Clio 172 after a 12 year break from trackdays
Discussion
I don't know about you, but I'm my own worst enemy when it comes to cars. Great intentions, grand plans, taking on too many modifications, always fettling or dismantling or improving or repairing or occasionally completely ruining it, and not much of the actual driving.
I've done a lot of car modifying in the past, from designing a clean-sheet spaceframe chassis to importing a 40 year old classic from Japan, but never seem to get them finished (or, latterly, find the time to use them).
Despite saying for the last 15 years or more that my hobby is trackdays, I've only ever done 4 of them!
- 2002, Snetterton, Celica ST185RC
- 2004, Brands Indy, Porsche 944
- 2006, Snetterton, Clio 172
- 2008, Barbagallo, Commodore V8 (and after that, the bug was just about to bite me soooo hard, I stopped even thinking about trackdays for a year!)
The rest of the time I've been buying road cars, getting married, getting a dog, getting an estate, having kids, getting a Dacia Duster. Seen a fair few projects come and go - how's this for a list of unfinished projects or unrealised dreams since that first trackday? this is just the highlights...
- Manta A 1.9SR
- Capri S with a 3.1 Vulcan engine
- Locost with Honda Blackbird engine
- 200SX drift car
- Coram LMP bike engined prototype
- Hilux LN60 off roader
- Elise S1 hillclimb car
- Mk2 Escort race car
- MX5 mk1 turbo
- Subaru Brat pickup "restored" ha ha... or thoroughly bodged...
- Blobeye Impreza WRX
- Golf mk2 with ABF engine
- Porsche 944 S2
- Fiesta mk5 ST
- Celica TA22 with a 4AGE
So a fair range of cars with one common theme - none of them got finished to the state I wanted them, and hardly ever even got driven on the road unless commuting, let alone the track.
I've had a couple of bikes in the meantime, but while they're great fun I am getting less and less interested in riding in the wet or on dirty or greasy roads, so I need something else to keep the itch scratched over winter. What better time than a rainy October to get a track dedicated car?
Well, due to small children and one income and Covid worries and still not much time on my hands, no it's not a great time and my wife very much agreed on that front! But does recognise I need to get a trackday fix after all these years.
Sadly there's not much money in the pot. So I set myself a 2-3 grand budget and strict instructions to myself not to go over. Yeah, right, that's gonna work isn't it?
I wanted RWD really. I'd consider 4WD but not fussed.
I want something that's not too expensive to run, so preferably light and easy on its tyres and brakes.
MX5 then!
...except they rot, and having seen loads of cars that look like they are starting to rot through, and read from serial owners that repairs can only last a few years, and thought no sod that.
E36 coupe then!
...except there aren't many around in good nick, they are rotting in the rear arches, the drift boys have got hold of most of them, and I didn't want a nose heavy 6cyl. So a 318is with a supercharger or turbo then! Or a Saab B204 engine bunged in - perfect! (you can see how I ended up with the massive List of Disappointment above...) No! No projects...
BMW Compact then!
...nearly went to see a drift ready one with a 6cyl and a full cage, but something just put me off. It just whiffed of trouble, repairs, heartache and the hairy eyeball from my wife as I embark on yet another failed car project.
RX8, no - engine.
IS200, no - rotting.
AWD - Impreza is the obvious one. But I've had a Newage so wanted a Classic this time around. Rear arch and turret rot in anything within budget, and still have to track prep it. No, not gonna happen is it. I saw one excellent looking Forester turbo on new coilovers, but it sold within a day and a boggo Forester didn't excite (nor make it within budget once suspension and tyres were sorted, let alone the rest of it).
FWD it is, then. And I need to get something already prepped, or it's a project (and would cost way more than its value to bring up to standard).
So, dear readers, and thanks for sticking with me til now, within a week of deciding (reluctantly) that I'd have to resign myself to rejoining the hordes of Clio drivers on track, I found a Mk2 Ph1 locally. It was 750 quid over the top of my budget but it turns out a mate is a mate of the Lotus specialist who did much of the recent work on the car, which included fitting a rear Safety Devices cage, new coilovers, corner weighting, new cambelt, new HT ignition throughout, new Nankang NS2r tyres... and him and the seller are on the same industrial estate... and the seller might be happy to take an offer.
So I agonised about busting my (self imposed) budget, and decided I couldn't do more than 3200. I wasn't angry at myself, I was disappointed...
Remarkably the seller accepted the offer, and Saturday just passed I'm picking the car up. Just then the heavens opened, the wife and kids leapt back in the family car and headed home, and I was buying it no matter what!
A couple of pics from the advert.
Happily the car is well prepared, lots of new parts, quite a few upgrades fitted over its recent life. Tested til February, 101k miles, belts done, recent coilovers and tyres, stainless exhaust, and it looks decent.
The mods?
Engine - 172 engine with no mods; vibratechnic RH mount, not sure about the LH mount or the dogbone
Exhaust - powerflow catback with 182 twin tailpipes and a 182 bumper
Brakes - ducted properly from the foglight apertures, otherwise standard
Wheels - 16" from a 182, NS2Rs 2 trackdays old; a couple of spare rims
Suspension - K-Tec coilovers, 2 trackdays old; Whiteline rear ARB; corner weighted and geo recently done
Body - front and rear strut braces
- polycarbonate side and rear windows with sliders
- Cup tailgate spoiler
Cabin - largely stripped inside
- Pure Motorsports gearshift lever
- Safety Devices basic half rollcage
- Sparco Sprint seats on Clio base mounts and sliding rails, with Sabelt 3pt harnesses
- OMP wheel on quick release hub
- doorcards in plastic sheet, webbing pulls
A quick whizz round the internet suggests about 4 grand of parts are on the car and none of it looks tired or even old, which even setting aside the time to fit them and set the car up, is validation of the decision to buy one already done.
Driving it home showed the speedo nodding all over the place, then when planting the throttle it's misfiring heavily. Oncewarm hot it sorts itself out. A bit of research (tricky to get good feedback because they all misfire a bit when cold) says the speed signal comes from the ECU not a speed sensor, so the speedo nod suggests there's an ECU issue. I am wondering if there's a dry joint in the ECU which makes a good connection once the unit is warmed by its proximity to the engine... Equally I want to check the fault codes, the main earths, and the ECU wiring harness - and there's talk of the injector harness getting damaged and causing similar problems.
So the seller's claim that "...it misfires when cold but they all do that" was a bit disingenuous as they don't misfire like this one does! But once warm it does disappear. For the moment at least.
Saturday afternoon was spent sorting the garage out so it could go inside - more important than I had been expecting due to the polycarb windows and sliders. We got it in there, along with my motorbike - and the DIY stuff, the gardening stuff, the sandpit, the play bench, 4 exercise machines...
Sunday I sneaked half an hour in the cabin removing some clips and wiring carriers that offended me. When stripping the car out, the 80/20 rule had definitely applied. Remove underbonnet sound deadening by tearing it off the fir tree clips; leave clips in place. Remove inner sill trims; leave massive wiring clips in place. The cabin especially was begging to put a hole in your trainers or catch your forehead on an unprotected clip in the header rail, so I got straight on with that.
|https://thumbsnap.com/oBCVZxh4[/url]
Hardly any weight saved but it looks better for it inside the cabin, and it's well on the road towards feeling like my car once I've done a few jobs around it:
- Check fluids
- Fit the OBD bluetooth dongle and check / clear error codes
- Fit a mount for my crappy Chinese dash cam (I'd love a GoPro but no budget, and I need to prove to myself that I can be arsed with footage...)
- There's a cheap extinguisher on the way already
- I want to chop the rear seat brackets down, no need for those now
- Remove the parcel shelf brackets using a spot weld drill
- Remove the passenger airbag, the airbag ECU, and the seat airbag wiring harnesses
Side project - "while I'm there" just kills me
- I'm considering relocating the fuseboxes and relay holders so they're accessible once the passenger airbag has been moved
- if all that happens, I may chop out the glovebox to get a bit more weight out, as well as improve access to wiring
- and if all that happens, then get the bulkhead NVH pad out and paint the dashboard topper pad in matt grey to reduce glare
And longer term
- the rollcage has no diagonals and no harness bar, so they could do with being made and welded in
- the adjusters on the 3pt harness are crap, so a decent harness with 3" shoulder belts is in order once I have somewhere on the cage to strap them
- I'd like a shift light, as the tacho doesn't seem that easy to read IMO, but this car needs to stay true to its budget purchase price
But hopefully that's nothing too intrusive that would take the car off the road.
Due to rain on Saturday and family stuff on Sunday I haven't had chance to get in the car for a dry run around the local roads, so haven't booked a trackday yet. But on the face of it there's nothing to suggest it won't be fine - once warm. I'm just not risking my 150 quid to find out the problem is getting worse.
Next time hopefully a road report, and some pics of where it's at now.
Driveway shot to end with.
I've done a lot of car modifying in the past, from designing a clean-sheet spaceframe chassis to importing a 40 year old classic from Japan, but never seem to get them finished (or, latterly, find the time to use them).
Despite saying for the last 15 years or more that my hobby is trackdays, I've only ever done 4 of them!
- 2002, Snetterton, Celica ST185RC
- 2004, Brands Indy, Porsche 944
- 2006, Snetterton, Clio 172
- 2008, Barbagallo, Commodore V8 (and after that, the bug was just about to bite me soooo hard, I stopped even thinking about trackdays for a year!)
The rest of the time I've been buying road cars, getting married, getting a dog, getting an estate, having kids, getting a Dacia Duster. Seen a fair few projects come and go - how's this for a list of unfinished projects or unrealised dreams since that first trackday? this is just the highlights...
- Manta A 1.9SR
- Capri S with a 3.1 Vulcan engine
- Locost with Honda Blackbird engine
- 200SX drift car
- Coram LMP bike engined prototype
- Hilux LN60 off roader
- Elise S1 hillclimb car
- Mk2 Escort race car
- MX5 mk1 turbo
- Subaru Brat pickup "restored" ha ha... or thoroughly bodged...
- Blobeye Impreza WRX
- Golf mk2 with ABF engine
- Porsche 944 S2
- Fiesta mk5 ST
- Celica TA22 with a 4AGE
So a fair range of cars with one common theme - none of them got finished to the state I wanted them, and hardly ever even got driven on the road unless commuting, let alone the track.
I've had a couple of bikes in the meantime, but while they're great fun I am getting less and less interested in riding in the wet or on dirty or greasy roads, so I need something else to keep the itch scratched over winter. What better time than a rainy October to get a track dedicated car?
Well, due to small children and one income and Covid worries and still not much time on my hands, no it's not a great time and my wife very much agreed on that front! But does recognise I need to get a trackday fix after all these years.
Sadly there's not much money in the pot. So I set myself a 2-3 grand budget and strict instructions to myself not to go over. Yeah, right, that's gonna work isn't it?
I wanted RWD really. I'd consider 4WD but not fussed.
I want something that's not too expensive to run, so preferably light and easy on its tyres and brakes.
MX5 then!
...except they rot, and having seen loads of cars that look like they are starting to rot through, and read from serial owners that repairs can only last a few years, and thought no sod that.
E36 coupe then!
...except there aren't many around in good nick, they are rotting in the rear arches, the drift boys have got hold of most of them, and I didn't want a nose heavy 6cyl. So a 318is with a supercharger or turbo then! Or a Saab B204 engine bunged in - perfect! (you can see how I ended up with the massive List of Disappointment above...) No! No projects...
BMW Compact then!
...nearly went to see a drift ready one with a 6cyl and a full cage, but something just put me off. It just whiffed of trouble, repairs, heartache and the hairy eyeball from my wife as I embark on yet another failed car project.
RX8, no - engine.
IS200, no - rotting.
AWD - Impreza is the obvious one. But I've had a Newage so wanted a Classic this time around. Rear arch and turret rot in anything within budget, and still have to track prep it. No, not gonna happen is it. I saw one excellent looking Forester turbo on new coilovers, but it sold within a day and a boggo Forester didn't excite (nor make it within budget once suspension and tyres were sorted, let alone the rest of it).
FWD it is, then. And I need to get something already prepped, or it's a project (and would cost way more than its value to bring up to standard).
So, dear readers, and thanks for sticking with me til now, within a week of deciding (reluctantly) that I'd have to resign myself to rejoining the hordes of Clio drivers on track, I found a Mk2 Ph1 locally. It was 750 quid over the top of my budget but it turns out a mate is a mate of the Lotus specialist who did much of the recent work on the car, which included fitting a rear Safety Devices cage, new coilovers, corner weighting, new cambelt, new HT ignition throughout, new Nankang NS2r tyres... and him and the seller are on the same industrial estate... and the seller might be happy to take an offer.
So I agonised about busting my (self imposed) budget, and decided I couldn't do more than 3200. I wasn't angry at myself, I was disappointed...
Remarkably the seller accepted the offer, and Saturday just passed I'm picking the car up. Just then the heavens opened, the wife and kids leapt back in the family car and headed home, and I was buying it no matter what!
A couple of pics from the advert.
Happily the car is well prepared, lots of new parts, quite a few upgrades fitted over its recent life. Tested til February, 101k miles, belts done, recent coilovers and tyres, stainless exhaust, and it looks decent.
The mods?
Engine - 172 engine with no mods; vibratechnic RH mount, not sure about the LH mount or the dogbone
Exhaust - powerflow catback with 182 twin tailpipes and a 182 bumper
Brakes - ducted properly from the foglight apertures, otherwise standard
Wheels - 16" from a 182, NS2Rs 2 trackdays old; a couple of spare rims
Suspension - K-Tec coilovers, 2 trackdays old; Whiteline rear ARB; corner weighted and geo recently done
Body - front and rear strut braces
- polycarbonate side and rear windows with sliders
- Cup tailgate spoiler
Cabin - largely stripped inside
- Pure Motorsports gearshift lever
- Safety Devices basic half rollcage
- Sparco Sprint seats on Clio base mounts and sliding rails, with Sabelt 3pt harnesses
- OMP wheel on quick release hub
- doorcards in plastic sheet, webbing pulls
A quick whizz round the internet suggests about 4 grand of parts are on the car and none of it looks tired or even old, which even setting aside the time to fit them and set the car up, is validation of the decision to buy one already done.
Driving it home showed the speedo nodding all over the place, then when planting the throttle it's misfiring heavily. Once
So the seller's claim that "...it misfires when cold but they all do that" was a bit disingenuous as they don't misfire like this one does! But once warm it does disappear. For the moment at least.
Saturday afternoon was spent sorting the garage out so it could go inside - more important than I had been expecting due to the polycarb windows and sliders. We got it in there, along with my motorbike - and the DIY stuff, the gardening stuff, the sandpit, the play bench, 4 exercise machines...
Sunday I sneaked half an hour in the cabin removing some clips and wiring carriers that offended me. When stripping the car out, the 80/20 rule had definitely applied. Remove underbonnet sound deadening by tearing it off the fir tree clips; leave clips in place. Remove inner sill trims; leave massive wiring clips in place. The cabin especially was begging to put a hole in your trainers or catch your forehead on an unprotected clip in the header rail, so I got straight on with that.
|https://thumbsnap.com/oBCVZxh4[/url]Hardly any weight saved but it looks better for it inside the cabin, and it's well on the road towards feeling like my car once I've done a few jobs around it:
- Check fluids
- Fit the OBD bluetooth dongle and check / clear error codes
- Fit a mount for my crappy Chinese dash cam (I'd love a GoPro but no budget, and I need to prove to myself that I can be arsed with footage...)
- There's a cheap extinguisher on the way already
- I want to chop the rear seat brackets down, no need for those now
- Remove the parcel shelf brackets using a spot weld drill
- Remove the passenger airbag, the airbag ECU, and the seat airbag wiring harnesses
Side project - "while I'm there" just kills me
- I'm considering relocating the fuseboxes and relay holders so they're accessible once the passenger airbag has been moved
- if all that happens, I may chop out the glovebox to get a bit more weight out, as well as improve access to wiring
- and if all that happens, then get the bulkhead NVH pad out and paint the dashboard topper pad in matt grey to reduce glare
And longer term
- the rollcage has no diagonals and no harness bar, so they could do with being made and welded in
- the adjusters on the 3pt harness are crap, so a decent harness with 3" shoulder belts is in order once I have somewhere on the cage to strap them
- I'd like a shift light, as the tacho doesn't seem that easy to read IMO, but this car needs to stay true to its budget purchase price
But hopefully that's nothing too intrusive that would take the car off the road.
Due to rain on Saturday and family stuff on Sunday I haven't had chance to get in the car for a dry run around the local roads, so haven't booked a trackday yet. But on the face of it there's nothing to suggest it won't be fine - once warm. I'm just not risking my 150 quid to find out the problem is getting worse.
Next time hopefully a road report, and some pics of where it's at now.
Driveway shot to end with.
Edited by FNG on Wednesday 14th October 13:50
Thanks. Yeah I'm a long time member of cliosport, as I had a blue Ph1 back in 2006 or so.
Hoping not to need parts too often... hmmm.
I'm really really pleased with how clean the car is. Looks great, and not much wrong with it even close up.
The nearside sill is blistering at the rear arch, which will need looking at soon.
And the damper tower on the same side looks like it's rusty but I suspect it's moisture got into the cup of sheet metal that's welded onto the damper tower and forms the rear seat back bracket mount. Hopefully a wire brush and treat with Nilt Hamber Hydrate 80 will sort both, for a while at least.
That aside the front bumper centre lower has been rattle canned, and I can't see much else wrong with it. Calling it a result for any 20 year old Clio let alone a track car.
Hoping not to need parts too often... hmmm.
I'm really really pleased with how clean the car is. Looks great, and not much wrong with it even close up.
The nearside sill is blistering at the rear arch, which will need looking at soon.
And the damper tower on the same side looks like it's rusty but I suspect it's moisture got into the cup of sheet metal that's welded onto the damper tower and forms the rear seat back bracket mount. Hopefully a wire brush and treat with Nilt Hamber Hydrate 80 will sort both, for a while at least.
That aside the front bumper centre lower has been rattle canned, and I can't see much else wrong with it. Calling it a result for any 20 year old Clio let alone a track car.
Plenty of choice of track prepared clios on ebay and facebook! If you're anywhere near the midlands, on Facebook marketplace there's a metallic red one near Leicester / Hinkley that looks like a great spec for 3000 ono.
I spent quite a while comparing about 6 cars, as no two seem to be the same, and the more you spend the better the kit on them in the main. I dismissed one because its belts were obviously overdue and ended up over budget mostly because the belts had been done on this car recently. When it's a 500-800 quid bill, and there's so much choice around, to me it was a clincher.
Managed to get a bit of time yesterday to nose around the car a bit more. Couldn't get out in it but it was worthwhile.
Firstly thought I'd check the main earth, as I've had a couple of people say that an earth problem could cause my rough running combined with speedo needle nodding.
Nothing wrong with the earth to the body, very tight to the point it felt like the bolt might shear, so I wire brushed that and soaked in plusgas. I'll remove it this weekend and clean up.
Next, battery terminals. Ah. Yes, could be a problem - the terminal is tight but eyelidded, so it's oversize for the battery post diameter. It wasn't going to come off, but it was loose enough to wiggle up and down.
I found a 1mm thick strip of steel from a stereo mounting kit, cut a bit off and inserted it between post and terminal. No pics, very rough and ready while I measure up and buy a new terminal, but it's now secure.
Test drive this weekend to see if that's my issue. Be a very cheap win if it is, not breaking out the party streamers just yet.
Next, looking at airbag wiring and the ECU. The passenger airbag was still in the dash, but drivers bag and seat bags are obviously gone already. The side impact sensors are still on the inner sills and wired up. No dash lights.
So I unplugged the airbag ECU and no surprises, car still starts and no dash light. Fine, that can be binned then.
I've been reading around online about cutting back the wiring to the airbag ECU and therefore to the seat airbags and side impact sensors, and the consensus is largely DON'T TOUCH THE WIRING!! as if you cut CAN signal wires the car won't start.
But a few people have just cut the whole harness section out with no problems. I suspect this is because the airbags have been disabled in the main ECU or body controller, but have no way of knowing whether this has been done on my car - except for the fact that there's no warning lamps on the dash (and doesn't look like the LED has just been taped over).
So I'm minded to cut the wires to the ECU, one at a time, and check the car still starts after every cut. Car won't start, remake the wire I cut last. Seem sensible? I dunno, works for me!
Next, passenger airbag. A couple of kilos in there for sure, and yes I know you won't notice the weight reduction but my thinking is much less about making it faster, as about any weight reduction you do makes the car easier on its consumables and therefore cheaper to run on track.
So, dash topper is removed in 5 minutes with 9 screws:
- 3 in the windscreen demist vent slots
- one each side just rearward of the bottom of the A-pillar trim (door open to see it and access it)
- a pair to remove the upper column shroud
- a pair to disconnect the instrument cowl, which comes away with the dash topper
Pull topper pad towards you, lift off. Dead easy.
Airbag module is 4 screws to secure to the cross car beam. 2 of which were missing already... removed the other two, lift airbag module out, that's funny no wiring is coming with it. Yep - been disconnected already!
The visible part of the cover is riveted to the main body of the module. So a decent drill bit and 5 minutes drilling out about 20 rivets, and the cover can be prised off and the airbag, inflator and body discarded.
Note that once it's discharged it's pretty inert, you can chuck it in the air and let it land and it won't go off. However don't short the terminals nor disconnect it from the car wiring without disconnecting the battery first and leaving it 20 minutes for any residual charge in the connector to dissipate.
This leaves me with a hole in my dash panel
so I'll need to put the cover back in there somehow.
Here's the cover, with a thin film of soft touch paint that's degraded over the years and is now peeling. So off that will come.
I'm mid peeling the paint off (invested half an hour in that job so far and about 3/4 of the way through) and the plastic surface underneath looks fine.
But the main dash top is sticky. They all do this, and some poeple have managed to clean them up using isopropyl alcohol and a nail brush... I tried it yesterday and it didn't do a damn thing, although I will try again.
So if I can't get the stickyness off, I may bond the airbag cover to the underside of the dash pad, and get it flocked.
That said, I'm no fan of the Ph1 dash design and all it's doing is holding the instrument cluster and the heater controls / vents. So am happy to spend my 50 quid for flocking elsewhere.
- there's the possibility of changing to a Ph2 dash which looks better to me, but no weight save and potentially problems with heater controls
- remove the lower dash entirely and fabricate brackets to mount the dash ducts, heater controls and upper dash panel
- or if anyone out there does a grp dash for one of these, I'd go that route provided it allowed me to keep the ventilation and heating - no point being lightweight if you can't see out the windows...
Anyone know of a composite dash panel for these?
I spent quite a while comparing about 6 cars, as no two seem to be the same, and the more you spend the better the kit on them in the main. I dismissed one because its belts were obviously overdue and ended up over budget mostly because the belts had been done on this car recently. When it's a 500-800 quid bill, and there's so much choice around, to me it was a clincher.
Managed to get a bit of time yesterday to nose around the car a bit more. Couldn't get out in it but it was worthwhile.
Firstly thought I'd check the main earth, as I've had a couple of people say that an earth problem could cause my rough running combined with speedo needle nodding.
Nothing wrong with the earth to the body, very tight to the point it felt like the bolt might shear, so I wire brushed that and soaked in plusgas. I'll remove it this weekend and clean up.
Next, battery terminals. Ah. Yes, could be a problem - the terminal is tight but eyelidded, so it's oversize for the battery post diameter. It wasn't going to come off, but it was loose enough to wiggle up and down.
I found a 1mm thick strip of steel from a stereo mounting kit, cut a bit off and inserted it between post and terminal. No pics, very rough and ready while I measure up and buy a new terminal, but it's now secure.
Test drive this weekend to see if that's my issue. Be a very cheap win if it is, not breaking out the party streamers just yet.
Next, looking at airbag wiring and the ECU. The passenger airbag was still in the dash, but drivers bag and seat bags are obviously gone already. The side impact sensors are still on the inner sills and wired up. No dash lights.
So I unplugged the airbag ECU and no surprises, car still starts and no dash light. Fine, that can be binned then.
I've been reading around online about cutting back the wiring to the airbag ECU and therefore to the seat airbags and side impact sensors, and the consensus is largely DON'T TOUCH THE WIRING!! as if you cut CAN signal wires the car won't start.
But a few people have just cut the whole harness section out with no problems. I suspect this is because the airbags have been disabled in the main ECU or body controller, but have no way of knowing whether this has been done on my car - except for the fact that there's no warning lamps on the dash (and doesn't look like the LED has just been taped over).
So I'm minded to cut the wires to the ECU, one at a time, and check the car still starts after every cut. Car won't start, remake the wire I cut last. Seem sensible? I dunno, works for me!
Next, passenger airbag. A couple of kilos in there for sure, and yes I know you won't notice the weight reduction but my thinking is much less about making it faster, as about any weight reduction you do makes the car easier on its consumables and therefore cheaper to run on track.
So, dash topper is removed in 5 minutes with 9 screws:
- 3 in the windscreen demist vent slots
- one each side just rearward of the bottom of the A-pillar trim (door open to see it and access it)
- a pair to remove the upper column shroud
- a pair to disconnect the instrument cowl, which comes away with the dash topper
Pull topper pad towards you, lift off. Dead easy.
Airbag module is 4 screws to secure to the cross car beam. 2 of which were missing already... removed the other two, lift airbag module out, that's funny no wiring is coming with it. Yep - been disconnected already!
The visible part of the cover is riveted to the main body of the module. So a decent drill bit and 5 minutes drilling out about 20 rivets, and the cover can be prised off and the airbag, inflator and body discarded.
Note that once it's discharged it's pretty inert, you can chuck it in the air and let it land and it won't go off. However don't short the terminals nor disconnect it from the car wiring without disconnecting the battery first and leaving it 20 minutes for any residual charge in the connector to dissipate.
This leaves me with a hole in my dash panel
so I'll need to put the cover back in there somehow.
Here's the cover, with a thin film of soft touch paint that's degraded over the years and is now peeling. So off that will come.
I'm mid peeling the paint off (invested half an hour in that job so far and about 3/4 of the way through) and the plastic surface underneath looks fine.
But the main dash top is sticky. They all do this, and some poeple have managed to clean them up using isopropyl alcohol and a nail brush... I tried it yesterday and it didn't do a damn thing, although I will try again.
So if I can't get the stickyness off, I may bond the airbag cover to the underside of the dash pad, and get it flocked.
That said, I'm no fan of the Ph1 dash design and all it's doing is holding the instrument cluster and the heater controls / vents. So am happy to spend my 50 quid for flocking elsewhere.
- there's the possibility of changing to a Ph2 dash which looks better to me, but no weight save and potentially problems with heater controls
- remove the lower dash entirely and fabricate brackets to mount the dash ducts, heater controls and upper dash panel
- or if anyone out there does a grp dash for one of these, I'd go that route provided it allowed me to keep the ventilation and heating - no point being lightweight if you can't see out the windows...
Anyone know of a composite dash panel for these?
Happy days. My test drive was just completed with no misfires after it’s initial warm up. There’s no speedo nod either. So it looks like the battery negative terminal was causing the problem - I suspect someone’s used a positive terminal as a make-do, as the positive and negative are slightly different sizes. I’ve got a new one coming to sort it properly as my bodge to prove out the root cause is just that - a bodge.
Quick lay-by pic after some quick checks for leaks and levels.
Only things now are that the driving position isn’t that great so needs some getting used to, and the standard pads aren’t very good - which is no surprise.
Quick lay-by pic after some quick checks for leaks and levels.
Only things now are that the driving position isn’t that great so needs some getting used to, and the standard pads aren’t very good - which is no surprise.
FNG said:
Happy days. My test drive was just completed with no misfires after it’s initial warm up. There’s no speedo nod either. So it looks like the battery negative terminal was causing the problem - I suspect someone’s used a positive terminal as a make-do, as the positive and negative are slightly different sizes. I’ve got a new one coming to sort it properly as my bodge to prove out the root cause is just that - a bodge.
Quick lay-by pic after some quick checks for leaks and levels.
[<snip>
Only things now are that the driving position isn’t that great so needs some getting used to, and the standard pads aren’t very good - which is no surprise.
How was it to drive?Quick lay-by pic after some quick checks for leaks and levels.
[<snip>
Only things now are that the driving position isn’t that great so needs some getting used to, and the standard pads aren’t very good - which is no surprise.
Not like I remembered my old ph1 to be. I think it’s been lowered too far - it’s got a lot of grip but it’s not what you’d call agile on the throttle and there’s not much steering feedback - lots of torque steer mind you.
So it needs to be raised a bit, I think, and I suppose camber adjustment to get it in the right ballpark.
First off it needs a baseline geo, so when I get a chance this week I will at least measure ride heights at the sills and camber at each wheel, and go from there.
So it needs to be raised a bit, I think, and I suppose camber adjustment to get it in the right ballpark.
First off it needs a baseline geo, so when I get a chance this week I will at least measure ride heights at the sills and camber at each wheel, and go from there.
Oh but it seems quick enough in 1st and 2nd. 3rd takes a long time to rev through. It would benefit from shorter gearing once you’re halfway through 2nd gear but I understand that’s not very easy to achieve using standard Renault gearboxes. I’d think dropping to a 195 tyre on a 15” rim would help compared to the 205/45/16s it’s currently on, plus the unsprung weight and rotational inertia benefit. No funds to do that at the moment though. I’ll need to get use out of the tyres on it and move to 15s when they’re used up, which I’d hope will be by spring next year.
Also, one removed airbag cover with the paint mostly peeled off. Took me half an hour of patience and sore fingers to get to this stage.
The last part was really not peeling off. In desperation I tried my strongest tar remover - and it came off in two minutes.
So this will get bonded to the dash topper this week and off for flocking I think. I haven’t the time for a full grp dash especially as I want to keep the heater.
The last part was really not peeling off. In desperation I tried my strongest tar remover - and it came off in two minutes.
So this will get bonded to the dash topper this week and off for flocking I think. I haven’t the time for a full grp dash especially as I want to keep the heater.
FNG said:
Not like I remembered my old ph1 to be. I think it’s been lowered too far - it’s got a lot of grip but it’s not what you’d call agile on the throttle and there’s not much steering feedback - lots of torque steer mind you.
So it needs to be raised a bit, I think, and I suppose camber adjustment to get it in the right ballpark.
First off it needs a baseline geo, so when I get a chance this week I will at least measure ride heights at the sills and camber at each wheel, and go from there.
For lowered 1*2s there are a couple of roll centre correction kits available, between about £500-700. Sorts the angles that are out of tolerance after lowering. I'm about to buy a 182 non-cup, and I'd like to try the Pro-Am one when I lower the carSo it needs to be raised a bit, I think, and I suppose camber adjustment to get it in the right ballpark.
First off it needs a baseline geo, so when I get a chance this week I will at least measure ride heights at the sills and camber at each wheel, and go from there.
vx220 said:
For lowered 1*2s there are a couple of roll centre correction kits available, between about £500-700. Sorts the angles that are out of tolerance after lowering. I'm about to buy a 182 non-cup, and I'd like to try the Pro-Am one when I lower the car
Makes me feel a mix of poor and cheapskate! Going to have to adjust it to work, just can’t stretch to that sort of money sadly. If it means I’m slower, so be it. Sad face. I bought this car to definitely, positively, absolutely break my habit of trying to build immense full-on road legal racing cars for trackdays and failing miserably! So I know exactly what you mean and was determined not to let it become a project never to see road or track til I sold it...
Anyone who does go along to the day I’ve booked and is reading this, do come and say hello.
Anyone who does go along to the day I’ve booked and is reading this, do come and say hello.
Edited by FNG on Friday 23 October 04:17
Santa’s been, and I have a few jobs to do this weekend.
I had been thinking hard about rollcage versus helmet in the event of an accident, and decided to get this. Decent price and pretty much unmarked, but out of date obviously. I will be able to sell the two Sparco sprint seats, runners and bases to cover the cost of this and a 6pt harness that’s also on its way.
I had been thinking hard about rollcage versus helmet in the event of an accident, and decided to get this. Decent price and pretty much unmarked, but out of date obviously. I will be able to sell the two Sparco sprint seats, runners and bases to cover the cost of this and a 6pt harness that’s also on its way.
Well, time is at a premium as usual so I’ve only just got round to the car. First job, pads.
Little bit disappointing that the pads are too large for the callipers with anti rattle springs in. Perhaps they’re sized for racing applications, but this pad compound is for trackday and fast road. So they ought to fit with the springs in. Anyway the bench grinder got them trimmed easily enough.
On taking a wheel off I see I’ve got 20mm spacers, which will be at least part of the reason it has significant torque steer and lacks feel. Jury is out on whether these are a good trade for front end grip rather than feel and feedback. I’ll decide after the trackday on Saturday.
The bleed nipples on both callipers look crusty so they got some plusgas and the brake fluid change will be left for the moment. I’ll tackle it when a sheared nipple doesn’t cause a last minute panic.
Battery terminal. Nothing exciting apart from my crimping tool wouldn’t touch it so I chopped the crimp end off and used an eyelet terminal, like this.
That’s it for the moment. Waiting for a 6pt harness to arrive then I’ll get the seat swapped prior to Saturday at Blyton Park. I don’t think it needs anything else - there’s a big list of useful, nice to have, I’d like to... jobs, but nothing critical so I’ll leave it at that til I’ve had a good go in it.
Little bit disappointing that the pads are too large for the callipers with anti rattle springs in. Perhaps they’re sized for racing applications, but this pad compound is for trackday and fast road. So they ought to fit with the springs in. Anyway the bench grinder got them trimmed easily enough.
On taking a wheel off I see I’ve got 20mm spacers, which will be at least part of the reason it has significant torque steer and lacks feel. Jury is out on whether these are a good trade for front end grip rather than feel and feedback. I’ll decide after the trackday on Saturday.
The bleed nipples on both callipers look crusty so they got some plusgas and the brake fluid change will be left for the moment. I’ll tackle it when a sheared nipple doesn’t cause a last minute panic.
Battery terminal. Nothing exciting apart from my crimping tool wouldn’t touch it so I chopped the crimp end off and used an eyelet terminal, like this.
That’s it for the moment. Waiting for a 6pt harness to arrive then I’ll get the seat swapped prior to Saturday at Blyton Park. I don’t think it needs anything else - there’s a big list of useful, nice to have, I’d like to... jobs, but nothing critical so I’ll leave it at that til I’ve had a good go in it.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff