Clio 197

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FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
Apologies in advance for a couple of mammoth posts. This is a bit historic so some elements have been copied from another thread. If anything doesn't make sense then hopefully that excuses it.

June 2010

From around Oct 08 to June 10, I was running a Ford Puma, which I did loads with, before one day just deciding that it was time to call it a day. I was about to embark on more spending, one a new LSD equipped gearbox, some paint, alcantara trimmed wheel, etc. and came to the conclusion that unless I was going to keep it for some time, then I should just put it back to standard and sell it, then use the cash for something newer and more potent.







Highlights included retrimmed Recaro's, FRP engine, 300mm front brakes, 270mm rear disc conversion, Milltek 4-2-1 with sport cat, and various detail improvements.

Fortunately my mother decided she fancied it, so I didn't put it quite back to standard, and before I knew it, I didn't have a car, other than a borrowed 1995 Clio 1.9D Bebop (with PAS!).



While the Bebop was a great little truck, it wasn't exactly an object of desire. Within about 48hrs I was desperate for something more interesting. On the Monday I missed out on a Focus RS (by about £1,500) and a 53 plate E46 330d (by £350), which I wasn't that disappointed about as it was dark green with cloth, and while it would undoubtedly have been a great car, it just didn't excite me. I managed to avoid the bid button for a couple of days, in the hope of borrowing a '99 306 GTi-6 for a few months from my best friend who is a trader, but the rotten sod sold it. I really wanted a Z4, but being June it was totally the wrong time of year, so I told my friend that I wanted something I could smoke around in for 3 months or so that wouldn't loose too much cash, and he suggested this 197, which he had just bought. Before I committed, I had a punt at a well spec'd 05 plate MCS, but it went for silly money, so I figured I might as well have a punt at this.









I bought it unseen, 06/56, 80k, 1 owner, in need of 4 wheel refurbs, various marks around the bodywork, some wear to the drivers seat, 1 key, part SH.

When I collected it, I discovered that actual spec as follows;
+ Cabasse
+ Auto climate
+ Xenons
+ Smoked rear windows

On the plus side, in addition to spec.
+ 4 x matching nearly new Yoko's
+ 3 months VED
+ Full SH, inc. belts
+ 2 keys (one needed a new battery)
+ Bodywork better than described

On the down side;
- Keyless locking button on drivers door didn't work
- Steering wheel very worn
- Star in n/s headlamp ("oh, cool, I've got xenons; oh, I have a hole in one of my xenons")
- Slight blow on exhaust
- Couple of clips broken on rear diffuser
- Wear to drivers seat
- Damage to drivers footwell carpet
- A/c was ineffective
- Missing wheel brace
- Poor door alignment (dropping)
- Spilled oil on boot mat

Initially my plans were really just to smarten the car up during my tenure with it, before possibly passing it back to my friend to retail for me when I decide I fancy something else.

Well it is about 15 months later and I still have the blue beast, here is the story so far.

Sorted the second key with a replacement battery, had the A/c regassed (in case you go non-franchise, 510g of refrigerant - Autodata didn't have that info for the 197), and cleaned the interior.

Rather embarrassingly I didn't discover the change up warning light for over a week!

Really fell for the handling very quickly, less impressed with the fuel consumption though that has improved a bit.

Here are my first pics of the car;









The bodywork had worn really well, but the interior fabrics seem very prone to pulls. Also the bolsters aren't as durable as they might be, but that seems to be the case with the Recaro's too.

Scangauge suggested water temp wasn't getting over about 75C, replaced the 'stat and things were the same, does get warming on track but is seldom over 80C.

Fitted an ITG panel from Camskill, indentified the exhaust blow as coming from a clamp between a recently replaced mid section and the rear section.

Bought another interior from CitRen for the "mint" drivers seat, also bought a used bog standard Clio wheel so I could get the original retrimmed, new wheel brace and new o/s exterior door handle. The interior when it turned up was somewhat less than "mint" but was better than what I had. Changing the drivers seat was a bit of a faff as I had to swap the Cabasse bracket over, which is rivetted in place.

While the seat was out, I decided to have a go at plumbing in Parrot MKi9200 - I was trying to fit it without removing the dash centre trim, this is do'able but you could do with very small hands, and long, thin, bendy arms! This was not the last time I wired in the Parrot; I later did a much better job, removed glovebox, removed centre dash trim and connected to ISO plugs behind the dash rather than running a long ISO plug extension lead to the drivers seat. Wired the line-out from the Parrot directly into one of the plugs on the Cabasse stereo so the Parrot works via the Aux in.

Got the exhaust blow sorted (for the first time) at the same time as the new stat, just a case of cleaning up the clamp and refitting with some sealant.

Also fitted a boot tray, used boot mat (could not get the oil out of the old one, no matter what I did), and a used low mileage gear knob (stitching was coming out on the old one).

Discovered I was missing an anti-rattle clip from the drivers side caliper, easy to sort but £25-30 just for new caliper pins and a clip.

Fitted silver indicator bulbs front, rear, and side repeaters.

When I received the replacement headlamp two of the mounting / locating clips are broken, fortunately the seller was excellent, gave me a significant discount so glued the clips back on and touch wood it has been fine.

Apparently the 197 mats are no longer available from Renault, but I found a new, genuine set on eBay at a good price. Also bought a genuine Renault boot net.

Carl from dentvanish [think he is doing his own thing now, top guy though], did an excellent job on some dents on both the Clio and my wife's CR-V. Unfortunately to get to one of the rears, I had to remove one of the quarter panels, which was an awful job! Plus I noticed that when you fold the seats, the headrests catch on the hinge loop bit, pulling the fabric, which is very poor design.

Changed the drivers door handle, which was a bit awkward, but I suspect if I had to do it again, it would take less time.

Time for a few pics, these are just some tit bits, the car is still very grubby and badly needs a wash;

Parrot kit display;



Controller;



Wiring into glovebox;



RenaultSport registration plates;



Cabasse rear speaker grilles;



Tidy boot!



Finally, the little car got a wash;





scrubs up quite well!

Bodywork isn't in a bad state, considering the mileage, clayed a couple of bits and they came up well. Only thing that annoyed me was that it appears the leading edge of the drivers door has been catching the wing ever so slightly. The panel gap at the trailing edge of the door is much larger than at the leading edge, on both sides.

Fitted a charging cradle for my Blackberry, and got my RS mats in too.

Initially the phone cradle wasn't hard wired, just fitted it using a cigar lighter power adaptor, hence the trailing wires.

Phone cradle


First attempt at restraining the floor mats with velcro; self-adhesive velcro on the rear of the drivers floor mat; if I was doing it again, the bit at the very end of the mat, near the pedals, would be put somewhere else - I had forgotten how far the plastic heel pad goes.


Interior, showing mats and phone bracket


July 2010

I was getting sick of my nasty wheel, so I decided to swap it with the standard Clio rubber wheel, so I could get the original retrimmed.

Pics! Not necessarily in a good order;

















I didn't swap the cruise switches over as that would necessitate removing the horn switch, and I couldn't work out how to get them off!

Note the logo on the black cruise control plug;



Fitted the replacement N/S headlamp, having agreed a deal with the seller and bonded the clips back on. This was not a hugely straightforward job;

N/s arch liner off (struggled with some of the clips), bumper off, so far, so good, headlamp out, still looking good, swapped the height adjust motor, feeling very proud of myself, swapped over bulbs, etc. then took it back to the car, and spotted that I had managed to scratch the new headlamp while changing everything over. To say I was cross, was an understatement!

Anyhow, I plugged it in, and everything worked, which was a plus. Then spotted that there is a bumper support fitted to the original headlamp, which was riveted on. Riveted on? Did Renault not expect the headlamp to have to be changed at some point? Anyhow, drilled out the two rivets, swapped them over, refitted bumper, struggled with the o/s arch mounting bolt, but got it all sorted eventually. What a lot of work just to change a damn headlamp!

Fortunately scratches weren't that deep, barely waved the Plastex bottle at them and bingo, it actually looks like a brand new headlamp, rather than a brand new scratched headlamp. Huge sigh of relief!



Got the retrimmed wheel back;













Overall I was (and remain) really pleased with it, there are a couple of small creases, but for £145 I am not complaining. If nothing else, it is unique!

Gave the car a wash - the rear diffuser is massive! Also cleaned the engine bay;









Engine bay is by no means perfect, but looks a lot better than it did. Annoyingly I couldn't find my ITG stickers - I put them somewhere safe when I fitted the filter, I just don't know where (and they still haven't turned up)!

More progress

+ RenaultSport tax disc holder
+ Repaired o/s headlamp wash - the valve inside had blocked, but I didn't find this out until I had put the airline on it, and split part of the hose - d'oh!
+ Replaced all three wiper blades with new Valeo parts, same as OE
+ Fitted ITG stickers on the air filter housing and battery cover (ITG kindly sent me some more)
+ Fitted a set of used anthacite wheels, with Conti tyres, they are by no means perfect, but now I have a spare set, so I could get the others refurbished. At this stage I was actually preferring silver, but that was before the red brakes came along.











Received a bag for the spare wheel, it is a touch big, but was quite cheap and looks quite tidy.

Very little room in the boot with the storage tray and the full size spare wheel;





Apologies for the rubbish pics, camera on my blackberry isn't that bad, except in low light. Storage tray was later relegated to the loft.

August 2010

At a bit of a loose end so I decided to remove my diffuser and try to repair the clips; when I got the car, the diffuser wasn't level, and it appeared that some of the clips on one side might be broken.

Found a guide, removed the two torx screws, then proceeded to shear off one of the captive retaining bolts at the front, which then meant that I had to get the other one off two so I could actually remove the thing, so that one got sheared off too.

Removed the diffuser and found all of the clips at least partly intact, but many were folded down, suggesting that the previous effort to fit had been a bit half arsed. Cleaned up the diffuser and took the car to the garage this morning, where I also had some chromed slash cut tail pipe trims fitted.





I think I quite like them, the alignment was improved later. I wanted something to draw a bit of attention to the exhaust, but was reluctant to go for the RS trims as they aren't cheap, and some have suggested "wheel barrow handles", so I figured some slash cut trims would look ok.

The car got it's first polish in my care, just a quickie with SRP, mostly just to get rid of tar spots, but it came up well. Also had another small dent removed that I had noticed last time it was on the lift.

Fitted some silicon hoses and a Megane 225/230 footrest - cheated with that though as I hacksawed off most of the protruding rivets and just fixed it in place with the velcro that was already on the back, looks good though!

Bought some used two piece AP discs and some black speedlines with 888's on them, also have booked my first track day at Cadwell, so v. excited about that. I remember really hoping it would stay dry (which it did!).



Stack of Speedlines, w/888's, and a couple of spare standard wheels



Two piece grooved discs

Car sailed through its MoT!

Collected my spare set of wheels from the powder coaters! Here are the wheels after a coat of Auto Glym SRP, and with the TPMS sensors fitted;







Bit premature but I knew I wasn't going anywhere much before my track day so I stuck the Speedlines and R888's on;

Excuse the dirty car, and poor quality pics, but I really like these wheels!

I wasn't a fan previously, but they look great!





Slightly better posing pics;







September 2010

Got the 2 piece discs on, with some new standard Brembo pads.

I'd had an issue with my wipers, which turned out to be a siezed linkage. Fortunately it was able to be free'd off, and is hopefully fine now.

Action Pics!















































What an awesome car, I love it!

Based upon how it performed, I didn't really even have any plans to change anything about it, funny how things change!

The brakes were brilliant, no fade whatsoever, even in continued hard use.
The ESP system is excellent, the only time it cut in was when both my Dad and my sister got things wrong (Hall Bends, entry too fast from the right hand of the track) and it sorted threm out, but otherwise it was completely unintrusive.
The handling is brilliant. Granted a Cup may be better, but this is my daily driver and I am getting older.
The fact that my sister could jump in it, having never driven it, or on a track before, and drive quickly, safely, and have a great time, is a testament to just how well the car is set up from the factory.

October 2010

Fitted an auto-dim mirror from a Laguna 2, which was pretty straightforward, also took the opportunity to hard wire the TPMS display, phone cradle, and prepared for a nav unit.

Couple of pics from my recce to Buttertubs on my way back from Glasgow yesterday;





TPMS display hard wired;



Phone cradle with the wiring now tucked away;



And a couple of the auto-dim mirror;





The car was absolutely filthy at this time, hadn't been washed for ages (work on house, holiday, week away on a job, etc.), so please don't judge from the pics!

Also as I knew I would be ferrying two colleagues around for a week, I removed the boot tray thing, which really helped the versatility of the boot, especially with the full sized spare, and it hasn't yet made its was back in.

When hard wiring the phone cradle I removed the climate control display to find a pair of ISO plugs tucked away behind it, meaning that it wasn't really necessary to run the wiring for the car kit all the way down to the drivers seat. Later in October I rewired the car kit, using these newly discovered ISO plugs, rather than running the whole lot under the drivers seat, and back. The only additional wires that now go to the tuner part are the mute wire, and the four line-in wires, which makes it much neater.

Bought some new front speakers;



When fitting I managed to mangle one of the tweeter covers, which given that they are around £45 each, was annoying. Replaced a few days later, with a grimace.

Did a lot of miles shortly after fitting the speakers (West Yorks - Swansea - West Yorks, with the M1 shut from J29-J28 on the way down, 516miles, so a LONG time in the car...) and I am not entirely sure they are an improvement, granted I had the stereo set on "ROCK" but I hadn't changed it since removing the OE speakers. They seem to get "farty" with anything bass like from around volume 20 and up. Fortunately things do seem to have improved over time. On the plus side, on the way back from Swansea (with the M1 open) I averaged 61mph and 41mpg, over 254 miles, so I was quite pleased with that!

November 2010

Managed to leave one of my key cards in my jeans the other day, I was only alterted to it by my wife questioning the knocking noise from the dryer - miraculously though it still seemed to work, and is doing to date.

I had a second inlet manifold port matched by APD a month or so ago. Unfortunately when I received it back the vac nipple by the TB was badly bent and cracked, and snapped off when I tried to straighten it. Getting this repaired was a bit of a problem and I ended up having to procure a replacement connection and returned them to APD for Craig to repair.

I got the ported manifold powder coated and in preparation set to removing the "Renault Sport" badge, as follows;

Fan assisted oven @ 200C for 10min, then carefully remove using a wallpaper scraper. Once cooled, removed adhesive by rubbing, using brake cleaner to soften.

Came off quite nicely, refitted to the powder coated mani with some trim tape.

Pics;


inlet with badge removed


upper and lower


gasket on lower


gasket on upper


PTFE Vs OE gasket


PTFE Vs. inlet to head mating face

Of course these pics would mean more when compared with an unmodified mani, but those pics will have to wait.

Given the time of year I have just made some rally style mudflaps for the front of the car, started off with some 4mm black rally flap material, made a template using cardboard, and fited into place using two self-tappers, the original screw for the liner, and two Ford mudflap clamps that I had knocking around.



















If I am critical, I haven't quite got the angle right, the bottom corner sticks out a touch too far, but at this time of year that is no great problem, I don't even notice anymore. Still haven't got around to doing anything about the rears.

December 2010

Took the car to an RR day at RS Tuning. The results were probably about what I expected @ 176.4BHP, I would have liked 180+, but can't really complain, the curve was relatively smooth, and the car is quick enough to drive, so at the end of the day it is just a number.

I saw 2 200's get tried, one made 181, the other 191 (interestingly with it's airbox lid removed?), so my 176 isn't too bad. I plan on taking it back when I have had the APD inlets fitted, to see if they make any difference. I think a couple more 197's rolled in just as I was leaving, so it would be interesting to know what they made.

Here are a couple of (rather poor Blackberry) pics of the car on the rollers;





Graphs;


at the wheels


at the flywheel

There was a queue outside the carpark after work one night, so while I was waiting I decided to try taking some dodgy pics;





These are the best of a bad lot, really need a better camera (and perhaps a better photographer...) for this kind of thing.

Following the RR day I changed my spark plugs, great service from Opie Oils for the new ones, think they cost just over £37.

The car had a 72k service in May, around 6,500 miles earlier, shortly before I got it, which apparently included plugs, however these bad boys look older than that...





To be fair it was driving ok with the old plugs, but they may have contributed to it being a bit under power on the RR.

Did an oil & filter change, attempted to fit my APD inlet manifold. Also wanted to remove a redundant resonator. an

Unfortunately things didn't go totally to plan, as while trying to remove the MAP sensor from the original inlet, I managed to snap off the flange, which was rather annoying, especially as a new MAP sensor is around £90! I needed the car back urgently so had to pay, but later discovered the exact same part available on eBay for around £30. Bought one as a spare!

Due to the 4mm PTFE inlet mani gasket, one of the mounting bolts couldn't be refitted, which was also annoying but not significant.

When I got the car back (following fitment of replacement MAP sensor) I fitted some new Valeo pencil coils.

January 2011

Fitted a s/s inlet pipe and the silicone hose to join it up.

I also re-jigged the wiring the phone kit (again), took out the drivers lower dash and glovebox, tidied things up a bit and solved a loose connection.









Started running the car on VPower.

Fitted an interior carpet from a low mileage car as mine had a split by the heel pad, and looked to have been used without mats. Changing it over was pretty much as I expected, no real issues. Probably only took 30 min or so to remove; carpet it back in already, but not the interior trim. While the seats were out I cleaned a couple of light marks off them and also thoroughly washed the kick panel / sill trims and centre console.

Front carpet out;



Rear carpet out;



New carpet in;



Trim refitted;



Couple of quick pics of how my footrest is fitted;





February 2011

I finally decided that I needed a steering wheel trim, and do rather like it, the angle makes the wheel look more dished I think.



Also, major credit to Steve @ Edge Automotive for my stereo/clock display, gear knob and gaitor, which are really nice, top work Steve!











I also had the seam moved around on the gear lever gaitor to make it better follow into the seam on the gear knob.

Forgive the filth, I know it needed vac'ing out.

Second track day, Cadwell again, very cold, had some bad weather at home so I didn't fit the R888's and stuck with the Conit's, the car moved around more on its tyres, and the ABS was kicking in under hard braking, which it hadn't done with the Toyos, possibly largely down to the low temperatures though.

Overall it did perform really well on track, despite a couple of minor and easily resolved issues. The car is just such great fun!

Despite the fact that I have made, and am making a few minor changes, there really is nothing that needs changing on these cars, aside from grooved discs, ideally bells and rotors, without doubt the best change I have made.

The issues that arose were a trapped breather from when the upper inlet was refitted, and the stainless induction pipe was secured by one of the upper inlet bolts, which it sheared. This wasn't a problem, but knocked my confidence a bit. I got a puncture in a rear tyre early in the afternoon at which point I decided to call it a day.

A day or two after Cadwell one of my friends reversed into the Clio's rear bumper in my drive, this gave me the incentive to take it off the road for a few weeks for some minor tweaks...

March 2011

While the car was in the garage I swapped the upper inlets over and got the ported item powder coated, I reckon it looks rather good;





First jobs were to fit the springs and dampers from a low mileage R27 (Cup suspension), along with red brake calipers from the same car. While the calipers are mechanically identical to my originals, they are newer, lower mileage and much smarter looking. Next I would remove the front bumper and have it painted, along with a new rear bumper shell.

Before I started taking it to bits, I took it for a quick spin to try the Cup suspension, certainly seems firmer, but to be fair the car was very cold and I had been in a 160k 1.6 Focus for the past two weeks. Red calipers look much better behind the anthracite wheels.

Stripped down the front bumper for paint, removed all grills, lamps, rubber lip, etc., before refitting later in the month.

Swapped my puncture repaired wheel back with my spare, switched the front wheels around as the TPMS had them the other way around, fitted the powder coated manifold and fitted some anthracite painted dash trims.

While the front bumper was off I bit the bullet and adjusted the drivers door, it had slipped a touch. What an awful job that requires almost complete removal of the front wing. Not fun, and I need to do it on the passenger side now.

Repaired exhaust blow (same place as before, hole in the clamp this time), also had track rods and track rod ends replaced with parts from the same low mileage R27.

Had to replace the lower rubber lip due to knackering the old one on removal. Over £80!

April 2011

Had the alignment adjusted, gave the interior a bit of a clean, and here are some photos;

Firstly not the interior, but the engine bay, not particularly clean but at least presentable;







Switching to the opposite end of the car, we have the boot, with Clio plush mat;





And with full size spare;



A few of the new dash trims;







Had to take the car to Harratts Wakefield, the a/c hadn't been working, the tech's at my parent's garage had found that there was no power to the compressor and suggested a reset was necessary. Phoned up Harratts this morning, they got the car in today and hopefully the problem is solved (or so I thought). Great service in any case, and quite reasonably priced.

Had a great drive but with an annoying ending; I had a great day driving down the M1 to J26, then around Nottingham and some great roads in the Leics countryside followed by a trip up to Buxton, Cat & Fiddle, then back home avoiding major roads wherever possible. All business miles, and not much work involved, so that was good, but...

- I have a loose wire on my line-in - should be easy to sort but it was annoying
- Detoured for VPower on the way home and managed to catch one of the rear wheels on the pump island (Shell Mirfield, first island didn't have VPower but did have excessively long islands for just one pump), this is what I was most cross about, such a stupid mistake! Plus I don't have any spare straight Raiders any more so I decided to swap and use the Speedlines for road tyres

Having now done some useful miles on the Cup suspension, I can see why some may find it a bit harsh, and the 197 FF suspension could be a better compromise for day-to-day. I just changed from FF to Cup and I am not certain that I would do it again, remember it is the 200 Cup that gets all of the praise, and that is likely to be more to do with the quicker rack.

Speaking of which, I acquired a low mileage 200 Cup rack to be fitted at some point in the hopefully not too distant future (just fitted in early September!).

Couple of exterior pics, not great but the car looks quite good;





We don't usually wedge both in like that, this was just to see if we could actually fit two cars in the "double" garage

So I have been bitten by the LED bug, in the process of changing the interior lighting on both cars. I have an argument for it though - it will drain the battery less if I forget to shut a door or leave a light on. More of an issue on the Honda TBH but I do like the white light.

I decided that anthracite Speedlines were the way forward, had them refurbished and the tyres swapped over so the R888's were on my anthracite 12 spokes.

More to follow!

Edited by FlashBastd on Sunday 11th September 01:23

escie

1,353 posts

156 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
great post! biggrin

FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
May 2011

Given that it was approaching 12m since the car was last serviced, and due to my previous concerned about the A/C, I decided to change the cabin filter. I had had one knocking around for a while so it was just a case of getting around to it.

I read the guides, though they didn't really illustrate quite the extent to which you have to fold yourself up to get into the footwell and get the bloody thing out, or how awkward it is to get the new one in. Not difficult, just fiddly.

Some pics;





Looks like it was due for a change!

Interestingly though both were genuine Renault, the construction was quite different. I am assured this is just due to parts being superseded, and in any case the clean filter must be better than the filthy old thing.

Unfortunately the A/C was still playing up, cue another trip to Harratts Wakefield. I was expecting a call to tell me the a/c pump was knackered or some similar bad news, but the problem has hopefully been traced back to a corroded electrical connector which was replaced under warranty, not bad given the age and mileage of the car. Suffice to say I was very pleased!

Changed the rest of my interior and luggage compartment bulbs to LED's, I think only the glovebox and mirror lights haven't been done. I changed the rest for two reasons, firstly because I prefer the whiter light (this all started with just doing the number plate, but as I ordered the wrong bulbs I had to use them somewhere, right?) and secondly because if my small child now leaves a map light on, or similar, then I hopefully have a larger window of time to spot it before the battery runs down. I have also done the bulbs in the CR-V and this benefited me last night when just before heading to bed I spotted that the rear interior lamp was on, and had been for several hours. Fortunately this wasn't a problem and the car still started on the button.

Got around to actually getting the wheels swapped over;









Not entirely sure about the shade but it'll do for now - my previous powder coater is having some issues so I went elsewhere and while the service was ok, price not too much more, the shade isn't quite the same as before.

Conti's have a nice slight stretch on the 8J wheels, perhaps not clear from the pics.

Had a nice gentle drive down to Bristol and back, slightly disappointing economy though as I only got 34mpg out of the tank, despite driving as though Miss Daisy was in the car.

What was annoying was a couple of rattles, one from the glovebox, another from the phone bracket and a third from the steering column cowling. With this in mind I set to this evening, discovered some bolts and the cigar lighter at the back of the glovebox, so hopefully that will have solved that. I then stripped part of the drivers dash apart and refitted using some anti-ratttle tape, which I also used on the phone and nav brackets, so fingers crossed the rattles will now be resolved.

June 2011

Changed my lower engine mount for one from a lower mileage car, just a bit of preventative maintenance.

Had an appointment in the peak district, thoroughly enjoyed the car both ways, must have said to myself several times that I really love this car.

At this stage I had had the car for nearly a year, and I still loved it (and still do).

Covered well over 1,000 miles over around 5 days (car wasn't used one of them), and over 400 miles in one day. What a great car, refined and responsive enough with the cruise set at 70 on the motorway, and a complete hoot on windy A roads, plus a 3rd gear that is awesome for overtaking!

During that mileage I achieved the 450 mile tank of petrol, very please with myself, 38.1mpg!

On the downside the "Service Due Soon" warning came on, 11,000 miles after it was last serviced. I am assuming it will change at 12,000 miles to service due now or similar. The oil was changed about 4,500 miles ago, so there is no great urgency but in any case it is booked in for 27th.

Track evening at Cadwell, little car did really well; the Toyos probably helped but the car was great. Took a couple of mates with me, one of whom is more of a biker and he was astounded about how it went around corners. I seemed to have forgotten most of what the instructor had told me last time, so I think the next time I book a day at Cadwell, I will try to get an instructor booked early on so I can practice for the rest of the day.

Also, got the tyres filled with nitrogen yesterday morning, adjusted them later when cold, 33PSI @ 20C = 40PSI @ 50C, so much for nitrogen not expanding!

Brakes continue to impress, there are a couple of places where I could brake harder and later, and once or twice I overbraked going into Park. At times it felt like there was a touch of debris stuck to the disc but this soon cleaned itself up (explained later). No fade though and good feel, despite standard pads and standard brake lines. I am probably going to whip the pads out to check them over when I change the wheels back later this week.

This was my first track event with the 197 Cup chassis, and to be honest I couldn't notice much if any difference. One day I will get the 200 Cup steering rack fitted and will see if that makes much difference. Not that I am at all dissatisfied with things as they are, as the car does seem really well setup for road and track use.

What was interesting was just how twitchy the rear ends of other FWD french stuff seemed to be, 1*2's, Saxos, 306's, I guess that just means they were trying harder than me!

In any case, a terrific evening and excellent fun. If you have one of these cars and don't use it on the track then you are really missing out.

Oh, and 12.9MPG on track, based on 9 road miles and 71 track miles.

Pic from Cadwell, apologies for the poor quality;









Swapped the wheels back, leaky valve on one of the Toyos so waiting for a replacement.

While the wheels were off all of them got a wash inside and out, and I took the opportunity to strip down and clean the front calipers, with liberal use of copper grease.

Few days later the car got a wash, wheels off again, cleaned the arch liners with AG engine & machine cleaner, wiped down the calipers again (this time cunningly not in the dark) and touched up a few marks with some red hammerite; it isn't a perfect match but should be fine.

While I was cleaning the arches, I noticed some muck and debris inside the o/s sill trim, cue removing the rearmost three bolts and unclipping enough to spray the hose in and clear out the debris. Tried the same on the n/s, very little muck in there, but may have broken one of the clips so will get a few replacements just in case.

Track action at Blyton Park later in June, with a service the following day.

Calipers look good but the discs look oxidised as I didn't want to drive the car to clean them until the paint was properly dry.











Pics from Blyton today, my first time there and my wife's first track event;



























































Car went well, circuit is a bit tight for my liking, prefer Cadwell, but we still had a lot of fun. Harder on the brakes than Cadwell, and it was a really hot day, but the car still didn't miss a beat. Only issue we had was heat soak from the hot front brakes into the front wheels, confusing the TPMS system.

Got the car back after its service, also had a weeping rocker bolt sealed, new aux drive belt (squeeling when cold), loose rad fan sorted and changed the gearbox oil.

When I got home I swapped back to the Contis, the R888's are awesome on twisty roads but are just a bit too harsh for me to use day-to-day.

July 2011

Following confirmation when it was serviced the old pads were goosed, lots of meat left on them but they were degrading and cracking (hence the intermittent vibration on track), so I initially replaced them with some new aftermarket Brembos

New pads this evening, with lots of copper slip.

I needed new pads because despite there being plenty of meat left on my old ones they were starting to crack, and one of them had a bit missing;















The previous pads were genuine Renault ones, Brembo branded but made by Ferodo, type 4446. I didn't want to spend the £80 for genuine Renault so I got some Brembo pads from a motor factor for £37.





Took the car for a short drive after fitting, they feel fine, but I guess the proof will be how they perform when I get some real heat into them.

This change was a bit of a panic measure and wasn't really thought out. I later realised that I only got 8,000 miles out of these, which just doesn't seem enough even if they were cheap, so shortly after fitting the Brembo pads I started thinking very carefully about getting some Ferodo DS2500's.

August 2011

Gave the car some attention;

Wash with Zymol, 2 bucket method obviously
Dry with AutoGlym synthetic chamois thing
Clay with Bilt Hamber soft (very sticky when dry)
Polish with 3M Imperial Hand Glaze
Wax with Chemical Guys 50/50 Ltd Edition then Chemical Guys Pro Detailer

Big thanks to RussZS in this post - http://www.clio197.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1411... for the recommendations. I did also get some Dodo Juice Lime Prime but didn't get on with it as well as I get on with the Hand Glaze, though the Lime Prime is definitely easier to use.







MoT picked up an advisory for one of the o/s ball joints, but otherwise all good.

I was on holiday in July and bought myself a present, just had to work out where to mount it;





I did have it just clamped to the surround but having trialled it on a long drive, it slipped over time, due to the wedge shape. Also I had the reflection of the screen vents which was annoying. As you can see above I then modified the clock surround to give the camera a flat mounting and position it closer to the screen. This will hopefully minimise reflections (still there a bit), shouldn't get loose, and seems to be quite secure. Looking forward to trying it out on a TD @ Cadwell in September.

September 2011

Spotted a slight scuff to one of the rear wheels, given that I am not over keen on the colour I think these might get swapped before too long, need to recover from the parts costs for the ball joint (below) first though!

Time for the car to return to the garage, cracked manifold where the two centre pipes meet the flange, fortunately it is a mild steel manifold so it could be welded. Given the level of stripping down required it seemed like an ideal opportunity to get the 200 Cup steering rack fitted, along with a front ARB from a Clio X85 Cup racer. At the same time I wanted to get the ball joint sorted, which turned into a very expensive affair as the ball joint is part of the hub carrier (£170) and is held to another part by a pinch bolt that would not free off, cue another £170 part.

Got the car back and it doesn't really seem much different, however to be fair compared to the 1995 BeBop mentioned at the beginning of the tread, which I drove immediately before collecting the car following these works, anything feels tight! Just got a few heat shield vibrations that I am hoping to get sorted before Cadwell on Tuesday.

And there we are, up to date, 16 months motoring in 2 posts! Hopefully the rest of my posts will be somewhat shorter!

I am currently pondering the toe settings. The car has 197 Cup springs and dampers, with 200 Cup steering rack and an even larger ARB, it is running 197 Cup toe settings but should probably be running 200 Cup toe, unfortunately this is something I am unlikely to be able to get sorted before Cadwell.

Comments and criticism always welcome!

Thanks for reading.

Edited by FlashBastd on Sunday 11th September 01:27

P I Staker

3,308 posts

155 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
I really like these cars (The 197), nice one OP.

My only criticism is the mud flaps! smile

FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
escie said:
great post! biggrin
Cheers!

P I Staker said:
I really like these cars (The 197), nice one OP.

My only criticism is the mud flaps! smile
Cheers, know what you mean, but they are very functional! I had only planned on leaving them on for winter, but they do help keep the sides clean (less dirty) during the summer too.

exigepete

1,005 posts

202 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
Great write up! Fancied one myself but was dissapointed to see what mpg they do. Went for the older brother, 172 Cup.

FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
Cheers! The MPG is disappointing considering the extra gear, and because the 1*2's are actually quite good on fuel. Nothing wrong with the 172 though, do you track it at all?

rb5er

11,657 posts

171 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
Looks great, you have really put some time an effort in.

Just 1 critisism: too many screens in the cockpit.

FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
Thanks, and can't really argue about the amount of screens, etc. If I had an iPhone then I could ditch the sat nav, but work won't let me have one (or even give me the right shape SIM). I love Beemers because all this stuff is so nicely integrated into the iDrive screen.

keo

2,021 posts

169 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
I enjoyed reading that, nice little write up. I have got a 182 trophy, love it to bits. For the money I dont think cliosports can be beaten.

exigepete

1,005 posts

202 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
FlashBastd said:
Nothing wrong with the 172 though, do you track it at all?
Haven't yet but planning to in the near future!

FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
keo said:
I enjoyed reading that, nice little write up. I have got a 182 trophy, love it to bits. For the money I dont think cliosports can be beaten.
Think the Trophy is a bit special to be compared to a 197, really nice thing.

DanielJames

7,543 posts

167 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
Great thread, I'm from the same area so might have seen you about.

I noticed you changed the speakers but werent impressed, is that from the Parrot or from CDs?

I find the parrot is terrible at anything more than 60% volume. It only has a 20w amp! There is a way of rigging up a better amp to it I think but I'll just be replacing the headunit when I get chance.

they're great for phone calls, but st for anything else


FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Sunday 11th September 2011
quotequote all
I am running my Parrot through the stereo, so it uses the upgraded Renault Cabasse amp rather than the Parrot one. I have them setup this was on both the Clio and our CR-V, using the line in. Seems pretty good that way. It was the Pioneer speakers that I was initially not keen on, but they did improve somewhat.

My sister uses the Parrot as its own amp in her Mini, it is ok, she is happy with it.

I would have preferred an upgraded headunit but didn't want to sacrifice the dash display.

Beefmeister

16,482 posts

229 months

Monday 12th September 2011
quotequote all
Nice car, looks very well sorted.

But i will never understand the need to put a million extra screens in the interior. Why on earth do you need the tyre pressures permanently displayed on their own tiny screen?

IMO, ruins the look of the interior completely.

FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Monday 12th September 2011
quotequote all
Thanks, as for the extra screens, they are as follows;

Sat nav
Parrot (to control phone and iPod)
The phone itself
TPMS

With the exception of the nav (which includes an OBD tool, saving another display...) all are in use on most journeys, any suggestions as to how to consolidate these would be gratefully received.

The TPMS may be a bit of an unnecessary gadget, but I really dislike checking tyre pressures. The TPMS display is not in an obvious position being discretely mounted behind the gear lever, and has saved a couple of tyres across both of our cars by alerting us to a puncture very quickly. It has also been useful in identifying slow punctures, and on track for monitoring tyre temperatures (or at least the air inside the tyres).

dirtbiker

1,165 posts

165 months

Monday 12th September 2011
quotequote all
Great post - enjoyed reading that through (and I'm now off to the classifieds - as usual!)

FlashBastd

Original Poster:

291 posts

189 months

Monday 12th September 2011
quotequote all
Thanks!

Ok, minor update, 200 Cup toe settings are slightly different to the 197/197 Cup toe settings but only by 2 minutes, with significant cross over in spec, so there would be no benefit in having the toe settings adjusted again in advance of the track day tomorrow.

Initial impressions suggest that the car is understeering more, which had I researched getting a thicker ARB I would have realised was a common result. Unfortunatley it was all a bit of a rush to get the car into the garage to get the manifold done and the ARB was very much spur of the moment because we were dropping the subframe anyway so it made sense to do it at the same time.

There are ways to counteract the understeer, such as adjusting toe out, increasing track, etc. but I don't really want to go down that road. Current view is see how it is tomorrow and then consider refitting the standard ARB.

cheddar

4,637 posts

173 months

Monday 12th September 2011
quotequote all
Fantastic post.

I'm humbled at your never ending efforts to improve your car. Inspirational.

Half an hour of my life well spent reading that.

What did you pay for the car?

Emeye

9,773 posts

222 months

Monday 12th September 2011
quotequote all
Very good thread. Just read it all. I'd too would be interested in the costs involved, if you don't mind us being so cheeky! smile