Discussion
I'll be easy to spot, I'll be the really slow car trying to keep out of everyone else's way 
I went to get the slow puncture on the rear fixed today but unfortunately it was right on the shoulder of the tyre. Bugger.
I knew the rear tyres were starting to perish a bit anyway but on close inspection with them off the car the perishing was actually starting to get quite nasty and was between the tread blocks as well as on the side wall. I bit the bullet and stuck two new ones on the back.
Will have to make sure I get them nicely scrubbed in for Bedford. Roundabouts of Berkshire beware
I went to get the slow puncture on the rear fixed today but unfortunately it was right on the shoulder of the tyre. Bugger.
I knew the rear tyres were starting to perish a bit anyway but on close inspection with them off the car the perishing was actually starting to get quite nasty and was between the tread blocks as well as on the side wall. I bit the bullet and stuck two new ones on the back.
Will have to make sure I get them nicely scrubbed in for Bedford. Roundabouts of Berkshire beware
hole 
Sooooo......
List of work to be done on the car was:
Change the spark plugs.
Sort out the exhaust blow from cat to cat-back.
Re-install fuel rail protector.
Change brake fluid.
Lower the driver's seat by removing the vibration mounts (only gives another 1.5cm but it all helps if you're tall like me).
Pre-trackday check over (brakes, suspension, etc)
I'm quite relieved - nothing too expensive was wrong!
Brake fluid was "nasty" and clearly hadn't been done for ages but that's been replaced with some 5.1 now.
Exhaust was actually blowing from the manifold to cat join as well as cat to cat-back, but that's been sorted with some new gaskets, springs and clamps.
Spark plugs were in a really bad way, probably hadn't been changed since the 50k mile service.
HT leads were failing so they've been replaced too.
After all that the idle was still lumpy so the engine was checked over - compression is fine and is even across all four cylinders but it turns out one of the injectors was bad which explains the insanely rich running and lumpiness at idle.
Brakes have plenty of meat left on them, suspension is fine, nothing else needs doing.
After having just taken a £1000 pounding on my other car that's the sort of news I needed today!
List of work to be done on the car was:
Change the spark plugs.
Sort out the exhaust blow from cat to cat-back.
Re-install fuel rail protector.
Change brake fluid.
Lower the driver's seat by removing the vibration mounts (only gives another 1.5cm but it all helps if you're tall like me).
Pre-trackday check over (brakes, suspension, etc)
I'm quite relieved - nothing too expensive was wrong!
Brake fluid was "nasty" and clearly hadn't been done for ages but that's been replaced with some 5.1 now.
Exhaust was actually blowing from the manifold to cat join as well as cat to cat-back, but that's been sorted with some new gaskets, springs and clamps.
Spark plugs were in a really bad way, probably hadn't been changed since the 50k mile service.
HT leads were failing so they've been replaced too.
After all that the idle was still lumpy so the engine was checked over - compression is fine and is even across all four cylinders but it turns out one of the injectors was bad which explains the insanely rich running and lumpiness at idle.
Brakes have plenty of meat left on them, suspension is fine, nothing else needs doing.
After having just taken a £1000 pounding on my other car that's the sort of news I needed today!
Stuck the Clip diagnostic tool on the Clio last night to sort out the airbag light.
Obviously something to do with the steering wheel change, that would be logical given it happened immediately after I changed the wheel...... Nope - open circuit on passenger pretensioner. Ahhhh French cars
At least it should be an easy fix.
Fuel trims confirmed the car had been running *slightly* rich before the work too - LTFT at nearly 20%! To be fair I didn't really need the computer to tell me that, you could smell it
Obviously something to do with the steering wheel change, that would be logical given it happened immediately after I changed the wheel...... Nope - open circuit on passenger pretensioner. Ahhhh French cars
At least it should be an easy fix.
Fuel trims confirmed the car had been running *slightly* rich before the work too - LTFT at nearly 20%! To be fair I didn't really need the computer to tell me that, you could smell it
Wiggled the cables under the passenger seat..... airbag light now off.
As anyone who's ever had one knows probably the worst thing about these is the driving position, you sit too high and especially if you're tall the wheel is far too far away from you. Dropping the driver's seat has helped but the big problem now is the wheel is just too far away.
One solution is to change the steering wheel for something like a Momo wheel and fit a spacer to it. The problem with that is I want to keep the interior reasonably OEM and I don't want to lose the cruise control, airbag etc. I'd do it in a heartbeat if it was going to be a track car 90% of the time but it's going to be used on the road at least as much as on track, if not more.
So I've just ordered one of these from over on ClioSport.....
It moves the standard wheel closer to the driver and (fingers crossed....) should pretty much sort out the driving position
As anyone who's ever had one knows probably the worst thing about these is the driving position, you sit too high and especially if you're tall the wheel is far too far away from you. Dropping the driver's seat has helped but the big problem now is the wheel is just too far away.
One solution is to change the steering wheel for something like a Momo wheel and fit a spacer to it. The problem with that is I want to keep the interior reasonably OEM and I don't want to lose the cruise control, airbag etc. I'd do it in a heartbeat if it was going to be a track car 90% of the time but it's going to be used on the road at least as much as on track, if not more.
So I've just ordered one of these from over on ClioSport.....
It moves the standard wheel closer to the driver and (fingers crossed....) should pretty much sort out the driving position
Certainly can imagine, I'm 6' 3"
It's 195 euros including delivery - about £160 at PayPal's current exchange rate. That includes an extra spacer for a little bit of extra reach.
It does look well made, not got it yet but I'll post some more details when it arrives. I'll have to extend the cables to the steering wheel but that's not rocket science.
It's 195 euros including delivery - about £160 at PayPal's current exchange rate. That includes an extra spacer for a little bit of extra reach.
It does look well made, not got it yet but I'll post some more details when it arrives. I'll have to extend the cables to the steering wheel but that's not rocket science.
Well the spacer is fitted. It does the job really well, I have to have the seat reclined quite a long way to fit in the car with a helmet on and the driving position is actually very good.
There is a problem though - my idea of "just extending" the cables to the airbag and cruise control switches has completely failed to work. The airbag and cruise switches are actually connected by extremely thin ribbon cables surrounded by a black plastic "honeycomb" protective layer - I tried to solder some normal wire in place to extend it but it's impossible to get a good join.
I'm hunting around for a solution at the moment. I should be able to get hold of a used squib and steal some wiring from that pretty cheaply so I'll probably give that a go.
I suspect that in reality I've probably gone the wrong route here and what I should have done was accept the loss of the airbag and cruise and just go for a smaller aftermarket wheel. I'll take another look at the whole thing once I've had some time to think about it and buy a few parts.
I had to get the dash out again to fit an aftermarket stereo with Bluetooth hands-free. It's nothing special, just a cheapo unit but it's light years ahead of the factory CD player. I wanted to keep the steering wheel volume controls so needed to get access to the back of the clock unit. I can now get the dash out and back in again in under an hour - flimsy build quality does have some advantages
Also thought I'd get rid of the rear seats. They're completely useless for me, just dead weight, and the car would actually be a lot more practical without them. I gave up after a considerable amount of WD-40 and swearing. One of the bolts on the ISOFIX bar was missing and the other was seized solid and the bolts holding the rear seats in didn't want to play either. Quite clearly someone has been there before me
Really looking forward to the first trackday in the car this weekend, should be fun
There is a problem though - my idea of "just extending" the cables to the airbag and cruise control switches has completely failed to work. The airbag and cruise switches are actually connected by extremely thin ribbon cables surrounded by a black plastic "honeycomb" protective layer - I tried to solder some normal wire in place to extend it but it's impossible to get a good join.
I'm hunting around for a solution at the moment. I should be able to get hold of a used squib and steal some wiring from that pretty cheaply so I'll probably give that a go.
I suspect that in reality I've probably gone the wrong route here and what I should have done was accept the loss of the airbag and cruise and just go for a smaller aftermarket wheel. I'll take another look at the whole thing once I've had some time to think about it and buy a few parts.
I had to get the dash out again to fit an aftermarket stereo with Bluetooth hands-free. It's nothing special, just a cheapo unit but it's light years ahead of the factory CD player. I wanted to keep the steering wheel volume controls so needed to get access to the back of the clock unit. I can now get the dash out and back in again in under an hour - flimsy build quality does have some advantages
Also thought I'd get rid of the rear seats. They're completely useless for me, just dead weight, and the car would actually be a lot more practical without them. I gave up after a considerable amount of WD-40 and swearing. One of the bolts on the ISOFIX bar was missing and the other was seized solid and the bolts holding the rear seats in didn't want to play either. Quite clearly someone has been there before me
Really looking forward to the first trackday in the car this weekend, should be fun
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