24. First Trip to Croft

CV boot replacement and Croft track day.

First up was fixing the CV boot and working out what had gone wrong. Didn’t know if it was catching somewhere? Already split? Or just a poor quality boot as many have experience from the J&R shafts.

Was pretty certain the split was down to the boot being either poor quality or too big so the rubber was bunched together and rubbing. Both left and right hand sides had lots of cracks as seen in the second picture so needed to find some other boots.

The first lot of Clio boots which we ordered were too big so tried some FCB 6369 which are meant for a Fiat Panda but sizes seemed right so gave them ago. Fitted perfectly. So replaced both outer CV boots with these.

Another problem we found at Teesside was that the intake manifold was touching the strut brace, didn’t notice a noise but one area had some marks on it. The original one was just straight so made a new one with a slight bend in it. Roll bent 40X20mm oval tube with solid 20mm bosses at either end. Now gives decent clearance to the intake manifold. For once this went exactly to plan and didn’t take 3 times as long as you thought it would.

Wanted to get the trackday gear more organised so each time we go it’s not hours of work getting all the gear together and in the car. So bought 6 commercial boxes with lids so it would “just” be a case of chucking the 6 boxes in the back of the car and not have to worry about forgetting something.

Ended up fitting a huge amount into 5 boxes so well worth it and means the stuff is nice and easy to find rather than a load of loose bits in the car. Fuel tanks and trolley jack then goes in the back of the Clio.

Time for the first trackday at Croft. Got all setup, gazebo came in handy as it was wet in the morning but luckily dried up in the afternoon.

First time out for sound check and sighting laps.

I will add some more photos from the Javelin Trackday photographer at the end.

Morning went great, taking it pretty easy as it was wet, quite a few red flags including one within the first 5 minutes after someone backed their Subaru into the tyre barrier. Post lunch it was drying up and starting going quicker however there was a pretty bad noise when going round right handers so assumed something for rubbing front left. So came in and had a good look but couldn’t really see anything. Decided to raise the front left up a few turns to be sure nothing was rubbing but noise was only becoming worse and also wasn‘t just in right handers so had a look at all corner. Rear left pads were massively worn and very hot, we should have noticed the different colour wheel really.

However we were both happy that we found the problem, were pretty certain that this was going to be the noise. Can hear it in the onboard Video. So once we found this we thought sod it, we’ll each do a full stint each and call it a day. Track was much quieter and fully dry too.

Once home had a proper look at the rear Left, bearing was completely screwed so no wonder we had a noise which sounded like another engine going in the car. pretty sure this was caused by the pad not being able to float properly so will be more careful when installing the replacement. Don’t think we’d get many more miles out of the pads.

Still having a problem with the wheel speed sensors. Not detecting at higher speeds, so now assuming the teeth are not wide enough for the Hall effect sensors to pick up so need a re think there.

However for our first track day we were over the moon. James managed a 1:43.6 and after looking through the data and videos of both our laps there is still plenty of time to gain. Combining our best sector times we did a virtual 1:40.1 so car is more than capable, drivers need more practice however!