Une Baguette's Clio dci

[Une_Baguette]

Hello all, been a member a while here but I tend to generally browse and not post that much but I'd thought I'd maybe change that a put up a project thread of the daily life of being a clio hoarder 😂. So I've a had a good few clios over the years where I think I have an obsession with them and can't seem to justify buying any other car (I know it's a real problem), I thought it would be only right where everyone can see all the work I do to them and somewhere I can maybe document it.

So I bought my Clio 172 back in December 2019 and I've loved every minute of it but it was requiring some work and TLC which I couldn't realistically do while I was driving it daily so I decided in January 2023 that I needed a 2nd car to do what I wanted to my 172. This is where I decided I needed something cheaper on tax and fuel cost with the goal of keeping it long term as my daily driver. As silly as it seems I'm concerned spending money on the car keeping it going or modifying it a bit to my liking. So in February of 2023 a dci 80 popped up for sale.

Surprisingly this is only photo I have of the car as I never took any before doing some work to it etc. It's a dci 80 dynamic, the 80 was the one I wanted as I wanted to convert it to 172 suspension and brakes as I had most parts lying around without costing me much to do it just my time and effort. Around from February till May of 2023 I worked a bit here and there converting the suspension and brake setup along with general servicing and a timing belt while I was at it. I didn't take many photos of any of this which I'm still working on getting better at as I tend to get carried away working on the car without taking any pictures.

The rear beam was a bit crusty and the bushes were past there best so I did a quick tidy up on the rear beam along with poly bushes on the rear eventually I plan to get rear callipers from a 172 installed.

With the rear sorted out and the front converted it was nearly ready to hit the road! After the first few weeks of driving I was getting a good steady 65mpg from mostly rural road driving and some motorway which I was well pleased with. Took it for a trip to Enniskillen in July 2023 where it drove without any hiccups.

Unfortunately my luck was to change as not long after this the fuel system started playing up on it which was not ideal as anyone that knows these the bill can get quite costly if the pump was on it's way out. I also managed to run hit a badger on the way home one night which destroyed my radiator and bumper grill along with cracking the bumper just my luck.

I checked the fuel filter for metal filings which I put it down to the one of the injectors starting to go I'll be honest I drove this car much longer than I should have with this issue as it was not until November 2023 I decided to sort the injectors out.

The fuel system seemed to be fine after changing the culprit injector out and I had no more faults on the dash or any weirdness for a good few months until my next hurdle in May 2024 I started getting fuel related issues again at this point I decided if the high pressure pump is on it's way out I just drive it till it quits and I'll decide from there whether to fix the dci or scrap it and get something else.

Mid June the dci completely broke down on me on the way home from Belfast I was driving home on the motorway and all of sudden a big bellow of white smoke started coming out of the exhaust and the engine just completely shutoff on me doing 70mph I was able to limp it to the hard shoulder where thankfully I was able to coast it to an entrance of the nearby service station. The engine would fail to start and I was suspecting at that point the fuel system was dead. I got it recovered home where I'd have a look at it the next day.

Sure enough the high pressure pump was dead and there was metal swarf throughout the whole fuel system. I cut the fuel filter open to take a look.

Metal filings everywhere so at minimum I was going to be needing the high pressure pump, 4 new injectors along with the fuel tank and fuel pipes being completely cleaned out very carefully. I'll leave you all at a cliff-hanger on what I did after that and I'll update this tomorrow

 

[Une_Baguette]

Sorry for the delay been very busy recently! So being the type of guy I am I like keeping cars going rather than scrapping them so I put a plan in place to fix the dci even though financially it doesn't make sense. I also needed the car so I'd either need to repair it or buy another car. I bit the bullet and bought a new high pressure pump, 4 refurbed injectors because new ones are ridiculous money along with new plastic fuel pipes. I had another tank sitting which I could use rather than cleaning out the one on the car. Then any other fuel pipes would just need to be cleaned very carefully. I didn't take many photos as usual. I did all this work in July 2024

Old fuel tank out, I plan to maybe clean this one out eventually as it turns out somehow the tank I've fitted is 40 Litres rather than 50 Litres? I was under the assumption that all clio MK2s had the same size fuel tank but apparently not!

I can't remember the part number of this tool but it allows me to install the new high pressure pump without needing to remove the timing belt, I didn't want to do it again since I only did it the year before.

I was able to source a new genuine fuel pipe including the primer bulb as when trying to clean the old one I found that lots of the metal particles were stuck in the primer bulb so it was impossible to clean it properly.

I cut the injector seats and cleaned them good to allow the new copper washers to form a good seal on the refurb injectors. I noted down the Injector C2I codes for each cylinder as I would need these when programming them onto the car with Renault Can Clip.

Everything installed nice and fresh I also fitted a new engine mount from a Twingo dci they're a much better design and stop the engine moving around so much. Typical after getting everything running the alternator decided it didn't want to work anymore but I was able to source a new genuine alternator on eBay for a very low price if I remember right I think it was only £40.

After doing all the hard work the dci was running perfect again with no fuel system issues so hopefully it'll be good for another 150000miles!

 

[Une_Baguette]

The dci ran really well for the rest of 2024 with no problems I got some new tyres around October time fitted to the silver 16" 172 alloys I have treating them like my winter alloys. Forgot to mention it's on Ktec coilovers and I'm also running clio 182 xenon headlights as I find the halogens pretty crap on these. Here's a photo outside my work ignore the double yellows we're allowed to part there 😂

For a long time I've been toying with idea of fitting a 172 bodykit to it, just never really liked the standard bumpers on the mk2 along with no side skirts. So around march this year I started gathering parts up. Fortunately I work in a Bodyshop so painting the parts weren't going to be an issue as I couldn't find any of the bits in colour over the last 2 years I had been looking.

Got all the bits delivered and took my time prepping all the part for paint. I didn't take any photos of this which is typical, had them painted at work so only cost for me was the paint which made it cheap. I had everything ready to go during the easter weekend so I cracked on and got it done during the Saturday and part of Sunday. I spend time sorting the sills out and drilling holes out for the side skirt brackets. I used rivnuts which I find will make it easier in the future for removal.

Protected with some Jotun paint as well. I have to say I really love the way the car turned out I do intend to sort out the bootlid as there's a rather large dent in it but overall I'm very pleased!

Picture beside my dads RB182

 

[Brigsy]

In for updates! Looks great.

Never knew about the size difference in the tanks too, i also thought they were all the same.