Rusty’s Titanium 182 take 2!

[RustyMojo]

So a little update.
First up I managed to find a replacement (used) OSF arch liner! Mine was hammered and missing the bottom pulley cover. Spent some time cleaning it up and removing 20 years worth of tar and grime before fitting. It’s one of those items that no one will ever see, but makes me happy knowing it’s all complete.

I have recently suffered with a little abs feedback through the brake pedal when coming to a stop, then driving back from Caffeine and machine the abs light came on. Guessed ABS rings were at fault and I was right. OSF was cracked, so this evening I replaced both sides.

made a right job of it with my ham fisted spannering

took the car for a spin and no issues at all! However recently I have noticed when the car is cold it’s running lumpy almost as if it’s missing. Interesting as the injectors are only a couple of months old. No EML lights showing, will plug in the RS tuner and look at the live data. I have a new genuine lambda I may Chuck in for good measure, but it could be my pattern cat is dead as the car smells like it’s decatted (almost like it’s over fuelling) I really want to find a better option for a decent after market Cat. Any advice ?

 

[Krarl]

Best option for the cat situation is decat and remap👀

 

[RustyMojo]

Best option for the cat situation is decat and remap👀

I’d prefer to run a car though mate, but may have to go that route

 

[Mr Underhill]

I’d prefer to run a car though mate, but may have to go that route

Only one i really know of is the PMS 200 Cell Sports Cat. The caveat being you have to purchase the exhaust as well. If you go down the route of the decat drop me a pm as i have one lying around in the garage.

 

[RustyMojo]

Only one i really know of is the PMS 200 Cell Sports Cat. The caveat being you have to purchase the exhaust as well. If you go down the route of the decat drop me a pm as i have one lying around in the garage.

Thanks Jon, I have a Ktec system currently so thinking their sports cat is £300ish, but they only give a 6 month warranty on it. So I am sceptical of its longevity. The PMS system makes sense, but think that’s knocking on for a grand with the cat, I hate decats on cars. But it may be the option with a eBay cat in the shed for MoT each year

 

[MrBlonde]

I have a decat on mine mate & sounds great,i have made it so i can easily fit the cat if need be also with the sleeve neck mod.Only get to hear it really on full beans which is what i wanted.

 

[RustyMojo]

I have a decat on mine mate & sounds great,i have made it so i can easily fit the cat if need be also with the sleeve neck mod.Only get to hear it really on full beans which is what i wanted.

Think I need to find a good exhaust fabricator near me really. I want the whole system refreshed really, the manifold flange looks a bit dog chewed as well. If I go decat then I want it so it’s easier to bolt in and out come MOT time

 

[KitsonRis]

Think I need to find a good exhaust fabricator near me really. I want the whole system refreshed really, the manifold flange looks a bit dog chewed as well. If I go decat then I want it so it’s easier to bolt in and out come MOT time

Infinity Exhaust down on junction 16 of M4, not sure if you would class that as local as you are a bit further north than me. I've had 4 made from them over the years for various cars and they have all been bang on - tell them what you want, how loud, what tips you want. Lifetime warranty. Made while you wait, my old Ocatvia vRS was a cat back and that was done in about 2hrs and my E34 was a bit longer as that is twin pipe from the manifold so basically two exhausts. They did my old Ph1 and I got them to put a decat pipe in that which was a stroke of genius as I was tempted to not bother and ended up needing to put the cat back in. Do want them to make a tubular manifold for my E34 at some point.

 

[RustyMojo]

That’s a bit far from me mate, I don’t want a full exhaust made, just a new flange on manifold and likely something sorted with a better cat. To be fair I haven’t really looked up local suppliers

 

[RustyMojo]

Progress has been a little slow of late. But good news my wife gave birth to our wonder new Daughter Isla last week! So I have two weeks of paternity leave.
First off I fitted my PMS shifter, I had been mulling over buying one for some time and finally hit the bullet on a used one (in hindsight I would recommend people pay the extra and get a new one. One of the things that concerned me about the PMS was the dreaded rattle. Now I get it’s a track/race car shifter, but it’s clear there are mods you can do to quieten the thing down.

First of all I covered the linkage with some heat shrink to help reduce the resonance, this made a big difference when you tap the shifter rod on the floor, instead of ringing it’s changes to a dull thud.

Next up I filled the linkage with just over a kg of lead shot thanks @frayz for the recommendation.

Finally I added more heat shrink under the gear knob to stop any rattles from the spring, fitted a rubber o-ring to the sleeve base (thanks @Louis)

before fitting sound deadening to the shifter tower. I also used a bead of butyl tape rather than silicone sealant as recommend by Pure.

In the interests of vanity I also painted the reverse lift collar titanium silver, waste of time really but I like it

Pleased to say I managed to get everything aligned fairly easily. The linkage is dangerously close to the lambda, but I’m going to get the old hole bunged and a new one fitted to move it when I get the car in to have a new flange fitted to the manifold.

The resulting effect of all of the mods is the shifter is *nearly* silent! With only a light whine/rattle in fifth above 70mph. So I’m super chuffed! Also dead happy with the position and shift, compared to the standard shifter it’s night and day!

Next up I noticed, the car smelt of fuel as well as running a touch hesitant when cold. I had recently replaced all of the injectors with new OEM originals. Whilst I was under the car I replaced the Lambda sensor with another new Bosch unit I had in stock. That seems to have done the trick.

all in all a good couple of days work, I’m next going to machine polish the old turd to get her ready for Clios at Caffeine and machine.

I’m now on the hunt for a pair of bucket seats! So if anyone knows of some decent used ones, please hit me up

thanks for reading

 

[ajracer]

Congratulations on your new addition to the family mate!
Im sure you will grab a small portion of you paternity leave to fettle the 182.

 

[RustyMojo]

Congratulations on your new addition to the family mate!
Im sure you will grab a small portion of you paternity leave to fettle the 182.

Cheers mate, I got a day today. I been gathering brownie points up till this point. So didn’t get in too much trouble!

 

[bowen86]

Hey Russ, Bowen from IG. Top work on the shifter, I'll be following your route on making it silent.

 

[KitsonRis]

Has paternity leave….fixes car. Priorities
Congratulations.

 

[RustyMojo]

Little job this evening. This weekend I noticed the bloody ESP/SERV light came on. Initially frustrated as I thought the new ABS rings had fixed the fault, then noticed no ABS light. Plugged in my RS Tuner and noticed a P0120 ode showing, forum to the rescue again suggests the brake switch needed resetting. I noticed it was a very lose fit…further inspection showed someone had been here before!! The switch is so shagged I’m surprised the light wasn’t on constantly!

managed to find a replacement through Amazon and was dead chuffed when it showed up. It’s basically the OEM version with the Renault logo ground off! £18 from RPD I paid £5.04 delivered. Time will tell if this is the problem fixed I guess. But I think it should be!

 

[DomP182]

Ah interesting @RustyMojo , I've got a reoccurring p0120 fault code coming up at the moment, I'll check the brake switch.

 

[RustyMojo]

Ah interesting @RustyMojo , I've got a reoccurring p0120 fault code coming up at the moment, I'll check the brake switch.

for a fiver mate I’d just change it anyway. It’s literally a five minute job

 

[RustyMojo]

Next update due I guess... For some time now I have been on the hunt for a pair of seats for the Clio, Unlike many others i didn't find the standard driving position horrific, But there was/is definitely room for improvement. Having started out on the Clubsport theme and on the basis the car will never see any more than one passenger moving forward. I had been on he hunt for a pair of bucket seats. Initially looking at Recaro Polepositions, but my inner skinflint, just wouldn't let me shell out the amount needed. In hindsight, its probably a case of buy cheap buy twice...But we will see! So next up I looked at cheaper alternatives. The Corbeau clubsport looked perfect. But no longer made and used ones were changing hands or more than they were new!



In the end i spotted a pair of sensibly priced Trendlines out of an R26, which were about an hour away from me. Now these are not my firs choice of seat, but they suit the Clio well. Time will tell if i want something we some more support. The trendlines are clean, but require a repair on the Drivers side bolster as per the norm. I will address this over the winter by getting the bolster panel replaced. Otherwise the seats are/were mint.



So next the mine field that is fitting!!! A quick search found i needed Jon Fossard subframes, in the end speaking with Jon he suggested i needed his VBD Xlow adapters. I have to say I'm pretty chuffed with the service provided. They were with me within 48hrs and were fantastically finishing. Frustratingly i seem to have deleted a load of photos from the process of fitting the seats, which included pics of the seat bases, cleaning various items... What an idiot!



Conscious of the potential to send my Dashboard light OCD into overdrive, I ordered some 3.3ohm resisters as well, I will get the airbag lights disabled at some point in the future, likely when I fit a steering wheel. I just need to buy the module for my RS Tuner.

So fitting. First off removal of my old seats was easy enough, all the bolts were in decent nick so just unbolted straight away. When I came to take the passenger’s seat out I noticed so interesting looking “tape” where previously should’ve been the pretensioner connector. Now being a dork I noticed that in 2016 the car failed its MOT for “Supplementary Restraint System warning lamp indicates a fault (5.4.2)” so I can only presume this was the fix. Likely being the connector had been damaged so someone had soldered the pretension plug directly to the loom as a fix? Anyway I tidied it up, resoldered and then heat shrank the join properly. I then had the joy of those stupid airbag plugs that just break as soon as you look at them. Stupid design.

Obviously with the seats out I had a chance to give the carpet a good scrub. It wasn’t that bad, but obviously near 20 years of cola spills, Human fluid discharge and pubic hair needed addressing. Again I did a before and after but deleted most of the bloody photos. But I can assure you the car is now de-jizzed! Next up I removed the seat rails & Pretensioners from the OE seats. Again a cleaning years of grime up. The seat rails had some surface corrosion, which had always annoyed me as you could see this when looking in the foot wells, quick rub down and blasted with black hammerite had them back to near new levels of spangleness. Again no after photo (what a dick I am)

The only pain through the whole process of fitting the lowered rails, is the slider adjuster. This needs bending slightly to ensure it can operate. Easy enough to do albeit on slipped in my vice and I twatted myself in the face.



Anyway I am bored writing this now, so I am sure you are all bored reading it…. Needless to say I am chuffed to buts with how the super expensive “pleather” seats look in the car, the subframe mounts from Jon are fantastic. It’s completely sorted the driving position in the car, if you run trendlines I would recommend purchasing a set. However it has highlighted another issue which will be addressed soon…Steering column angle/height. So I am currently researching how I can space the column down to suite the new lowered seating position.

Oh and MOT is due in 3 weeks!

 

[bowen86]

Great updates as always. Although the seats are "a done thing" they just work so well and suit it perfectly.

Can I ask where you got your resistor from and did it come prept in the yellow shrink?

 

[RustyMojo]

Great updates as always. Although the seats are "a done thing" they just work so well and suit it perfectly.

Can I ask where you got your resistor from and did it come prept in the yellow shrink?

They did yes mate, basically it’s a shrink wrapped 3.3ohm resistor. So I massively overpaid, but actually the ‘legs’ are slightly thicker than a ‘normal’ resistor so worth it in my opinion. I wedged them in then wrapped the plug in insulation tape to make sure the connection was secure. It’s worked perfectly

Airbag bypass resistor 3.3ohm 2pcs for diagnostics | eBay

Ideal to simulate airbags or seat belt pretensioner when diagnosing faults. There are more than one type of airbag plug. I suggest you look on forums for more information. Resistors are tested and in working order when dispatched.

www.ebay.co.uk

 

[Clio_fool]

Trendlines do suit the Clio well but aren't much better than standard for support. If you can get yourself sat in some CS sportsters as they are much better.

 

[bowen86]

They did yes mate, basically it’s a shrink wrapped 3.3ohm resistor. So I massively overpaid, but actually the ‘legs’ are slightly thicker than a ‘normal’ resistor so worth it in my opinion. I wedged them in then wrapped the plug in insulation tape to make sure the connection was secure. It’s worked perfectly

Airbag bypass resistor 3.3ohm 2pcs for diagnostics | eBay

Ideal to simulate airbags or seat belt pretensioner when diagnosing faults. There are more than one type of airbag plug. I suggest you look on forums for more information. Resistors are tested and in working order when dispatched.

www.ebay.co.uk

Nice one Russ. Will order some now.

 

[RustyMojo]

Trendlines do suit the Clio well but aren't much better than standard for support. If you can get yourself sat in some CS sportsters as they are much better.

Don’t disagree, but to be fair support wasn’t the problem with the standard seats! I like the sportsters but they are mind blowing lay expensive and seem to wear faster than the Trendlines. For that sort of money I would’ve bought the pole positions. I may at some point make the change to a fixed bucket seat. Just at the moment the options new are pretty poor IMO unless you go Recaro and they are astronomically expensive. I have the big service due in November this year and the extra money I would prefer to invest into a gearbox rebuild with a diff.

 

[RustyMojo]

Nice one Russ. Will order some now.

No worries mate, hope it all works out for you!

 

[ajracer]

Glad to see you got a decent pair of Trendlines after your long search mate.
Those Foz frames are awesome and are one of the best mods for a 182.

 

[RustyMojo]

Pray for me

 

[imprezaworks]

That chair looks like it has a really low back. Not a great start.

🙏🙏🙏🙏

 

[RustyMojo]

It’s looking pretty sketchy on emissions from where I’m sat!

 

[imprezaworks]

Did you give it beans on the way

 

[RustyMojo]

Yes mate gave it a proper schlapping then straight on the ramp 😂

good news though! She passed! As if there was any doubt 🤪
Only advisories:
Air freshener on mirror (I know)
Minor exhaust leak
OSF CV boot deteriorated

I’ll take that, took a couple of attempts to get through emissions though! So maybe time to sort out a better CAT and the exhaust system refreshed….

indecently the garage owner owned and recently sold a liquid yellow V6, he had it from
New and recently sold it! I didn’t even know it was so close to me!

 

[Clio_fool]

Emissions is always the worry for me. Congrats on the pass Rusty 👍.

 

[RustyMojo]

Emissions is always the worry for me. Congrats on the pass Rusty 👍.

Thanks mate, it’s going to be harder and harder I expect. I really wish there was a decent aftermarket alternative at reasonable money for the OEM Cat. The slight exhaust leak they found (I knew was there) has made me consider my next steps, the manifold flange is looking very scabby. So I think I need to get the car to a proper fabricator/exhaust shop. I can get a new manifold flange fitted, some form of better quality cat and get some slash tips fitted to the back box. I may even get them to fit it all level as well! I have looked at the PMS system, but I have the big service due so chucking £800 at that and then the service is a little hard to swallow!

I just need to find a decent aftermarket cat and a proper quality fab shop somewhere around the Gloucestershire area to do the work for me.

 

[Clio_fool]

Of you're having the flange done get the v bands fitted an do away with all the factory crap. That's what I did last year when I bought a new cat and decent flexi.

 

[RustyMojo]

Of you're having the flange done get the v bands fitted an do away with all the factory crap. That's what I did last year when I bought a new cat and decent flexi.

You got any photos of the setup? Specifically the manifold mods? Also what Cat you running?

thanks

 

[Clio_fool]

There's no name on the cat. It's a 200 cell sports cat and got through the mot last year, although the tester would have helped if needed😉.

Nice and easy to remove the cat if you want to run a decat between tests. I removed it when I jacked the car up 5 months ago😂.

 

[Louis]

Get the flexi on the cat though Russ. Then if it blows you can drop the decat and just take it into a fab shop rather than needing the whole car.

 

[RustyMojo]

Cool so they removed the manifold flange added a flexy> V-band. That looks smart, think I would want a slightly better quality Cat to the one I have fitted now when I get this sorted, just need to do some more research into various weld in options

 

[RustyMojo]

Get the flexi on the cat though Russ. Then if it blows you can drop the decat and just take it into a fab shop rather than needing the whole car.

Perfect so get the flange changed on the manifold to one that works with V band (no idea what they look like mind) then get a weld in good quality cat and get a new cat unit made up with a flexy on the front end and v band back end.

i have no interest in running a decat I just want the most reliable all round solution really

 

[Louis]

V-Band on Manifold?

Hi, V-Banding the 182 manifold.....can it be done on the car? What material is the manifold made of? Thinking of going decat on my Milltek, V-Bands wil ease the cat switch.

cliosport.net

 

[RustyMojo]

Another month and I haven’t updated…I’m bloody useless. May have to split this over a couple of posts due to photo limits…some of these updates are bloody ages old now!

so first up after fitting the Trendlines on the xlow bases, it became apparent the steering wheel was now at an awkward angle, ultimately the whole column needed lowering. I started to investigate if it was possible, it appears you can buy a kit which included some standoffs and new bolts. But the price was mind blowing for what’s included. @VenomUK to the rescue, he machines me some M8 8mm alloy spacers.

fitting should be nice and simple, but obviously I’m a ham fisted monkey and made a right meal out of it. As per usual In my fluster I didn’t take many photos!

Before I started the bottom of the wheel was around 16.5” from the floor.

to fit you remove the steering wheel cowling, then remove the 4 bolts holding the column in place. You then need to bend the two retaining tabs which will then give you enough play to slip in the spacers and then reattach.

When all back together I managed to achieve a 1” drop, it’s just about bloody perfect! With the lowered seat bases, PMS shifter and new steering wheel angle the driving position feels just about perfect! Need to fit a smaller wheel and then ill

only thing that’s a bit annoying is the new dropped column now opens a bit of a gap under the binnacle, you only see it if your looking. But I’ll make a gator to cover it when I can be arsed!