Monaco 172 Track Car

[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

This is the tale of 2 Clio’s.

Back in 2015 I bought a dCi 100 for pennies, it’s now on 243k and I have it where I like it. It’s taken a few years and a lot of miles to make it look alright.

However, last month I bought a 172 so it starts all over again, this time it will all be documented properly ahaha.

Few pics of my dCi when I first bought it

Few pics of my 172 when I bought it last month

More pictures and plenty of mods to follow!


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

The mods now start on the dCi!

I also got rid of the horrible Megane alloys (until winter time anyway) and sold the tinted rear lights as I’m not a chav

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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

I was sick of the car being filthy so I detailed it. I didn’t go full ham on the paint but I wanted the interior to be nice as thats where I spend my time.

The outside was cleaned and spray wax used. Photo is edited but back then I thought I was the dogs nuts with my white 172 alloys haha.

First it was time to tackle the seatbelts as they were hanging I used vanish gold and red hot water to get rid of the bulk of the hunk and then just some HG upholstery cleaner with a rag to get the rest off and to stop the seatbelts being sticky after the Vanish.

Minging drivers side belt

A slight 50/50 after one scrub with the Vanish

After a few passes with a nailbrush. Coming along now

The water after doing most of the drivers belt. Only 4 more belts to do

After the Vanish treatment. Now just for a few wipes to get the rest of the crap off.

Loads better now and that towel got thrown which my Mrs wasn’t best pleased about. I bought her some more to replace the ones I used

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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

After a while of having the dCi I picked up a full sport kit in Pearl black from my mate for £80. So after it sitting in the garage for a while I decided it was time to make the dCi a rep

A billion self tappers in my painted Fabia splitter

All grilles sprayed gloss black as the faded plastic looked shite

First wash being a rep

At this point I was well into washing my car and it was summer so it got washed every few days

Car looks so much better with the whole sport kit on

I also fitted sport seats and the door sill protectors. The car already came with a 172 steering wheel. I’m sure at this point the car was a full rep apart from the engine and running gear etc. I also did a proper pikey job of my backbox by welding in some excess pipe I had lying around Pics of that to follow



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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

At this point in September last year I’d got so far into cleaning and detailing that I bought a machine polisher, various compounds, polishes, sealants and waxes. So I set on tackling the 220,000 mile old paint

As you can expect the pair was horrid. I don’t have any other pictures but judging by this you and expect the rest of the paint

Before

After

I also got a set of 182 alloys with nearly new tyres for £50. They were purple but a trip to Halfords and £30 later they were a nice dark shade of anthracite.

More to follow on the dCi and soon I can update about the 172‍


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Also fitted a set of 172 black insert Xenons I picked up for £30. Had to refurb them but that was only £7 for a pack of various wet and dry from Halfrauds


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

And then it happened...


Driving along, do a 2nd gear pull, someone jumps out in front... I braked but the bag of shite Yaris behind me didn’t...

This was back in October just as I’d finished uni and was looking for a job. So I was skint! It happens at the best times!

I said to the lad, I ain’t gonna f**k you over so it’s £230 and we’ll call it squits. £30 for recovery, £60 for the beam and my time to fix the car. So I made money from this haha.

I really don’t get how it was wheel to wheel contact and he didn’t smash my rear bumper to bits! Nor was the wheel bent, them 182 wheels are made from decent stuff!

While I was waiting on J28 M62 Roundabout for my mate and his truck to turn up

It had completely bent the rear beam and the car was doing the Stankey leg... No damage to anything other than the rear beam

I then bought a fully hammerited rear beam with brand new bushes etc. Me and my dad took the beam down and I decided it was a good time to spray down the underside of the car, while everything is out of the way.

You can also see my pikey job and my welding with wet rods on a stick welder exhaust‍

After a day the car was back down on planet earth and it felt better than ever to drive!!

The beam bushes were that bad on the old one they caused the whole axle to move when compressed which meant the back wheel rubbed on the arch. Now the beam doesn’t rub at all! Even with 4 people in the car (I had to test it) Win!

Bent as a 9 bob note

State of that bush!

More updates to follow


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[v15ben]

Epic mileage! Hope everything gets sorted fine. Good daily car this.

 

[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Epic mileage! Hope everything gets sorted fine. Good daily car this.

I have more updates soon haha‍


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

So after 240k of fairly faultless miles I decided I wanted to stop spending loads of money on my daily...

So I bought another dCi 100 purely for parts for the humongous sum of £150 Unfortunately the cambelt had gone... but the car paid for itself after I sold the interior, front bumper, bonnet and bonnet hinges. I then sold the alloys with new tyres for £80, a rear stub for £35 posted and I’ve now doubled my money and still have pretty much a full car left.

I have the EPAS column, rack and dash to go in my 172. I’ve already swapped over the rear discs onto the dCi as they were new, then the rest of the car has been stripped and stored. I think it’s pretty much just the shell left with a few wires and a headliner

In a nutshell I got a full car cheaper than a set of injectors for my car is...

In its final resting place...

Dead car after a few hours...

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[Louis]

I like your patio heater mate.

 

[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

I like your patio heater mate.

Thanks mate Laying on a cold floor ain’t great


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[Dr HMS Derv Destroyer]

Watch who's patch your stepping on youth only one diseasel king on here

 

[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Watch who's patch your stepping on youth only one diseasel king on here

How are yours all coming along?


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[Dr HMS Derv Destroyer]

How are yours all coming along? :wink:


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Erm , ones running , just needs parts fitting, another's still in a million pieces and the other is built but cba to finish it

 

[Brigsy]

Dci cleans up well for the mileage. My dci is almost on 140k not even broke in yet lol

 

[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Erm , ones running , just needs parts fitting, another's still in a million pieces and the other is built but cba to finish it

Pull your finger out! I wanna know what it’s like!


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Dci cleans up well for the mileage. My dci is almost on 140k not even broke in yet lol

Yeah it’s not too bad, black car though so it looks dirty and shite after 10 mins of driving


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Finding and fixing boost leaks...

I found that my cooler had a massive hole in it from a stone... so I set out to repair the massive mess with epoxy putty

Pic of said bullethole

The epoxy sort of did it’s job but looks horrendous...

The cooler is bent from a previous owner and mangled from 240k miles

So I found another dCi 100 in my local scrappers and bought the cooler for £20

I had to paint this one black as I hated the silver

Another job complete and it looks so much better now the cooler is black!

More smaller updates to follow with a list of all my mods to date and what I’ve done to the car specifically...

Ciao


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

So I’m still talking past tense winding back about 3/4 months here...

I’d like to get all the stuff out of the way now so I can keep bringing updates from present time and I document it a lot better

What I’ve done to my dCi so far

-172 bumpers, skirts, wings
-Lowering on Apex 40mm
-182 seats
-Cleaner sport steering wheel
-Connect2 box for 100% bangers
-182 rear beam
-Chopped off backbox
-16mm spacers front and 15mm rear
-Various sets of alloys (probs had about 15 sets in 3 years)
-Shortened front plate and new rear
-Xenons
-LED bulbs all the way round
-Rear numberplate light holder
-Sprayed all grilled and badges (black/anthracite)

Service items I have done (all parts new)

-Shocks all round
-Wishbones
-New ball joints (multiple times!!)
-Track rod ends
-Steering rack
-Top mounts
-ABS sensors
-Hubs (both front)
-Droplinks
-Timing belt, water pump + aux belt (done that many miles it’s due another one...)
-Injector ultrasonic clean and Liquimoly purge
-New fuel lines
-All filters changed (now just keep on top of intervals)
-Glowplugs + Relay
-Wheel bearings (lost count how many times)
-NS driveshaft
-Rack boots and CV boots
-Rear calipers (refurbed them myself)
-Gearbox oil
-Brembo HC discs and pads
-Genuine Renault rears (both from George @ RTR)
-Handbrake cables

All the work that has been done has been done by myself (I’d rather do it myself as I don’t trust anyone else to touch my s**t)

Cleaning...

I took a day to fully detail the car, this was after owning the car for 2 years so it wasn’t that dirty.

However, the paint was disgusting after 235k-ish.

-Full wash
-Decon with tar remover and iron remover
-Another wash with Fairy to remove previous waxes
-Fully clayed the car (sounded like a washboard)
-Wipe down with IPA
-2 stage machine polish
-IPA wipe down and then fully sealed
-Paste wax on top of sealant
-Spray wax on top of the paste wax
-Hosed the car off and sealed again with Hydro2
-Dried with a waffle weave and quick detailer
-Stuck some Rain-X on the windows

Before of the paint

After

I also cleaned the engine bay prior to this

I gutted the whole interior when it came to putting in the sport seats so everything got taken out, washed as dried then.

The only pic I have from then

This is how the car now sits, black 172 wheels I paid £25 for and used Poundland spray paint on, because winter beater wheels and tyres

There’s probably loads of bits I’ve missed off but can’t remember. The car currently sits with no MOT as the rear lines are shagged and the master cylinder is needing a rebuild as it’s leaking! (waiting on the seal kit but will post about this soon)


I’ve also got some pics of when I cleaned up my headlights and when I sprayed my wheels so I’ll add them down below

Headlight before

During

After

Wheels before

When they’d been sanded down

And after

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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

The 182 wheels are a Ford Graphite from Halfords too. They weren’t sprayed with Poundland crap


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[td_dan]

Lovely car mate looks really well as a rep and certainly gets looked after

 

[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Lovely car mate looks really well as a rep and certainly gets looked after

Cheers mate I bought it just because I did a lot of miles and I was a student. Now I’ve become sentimentally attached so it’s staying forever

Might as well try and treat it nicely


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Update time

So I finally get to how updates about the 172

I bought it back in February for a measly amount of money. So far the car has gone from being my fun car to my daily as the dCi decided it’s not allowed to pass an MOT first time ever...

The issues it had when I first got hold of it are:

-Gearbox groan on acceleration and harsh vibrations (I feel this is the spider gearbox mount)
-Gearbox has a massive crunch into 2nd and is developing one into 4th
-Needs an injector and a service as it misses badly on idle
-It’s absolutely filthy!
-Nearside rear quarter has a massive ding in it where the previous owner had a fight with a bollard
-It needed a battery as the old one was w**k
-Interior is dirty and all the soft touch has gone a bit sticky
-Oh and did I mention that it’s absolutely filthy!!!

Other than these issues the car drives bang on and pulls very well. I’ve had countless people try and pull away from me in A3 diesels and stuff of that sort but I’ve just dropped a gear and roared past them and they’ve looked at the car like “WTF how fast a that 1.2 Clio”

The only Mod it currently has is a Powerfliw backbox. However, this will soon be changed as I already have a mountain of parts to go on the car!

A pic of the rear quarter, it looks particularly bad in this pic though

The first thing I had to do to get it on the road was to swap out the old Varta and stick in a lovely Bosch S5 that I got for £60

More updates on this to come. I have a mountain of things to do to this and can’t wait to get stuck in!

Ciao


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[imprezaworks]

Rear quarter looks

 

[Porl]

I love a tidy monacoand have no doubt you'll bring it up to spec. What bargain price did you pay for it with its arse stoved in like that?

 

[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Rear quarter looks

Yeah both my cars have rear quarter damage too


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

I love a tidy monacoand have no doubt you'll bring it up to spec. What bargain price did you pay for it with its arse stoved in like that?

Paid £475, so far I’ve spent more on parts for it so it’s gonna get interesting very, very soon


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[Porl]

Paid £475, so far I’ve spent more on parts for it so it’s gonna get interesting very, very soon

Well that's easy to do with a price like that! Straightening the rear quarter out will probably cost more than that too!

 

[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Well that's easy to do with a price like that! Straightening the rear quarter out will probably cost more than that too!

I break quite a lot of Clio’s so I’ve already got my panel to stitch in

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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Well about 3 weeks ago I was driving along Otley Road and I notice the fan kick on, I though it was weird as I’d been driving like a granny through Leeds and through all the speed cameras.

So I pull into the BP garage to see what’s what as the blowers had gone cold too. Much to my amazement my expansion tank is completely dry!! Luckily I was outside the shop so I went in and bought 5L of water just to get me home as I thought it would start gushing out. So after about 3.5L of water I notice no leaks etc and there’s no mixing of oil/water so the head was fine. LUCKILY!

I drive home which is about 12 miles stopping off halfway to make sure it’s not empty again. I notice it’s a little lower than before but it could have just been an air bubble... or so you’d think

I get home, stick the bonnet up and my rad has a hole in the top and was whistling away like an old kettle!

£20 later I have a pretty much bang on, brand new looking rad pack from one of my mates down the road

So I set to swapping it out. Luckily the sun was out so the beers could flow while I cracked on

Stripping the front end down

My rad was a bag of shite, rotten and looked like it should have blown out in more than one place

The AC rad was completely shagged too so I’ll either replace this or just do an AC and PAS delete at the same time

Old rad and air box out

I took the air box out to clean up the coolant temp sensor

I decided to space the fan off the rad as I’ve had issues with other 1*2’s and friends track cars where a bad fan has just decided to munch it’s way into the radiator on track *sigh*

Front end looking the like a front end again

All done. The day before this I sprayed the Renault diamond black just to see what the black looked like against the blue

More updates to follow, hopefully my dCi will be back on the road this week so I can start pulling the Monaco to bits like a maniac

Ciao


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

I’ve been on a spending spree recently, shame I’ve had no time to do much to the car

15” Rota Slipstream 7J

K-Tec stealth

Corbeau Revolution XL with Sparco 5 point

I bought a PH1 airbox with an ITG filter and Samco hose, RS lower inlet and a fuel rail with 4 injectors.

I managed to fit the airbag and injectors but left the inlet because CBA!

I also bought some new reg plates with a shortened front from ProPlates. Just need some Velcro to stick em on and get rid of the horrible pressed plates

Front and full rear braided lines

Fabia splitter, cup spoiler and washer blanks

That’s all the parts for now, I have a new driveshaft for the OS, Cooksports to collect and some other little bits and bobs including a full shelf of spray paints for wheels, grilles etc

Onto the more intricate s**t.

So yesterday I decided that I’d change all the pads out as I didn’t know the exact condition of the brakes and I had a full set of standard Brembo pads lying about.

So I did the rear NS fine, cleaned up the sliders inside all the dust boots and cleaned all the arch up too while I was in there. I did the same with the NS front and then cleaned that up too (the pic after ain’t the best as I’d already put the wheel back on)

Before

After... sort of

I then went round to do the other side starting with the OS front. Jacked up the car as I was greeted to this...

So I was slightly cheesed off but it wasn’t a biggie because I hoard parts and had a spare spring from my dCi. Not concerned about odd/non paired springs atm as I have the cooksports to go on soon.

I then took the wheel off to yet again be greeted by another thing

So when the gearbox comes out that part of the block will be getting attacked with the grinder! I currently have a filed down cable tie on there and it just about clears the block. Smashing design from Renault as usual

Did the rest of the car and cleaned up all the arches and then put it back together. Now sat with minor sun stroke, massive headache and my arse cheeks hurt from sitting on the floor all day

No pictures of the car all back together as I was covered in grease and was feeling very ill

More updates soon, will try and get the dCi back on the road next week


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Quick update with everything

I managed to get all the jobs sorted on my dCi, changing the master cylinder is always a huge c**t of a job!

MC Out

Master cylinder has been leaking for some time to make it rust

Pikey paint job

All back together. This picture gives you an insight to how buried the servo’s and MC’s are on Clio’s

So after all this messing I decided to bleed the brakes, the back ones were fine, did the drivers side as I’d had that Caliper off and wanted to get most of the air out before bleeding the NSF. Went to do the NSF and the bleed nipple snaps...

So I had a massive paddy as you would, got annoyed and then I cleaned both cars and left it for a day...

So today comes round, fresh head and fresh thinking.

I get a spare Caliper out the garage and stick a new bleed nipple in the fucker. Did the same for the rest of the Calipers too!! Can’t be arsed with another snapping down the line.

Stuck the Caliper on and re-bled all brakes again, now stops like a dream and the only thing I have to sort is getting it through the MOT in the next couple of days, hopefully it’s a pass.


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

I’ve been doing a lot of work on my dCi recently, been chasing a lot of electrical niggles?

ABS light was so on, noticed the NSF was a bit broken at the plug so I swapped that out and the light seems to have gone off.

Airbag light was on from the 172 seats, chopped the connectors off and put bullet connectors on it instead and that light went out.

My rear dipped light wasn’t working and neither was the number plate light. I cleaned all the connections, cleaned all the fuses and still nothing. Tried different bulbs and everything, my dad came round and after 30 seconds found a broken fuse. One I’d already cleaned and checked??‍

I then fixed the issue with my battery clamp as the bolt had snapped off in the gearbox mount the other day. Half 6 on a morning at 4 degrees swapping out a battery before I go to work wasn’t fun! Drilled and tapped another M8 hole for a new bolt and it sorted.

Hopefully I can get an MOT slot tomorrow and it passes, it’s ridiculous how slow it is compared to my 172 and it’s the 100bhp version. I’d dread to swap between a dCi 65 and a 172


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

I also wet sanded and polished my rear number plate light lense, I bought a new ones but it’s cheap Chinese shite and doesn’t fit properly.

Before

After

Ain’t perfect but looks better


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Took the dCi for the MOT today, passed... finally!

Although I was driving about and heard a weird noise and found this...

My 6 puck belt decided it wanted to live life as a 4 puck with frayed ends and chunks missing Swapped it out with a new one and all is good. Cambelt still looked new even after 60k. I have a full kit to throw on at some point but I now have 3 Clio’s... yeah I kinda bought another one

Another Monaco, I’ll be breaking my Monaco and all the good parts will make 1 great car, or so I hope


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Bought loads of more bits

Michelin PS3’s

Brand new cup shocks

Black series insert

Magnecor leads

Another 197 steering wheel One with cruise buttons and the RenaultSport insert

I’ve also cleaned back my Rota’s, primered the faces and barrels and filler primered the faces ready for sanding back

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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

I feel as though I need an update

Since the last one I’ve probably spent another £600 in parts on my 172 and I’ve not even got round to taking the engine out of my 2nd 172??‍

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention I bought another Monaco 172

1 ever so small ding in the drivers door, luckily the other 172 has a lovely and straight door! Cha-ching!!! And the usual dint in the bonnet, not so bad that though!

Possibly the most unmolested 172 I’ve seen. The engine bay is stupidly clean and still has the illusive ECU bracket intact

Stupidly clean body, barely even touched tbh. It has supposed cambelt failure and the bloke that had it bought it for the cat and then sold it on to me. Its only had 4 owners (one is me) and the bloke that bought it before me didn’t even have the logbook back from the DVLA yet so he’d not had it long

The plan is to take all the nice bits from mine (mainly the engine) and make 1 lovely car out of 2.

So far I’ve got pretty much every polybush mount you can think of bar the rear shocker mounts and upper gearbox mount, most of which are black series or Strongflex 90ShA

I’ve also bought a cup alternator setup, new belts and dephaser and a load of other small bits that will keep me busy all year

Since getting the dCi back on the road I’ve done a few thou in it and it’s been faultless, did an oil change and now my next one will be at 252k!!

I changed the EGR, boost solenoid, MAP sensor and MAF sensor today as it’s been a bit s**t on boost and comes in and out. 100% not getting the full 18psi, then I’ll take my foot off and plant it again and it’ll pull like a lonely bloke on his rodger.

My old EGR with a large opening

The one I replace it with from my breaker car Drives bang on so I’m not fussed

Looked better once I’d cleaned it up too

I also bought a new toy too

I’m hoping to get my hands all over my other car soon and will give some nice fat updates with that. I’ll also have a load of guides as I’ll be going EPAS and a load of other goodies

Cya


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[Romanian Tyre Fitter]

Changed all them parts on the dCi and it started running like a bag of s**t and I got barely any boost, I wasn’t getting the variable vane kick or any coo from the exhaust.

So I changed all the parts back, checked the vac lines from the actuator and to the boost module and all seemed fine. I pushed and worked the actuator (I’ve done this before and it’s not really made any difference) but now it gets up and f***s off like never before (figuratively speaking because it’s still not that quick at all). I think I’m gonna open up the downpipe and clean out the exhaust housing because it’s got 245k worth of soot in there??‍ I’ve got a spare turbo to play about with and a spare cat to accidentally knock the stuffing out of...

Whoops