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Kangoo 172 cup

Part 20 - Patience tester

So i got the van nailed back together last friday. Last job was to change oil, bought 5ltrs of Elf evolution 5/40 from Renault with purflux filter.
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Next step was insurance - Rang Greenlight as already had a quote. Come in at £300 all mods declared fully comp - decent as a lot of places wont touch engine swaps nevermind modified vans. So with that purchased a test run was in order ! Fired it up and warmed up - driving down the road i noticed a lot better pickup low down in the rpm range - engine is willing to go rather than feeling flat and non responsive. I can only assume the timing was affecting the low down torque massively. It feels nice and linear pickup through the rpm range which is how i expected it to be - on initial driving back from collection i noted the engine had a vtec style switchover at 5k which seems to have smoothed out now. Had no issues drove it pretty hard - even Shez commented on how much of a difference it has made. Noted gearchange was shit so something to look at.

Obligatory test drive pics20170825_115529.webp 20170825_115543.webp With the megane before Blyton. Basically chucked it in the garage and that was that20170825_153517.webp So after Blyton was over we return and i grab the van out of the garage. Noticed that it does not start first attempt just cranks over. Earlier on in the week it has done this so knock ign off and it fires up. Reverse out of garage and notice puddle of gear oil. So go and buy 3ltrs of mobil 75/90 as that is the best i can get on a Sunday and think its best to drain & actually see if it has any oil in as planning a journey to Birmingham in it.

Get van back to house and jack it up - Go to undo drain plug on gearbox and its loose. Check driveshaft boot bolts and the lower one is loose - no wonder its pissing out oil. Check wheelbearing on passenger side and play in it - nip hub nut and get at least 1/4 of a turn on it easy which removes all play - go to the other side and repeat. Cowboy garage changed the gearbox for Chris god knows what oil was in it - had plenty of oil in luckily.

So refill with fresh oil and all bolts nipped up and the gearchange is 100% better & oil leak is reduced by a fair bit. Still seems to be weeping oil out of the casing joint but not at an alarming rate. With this done i give the van a clean up - Clay bar - SRP - collinite by hand. The paint is very flat and rough however it comes up half reasonable by hand - trim gel and tyre gel applied. Not bad, not bad at all, its no show winner but cleans up ok.20170828_130318.webp 20170828_130327.webp 20170828_130349.webp Note badass negative camber up front
20170828_130409.webp 20170828_130429.webp Updated service history
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Whilst im cleaning Shez finds a free kitchen for the garage on Gumtree so arrange to collect. Go to fire the van up and it fires up & conks out - the fuck is going on !? crank it a bit and fires up - running now so just drive. Go and collect kitchen units fit in ok
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Fuel gauge is low so go to the garage and stick some bp ultimate in. Fires up again and conks out at the pump ! what the fuck is going on ?? Chris told me that the sender pipe had issues however i have already checked this out and the pipe looks fine & the back of the van is full of kitchen so no access to the sender unit so roll it back out of the way. No fuel pump priming with ign on and typically my AA membership has just expired so mess about under bonnet and eventually fires up - Breakdown number 1. I note it nearly cuts out when cornering at one point so thinking fuel pump or wiring issues..
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Get it home and pull the engine bay fusebox to bits to check the relays - green with corrosion -replace one with one out of stock and clean the other up - clean contacts up refit20170828_201123.webp
Fires up straight away willingly and repeats so take it out for test run - Stay local just incase of issues. Get out of the end of the street and about half a mile away from the house it cuts out. Fires up straight away so continue with journey to Mcdonalds (piri piri grilled chicken wrap). Park up and go to fire it up again - fires up straight away - go to put rubbish in the bin and hear it conk out. Go to fire it up and it wont have it - just cranking over no fuel. I have relays out and fecking about and no joy at all. Breakdown number 2 !!

If you recall my breakdown has expired so call in my mate Alex who promptly comes in his vr6 mk3 golf convertible with solid bar. Have to whip bumper and arch liners off to get to towing eye better and get dragged back to the house - tow of shame.20170828_221723.webp 20170828_224619.webp I cancel my trip to Birmingham next day and get on with fixing the van. I stick key in and it fires up first crank !! i hear fuel pump prime however it does not sound right. So with this in mind i get the test meter straight on pump wiring. Solid 13.5v when running so no problems there. Whip pump/sender out and replace it with the one i have in stock from the breaker 172 earlier in the thread. Change fuel pump relay for another and it had never failed to fire up since - new pump sounds a lot better so hopefully the end of the non start. I give all the relays the wiggle test pulling them out when running to find out whats what as the wiring is non standard in this. So go out for test run locally do 70 or so miles in total no issues so fingers crossed its sorted.

Only had one no start issue which may be tdc or uch related. The uch wiring is not correct as no courtesy light is coming on when unlocking doors & no flash when doors are locked which results in 2 clicks on the fob. Basically the door plungers are not wired up correctly which from experience plays funny buggers with the uch (had this on the dci) as the uch assumes you have not entered the car and kicks the immobiliser in after so long so a simple lock/unlock on the fob and it fired straight up. If you park up and lock the doors then unlock no issues - seems to be an issue if you stop and don't lock it/unlock. Spent a bit of time on Tuesday tracing wiring and trying to sort it - pulled UCH out and traced/ checked wiring to passenger side connector. Rats nest and wires nicely soldered in the wrong place but on the plus side found the obd connector.

Not sorted yet but will crack it with the help of VISU. 20170829_124451.webp 20170829_123647.webp Re arranged the trip to Birmingham to this Saturday. Will it make it or will it be on the back of a recovery truck ?? I have relays and wiring and a spare plug for sender unit - If needs be the pump will get hardwired to the fucking rear interior light :D P.S i am now officially an expert in clio/kangoo canbus wiring:D
 
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If i see one cheap might get it to protect the back of the recaros. Might get a fair bit of use as a van:D
 
Part 21 - 400 miles

So a road trip is planned to pick up some part worn michelin PS3's & some panels for my Extra van. Quick check over on the night before and looking at the wankeycor 'uprated' leads and they look fucked to put it politely. Whip plenum off and fit part worn oem leads that @Ricardo kindly donated. Fit better and improve the running, no more crappy blue leads20170902_164637.webp
Fill up with tesco 99 & set off on the Saturday. Expecting to break down but no issues - engine pulls strong and cruises along happily at whatever speed - Make it there ok average of 38-40mpg. Pretty uneventful as far as trips go - get there pick up the tyres which are far better than anticipated as 6mm of tread on & £50 for 2 which will be going on the front soon as the tread is low. Pick up the panels and load it up - boot down on the way back as late no issues. 400 miles no break downs !
20170902_164550.webp 20170902_165551.webpOnly issue up to now is slight oil leak - from the bloody new purflux filter !! can only happen to me. Fit a new gen renault purflux filter i have in stock to sort it. No idea what was up with the other one.

Stick clip on it this weekend for a laugh to see how many faults are stored and it did not fail to deliver. Approx 25 stored in total:D

Some random vin number - engine says d4f ?? i thought it was f4r ?? 1.2 UCH ?? fuck knows o_O
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Fault after fault :D loads stored on engine ecu and uch
20170910_142946.webp 20170910_142952.webp 20170910_142957.webp 20170910_143955.webp 20170910_144000.webp 20170910_144020.webp Cleared all the faults - shocked to see the only one stored is off the acoustic valve - rest are gone20170910_175100.webp
This got me thinking this is why the engine warning light does not work. I was interested to see if the clocks were at fault so whipped them out and plugged the spare set in. All lights work including shift light ! water temp gauge is iffy in spare clocks so look at the originals to discover the previous owner has put electricians tape over the warning lamps:rolleyes: took it off and no lights on anyway apart from door open light. I have wired up front door rabbit switches and they work ok with lights on warning but the door open lamp still on. The rear door rabbit switch is wired up instead of tailgate however not right yet but on the plus side the central locking unlocks when you open door from inside now so getting there. Will crack this soon20170910_185702.webp

Taking it round the track tomorrow at Teesside will see how it goes. Probably will end up with the tow pole out:D
 
Part 22 - Expectations vs Reality

As a fair few of you will already know i like doing a few trackdays a year. This was bought with the main idea of being a cheap quirky track van (racevan !?) Whilst my extra van is off the road. So the main goal has been to get this to the track and see what it could actually do.

After driving Dazzlers 182 and finding it to be fairly impressive on track i had high expectations for this - probably way too high. N/A so progressive power - good 172 cup suspension setup brakes etc. I knew it would be nowhere near as quick as my extra though.

So get it down to Teesside for a shakedown - close to home for when it breaks. Teesside is a short twisty circuit fairly technical and hard on brakes and tyres.

So get signed on £35 for 3 hours. First ride out seems to go ok - lots of bodyroll and tyre squealing understeer. Come in and check tyre pressures and up to 39lbs front and poss 36lbs rear hot so drop front to 32lbs/30lbs rear.

Go back out again and handling is improved slightly. A few hot laps sees me seeing off a civic type r so not too bad power wise. Come in and the front N/S michelin ps3 is fucked the rubber has literally fallen off the outside of the tyre. Brakes seem decent - notice smoke coming off front and rear in the pits no sign of any fade though ?? :D

Go out for 3rd run out to finish off the front tyres. Do one lap and starting to trail brake / heel and toe to try and make the back end more lively to improve turn in. Feel a funny feedback through the steering when turning which unweighs it a little. Keep on going then notice supercharger whine at high rpm and steering does not feel right / strong smell of rubber burning so limp it to the pits.

Check over in the pits reveals no PAS on idle and fluid sprayed out of the reservior. I initially thought i had boiled the pas fluid but nope the pump is fucked and the rubber smell was the aux belt slipping a little. Very lucky it did not chuck the belt which would have prob resulted in 16 bent valves o_O

Pics - no trackday is complete without action shotsFB_IMG_1505165488740.webp FB_IMG_1505165509239.webp FB_IMG_1505165504570.webp 20170911_184403.webp 20170911_180221.webp

Limp home after this keeping revs under 1500rpm make it home ok.

So plus points

Seems to go ok in a straight line
Brakes are good
No dramas from the engine coolant temps ok etc

Bad points

Handling very boaty - needs stiffer front springs at least and more negative camber - would prefer back end to be loose than understeer so maybe harder rear

Michelin Ps3 way too soft for track use - have been told i drive too hard for road tyres now so prob need to find 15s and semi slicks as 16" semis are top dollar

4th gear very clunky needs linkage looking at
Back tyre catching occasionally on n/s under high compression - fuck all really

Lacks boost :( bit dissapointing low down in the rpm range no torque got to rev the tits off it at all times. Guess i have been spoilt with the extra van and megane. A wise man said to me "Turbo is king and always will be" which i agree with.

So expecting a sports drive and in reality its a knack old van which is not bad for what it is. I can work with it and make it better though ;) awaiting parts to get it sorted so off the road again !! I have an EPAS setup here which may be used we will see. Watch this space:D
 
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Part 23 - Usual bollox

So after Teesside a few repairs were required

Started off with replacing the knackered front ps3's for less knackered part worn ps320170921_115908.webp

Usual all cars on the jack situation at the Briggs/Osborne household. Sat like this for a week until my back was slightly better20170917_133444.webp
Power steering pump swapped for good used - no pics was pretty painless to do once bumper was off - hour job and up and running. Used gsf's finest cheapo atf dextron II £2.50 for 1ltr with discount20170921_120218.webp

Quick wash to clean up then a pic on test drive20170923_150643.webp 20170923_172917.webp
Stopped to view the awesome Transporter bridge - quality oldskool British engineering20170923_173314.webp
Deleted the carbon canister pipework - half of it was missing anyway - used a 16mm samco silicone end cap. Bought a cheapo one first but manifold vacuum was trying to suck it in due to normal silicone whereas samco is reinforced so miles better. Buy cheap buy twice i guess. Seems to run better20170922_202055.webp
Had a pop down to U-Pull it at York yeilded some decent bits

Clock surround to replace the PMT chopped one20170919_162608.webp
Mats found in a Kangoo pope carrier thing. Kangoo oem and clio1 rubber mats that have been cut to fit around footrest. The carpet ones were soaked - cleaned up well but stuck the rubber ones in for now seem at home in the van20170920_182651.webp 20170919_202457.webp
Fitted20170921_115714.webp 20170921_115743.webp
Oem mudflaps for rear, bit close to rear tyres so prob leave off20170921_115938.webp
New interior light with map lights
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Also some underbonnet rubbers and kangoo float for fuel sender so fuel gauge will read better. All that for a tenner:D
Wired in dimmer wire to uch for interior light as it was all on the piss. Door plungers wired up so works correctly & comes on when unlocking as per original. Had a right carry on with it took abouy 2 hours of head scratching to realise the earth was fucked to the light, renewed it job done. Will make life easier with dark winter nights coming up.

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Whilst soldering iron was out fitted the external temp sensor as grabbed one at U-Pull it. Turned out to be a simple job as wiring already in door so fitted sensor to mirror and ten mins done. Also noted electric window wiring present20170924_181339.webp20170924_224437.webp

Been flogging it about and touch wood seems to behaving itself. To be continued (prob when it breaks next):D
 
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