Good morning everyone!
Well, I might be some 15 years too late for tuning craze, but I now have Twingo GT and hence want to start a thread.
So, a brief introduction of myself and car.
I’m a chap who lives in Riga, Latvia, does all things with EV chargers and currently needs to commute to office on daily basis, that being
10km each way. Doing that in a large awd wagon is nice, but feels wrong.
Hence, last summer I bought a 9N VW Polo for these purposes. While being all nice and dependable, it was a bit boring
and pushed me to browse local classifieds. I have a soft spot for Twingo mk1, but there were no interesting options on the market.
But a blue mk2 GT popped up and ad was active for some 3 months with price gradually dropping.
Took a quick search, what that really is, had a test drive and decided to take a plunge. Sold Polo and for a grand total of 1000eur, got myself
info this masterpiece of french car industry.
So, I now have a Renault Twingo GT, 2007MY, with 250000km on the clock. It has some visual and technical issues and is bone stock in terms of performance.
Plans? For the most part, drive it for my daily commute. If I will have the resources (money and inspiration for most part), I would like to make it a bit more
powerful and better handling to do some track days and local events. But as these resources are not huge and Renault (especially performance ones) are not the most
common cars around here, progress might be slow.
Hopefully I will have enough to share in this thread and also this might be the place to ask stupid questions about some technical stuff.
And here comes the first question, if someone picks it up…
Should it be that low? Or I should expect lowering springs or some broken ones?
Will get it up on the lift, but don’t know how soon.
It drives ok, just from pictures on the internet, stock seems to sit higher.
Tires in picture are 185/55 r15.
Yeah thats too low, its modified or broken!
Ok, will brace myself for suspension job then.
Meanwhile, I just wanted to replace stereo head unit with better one. And find out, why lighter socket has no power.
You bet, it escalated quite quickly 
Took out existing head unit and found a rats nest of wiring. To get to it, tore down lower center console around shifter.
And then some trim in the back and around sill as well. At least, it is all simple and easy.
But yeah, audio situation is not great. Previous owner has installed pretty decent speakers, but even there he has brought wrong combination.;
It has 13cm midbass drivers and tweeters both front and rear, but those are not component sets, just separate speakers. So, no crossovers. And they are just wired together, directly from head unit, with different size and numerous times extended wiring.
Also wiring on the car side is butchered near the connectors.
After doing some research, I decided that as good as these speakers are, they don’t worth the effort to wire it all properly.
So, will try to sell them, get some off the shelf component set for the fronts and maybe will do rears later.
And of course, I need to fix all that wiring mess properly, so it’s no longer a fire hazard.
Nothing really new, sadly.
Germans can’t ship my speakers for almost a month now, so I haven’t yet sorted out stereo situation for good.
Anyway, that don’t stop me from driving this nugget to work and around town most days.
Went to A/C fill up station to see, what are my chances, cause system was bone dry. Tested with nitrogen and there was a huge leak. From what I could see - might be a compressor seal, cause everything else is above it. So, needs more diagnostics and maybe a new compressor.
One annoyance, that has been here from the start - when I start the car, after it has been locked, it has flashers enabled and you need to manually turn them off via switch.
That happens only if car has been locked. There is no aftermarket alarm, at least from what I know. Locking is done using standard keyfob.
That might be a switch issue?
Well, I need your help on this one.
Inner CV boot on the longer driveshaft was torn and I got reprimand about that on inspection.
I consulted catcar.info for part numbers (7701209993) and ordered one.
Received this contraption which does not really fit for 2 reasons:
bellow is for different joint shape (with 3 recesses) and seems a bit too short if you try to install spring.
Spring itself is a different question - twingo really has one? When I took the joint apart, there was none, but
there seems to be a place where you can install one.
Or should I just order a bellow with more or less correct dimensions and be done with it?
Pictures are side scrollable, take a look at them all. It’s current state, when I tried to install what I received.
a/0ZOPJwh
And another question is - where do I will the gearbox oil? Some of it came out when driveshaft was removed.
And if I will put in 75w90 (cause I have some), will it summon Chtulu or something, or be just fine?
Oh you poor man.. the state of that wiring 
the previous owner wasn’t too kind here it seems 
There will be a bung located on the side of the gearbox. Usually the side facing the rad, itll be plastic usually. The fill level is usually when it starts to drip from the gearbox fill hole (providing the car is level and not jacked up one side say)
But if in doubt refer to the manuals on here bud as they’ve got alot on info in them
Yeah, found that fill plug, was a bit of PITA to get to.
But filling is proposed for another day, as second try with CV boot was still not right.
And I need to have a proper pliers for those holding rings as well.
Some Total Energies oil, few bits and bobs and a lot of cursing later, car is back on wheels and ready for annual inspection.
Full story after it’s done
Ok, so here are some updates, how it’s been so far.
Sometime in May I threw out existing audio system and replaced it with speakers that head unit could actually drive:
Cervin Wega components in front and Canton coaxials in back. Plenty for this car.
And did some digits late at night.
In early June, it was time for annual tech inspection (our version of MOT).
Twingo failed with 3 reprimands:
loose right ball joint
torn inner right CV boot
snapped right rear spring
Ok, nothing that impressive and expensive. Apart from springs. It had Elia by Eibach, which you can forget getting only a pair.
Opted for new set of MTS Technic instead, as those were available in reasonable time and without breaking a bank.
So, when they arrive, gathered all the parts and went into garage.
At first, it needed a lift to get on the lift 
Rear was done in an hour.
Front, however… 
Ok, all came apart nice and easy, but not without unpleasant surprises.
Front shocks were done. Like, when extended, they were falling down on themselves.
So, new set of Kayabas incoming, doubling the budget of all this.
With CV boot, it was 3rd time unlucky, cause none of 3 options I got, was really the right one.
Settled for the first one, at least it can be fixed in place and holds quite well. And I had to get pliers for these clamps.
Also, new ball joints on both sides, as well as top mount bearings, tie ends and dust boots.
As you know, when driveshaft is pulled, gearbox oil pours out, so changed that as well.
With some creative solutions for filling backup, cause I’m to cheap to buy a syringe.
With all that, car is back in one piece and now has a valid inspection for a year.
Next in line - a/c condenser, cause with some nitrogen pressure we found the leak…
One thing I spotted - front tires had their inside eaten quite a bit.
As I understand, there is no factory camber adjustment on these?
Thought about camber bolts from PowerFlex, but 12mm were too big (had ones lying around), 10mm seems to be on order everywhere.
As a general rule if both front tyres wear the inside edge then your wheel alignment has probably got too much toe-out.
Both outer edges worn too much toe in.
Both inner and outer edges worn on one tyre is tyre pressure too low, middle of one tyre worn is tyre pressure too high.
Well, I will investigate that as well, but just visually there seems to be a bit more camber than stock.
Anyways, after yesterdays downpour, blower no longer works.
Looked at the fuses, seems to be intact.
I have an automatic climate control - does the motor and resistor differentiates from manual version?
And how much of a paint it is to get to them?
It’s been a while, it seems.
Blower fixed itself and works ever since. Also, replacing cabin filter with one that actually let’s air through, helps massively.
Otherwise, it’s been rather unremarkable journey.
Testing how small the car really is. No, that’s not me, it’s the biggest friend I have.
Just usual round town driving and some parts hauling for Volvo as well.
After rear spring replacement, there was a new noise in the rear. Determined that rear beam bushings are shot, especially left one.
Got them but postponed the installation till very late… but now it’s done and feels better. Replaced rubber brake hoses in the process.
Also, took care of front right suspension arm bushings, they were pretty bad too. And front strut mounts as well. Don’t know, why I didn’t replace them
in the summer, but you can’t get all the answers…
Yeah, and changed the oil in the engine, now it’s got fresh Elf 5W30. Cleaned the mess around oil filter and heat exchanger, will follow, if it leaks again and where from.
Also got some borbets for scrap price, will keep them for summer. For now, wrapped stock wheels in some 195/50 winter tires.
And finally ordered spare rear wiper motor, need to fix that as well.
Plans? Fix ac till next summer (needs new condenser), maybe get on top of how top remap this thing.
And see if valves are properly adjusted, as I don’t think anyone has touched them ever.
This nugget has developed a slipping clutch. For now, it’s still driving, but need to be adressed.
I remember @Adey tooled around with idea of installing a clutch from Volvo unto 1.2tce.
Guess, I have found the clutch set, in my case SACHS 3000 154 001 (cause Valeo is not available).
Can someone confirm, if that is compatible?
And if it is, what about bearing? As I understand, Twingo has hydraulic clutch, so ideally I would need to get a new bearing,
like VAL804527.
Should this work, or am I missing something?
I never got around to trying it tbh. If you git the old one out you could send it to cg motorsport for them to make you an uprated item
Allright, will try and see for myself then. Price difference is almost double, so it’s worth trying.
In other news - decided to check, what is going on with rear brakes, as car seems to roll quite stiff.
Now I have stuck drums, which are not coming off the stub axles and right rear bearing seems to be gone.
Oh fun times.
Allright, will try and see for myself then. Price difference is almost double, so it’s worth trying.
In other news - decided to check, what is going on with rear brakes, as car seems to roll quite stiff.
Now I have stuck drums, which are not coming off the stub axles and right rear bearing seems to be gone.
Oh fun times.
Got the drums off today, using some long bolts to push them.
At first sight it looks fine, but really, it’s not. Wheel cylinders are fine, but other stuff is bad - shoes, drums, bearings, adjusters are so so.
Before I start buying stuff - is there an easy way for disk brake swap?
And regarding drums - by part number, those are different than Clio 2. Are they really different, or still interchangeable?