Not Normal Dan's R26 F1

Well here it is sports fans, after 5 years of clio sport ownership (172,197,Trophy) I've decided I want a change and thought I'd head down the megane route.

Read a few horror stories but nothing more then what you can read online about any other make or model, after all who takes the time to write a good review online?

Either way about the car, it's a 2007 57 reg r26 F1 with 64k on the clock and full service history. It's been enthusiast owned and had a lot of common niggles sorted (window regs, hubs and all the drains are nice and clear)

The car is completely as it left the factory and so far I'm loving the extra performance and they really do seem to make progress well out on the road and B road blasting and overtaking seem effortlessly.

Some of you may know me from the cliosport.net forum, fairly regular poster and meet attender, I'm a 25 year old volvo trained time served mechanic but have been working in rail recently due to it being more lucrative and opening more doors in terms of career progression.

Anyway enough about me here's a few of the car including me past motors

The trophy



Was a cracking car and under went pretty much a mini restoration, all suspension rebuilt, upgraded and replaced where possible and custome geo set up

The megane







Overall it's a clean car, came up really nice after a clean today and other then the odd age related mark I'd say it's pretty mint, it has a lumpy idle and slight pop out the exhaust which I'm putting down to injectors needing a clean/replacing as there's no previous history of this but I'll soon take care of this.

To drive its great and I love the diff and the way it scrabbled for grip and pulls you round corners I have some plans for further modifications too

 

Cheers mate, what's the damage on these? I know Adam does new for 160 at Renault Wolverhampton any chance you could tag him in this thread?

 

Trophy was a clean car but I really fancied a change and you was always kind of restricted as of to what you could do to the trophy to not spoil what it actually is.

Also it was the right time to sell the trophy, it was just about to hit 100k and the value seems to plummet after that and people seem put off by mileage.

The F1 is a little more "sleeper" to the untrained eye (without the stickers) so I won't get the village idiots trying to push me along when all I want to do is go home lol

 

It sold for 4300, full asking price. I bought it for 4600 2 years ago but I have sunk at least 2k into it but you never make money in this game

 

Yeah I'm friends with Adam personally so I just give him a shout.

I've spoke to liquidf1 he says 90 that includes delivery but he's still waiting for some sets back

 

A little moody shot outside work tonight

 

Yeah I couldn't agree more, today is judgement day as I've got to swap the insurance.

Let's see how much I get stung, currently with flux all mods insured 7 years no claims and 25 and I've paid up for the year!

 

Well that's the insurance done, only an extra 70 quid over the year which I thought was reasonable

 

470 all in, I pay in full you see but I am mid policy at the minute so kind of had to stay with flux. That is pretty much an unlimited mod policy, euro cover, screen cover, insured to drive other private cars and ncb protected

They did stipulate the car had to be modified within the next 14 days to qualify for the modified policy so I just ordered this too

http://www.k-tecracing.com/show_product.asp?id=4564

 

Yeah that's good, I think it would of worked out cheaper on a new policy but with being mid policy they are kind of restricted to discounts etc.

 

cheers mate

 

Well gave it it's second clean today, hopefully I'll soon get chance to give it a full detail (decontamination, clay and machine polish and wax sealant)

But for now it's made do with a jet was pre wash
Valet Pro snowfoam
2 bucket was using meguiars gold class
Dry with micro fibre
Megs tyre gel

Also made sure all the scuttle drains are clear and door drains too

Here's a few pictures





Sorry for poor pictures, I'm no photographer and only using an iPhone 5 in low light conditions

New injectors should be arriving tomorrow and fingers crossed the ktec intake sooner rather then later

 

Yeah one of the main reasons I went for it was the fact the insurance company I'm with stipulate the car has to be modified so I thought I'd start with that haha

 

Yeah it does, good enough to eat nearly haha

I find most of these cleaning products have a nice smell

 

Well today I had a little parcel arrive for Adam at Wolverhampton Renault, it was me new injectors

So after getting up after a night shift and popping to an interview at work I set to work changing them.

Changed plenty of injectors in me time so it was no real hard ship. I also notice Renault have decided to use a better fuel pipe connector for the fuel rail then the shit they fit to the 172's and 182's.

Fitted them all up and fired it up and it runs a lot smoother and the little chuff from the exhaust has now gone and it's now ticking over like a normal f4r which aren't the smoothest engines as we know haha

Anyway here's a few pics, did want to take more but you know how it is when you get elbows deep

So I started off unbolting the boost pipe work and disconnecting the breathers and wiring loom to the lambda, map sensor and injectors.



I then sprayed a little bit of wd40 at all the injector seals to aid removal and disconnected the fuel pipe and unbolted the rail

The old injectors



The new ones fitted


The rail fitted





And all back together



Also just received the text to say me ktec intake will be here tomorrow so more updates to come

 

Just this minute done it, went in fairly easy and if you can use a set of spanners and follow instructions I can't see anyone having trouble.

The kit itself is a nicely engineered bit of equipment, only down fall is you have to cut the standard intake hose and would look a lot neater with silicone hose.

First off was to remove the battery, fairly straight forward although I did notice the negative terminal was a little loose!



Then to remove the battery tray, fixings were a little tight but they were copper slipped when they went back in to avoid any future tears



Then had to swing it out the way with the ecu, this is where I didn't take many photos but basically to fit a little bracket to the engine mount and a rubber mount to the bulk head then bolt the heat shield in and then measure and cut the hose.

I put a little oil on the filter although it seemed to already have a little on it is rather be safe

Here it is fitted



The noise is slightly addictive and I'll try and get a video up at some point for people interested

Once started I re entered the radio code, reset the windows and clock, I did have one small issue of the asr/traction light coming on but after a drive and turning it on and off it cleared. I assume disconnecting the battery may of upset it a little but all is good now

 

Sweet I assumed it would, first time I've took a battery off a Meg tbh

 

Well looks like I've found the cause of the vibration (more apparent at idle). After the injectors were replaced that cured the "coughing" from the exhaust and smoothed out the idle but there was still a slight vibration especially at and idle and when on and off the throttle heavily.

After a bit of reasarch and a quick check with diagnostics and live data streaming (just to make sure it was nothing more sinister) I started having a good gander around the engine bay.

First off I fired the engine up and checked all the mounts for movement, after a good look with the torch it seemed apparent that there was a lot of movement from the gearbox upper mount so I shut the engine off and started rocking the engine by hand and the only mount that seemed to move again was the gearbox mount.

So with no history of any mounts being changed I think I'm going to go the whole hog and replace all 4 with oem Renault items, all had slight movement more so the gearbox mount and seeing as it's a common issue and the cars now nearly 7 years old I'll be on the phone to Ads and Renault Wolverhampton

 

So I missed the post man the other day so just popped into the sorting office just on me way home from work.

I had a suspicion it would be theses



The redesigned Mr Pink brake pins, I had these on my old 197 and the design is much better and makes brake maintenance pretty much hassle free

 

Well yet again Adam at Wolverhampton Renault has done a sterling job, ordered a complete set of engine mounts yesterday and with me for 11 o'clock this morning. Can't rate this guy enough for price and reliability and a genuine top bloke

 

They were 210 delivered, after looking around at non genuine there isn't much in it and you do get better quality buying genuine parts

I'd stay away from the vibratechnics personally, I've ran them on a couple of clios and there great for the track but everyday they do become annoying and put stress on other components

 

Well woke up around dinner time after last nights night shift and thought the suns out so I'll crack on and get these mounts fitted.

First off I jacked the car up and unbolted the under tray and the subframe brace to gain good access to the lower stabiliser





Old stabiliser





Was showing signs of perishing and cracking but nothing to major, he's the new and old item to compare



Renault have clearly changed the design some what

Next up I thought I would change the drivers side mount which I believe was causing some of the issue and the stabiliser link behind it.

This was a little more awkward as the air con pipe and coolant expansion tank do get in the way a little but a little jiggle and it was out.

Mounts out the way



Old mount showing a meaty crack and some extensive wear, also sagged a lot compared to the new item. The stabiliser wasn't really worn but I don't do things but halfs



New mount



Then on to the gearbox mount, I removed the battery, battery tray and ecu and then the ktec filter and heat sheild to gain access.

Removed the mount, I knew this one was worn due to the movement when it was running but he's the proof




New mount fitted



Old mounts




All done



Must say it's transformed the car, the lumpy vibration at idle has now gone and the gear change does feel much more responsive, especially when making progress

 

Well today I was working down at centre of gravity in atherstone changing a clutch and duel mass flywheel on a 330d for a friend who happens to work there and his farther in law owns the business.



There very well known and well regarded within the Porsche circles when it comes to geometry and chassis and suspension tuning although they work on all sorts of road going and race exotica



After finishing the bmw we stuck the meg on the ramp just to makesure things are pointing the right way before my ring trip. As expected the front needed a minor tweak but everything else was above board.



I was very surprised at the rear alignment and how well it was keeping track after experiencing the clio rear beams.



For now it's all been set as standard but once back from Germany I'll be going down the coilover route and full corner weight and geo setup for specific needs



Anyway here's a few pictures