Sporty's 172. Snagging and tinkering.

[tom13]

3 hours ago, dome said:

Welcome to the world of small, temperamental, fast, grin inducing Renault vans hatchbacks!

 

Apart from a tuned PD Caddy I can't think of a newer small van I would rather have. Quality.

[alcyonecorporation]

I would interview sportyshite again about his Clio 182 experiences but Modern Classics doesn't exist any more, nor do I work for the company that produced it. 

Boss purchase, mind. 

[sporty-shite]

On 4/28/2022 at 11:45 PM, alcyonecorporation said:

I would interview sportyshite again about his Clio 182 experiences but Modern Classics doesn't exist any more, nor do I work for the company that produced it. 

Boss purchase, mind. 

Brief claim to fame! 

[sporty-shite]

So, some brief tinkering has commenced. 

Yesterday, I thought I'd have a quick check under the bonnet  and try to find what might get the speedo working again. I'd read that the early cars had a cable speedo, and rhe gearbox that had been out into this washing electronic drive, so I thought I'd do a bit of digging. 

First problem.  Bastard bonnet wouldn't open. Not many pictures, but suffice to say, I couldn't get any access from outside. So, bumper off....... Nothing. Up on ramps to see if I could get in from underneath.  Still nothing. Ripped the grilles off, unfortunately breaking them in two. Still couldn't get to the cable, but ended up getting the mechanism off the underside of the bonnet to lift it. 

Cable had come off the catch   so a simple fix, and a bit of a tweak to the lever to prevent it coming off again, and it was all good. 

 

So, bumper back on, and off the ramps.  Used some timber to lessen the slope, seeing as it's quite low. However,  not enough. Should have put the bumper on after it came off the ramps. Actually did have to put the bumper on after incase off the ramps, because this happened.....

 

[sporty-shite]

Emboldened* by my success, I decided I'd give the headlights a quick polish. This occurred prior to me ripping the bumper off, I hasten to add! 

Before...

 

After. Not perfect by any means, but a fair improvement.  

 

Also, what it was up on the ramps, I thought I'd have a look at the exhaust. The advert said it was a bit of a home made thing.  Pleasantly surprised to see this isn't the case. Its got a neat little silencer where the cat was,and what looks to be a standard centre section, finishing with an awful chav cannon. 

The centre rubber had broken, so I had to improvise whilst I find the proper support,which bolts straight to the body.  I'm not proud to say I cable tied it, but needs must! 

[sporty-shite]

On the drive home,  I noticed it was running a bit cool, so I thought it would be prudent to change the thermostat. For the sake of a fiver and a trip to Euro,  I didn't see the point in not doing. 

Five minutes of a job gave me a gauge sitting nicely on the halfway mark. 

Back to the speedo, and I'd noticed that the needle flicked when I turned the ignition off, telling me it was an electronic unit. Haf a dig around under the bonnet  and found a disconnected plug right near where the speed sensor should be. Dug a bit more,and found the hole in the box where the sensor should be. Not lucky enough to be a plug in fix, but sensors are £7.99 on the bay, so I've ordered one in the hope of a quick fix. 

 

[320touring]

Must have been the weekend for bonnet latch issues. Yours got all the close, mine got all the open! Re-greasing made it work again.

 

Good job on the headlights!

 

I've never done a thermostat on one of these - is it a simple job?

[sporty-shite]

Final fix of the day was the air filter. A big carbon fibre thing, that looked to be sucking air from right behind the radiator. Hot air isn't good, eh? 

Had a root, and found the indictable pipe I took off the TT because the breathers were knackered. 

Initial plan was to extend the intake  and put the filter between the battery and headlight, so it was in a cold area. However it was nowhere near fitting. 

But then, I realised. This filter was a canister with foam internals and a sort of "trumpet" on the end. Just the right size to attach a piece of intake, which was directed towards the back of the headlight, and conveniently fitted into the hole where the standard intake draws from (i presume) . So, refitted all this, and hopefully it'll make a little bit of difference.

Trumpet end of filter, with Renaultsport colour cable tie!  

End of intake going behind headlight. 

[sporty-shite]

8 minutes ago, 320touring said:

I've never done a thermostat on one of these - is it a simple job?

Absolute piece of piss. Right at the front of the engine. Literally five minutes of a job, three bolts, housing off, swap stats and back on. 

[320touring]

15 minutes ago, sporty-shite said:

Absolute piece of piss. Right at the front of the engine. Literally five minutes of a job, three bolts, housing off, swap stats and back on. 

Nice one cheers! Neither needs doing just now, but now I know it's a simple job that's grand

[sporty-shite]

Done a bit more messing today. The small jobs are sometimes the best, like changing the battery in the fob to make the central locking work. Strip of batteries from the pound shop, and we're away!

However, the speedo issue is a bit more complicated. I found a mystery wire, and twigged that the car had an electronic speedo. So, I gambled on buying a sensor, seeing as I'd found a sensor-shaped hole in the box.  The sensor arrived today, so I thought I'd stick it on the car. Easy. So I thought. 

Anyway, connected the sensor. Spun it, and the speedo needle shot up. Promising. Now to put it into it's little hole.  Nope. Doesn't fit. 

After a bit of googling, it appears that the JC5-130 box that this car has, doesn't have a speedo drive.  Apparently, the 182s that this box comes from has the speedo driven from the ear ABS sensor. The general consensus is that you can either have the box modified to accept a speedo drive or can just use a sat nav/app etc. 

I really wanted to get it back on a speedo, so I'm a bit disappointed. However, I started thinking whether it would be possible to somehow splice a signal from the ABS, and run it to the speedo pickup. I thought maybe our resident electronics expert @cobblersmay have an idea about this. 

Otherwise, I've had a message back from Stu, @320touring's tame Clio fettler, who I bought the car off. He's got a set of standard springs, standard exhaust and 172 steering wheel. Just waiting back for prices. Hopefully, it won't be a fortune and I can get it a bit more comfortable. 

[sporty-shite]

A bit more tinkering occurred today. 

I wasn't really happy with how loud and low this thing was,  so I procured some standard bits from the tame Clio fettler known as Stu. 

With good weather and a day off, I began. 

First off, I got rid of the nasty big chav cannon. Also replaced my cable tied centre mount with a good second hand one from the large parcel of goodies that had found their way south of the border. 

From then, it was onto the suspension. Everything was easy  as Stu had told me he'd swapped the suspension onto this car, so there were no seized bolts etc.

Rear standard spring.....

Front back to standard

 

And now at a decent height  although I think it needs a run out to get those front springs to settle.

And the lowered springs, in anticipation of selling to recoup a quid or two. 

Chav cannon and home made straight through centre pipe. Also to be sold...

Then onto the steering wheel. The car had a standard (non-172) steering wheel. A proper 172 wheel was bought along with the other bits. However, with the wheel off, I discovered some wiring missing for the horn and airbag. I'll investigate this and get the bits as necessary  along with an indicator stalk, as this one doesn't self cancel, which is mildly annoying. Cleaned up the wheel and fitted it for now. 

 

 

That's all for now, but I'm sure more fettling will occur.  I need to sort the horn, get a boot mat, parcel shelf, spare wheel and toolkit, and if there's no way to sort the speedo, I'll have to hard wire some sort of GPS gadget. 

[320touring]

Great progress on this!

 

Hope you are still enjoying it?

[SiC]

On 5/4/2022 at 6:45 PM, sporty-shite said:

I really wanted to get it back on a speedo, so I'm a bit disappointed. However, I started thinking whether it would be possible to somehow splice a signal from the ABS, and run it to the speedo pickup. I thought maybe our resident electronics expert @cobblersmay have an idea about this. 

Iirc the 182 dash pulls it from the CAN bus from the ABS module. The 172 is a direct signal from the pickup as you've found. 

[sporty-shite]

59 minutes ago, SiC said:

Iirc the 182 dash pulls it from the CAN bus from the ABS module. The 172 is a direct signal from the pickup as you've found. 

That's what I thought. My problem is I have a 182 box in a 172 with 172 clocks. 

[sporty-shite]

After doing a bit of googling, I wonder if I have quite a big part missing.

I have this...

Google shows me this....

Obviously the airbag and horn wiring are missing, but it's the other part on the front of the column. II this what holds the wiring? I can't see anything that may have ben chopped, so where does it all come from? I feel like it'll only make sense if I see another car with everything "as it should be"

Anyone with more knowledge than me? 

[SiC]

Has someone chopped out the wiring to fit an aftermarket non airbag wheel?

You can code out the airbag in the wheel with a CAN CLIP to make it think there isn't one and so no light is thrown. 

[320touring]

50 minutes ago, sporty-shite said:

After doing a bit of googling, I wonder if I have quite a big part missing.

I have this...

Google shows me this....

Obviously the airbag and horn wiring are missing, but it's the other part on the front of the column. II this what holds the wiring? I can't see anything that may have ben chopped, so where does it all come from? I feel like it'll only make sense if I see another car with everything "as it should be"

Anyone with more knowledge than me? 

Looks like the steering angle sensor is missing - it's part of the traction control setup.

 

Does your car have traction control (a button on the dash to switch off?)

[SiC]

The bottom one looks like a car with traction control. That unit has a small round window (top left) that has a green flag that shows when the steering angle sensor is centred. 

[320touring]

1 minute ago, SiC said:

Has someone chopped out the wiring to fit an aftermarket non airbag wheel?

You can code out the airbag in the wheel with a CAN CLIP to make it think there isn't one and so no light is thrown. 

This could also be what has happened.

[SiC]

5 minutes ago, 320touring said:

Does your car have traction control (a button on the dash to switch off?)

51 plate I think will be too early for TCC. Not sure if it was even an option then. My 2002 172 certainly didn't have it. 

[sporty-shite]

46 minutes ago, SiC said:

Has someone chopped out the wiring to fit an aftermarket non airbag wheel?

You can code out the airbag in the wheel with a CAN CLIP to make it think there isn't one and so no light is thrown. 

I couldn't see any chopped wires anywhere. There's a strong chance that all the bags have been coded out, as the seats aren't connected up either.  Either that or the bulb has been taken out of the clocks!

[sporty-shite]

49 minutes ago, 320touring said:

Looks like the steering angle sensor is missing - it's part of the traction control setup.

 

Does your car have traction control (a button on the dash to switch off?)

I couldn't see one. 

To be honest, I'm not as bothered about the airbag as I am about the horn, although I'd rather it was all there.

On looking again, it may have a phase 1 indicator stalk, as then end has a push button.  However, this doesn't do anything either! 

I'll have to do a bit more tracing when I'm next off work.