims made it for a smoother ride and the recent fixes with alternator and headlights gave me more peace of mind.

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I managed to catch a later ferry after missing the one I booked, and settled in for the night with a fast 80mph cruising speed aiming for Modena probably for lunchtime/early afternoon the next day, going for the Switzerland route (cheaper than Mont Blanc tunnel).

Once there, slightly later than planned, I managed to squeeze some joyriding in a friends old rice burner, and after that I got back on the motorway and headed for Rome, reached by 11pm.

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Pleased to say my dad was impressed by the little car and even gave me some credit for all the work reshelling the old red shed; goals.

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The next day we headed for a quick 70km trip back north to the Argentario region of Tuscany for a 4 day family reunion that included loads of activities with my sport addicted retired dad [emoji38]

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If you’ve never been, go.

1st of August I said goodbye to mum and dad to go reach the lads for another reunion, this time with my high school mates, down in Gaeta, southern Latium.

Another special place, highly recommend.

The drive down was a flashback for me, both to a year ago, when I was driving an old Fiat through Asia on the Mongol Rally, but also to when Italy was my home, and battered roads and rude drivers were the norm.

The Clio was fine. You just hit that cruise control button and any destination is in reach.

With the lads weekend in the bag it was time for the final chapter: a 5 day road trip to Sicily, with an aggressive 500km first leg to the tip of Calabria to catch the ferry the next day.

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Magical places, again, go.

The rest of the trip went really well. Managed to be the last car on the ferry across the straight of Messina (these run every 20mins so not a big deal if you miss one) and in 5 days we drove all the way down to “Isola delle Correnti”, the southernmost tip of the Sicilian island.

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Right from there, a week ago, I left for a 30 hour return trip to the UK with a quick stopover in Rome to shower, sleep and grab some pasta from mamma.
1100 miles and change covered yesterday alone (the furthest I have ever driven in a day), for a total of 3771 for the whole trip.

Car was fine, it is a continent crusher this thing. Climate control did struggle to keep me dry but we are experiencing some insane heat these days so this isn’t exactly normal weather, and considering I was in the car for 22 hours it might have just been me.

The sweet spot for cruising speed is right around 70mph, possibly a touch slower.
On the way down I was trying to go faster but fuel economy was quite poor at 52mpg. The car was also loaded up with junk so we’ll take that into account and go for a 55 average.
But on the way back, at 68/70 indicated, the car averaged 61mpg at the pump, a dramatic improvement with a very little difference in speed.
It also feels better cruising at 2500rpm as opposed to the almost 3k at 80.. 6 speed anyone!?!?

All in all very pleased. I have started looking at replacements for this car purely because I am running out of things to do to it (once I align it properly that is) and fancy a change with something maybe a touch bigger and more at home on a motorway.

But I have just crossed a large chunk of Europe with it, twice, with excellent fuel economy and decent levels of comfort for such a small old car that I know I don’t really NEED anything else.

Once back I pressure washed two weeks worth of road grime and dust, also vacuumed enough sand to make my own little beach outside my flat.
Back to normal life.

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Onto the next problem: oil level is suspiciously low, with no apparent leaks.
Where’s my turbo ?
 

Brigsy

ClioSport Club Member
  T.Turbo
Proper road trip (y)

Low 50mpg sounds about right at 80mph, need to be under 70 for 60’s really.

I wouldnt worry too much about a bit of oil consumption over 3k miles, providing its not totally dry. Mine uses a bit too, but not excessive, i think Ren say a ltr over 1000miles is acceptable:cautious:
 
My best real life consumption figure, back when I was commuting in and out of London in late 2019, was 62.47mpg. 725miles out of almost 53L fill up. This was done averaging 60/65mph on motorways and very easy on the throttle round town.
Best one I got during this trip is 62, but I was never hanging about, as I said, 70mph minimum, sometimes faster.

It’s the gearing that hurts it, if only a 6 speed could fit the old style block.. I reckon the 100 block could accept the later mk3 6speed box maybe ??
 

Crayola

ClioSport Club Member
My best real life consumption figure, back when I was commuting in and out of London in late 2019, was 62.47mpg. 725miles out of almost 53L fill up. This was done averaging 60/65mph on motorways and very easy on the throttle round town.
Best one I got during this trip is 62, but I was never hanging about, as I said, 70mph minimum, sometimes faster.

It’s the gearing that hurts it, if only a 6 speed could fit the old style block.. I reckon the 100 block could accept the later mk3 6speed box maybe ??
The K9K 724 100 block will probably accept a TL4 from a 106 dCi Megane or Clio iirc

The JR5 120 is front starter and the bellhousing bolts are very similar

JR5

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TL4

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  dci 105hp & rs172
I think I would have to change the flywheel. and maybe there is no room for tl4 in clio 2.






Enviado do meu LG-H930 através do Tapatalk
 
  dci 105hp & rs172
I already saw that put the box of 6 in a clio 3 dci 86. It was necessary the flywheel of the dci 106, e. clutch






Enviado do meu LG-H930 através do Tapatalk
 
if I had more time when I reshelled the car I would have spent a couple of hours figuring out the differences between the old and new style block.
apart from the more obvious (starter on the opposite side) would be nice to see how the 6 speed mounts on later generation scenics and clios to see if there is a way of shoehorning one in a mk2.
it is not something I'm planning to do of course but damn was I crying for a 6th gear when I had the engine screaming at 3k trying to make some time at 80mph !!

I've also heard these later cars are also quite short geared, so the difference in revs at top end would probably not be much anyway !
 
Aaaand we’ve clocked 150k, time for an oil and filter change.

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Was pleased to find a dry engine bay, nothing leaking underneath, even the undertray was mint. Cleaned it up from the dirt and back on.

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5L of Helix 5w40 and a new genuine filter.

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Nothing else to report really. I still want to get it aligned, will do it when my wallet recovers from the holiday and also from the purchase of yet another project car ..

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Time to update this, not much to report, the car works fine and gets me from A to B with ease, average fuel economy round town is 57 real Mpg which I think isn’t too bad.

I’ve been fighting with the damn rain sensor for a couple of weeks.

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This black car has an aftermarket screen fitted, and the glue for the rain sensor support has not survived the installation of the new sensor back in August.. or probably the sensor was never the problem, the surround support wasn’t properly on the screen to provide enough pressure.

Anyways, I had a couple of goes at this and still have not found a suitable type of silicon/glue/epoxy that holds the damn thing on.

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I’ve tried sticking the surround on first, wait a couple of days, then clamp the sensor on and nothing, after two or three days it would come off the screen, auto wipers going beserk.

It is now on held with tape, and this time I have stuck the thing on with the sensor already attached, see if it makes any difference..

Other than that, no Christmas trip this year so a lot less mileage to log and loads of city driving to and from work.

I had a trackday at Donington booked for the 10/1 but had to postpone it since I was stuck in Italy with no return flight options at that time.

The car keeps being the ultimate machine

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Swallows all sorts of loads, we all like that, and it’s fun to drive.

I had a pesky knocking noise from the front left and while it was on for its MOT, the technician showed me how the pass side ball joint was completely shagged.

New one goes on

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At the same time I decided to swap the winter tyres back on and clean up the rims

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I had the car aligned not too long ago and it now drives straight enough

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Also two new wheel bearings have joined the party

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All good then, 153k.
 
Good evening everyone, I’ll update this thread in a different way this time.
Since the last post I have not done a single thing on the Clio, other than switching over to summer tyres when time came.

Fairly happy, considering that my main goal when buying this car 4 years ago was reliability and fuel economy I’d say we’re there.

After years of ranking up some pizza delivery guy miles, 2021 has been kind to the black Clio so far; since the last update I’ve only done an extra 2k bringing the grand total to 155k and change (126 on the clocks), all thanks to my old push bike now back on commuters duties.

The Clio works fine, average fuel economy still around 58/59, with peaks of 62 when out of town, but never below 55. At this rate A tank of diesel lasts a month, sometimes more.

The only problem now is good old TFL, that from next month will be effectively extending the London ULEZ zone even further out, rendering many cars, my Clio included, essentially useless.

I’m in two minds with what to do. The car works perfectly for what I need it to do: it’s small enough to make sense round town but can lug people and their stuff around with relative ease. Fuel economy and range are excellent, I love the way it drives, possibly a touch too stiff on those Eibachs but hey..
I also can’t help but noticing that MK2 clios aren’t as common as they used to be, this makes me feel a little more proud driving it, specially in this spec, sitting the way it does on those wide tracks.
I also trust the car, I could leave for Myanmar tomorrow if I wanted to and I’m quite confident it won’t need anything but some diesel.

But, all my friends live in London. Using the push bike as a commuter means the car only gets used on weekends to go see them. This was before ULEZ got extended.. now I’ll have to get back on the underground or worse cycle everywhere..

Not to mention that, if I was to try and sell it, despite all the work done and the fact that the car is, in my opinion, an excellent example of MK2 Clio with almost all the factory optionals, its value is so low it’s not even worth calculating.

What to do?

Love my old diesel Clio.. maybe I should move out of freakin London!?!?

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hopgop1

ClioSport Club Member
Just had a read through this, epic thread, love seeing an old Clio in the same workshop as Italian exotica. It's a real shame that the b****cks ULEZ is forcing you to make a decision you wouldn't have otherwise had to make. Can drive as thirsty of a V8 petrol as you like, but a 60 mpg diesel Clio is definitely the problem :rolleyes:. I'll save the rant, but I would definitely seriously consider leaving London, although I'm sure you've already made a decision now.
 

Martin_172

ClioSport Club Member
One of my favourite projects on here, I love seeing someone spend way more time and money on a car than its realistically worth (my drive is full of these projects!). Its amazing just how usable they are as a daily/commuter/European road tripper!
 
Thanks for your words guys, I’m extremely happy with the car after all the work, so much so that I’ve recently shot a DIY “Chris Harris hold my beer” video of it, trying to present in the best possible way how this sort of configuration ie diesel eco box with nice chassis is for me the way to go if you are forced to use this sort of car but don’t want to give up on driving enjoyment and all that fun stuff. Will see if it’s anything worth putting online or if I just look like a wally and bin the whole thing.
At the moment daily mileage is so little its probably not even worth reporting, I’ve done just short of 8k miles in the last year, almost purely city driving with my DIY eco friendly start/stop system, battery and starter motor don’t really seem to care (mark my words here..)
57mpg average means 550 to 680miles to a tank, a month or so with the way I drive, I’d say pretty good.

Recent fixes worth mentioning are a set of barely used Brembo front pads which I grabbed on eBay at £25; the OE Ferodos I was running were corroding and therefore no amount of copper grease would keep them from squealing, I have kept them since there’s still some meat left, and I have a £150 trackday voucher to use and it’s good to have a usable set of pads kicking around for times like that haha

Soon I’ll be swapping the winters back on, picked up a puncture on one of the PS3s, that gave me the chance of putting some miles on the spare, this helps My OCD, all 5 tyres are somewhat on the same wear mark.

No Italy trip this Christmas, I’m beyond sad about that: recent developments at work and new Covid travel rules mean I’ll probably spend Christmas and New Year in the UK by myself .. not the best scenario but what can you do ?

However there’s a skiing trip booked for late January, and I decided to bite the bullet and convert some of my Clubcard points into Eurotunnel credits, so the Clio will go skiing again!! (Hopefully [emoji1696])

I’m in two minds on whether to treat it to another cam belt before then or not.. last one was at 106k, we’re at 160 and change now.. or maybe I should just leave it be haha

In the meantime, work on the BM is progressing slowly, I should open a project thread on here at some point.

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Time to write a quick summary just to keep the diary up to date;
Not many miles at all, as previously mentioned my commute is quite short and primarily urban, the car does hardly any work at all. Most of the graft is done by the two front lower ball joints trying to cope with London’s speed humps; I have calculated I go through roughly a set in 12 months regardless of the quality. The current ones are TRW and were put on summer of 2020.
Anyhow, I had quickly spoken about an upcoming skiing trip sometime in late January, so the weeks leading to that were spent doing some good ol’ maintenance to the Clio.

Clichè oil change job, this happens every 5k miles or 6 months at the current rate, the clocks say we are at 130k and change, but I know the engine has 28307 more miles than what the car thinks, real figure is around 160k.

This time I had to get creative when sourcing my genuine Renault filter. I refuse to pay more than a tenner for the part, as every mk2 dCi owner should, and so the search on eBay is always on; this time the prey is a NOS item, with a date stamp going back to 2008, I hope it still remembers how to filter oil, £7.99.

Part numbers are different old vs new, but they are visually identical. (Any info is appreciated).
Oil is the good old Helix 5w40, comes off the tap at work.

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The whole 5L jug was needed to get to the proper level, I was happy to see no leaks other than a dribble from the back of the turbo. This is a job I’ll just have to do at some point it seems.

Right after it was time for the yearly fuel filter replacement; this is me just trying to delay the inevitable (ie injection pump demise), but it only costs around £20 per year, and on these cars you can virtually do it with no tools.
I usually buy Delphi filters, but I wasn’t able to find one for less than £40, which is way too dear.
A nice Bosch unit goes in instead, just as good, less than half price.

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Another maintenance task was cleaning the K&N panel filter, which is something I had just forgotten to do last year, it was well overdue. In fact it took a whole lot of rinse and repeat to actually be able to see through the pleats, shame on me.

With that done, fresh oil and new fuel filter I decided it was also time for what it’s now another yearly occurrence: polish the flipping headlights for the 72638363rd time. How the hell there’s still material to buff on those it’s beyond me !!

After 20 or so minutes of faffing with the ever so recycled 3m kit, the result was… probably good enough for another couple of months!
I’ve heard of some sealing compounds that should protect the plastic.. I’m all ears if you have any experience to share.

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I grabbed some Thule ski carriers just because they were cheap. I wasn’t sure I was going to need them as apparently, all the slopes would be walking distance from the hotel. After trial fitting I decided to bring them as a precaution, but stored in the boot. I’ve learned the hard way how fuel economy plummets if any crap is on the roof.

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Last item on the list was to look at the battery.
Ive been rocking a small 44ah Banner battery that I scavenged from the scrap pile at work more than 4 years ago.
I know this sounds pathetic but read on: this little fella has been coping brilliantly. The car should have a 55ah battery, or probably even bigger, but I never knew that. I abuse the absolute hell out of it: cold mornings, my DYI start and stop technique (patented), countless sky trips with sub zero cold starts (in fact the YouTube video of the car starting in -15 is now at some 50k views [emoji23]) and the thing did not care !
Until very recently. It has suddenly lost its spark, and one time got close to getting me stranded.
Unable to once again find a similar size battery at work, I decided to shamelessly steal the battery out of my old BM and shoehorn the thing in the Clio.
It fits! Just.

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Good to go then?
I think so !

The destination was Sestriere, Italian Alps.
Never been there, it’s a slightly longer drive compared to the usual Chamonix, still around the 12/13hour mark from London.
The trip down was in two stages, as one of my friends was going to hop on in Brussels. This meant Sestriere was reached in two days (also 2x covid tests, excellent).

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Leaving London with just above half a tank meant I barely made it to Luxembourg in the early hours of the next day, after leaving Brussels at 5am. Literally 80 miles on empty, don’t want to do that again.
However £1.18 a liter diesel was worth it, the 50L fuel tank swallowed 54 liters, we literally arrived on fumes. Felt good but was nerve racking.

I wasn’t helped by the fact that my mate decided to rent his snowboard directly in Brussels, and the damn thing did not fit inside the car, not in a way you could drive 10+ hours anyway. So out came the ski carriers and roof bars, bye bye 60mpg !!!

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The drive went smoothly. Nobody around, the brakes were only touched to slow down at peage booths. 72 on the cruise control got us there by mid afternoon, the rest of the gang was driving from Rome in a merc V class and had a slightly shorter route, we arrived 2 hours later having started driving an hour earlier than them !
The now 11 year old winter Continentals were back on duty for the occasion. They are literally on just to be legal, fairly useless at gripping anything, let alone snow or ice, otherwise.
Good tyres, they’re just too old and I don’t like to throw away tyres with tread still on.


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For the whole week the Clio sat in the cold but dry hotel car park. The only time we needed to use the car to try a French resort, my brothers (and ex grandad) shiny Picasso made much more sense.


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A week later we just packed the car and headed north. 3up this time, one of my mates was coming back to London with me, plus the one to drop off in Belgium.
Snowboard on the roof plus a 90mph rush to Calais meant I got some pretty grim mpg on this trip, 51 average, less than 600miles of range.
1700 miles and change, 3 tanks or so.

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All in all I’m always happy with the car. Can’t ask it to do any better frankly. 80mph loaded with crap on the roof, driving all day, I don’t think it’s bad going for what is almost 20 years old.
Could be better on these long drives, I always get home thinking I should get a Volvo v50. But the reality is that it would only make sense once or twice a year; for the rest of the time, the Clio just about ticks all the boxes.
Oil is almost to the minimum after the trip, i now see turbo cartridges in my sleep, terrific.

Thanks for reading !
 
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Austin-182

ClioSport Club Member
  182
Great to read this update Diego. Everytime i see this thread i still miss my dci initiale so much. Still gutted about how it ended up breaking!
 

Brigsy

ClioSport Club Member
  T.Turbo
Great updates. I wouldnt worry about the oil consumption too much, they all use a bit when the mileage is getting up there. Quick ring job will sort that if itstarts getting a bit smokey from cold.

As for oil filters, i use purflux 932 which is as good as oem, same manufacturer. Gsf sell them around £3 each.
 


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