So I thought it was time I put my lovely little Clio on here.
This might come in handy for me when selling the car one day too so I can point potential buyers at this thread so they know how much I care about the machine.
This might be a bit of a read but I hope I can make it an interesting one. Hopefully this thread will show that the little things matter to me when I take something on.
During my university years I’d had to forgo having my own car due to the piss poor financial situation that comes with being a filthy student and I decided that once I had the money to buy a car, I was going to do it properly.
I graduated 2 years ago now and back in February 2013 while browsing for cars I spotted that a guy in my estate was selling a 182. Knew very little about them beyond what my friend (who has owned two) had told me about them. They require very understanding owners and that two litres in a fag packet equals a lot of frantic fun.
Day I bought it
Had 50k on the clock, 4 questionable tyres, wonky exhausts, misty lights, but I brought my friend who knows everything if it has an engine and unsurprisingly he knew all the cars previous owners including the seller (he's good like that) and told me the car had, thus far led a very easy life.
Seller was pretty honest and told me he didn’t believe the car had ever had a belt change.
Went for a quick spin and decided I needed to risk it. :rasp:
£2400 later (got him down from £3k after he told me about the belts situation) I had a 182 on the drive.
A few hours later I had a cs.net membership which has more than paid for itself!
Looked through the cars history properly and to my horror the seller had been correct. Nothing about a belt change. In 9 years. One call to BTM later and the little Clio blob was booked in but it meant due to the fear of breaking it, I didn’t drive it the first week I had it.
On a side note - Fred is an absolute top man for getting me booked in so quickly.
He also gave me a list of things to replace:
- All pads and discs
- Manifold downpipe seal was due to die
- Tyres. For the love of god please think of the tyres!
Beyond that I was pleased to have his seal of approval that my car was one of the tidier examples he’d seen.
The upper engine mount broke while I was at BTM so that was one thing off the list to fix.
Spent the next couple of weeks building a relationship with my new personal rollercoaster and started working on my rev matching and driving skills. I still struggle to heel-toe in it as the throttle is so much lower than the brake.
First things first – Fix those exhausts! Couple of powerflex bushes and a dash of bad language later and they were straight again.
Next came a set of Brembo OE brakes and discs for the front which my friend and I fitted one rainy morning with some more bad language and tools. Can’t find any of the pictures I took of this one but it looked like they were the original pads from 9 years ago too. There was but a slither of pad left.
I decided to go with the official Renault brakes for the rear. The set on there had lasted 9 years so I figured they don’t do much work.
Next – tyres!
Didn’t beat around the bush on this one. Car came with 4 worn bits of rubber made of aloe vera and jizz that shook the car above 50mph and induced bad language from both passengers and myself so 4 new Continental Sport Contact 3s went on.
It was finally starting to feel good.
Started to dabble with the aesthetics next.
Unleashed the carpet cleaner on the car and replaced the awful poundland mats with some RenaultSport ones and added an aluminium footrest. There’s 8bhp in that footrest and 32 in the mats.
Next came some footwell LEDs with a bit of help from Tom Brentall and his easy to follow guide.
I know they’re not everybodys cup of tea but I think in the right colour they add to the car and I’ve managed to hide all the cabling perfectly. I’m all about OEM+
Picked up a new gear insert from SprayShack and some new interior trim that read "RenaultSport" as opposed to s**tty "Airbag" while at CSS. Can't find a picture. Will find one later.
Tidying up the engine bay started to play on my mind a bit so one quiet afternoon the bay went from this:
To this:
Added the usual silvatec bulbs, LED sidelights and rear plate light and refurbished my lights one sunny Sunday too.
Went for a drive to Brecon one day and noticed under low revs the exhaust made a new rattling sound. After some bad language I figured the downpipe seal had finally given up seeing as one of the bolts was pointing downwards - so it got replaced. Didn’t enjoy working on the exhaust. While on the job I replaced the exhaust clamp too as it looked like it had spent a decade under the sea. Yes in this picture the caps are on backwards. It was dark. :/ I’ve since fixed the mistake.
Next I put a Pipercross filter in the airbox and I acquired myself an RSTuner and loaded the 98Ron map into the car however the filter wasn’t in there long as I replaced it with a KTec induction kit a few weeks later. Call it a placebo but I swear the car pulls harder with it on.
I’ve hung onto my original airbox and the filter to sell it as stock.
I then started looking into refurbishing my wheels as the previous owner(s) had left me with a few kerb marks but when a set of mint Turinis came up on here for £300 I didn’t haggle. Bought them straight away and sold the original alloys.
I started to grow bored with the orange dash and after having seen a few LED conversions done on the forum, I thought I’d have a bash at my own and I personally feel it worked out quite nicely.
About a month ago I noticed the engine was shuddering more than normal under acceleration and when I eased off the throttle so in went some new gearbox oil, a new Renault standard upper gearbox mount and I polybushed the dogbone. Thanks to the guides on here I set aside 5 hours to get the job done and was done in 3.
Ever seen a crowbar in an engine bay?
Getting those bushes out of the dogbone required some… creative hammering. Anyone who’s done it will understand what I’m talking about.
I believe that’s everything so far.
I’m finally done!... Said no car guy (or girl) ever - so where do we go from here? :rasp:
The car needs to be lowered so some new springs, dampeners and top mounts are due soon and I’ve managed to crack the splitter. Must have hit a panda or something at speed so a carbon fibre one will be going on.
The car is now on 57k so I’ll give it an oil change and filter in a week or two just to keep it happy.
I've been tidying up the black trim below the windscreen and around the exhausts so it looks a lot smarter now than it is in the above picture.
A stubby aerial needs to go on there just to smarten it up a bit too.
Beyond that I drive it whenever I get the chance, clean it often and practise my driving skills.
It's been a great car so far and I've caught any problems before they've had a chance to develop.
Hope this read hasn't been too much of an endurance for you and thanks for sticking with it.
This might come in handy for me when selling the car one day too so I can point potential buyers at this thread so they know how much I care about the machine.
This might be a bit of a read but I hope I can make it an interesting one. Hopefully this thread will show that the little things matter to me when I take something on.
During my university years I’d had to forgo having my own car due to the piss poor financial situation that comes with being a filthy student and I decided that once I had the money to buy a car, I was going to do it properly.
I graduated 2 years ago now and back in February 2013 while browsing for cars I spotted that a guy in my estate was selling a 182. Knew very little about them beyond what my friend (who has owned two) had told me about them. They require very understanding owners and that two litres in a fag packet equals a lot of frantic fun.
Day I bought it
Had 50k on the clock, 4 questionable tyres, wonky exhausts, misty lights, but I brought my friend who knows everything if it has an engine and unsurprisingly he knew all the cars previous owners including the seller (he's good like that) and told me the car had, thus far led a very easy life.
Seller was pretty honest and told me he didn’t believe the car had ever had a belt change.
Went for a quick spin and decided I needed to risk it. :rasp:
£2400 later (got him down from £3k after he told me about the belts situation) I had a 182 on the drive.
A few hours later I had a cs.net membership which has more than paid for itself!
Looked through the cars history properly and to my horror the seller had been correct. Nothing about a belt change. In 9 years.
One call to BTM later and the little Clio blob was booked in but it meant due to the fear of breaking it, I didn’t drive it the first week I had it.On a side note - Fred is an absolute top man for getting me booked in so quickly.
He also gave me a list of things to replace:
- All pads and discs
- Manifold downpipe seal was due to die
- Tyres. For the love of god please think of the tyres!
Beyond that I was pleased to have his seal of approval that my car was one of the tidier examples he’d seen.
The upper engine mount broke while I was at BTM so that was one thing off the list to fix.
Spent the next couple of weeks building a relationship with my new personal rollercoaster and started working on my rev matching and driving skills. I still struggle to heel-toe in it as the throttle is so much lower than the brake.
First things first – Fix those exhausts! Couple of powerflex bushes and a dash of bad language later and they were straight again.
Next came a set of Brembo OE brakes and discs for the front which my friend and I fitted one rainy morning with some more bad language and tools. Can’t find any of the pictures I took of this one but it looked like they were the original pads from 9 years ago too. There was but a slither of pad left.
I decided to go with the official Renault brakes for the rear. The set on there had lasted 9 years so I figured they don’t do much work.
Next – tyres!
Didn’t beat around the bush on this one. Car came with 4 worn bits of rubber made of aloe vera and jizz that shook the car above 50mph and induced bad language from both passengers and myself so 4 new Continental Sport Contact 3s went on.
It was finally starting to feel good.
Started to dabble with the aesthetics next.
Unleashed the carpet cleaner on the car and replaced the awful poundland mats with some RenaultSport ones and added an aluminium footrest. There’s 8bhp in that footrest and 32 in the mats.
Next came some footwell LEDs with a bit of help from Tom Brentall and his easy to follow guide.
I know they’re not everybodys cup of tea but I think in the right colour they add to the car and I’ve managed to hide all the cabling perfectly. I’m all about OEM+
Picked up a new gear insert from SprayShack and some new interior trim that read "RenaultSport" as opposed to s**tty "Airbag" while at CSS. Can't find a picture. Will find one later.
Tidying up the engine bay started to play on my mind a bit so one quiet afternoon the bay went from this:
To this:
Added the usual silvatec bulbs, LED sidelights and rear plate light and refurbished my lights one sunny Sunday too.
Went for a drive to Brecon one day and noticed under low revs the exhaust made a new rattling sound. After some bad language I figured the downpipe seal had finally given up seeing as one of the bolts was pointing downwards - so it got replaced. Didn’t enjoy working on the exhaust. While on the job I replaced the exhaust clamp too as it looked like it had spent a decade under the sea. Yes in this picture the caps are on backwards. It was dark. :/ I’ve since fixed the mistake.
Next I put a Pipercross filter in the airbox and I acquired myself an RSTuner and loaded the 98Ron map into the car however the filter wasn’t in there long as I replaced it with a KTec induction kit a few weeks later. Call it a placebo but I swear the car pulls harder with it on.
I’ve hung onto my original airbox and the filter to sell it as stock.
I then started looking into refurbishing my wheels as the previous owner(s) had left me with a few kerb marks but when a set of mint Turinis came up on here for £300 I didn’t haggle. Bought them straight away and sold the original alloys.
I started to grow bored with the orange dash and after having seen a few LED conversions done on the forum, I thought I’d have a bash at my own and I personally feel it worked out quite nicely.
About a month ago I noticed the engine was shuddering more than normal under acceleration and when I eased off the throttle so in went some new gearbox oil, a new Renault standard upper gearbox mount and I polybushed the dogbone. Thanks to the guides on here I set aside 5 hours to get the job done and was done in 3.
Ever seen a crowbar in an engine bay?
Getting those bushes out of the dogbone required some… creative hammering. Anyone who’s done it will understand what I’m talking about.
I believe that’s everything so far.
I’m finally done!... Said no car guy (or girl) ever - so where do we go from here? :rasp:
The car needs to be lowered so some new springs, dampeners and top mounts are due soon and I’ve managed to crack the splitter. Must have hit a panda or something at speed so a carbon fibre one will be going on.
The car is now on 57k so I’ll give it an oil change and filter in a week or two just to keep it happy.
I've been tidying up the black trim below the windscreen and around the exhausts so it looks a lot smarter now than it is in the above picture.
A stubby aerial needs to go on there just to smarten it up a bit too.
Beyond that I drive it whenever I get the chance, clean it often and practise my driving skills.
It's been a great car so far and I've caught any problems before they've had a chance to develop.
Hope this read hasn't been too much of an endurance for you and thanks for sticking with it.
