Bargain Basement Motoring

[NewcastleFalcon]

Thanks Mick Wrong thread. Not thinking of putting in a Sodium Ion Battery to the BB Clio!

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

An unexpected break in the weather, and managed to get one side fitted with the a new Anti-Roll bar link.

Not as easy as the video, I selected the hacksaw as my tool of choice

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

An unexpected break in the weather, and managed to get one side fitted with the a new Anti-Roll bar link.

Not as easy as the video, I selected the hacksaw as my tool of choice

Regards Neil

As long as you don't get an unexpected break in the hacksaw blade, all should be good!!

[Gibbo2286]

A common problem on the older car's emissions can be caused by a leak at the front pipe to manifold joint.

[NewcastleFalcon]

A common problem on the older car's emissions can be caused by a leak at the front pipe to manifold joint.

Thanks gibbo I do think it has a front end exhaust leak but havent had a good investigation yet.

As long as you don't get an unexpected break in the hacksaw blade, all should be good!!

Surprise surprise the other side nut just undid with a 13mm socket, with no need to hold the top with the bolt/rust and the rubber not budging as I undid it.

Its a struggle and a fiddle to squeeze the new rubbers between the arb and the lower arm and get enough of the bolt poking out to get the new nut on. I did comment when I did the job once before why don't they just make the bolts a touch longer.

Driving home tonight...obviously in the background consciousness I must have been mulling this over, and a simple solution presented itself, get a longer bolt Neil, get a longer bolt...

REgards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Now that is truly innovative thinking!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Jobs done, only really the exhaust to redo the back box to middle pipe joint which is noticeably leaking but I have bought some jointing paste so it will get shoved in for a retest with just that sealed up and hopefully will pass.

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Just got the remaking of the exhaust joint to do, and a retest next week all being well. Did create another MOT failure point though the Horn decided not to work. Now plough through the forums and you get a decent number of "problem" threads for seemingly the simplest bit of electrical engineering known to man, create an electrical circuit to sound a horn when a switch is activated.

Thankfully it was one of those clean up, and make and break the connections a few times, at the horn down at the far nearside corner, after pulling back the wheel arch liners. It worked fine on the test the other day, and after the clean up sprang back into life without the saga of some comms unit/clock spring palaver.

REgards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Remade the joint between the back box and middle pipe which was leaking using this stuff today, decent enough break in the weather sunny, and Dudley had blown over mostly during the night...



Hazard switch playing up again but reinstated it to working condition but maybe it needs a new switch. Despite the Clio selling in millions over many years, little bits for the Clio 2 need to be put on back order by Renault Parts.
As said before Clio Mark 2's are rarity in scrapyards 2 further ones tried for a second-hand switch but none available. Plenty from e-bay sellers, bit late for the retest, and shouldnt really need one. It works...then it doesn't without a little nudge, really cant be much wrong with it. Not as if its a heavy use component . Just needs to behave for the retest

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373457022875 ... 101224.m-1

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Interesting comment first posted on the E10 thread...

There are 2 issues with E rated fuels,

The first and most important is that older cars may have some fuel system components that are damaged by the ethanol and may start to leak, causing a fire hazard. All cars sold new in the EU from 2000 have ethanol-safe fuel systems. Many cars built before that were safe, but PSA have not published any data. My guess is that 1995 Xantia is probably OK, but it is only a guess. I am more confident about my 1997 Xantia V6, as I know that there were no changes to the fuel system for that engine until the end of production in 2001.

The second issue is that E rated fuels have different combustion characteristics and some engines (pre- 2000) don't run as well. The main thing here is that the ethanol has requires more fuel to be injected under the same conditions or the engine will run lean. In engines with oxygen sensors, the ECU detects the lean-running condition and increases the injection pulse widths to compensate. Some engines are better at adapting than others. You will find that your MPG gets worse (I think it is theoretically 4% for E10. My XM and Xantia (both ES9 V6 engines run fine on E10, but when the engine is cold (and not operating in closed-loop mode) there is sometimes a slight hesitation while accelerating, as the mixture is a little lean.

You can correct the mixture (if you always run E10) by increasing the fuel rail pressure a little. For the 3 bar pressure regulators commonly used on PSA vehicles of the 1990s, there is a 3.5 bar version available which is a direct replacement, and corrects the mixture under all running conditions.

The BB Clio for the first time failed the MOT emissions test with a reading of 1.06 (as opposed to 1.03 max on the Lambda emissions test at fast idle). Found and solved an exhaust leak which may have contributed to the lean result, but the use of E10 petrol may also have had an effect. I do intend,before submitting for the retest, to fill with Esso Supreme 99 Octane which reportedly has zero ethanol in it, and more inline with the fuel the Clio's engine was designed to run on.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

5 ish litres of Synergy Supreme+99 Unleaded for the BB Clio as hopefully a small assistance or placebo for the emissions re-test. Didn't note the price/litre but by the time I had filled the "can" to the brim the cost had comfortably passed £9.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

A few little presents for BB Clio pre mot retest.

5 litres of Esso Supreme+ 99 unleaded petrol poured into the tank
New wheel trims
An oil and filter change

Oil changing really is a vile business.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Only 1.5 litres? Putting it into a drained tanj then?

[NewcastleFalcon]

Only 1.5 litres? Putting it into a drained tanj then?

No the full 5l from the can, that was going to be point one of three things, but no doubt someone might have pointed out that an oil and filter change may be construed as 2 things! making four things in all!

Trying to be a good boy, you are not supposed to drive around to petrol stations when you have a failed MOT and the nearest is miles away. I'll shove a bit more in en route to the booked retest.

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Ah right, have you sorted the exhaust now, can't remember!