Hill Climbing Clio - Cheeriotaefuck 06/09/24

[320touring]

Went up to Clio Stu's last night to get the door handles and oil sensor issues fixed.

Driver's door handle needed a new clip and new rod that actuates the lock - both were plenty rusty. That didn't take long.

The passenger side required similar,  but whilst riveting the clip on, the handle snapped.

New handle/rod/clip then.

You can see the clip arrangement here..

 

Old

New (clip came off this handle and was fitted to mine)

You can see they are a pretty flimsy design..

 

Onto the oil light issue then. A decision was taken to replace both the oil level and oil pressure sensors. A relatively straightforward job.

The oil/stop light has yet to re-materialise, so fingers crossed.

 

I then hung about and helped remove an engine 

 

About 10.50pm, I decided to head home.

a new record for the Clio reset button. (As operated by @Jim Bell )

Drove 3 mins to the bottom of his road, and the clamp for the cat converter failed, so exhaust was completely separated.

Had to go back, put it on the ramp and replace the clamp.

And so it goes!

[Jim Bell]

[Jim Bell]

[cort16]

On the plus side you were in the right place for a Clio exhaust malfunction. 

[Crackers]

Lord that sounds good. 

[320touring]

Busy old weekend for this..

On Saturday it had a good 320 mile round trip up north. Claimed 40.2mpg. @Tickman joined me for the jaunt and a most pleasant trip was had.

 

Then on Sunday, I was off to Forrestburn for another shot of slinging it up the hill.

It wasn't super busy so I managed to blag a fair few runs, and get plenty of helpful advice off some veterans.

Smol french cars flock together

That 106 sounded fucking GLORIOUS.

So do birds of a feather

The blue one has a bazillion upgrades, sounds ace and upheld the theory that the more Clios there are the lower the reliability percentage would be.😁

It was driven in, parked up for 30 mins and then wouldn't start sue to a flat battery🤣

My GPS recorder was not working consistently, but I did manage to update the track map to have more checkpoints, so it was a bit more accurate.

Despite not recording properly all the time, I managed a  57.54 second run.

The 1.33 was the sighting lap ( slow, steady and sensible)

The 1.41 was me giving the blue Clio owner a lift to the hairpin marshal station to take his turn.

 

All in all, almost 400miles covered at almost 37.1mpg indicated.

I used just over a full 10gallon tank (I lobbed 10L on the way to the hill to avoid running out)

 

All in all FUGGIN BRILLIANT

[320touring]

After the fun of blasting up the hill, I decided to treat this to an oil change @185026 miles.

One of these filters is for a slow revving 2.0 2v/cyl lump making 129bhp. The other is for a high revving 2.0 4v/cyl engine making 182bhp.

Can you guess which is which? That's right. The tiny one is for the Clio. It's the same filter and location as on @loserone' 1.6 diesel express. #HERITAGE

As I am always super organised, I managed to cobble together 3.5L of 5w30 and 1L of 5w40.

Either way it sounds happier and the dephaser is a bit quieter..

 

Later on in the week or got to pretend to be a Kangoo - 2.4m of wood in the car, and the boot shuts. Practical lil fuckers.

[loserone]

8 minutes ago, 320touring said:

It's the same filter and location as on @loserone' 1.6 diesel express. #HERITAGE

It's literally how I chose my last two purchases, since I accidentally bought one of those which didn't fit the Duster 

[320touring]

Great * News!

Got in the Clio for the first time driving it since coming back from New Zealand. The Burd had used it last week, no issues.

Lumpy start from cold ( it does that). 300m down the road, flashing EML.

Cyl 3 misfire.

Went home and got another car.

Clios, gotta love them

 

[320touring]

Been in the huff with this for a while😂

I resolved to get it sorted during the Xmas break, so duly ordered up 4 injectors.

It takes about 10mins to pull the injectors out and get the new ones swapped on. Mainly due to the large volume of practice I have had..

Old ones out

New ones in

The next thing on the list was freeing off the rear brakes as they had stuck on after sitting for 2 months.

The mud provided little resistance, so I forced the car out onto the tarmac and rolled it back and forth. 

Took it out a test drive. Only things left to fix for an MOT are

Back brakes - free off fully and get handbrake working.

Headlights - need polishing

SERV/ABS/TC light on the dash - likely the steering angle sensor.

Plus, obviously, whatever Clio Stu finds...😂

[AnnoyingPentium]

On 21/08/2023 at 19:45, 320touring said:

Smol french cars flock together

That wee 106 is local to me! Think it belongs to the fella who has the garage in the village.

[320touring]

Took this for an MOT on Wed last week.

 

Bastard, especially as I've done the rear brakes - looks like the pivot at the handbrake lever is the issue.

 

Got it to the unit today, and had a quick look

Exhaust "leak"

The pipe out the cat has rusted through - fitting a new cat would resolve, except...

The downpipe to cat joint looks ropey too. This uses flanges, so would need to fit a new one to the downpipe,as there is NO WAY I'm attempting to pull the downpipe off!

Additionally, the cat would need the Lambda removed, so I would expect that to be ruined and need a new one.

The sill doesn't look the worst for welding

No doubt that will develop into a bigger job!

Lastly, some good news:

The caliper retaining bolts and the Flexi all loosened off no bother.

 

I'm away to price up bits..

[Supernaut]

Bloody hell! I know this isn't the quietest Clio but surely you would have noticed the exhaust getting a tad* louder.

[320touring]

10 minutes ago, Supernaut said:

Bloody hell! I know this isn't the quietest Clio but surely you would have noticed the exhaust getting a tad* louder.

It started to blow on the way to the MOT and failed on the ramp.

[320touring]

back on this today after procurement of new bits.

 

First up, a new caliper and pads (and caliper carrier bracket) for the front left.

All good!

 

Time for the new Car and Lambda sensor ..

@jaypee modelling what £170 buys you

 

And fitted

 

 

Brilliant, great stuff. That's the Cat and front brake sorted.  Clio Stu has done the steering angle sensor and the rear brakes. Only welding to go...

Think I'll fire it up and see how it sounds/check for any blows...

 

 

Ok, time to fire up the scanner.  And do some test driving.

On start the lights stayed off, but came on when braking.

Code reading pointed to a brake light switch issue.

Removed the switch and exercised it - got brake lights and the dash lights stayed off. Result.

New brake light switch has been ordered.

 

With the rear brakes having been rebuilt I was hoping some adjustment/checking the pivot that the cables go into would get me a functional handbrake...

 

As you can see, it went well*

The cable is siezed - so the inner cable doesn't return fully. This meant that :

1. The handbrake lever on the caliper was not actuating correctly - so the handbrake was shite.

2. The cable stopped the lever returning correctly. Hence the caliper would stay partially on.

 

time to get the cable out.

We really* enjoyed that! A new one will be ordered.

Last thing to look at was the welding needed on the driver's side rear.

After an initial prod with a screwdriver..

 

That's a distinct lack of inner and mid sill.

Handily* next to the axle mount and the plastic fuel tank.

 

We packed up and went home.

[hairnet]

Eek

Fire

Sorted

[320touring]

Got the hand brake cable mechanism stripped down on this today.

It got cleaned up, greased and refitted. Now have a balanced handbrake functioning on both wheels.

Will get it in for an MOT after I am back my holidays 

[320touring]

Well, all my holidays were complete, so I fired this up for the trip to Stu's for an MOT..

 

Started right up and proceeded to greet me with:

Fuck.

Time to scan

It had a replacement steering angle sensor 100 miles ago..

-3280degrees. Surprised the bonnet hasn't hit the boot!

Anyway, a bit of high idle charging and a code reset put out everything bar the Right rear ABS sensor.

I drove to Stu's and got some impressive claimed MPG over the 50 miles

 

I also got to see his sunflower ph1 that has just been restored 

It assumed the position 

 

After testing, the sensor, it was determined to be guff.

 

No new sensors were in stock, so the decision was taken to fit a replacement hub and sensor.

All this fell off😜

 

The end result?

 

 

Now to decide what to do with it...

[loserone]

Drive it to Twixfest to back-to-back with a Zoë, an express, a Renault 19, a Mégane F7R and a MK1 twingo?

[FakeConcern]

That Sunflower 172 is lovely!

[320touring]

9 minutes ago, loserone said:

Drive it to Twixfest to back-to-back with a Zoë, an express, a Renault 19, a Mégane F7R and a MK1 twingo?

No chance. Still at Stu's and I've had enough of the Lochgelly train for life

[320touring]

Tomorrow we climb hills!

Today was spent at a work party for the hillclimb. I painted the start and finish poles (first coat - will likely need another)

 

I then took in the view - this is at the finish line. I never really get to see this for any length of time as I am too focused on slowing down from GLF.

 

It's astonishing how nice it is up there. Right in the middle of the central belt and surrounded by shiteholes and flytipped laybys😂

 

I did some pre climb prep - thought I'd sort out the "freshly dragged from a hedge" look, and got it hoovered out.

Lastly a wee polish of my helmet before going to bed..

[loserone]

2 minutes ago, 320touring said:

Lastly a wee polish of my helmet before going to bed

Everybody does it 

[320touring]

This did well on Sunday!

Started off with classic #cliolyfe

Yaaay EML on

There were about 23/24 cars in total - a wild mix of things.

They ALL wanted a first run

Some of the sights to be seen:

Check out this winner!

This has a 750cc reliant engine and an "Austin 7esque" chassis. Went really well, and the owner enjoyed a passenger run in the Clio. He also has a Citroen Ami electric as a daily.

 

The driver of this mini was indeed blind - the car has dual controls. I think they were braver unsighted than I was with good vision. Much respect!

 

Some selected pic of shite

This GT4 was easily the fastest off the line, and the driver certainly knew his way up the hill.

This Burton powered MK2 was the absolute tits - left the line well with a great wiggle. #childhoodmemories.

 

This tiger had a 289 small block ford and 2 cherry bombs - absolutely brilliant tunes from it. The owner hot lapped it - no rest at all and it took it really well

Other assorted tat

 

How did I get on?

Pretty pleased with that - quicker than the last time. Most laps seemed to be in the 59-61 second bracket. I got to lap 15 and nearly binned the car at the top of the first rise. Doing about 60mph and the back end stopped out, so I had to loosen the steering and do a spot of grass cutting. 

At that point I decided to head home!

I wasn't trying too hard, honest..that's Kerb paint on the sidewall.

 

Lastly, a filthy, smelly hovel plus a porta cabin toilet.

 

Now I need to find 15" wheels and get new tyres as those Toyos from the first post are finally down to the wear bars...

[gm]

good to see you’re finally getting some runs up the hill - was this a trackday or competition ? 

the wee clio looks great, and that kerb paint in the side wall  

[gm]

3 hours ago, 320touring said:

Now I need to find 15" wheels and get new tyres as those Toyos from the first post are finally down to the wear bars...

i can’t remember but are mx5 / bini wheels the same fitment ? could potentially widen your choice 

[320touring]

That's it selt ...

Clio Stu was the daft laddie

 

It's awa to live on a farm on the back of this fine rig