Renault 5 1988 1.7 GTX

[Rami]

Hi I'm new to this so I'm about to make a few people laugh.

I recently bought a 1.7 GTX it is my first car and I made a few mistakes

1. I bought it off ebay
2. it didnt have an MOT
3. I didnt go to see it.

I took a risk and bought it, it subsequently passed its MOT (aprt from a windscreen wiper) and I drove it home from Oxford fine.

So whats the problem:
It apparently has only done 33800 miles, is this physically possible? And can I check whether its had the mileage wound back?

I've noticed it 'juddering' slightly my mate mentioned it might not be firing on all cylinders.

It is running ok but I would like someone who knows about these cars to have a look at it as I like the car and want to run it in as best condition as possible, I'd need someone reliable and this seems the best place to start. I'm based in Southampton.

one more thing, is it possible to add a turbo to this>? Would it be detrimental to the car long term? Or am I better getting a 1.4 turbo.

HELP!

 

[kenney]

First of congratualtions on getting a GTX, i love the little things, can't quite afford the insurance on a turbs yet and the GTX is a steal in terms of insurance.

Only had mine a couple of months so still getting to grips with it, i'm not 100% sure what you've done to the car so far but i'd definetly recommend starting off by just giving her a good service as you don't know how its been looked after before and by the sounds of it (33k) it hasn't been used much either.

Try just the basics to start with, oil + filter change, clean or change spark plugs, drain and rechange the the water and maybe brake fluid. Check your mixture screw isn't a bodged one (mine was) and have a play with the idle mixture one to see if you can get it running a bit better. Another thing to remember is that GTX's really suffer with over heating because the carb is above the manifold, if its been running hot and you switch it off it might not start properly again because the fuel in the carb vapourises. I found the best soloution to this is to get a low temp fan switch just to keep it at the right temp, also helps when yours in traffic. Its the same fan switch as the GT turbo so you can get the one from k-tec or elsewhere.

It might also be worth cleaning the carb out, maybe running some Redx throught the system and checking your ignition timing system to help getting it running nicely, i'm currently in the process of doing some of this stuff myself.

 

[Rami]

awesome, cheers for the advice, this is just what I needed I had a feeling it needed a bit of tidying up but getting it spelled out is great, I can go to the garage with a vague bit of confidence.

So far I've done nothing to it I'm getting the impression its genuine mileage too.

when you say filter do you mean oil filter?

 

[kenney]

Yeah, Just thought it might be worth having a look at the air filter too as that could be really dirty, but it won't really affect the running of the car that much.

 

[Rami]

I've just re read my original post, it nmay come across as though I want an actualk person off this forum to have a look at the car (wouldnt say no) but what I meant was does anyone know if there is a renault 5 specialist in the Southampton area?

 

[nebrog23]

R5 GTX

Hi
I also have a R5 gtx from ebay, it looked spotless but I would recommend take the side skirts off and having a look for rust, there are easy enough to clip on and off and re-rivet back on. I just caught the rust in time.
Mine was actually fitted with a modification by renault to deal with the carb problem, think it was a recall on some models.
Ducting was ran from the fan round the back of the air filter to de-vapourise the carb after stopping. The fan actually switches on for a short while after stopping if above a certain temp.

Was yours the black GTX for sale? thought that one looked ok. How much did it go for in the end?

Ben