Martin's 197 Lux Project

[Martin_172]

FFS.... spotted it on eBay with 20 seconds to go, a quick read of the description and a bid in with a few secs to go and it was mine for £3k, was that a good price? I'm sure the next few days/weeks/months will clarify that!!
eBay ad pics...

Picked it up on Sunday, my 3 concerns were the 3x common MK3 issues, front hubs, exhaust manifold flexi and gearbox synchro. Picked it up and took it the 5 mile drive to my work for a good nosey round it, within 30 seconds on the road it was clear to see 4th gear synchro was shagged, however the hubs and exhaust mani are all in great condition - THANK GOD!

It looked like Stevie Wonder had machine polished it with cutlery...

So I spent Sunday giving it a quick going over with the polisher just to bring the colour back to life a bit and allow me to give it a bit of an assessment to any bodywork it needs. Turns out its pretty decent, all the paint looks to be original, The silver mirrors, door handles and vents that the Lux get are all faded so them along with a ding on the drivers door and a scuff on the rear bumper and some scuffs on the drivers side side skirt ill get sorted out over the next few weeks.

I'm pretty happy with it for the cash. Its only done 80k, had a fresh wheel refurb and new brakes all round and the interior is in nice condition. There's no sign of a belt change so that's POSSIBLY one of my first jobs, depending on if its staying NA or not! Its got a ram air open filter so if I can get a cheap airbox ill pop that back to standard but I'm having trouble finding one.

The big elephant in the room is the gearbox, if I spend how ever many hundreds of pounds it costs to have the box rebuilt plus a belt change I may as well just Meglio it?! my man maths head is telling me that's the best option?!

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Looks alright. I've got some exterior handles if you want a spare set to paint.

 

[Martin_172]

Looks alright. I've got some exterior handles if you want a spare set to paint.

cheers for the offer mate but I think I'm just going to have them done on the car to save stripping the door cards etc!

 

[Djw John]

Saw that for sale weeks and weeks ago I'm sure. Was tempted but then remembered I'd had a 197 with gearbox and hub issues and thought 'f**k that' 😂

Be as well to Meg it if the box is fucked, but keep it lux spec, not stripped out

 

[Martin_172]

Saw that for sale weeks and weeks ago I'm sure. Was tempted but then remembered I'd had a 197 with gearbox and hub issues and thought 'f**k that' 😂

Be as well to Meg it if the box is fucked, but keep it lux spec, not stripped out

Yeah been there done that got the t-shirt, I sold my R27 as it kept f**king trying to bankrupt me, in fact wasn't that the same car?! lol

 

[Djw John]

It was. Now ruining a Frenchman's life I believe. @Michaelfoz will confirm

 

[Martin_172]

My man maths also missed out from the equation that if i put an F4RT in it, i can use the 197 internals in the RaceVAN....

 

[imprezaworks]

Looks decent for 3k mate

 

[Martin_172]

Ramair in the bin!!!

Much better, I can drive it without feeling embarrassed every time I try and speed up to catch a green light in the middle of the town.

Gearbox next 😠

 

[pepinosport]

non cup chassis?

 

[Martin_172]

non cup chassis?

yeah non cup chassis, only options on it are Xenons & electric folding mirrors as far as i can see!

 

[gez 172]

I’d sort the gearbox and just enjoy it, personally. I love the 197 engine and 6 speed box combo.

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Cup/non-Cup chassis doesn't really make much difference on the 197. It's only springs, dampers and anti-roll bar. Once you have lowered it, obviously it's just the ARB.

I often wonder, if you a put a journo in a 197 but told them it was a 200 Cup, would they really be able to tell the difference? I'm not sure that many would if you went full Pepsi challenge.

 

[LB197]

I've not seen another one of these other than mine in person, came with quite a few options didn't they.

 

[Martin_172]

I've not seen another one of these other than mine in person, came with quite a few options didn't they.

yeah my understanding is that the climate control was standard on them along with the full leather and the silver bits on the outside.

Mine has electric folding mirrors which i think were a £100 option

Oddly enough even as an 09 plate it has a key where my 57 plate R27 had keyless entry, what does yours have?

 

[LB197]

yeah my understanding is that the climate control was standard on them along with the full leather and the silver bits on the outside.

Mine has electric folding mirrors which i think were a £100 option

Oddly enough even as an 09 plate it has a key where my 57 plate R27 had keyless entry, what does yours have?

Not sure why yours hasn’t got the keyless / push to start. So from what ive read, they were only made in 2009, most things were options anyway but the LUX pack was a £1000 option that had pretty much all options (bar a few like sunroof and things). I think the included bits were:

Interior:
- Leather seats with renaultsport headrests
- Silver fan vent surrounds
- Carbon effect centre trim
- Anthracite dashboard strips
- Climate Control
- Cruise Control (may have been standard)
- No steering wheel RS emblem thing (i got one of ebay)
- Keyless Entry / push to start
- Higher wattage speakers
- The VIN Sticker in the door sill also has “Lux” on the model name

Lux dashboard trim:

Exterior:
- Silver wing vents
- Silver wing mirrors
- No spoiler - now have a gt spoiler
- Raider grey satin wheels (annoyingly mine were knackered)
- Cornering lights (nifty [emoji23])

Mine didnt come with folding mirrors, that would be nice, but assuming racing blue would have been a costly option too.

 

[Martin_172]

Not sure why yours hasn’t got the keyless / push to start. So from what ive read, they were only made in 2009, most things were options anyway but the LUX pack was a £1000 option that had pretty much all options (bar a few like sunroof and things). I think the included bits were:

Interior:
- Leather seats with renaultsport headrests
- Silver fan vent surrounds
- Carbon effect centre trim
- Anthracite dashboard strips
- Climate Control
- Cruise Control (may have been standard)
- No steering wheel RS emblem thing (i got one of ebay)
- Keyless Entry / push to start
- Higher wattage speakers
- The VIN Sticker in the door sill also has “Lux” on the model name

Lux dashboard trim:



Exterior:
- Silver wing vents
- Silver wing mirrors
- No spoiler - now have a gt spoiler
- Raider grey satin wheels (annoyingly mine were knackered)
- Cornering lights (nifty [emoji23])

Mine didnt come with folding mirrors, that would be nice, but assuming racing blue would have been a costly option too.

Yeah mine has all of the above but not the keyless entry, and it has the correct carbon centre console but without the space for a button so i assume it just have been an option or something. One less thing to go wrong i suppose as my mrs has a terrible track record with key cards lol

 

[LB197]

Yeah mine has all of the above but not the keyless entry, and it has the correct carbon centre console but without the space for a button so i assume it just have been an option or something. One less thing to go wrong i suppose as my mrs has a terrible track record with key cards lol

Ah right, id always thought it was only the cup ones that had a key. I do agree though, i prefer to have a key. I worry about the security of it and the card never sits right in my pocket.

 

[Martin_172]

Something that's bothered me since I got it was the condition of the carpets being poor, got a decent condition set from eBay and attacked it today!

 

[PP200t]

FFS.... spotted it on eBay with 20 seconds to go, a quick read of the description and a bid in with a few secs to go and it was mine for £3k, was that a good price? I'm sure the next few days/weeks/months will clarify that!!
eBay ad pics...
View attachment 1540541
View attachment 1540542
View attachment 1540543

Picked it up on Sunday, my 3 concerns were the 3x common MK3 issues, front hubs, exhaust manifold flexi and gearbox synchro. Picked it up and took it the 5 mile drive to my work for a good nosey round it, within 30 seconds on the road it was clear to see 4th gear synchro was shagged, however the hubs and exhaust mani are all in great condition - THANK GOD!

It looked like Stevie Wonder had machine polished it with cutlery...
View attachment 1540545
View attachment 1540546

So I spent Sunday giving it a quick going over with the polisher just to bring the colour back to life a bit and allow me to give it a bit of an assessment to any bodywork it needs. Turns out its pretty decent, all the paint looks to be original, The silver mirrors, door handles and vents that the Lux get are all faded so them along with a ding on the drivers door and a scuff on the rear bumper and some scuffs on the drivers side side skirt ill get sorted out over the next few weeks.
View attachment 1540548
View attachment 1540547
View attachment 1540549

I'm pretty happy with it for the cash. Its only done 80k, had a fresh wheel refurb and new brakes all round and the interior is in nice condition. There's no sign of a belt change so that's POSSIBLY one of my first jobs, depending on if its staying NA or not! Its got a ram air open filter so if I can get a cheap airbox ill pop that back to standard but I'm having trouble finding one.

The big elephant in the room is the gearbox, if I spend how ever many hundreds of pounds it costs to have the box rebuilt plus a belt change I may as well just Meglio it?! my man maths head is telling me that's the best option?!

Looks absolutely beautiful! Wish I could get my black 200t looking as nice and shiny as yours.
love the new carpet, such a massive difference that’s made and the mats are nice too.

 

[Martin_172]

Looks absolutely beautiful! Wish I could get my black 200t looking as nice and shiny as yours.
love the new carpet, such a massive difference that’s made and the mats are nice too.

My old faithful machine polisher died so that's literally a £50 amazon machine polisher and a bottle of McGuires ultimate compound! Make that your plans for your next long weekend!

 

[PP200t]

My old faithful machine polisher died so that's literally a £50 amazon machine polisher and a bottle of McGuires ultimate compound! Make that your plans for your next long weekend!

Wow, that’s really impressive! Was it one of the handheld polisher things or a proper looking orbital one? I’d probably burn the paint knowing my luck!

 

[Martin_172]

a proper dual action one so dont worry about burning the paint with it. Its showing as no longer available but its similar to this one: Amazon UK

 

[Poopensharten]

Burn it

 

[Martin_172]

Got a black DCI boot lid with a GT spoiler! No joke it got delivered like this!!!!

No damage though so it sure wasn't Hermes that brought it!!

Stuck it on, much better, I'll get a new Renault sport badge for it at some point.

Quick debadge and a wash

 

[imprezaworks]

There's me wrapping stuff with a full roll of brown tape lol

 

[Poopensharten]

Howling at the way that boot lid was posted🤣

 

[Krarl]

That was deffo sent by a man in a van and not a courier🤣

I posted a car door with a proper car parts shipper and it was practically folded in half when it got there🤣🤣🤣 Glass wasn't smashed though

 

[Martin_172]

Busy day yesterday after work, forgot to take any pictures of all the new bits sitting out which I kicked myself for! Got a delivery of parts from RPD consisting of 200 Cup front shocks, 200 Cup front springs and 200 Cup front top mounts to match all the 200 cup rears that i fitted a few weeks previous.

I was chasing a knock at the front end which it would appear someone else had already been chasing previously as the car had almost new genuine 197 front shocks, genuine drop links, genuine anti rotation links and a pair of new "motor factor special" front springs, they had used the original top mounts which were past their best and had been cross threaded with new bolts which weren't very tight and the new springs were catching the shocks on the 2nd bottom coil so that was probably what was causing my knock!

Swapped it all over and it drives night and day better, feels so much better on the road and so eager to turn in, its still running some Chinese special landsail tyres but they will be staying until I've stuck a 200 cup rack on it as its got some play in the inner tie rods and it makes sense to complete the "200 cup" conversion while I'm in there since the rack comes with new track rods! so then ill do an alignment and stick a set of speedlines and fresh PS4s on it!

 

[Martin_172]

Couple of jobs carried out this week on the 197. First up was a set of 4x Michelin PS4 - long overdue, never been so glad to get rid of the Landsail budget crap that it came with - totally transformed it as expected!

a new lower engine mount and upper engine stabilizer mount, just went genuine as I didn't want the extra vibration from uprated mounts. It seems they have revised the mount too at some point? - a much better design on the lower one

and an RS steering wheel insert I found going cheap

 

[Martin_172]

Still been loving this, not been much to report until this week, I picked up a 200 gearbox with the shorter ratios, going to pull it apart and do the 3rd and 4th gear syncros and swap it over. Ordered a new genuine clutch, slave cylinder and gearbox mount for when i get round to that, hopefully next weekend!

This week it developed a fuel leak from the fuel lines under the car being badly corroded, absolute c**t of a job and if I had to do it again id just run a braided line or something from the tank to the rail!

 

[Brigsy]

I can imagine that being a right cnut of a job to do, did you have to drop the subframe?

 

[Martin_172]

I can imagine that being a right cnut of a job to do, did you have to drop the subframe?

na I managed to do it with it in place, I removed the support brace that goes across the length of the subframe to get my hand up, removed the heat shield material that covers the bulkhead and rack etc, I was lucky I was doing it on a 4 poster but I was alone so it was constant up and down to keep moving it a bit at a time trying not to damage the new part! 2.5hrs all in and not one enjoyable part of the job

 

[Martin_172]

Boring update, not much been happening with it, I done a new AC condenser as it was leaking and done a re gas, so the AC works as it should.

Was at the scrappys today getting some bits for my mk2s and picked up a pair of good condition ph2 rear lights!

 

[Clio_fool]

Looks like a good purchase. Those rear lights done have a fog light in do they? Best keep the originals for mot time.

 

[Martin_172]

Looks like a good purchase. Those rear lights done have a fog light in do they? Best keep the originals for mot time.

Na they don't, I'll wire one in when I get time, I do run a testing station though lol

 

[Martin_172]

I've had a 200 box with the shorter 1-3rd gear ratios for this for a while with new synchro's to fit and a new clutch to fit at the time but never got round to it until my Mrs used it for ONE DAY and managed to break it!!!!! in her defence the slave cylinder failed and she lost the clutch pedal so i pulled it home on a tow pole on the back of the kangoo work horse and dumped it at my house to come back to another day.

The legend @aldo_87 is doing the synchro's for me as he's got more experience than my zero!

Surprize surprize the syncros are on their way out on that box too, the guy I bought it from did say they were ok! but obviously i was going to change them anyway.

This morning i went out with the intention of pulling the box to swap the clutch over ready for the box being finished but things got out of hand quickly when i decided i may as well pull the engine and box in one go and do the belts since they are long overdue (and it has a dodgy looking crankshaft damper pulley)

I usually borrow an engine hoist from next door but decided its probably about time i had my own so its due Tuesday and ill finish the rest, ive just got the shafts to come out, gear linkage to remove and she should slide right out!

 

[Djw John]

Worth it if your doing both for sure.
Bet you near creamed your pants when you realised the crash bar comes off 😂

 

[Martin_172]

Worth it if your doing both for sure.
Bet you near creamed your pants when you realised the crash bar comes off 😂

that was the point i decided to pull the lot!

 

[Krarl]

Worth it if your doing both for sure.
Bet you near creamed your pants when you realised the crash bar comes off 😂

Makes it loads easier😂😂