Paul’s Pearl

[Clio_fool]

After doing lots of research I bought a rats nest to fit the Alpine head unit.

As far as I could ascertain a Connects2 CTSRN007.2 would connect the hu to the car and retain the steering stalk control. I finally managed to prize the aerial connector off without having to resort to snips so quickly connected the Apline up to see if it worked.

Looking good and my days of pop music are coming to an end:drunk:. I then had to disconnect it to fit the dash trim and the cage which for once I managed to not cut myself on! Having already removed the glovebox I reconnected the plugs and started to drag miles and miles of wires through the tiny hole.

Not having any zip ties to hand was a fail so the rats nest will have to stay like that until tomorrow. Another quick check with the radio secured and after a quick Google my phone was paired and Spotify playing was successful 👍. And then I discovered that the steering controls don't work so the whole lot needs to come out for investigation, but still I'm happy that I can listen to my own tunes now. Just need a Mk4 shark aerial so I can have dab too.

I had 10 mins spare today so found my zip ties and went out to secure the wires and refit the glovebox. It was at this point I noticed this;

That's the connector for the steeing controls that should be plugged into the back of the head unit🤦. It must have pulled out when I was feeding the wires through behind the dash. Now I'll have to pull it all out to plug that bugger back in. Damn.

 

[Clio_fool]

Been a while. Now covered 1500 miles and the car still works. I had it booked in for the belts etc doing a couple of weeks ago but got a call 2 days before to say there wasn't a dephaser to be found anywhere. So I'm waiting until they turn up and still driving steadily 😒. I have noticed a rattle from the offside front suspension so jacked it up to see if I could find the culprit. Nothing was loose or wanted to move so it's still unresolved. A full refresh is on the cards after the belts are done so hopefully it will be rattle free after that. As I had some spare time after that quick investigation I decided to try and remidy this abomination.

The tint spray on the rear lights was peeling off and looking worse than ever, this stuff should be banned imo. Chemicals wouldn't touch it and as I was ready to replace them anyway attacking them with my sander seemed like a good idea to pass some time. 400 grit was the smoothest pad I had but it took 280 to shift the tint! Luckily I have some sheets of wet and dry so worked from 1000 to 2500 grit and after that they looked like this.

I then dug out the da and gave them a good polish with some menzerna to make them nice and shiny. You have to get really close to see any imperfections in them now and I'm more than happy with the improvement at the rear.

 

[Louis]

Been a while. Now covered 1500 miles and the car still works. I had it booked in for the belts etc doing a couple of weeks ago but got a call 2 days before to say there wasn't a dephaser to be found anywhere. So I'm waiting until they turn up and still driving steadily 😒. I have noticed a rattle from the offside front suspension so jacked it up to see if I could find the culprit. Nothing was loose or wanted to move so it's still unresolved. A full refresh is on the cards after the belts are done so hopefully it will be rattle free after that. As I had some spare time after that quick investigation I decided to try and remidy this abomination.
View attachment 1610600
The tint spray on the rear lights was peeling off and looking worse than ever, this stuff should be banned imo. Chemicals wouldn't touch it and as I was ready to replace them anyway attacking them with my sander seemed like a good idea to pass some time. 400 grit was the smoothest pad I had but it took 280 to shift the tint! Luckily I have some sheets of wet and dry so worked from 1000 to 2500 grit and after that they looked like this.
View attachment 1610602
I then dug out the da and gave them a good polish with some menzerna to make them nice and shiny. You have to get really close to see any imperfections in them now and I'm more than happy with the improvement at the rear.
View attachment 1610603
View attachment 1610604

That's miles better! The car now matches the owner

 

[Stefan.]

That's so much better

 

[RustyMojo]

Been a while. Now covered 1500 miles and the car still works. I had it booked in for the belts etc doing a couple of weeks ago but got a call 2 days before to say there wasn't a dephaser to be found anywhere. So I'm waiting until they turn up and still driving steadily 😒. I have noticed a rattle from the offside front suspension so jacked it up to see if I could find the culprit. Nothing was loose or wanted to move so it's still unresolved. A full refresh is on the cards after the belts are done so hopefully it will be rattle free after that. As I had some spare time after that quick investigation I decided to try and remidy this abomination.
View attachment 1610600
The tint spray on the rear lights was peeling off and looking worse than ever, this stuff should be banned imo. Chemicals wouldn't touch it and as I was ready to replace them anyway attacking them with my sander seemed like a good idea to pass some time. 400 grit was the smoothest pad I had but it took 280 to shift the tint! Luckily I have some sheets of wet and dry so worked from 1000 to 2500 grit and after that they looked like this.
View attachment 1610602
I then dug out the da and gave them a good polish with some menzerna to make them nice and shiny. You have to get really close to see any imperfections in them now and I'm more than happy with the improvement at the rear.
View attachment 1610603
View attachment 1610604

Finally! I can’t believe you left that tint s**t on for so long! 😂

 

[Clio_fool]

Finally! I can’t believe you left that tint s**t on for so long! 😂

I know. First the sticker and now the s**t tint, these things usually take me years😂.

 

[jenic]

Looks so much better, added £1000s of value to the car just removing that stuff!

 

[Brigsy]

Looks miles better with the tint gone.

 

[t90_lle]

The lights look loads better but can’t help thinking it needs the chrome diamond back on the boot! 🤔

 

[bowen86]

View attachment 1610604

Just read this thread.

Seeing those rear lights, I feel a sense of cleanliness, like I've had a shower with that minty shower gel. Much better. Good job turning this around.

 

[Clio_fool]

The lights look loads better but can’t help thinking it needs the chrome diamond back on the boot! 🤔

I have badges to go on, I just need to find motivation to pull the front bumper off.

 

[Clio_fool]

Front suspension has been knocking for a few weeks so I've bought new shocks and top mounts. I'll probably sort the spare swivel hub I have for the drivers side and swap that at the same time.

Had my insurance renewal come through too and after getting very similar quotes elsewhere I juts hit renew. £50 more than last years premuin 😭.

 

[Clio_fool]

Been a while so time for a little update. Ticked over 70k the other week, still not ragged it. Had a nasty sounding clunk for the steeing before Xmas which turned out to be the clamp on the steering column which apparently has to be over tight to cure the noise. Been OK since.
The car likes Xmas decorations it seems.

So I've bought clip and a roll of black electrical tape as backup. Laptop died so picked up a cheap one that I still need to wrestle clip onto.
But last week the clutch decided to not work properly. As well as the lights above I also had a annoying beep and "braking fault" intermittently flash up. This turned out to be caused by low brake fluid and has happened a couple of times. I'm wondering if this is related to my new clutch biting point of just above the carpet🤔. I'm ignoring it for now and using my sons car as I know if I start taking it apart it'll end up being a can of worms I don't want to be fighting in the cold. So looks like I'll be swapping the insurance to the 182 and swapping the white wanker for the black t**t for a while. As long as it passes the mot that is😂.

 

[Krarl]

- Falls back in love with the 182
- Sells 200
- Buys all his mods back for the 182

 

[Chocice]

Bad luck with the 200 it sounds like quite common stuff to be honest, I was chasing the clunk noise thinking it was a top mount but like you It ended up being the steering column, Renotec sorted it out in 5 minutes seems they all do this and it’s never returned, the clutch is probably knackered the mk3 loves clutches and gearboxes if you don’t fix the clutch it will take out your gearbox.

 

[Clio_fool]

Bad luck with the 200 it sounds like quite common stuff to be honest, I was chasing the clunk noise thinking it was a top mount but like you It ended up being the steering column, Renotec sorted it out in 5 minutes seems they all do this and it’s never returned, the clutch is probably knackered the mk3 loves clutches and gearboxes if you don’t fix the clutch it will take out your gearbox.

I'm not too upset. The car was cheap and I expected it would need work so commuting in it had been a good shakedown. It would have been nice if it would have waited until spring before it broke though 😂.
@Tubbs Vice how much for that clutch?

 

[Krarl]

I'll try and whip the box off the engine I have at work and see what it's like

The previous owner did say everything was brand new and I'm inclined to believe since there was some serious money spent on it

 

[Clio_fool]

Wanted to move it off the drive this morning and the clutch pedal has zero pressure and the brake warning beep came on. Looks like I need to find the leak in the clutch system then.

@Tubbs Vice the 182 is a terrible place to be with standard seat and steeing wheel. No love for clios atm then 😂.

 

[Krarl]

Wanted to move it off the drive this morning and the clutch pedal has zero pressure and the brake warning beep came on. Looks like I need to find the leak in the clutch system then.

@Tubbs Vice the 182 is a terrible place to be with standard seat and steeing wheel. No love for clios atm then 😂.

Do you want me to whip that clutch kit out of the engine and box I have at work?

 

[Clio_fool]

Do you want me to whip that clutch kit out of the engine and box I have at work?

No rush mate. It can sit and rot while I sort other s**t out. 👍

 

[JamesBryan]

If it's anything like the clutch slave cylinder in the Meganes, they're shite so it's probably that.

 

[Clio_fool]

If it's anything like the clutch slave cylinder in the Meganes, they're shite so it's probably that.

Yeah they are s**t. And probably a c**t to swap too.

 

[JamesBryan]

Yeah they are s**t. And probably a c**t to swap too.

Box off job unfortunately, not like most Jap and German stuff.

 

[Clio_fool]

So it's been a while since my last update as the car was abandoned since the clutch problem in late January. When the 182 also decided it didn't want to move one of them had to be fixed. So the 182 was sold 😢 to fund the 200's revival. A few emails back and forth with Mick at Diamond Motors and the car was booked in for him to :

1 diagnose and fix the clutch fault.

2 diagnose and fix the abs warming light.

3 diagnose and fix the airbag warning light.

4 carry out a belt service as its probably never been done before.



You can already tell this isn't going to be cheap can't you! 😂. The car was delivered to Mick on a Thursday to be looked at on Saturday but he had an hour spare so gave it a once over and rang me Thursday afternoon. It's never a good sign when they say "are you sitting down?" but I knew the car was fucked and had a tube of lube ready. After changing a deformed o ring on the clutch slave feed pipe the clutch bled up and the car moved. Yay. But when fully depressed there was a knocking noise from the clutch. Boo. The next morning the drip tray under. Mick left under the car had some fluid in so there was still a leak. So time mick had allocated to doing the belts was spent pulling the gearbox to delve deeper into the clutch issues. Photos followed.

Mick described it as "well and truly knackered". I knew car had been on track so meh it'll not hurt to swap it. It was also badly contaminated from the leak and the gearbox oil was low and in Mick's opinion the wrong grade. With the new clutch in and reassembled some good news arrived that the car drove perfectly and all untoward noises had gone. Thank god!



Onto No 2 the abs light. Turns out the rear abs brackets had corroded as Renault seemingly designed them to do so and the abs sensors had rubbed on the abs ring and fucked both up. Abs sensor brackets were on back order. Luckily I'd ready expected them to be knackered after some research so had bought some previously and sent them in the car 😊. Sensors, rings and brackets replaced and all was good.



No 3 the airbag light which had been on since I bought the car and as the mot was due sometime soon needed to be extinguished. Easy fix with some reconfiguration in clip and the lights is off. Mick and I both think some bucket seats may have been fitted previously and the airbags adjusted to suit. Although my cruise control buttons don't seem to be working now that the car will let me turn cruise on so I might have to pull the wheel and check all is plugged in as I suspect an aftermarket wheel may have been on too.



Last but not least the best service. Mick assured me that I'd have a little change from my budget with a blet change too so he cracked on with it. As I said I have no idea if the belts have ever been changed as when I bought the car it was on 67000 miles and 10 years old but came with barely any history. I've done a couple of thousand miles in it and barely gone over 5k rpm so it's a massive relief to have crash belts on finally. I did have it booked in for the doing last September but parts weren't available then, something that is becoming an annoying issue for us all for certain parts.

So all done and Mick had had the car just over a week and emailed to say it was ready for collection so I said I'd head down the next day, Saturday. Just for clarity I went online to check when the mot expired. Friday 🤦‍♂️.
Mot nightmare to follow...

 

[Clio_fool]

So panicking I asked Mick if he could try get it mot'd and he managed to get the garage near him to do it, but as and when they could on Saturday. I woke up at 9am to an email from Mick saying it had failed 😟.

Reg plate lamp is the stupidist fail ever imo, the f**king reg plates are reflective for gods sake! The headlamp bulb has either broken somehow or has become dislodged. I fitted it last year as neither dipped beam worked when I got the car so I'll have to have a look at that. The emissions though 🙄. Bane of my bloody life with the 182 and t'internet folklore says the 197/200 will pass with just a pre cat in situ. Well mine has a standard exhaust still so should pass easy right? It was borderline out of spec and Mick reported that the rattling from the exhaust is the cat so it's not fully effective. He offered to sort the exhaust for me if I got a replacement cat but he's booking work in for August now so unfortunately that isn't an option. He also couldn't store the car any longer, he'd already had it a week longer than planned 😂 so I set off to collect it.

The she is ready to go bitter sweet with all the planned issues fixed but now with no mot or tax. Much said in all his years he's never seen a pearl white mk3 and I wonder how many of the other 45 are still out there? Anyway after nice chat with Mick I left him to his work and drove the car to a pre booked mot not far from home. He has some real challenges ahead of him. @SharkyUK 😂

I should have added fix the aircon to the list because it was a very hot day but the final invoice was big enough as is!

Whis the fool? I'm the fool 🙋‍♂️. But finally being able to rev the thing out I don't think I'll regret selling the 182 as much as I was, the 200 is still a great car it's just different to a 182 is all.
So mot part 2 and I informed my usual tester that it barely missed out on the emissions test. He had a Co worker plug the exhaust as the probe wouldn't fit in the tailpipe very far because with the diffuser trim and the heat shroud the actual end of the tailpipe is about 3" back on the 200. Still it struggled, but with a few extra revs it eventually got green lights. Then when he got in the car to pull onto the rollers he said "you've got a warning light on". Like f**k I have it was all clear for the first time ever.
Stop and engine overheat were on the dash😳. The lights went out after a restart but the temp was rather high!

It seems the radiator fan doesn't work. I've never had an issue with it before, it actually looked like the thermostat was stuck open previously as the temp rarely got over the 2nd line when the norm should be the 3rd line. There was a small puddle of coolant under the car too but this has blown out of the cap. By the time the test was finished the temp was back to normal and the car ran fine, it stayed normal on the 5 mile trip home which is good because if I'd not had the pass cert I hand it might have just overheated and caught fire🔥😉. I ordered some type d from rpd and left it alone for the week to see if it leaked at all.
Today I set about checking the fuses and relays to see if I could get the fan working. I couldn't find any faulty so it'll have to go for diag on the fan as electrical diagrams are wasted on me and even with the big bill I found it much more enjoyable to pay Mick to do all that work😆.
Another Tidl is the bloody tree in the front garden.

Bloody leaves and tiny petals everywhere 😠. After hoovering the engine bay I topped up the coolant and fired the car up to let it warm up.

I got no air out of the bleed screws and the heater blew red hot so I'm sure the overheat was due to the lack of fan on a red hot day with the high revs while stationary in an even hotter garage unit.

Pic limit...

 

[SharkyUK]

#standard #cliolife #livinglikeaballer

Anyway after nice chat with Mick I left him to his work and drove the car to a pre booked mot not far from home. He has some real challenges ahead of him. @SharkyUK 😂

Screw you. 😘

I love it when things work out and the costs and issues are less than expected.

 

[Clio_fool]

As it was getting near temp I sat in and watched the needle.

I was a touch nervous as it climbed through the third mark before my eyes but that's where it stopped even without the fan kicking in at all. I took it for a quick spin around the block which included some hard acceleration on the bypass and the temp only showed a slight drop so I'm relieved the car isn't fucked. It was pretty warm this afternoon too!

So hopefully I can get it booked in somewhere to sort the fan out soon, I might even get the AC fixed while I'm at it! I also seem to have acquired another knock which I noticed when reversing onto the drive 🙄.

I believe the uj can do that so I'll have to check it out. I'll be heading up to The Motorist tomorrow for french day (with AA card in my pocket🤣) so all that tree crap needs washing off when the sun rounds the corner this evening.
It's good to have the car working again but thers still plenty of jobs to do. Good job I'm in it for the long haul and I'm still just about under what it's worth as a 70k 200 in a rare colour. Oh I need to get my recaros in it soon too😊.

 

[Clio_fool]

#standard #cliolife #livinglikeaballer



Screw you. 😘

I love it when things work out and the costs and issues are less than expected.

🤣🤣🤣 The trophy looks good mate and your latest issue was mental!

Mick delivered well under my budget, if I'd known it was going to be so low I'd have had him do some other jobs on it, although I'm sure he was glad to see the back of it 😂.

 

[Clio_fool]

To do list: chop tree down.

Ready for the motorist tomorrow. Or more likely some rain tonight 😂.

Damn it looks good😍.

 

[Krarl]

Looks fat better than glacier ones

Makes you realise just how much pearl there is in the paint

 

[Louis]

Looks fantastic pork. I didn't realise you'd spend so much on it! Least the 182 covered half the cost eh.

 

[Clio_fool]

Looks fantastic pork. I didn't realise you'd spend so much on it! Least the 182 covered half the cost eh.

The belts are a grand these days. Makes me laugh when people ask on FB and get told "I paid £500 for mine doing". Yeah 5 years ago maybe 😂. Considering the work carried out I was very happy with the price and can't fault Mick's work either.

Looks fat better than glacier ones

Makes you realise just how much pearl there is in the paint

Yeah it looks dirty in dull light but when the sun's on it it's ace and shows off the cars curves miles better than zanussi white.

 

[jenic]

Lovely looking car, glad it's mostly sorted, I know what you mean about nervousness when you're not sure of the history. I had history with my AG but the belts were just done by some local garage so I never fully trusted it and planned to get Mick to do them this year.

Didn't get the dephaser done then, any reason why? Or did I miss it.

 

[SharpyClio]

The fan is not something stupid like a disconnected plug, I had the same with a motorbike that had loads of work done and the guy forgot to reconnect the fan and it overheated pretty badly.

 

[Clio_fool]

Lovely looking car, glad it's mostly sorted, I know what you mean about nervousness when you're not sure of the history. I had history with my AG but the belts were just done by some local garage so I never fully trusted it and planned to get Mick to do them this year.

Didn't get the dephaser done then, any reason why? Or did I miss it.

The dephaser isn't as consumable on the mk3 as the mk2 ones apparently so I let Mick judge if it was necessary or not.

The fan is not something stupid like a disconnected plug, I had the same with a motorbike that had loads of work done and the guy forgot to reconnect the fan and it overheated pretty badly.

My mot man had a look while under it and said it was all connected. Such is my luck.

 

[Clio_fool]

After the recent work on the car I still had a few new parts that needed fitting. It had a knock from the front that I thought would be the top mount and if I was doing those I may as well fit new dampers too. So last week I jacked the passenger side up and started undoing things. A guide on 197.net saying to remove the damper and hub assembly as one seemed the best way to me and as it had all been taken apart last year I shouldn't have met too much resistance. Except for the driveshaft nut which was bigger than my biggest socket. Balls.
A week later and I've got all the tools needed and some new axle stands as the ones I had just don't sit well anywhere under the car. So today I set about doing the drivers side as the knocking was definitely coming from that side and this last week I've had a annoying rattle/knock too which seemed to be from that side.
Things are ve learned; trust nobody with wheel nuts. They were very loose! The little torx screw that holds the brake pipe to the hub doesn't need to be that tight. The anti roll bar nut that's supposed to be 44Nm is difficult to remove when it's 440Nm. A damper, spring and hub combo isn't to be dropped on a foot. Again. 😬
Anyway everything came apart relatively easily and all went back on with the correct torque 😊.
Old v new.

All back together.

New top mount and fixings. This being a 2012 car they are the smaller ones apparently.

And the extra strong gloves, doubled up so I didn't get blathered in brake dust etc. 🤔

I need to do the other side tomorrow because I took too long cleaning bits nobody sees and by then my spine was reminding me how old and decrepit I am.
If you know your renault colour coding you may have spotted that I've gone for non cup dampers. I've read they are much better on the road and by God the roads aren't forgiving to hard suspension around here. The old one was definitely past it though.

That took very little effort to compress so I should definitely feel a difference the next time I drive.
Road test tomorrow after I've fitted the other side. 👍

 

[Clio_fool]

I the pearl had it's longest journey in at least 4 years to Anglesey for CSF23 and apart from the cruise control not working most of the trip was uneventful. Remember the fan issue that I discovered during the MOT? During a very long que because of some roadworks on the busiest road between home and Manchester the car started to overheat again. By that point I'd already started to turn the engine off as we were sat for longer periods than we were moving but with no fan temps crept up. Heater on full blast while I stop started to an available detour the temp was kept the right side of meltdown and then was steady the rest of the journey. I bought a thermostat after the MOT as I'm not sure that's working right. Unfortunately genuine renault ones were out of stock everywhere so I got one off ebay. And then never fitted it and now can't find it 😆. I've got the car booked into the garage next week and that reminded me about the thermostat and surprisingly RPD had them! Not a cheap part but needs must.

I'll have that fitted while the garage investigate the fan not working.
I had a hunch that the car might have had different seats and steeing wheel at some point. The airbag config was a bloody mess so I thought maybe the cruise wires are not connected in the steering wheel. After a 10 minute fight and skinned knuckles I got the airbag off.

Everything connected as it should be. It's odd that the cruise light will come on but the steering wheel buttons do nothing. If there was a fault the cruise wouldn’t come on at all 🤔.
Ignoring that I need new tyres to replace the s**t that's on now as I'm heading back to Wales for some fun in couple of weeks. Toss up between PS4/5 or Eagle F1 6.
As usual I took zero photos at CSF so here's a nice one I found on Instagram 😂👍.

 

[Mr Underhill]

It has to be said the car has completely transformed under your ownership. Looks really nice in that picture above.

 

[Clio_fool]

It has to be said the car has completely transformed under your ownership. Looks really nice in that picture above.

Thanks, it does scrub up well and we all know the mk3 rs is the most sexy😄.

I forgot to say, the week before csf I bagged some seat frames so got these lovelies out of storage and fitted.

They are way too high on renault bases so I'll have to figure out a fix for the drivers side at least but OMG so much better than the standard seats.

 

[RustyMojo]

Paul, you’ve done a lovely job of the car! Especially given the mess it was in when you bought it! Definitely one saved!