The Car Thread

[Kevinfor]

Thanks, Mike!

[Haz]

Diy man

Gonna have a second car or just going to have it off the road here and there? Good luck dude!

A few friends of mine built boosted clios, one was an old mk2 valver and the other was a 172. Neither last long between rebuilds/fails/mild explosions/gearbox napalm. Best of luck Dan!

A lot of the boosted Clios on CS.net are reliable once they've been built and all the kinks worked out. Clioturbo.co.uk has a great reputation for conversions.

I think I'd do the 02m gearbox change too. To be safe. Gonna be off the road for a bit but I think be worth it.

Pft, not a Clio if you get rid of the bucket of gravel that is the JC5.

Is there no N/A tuning options available? For a fast road car /track toy I'd love a savage N/A.

You could spend 3.5k on on bodies and cams, and get 200-210bhp, or you can spend 4k and get 300bhp. Most people don't because the F4R in the Clio doesn't easily rev over 8000 rpm without serious cash.

If 02M is on the cards, why not just go the whole hog and 20vt it?

This would be a great way to go, if you're set on a boost conversion. There's so much out there for the 20vt compared to the F4Rs.

There's loads of things which improve the Clios, but I don't think more power is one of them. I've toyed with the idea a lot, but personally I'd rather buy a more powerful car.

[AdamR28]

Exactly, if you want to go faster, buy a faster car (that has the driven wheels in the right place).

[SamKidney]

I don't think massive power on a fast road car is neccesary really. Got out in my Civic last night, b16a2 on ITBs.

Ek9 shocks with Eibach springs, Skunk2 lower arms/ASR brace. Needs a map as its only on a H-Tune ITB base map which works off the TPS as against the map sensor, but its f**king brilliant. Handles like its on rails and to say it's not running 100% it goes well too, with scope for more once it's mapped. All depends what you want from your car I guess

[isitafox]

Had another distressing moment this afternoon with the Golf. Fired it up and the exhaust sounded like it was blowing so I had a look underneath and there's a decent sized hole just behind the front silencer.

Looks like I'm going to have to get a full stainless... (A)

[Luke Rainbird]

I'd rather buy a more powerful car.

Exactly, if you want to go faster, buy a faster car (that has the driven wheels in the right place).

See, whilst I completely agree with this to a point, there's a bit of a threshold surrounded by a grey area for me.

My LCR, for example, has cost me a grand total of around £2500 to buy and do everything to it that I've done so far. It's been as useful as a learning tool and boredom killer as it has for transport and is great fun to drive, plus if shit ever really hits the fan I'm only a couple of grand down.

Don't get me wrong, I'll only be keeping it until I get bored and want a decent chunk more power at which point I'll pick up something RWD and with more grunt from the factory, but it's all about finding the limits for your individual budget/skills/needs etc.

[AdamR28]

I missed a smiley off! Had a similar convo with Ash the other night, we agreed its fun 'developing' a car that you know and like. 300+ bhp in a Clio is a bit odd though IMO, you could spend that 4k in buying something that's already faster, both in a straight line and round a lap, and is more fun / exciting to drive.

I need to take you out in a kit car Dan! That is an offer by the way, so I can change your mind before you start buying silly turbo bits

[Pete.M]

300hp in a Clio is madness.

Do it

Fitted a bigger stronger chassis brace today, industrial style:

Been attempting to fit dual rear anti-roll bars as well but one of the lower shock absorber bolts is incredibly stuck. I hit it with a big sledgehammer and nothing happened, not really sure what to try next! If I get it fitted it should be very drifty. Badly temped to weld the diff since I know this car is being taken off the road soon-ish anyway.

[SamKidney]

Found out the civic has no MOT, lol

[dann2707]

I don't think there's much fun selling up and buying a bigger and better car.

I love tinkering the fun and rewards are from learning and doing stuff yourself where buying a faster car would be the opposite of that.

I could have done that with my clio and not spent all the money I have already on handling mods etc but you can't really replace the fun I've had from tinkering with it over a year. Buying a better car is like cheating in my eyes.

[Luke Rainbird]

Depends if you tinker with the upgrade

[Jolfa]

Spending £4k on a Clio is madness, you could get something better and then you'd have a blank canvas to change the colour of the dustcaps and wiper length!

[CurtisRider]

I had a bit of a 'I want to die' moment. The car went back together relatively smoothly apart from the engine was sitting a bit wonky due to the engine mount and clutch arm hitting parts of the shell, eventually we managed to get that sorted though! The engine started first time! This was of course very exciting, so imagine how disheartened I felt when I went to dip the clutch and there was nothing, no resistance, just as if the cable has been disconnected. I looked about, nothing looked out of the ordinary until I noticed the fork shaft was poking out a bit more than usual. Inspection plate off and to my horror the release bearing had come unclipped and the fork shaft popped out of place. I'm not entirely sure how that happened, but I was gutted as I thought I would have to strip the car down yet again to reconnect it all. Fortunately I managed to use a screwdriver and pry bar to wedge back the fork and then an old bent nail on the end of some mole grips to reclip on the clutch release bearing... SUCCESS!

The car changes gear perfectly, and drives a treat. A few jobs to do now:

Align steering wheel

Heater valve needs moving slightly as it hits the coil

Reverse lights aren't working

tighten alternator belt

Fuel pump starts running as soon as the ignition is on... not sure how that has happened? Didn't do that before!

Rear exhaust section is knocking on the rear ARB

Unfortunately I discovered a hole in my wing and a hole in the drivers floor, so I need to weld those up before my 150 mile drive home today

[Mark W]

I don't think there's much fun selling up and buying a bigger and better car.

I love tinkering the fun and rewards are from learning and doing stuff yourself where buying a faster car would be the opposite of that.

I could have done that with my clio and not spent all the money I have already on handling mods etc but you can't really replace the fun I've had from tinkering with it over a year. Buying a better car is like cheating in my eyes.

That's kind of suggesting that once you've got the bigger/better car you can't tinker with it whereas that isn't the case. Just look at the amount of time Adam's put into his Westfield as an example - that's a bigger/better car than his Clio was, but he's tinkered with it loads and has managed to coax more out of it and make it better to drive.

[Luke Rainbird]

Another incredibly minor and boring update from Rainbird's Correctional Facility:

Since popping the coils, bushes etc on the car I've only driven it twice due to being away for a week with my girlfriend and bikes. It was making a pretty nasty rotational grinding sound that changed with road speed, which had me a little confused as although it sounded like something grinding with the brakes applying them made no difference at all.

I'd ruled out the possibility of a bearing as numerous 12-6/3-9 checks hadn't shown any movement at all and had also pretty much eliminated thoughts of a CV joint as all felt good with no nasty noises before and they tend to give a clicking rather than scraping, plus change with wheel loads unlike this noise. Given that I have to make the 170 mile trip back to base tomorrow morning I thought I'd better get to the bottom of things so I could book a train if I didn't have time to sort things out today.

I was fairly sure that the noise was coming from the OSF so popped the corner in the air (although being so stiff the whole side of the car came off the deck; always nice to see) and pulled the wheel off. As hoped, it was a nice easy fix and was simply a case of the crud-guard rubbing against the disc where I'd inadvertently bent it a smidge the other week. Quick bend back by thumb and all sketchy noises are completely gone. Simple!

[CurtisRider]

Ha ha I love those little fixes, I had to do the same to mine as I had bent it when dropping the subframe

[Haz]

I don't think there's much fun selling up and buying a bigger and better car.

I love tinkering the fun and rewards are from learning and doing stuff yourself where buying a faster car would be the opposite of that.

I could have done that with my clio and not spent all the money I have already on handling mods etc but you can't really replace the fun I've had from tinkering with it over a year. Buying a better car is like cheating in my eyes.

I agree fully with the tinkering, but in my opinion, turboing a car that wasn't factory turbo'd isn't tinkering.

I've tinkered with my Clio, full suspension and a cage with buckets and it's just as much fun as I can imagine, not convinced I want any more power.

Saying all this, doesn't mean I don't think you should do it. I think boosted Clios are epic, I just don't think it's for me.

I'm just not convinced an e46 M3 is a good investment when I don't have a house...

[Luke Rainbird]

Ha ha I love those little fixes, I had to do the same to mine as I had bent it when dropping the subframe

Werd.

2 minutes opening the garage and getting jack/stands out.

2 minutes jacking the car with the widowmaker so I could get the trolley jack under the car (stupid skirt design...)

2 minutes removing the wheel.

10 seconds diagnosing the problem and putting it right.

2 minutes refitting the wheel and lowering jacks.

2 minutes puttingeverything away again.

[MartMini]

my starter packed up yesturday..

can't see why...

Lashed up a working (abiet noisy) starter, now the clutch slave is leaking badly...

f**k sake!

[Skoze]

I drove the one at the front yesterday. It's called Victory, the other is called Dreadnought and they've not been apart since 1925.

14 tonnes, steering is done by a chain and there's 1.5 turns of the wheel in terms of play before anything happens. Does about 8mph flat out and is f**king terrifying.

[forteh]

I drove the one at the front yesterday. It's called Victory, the other is called Dreadnought and they've not been apart since 1925.

14 tonnes, steering is done by a chain and there's 1.5 turns of the wheel in terms of play before anything happens. Does about 8mph flat out and is f**king terrifying.

I'm currently sitting in a chairoplane built up in a field just outside Shrewsbury with about 15 traction engines within a stones throw

[/part time carny]

edit: yes I'm aware those are ploughing engines

Edited August 30, 2015 by forteh

[SamKidney]

Traction/Ploughing engines are awesome.

Civic still has no MOT and its a bank holiday weekend

Edited August 30, 2015 by SamKidney

[Skoze]

Good stuff Ed! What you up to there? We fired those up purely to go to the pub - part of Ron/ Brian Knight's fleet if you know of them.

Serious bits of kit from a time when men were men.

[CalRobbo341]

Never took many pictures of my car but decided to actually take some earlier this evening. it's very dirty, just saying.

Wrapped most of the interior the other day, lowered it, worked at a company known as cybox for a while and did a custom exhaust for it, decat 4-1 manny (nothing special at all), rear wing added, VXR wheels, k&n filter, done lots of little bits and bobs along the way but can't do much more without spending a fortune and would rather get something that is more powerful and handles much better. Some pics and a wee vid, opinions of it are welcomed.

[isitafox]

Is it a VXR?