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Wobba's 'try to keep it sensible this time' Clio 182 FF Cup Diary



  Clio Williams & 182
Hello everybody.

My name is Dan and I have a Clio Williams, which I've owned for about six years. I've had quite a few Renaults since learning to drive in the 90's:

Renault Clio RT 3 door (was less than 30k miles)
Renault Clio 1.8 16v Mk1 Ph1 in Tungsten (about 30k miles as well)
Renault 5 GTT Raider with about 50/60k miles - Sold for more than I bought it for, want another!
Renault 5 GTT in black - Bit of a dog this one and it blew up in the end.
...

Fast forward many years of working in London and going back to being a student:

Circa 2006

Renault Clio 1.8 16v Mk1 Ph1 in Tungsten. Virtually rebuilt the car and started to learn a lot about car maintenance at the deep end when the headgasket blew and I fixed it myself. Was a great car :)
Renault Clio Williams Ph1 no. 217. Had this and the car above for a while. I always loved the Williams and the amazing reviews it got in magazines when compared to supercars of the same generation, much like the Trophy, but even more so I guess :)

Williams 217 is in excellent health and is still with me, as a road and track car:

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A lot of you know the Williams already as it has been around for some time now, and I've been to Hell and back with it with troubleshooting issues and crazy stuff some of you guys can no doubt empathise with!

It gets comments everywhere I go.

The 182 has a tough act to follow, but I didn't buy it to replace the Williams, but to have fun in on a more 'normal' level.

After crashing my Le Mans Blue E39 M5 in horrendous conditions, thanks to a failed DSC system and lack of skill when things start to go pear-shaped, I needed another car which was better MPG than both the Willy and M5 (both are pretty bad, Williams is okay in summer though). As I know my way around Clio's and have resources such as this website to draw upon, I started my search. As it happened my old pal 'Summeh' of WilliamsClio.co.uk fame was selling his. He drove from Kent in the middle of the night in his new toy to come and get me to see the car, after a night of debauchery out on the town in Maidstone lols :D Never too old!

Here is his new toy on the M25, on our way rather *cough* hastily to Kent from Southampton:

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Can you see what it is yet?

;)

Anyway, next day I awoke with only a mild hangover, which was a surprise as we stayed out till 5am showing the kids how to drink like real men. I went to inspect the 182:

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Went for a quick spin:

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The car felt really good, but it was clear the dephaser needed doing. One thing that was weird was the driving position, after the Williams and the BMW, it felt so high! There was also an obviously low idle, which felt like it was about to stall at every junction, but never did.

Being unmodified apart from cat-back exhaust, it retains that low down torque, which is great for being nippy, but it feels restricted at higher RPM. I know the engine can give a lot more if tuned. It's also very quiet....far too civilised for me. I was at this stage used to a virtually unsilenced 5L V8 and an ITB'd mental nutter Clio with little sound deadening.

That will change.

So, what else needed doing? Well the front bumper needs TLC. No cracks, but chips and scuffs all over. The nearside wing paint was going bad and there are a few parking dings, and one on the bonnet! These need to be removed.

I took the car off Summeh and drove home, managing an awesome 41.5 MPG! At the time I was commuting 81 miles a day to work and back so this was a HUGE improvement over the 20/25 MPG of the M5, driving very conservatively.

I drove the car for about a week to work and back, and then the issues started to show themselves as I knew they would, being a Renault!

Firstly the emissions light came on. Not flashing, just on. No power loss etc. I started ordering in the usual stuff, starting at the cheap end, spark plugs first, coilpack second. Swapped them out, no joy. Checked the usual suspects, air filter, throttle body, unplugged sensors to see if it changed anything. Most ECU's set a default value if they cannot get information from a sensor, such as a MAP, air temperature or coolant sensor...crank sensor being an exception to this. Unplugging MAP sensors on the Mk1 wont allow the car to start, but it is fine on the Mk2 it seems.

Not long after, the EML began to flash and the car lost power dramatically, clearly a misfire. I unplugged an injector at a time. Injector 4 was FAIL. I later bought a OBDII thingy and the error code stored in the memory said injector 4 error as well, good to know these new fangled error reporting tools work!

At this stage I resigned from my job. Sadly, I did not get along with the Managing Director. To put it bluntly, she was a classic b**ch boss. Tried my best to get along, but there is only so much one can compromise oneself...

The good news is this meant MORE TIME TO WORK ON CARS! With the weather being fine at this 2014 spring, I parked up the 182 and started to take it to bits, the Williams once again coming to my rescue as my daily driver as it has so many times before. I ordered the following, having already replaced the MAP sensor, coilpack, spark plugs:

New dephaser pulley
New cambelt kit with all new pulleys
New crank sensor
New coolant sensor
New injector
New rear discs and pads

I also spotted a nearside front wing on Ebay in Titanium silver and a rear bumper, which I wanted to get to mess about with.

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Kitty cat inspects my latest delivery. She always does this to make sure I've not been ripped off :)

I got the dephaser from Ebay and the belt kit. I totally forgot I had a spare F4R cylinder head with a brand new dephaser on it lol. Oh well!

The red box is a kit of tools for the cambelt change, which I found out only partly fitted properly. The pin and cam aligning tool were correct but the pulley locking wasn't going to work. Fortunately, I've done many cambelts before and knew what to expect and how to improvise with the pulleys.

Work begins:

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Using my really awesome hydraulic jack I get the car onto jack standsand get front wheels off. I only took the nearside wheel off to make removing bumper easier and replacing the arch is much easier. Pop the inner arches away to get to the two bolts either side holding the front bumper on. Off it comes, carefully, removing the electricals and washer pipes before removing completely. Super jack under the sump. It's a two ton jack with a big rubber pad at the jacking point, so nice and safe to use for jacking up on the bottom of the sump! I got a two tonner for the M5, and this one has a super low saddle for the Williams and the Lotus Elise I'm going to buy as well :D Yey!

Intake manifold off, airbox off, HT leads out the way, electrics unplugged, plastics off, slam panel off, headlight out, jack engine a little, remove main nut on engine mount, jack up more, take off mount, injector alloy thing off (waste of space?), top cambelt cover off, pulley cover off, spark plugs out (helps with hand cranking engine to TDC and for final checking or valve clearance), pop end cap cam seals out with screwdriver (to be replaced) ready for D-shaped cam positioning tool.

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Got tired, left it overnight...but while indoors I decided to clean the headlights up a bit as they were oxidising a fair bit:

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I think it would be easier to do with the headlights still on the car, but the difference was very clear to see. Excuse the pun:

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Left OS done, right is still poop. I think I can do better, but that can wait for now as I had pressing things to do in the meantime!

Having done Mk1 cambelts, this was sort of similar but with the VVT and dephaser part, different too! I took my time as I had plenty and the weather was really good. I even got a tan! I wanted to do some other jobs whilst the car was in bits, and learn my way around the internals of the Mk2. Doing stuff like this gives you the chance to see things and poke about. I was really pleased to see the structure of the car is in excellent shape. Being used to Mk1's and R5's, shell rust and corrosion is normal, but I'm pleased to see that Renault have improved their construction techniques. The only rust was on bolts and the engine block itself.

Also, most things were very easy to remove. I would say though that there is more to take off to do a cambelt than a Mk1 Clio, so it is more time consuming, though I only had one bolt shear on me, which was a minor one thankfully.

I spotted this however:

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You can't really see, but the CV gaiter had popped off the CV itself, spraying damn grease everywhere. For those of you that have had the displeasure of this stuff before, it horrid and gets everywhere. I made temporary repairs, but I will return to this area again and also get my high pressure jet wash on it. It had coated the ABS ring and sensor, so I cleaned that up just in case. Horrid job. Luckily I had just done the CV on the Williams so I had a load of spare CV grease to put in before I sealed the joint.

Replacement wing on:

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The old one was patchy and the lacquer had gone bad in places. Much better with the replacement on :)

A new injector:

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A new crank sensor:

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A new coilpack:

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I got an email from one of the Directors where I used to work, he said a parcel had arrived for me and did I wanna catch up for a coffee and pick it up, rather than having to drive all the way to my old workplace. I said yes and popped over the next day on the bank holiday Friday. Had a chat about cars and what a tw*t my ex-boss is and grabbed parcel.

The parcel was a brand new Vibratechnics upper engine mount. I ordered it as I had gotted tired one night and totally forgot the old OEM mount was bolted in and jacked the engine up, ripping the rubber part in two. Doh! Oh well:

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Guess which one I like more? Hoho. It is virtually identical I think the to the one in the Williams. As you can also see, I removed the stupid ballast weight as well whilst I was there. Big hunk of metal on the right side. there is one on the Mk1 valvers and Williams as well, but even bigger, as seen here:

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Thanks for thinking of road handling and balance Renault. But...no thanks (bins).

I didn't get many pics, but I put the new cambelt on after slackening the pulleys and replacing the dephaser. Tensioning the cambelt is a lot easier in the Mk2 than Mk1 I'm pleased to say. What was a s**tter though was when I'd got the engine back together and pulled the D cam tool, I saw the f**ker was bent at the ends!!! BAH!!!!! I could hand crank the engine, but I realised after pulling that off that the timing would be off a bit. So, had to do it all over again lol. Was easier the second time.

Back together, and happy the timing was good, I started her up. At this time I'd not replaced the injector so it still misfired, but the engine sounded miles better already. Popping the injector in removed the misfire completely. the idle was still low though when the engine warmed up...all the work had not solved that French gremlin, bugger!

I started to worry the timing had gone wrong, but I was SURE I had done it right and I triple checked it before putting it back together. Power delivery was ok at part throttle but there was clearly missing power and under load it would splutter and become erratic. I had confidence in what I had done so far and decided to look again at the electrical side of things. Diagnosis 1 was the precat lambda was f**ked. I replaced this with a nice new Bosch one and OH MY GOD the car felt SO much better!

But....the low idle persisted! And the odd hesitation. I could have just accepted things at this stage and driven it as it was, but I hate niggly issues so I carried on and finally traced a fault to the MAP sensor. The two sensors I had swapped over were fine, I suspect the plug itself or loom to be slightly damaged or receiving interference from another electrical source. Unplugging the MAP sensor transforms the car into a proper hot hatch. With the wiring repaired it will improve even more :)

TBC
 
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  Clio Williams & 182
So, another Clio day and another part or two to replace.

As many of you know, the interior of most of these cars are showing signs of wear and tear. Steering wheels, trims, door cards etc. Amongst one of the annoying items is the gear knob. Mine was worn out almost completely and as I hate silly things like this I ordered a replacement from my pal Schackal over on WilliamsClio. He does some items on Ebay, including gear knobs!

Removing the OEM section can be messy, and a pain:

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Take the top number badge off, pull the crappy cloth exterior sheath off, and start ripping into the rubber. Underneath is a solid cage that is firmly stuck onto the metal gear stick. Nothing a hacksaw can't handle:

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Makes a mess, and the smell of hacked plastic seems to attract kitteh kats!

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Tada! Off it comes.

And...

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On it goes! With a bit of glue added on for good measure :)

Much better!

Also, GSF sent me an air temperature sensor. Gently pulling the old one out revealed a slightly damaged clip on one side, maybe damaged by me, but I managed to just get the broken plastic piece out before it got sucked in by the engine:

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I also started to trace the wiring from the MAP sensor back to the ECU, which meant lots of pissing about with wires:

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All I did was get my multimeter out and pop the plug on the MAP sensor, cracked open the end of the harness to the ECU and pulled back the pin shield thing:

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From here, it's an easy test to check the wiring continuity, and see if there is any appreciable resistance between the three plug socket pins and the pins at the end which directly feed the ECU with data, feed voltage and earth the sensor. Really easy. I was expecting an obvious failure as the MAP sensor had been changed twice since the original one was removed, and I assumed there was something wrong with the feedback to the ECU regarding the air pressure inside the inlet manifold. Either that, or all the sensors have been faulty. I put the OEM sensor back in, which I had changed ages ago before even doing the injector and the lambda, just to see what happened.

The old sensor still caused a low idle, but normal driving was very good, and tonight's drive home from my pals place was epic, very responsive and far more like I would expect for a car like this. Handles damn well too :D No complaints there!

So, I messed up the wiring loom a bit and I will tidy it all up with new shiny stuff soon.

Another problem that had blighted the car not long after picking it up was the apparent failure of the washer jets. I already knew the jets were blocked nearer the pump end, but I could hear the pumps trying to work so suspected it was not them at fault. I did some research online and after some simple tests worked out it was the one way valves in the sections that are connected to the pumps:

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See the little piece in the middle there? There is a rubber section inside and what happens is it expands in the water, over many years, and eventually they block the valve. I simply cut the expanded rubber off and refitted, and tested the jets.

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Voila. Front and rear jests now working as intended, which is nice as I think without this it's an MOT fail? Not sure, but MOT is soon and this is one less thing to do :)

Also while working on the car my neighbour came by, he runs a bodyshop and works with a paint guy. We spoke about some minor dent removal, but mostly about the front bumper respray, which it sorely needs!

Yesterday I nipped over to the local breakers yard for some simple bits, and a couple of other goodies arrived in the post today too :p but this can all wait for my next instalment ^^
 
  Clio 182
Bonjour wobba! The Williams got sold on Sunday. :(
Sorry to see it go but iv the silver 182 with hesitation at mo. Its all pointing to the Dephaser being out. Dan at 519 is sorting it Friday with any luck. Some hard work you done so far. My old Williams would eat this 182 easy thats why im getting the Dephaser done.
 

GrahamS

ClioSport Club Member
  335d
2 things.

First - Maidstone going out! You winner.

Second - Saw on gearknob, man after my own heart

Great read mate, doing things properly. Should have asked around, wiring diagrams are available and would have saved you a heap of time!
 
  Clio Williams & 182
Bonjour wobba! The Williams got sold on Sunday. :(
Sorry to see it go but iv the silver 182 with hesitation at mo. Its all pointing to the Dephaser being out. Dan at 519 is sorting it Friday with any luck. Some hard work you done so far. My old Williams would eat this 182 easy thats why im getting the Dephaser done.

Noooo!!! Sold it huh? Well, mine started off feeling a bit slow but after the work I've done so far...read below for a new assessment.
 
  Clio Williams & 182
2 things.

First - Maidstone going out! You winner.

Second - Saw on gearknob, man after my own heart

Great read mate, doing things properly. Should have asked around, wiring diagrams are available and would have saved you a heap of time!

Haha! yes, out in Maidstone and I might be again tomorrow too!

I like doing things the hard way, and now I know how to use a multimeter, I don't mind doing electrical checks like this :p
 
  Clio Williams & 182
Various pieces arrived in the post for the Clio 182 since my last post. I had to get the car MOT'd as well. Sadly the car failed on a very bad blowing exhaust, a broken front spring and the pins that hold the rear pads in not fitted.

There was also an advisory on the inner track rods, which can be a b**ch to remove if you don't have the right tools. Luckily, I do!

I felt there could also be a bit of rear bearing noise and the rear brakes were shot to bits, so I ordered some discs with bearings and pads. Off came the old discs and gubbins:

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I gave the sensor inside the hub a gentle clean as it was caked in crap. I wound the pistons back and forth to check it was moving freely too. All good. As you can see in the following pic, the rear pads were totally shot, down to the bare metal:

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Meanwhile, kitty had managed to sneak inside once again and found her new bestest evar snoozing pad:

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Nice and warm, safe from other kitties, and the parcel shelf is apparently an awesome scratching pad...

I spotted this gap in the rear bumper too, which annoys me so I will be fixing this in due course.

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So, new discs and bearings and pads fitted, with new thingy pins too for Mr MOT man. No pics, but they are shiny. Onto the front springs. Piece of piss to get off, the top mounts gave me no trouble. Popped the spring compressors on and took the spring out of the drivers side front shock:

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Yep, it's broken alright. One of the goodies I had ordered, as a temporary solution until I fit coilies, were some simple lowering springs as the car sits far too high for my liking! Popped them on and rebuilt the front struts. I didn't get pics at this stage as I forgot. Oh well. I then moved to the rear, which I did take pics of. I have seen a fair few requests for pics of how to jack and support the rear of the 182, so here they are:

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Jacked on the middle of the rear beam, I also put the car into gear to stop it rolling. I then placed the jacks stands and very carefully lowered the car onto them:

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Tada!

To get the old rear springs out I just used a breaker bar and a 18mm socket on the lower bolts on both rear shocks. This allows the beam to drop even lower and you can yoink the springs out:

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Guess which ones are the old ones? :)

In they go:

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Easy.

One thing I have noticed however is there is a bit of knocking on the rear. I suspect the springs are not high poundage so allow the beam to bounce about too much, or the springs are moving a bit. I'm sure I could solve it but I've had my hands full lately!

At the same time as sorting the 182 for the MOT, I had to get the Williams right up to tip top working order for a trackday at Bedford on the 19th May. The previous week I had felt the Willies clutch slipping, and I wanted to fit my new lightweight flywheel, specially made for a Williams but with a 60-2 trigger pattern, which is what my Emerald ECU uses. Because the flywheel is not a Megane one any longer (Mk1 Meg uses a 60-2 trigger pattern as normal, Willy does not), I had to go back to Willy size clutch. Doing a clutch with the engine in the car can be a pain in the backside, especially when Williams decided to break the bolt retaining cages on the rear subframe bolts...and then when I was moving the car into the place to do the work a fuel line sprang a leak too! Just to make things even worse, as the gearbox came off I caught a brake vacuum hose and pulled it out of its special clamp thing. Argh!

Anyway, here are some pics of me having no fun doing the clutch and flywheel. Took quite a while as some of the bolts were not budging:

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New Flywheel

New clutch and cover:

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See the bolts holding the cover on? They turned out to be too small. The people that made the flywheel had used a bolt one size bigger! I kept thinking the bolts were mis-threading and started to panic I'd damaged the flywheel threads. I finally tried a bolt I had in a set from Halfords. Thank God I had them as they fit perfectly! Hooray! I was one short so I had to veeerry carefully hacksaw another one which was a bit longer, but exactly the same otherwise. I did not want to imbalance the flywheel.

The day before the trackday I was still not finished on the Willy and I was running out of puff. I decided to halt work on the track car and just focus on the 182. The only thing I had to sort out was the blowing joint on the CAT. I decided to just rip the bugger out and put the decat on I had also bought off Ebay :) Ok, so it's not MOT friendly but it sounds a load better and I know for sure the engine feels much keener to rev and dole out MROE POEWRRRRR!!!!! Which it needed, as the 182 was now going to be the trackcar! I was gutted I couldn't take the Willy, but taking the 182 was a lot less stressful and muuuuch better on fuel.

I got to Bedford the night before, only to find a bunch of Mk1's and loud persons from Clio16Valver in the car park at 11pm :D

I had a couple of beers and said hi to several Mk1 pals, then went to bed.

What can I say? The trackday went really well, and the 182 seriously surprised me, and put a big smile on my face :) I put it through it paces and had a great time doing it. I stuck on my Willy trackday wheels with R888's as well, which helped.

I took out three or so passengers, all of whom were likewise impressed:


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The M3 got rolled at the start of the first session :(

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Palmer Motorsport garage...yummy!

The Mk1's were going really well, and I am a little peeved at not having the Williams with me, but nevermind!

So the 182 surprised a few people, including myself, at its pace and grip. It still rolls a lot compared to a track car but that just makes it more fun if I am honest and I wasn't there to set lap records or race people.

I think the front bearings are starting to hum a bit, so they will get sorted before long. Fortunately, I have a 20ton press for this sort of thing as the Williams chews bearings for breakfast!

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More to come...
 
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GrahamS

ClioSport Club Member
  335d
That flywheel a TTV one? Such great pieces of engineering to look at.

Think they are apex, known for being a little crashy. Sure the knocking isn't the rear bumpstops bottoming out?

Decat makes a huge difference. I'm sure you'll run with it all the time bar that 1 day a year!

Bet that guy in the m3 was gutted. Looks like a nice one too!

Good updates matey :)
 
  Clio Williams & 182
That flywheel a TTV one? Such great pieces of engineering to look at.

Think they are apex, known for being a little crashy. Sure the knocking isn't the rear bumpstops bottoming out?

Decat makes a huge difference. I'm sure you'll run with it all the time bar that 1 day a year!

Bet that guy in the m3 was gutted. Looks like a nice one too!

Good updates matey :)

Yep! TTV indeed well spotted :)

The springs are shorter and they are not particularly firmer than OEM so it could be bottoming out...no biggie as I will replace them fairly soon anyway and I actually quite like the roll rather than mental stiffness like my Williams...the Willy has to be really 'on it' to get feedback like this and to drive it hard on the road is virtually impossible to do safely nowadays with our crappy traffic. I actually did not notice any knocking when on track...maybe the helmet helped hehe.

Yes, the decat has really helped. I guess I will have to put the CAT on again soon for MOT :(

Thanks for the feedback :)
 
  Clio Williams & 182
So, French Car Show 2014 tomorrow. A burst of rain in the morning then sunshine.

I had to clear up some issues with the Williams, I had a fuel line go bad and leak, so I replaced it...then the other went as well in the same place!! So I got a bunch more braided hose. The stuff is a PITA when used with Aeroquip stuff as the wires get everywhere. There is a knack to it, which I forgot then remembered.

Of course the Williams has totally screwed geometry after the gearbox work so I've had to fiddle with it no end. Negative camber was mental on one side and not the other, and one side towed in, the other out...bah. Mostly sorted now!

I have not cleaned the Williams in months, and never the 182 since ownership. They both got TWO mega washes this week. Spoilt Clio's!

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The 182 anthracite wheels need a refurb. Something to do later. After being on the R888's at Bedford, I gave the 182 some stick on standard road tyres and it was a very amusing experience, I could push hard in the bends but I felt the rear going light and slipping out nice and easily...very controllable. I don't get that in the Williams as I always run it low and with super sticky tyres, so it's fun to feel that again :)

Anyway, have fun all at FCS. I will take the Williams tomorrow for the WC stand as usual.
 
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  Clio Williams & 182
Ye! Thanks :D

The Williams came with me to FCS today, where it sat looking good, come rain or shine, next to my mates V6:

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Fun fun :)
 
  Clio Williams & 182
So...not had an update in a while but that's not because I've not been working on cars at all. Quite the contrary!

The 182 needed to get MOT'd, and with the sunny weather and me now unemployed, I turned my attention to a few jobs with it.

Firstly, I wanted my reverse light to work, which was picked up in the advisory on the previous MOT before the track day. I tried new bulbs, but alas, no joy. After this I tested the sensor on the gearbox, located on the bottom section of the 'box in the nearside front arch. I used a split pin to bridge the plug terminals and, voila! I HAD REVERSE LIGHTS! So, an unusual fault which in all my years working on JC5's I've never seen before. I had jacked the car up on the passenger side high enough to stop box fluid pouring out. YOU DO NOT NEED TO DRAIN THE GEARBOX TO REPLACE THE SENSOR!!! When I undid the sensor it fell apart:

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I have a spare JC5 which was rebuilt a few years ago. It might actually be a JB3 but tbh I am not bothered as I am what some might call mechanically sympathetic with my gear changing unlike some of my fellow track day pals...so anyway, I used the Mk1 sensor and although it appeared to be longer it works absolutely fine. Another issue fixed for nothing...garages would charge some silly amount to have found and fixed it.

Whilst I was down there, another advisory was play from the inner track rods. To be honest, it was not noticeable when driving. I checked the car a few weeks ago and there was no play in the driver side but a tiny bit on the passenger side. The MOT guy at Halfords is known to be veery strict, but as he is a performance car nut himself I don't mind for things like this. These cars need to be tip-top as they get driven hard. I had ordered some inner and outer rods ages ago and decided now was a great time to do them. Some of you may know, inner rods are a pain in the butt to do. So hard to get off! However, having done them before I had a special tool which turns hours of work and swearing into a few moments of work:

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Don't know what it is? Learn.

Offside done:

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Nearside done:

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I had noted a load of old oil coated to the sump and bottom of the gearbox. This was from an old oil leak, fixed before I got the car. I later jetwashed the oil catch bottom engine cover and all the crappy oil off the parts below. Nice and shiny now!

As I had fitted the decat, I removed it and re-fitted the CAT. At the same time I ran the car with me under it to ascertain if there were exhaust blows. There was a a bad one from the CAT to mid section, but with a clamp I had spare and some adjustment I got rid of it entirely! Yay!

I refitted the post-lambda as well. With it unplugged it gave me emission warnings, so these are now gone as well :)

Unfortunately, when fixing the damn blowing mid section I inadvertently messed u pthe alignment of the rear tailpipes so I had to readjust these. Took AGES! The rear exhaust mounts are a known shitty weak point, so I have had to use cable ties. No big deal, and they will hold and pass MOT.

I also had a load of spare plastic rivets. They are the same as the Mk1's, so I replaced some of the worn ones on the inner wheel arches:

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Gave the inner arches a clean too. They were quite fresh anyway, so not much work needed.

So, I booked the car in for MOT and it passed. WITH NO ADVISORIES! Excellent result. Not some pikey garage either but Halfords who always fail me on all my cars for trivial crap. They handed me the MOT sheet, and rather than the usual list of issues, he just said: Yea, nice car.

:D

I had a great drive home. Handles brilliantly as I've already said. With the CAT on it feels torqueier slightly at lower RPM, but obviously this limits the BHP a bit.

After the MOT I popped the front bumper off and fitted the Skoda Fabia splitter. I also pulled out the leaking Xenon washers and put the carbon washer covers on...pics to follow ;)
 
  Clio Williams & 182
As an aside...I might have to sell the 182. I don't want too as using the Williams as a daily car when I get back to work will really suck. The thing is, now being unemployed, I have to ensure the mortgage is paid. When I bought it the car was perhaps a £1600/1700 car, but with all the major work done, even at 122k it's a reliable, economical car...and very quick. It just needs a bit of bodywork now.

If I get back to work and a decent wage, then it will not be sold...I hope not.
 
  2005 Clio 182


Did you manage to get the Lambda sensor out of the cat? I struggled so left it out when fitting the decat - consumption went through the roof and hit 9mpg at idle. I would love to fit the decat but the whole stuck-sensor-thing is annoying me.
 

Daz.

ClioSport Club Member
  Clio 200 RS EDC
Didn't even notice you had this Wobsta!



Looks pretty good next to TAC - although I know which I prefer ;) about time a decent willy came up for sale - all the ones I see these days are s**t boxes.
 
  Clio Williams & 182
Did you manage to get the Lambda sensor out of the cat? I struggled so left it out when fitting the decat - consumption went through the roof and hit 9mpg at idle. I would love to fit the decat but the whole stuck-sensor-thing is annoying me.

Yes, I did. I have a 21/23 double ended ring spanner, which if you unplug the connector and loop through the ring on the 23mm all the way to the sensor you can get the buggers off. I had to push one end of the ring spanner with my leg as my arm-power didn't cut it!
 
  Clio Williams & 182
Didn't even notice you had this Wobsta!



Looks pretty good next to TAC - although I know which I prefer ;) about time a decent willy came up for sale - all the ones I see these days are s**t boxes.

Hehe! Yep. I own a 182. It's a great car and I am impressed with the MPG too. I think I will give it a really good clean tomorrow and get some snaps whilst we have such great weather.

Of course the Williams is more of an event to drive, but if I had spent as much time and money with the 182 as with the Williams it would be a monster of a car.

There seem to be less and less Williams about for sale nowadays and prices are rising.
 
  Clio Williams & 182
Nice work so far mate

Williams looks good

When you replaced the rear discs, where these in place/refitted:

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/show...cer-that-go-behind-rear-discs-on-Clio-172-182

These were already there! Looked fine so I popped them back in. Not the same on Mk1's, so wasn't sure which way round to put back in but I checked the other side just to make sure :)

Thanks everyone!

I had really hoped not to be in a bit of a pickle at the moment but it looks very likely I will have to sell this car. I've got a couple of updates to write up first and I did manage to get a couple of pics after fitting front end stuff and fixing a misfire too (caused by my own stupid self I think!). Will write up separately...
 
  Clio Williams & 182
Track day rubber on 2118's.
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IMG_20181020_124755


New 225 Meg injectors. I'll send the old ones off for cleaning.
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IMG_20181018_135928


Power steering pressure sensor has an intermittent issue. Sometimes stalls when at low rpm and hard on the steering. New one on the way.
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IMG_20181016_203453

Sufficient, home made downpipe. Might replace it as it knocks, but it is beefy so may just try and adjust it off the turbo where the mikalor clamp thing is:
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IMG_20181016_190049

Got new rear motorsport lightweight exhaust mount fitted after cracking the old one trying to fit Powerflex Black ones...
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IMAG0077



44292783215_adecc8ec53_k.jpg
IMAG0078 by Dan Mumford, on Flickr

For when Wobbamobile needs a top-up. Only the best for my cars:
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IMAG0073

The mount I took off was almost brand new, but as there is extra turbo piping banging about on stuff I adjust how the engine sits a tiiiny bit and fitted a new main mount from K-tec.
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IMAG0066

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IMAG0060

Found a minor air leak in the brake vacuum line. Used a new pneumatic push fit item to sort that :) Perffeccct fit.
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IMAG0059

Skirts have been pushed out a bit due to grounding out on the sills...tut tut. Not to bad to sort though and the sills themselves are nothing like as bad as a Mk1 Clio would get :D
45131972362_5c1cfae535_k.jpg
IMAG0051

Always the same with Clio's and many other cars...so much muck in the sills...weight saving pikey style :D
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IMAG0053

Hmmm...so, no front splitter :( I think one used to be fitted as there are holes there still from an OEM fitment. Can just see the Polybush dogbone I fitted the previous week in the background:
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IMAG0062

I phoned the Skoda Gods, and they answered my prayers:
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IMAG0061

Handy tip. See down the square recess, that bolt? It holds the counterweight, solid lump of metal that makes the car heavier for suspension geometry reasons. there is an even bigger one on the Mk1 valver and Williams. You don't need it. It's heavy. Undo bolt, hold the weight before it falls anywhere and draw it out...then sell to the local pikeys at metal recycle place.
45201965101_9799a1ebb6_k.jpg
IMAG0056

Perfect...errr... :D
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IMAG0064

Ok...a better pic...little lotus needs love too soon. Got these Rhino mounts off some Russian dude, thought I would get scammed or be radioactive, but they arrived and are great :)
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IMAG0070 by

Yey! All done.

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IMAG0076https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/
 
  Clio Williams & 182
So, since owning the car there has been an issue with it stalling. The seller of the car mentioned it to me and had had a garage try and figure it out, to no avail.

I noticed it generally got worse when hot and on bends, and with heavy standstill use of the power steering.

I assumed at first they were all caused by the same thing, but instead it turned out to be more than one issue making it hard to diagnose what was wrong.

So, the power loss on fast right bends. I tested the car with stability on and off and with low fuel and max fuel. It didn't happen with max fuel in the tank so it was obvious this was fuel starvation/surge. This is a lot more common on modified cars with uprated fuel pumps and where they have their fueling route messed with, like mine. The increased amount of fuel sucked by the pump depletes the swirl and/or fuel sender thing much quicker, and often if there is a fuel return installed it is just spraying back to the main tank and not the pickup for the fuel pump.

I bought another sender unit and modified the top so I could re route the poor job of the previous fuel return. It came with a OE fuel pump and I had my suspicions the 'uprated' pump was not working properly as well. I think the OE pump can handle the fueling for this low boost setup (just) so I fitted that with my modified sender unit, which has a return pipe inside which feeds the pickup for the pump. Much better :)

I made a bit of a booboo with the fuel sender, which will show itself later, but after redoing the modified pump setup I decided to fit my new track day wheels. These are wider tyres than stock, and the offset of the wheels means the arches are much better filled:

43704947410_31c6045cd3_k.jpg
IMG_20181023_164354https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

I also fitted three new Bosch mini relays just in case part of my issue was ignition...and because having spare relays is always good. The pink one is also a working replacement.

I asked some of my mates from the Mk1 gang what some of the plugs were that seemed to be unplugged....seems they are just aircon and bonnet sensor. This car has no air con anymore:

30506833777_6e4c257246_k.jpg
IMG_20181020_132248https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

Whilst fitting the wheels I loosened the Mikalor clamp on the turbo>downpipe joint so I could twist the DP away from the engine, as it was knocking and was pissing me off! The DP was made by the owner before last, he was the one that did the turbo conversion. It was knocking, but this adjustment has sorted that :) Looking at the job he did, it's not bad at all and the whole exhaust system is very solid. I am used to Mk1's where blowing joints are all to common!

The Lotus had some TLC as well in the shape of a fresh battery and trickle charger. I also fitted a new Elise Parts lightweight windscreen wiper and made my own decal for the end of the 4 fin rear diffuser :) The pics are on my other phone though and I've just got a Huewai P20 Pro, which is awesome at taking pics, plus I am sure you Clio guys and girls DGAF about a trackday Elise :)

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IMG_20181023_164425https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

So, with that lot done:

43704950970_bf33454988_k.jpg
IMG_20181023_164437https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

Fired the Clio up and straight away it seemed happier. Once the air had cleared from the fuel lines it just settled perfectly. Much better throttle response pre-turbo kicking in and far happier at slow speeds. I had also tested the power steering pump pressure sensor and it was working but so dirty it was needing a clean and temporarily holding in with a cable tie. I have ordered two spares, which should arrive soon. Doing that solved the issue of stalling when manoeuvring.

So, with that lot done it needed a test drive down some of these wonderful Cornish B-Roads :D Well, what can I say? It was fast before but felt like it was holding back and coming off throttle felt like it was engine braking much more than it should. I wasn't sure if that was map related or a mechanical issue...now I know it was the fuel pump and possibly the poor fuel return and injectors. With that lot fixed...wow...I was having to be very careful because the power and torque increase was a decent bit more than before and with the new wheels being wider it tramlines and torque steers more. Not an issue for trackdays really, and torquesteer can be funny...but not on super tight roads where you can't see around bends!

So...happy? Fuk yea! It goes very well indeed and is not too much as it is a simple low boost conversion. Sometimes, too much power can ruin a car and it gets relegated to only being used on those special days.

As I said before, I did make a booboo...I've changed pumps and stuff before but never had an issue with the fuel sender sealing nut. I think when I changed the senders over I left the fuel exposed too long with the cap off and it has deformed the tank a bit. I had a new clamp nut to go on but it took ages to twist down and on my way home from the awesome B-Road blast i smelt petrol. I checked the rail and other stuff, but they were fine...then the top of the fuel pump...loads of petrol :( I tried very hard to get the top on again...but no way was it going on. I had to leave the Clio at my Uncles and drive his spare Audi home to get another sender clamp nut thing, and that didn't fit either...

31711704008_46b5804374_k.jpg
IMG_20181027_142133https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/
Badass ;)

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IMG_20181027_143730https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

Went back and soaked up the excess fuel and tried with a genuine OEM ring, still no joy. So I got the bugger as tight as I could even though it was mis-threaded and got it home. Drive very well even like this and no more stalling :D

So, I'll either try heating the sender clamp thing nut and fitting it that way (bowl of boiling water or something) or drop the tank and replace the whole bloody thing. I might even just put a full on motorsport fuel tank in with swirlpot.

Another little adventure I had was to drive 600 miles on a roundtrip to the Legendary, Mr Mat Brown in the ever faithful DCi Megane. I picked up a whole RS 182 interior so I can get rid of these RX-8 seats and poverty spec rear seats, plus inner splash guards...I thought this pic would turn out better...but you can see some stuff in the back...plus my strangely amusing 'Doge Drives' sticker:

44608070635_724e8e57af_z.jpg
IMG_20181023_164458https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

So...more next week. Another road trip adventure is planned as I take on yet another Clio Mk2 project...
 
  Clio Williams & 182
Small update.

I managed to get the sealing nut on the fuel tank after heating it up, BUUUT...today I filled it to the brim again as I made the long journey in terrible weather conditions to a Clio day at Surrey Rolling Road. There is still a slight issue with sealing the fuel tank as it leaked a bit again, no way as bad as before though. I now have a spare fuel tank so next week I will remove the old one, which must have warped a bit.

I also had an intermittent alternator issue, so I get to put a new one in next week (I've had to replace the alternator in every Clio I have owned in the last 15 years...ffs) and change the front outer CV boots. After this I think the car is basically complete, apart from refitting the interior and possibly swapping the springs to Cooksports.

On another note, last week I went on an adventure to pick up another car:

45668713062_2ed5b5ec2e_k.jpg
IMG_20181103_120447https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

Can you guess what it is yet?

If not, here is another clue:

31858133518_865bb96e00_k.jpg
IMG_20181105_102214https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

Correct! It is a Clio 182 Trophy!

I picked the car up and drove it back, it goes really well and feels more solid than the RB in terms of interior. The trendline recaro's are yummy :)

But, as with almost all Clio's I've owned, they don't come without drama and I had a tyre blowout on the way back home. It took RAC 20 hours to get me back, but I made it.

I had a good look over the Trophy and started to do some tests and give it some TLC. There are various areas which need addressing like the usual faded red plastics so common on red cars, and the wheels need repairing/refurbishing. As you can see, I have some new remote dampers to go on as well. I needs a good service, and I will probably do the HG and belts and a full service. It also needs a new ABS sensor and a really good tarting up, so a trip to the bodyshop is in order.

43877824930_604698a6ac_k.jpg
IMG_20181103_120532https://www.flickr.com/photos/27957459@N04/

So, lots to be getting on with. If I sort the Turbo out, I may sell it to get the Williams out of storage and onto the roads again and fund the Trophy project too.

To be continued...
 


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