Forthcoming Service at Angelworks

[Jimbo]

Yo

I've just booked my car in for its 36k at Angelworks in St Neots. It's being done next month.

I've also ordered some bits and bobs to be fitted at the same time - the standard brake upgrade package of Brembo HCs, DS2500s and braided lines. Got that lot for £250 delivered from K-Tec. Yozzasport could've done the lot for £242 but after reading some critical posts on here about their unresponsiveness I decided to break the bank and pay the extra £8 for peace of mind.

I went to Opie Oils for some Castrol Response Super Dot 4, some Silkolene Pro-S 5w 40 for the oil change and, also, some Fuchs transmission fluid.

The brakes are being fitted at the same time as the service, and a new splitter I've had for about four months is going to be fitted too.

So inevitably I am calling on the collective wisdom of ClioTrophiers for a bit of advice! First of all, what's the deal with bedding in brakes? How's the best way to do this?

And secondly, what do people think of changing the transmission fluid? I know Renault's stuff is meant to last for life, but as I was having the other fluid changed I figured it wouldn't hurt to get the trans fluid changed too. I remember seeing on an episode of quality Japanese tuner motoring show Best Motoring that transmission fluid is ofter overlooked, and should ideally be changed with the oil. Maybe that's overly cautious though?

Anyway for the major service - auxiliary belt kit and a new cambelt while I'm at it - and the fiting of the extra bits, Ben from Angelworks has quoted around £550. Anybody else here used Angelworks before? And is there anything else I should be getting done while I'm there?

I'll give a report once the service has been done to let you know how it goes.

Thanks

 

[j333evo]

I changed a friends gearbox oil about two weeks ago on his Phase 2 172. 70ish-k covered and a few track days thrown in and his oil when drained looked terrible, way past its best.

Put in some Castrol Syntrax semi-synth 70-90iirc though Renault quote 70-80, I had in the garage and thought may as well use it, had used it in my Celica GT4 box, and rear Torsen LSD and for price seems to be pretty good. Afterwards the gearbox was much smoother, not so sticky when cold, and overall a big improvement over how it was before.

I'm looking to change the oil in my box soon as the car is approaching 30K, and for the price of 3L's of oil gives me piece of mind, I'm used to doing my integrale, and GT4 every 24K or 2 years whichever is first to keep things sweet. Even the FTO box is every 45k or 4 years IIRC, so i did that last summer even though previous owner said it had been done, it still felt way better afterwards.

If you drive your car spirited, or do occasional track days, the gearbox oil must be changed more often than recommended.

 

[stormduck]

550 seems too cheap for all that buddy. 550 is good for the cam and aux but i would expect another 200 hundred to fit the brakes and hoses?? Did he get the info right when quoting? Just try not to hammer on the brakes for the first few hundred miles, i just drive normally as i'm light on the brakes when i'm tootling about.

 

[shiftspark]

Re gearbox oil , my ph1 has 67k on it and I changed it last week .
It was very dark and looked past it's best so for £35 or so it's well worth changing.
I used Fuchs 75 80 as Renault recommend 75-80

 

[George K]

DS2500 pads should come with bedding in instructions - if not do an internet search - Ferodo may well have them on their site.

Just beware of glazing from too much gentle driving!

 

[Jimbo]

Cheers for that, much appreciated. I thought it was a good price too, but apparently the brakes etc should only take 90 minutes to fit, with a labour rate of £50p/h. Ben from Angelworks came across as a really sound guy on the phone as well - fingers crossed the cost won't go much higher than the quote he gave (£570 I think was the actual figure).

I'll have a peep at the instructions when the pads come tomorrow but yeah I guess the internet is my friend there too. I'll try to resist the urge to see how they stack up compared to the OEMs in the first couple of hundred miles :lol:

And yeah it's Fuchs Titan Sintofluid 75w-80 I've gone for - apparently the reservoir in the Clio is 3.1 litres so I had to buy four. I'd rather have 900ml too much than 100ml too little!

Thanks again

 

[Jimbo]

Just a quick note to say the service was carried out on Friday. The car feels better than ever - gearshift improved thanks to new fluid and upgraded brakes giving a lot more bite.

Only problem re the brakes was that K-Tec had sent me the braided lines to fit a R5 GT Turbo! :evil:

I perhaps should've noticed this before I got to the workshop, but it's not unreasonable to expect that you'll be sent the product you ordered... refund pending on that one.

Ben from AngelWorks is a sound guy with a lot of knowledge. He spent considerable time making sure the cam timing was absolutely spot on and obviously had a lot of experience working with the F4R. Sitting in the workshop was a ph1 172 on its way to becoming a 400bhp :shock: monster, and he also had two V6s in he was working on.

Very reasonable price at the end of the day too; no complaints at all.

 

[Matbrown]

Brave... Very Brave.


Mat.

 

[hoolio]

Brave... Very Brave.


Mat.

?????????????????

 

[StevieH]

Sitting in the workshop was a ph1 172 on its way to becoming a 400bhp :shock: monster,

Was it a white one by any chance?

 

[hoolio]

Sitting in the workshop was a ph1 172 on its way to becoming a 400bhp :shock: monster,

Remember though that's "ben's horse power"

 

[marrow]

Sitting in the workshop was a ph1 172 on its way to becoming a 400bhp :shock: monster,

Remember though that's "ben's horse power"

:wink:

What ever happened to that engine mod he was working on that would increase power to 200bhp???????

 

[StevieH]

TBH I've only spoke to Ben a couple of times and found him to be very helpfull each time. However he seems to have very good ideas which he starts but never follows through. The most recent example of this is with the super cup inlet manifold. If you have a search through cliosport you will find a few disturbing stories, most of which seem to stem from some form of custom tuning tuning ie custom inlet manifolds, itb's etc.... rather than basic servicing.

However he designed the supercharger bracket for Paul at RStuning and what can you say about it apart from it's an awesome example of his abilities when he actually sees things through.

 

[Jimbo]

Sitting in the workshop was a ph1 172 on its way to becoming a 400bhp :shock: monster,

Was it a white one by any chance?

No, this was a black stripped-out one. It looked a fair way off completion - I think it was a project car that had sat on the back burner for a long time. I guess that could be an example of what you were saying about not following things through.

I spoke to him a lot about modding the engine, but he didn't mention a true 200bhp package Mark. In fact he suggested that rather than spending £££s wringing out a few more horses I'd be better off spending the cash on trackdays - fair point I thought.

Not too sure what to make of this "brave" comment either - it was obvious he knew an awful lot about the Clio and I'd far rather entrust the service to him than a dealer, especially my local one (Wests), where from my experience the customer service crew are unpleasant and I have absolutely zero faith in the mechanics.

 

[quik5i1ver]

Sitting in the workshop was a ph1 172 on its way to becoming a 400bhp :shock: monster,

Was it a white one by any chance?

No, this was a black stripped-out one. It looked a fair way off completion - I think it was a project car that had sat on the back burner for a long time. I guess that could be an example of what you were saying about not following things through.

I think this is probably the one that was there when I visited around this time last year..! Did it have a green cage? At the time he showed me the other section of his workshop where his machining gear is kept - it was impressive stuff. He was working on a TB conversion for a 172 cup at the time.

I spoke to him a lot about modding the engine, but he didn't mention a true 200bhp package Mark. In fact he suggested that rather than spending £££s wringing out a few more horses I'd be better off spending the cash on trackdays - fair point I thought.

He also told me to spend any money on a decent brake set up and track time with tuition - you can't argue with advice like that - at no point did he try to make any further money out of me..

 

[hoolio]

The thing is you couldn't argue with any of the above, good or bad comments. He seems to be a really nice guy who does generally know his stuff but is also at times his own worst enemy.
You can dig up horror stories from all these people, none are perfect. I suppose the best advice is to find someone you are happy with and stick with them.

 

[Jimbo]

I think this is probably the one that was there when I visited around this time last year..! Did it have a green cage?

Yeah that's right - the very same! He didn't try to fleece me either - in fact I ended up paying significantly less than I expected. I guess you can't really judge the quality of someone's work from one experience, but for what it's worth: I'm very happy with his service.

 

[Jimbo]

Resurrecting an old thread here but felt it was important to add that in hindsight I would not recommend having your T serviced at Angelworks - a couple of weeks ago noticed a slight metallic rattle coming from the belts area of the engine on tickover once the engine had warmed up. Diagnosis suggested it could either have been a tensioner/pulley or the water pump. I only got the belts changed at Angelworks in March. It's not cool that six months later I had to fork out for them to be done again :evil:

So last week took car to Wests Cambridge to have the cambelt kit and aux belt kit done (again) and the water pump replaced. On the downside it was fairly expensive (although not criminally so at £606 all-in - they have some sort of ClioSport.net discount scheme) but on the plus side the engine's back in tip-top condition and the rattle is no more.

Engine feels a bit friskier too, so I wonder if Angelworks got the valve timing slightly out or something. Bottom line anyway, as Jamie suggested in this post: viewtopic.php?f=20&t=9380&p=82213&hilit=angelworks#p82213 - avoid.

 

[marrow]

Hi James - did you get to the bottom of the problem?

 

[Jimbo]

Hey Mark. No, Wests didn't specifically say what it was. My best guess is that it was one of the tensioners though - as it only happened when the engine was warm, I guess something was a bit loose after everything had heated up and expanded or something. Really not sure.

It's been an expensive couple of months with the car - two new PE2s, new rear discs and pads and now this! Still, it's good to finally be able to drive it properly again: I'd been driving like a pensioner since that rattle started!

I remember talking to you about the Angelworks service after I had the work done - you were a bit sceptical then I think, and rightly so, it turns out. How's things with you?