2005 Clio 182 FF - Occasional track car
Discussion
Where did I leave it last time? Ah, that's it, a misaligned caliper and ABS error.... childs play. Add into the mix an additional misfire too.
The mis-aligned caliper was actually solved with the new hub & bolts. Obviously the thread had had it. So once they were fitted it all lined up. I'd put the car back together and still had the ABS lights, but I had driven it 50meters, so figured it'd go.
I booked it in for it's MOT, it'be been too long for a re-test, so had to pay for an other full one. On the way, I had to bed the brakes in a little and get the cat nice and warm
Happy to say it passed!
So, I was driving home and 3 dash lights came on again. Misfire again. So was easy enough, given leads and coil pack was new, so an other injector was purchased and fitted, back to 4 cylinders!
I now had a working, MOT'd car with no dash lights. For the first time in forever, so I put the car back into service, first job was a trip to a hardware shop for some bits.
So, I leave the shop and the car won't start. I had a sneaky suspicion it was the same cable for the starter motor I'd replaced recently. I tried my hardest to fix it between the very hot manifold and failed. Luckily a group of lads on a smoking break saw me and bump started me. I then just had to get the 25 miles home without stalling it, with the petrol light on!
The next day I went to investigate, sure enough the cable had come off. I came up with a genius fix, rather than have the inline connection I'd previously done behind the manifold (this was the bit that came apart), I saw I could pull the cable out of the trunking and make the connection in spare space in the engine bay. This allowed me to get much better crimps and wrap it in a lot of tape. The spade onto the starter motor was still very firm, so I suspect that won't come off.
Since then it's worked faultlessly. I'm probably jinxing it by saying that! Track days are back open too, so I'm looking at booking one of them. But I need new tyres first...
Oh it needs oil too, may as well service it
On a side note, the Z4M failed it's MOT on front brakes and read tyres. Both something I knew it needed, but put off over winter with it SORN. £1000 later and it's passed. I then spent £100 on some replacement bits, the 3rd brake light has disintegrated, the numberplate lamp has fallen out and got damaged and a snapped a bleed nipple doing the brakes...
The mis-aligned caliper was actually solved with the new hub & bolts. Obviously the thread had had it. So once they were fitted it all lined up. I'd put the car back together and still had the ABS lights, but I had driven it 50meters, so figured it'd go.
I booked it in for it's MOT, it'be been too long for a re-test, so had to pay for an other full one. On the way, I had to bed the brakes in a little and get the cat nice and warm
Happy to say it passed!So, I was driving home and 3 dash lights came on again. Misfire again. So was easy enough, given leads and coil pack was new, so an other injector was purchased and fitted, back to 4 cylinders!
I now had a working, MOT'd car with no dash lights. For the first time in forever, so I put the car back into service, first job was a trip to a hardware shop for some bits.
So, I leave the shop and the car won't start. I had a sneaky suspicion it was the same cable for the starter motor I'd replaced recently. I tried my hardest to fix it between the very hot manifold and failed. Luckily a group of lads on a smoking break saw me and bump started me. I then just had to get the 25 miles home without stalling it, with the petrol light on!
The next day I went to investigate, sure enough the cable had come off. I came up with a genius fix, rather than have the inline connection I'd previously done behind the manifold (this was the bit that came apart), I saw I could pull the cable out of the trunking and make the connection in spare space in the engine bay. This allowed me to get much better crimps and wrap it in a lot of tape. The spade onto the starter motor was still very firm, so I suspect that won't come off.
Since then it's worked faultlessly. I'm probably jinxing it by saying that! Track days are back open too, so I'm looking at booking one of them. But I need new tyres first...
Oh it needs oil too, may as well service it
On a side note, the Z4M failed it's MOT on front brakes and read tyres. Both something I knew it needed, but put off over winter with it SORN. £1000 later and it's passed. I then spent £100 on some replacement bits, the 3rd brake light has disintegrated, the numberplate lamp has fallen out and got damaged and a snapped a bleed nipple doing the brakes...
Christ, over a year since the last update!
I've done about 5k in it and no track days
. Covid was still a thing early last year, but now commuting daily in it. Only a few things done, mainly just maintenance, a few upgrades (gear knob and cig lighter for charging phone)
03/03/2021 Injector £34.50
15/04/2021 Injector £34.50
31/08/2021 Petronas 5W40 5L 3000 AV (spare filter also fitted) £32.00
02/09/2021 Oil Pressure Switch £38.78
06/12/2021 Steering Wheel Controls £6.00
05/01/2022 New gear knob £16.45
05/01/2022 Boot Lock Mechanism £16.00
10/01/2022 New gear knob insert (red for go faster) £8.30
19/01/2022 Rear wiper blade £12.50
21/02/2022 windscreen wiper linkage £50.00
06/05/2022 Cigarette lighter £8.99
Along the way I've sorted the slightly off centre exhaust, I say sorted, I managed to snap a bolt off the chassis and put it all back together to still be misaligned. I just think it's one of those things!
About May time, my brother decided (whilst living abroad) to buy some old Alfa from the 60's and make me go view/collect/store/fix, so that took on a lot of my summer car time. That and driving the Alfa about!
The wipers managed to seize mid drive home in some of the worse rain we had at the beginning of the year, had to stop and wait it out until it was pretty much stopped to carry on. Swapped the linkage and away we go!
Anyway, the main reason for posting. My brother was moving home, he had some Alfa parts in Amsterdam that needed to come back (specifically not on the moving truck) so a road trip was planned, in the Alfa. Alas, the thing wasn't working and I gave up trying to fix it at 8pm the night before heading off. So I took the trusty clio! I think it was about 100 miles into the trip when 5th gear started popping out, not that bad, I could hold it in, but this wasn't going to be a fun 900 miles home!
It got worse, and worse, and worse. It was popping out every 20 seconds, or if I applied pressure I got 4-5 mins before it threw my hand off. But, it did get us home on it's own steam. I've used it a handful of times, whilst trying to arrange it to be look at. I've found someone but was waiting for a courtesy car. In the mean time I dropped the gearbox oil, and took the 5th gear cap off, and whilst it didn't look great, nothing looked too bad, so I assumed it all needed stripping and rebuilding.
Yesterday I was driving it and it locked into 5th gear, in the middle of town, at lunch time, when the main road was closed. I managed to slip the clutch enough to get it going and limp it the 0.5 miles home. Drained the gearbox oil and took the cap off again and was presented with this. Suffice to say, it needs a full rebuild, less than 3 years and 10,000 miles of use. To say these gearboxes are made of cheese is an understatement.
Talking to the gearbox guy, it seems the last rebuilder left something out, called the drip tray, which is kind of important! Previous guy pissed me about so I don't even see the point in going back.
You can see the selector fork is rather dark, so getting super hot, it's also 1/2 worn. Oh, then there is the metal clip just trying to break free...
I love the car to bits, it's been generally pretty solid and taken a lot of abuse, but I can't help but think it's time to (get it repaired and) move on.
I've done about 5k in it and no track days
. Covid was still a thing early last year, but now commuting daily in it. Only a few things done, mainly just maintenance, a few upgrades (gear knob and cig lighter for charging phone)03/03/2021 Injector £34.50
15/04/2021 Injector £34.50
31/08/2021 Petronas 5W40 5L 3000 AV (spare filter also fitted) £32.00
02/09/2021 Oil Pressure Switch £38.78
06/12/2021 Steering Wheel Controls £6.00
05/01/2022 New gear knob £16.45
05/01/2022 Boot Lock Mechanism £16.00
10/01/2022 New gear knob insert (red for go faster) £8.30
19/01/2022 Rear wiper blade £12.50
21/02/2022 windscreen wiper linkage £50.00
06/05/2022 Cigarette lighter £8.99
Along the way I've sorted the slightly off centre exhaust, I say sorted, I managed to snap a bolt off the chassis and put it all back together to still be misaligned. I just think it's one of those things!
About May time, my brother decided (whilst living abroad) to buy some old Alfa from the 60's and make me go view/collect/store/fix, so that took on a lot of my summer car time. That and driving the Alfa about!
The wipers managed to seize mid drive home in some of the worse rain we had at the beginning of the year, had to stop and wait it out until it was pretty much stopped to carry on. Swapped the linkage and away we go!
Anyway, the main reason for posting. My brother was moving home, he had some Alfa parts in Amsterdam that needed to come back (specifically not on the moving truck) so a road trip was planned, in the Alfa. Alas, the thing wasn't working and I gave up trying to fix it at 8pm the night before heading off. So I took the trusty clio! I think it was about 100 miles into the trip when 5th gear started popping out, not that bad, I could hold it in, but this wasn't going to be a fun 900 miles home!
It got worse, and worse, and worse. It was popping out every 20 seconds, or if I applied pressure I got 4-5 mins before it threw my hand off. But, it did get us home on it's own steam. I've used it a handful of times, whilst trying to arrange it to be look at. I've found someone but was waiting for a courtesy car. In the mean time I dropped the gearbox oil, and took the 5th gear cap off, and whilst it didn't look great, nothing looked too bad, so I assumed it all needed stripping and rebuilding.
Yesterday I was driving it and it locked into 5th gear, in the middle of town, at lunch time, when the main road was closed. I managed to slip the clutch enough to get it going and limp it the 0.5 miles home. Drained the gearbox oil and took the cap off again and was presented with this. Suffice to say, it needs a full rebuild, less than 3 years and 10,000 miles of use. To say these gearboxes are made of cheese is an understatement.
Talking to the gearbox guy, it seems the last rebuilder left something out, called the drip tray, which is kind of important! Previous guy pissed me about so I don't even see the point in going back.
You can see the selector fork is rather dark, so getting super hot, it's also 1/2 worn. Oh, then there is the metal clip just trying to break free...
I love the car to bits, it's been generally pretty solid and taken a lot of abuse, but I can't help but think it's time to (get it repaired and) move on.
Edited by illmonkey on Wednesday 1st June 08:05
si_xsi said:
Correct me if I'm wrong Mr Monkey but was it not your 05 182 I followed on the A420 to Eynsham this evening. I noticed the PH sticker and thought I remember this car.. the Frenchie sounded good from behind and just shows what great power to weight these cars are.
Ha! Yes it was. Strangely when I passed your R32 on the A34 I thought about the time I saw you post crash. Small world. Did you struggle to keep up joining the A420?
As for the car, it's been neglected. Nothing new apart from brakes and a new caliper due to it sticking. It's been a great dump run car for the house renovation, I gave in and cleaned it last night as it was thick with dirt and rubble inside.
Oh, I don't have any rear seats. The old ones got covered in brake fluid, so removed them. To do so, had to grind a bolt head off. But the thread is still stuck in the hole. Need to get a garage to weld a nut onto it, but have no time.
The exhaust also sounds ropey, I imagine it's just a perished U bolt that's come lose and it's blowing at the mid section. Strange you say it sounded good Si, as it sounds awful from inside!
illmonkey said:
Ha! Yes it was. Strangely when I passed your R32 on the A34 I thought about the time I saw you post crash. Small world.
Did you struggle to keep up joining the A420?
As for the car, it's been neglected. Nothing new apart from brakes and a new caliper due to it sticking. It's been a great dump run car for the house renovation, I gave in and cleaned it last night as it was thick with dirt and rubble inside.
Oh, I don't have any rear seats. The old ones got covered in brake fluid, so removed them. To do so, had to grind a bolt head off. But the thread is still stuck in the hole. Need to get a garage to weld a nut onto it, but have no time.
The exhaust also sounds ropey, I imagine it's just a perished U bolt that's come lose and it's blowing at the mid section. Strange you say it sounded good Si, as it sounds awful from inside!
Indeed a small world, think you may have joined a Sunday blast through Oxfordshire I organsied few years back, but can't remember what car you were in at the time. Yeah that was the grey supercharged R32 which got rear ended in traffic, sadly no longer, always get a slightly anxious feeling driving past Woodstock airport now.Did you struggle to keep up joining the A420?
As for the car, it's been neglected. Nothing new apart from brakes and a new caliper due to it sticking. It's been a great dump run car for the house renovation, I gave in and cleaned it last night as it was thick with dirt and rubble inside.
Oh, I don't have any rear seats. The old ones got covered in brake fluid, so removed them. To do so, had to grind a bolt head off. But the thread is still stuck in the hole. Need to get a garage to weld a nut onto it, but have no time.
The exhaust also sounds ropey, I imagine it's just a perished U bolt that's come lose and it's blowing at the mid section. Strange you say it sounded good Si, as it sounds awful from inside!
Wouldn't say struggle but there was nothing left to give
The 182 looked pretty dialed in. I was pleased you were making progress - I was late picking up my daughter from nursery. The noise from behind was a mixture of induction and rasp, and sounded good to me, even if it didn't for you with the optional rear seat delete! I've just replaced a rear brake caliper on the R32, its solved the squeak but I still have a drone at about 60mph when warm and off throttle, which i need to get looked at, hoping its a wheel bearing and not the rear diff.
Wheres the house reno project? I'm in Witney so will keep an eye out for you.
si_xsi said:
illmonkey said:
Ha! Yes it was. Strangely when I passed your R32 on the A34 I thought about the time I saw you post crash. Small world.
Did you struggle to keep up joining the A420?
As for the car, it's been neglected. Nothing new apart from brakes and a new caliper due to it sticking. It's been a great dump run car for the house renovation, I gave in and cleaned it last night as it was thick with dirt and rubble inside.
Oh, I don't have any rear seats. The old ones got covered in brake fluid, so removed them. To do so, had to grind a bolt head off. But the thread is still stuck in the hole. Need to get a garage to weld a nut onto it, but have no time.
The exhaust also sounds ropey, I imagine it's just a perished U bolt that's come lose and it's blowing at the mid section. Strange you say it sounded good Si, as it sounds awful from inside!
Indeed a small world, think you may have joined a Sunday blast through Oxfordshire I organsied few years back, but can't remember what car you were in at the time. Yeah that was the grey supercharged R32 which got rear ended in traffic, sadly no longer, always get a slightly anxious feeling driving past Woodstock airport now.Did you struggle to keep up joining the A420?
As for the car, it's been neglected. Nothing new apart from brakes and a new caliper due to it sticking. It's been a great dump run car for the house renovation, I gave in and cleaned it last night as it was thick with dirt and rubble inside.
Oh, I don't have any rear seats. The old ones got covered in brake fluid, so removed them. To do so, had to grind a bolt head off. But the thread is still stuck in the hole. Need to get a garage to weld a nut onto it, but have no time.
The exhaust also sounds ropey, I imagine it's just a perished U bolt that's come lose and it's blowing at the mid section. Strange you say it sounded good Si, as it sounds awful from inside!
Wouldn't say struggle but there was nothing left to give
The 182 looked pretty dialed in. I was pleased you were making progress - I was late picking up my daughter from nursery. The noise from behind was a mixture of induction and rasp, and sounded good to me, even if it didn't for you with the optional rear seat delete! I've just replaced a rear brake caliper on the R32, its solved the squeak but I still have a drone at about 60mph when warm and off throttle, which i need to get looked at, hoping its a wheel bearing and not the rear diff.
Wheres the house reno project? I'm in Witney so will keep an eye out for you.
Depends if you hit the gas at the same time as me, that corner is always good fun if it's quiet! It never ceases to amaze me, very capable car.
Diff sounds pricy, fingers crossed.
Just in Hanborough, so only down the road. We should arrange an other drive/meet. Good to meet like minded folk about. There is Kingsley Café local and Hook Norton do car events. coffee, run out, end with a beer. Sounds perfect!
illmonkey said:
I did indeed! Was in the Z4M that I still have. Ha, I have a similar feeling on the road I crashed on, good job I don't go near it any more.
Depends if you hit the gas at the same time as me, that corner is always good fun if it's quiet! It never ceases to amaze me, very capable car.
Diff sounds pricy, fingers crossed.
Just in Hanborough, so only down the road. We should arrange an other drive/meet. Good to meet like minded folk about. There is Kingsley Café local and Hook Norton do car events. coffee, run out, end with a beer. Sounds perfect!
I'd be up for that, had a look at the Kingsley Cafe recently, can kind of see what they were hoping to achieve and i am a sucker for a classic Rangey, but it felt a bit soul-less. Not tried Hook Norton but looks good, also Caffeine and Machine (not been) and Classic Motor Hub (been). Perhaps a post in the PH events/meetings section for an Oxfordshire specific drive followed by Coffee/pub is a starting point. Depends if you hit the gas at the same time as me, that corner is always good fun if it's quiet! It never ceases to amaze me, very capable car.
Diff sounds pricy, fingers crossed.
Just in Hanborough, so only down the road. We should arrange an other drive/meet. Good to meet like minded folk about. There is Kingsley Café local and Hook Norton do car events. coffee, run out, end with a beer. Sounds perfect!
illmonkey said:
I’ll post one up when I have time and figure a bit of a plan!
Spotted you just driving past waitrose in Witney, I was in the red 2002, too late to wave!
Sounds good, yeah it looked sweet as, red really popping in the eve sun. You have all bases covered, classic for cruising around in, Clio for track and BM for those special drives! Spotted you just driving past waitrose in Witney, I was in the red 2002, too late to wave!
si_xsi said:
illmonkey said:
I’ll post one up when I have time and figure a bit of a plan!
Spotted you just driving past waitrose in Witney, I was in the red 2002, too late to wave!
Sounds good, yeah it looked sweet as, red really popping in the eve sun. You have all bases covered, classic for cruising around in, Clio for track and BM for those special drives! Spotted you just driving past waitrose in Witney, I was in the red 2002, too late to wave!
It's been a minute! Life gets in the way and whilst I've been maintaining the little Clio, finding time to post is not high up the list.
The last major update was the gearbox saying goodbye to 4 gears. I sat on the car for a good month before deciding what to do. Only 13k on the refurbished gearbox I'd spent £1000 on 2 years before, it was tough to justify another gearbox. But, it was worthless as it was, so bit the bullet and got it shipped off to a different specialist. The new guy was highly recommended and very helpful. Even explaining why the last refurb didn't last; they have a oil drip tray/straw that feeds the end of the box that he'd forgotten to put in! I didn't even bother to go back to the last gearbox guy, as I complained about something else back then and he just ignored me.
This is becoming too frequent!
Cheeky snap of the other 2 when moving them about
Refurbished gearbox fitted and we're back on track. Specialist did say the refurb guy may buy mine back, apparently he just laughed when he saw it, so that's a no then... I treated it to a oil change and just got on with life. I was selling a house, had no where to go, ended up going through several short term rentals with all my stuff in storage, so 2023 was quiet on the car front!
New boots, MOT, replacement caliper (seized), pads, boot sensor all sorted in this time. I even paid someone to fit the caliper as all my tools were locked up.
Due to the living conditions, I had a 10 gallon drum on my back seats with about a litre of used brake fluid. I kept meaning to ditch it at a mates, but life. Inevitably it spilt on my back seats ruining them, and leaving a punchy smell in the car too. I decided I had to remove and skip them. Sadly the bolt holding the read bench in is threaded through the boot floor and to under the car, this gets dirty and rusty and is hard work to get out. So the car had no rear seats for a few months. I tried and tried and was unable to remove the bolt, the internet told me it needed a nut welding to it to remove it.
Having the rear seats out was at least beneficial for all of the dump runs I was doing due to renovating the house I'd bought (silver lining!). I found a set for £50 and stored them until I could get the bolt out. Alas, upon heading to my new friends to take the bolt out (who look after the 2002) the stars aligned and decided to do a number on the car. It started misfiring and making a hell of a racket from the exhaust. I was on a very busy DC in rush hour, but by luck there was a junction for an industrial estate, so I darted across to that and stopped the car. I knew it was only firing on 3 cylinders so started investigating, I even posted a video on the Clio FB group and within 3 minutes a handful of people had all said it's thrown a spark plug. To my fortune, I'd broken down outside a friends office, so a quick call and I had a set of sockets enabling me to remove the inlet manifold to inspect the sparks. Not much detective work needed...
Looks like it's thrown a spark!
Fortune was clearly in my favour, there was a GSF 2 minutes walk away! I popped in and they had stock of the correct spark plug, but not a tool to fit the new one. The socket set my friend had was limited. So I had the spark but no way to fit it. But no worries, I'd also stopped outside an ATS, I popped in, explained it and within 30 seconds a chap with a spark plug tool was fitting the spark to my car. He left me to reassemble the HT leads and manifold and it bloody worked! I popped back and thanked him, he'd take no money from me (I did pop back a few days later with a massive tray of KK donuts for them all)
Sadly this issue had caused problems with the exhaust and it was not happy. I limped it home and inspected the exhaust, the bracketry was shagged.
Lots of research and a post of FB saw the latest specialist tout for the work. He reckoned it'd be £500+ to sort, due to the issues with removing and welding the cat. I'd read this over and over, so trusted him and arranged the car over to him. The belts were also due, an other specialist only job, so I went all in and got him to do that too. I also asked him to remove that rear bench bolt so I could fit the new seats.
It's like ground hog day with this car.
He managed to get it all back together, with one noticeable exception of the pads being on the metal on 1 side, so he swapped them out. The caliper was sticking but he freed it, fingers crossed it stays that way.
We're pretty much up to date, it's had some more tyres, it seems to eat them (honest guv!). It runs 1.5degrees camber on the front, look at the progression of wear on that!
Sadly the exhaust is some how slightly misaligned, so the exhaust has fallen, and won't go back, into it's hanger at the rear. So it's going back to be looked at, just an annoying 3 hour round trip, but hey, at least it won't go on a flatbed this time!
I'll finish on a high note, of it working and clean (photo is old!). I am trying to get a few mates to sort dates out so it can be spanked on a track, it's gagging for it! The car is so encouraging.
The last major update was the gearbox saying goodbye to 4 gears. I sat on the car for a good month before deciding what to do. Only 13k on the refurbished gearbox I'd spent £1000 on 2 years before, it was tough to justify another gearbox. But, it was worthless as it was, so bit the bullet and got it shipped off to a different specialist. The new guy was highly recommended and very helpful. Even explaining why the last refurb didn't last; they have a oil drip tray/straw that feeds the end of the box that he'd forgotten to put in! I didn't even bother to go back to the last gearbox guy, as I complained about something else back then and he just ignored me.
This is becoming too frequent!
Cheeky snap of the other 2 when moving them about
Refurbished gearbox fitted and we're back on track. Specialist did say the refurb guy may buy mine back, apparently he just laughed when he saw it, so that's a no then... I treated it to a oil change and just got on with life. I was selling a house, had no where to go, ended up going through several short term rentals with all my stuff in storage, so 2023 was quiet on the car front!
New boots, MOT, replacement caliper (seized), pads, boot sensor all sorted in this time. I even paid someone to fit the caliper as all my tools were locked up.
Due to the living conditions, I had a 10 gallon drum on my back seats with about a litre of used brake fluid. I kept meaning to ditch it at a mates, but life. Inevitably it spilt on my back seats ruining them, and leaving a punchy smell in the car too. I decided I had to remove and skip them. Sadly the bolt holding the read bench in is threaded through the boot floor and to under the car, this gets dirty and rusty and is hard work to get out. So the car had no rear seats for a few months. I tried and tried and was unable to remove the bolt, the internet told me it needed a nut welding to it to remove it.
Having the rear seats out was at least beneficial for all of the dump runs I was doing due to renovating the house I'd bought (silver lining!). I found a set for £50 and stored them until I could get the bolt out. Alas, upon heading to my new friends to take the bolt out (who look after the 2002) the stars aligned and decided to do a number on the car. It started misfiring and making a hell of a racket from the exhaust. I was on a very busy DC in rush hour, but by luck there was a junction for an industrial estate, so I darted across to that and stopped the car. I knew it was only firing on 3 cylinders so started investigating, I even posted a video on the Clio FB group and within 3 minutes a handful of people had all said it's thrown a spark plug. To my fortune, I'd broken down outside a friends office, so a quick call and I had a set of sockets enabling me to remove the inlet manifold to inspect the sparks. Not much detective work needed...
Looks like it's thrown a spark!
Fortune was clearly in my favour, there was a GSF 2 minutes walk away! I popped in and they had stock of the correct spark plug, but not a tool to fit the new one. The socket set my friend had was limited. So I had the spark but no way to fit it. But no worries, I'd also stopped outside an ATS, I popped in, explained it and within 30 seconds a chap with a spark plug tool was fitting the spark to my car. He left me to reassemble the HT leads and manifold and it bloody worked! I popped back and thanked him, he'd take no money from me (I did pop back a few days later with a massive tray of KK donuts for them all)
Sadly this issue had caused problems with the exhaust and it was not happy. I limped it home and inspected the exhaust, the bracketry was shagged.
Lots of research and a post of FB saw the latest specialist tout for the work. He reckoned it'd be £500+ to sort, due to the issues with removing and welding the cat. I'd read this over and over, so trusted him and arranged the car over to him. The belts were also due, an other specialist only job, so I went all in and got him to do that too. I also asked him to remove that rear bench bolt so I could fit the new seats.
It's like ground hog day with this car.
He managed to get it all back together, with one noticeable exception of the pads being on the metal on 1 side, so he swapped them out. The caliper was sticking but he freed it, fingers crossed it stays that way.
We're pretty much up to date, it's had some more tyres, it seems to eat them (honest guv!). It runs 1.5degrees camber on the front, look at the progression of wear on that!
Sadly the exhaust is some how slightly misaligned, so the exhaust has fallen, and won't go back, into it's hanger at the rear. So it's going back to be looked at, just an annoying 3 hour round trip, but hey, at least it won't go on a flatbed this time!
I'll finish on a high note, of it working and clean (photo is old!). I am trying to get a few mates to sort dates out so it can be spanked on a track, it's gagging for it! The car is so encouraging.
Edited by illmonkey on Wednesday 7th February 08:50
si_xsi said:
I'd be up for that, had a look at the Kingsley Cafe recently, can kind of see what they were hoping to achieve and i am a sucker for a classic Rangey, but it felt a bit soul-less. Not tried Hook Norton but looks good, also Caffeine and Machine (not been) and Classic Motor Hub (been). Perhaps a post in the PH events/meetings section for an Oxfordshire specific drive followed by Coffee/pub is a starting point.
Forgot to say, if you're still game I am going to try and organise something soon. I randomly met someone I know through work at a brewery, and someone else, neither of us knew, joined in for a impromptu car chat. We've set up a WA group in the hope to do some drives/beers etc.Cambs_Stuart said:
Good to see if still getting looked after, even if it's persistently causing issues. My Clio is very much the same. I've bene daily driving mine, and it does seem to run much better with regular use. It also means the oil that leaks out is spread over a much wider area...
Ain't that the truth fellow baguette enthusiast! I joked to a mate I don't see the point in oil changes as it seems to go through a few litres a year anyway It seems a ruinous amount of money spent on such a basic car, £10,400 to date (excluding the purchase price), but it's done 40k of hard, fast daily driving with the odd trackday and European trip thrown into the mix. I care little for it's appearance/tidiness and just ensure I do everything it needs mechanically to the best level. A tick over 7 years of ownership and everytime I drive it, it puts a smile on my face and asks for more. I look for something to replace it and nothing even comes close.
illmonkey said:
si_xsi said:
I'd be up for that, had a look at the Kingsley Cafe recently, can kind of see what they were hoping to achieve and i am a sucker for a classic Rangey, but it felt a bit soul-less. Not tried Hook Norton but looks good, also Caffeine and Machine (not been) and Classic Motor Hub (been). Perhaps a post in the PH events/meetings section for an Oxfordshire specific drive followed by Coffee/pub is a starting point.
Forgot to say, if you're still game I am going to try and organise something soon. I randomly met someone I know through work at a brewery, and someone else, neither of us knew, joined in for a impromptu car chat. We've set up a WA group in the hope to do some drives/beers etc.Yep I'm definitely game for that, will PM you my number. My car is going in for a suspension refresh and service this Friday but should get it back next week.
Cambs_Stuart said:
Good to see if still getting looked after, even if it's persistently causing issues. My Clio is very much the same. I've bene daily driving mine, and it does seem to run much better with regular use. It also means the oil that leaks out is spread over a much wider area...
My one is leaking oil as well, have you had the under tray off to see where it’s coming from ?Mine doesn't leak generally. The last gearbox it's had (can't believe I can say the last one...) is fantastic and doesn't leak.
Well that didn't last long. 2 miles from my office this morning and it start idling rough at some lights. This isn't my first rodeo! Firing on 3 cylinders, so assume an injector, cos French....
Crossed 3 lanes of traffic at the light, so I could pull in and check it. Last time the spark blew out, this time everything looked ok, so read the codes and it says Cylinder 1 misfire. I'll point out that I forgot to mention cylinder 2 (when the spark blew out) was still a bit dodgy. I had an injector I'd replaced a year before in my spares box, so put that in and it was fine. Clearly that injector was ok and something else fixed the previous problem!
Limped it to work and tried to find an injector for a 20 year old car in stock close by. Luck would have it there was one 1.8 miles away. I decided to leave early and go fetch it, as well as a cheap £10 tool kit to fit it outside ECP. I was explaining that I couldn't believe my luck to the guy in the store when he told me it was the wrong part (1 number out!) and they didn't have the correct one
I still got the tool kit and removed the inlet manifold, checked over the leads and sparks, removed the fuel rail (it pissed EVERYWHERE), removed and inspected the injector, which looked fine, then put it all back together again. Sadly it was still rough. So I nursed it home going the on the slowest roads to ensure I didn't put much load on it and here we are. I've got lots of old parts I've replaced I can test (HT leads etc), but I reckon I'll end up ordering a new injector. That'll be the 6th I've ordered, but the first was 6 years ago, so probably starting the cycle again!
Well that didn't last long. 2 miles from my office this morning and it start idling rough at some lights. This isn't my first rodeo! Firing on 3 cylinders, so assume an injector, cos French....
Crossed 3 lanes of traffic at the light, so I could pull in and check it. Last time the spark blew out, this time everything looked ok, so read the codes and it says Cylinder 1 misfire. I'll point out that I forgot to mention cylinder 2 (when the spark blew out) was still a bit dodgy. I had an injector I'd replaced a year before in my spares box, so put that in and it was fine. Clearly that injector was ok and something else fixed the previous problem!
Limped it to work and tried to find an injector for a 20 year old car in stock close by. Luck would have it there was one 1.8 miles away. I decided to leave early and go fetch it, as well as a cheap £10 tool kit to fit it outside ECP. I was explaining that I couldn't believe my luck to the guy in the store when he told me it was the wrong part (1 number out!) and they didn't have the correct one
I still got the tool kit and removed the inlet manifold, checked over the leads and sparks, removed the fuel rail (it pissed EVERYWHERE), removed and inspected the injector, which looked fine, then put it all back together again. Sadly it was still rough. So I nursed it home going the on the slowest roads to ensure I didn't put much load on it and here we are. I've got lots of old parts I've replaced I can test (HT leads etc), but I reckon I'll end up ordering a new injector. That'll be the 6th I've ordered, but the first was 6 years ago, so probably starting the cycle again!
Edited by illmonkey on Friday 9th February 19:48
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