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Clio Big Steve's RB Clio 182 Cup Restoration

Pulled the Clio out of Winter Storage last weekend ready for a summer of fun!!
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The battery was as flat as a witches tit, so needed to jump start it off my booster pack.

Soon had it home with me at the Dojo:
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Loaded her up, and today took her down to AW Motorworx for a weeks holiday to get her “summer ready” :
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@Millie_Bee was obviously driving her, whilst I was in the Meggy.

Soon got down to AWMotorworx…
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And there was plenty of other Renaults to keep her company whilst she’s there:
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And had a chat with Alex, he’s got a fairly lengthy list of jobs to do:
  1. Service (Timing belt ok) & check over so car ready for trip to Paris & back in June we’re planning.
  2. Fit new in-car air-con evaporator (supplied).
  3. Figure out why air con comes & goes. (Hopefully make it just bloody work!)
  4. Fit new replacement lower knuckle supplied from roll-centre kit I never got round to fitting myself.
  5. When you thrash it, you get a funny smell in the cabin (suspect a weep of oil onto exhaust?)
  6. Please reset gear linkage, as it can be a bit of a bugger to get in 1st?
  7. Fit new horn (supplied) as the one on there isn’t working.
Looking forward to getting it back soon, with a couple of things planned thanks to good old @Paul B from Diamond Performance♦️
 
lengthy list of jobs to do:
  1. Service (Timing belt ok) & check over so car ready for trip to Paris & back in June we’re planning.
  2. Fit new in-car air-con evaporator (supplied).
  3. Figure out why air con comes & goes. (Hopefully make it just bloody work!)
  4. Fit new replacement lower knuckle supplied from roll-centre kit I never got round to fitting myself.
  5. When you thrash it, you get a funny smell in the cabin (suspect a weep of oil onto exhaust?)
  6. Please reset gear linkage, as it can be a bit of a bugger to get in 1st?
  7. Fit new horn (supplied) as the one on there isn’t working.
Got an update from Alex at AWM today:

Hi Steve, been over Clio.

I suspect the sports cat doesn’t work anymore as it really stinks, bar that, I suspect your smell is engine oil leaking onto exhaust, rocker cover is leaking slightly, in my opinion I’d leave it until belts are due again unless it gets worse?

Obviously gearbox leaks like most, going to clean that up & see what comes back as potentially the end cap is leaking a small amount. Will check level of that too.

AC issue - well it was down on refrigerant, so a small leak somewhere rather than an evaporator issue in my opinion, I’ve had Nitrogen gas in it over the weekend & it’s lost nothing typically! :punish.gif:


At this point I’d propose recharging with AC gas etc, with dye in, hopefully make it easier to find. Pump is noisy so it could even be pump leaking & failing, or that could have been due to the low amount of refrigerant and seemingly no PAG oil.

Certainly a few things to get stuck in there..👍
 
Update from AW Motorworks!

AC pump is the Issue. Doesn’t seal internally is my thoughts, sounds horrendous too.
When gassed & running it’s not circulating correctly.


That explains why the A/C is touch & go for working!! Already ordered a new compressor and got it winging its way to AWM:


Hopefully a bit of Skimlink as well for old @andybond 😘
 
Just finished reading the whole thread, what an amazing journey and the car looks sensational! Reminded me of the fun I had working on my ph1 172 here in Australia.
Interested to know if you guys have used spareto for spare parts? They are based in Estonia and we have no trouble getting the parts delivered to Australia in under a week, shipping is even reasonable - RENAU CLIO II (BB0/1/2_, CB0/1/2_) 2.0 16V Sport | Spareto
 
Just finished reading the whole thread, what an amazing journey and the car looks sensational! Reminded me of the fun I had working on my ph1 172 here in Australia.
Interested to know if you guys have used spareto for spare parts? They are based in Estonia and we have no trouble getting the parts delivered to Australia in under a week, shipping is even reasonable - RENAU CLIO II (BB0/1/2_, CB0/1/2_) 2.0 16V Sport | Spareto

Thanks for your kind words @Dave200 !

I've never used Spareto, a lot of us are using AUTODOC in Europe, which is probably the same guys behind Spareto if you look hard enough!! :grin.gif:
 
Picked Clio up from Alex at AW Motorworks last Thursday 6th June 24 following a full service and go over, ahead of the France Trip later this month.
Top of the list for me was to get the Aircon working, as I’ve said in previous posts. Picked it up and everything working fine:
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Get home, and Air Conditioning is blowing a measly cool temperature at best, and the dash it lit up:
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FOR F**CS SAKE!! WHY DO I BOTHER… :ireful2.gif: :ireful2.gif: :ireful2.gif: :ireful2.gif: :ireful2.gif: :ireful2.gif::ireful2.gif:

Anyway, while I build up the strength to fix that issue, I turned my focus to getting the Stripes back onto the car, that were fitted from the factory. Starting with a blank canvas, good old @jas_racing popped round to help me out:
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We took a time-lapse video of the fitting, which you can watch here:

Absolutely delighted with the results:
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Looks good with them back on. Shame about the christmas tree. Could be a few things causing that, could be as simple as the brake light switch though.
 
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@Big Steve - Raider I feel your pain regarding the lights. I get the same three lights in my 172. Have taken it to a main dealer and tried several different types of diagnostics equipment and can’t pinpoint the problem.

I turn the car off & back on again and the lights go out. Then they may not come back on again for months.
 
@Big Steve - Raider I feel your pain regarding the lights. I get the same three lights in my 172. Have taken it to a main dealer and tried several different types of diagnostics equipment and can’t pinpoint the problem.

I turn the car off & back on again and the lights go out. Then they may not come back on again for months.
Oh god I hope I’m not in for a dose of the same…? 🙄

Thanks for your comment though @AndyP 👍
 
Had a look at it today with a low-key diagnostic scanners and couldn’t get it to show any problems, or clear any of the codes.
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For some reason it’s now started running on 3 cylinders and runs like a bag of 💩…..
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Running out of time to get it ready for the trip to France later this month, so starting to think I will just take my Megane 300 and then at least I will be able to join in some of the Driving…?
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Get clip hooked up as the generic scanner will lead you up the garden path.

It will most likely be squib or brake switch knocking asr light on.

Misfire prob be injector or lambda etc, get test meter on the injectors and measure resistance.
 
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