My Clio with the engine in the wrong end

[DaveL485]

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[DaveL485]

Went to the Spa Classic

Wasnt on track just there to watch, great weekend though.

Rear wheel bearing died on the way home, made a hell of a racket! Thats a new bloody bearing, not hardened properly inside by the looks of it. Changed and running great again.

 

[DaveL485]

Went to C&M on Tuesday for the RS meet, an American lad called Kalib did some rather cool light painting.

 

[DaveL485]

Couple of shots from Retro Rides from a man in the crowd that hit me up on Insta.

Car is now parked up as I felt the track/feel of the car wasnt right on the trip to C&M, a quick snoop at the back has revealed excessive play in one of the rear track rod ends (it's got a Mcpherson strut setup at the back with the track arm rose jointed to the rear subframe).

 

[DaveL485]

a quick snoop at the back has revealed excessive play in one of the rear track rod ends

Now fixed with a pair of track rod ends and a geo, driving well again. Needs some miles before the end of May, i'm taking it to the SPa classic again, this time with infield parking and some laps of the track booked

 

[BREMBO]

Now fixed with a pair of track rod ends and a geo, driving well again. Needs some miles before the end of May, i'm taking it to the SPa classic again, this time with infield parking and some laps of the track booked

View attachment 1738968

Are the track rod ends hard to get hold of?

 

[DaveL485]

Are the track rod ends hard to get hold of?

Nope, both front and rear readily available. Front are standard Clio ones, rears are from the front of a Laguna I think. Plentiful and cheap.

 

[DaveL485]

Spa was fab, save the rain! Car was faultless. Really, really enjoyed it.

The laps on Saturday evening, well, it was wet. Like WET wet. Fortunately having spent so much time on setup and balance, the car was superb and we left a Cayman GT4 and a Jag XF RS in the rear view as they tippy toed around. I was less tippy toe and more "Lets crack on". We got a bunch of hilarious oversteer off the bus stop chicane on to the main straight as I got braver, it must have looked pretty cool from outside! Was hoping some video would appear online but no such luck.
905 miles in 4 days, many gallons of fuel, big smiles, fantastic memories

 

[DaveL485]

My comrades for the weekend:

710bhp GTR

650bhp 996

V8 Aston

Ultima Can-Am, LS3, 550hp - absolute weapon. Ive done some pax laps round Spa in this and let me tell you, DIFFERENT LEAGUE.

And found grandad

 

[DaveL485]

MOT passed, another year out on the road.

Every time I take it out I get people giving waves and thumbs ups out the cars, or from the pavement, which is lovely - however I was on the A46 the other day headed south toward the M40 and I pass a cop car on the inside... carefull at the speed limit. A minute later he comes up behind me in lane 2, I was expecting the blues (as my numberplate may be slightly misspaced), but instead he pulls alongside in lane three and gives me a massive grin and a vigorous thumbs up! That was really cool

 

[DaveL485]

After many miles of problem free motoring....this happened. Fortunately as I was reversing on to my drive.

Brief investigation suggested a power steering fluid leak which was later confirmed.

Looks like the steel fluid pipe underneath has corroded and developed a pinhole leak. Its one of the 2 PS pipes that runs the length of the car - great. Wresteled it out, that was a hoot...not!

Took it to pirtek and we have removed the section of pipe thats corroded (the only bit thats exposed and not under the undertray) and brazed in a fitting for flexible pipe. This is the return line so not super high pressure, basically the last half a metre behind the flexi with the spring clip on it (to the reservoir) is now all flexi.

Refitting today hopefully.

In other news I have a weep from a rocker cover. Simple fix right? No of course not. The gaskets are bonded to the covers and you have to replace the cover entirely. And, of course, the covers are NLA. Delightful. Currently looking at a solution from a polish company for the Citroen variant of the engine.

 

[DaveL485]

I found a polish company that do make replacement rocker cover gaskets, so bought some (over £100 for the 4, yikes!). Also ordered some door lock solenoids, i'm going to do those as they stopped working, and do an oil service and reseat the sump with a new seal are it looks like its weeping a little on one corner.

Power steering pipe repaired and refitted, seems to be working OK.

Cleaned and painted before refitting.

 

[DaveL485]

Its time for the annual service, but decided as I am taking it to Montlhery this month i'd do some of the other niggles that needed attention.

Assume the position!

First off I wanted to check the door lock solenoids I have bought are right so I took the NS door lock apart and fitted the new solenoid. Neither door locks work on the remote. Tested the old one and its defo gone weak. Fitted the new one to the lock and its now working (door reassembly pending!)

New motor in. Will lube the mechanism with chain lube before refitting.

Then engine covers off

Jacked up and undertray off, oil drained and sump pan removed as theres a weep from the sealant and also there is some rust on the corner where its exposed to the OSR wheel arch

Took opportunity to drop the oil pickup off and clean the strainer while I was there.

Left it at that, as only had 3 hours Sunday.

Plan:
Oil & Filter
Sump repair and reseal, Clean oil strainer
Rocker cover oil leak fix (this isnt as simple as it sounds though stand by for hilarious fun)
New radiator (I can see some coolant crystallisation on the rad, its a teeny tiny weep and not noticably dropping coolant but Autodoc had an offer for a brand new rad with 72% off so I nabbed one a few months ago)
New central locking solenoids for both doors (same as any other Clio so easy to source and cheap!)

 

[DaveL485]

Inlet manifold off to access the rocker covers

Yuk. It happens though doesnt it, gaskets get old and hard over time, its 24 years old now so cant complain at service life (but I can at parts availability lol)

Covers removed with no major issues, the plastic rockers the gasket pulled out easy enough. I dont think they were bonded after all. The metal covers defo were though so peeled the gaskets off those and cleaned thoroughly. New gaskets fitted the plastic covers perfectly - most pleased. The replacement gaskets are also thicker, and great quality.

Old gasket looking fairly well done for

Bonded the gaskets to the metal covers, weighed down and left to go off overnight.

Old gasket defo inferior.

Mating surface cleaned properly, not so easy when you are inserted through a small aperture between the rear bulkhead and roof! I also cleaned out all the residual oil and goop in the plug holes etc.

 

[DaveL485]

Other bank cleaning up

Was waiting for parts so also decided to do coils and plugs. Regretted that decision when I saw the bill! £225 for six coils and six spark plugs...eek. Ordered anyway then dropped the sump pan. Its exposed to the OSR arch and they rust on the corner so I wanted to get on top of it before it got bad, as of course, you cant get sump pans any more.

I did gravitex it after the primer too but didnt take a photo.

Old coils and plugs out - all fine so kept as spares.

New kit going in

All clean and happy

And then manifold going back on with a new gasket, which took an age to arrive

 

[DaveL485]

Somewhere in there I refitted the sump too, and changed the oil and filter, the filter is in a SHITE place on these and even with all my kit and oil filter sockets the easiest way to crank the old filter off is to hammer a screwdriver through it. Messy, but effective.

Then on to the front, new radiator. I spotted a suss looking dark patch on it which when removed was in fact a tiny weep - so glad I did change it.

New rad in, dead easy with no engine in the way! Replaced the spring clips with jubilees too.

Fans back on, bled and run up to temp.

About to embark on a euro trip and I did my checks, as you do - erm... yeah. No. They need sorting, so wallet got fingered again for 2 new 255/35/18 tyres.

 

[DaveL485]

Did a few road test miles and it was in fine form, really pleased with the work done. Not so pleased with the wallet rash from the spendy parts mind lol. I mean, at a garage i'm paying what, 3... maybe 4 grand for all this so I guess at my cost, around a grand, its not terrible.

We left for the biannual Losange Passion event on Friday 26th June, I took both this and my 220 Trophy over. A friend was my backup driver, we switched between cars. The trip down was brutal heat. We drove through Parisian traffic in 38 degrees - no AC in the Vee. It is fitted but inop. Car performed perfectly and no issues with temperatures. Pics to follow...

 

[DaveL485]

800 Renaults at Losange Passion, me and my homie @rogerreno at the 21 display area

I didnt take many pics because 1)I was on track with the V6 and navigating the admin/language barrier was interesting, and 2) it was SWELTERING. 41 degrees at its hottest, absolutely brutal. The black tarmac burned my feet through my socks when I put my race boots on.

Video here though gives you an idea of the size of this event. You can see the Vee at 8:49



I have been to this event the last few years and always wanted to drive the banking - so this time I got the chance. Let me tell you - its quite the experience! I got on to the second top lane, which was 52.5° banked (top lane is 60°) and I got to the top end of 4th gear - about 120mph. It completely mashes your senses being at that angle. With all the inputs coming in from the car, the track, the controls it was almost a sensory overload and braking into the chicane while being basically sideways was crazy. Just to be clear how steep it is, if you drive up slowly on the parade lap the car will slide off the slope, you cant get to the second-top-lane because physics. My Clio 220 on the parade lap in 2024 freaked out and did a dash christmas tree because it didnt understand why it was sat at a 45 degree angle sliding sideways to the right while driving forward. You need the speed to stay "up".

What an experience! I will post a video when I get it off my phone and on YT.

Sunday we visited Chateaux De Chantilly which was fabulous

Monday before the chunnel crossing we went to the cathedral in Amiens and WOW, it was unreal.

Bro has had a bad day

Cruising back to the chunnel

Just shy of a thousand miles completed and that trip ticked the odo over 90,000 miles.

 

[DaveL485]

And now to the rather surprising news.

I've taken a deposit and the Vee will be going to a new home at the end of the month, assuming all goes to plan.

This will be the 3rd car this year I have sold (without even writing a for sale ad for any of them lol). I am still unsure how I feel about it tbh. Both happy and sad. I am confident it is going to a good owner though and they will continue on both the use and maintenance I have enjoyed sharing with you all.

So...yeah.

 

[BREMBO]

Just caught up with this thread now. Great read and kudos doing your own maintenance. Strong mileage but guess the engines are built for it! Sure the new owner whoever that is will be delighted!

 

[DaveL485]

Just caught up with this thread now. Great read and kudos doing your own maintenance. Strong mileage but guess the engines are built for it! Sure the new owner whoever that is will be delighted!

Yes and its been well serviced all its life too, and particularly with me having 5w50 synthetic every 3 or 4 thousand miles. You can see in the last set of updates how good the cam lobes are, no scoring at all, the engine is very healthy and pulls great.