Welshname's Monaco 172

JoeyD · Jun 8, 2014

OMG buy new number plates!

welshname · Jun 8, 2014

It's on the list. The plates are better than THAT front bumper on your car

Eddie. · Jun 8, 2014

FLOL!!!!

Rob · Jun 9, 2014

Get some clean pics up, but even dirty, that looks bang on.

welshname · Jun 9, 2014

Yeah I'm really happy with how the car sits now. Unfortunately I've got some scrubbing on the front. Its where the arch liner dips down to allow a spanner to remove the bumper to wing bolt. Just going to cut that section away and it should be good to go.

JoeyD · Jun 9, 2014

welshname said:
It's on the list. The plates are better than THAT front bumper on your car

Leave it out you caaaaaaaaant. Still convincing myself it was a good buy.

dmallett · Jun 9, 2014

Love it stuck in the sand, big fan of clean Monaco's

welshname · Jun 9, 2014

As promised some proper camera pictures (excuse me as I'm a little rusty).

But first I had noticed some scrubbing on the front when turning at speed or going over a decent bump.

The offending item. (Same on each side):

Offending Arch Liner Section by welshname, on Flickr

Weapon of choice:

Weapon of Choice by welshname, on Flickr

Removed:

Removed by welshname, on Flickr

Removed Arch Liner by welshname, on Flickr

Removed by welshname, on Flickr

At this point I noticed there was a lot of dust on the lens so I gave it a clean and got some pictures.

Before pictures for reference (the tuck is hilarious):

Monaco Reflection by welshname, on Flickr

Cleaned Monaco by welshname, on Flickr

And afters:

Monaco 172 Front by welshname, on Flickr

Monaco 172 by welshname, on Flickr

Monaco 172 by welshname, on Flickr

Monaco 172 by welshname, on Flickr

Monaco 172 Rear by welshname, on Flickr

Front Fitment by welshname, on Flickr

Rear Fitment by welshname, on Flickr

Hope those pictures show the "stance" (I hate that word) a little better. I found when I was looking at the cooksport/cup shock combo no one had any real pictures to show how the looked, they always had the wheels turned at a stupid amount of lock etc.

Really happy with how it looks now. Need to let the springs settle a little and then get the tracking done as it's all over the place.

Cheers.

Eddie. · Jun 9, 2014

Needs more beach.

welshname · Jun 9, 2014

You should have seen the amount of sand that came out... And the large quantity of soil and grass wedged between the rim and tyre on a certain wheel.

Tunst · Jun 9, 2014

I lold at the beach pics on fb.. I feel your pain with that! Haha

Car looks great though Rhys!

welshname · Jun 9, 2014

Cheers Mark. And yeah it was pretty funny. I got stuck then we got a jag*cough*Mondeo*cough* estate stuck followed by Ed's saxo.

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Matthew · Jun 9, 2014

Car looks spot on. If I was getting a 172, i would have done exactly the same.

Clean plates, cup spoiler and your away lad.

welshname · Jun 9, 2014

Matthew. said:
Car looks spot on. If I was getting a 172, i would have done exactly the same.

Clean plates, cup spoiler and your away lad.

Yeah it's all on the list. Which is never ending.

Needs:

- Matching tyres all round
- Wheel refurb
- Mazda 3 MPS aerial (looks like I actually forgot to order mine)
- Clean plates
- Loads of exterior trim parts that are faded
- Cup spoiler
- 182 interior to replace the knackered items in mine
- ph1 gearknob
- Sump gasket
- ktec induction
- engine mounts

There is more too but that's just off the top of my head.

Eddie. · Jun 9, 2014

When are you buying the E28 conversion kit?

Stefan. · Jun 9, 2014

That looks bloody nice!

Love monaco blue :approve:

welshname · Jun 10, 2014

Thanks. Love the colour. It was either this or a black ph1 I had to get. Wasn't looking at any other colours

Rob · Jun 10, 2014

Looks bloody perfect. Spacers and springs have much SUCH a difference. Epic work nochin.

The Russian. · Jun 10, 2014

Cars looking great Rhys, really like how it's sitting now.

Grills could do with a spray over

Monaco is a proper nice colour when clean and kept for.

welshname · Jun 10, 2014

Thanks Rob because you love me so much fancy making the 3rd of the "after" photos (from the front at an angle) into an avatar for me? <3

SamHowell · Jun 10, 2014

Looks soo nice. How are the cooksport springs?

welshname · Jun 10, 2014

Haven't really had chance to use them properly. First impressions are that they are pretty firm. Normal road conditions it's fine but pot holes etc it's pretty harsh. At the minute my tracking is all over the place so I'm giving it a week to settle then tracked up and then I'll give a decent write up on them.

Rob · Jun 10, 2014

Not sure it's wide enough dude but I shall try.

welshname · Jun 10, 2014

No worries if it's not. I'll take one that's further away and can be cropped to suit at weekend.

Rob · Jun 10, 2014

welshname said:
No worries if it's not. I'll take one that's further away and can be cropped to suit at weekend.

Ignore the quality, but that's the best crop possible...

welshname · Jun 10, 2014

I'll do a better one at weekend. Cheers anyway

Jon.G · Jun 10, 2014

Need a side-on stance shot.

<-- Like mine

welshname · Jun 10, 2014

Lol will do when I go anywhere with decent weather that isn't my driveway

welshname · Jun 15, 2014

Well I don't need to worry about the arch liner rubbing anymore. It vacated itself on the motorway just now. Luckily it hasn't hit any of the bodywork.

Felt a bang and saw it in about 40 pieces in my mirrors. Will replace it next month, spent too much on the car already this month.

welshname · Jun 29, 2014

Well quick update. I'm picking up a gearbox next week. Noticed on the way back from Shell Island that the 'box was whining. I tried to pretend to myself that it was the alternator or something but it's not.

Thought I'd give it a go at just topping up the gearbox oil to see if it was low and this is where I realised it was game over for the gearbox. 1.5 Litres I managed to get into the fucker. Noise is still there and just as bad so the damage has been done. I can only assume that someone has had a driveshaft out or something and not bothered to top the gearbox back up as there is no leak on the box. The annoying thing is when I got the car there was no noise and I was going to change the box oil but was properly skint so that was the first thing to get taken off my list of things to do. What a shitter.

This coming weekend I'll be swapping the box, new box oil, new coolant new clutch kit and possibly a few other bits on the car that have been annoying me. Oh and the drivers side driveshaft too. Getting a pair so I'll just do them both whilst they are out.

Cars just hate me...

Eddie. · Jun 30, 2014

Cars don't hate you, Renaults are just made of cheese.

welshname · Jun 30, 2014

Yeah. Just unlucky with the gearbox oil really. I was utterly skint though.

Rob · Jun 30, 2014

welshname said:
Well quick update. I'm picking up a gearbox next week. Noticed on the way back from Shell Island that the 'box was whining. I tried to pretend to myself that it was the alternator or something but it's not.

Thought I'd give it a go at just topping up the gearbox oil to see if it was low and this is where I realised it was game over for the gearbox. 1.5 Litres I managed to get into the fucker. Noise is still there and just as bad so the damage has been done. I can only assume that someone has had a driveshaft out or something and not bothered to top the gearbox back up as there is no leak on the box. The annoying thing is when I got the car there was no noise and I was going to change the box oil but was properly skint so that was the first thing to get taken off my list of things to do. What a shitter.

This coming weekend I'll be swapping the box, new box oil, new coolant new clutch kit and possibly a few other bits on the car that have been annoying me. Oh and the drivers side driveshaft too. Getting a pair so I'll just do them both whilst they are out.

Cars just hate me...

Why not just drain the box oil, re-fil with new, maybe even remove the shafts whilst it's empty and check condition? If all's ok, button it back up and run it.

If it get's silly noisy, change it, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Jon.G · Jun 30, 2014

I think he's worried that it'll s**t itself when we're at the ring later in the year.

If anyone should worry its the guy with the auto 'box.

welshname · Jun 30, 2014

Lol. Yeah Rob

The last thing I need is it going pop in Europe or even worse on the 'ring.

The whining in 5th is pretty bad.

welshname · Jun 30, 2014

Also got to do my sump gasket which means draining the £50 worth of oil I put in less than 2k ago

Eddie. · Jun 30, 2014

If it get stuck in 5th then just hero it like Senna in Brazil.

welshname · Jun 30, 2014

Only if you paint my helmet yellow for me

welshname · Jul 8, 2014

I'm utterly useless when it comes to updates. I've got one picture as usual but this weekend I set about replacing the gearbox, clutch and both driveshafts.

Quick picture under the car whilst I had a smoke before removing the old clutch

172 Clutch by welshname, on Flickr

Thrown it all back together and unfortunately the second hand drivers shaft is FUBAR. Worse than my other one to be honest, sounds like a bag of spanners and knocks all over the place. Going to have to purchase a recon one I think.

Quick video of the noise

[video]https://flic.kr/p/ohCtrx[/video]
https://flic.kr/p/ohCtrx

One thing I will say to anyone willing to attempt a gearbox swap on the driveway is don't unless you're really committed to the job. It's a ball ache. I went for the "out the bottom" method and Renault being Renault have made some horrific design decisions. Mental. The rack bolts are disgusting. Takes about 15 minutes per side on the top ones due to the lack of room there is to turn a spanner in there.

That said the gearbox is great, smooth and my God the clutch pedal is light now. Just goes to show how bad mine was.

Next up I ordered a Mki9100 Parrot kit. Missed my old one and needed a solution for playing music through the standard stereo via bluetooth and thought I'd kill two birds with one stone.

Dash off