Hi,
since I come to retro-renault often, i thought it would be fun to start a project report. I bought my car a long time ago and used it as daily commute. It has been a trouble maker compared to my old R19 1,7i PH1 witch now my mum runs. Over few years I blown 2 gearboxes, had problems with broken suspension parts. Still haven't got rid of it, and keep on enjoying driving it.
this picture taken few years ago, and straight away you can see a hard life it has been living.
This is the first time in Britain.
Before coming to UK I did a bit of work on a car. Fitted new rings, polished cylinder walls. Even thought it haven't stopped burning oil. gave it a new pads, tyres. Few other bits and pieces.
First few weeks in UK have shown what I have missed on replacing. Alternator just died without even giving a notice.
Bought new refurbished alternator.
cost of it was 50 pounds.
Just recently it started showing some issues with hand brake, so I managed to buy rear callipers from PEUGEOT 206 2004year.
They still have to be fitted to a car, but the cost was just 60 quid.
There are a lot of thins to do on my 16v. Roughly the list is:
*Get rid of rust. They are all over the car.
*Replace main brake cylinder. I need a stiffer brake pedal and more stopping power.
*Change callipers. They were shown in pictures, still to fit.
*Brake force regulator in rear.
*Find and fit steering rack. As it is LHD its hard to find original used rack from R19 16v. Still considering buying reconditioned, but may be I'll find replacement for reasonable price.
*Buy rear boot lid. One day it just fell of, very needed but not urgent replacement.
But first things first I have to get some tools to be able to start working on it. So lets begin...
[BREAK=Some Rust Removal]
Been working on a car recently, as I didn't have spare time for it. The car is rusty all over. Very big ones on the bottom of the doors, and in the edges.
Some of them are really in very inconvenient places. Been trying to use HAMMERITE KURUST to stop it from spreading, and paint over with primer. If you have some advices on war with rust, they are very welcome.
Also in this picture you can see some modifications I did some time ago when originals shattered. They are meganes' and fit perfectly.
Also been trying to think of cold air feed for the filter, as I noticed that the filter itself is warm while I drive. Any suggestions?
Overall the arches aren't bad at all. But it's just a matter of time to sort out the very bottom of a car, as it is currently in not very good shape. The good thing is that, no salt for now till next winter.
There was lot going in the engine bay, but this picture just shows overall uncleanliness but good condition engine.
Comments anyone?
[BREAK=Fixing the boot]
As Chris, whom I am grateful, pointed me to the right place for information on fixing my boot lid. Thin Sunday I was fixing some bits and pieces. So the story went like this:
Been to Renault dealer and ordered 2 hinge pins, cost of it 13 quid
Punched them out with hammer and nail punches. Didn't need to warm them up because it went out relatively easy.
To push new ones in was a bit of a struggle but I am happy with the result.
It has been few months since I couldn't use my boot. But now it's open again
Next Up - Brakes.
Waiting for copper piping and flaring tool kit to come. Then the work will start again.
[BREAK=Hitting Problems]
Project hits some serious problems. It was very hard to take out force regulator in the back. None of rubber hoses managed to unscrew even with Grip Plier nor the front or the back. Regulator a bit rusty, but after some application of force it started moving quite freely, so I reckon it will go back in car again.
The most lonesome thing is rust all over the body. And the bit that holds handbrake cables is bent ant spongy.
The main question is will I get all these small pieces to the piping?
After some investigation of odd wearing front disks I came to the conclusion.
The Caliper Slides are to loose, this is my reckoning of this problem. I will go for another pair of front calipers.
[BREAK=Still working on the brakes]
It has been some movement in my project this week. Broke few nuts ant bolts, almost all cheap spanners and hopefully I will buy proper ones instead.
So. First of all removed fuel filter support. Nuts in body snapped immediately after slightly turning them.
Today I finished this tangle of pipes called brake force regulator, it just need some lubrication and can go back in the car. Still waiting for brake hoses to come, to finish off with piping. It is now routed from the front to the back.
Today I got mail from my country. These are repair kits for front callipers. I'm still in a hunt for healthy pair of them, hopefully I will get them soon.
By the way, few days ago I finally fitted PEUGEOTs' rear callipers to the car. Exact match of the old ones, but instead of being BENDIX they are now BOSCH. I posted pictures of them few pages back, but haven't got them a picture where they are fitted. Hopefully I will post it when everything is finished with the brakes. Disks, Pads, Cables in the back are in perfect condition so no change is needed. Another issue was head deflector witch had to be removed when I wanted to seal under body. Unfortunately all nuts snapped again and just a single one survived.
So short list for Renault:
Spring Clip Supports;
Nuts and Bolts for fuel filter
Nuts and Bolts for head deflector
Under body was in not so bad condition. I considered it to be in worse condition than it actually was. Still haven't decided what to do with bent and a bit spongy handbrake cable support.
When everything was routed and time came to fit master cylinder, again I hit the problem. The foto shows my servo, and the push rod in the middle of it is loose, but cannot be adjusted. Haynes manual recommends to adjust it but it is impossible to catch it and make it to turn a little.
Dilemma. Leave it or adjust it at any cost.
Finally the MASTER cylinder. Because I bought it from eBay seller is not enthusiastic to send me dead end nut for one of the holes unused holes in it.
Make an end from old pipe and leave it or try to find a nut.
So still a lot to go...
[BREAK
etailing]
Because the whether got worse to the end of the weekend, wasn't much work under a car. It was more work on the details making it look right. I like small details, but working on them is very hard work as you need a lot of patience.
First of all I started with callipers. Cleaned, lubed, painted, assembled. To finish it off on Saturday got new bleeding nuts.
This is how it looks assembled.
New bleed nuts.
And here they are in callipers.
All is in very good condition, no corrosion on piston. Cleaned slides and pins. Should be good to go.
The biggest problem this week was this nut. It is 8mm.
All the week, so it's 5 days in a row, I went to RENAULT with this nut. But if you open Dialogys it will say that it is 6mm witch is wrong.
That nut NR.10 is a wrong info.
And the list of small parts gave me no correct information as well. They just said that cannot see any parts under that part code. So solution was simple, find where they fitted same nuts and bolts in the car. It was fuel tang mounts.
So that should be it.
Heat shield here. Rustiest side up.
Painted and this side goes down witch you will see under the car.
Painted some bolts. I will be using some copped grease so this should be all right.
Waiting for disks, pads, Goodridge Braided Brake Lines to come...
[BREAK=Some progress on the brakes]
Had some progress during the working days, although the pace wasn't so good.
First of all I wanted to express my joy of finally getting the nuts. But sadly though this was ruined by handbrake adjustment rod snap. I will get some unions for this one on upcoming week and hopping for smooth repair and adjustment. This is what I put to the car this week.
Painted and assembled rear brakes fully. But still I have some doubts about the state of protectors on both sides.
From the photo they look really nice, but reality is that they are so rusty and thin. Soon I will hunt down those protectors and put them instead of old ones.
But before I got the joy of good looking brakes I ran into a slight problem. In the picture you can see a hole in the arch. And there is another bigger one at the end of it. Good news is that I'm planing to do a lot of welding under the car, so this will be sorted anyway.
I don't want to spend too much of my holiday fixing car so I will try to prepare her as much as possible, and do welding in one run.
Finally got disks and pads.
Straight away started to fit them, but one of four bolts just didn't unscrew. Will have to drill it out, like a dentist... One side is almost ready. Looks perfect.
Do you remember my old disks? So while removing old disk out, that 2mm difference just peeled off. Strange. Now it is just slightly uneven, but I do believe it is usable.
Still waiting for brake hoses to come, and been lucky to buy stainless steel exhaust back box for reasonable price. You can see an old one peeling off in the background of rear brakes. Would like to take out whole exhaust and change stud and nuts on manifold, as it is blowing just slightly at the moment. If I'm going to change the back box of exhaust, some rubber to hang it, do some painting. So would be reasonable to do all that in one run.
Small bits and pieces to do.
This include bleeding, servo adjustment, and this:
Sticker of my home country R19 club
Fingers crossed I will not get massive leak when I will bleed the brakes.
[BREAKetails]
Guess what?! The weather wasn't so bad and in an afternoon it all cleared so I went for some small things still left undone.
Completely didn't paid any attention to contents of a box with pads, and I was surprised to find these things inside. So this is another small but very interesting detail to all that has been done to my car.
Collected a parcel from post office today, and joy of joys what was inside of it.
So by this projects' ritual went for some more details. Removed arch protection to find that there was no sand down were the drainage pipes are. Decided that this isn't even worth mentioning. But as my Silver proved during application of underseal, there is no place where there is no hole
so I found few of them in usual place.
Still will have to come back to all this. So just for pure cleanliness and not to attract any attention during MOT painted my shock absorber. This is only one side, as I didn't had time before sunset to start another.
You can see everything back in place. I would say it does look beautiful.
As I discovered at my constant quests to motorist shops. Best place to buy parts is builders shop. This is substitution for my old snapped rod of the handbrake. Few nuts and bolts and everything just comes together. It is working, but because the system is not bled yet, left it a bit loose.
By the way, this one came off just before starting this massive detailing project. This proved that car was just just started to fall apart.
By the same builders shop tradition bought some nuts ant bolts.
It doesn't look original, but it does the job.
So after this workout I made a conclusion. All that matters in my project, is just small details. This is what drives my project at the moment.
[BREAK=Back on 4 wheels]
So, not so big update
Still a lot of small things to take care, the list goes on and on. This weeks task was to put the car on 4 feet, and test drive her.
To take out old disk from car I had to overcome some difficulties. As you can see from picture, few bolts snapped at attempt to unscrew. It was a true struggle
One solution - drill them out.
After this job done, new bolts had to go in. But as they are longer, thread is too rotten for bolt to go in fully.
So we take this tool and clean a thread.
It confirms time and time again, it's all details.
Don't know if an old saying will come true, because it says: there isn't more permanent solution, than temporary. Have done this small thing by soldering inside and shut the end of it to prevent any leaks. Other than this didn't work, so it will stay there for while.
Hope it is final bleed. New bleeding is so cool, I don't even need to pump anything.
Small parts from Renault. Had them in shop, didn't had to wait at all.
After final assembly, there is not much new to see. Maybe though you can spot quite big holes there. Will be sorting them out on holiday.
This evening I am doing an test drive.
I forgot how low a 16v is. Haven't driven more than 15mph, because efficiency is quite low. Hand brake needs more adjustment. It is more stronger even without a bigger adjustment. After longer time I noticed more leaks in exhaust on down pipe. It is a bit annoying, will have to change this bit.
In day light I will investigate piping on brakes, to spot are there leaks or not.
Before test drive haven't seen any, so it will be just precaution.
[BREAK=Getting ready for The Big One]
Not much been going on during last few days. Had little time, and not much willingness. But eventually got my hands on it, because The Big Trip is coming up. Journey across Europe, if we would believe google it is 5600 km.
This is how it looks like.
Everything is already planed. It will take 3 weeks. This is what we call a proper holiday
So first things thirst, some rust coming up.
Took bumper off obviously, spare wheel and bracket, tow hook. Treated with some hammerite, and painted. Wire brushed body, applied under-seal and this is how it looks before assembly.
Bumper before taking it off was a bit wobbly so I was wondering why. In picture you can see why.
Snapped, both of them. Solution is simple, do some screwing. Surgeons job, but it holds.
Got really dark when I finished. But it isn't wobbly any more, and looks just great.
Spent all day running around a car to sort out rusty corners and small dents. It was a bit there and there all round it, so no wonder why it took me all day to finish it off. Final result isn't a masters job, but as a rookie I think I did not so bad.
Renault 19 badge is still not in place as I have no glue and plastic bits for it. So this one will be a final touch, before I go it would be great to buy spare clutch cable and alternator belt. Sort out leaking tires and go for The Big One. During this period will try to weld holes under side-skirts, arches and anywhere else where I will discover them. So a lot more to come.
[BREAK=Testing]
Yesterday Got my cable from Chet, and went straight away to test the car.
This is what I have got from diagnostics.
Thirst thing that you notice is that speed is 128km/h it is a lie, I was standing still
Second LAMBDA values just before going to zero were as shown - 1020mV. I assume lambda gives wrong values to ECU and it can be felt in engine work. When it is started engine works almost with no RPM drops, but after some time it starts to drop to 500. But when values from LAMBDA change to 0, it works around 900rpm and smooth.
Every other values seem to be ok. I assume I have to change sensor ASAP.
[BREAK=The Trip]
So little update about my trip. I include a picture with the stuff we squeezed to back of my Renault. It was nearly to the top.
There are some reference points on how big things are. Roll and tissues.
Now some figures.
Distance now done is 2256 km with 169 l of fuel burnt. Average consumption is 7.5l/100km or 37.66 mpg. I'm pleased with these numbers as I was doing 120-150km/h or 70-90 mph 4/5 of the way whole distance.
Problems that I found on the way are steering rack play and gearbox. When speed is around 170km/h 110mph you can feel it significantly as you have to do small corrections in direction you are going. 5th gear is making just a little bit too much noise with indicates wear. Everything else seem to be perfect. With that load we were carrying I would say noise was very low. Now I'm preparing for 2nd stage of my trip and hoping no issues what so ever. That is it for this time.
[BREAK=Sills and more]
It has been a lot of movement under the car recently. I have spent whole week working underneath sorting out bits and bobs. So everything started with exhaust, cost of it 20quid plus 20 to fit it. It is not quite the same shape as original, so had to be adjusted. Apparently tone has changed, at the moment I do not very like it, but may be I have to get used to it.
Biggest job of the week was to find all parts for sill change. New ones cost me 25 quid for one, plus 50 to fit. They look quite nice all thought are a bit thinner than original ones.
When I took wings off found more rust.
After some sweat and swearing happy with the result.
Because I had to remove all front panels, got my hands on old problems - tow hook. After some more effort drilled out broken bolts, threaded holes, painted and walla. Also I made a support from the bottom of a hook to prevent bumper bending.
I must admit result is very red.
To finish it off sprayed under-seal where ever possible. It looks brilliant.
Finally got my hand on plastic sills. Had to drill all the holes and paint areas where needed everywhere else just under-seal. My girl helped me a lot with with these ones.
Final result is in pic.
As you have seen in pics there are some problems witch will have to be sorted soon. Power steering cooling bit is very rusty. By the way I have fixed an issue with my handbrake, so it works now just fine. I will try to pass my MOT on the last days, and be on my way home. I haven't covered all the distance as planed before this holiday due to some car repair issues. The car now is in very good shape and hoping to finish my trip with no problems what so ever. I will try to update when I pass my MOT.
[BREAK=little update]
So finally I got home, fast and safely. Covered 6thousnad kilometres with consumption average 7,5l/100km. Although car developed a problem. When you rev it up to 5k rpm it stalls. It could be because of distributor cap. I have got excessive amount of overdrive when slowing down in gear. Everything else seems to be as always.
Managed to pass MOT, well nearly passed it. Hand brake efficiency demanded - 16%, my car showed - 16,6%. Also did routine maintenance, and alignments. With Megane shock absorber top mounts camber: -2o18` and -1o42`.
But just a day before I had to start get going tried to teach my girl how to drive that beats and clutch cable snapped. Happy me. Managed to get away of problems in the middle of a way.
If you can see from this picture cable snapped at gear box not at pedal. I do believe it is because it is 5cm to short. My ABS is in the way. Changed that cable quite quickly.
Also bought one extra just in case. The same old one lasted me for 4 years, it's not too bad for 10 pounds.
So to celebrate my come back I cleaned interior. I can not think of any other car that has got so good seats as my 16v. You sit in it for few thousand kilometres and no back or neck pain. Brilliant!!!
since I come to retro-renault often, i thought it would be fun to start a project report. I bought my car a long time ago and used it as daily commute. It has been a trouble maker compared to my old R19 1,7i PH1 witch now my mum runs. Over few years I blown 2 gearboxes, had problems with broken suspension parts. Still haven't got rid of it, and keep on enjoying driving it.
this picture taken few years ago, and straight away you can see a hard life it has been living.
This is the first time in Britain.
Before coming to UK I did a bit of work on a car. Fitted new rings, polished cylinder walls. Even thought it haven't stopped burning oil. gave it a new pads, tyres. Few other bits and pieces.
First few weeks in UK have shown what I have missed on replacing. Alternator just died without even giving a notice.
Bought new refurbished alternator.
cost of it was 50 pounds.
Just recently it started showing some issues with hand brake, so I managed to buy rear callipers from PEUGEOT 206 2004year.
They still have to be fitted to a car, but the cost was just 60 quid.
There are a lot of thins to do on my 16v. Roughly the list is:
*Get rid of rust. They are all over the car.
*Replace main brake cylinder. I need a stiffer brake pedal and more stopping power.
*Change callipers. They were shown in pictures, still to fit.
*Brake force regulator in rear.
*Find and fit steering rack. As it is LHD its hard to find original used rack from R19 16v. Still considering buying reconditioned, but may be I'll find replacement for reasonable price.
*Buy rear boot lid. One day it just fell of, very needed but not urgent replacement.
But first things first I have to get some tools to be able to start working on it. So lets begin...
[BREAK=Some Rust Removal]
Been working on a car recently, as I didn't have spare time for it. The car is rusty all over. Very big ones on the bottom of the doors, and in the edges.
Some of them are really in very inconvenient places. Been trying to use HAMMERITE KURUST to stop it from spreading, and paint over with primer. If you have some advices on war with rust, they are very welcome.
Also in this picture you can see some modifications I did some time ago when originals shattered. They are meganes' and fit perfectly.
Also been trying to think of cold air feed for the filter, as I noticed that the filter itself is warm while I drive. Any suggestions?
Overall the arches aren't bad at all. But it's just a matter of time to sort out the very bottom of a car, as it is currently in not very good shape. The good thing is that, no salt for now till next winter.
There was lot going in the engine bay, but this picture just shows overall uncleanliness but good condition engine.
Comments anyone?
[BREAK=Fixing the boot]
As Chris, whom I am grateful, pointed me to the right place for information on fixing my boot lid. Thin Sunday I was fixing some bits and pieces. So the story went like this:
Been to Renault dealer and ordered 2 hinge pins, cost of it 13 quid
Punched them out with hammer and nail punches. Didn't need to warm them up because it went out relatively easy.
To push new ones in was a bit of a struggle but I am happy with the result.
It has been few months since I couldn't use my boot. But now it's open again
Next Up - Brakes.
Waiting for copper piping and flaring tool kit to come. Then the work will start again.
[BREAK=Hitting Problems]
Project hits some serious problems. It was very hard to take out force regulator in the back. None of rubber hoses managed to unscrew even with Grip Plier nor the front or the back. Regulator a bit rusty, but after some application of force it started moving quite freely, so I reckon it will go back in car again.
The most lonesome thing is rust all over the body. And the bit that holds handbrake cables is bent ant spongy.
The main question is will I get all these small pieces to the piping?
After some investigation of odd wearing front disks I came to the conclusion.
The Caliper Slides are to loose, this is my reckoning of this problem. I will go for another pair of front calipers.
[BREAK=Still working on the brakes]
It has been some movement in my project this week. Broke few nuts ant bolts, almost all cheap spanners and hopefully I will buy proper ones instead.
So. First of all removed fuel filter support. Nuts in body snapped immediately after slightly turning them.
Today I finished this tangle of pipes called brake force regulator, it just need some lubrication and can go back in the car. Still waiting for brake hoses to come, to finish off with piping. It is now routed from the front to the back.
Today I got mail from my country. These are repair kits for front callipers. I'm still in a hunt for healthy pair of them, hopefully I will get them soon.
By the way, few days ago I finally fitted PEUGEOTs' rear callipers to the car. Exact match of the old ones, but instead of being BENDIX they are now BOSCH. I posted pictures of them few pages back, but haven't got them a picture where they are fitted. Hopefully I will post it when everything is finished with the brakes. Disks, Pads, Cables in the back are in perfect condition so no change is needed. Another issue was head deflector witch had to be removed when I wanted to seal under body. Unfortunately all nuts snapped again and just a single one survived.
So short list for Renault:
Spring Clip Supports;
Nuts and Bolts for fuel filter
Nuts and Bolts for head deflector
Under body was in not so bad condition. I considered it to be in worse condition than it actually was. Still haven't decided what to do with bent and a bit spongy handbrake cable support.
When everything was routed and time came to fit master cylinder, again I hit the problem. The foto shows my servo, and the push rod in the middle of it is loose, but cannot be adjusted. Haynes manual recommends to adjust it but it is impossible to catch it and make it to turn a little.
Dilemma. Leave it or adjust it at any cost.
Finally the MASTER cylinder. Because I bought it from eBay seller is not enthusiastic to send me dead end nut for one of the holes unused holes in it.
Make an end from old pipe and leave it or try to find a nut.
So still a lot to go...
[BREAK
etailing]Because the whether got worse to the end of the weekend, wasn't much work under a car. It was more work on the details making it look right. I like small details, but working on them is very hard work as you need a lot of patience.
First of all I started with callipers. Cleaned, lubed, painted, assembled. To finish it off on Saturday got new bleeding nuts.
This is how it looks assembled.
New bleed nuts.
And here they are in callipers.
All is in very good condition, no corrosion on piston. Cleaned slides and pins. Should be good to go.
The biggest problem this week was this nut. It is 8mm.
All the week, so it's 5 days in a row, I went to RENAULT with this nut. But if you open Dialogys it will say that it is 6mm witch is wrong.
That nut NR.10 is a wrong info.
And the list of small parts gave me no correct information as well. They just said that cannot see any parts under that part code. So solution was simple, find where they fitted same nuts and bolts in the car. It was fuel tang mounts.
So that should be it.
Heat shield here. Rustiest side up.
Painted and this side goes down witch you will see under the car.
Painted some bolts. I will be using some copped grease so this should be all right.
Waiting for disks, pads, Goodridge Braided Brake Lines to come...
[BREAK=Some progress on the brakes]
Had some progress during the working days, although the pace wasn't so good.
First of all I wanted to express my joy of finally getting the nuts. But sadly though this was ruined by handbrake adjustment rod snap. I will get some unions for this one on upcoming week and hopping for smooth repair and adjustment. This is what I put to the car this week.
Painted and assembled rear brakes fully. But still I have some doubts about the state of protectors on both sides.
From the photo they look really nice, but reality is that they are so rusty and thin. Soon I will hunt down those protectors and put them instead of old ones.
But before I got the joy of good looking brakes I ran into a slight problem. In the picture you can see a hole in the arch. And there is another bigger one at the end of it. Good news is that I'm planing to do a lot of welding under the car, so this will be sorted anyway.
I don't want to spend too much of my holiday fixing car so I will try to prepare her as much as possible, and do welding in one run.
Finally got disks and pads.
Straight away started to fit them, but one of four bolts just didn't unscrew. Will have to drill it out, like a dentist... One side is almost ready. Looks perfect.
Do you remember my old disks? So while removing old disk out, that 2mm difference just peeled off. Strange. Now it is just slightly uneven, but I do believe it is usable.
Still waiting for brake hoses to come, and been lucky to buy stainless steel exhaust back box for reasonable price. You can see an old one peeling off in the background of rear brakes. Would like to take out whole exhaust and change stud and nuts on manifold, as it is blowing just slightly at the moment. If I'm going to change the back box of exhaust, some rubber to hang it, do some painting. So would be reasonable to do all that in one run.
Small bits and pieces to do.
This include bleeding, servo adjustment, and this:
Sticker of my home country R19 club
Fingers crossed I will not get massive leak when I will bleed the brakes.
[BREAK
etails]Guess what?! The weather wasn't so bad and in an afternoon it all cleared so I went for some small things still left undone.
Completely didn't paid any attention to contents of a box with pads, and I was surprised to find these things inside. So this is another small but very interesting detail to all that has been done to my car.
Collected a parcel from post office today, and joy of joys what was inside of it.
So by this projects' ritual went for some more details. Removed arch protection to find that there was no sand down were the drainage pipes are. Decided that this isn't even worth mentioning. But as my Silver proved during application of underseal, there is no place where there is no hole
so I found few of them in usual place.
Still will have to come back to all this. So just for pure cleanliness and not to attract any attention during MOT painted my shock absorber. This is only one side, as I didn't had time before sunset to start another.
You can see everything back in place. I would say it does look beautiful.
As I discovered at my constant quests to motorist shops. Best place to buy parts is builders shop. This is substitution for my old snapped rod of the handbrake. Few nuts and bolts and everything just comes together. It is working, but because the system is not bled yet, left it a bit loose.
By the way, this one came off just before starting this massive detailing project. This proved that car was just just started to fall apart.
By the same builders shop tradition bought some nuts ant bolts.
It doesn't look original, but it does the job.
So after this workout I made a conclusion. All that matters in my project, is just small details. This is what drives my project at the moment.
[BREAK=Back on 4 wheels]
So, not so big update
Still a lot of small things to take care, the list goes on and on. This weeks task was to put the car on 4 feet, and test drive her.
To take out old disk from car I had to overcome some difficulties. As you can see from picture, few bolts snapped at attempt to unscrew. It was a true struggle
One solution - drill them out.
After this job done, new bolts had to go in. But as they are longer, thread is too rotten for bolt to go in fully.
So we take this tool and clean a thread.
It confirms time and time again, it's all details.
Don't know if an old saying will come true, because it says: there isn't more permanent solution, than temporary. Have done this small thing by soldering inside and shut the end of it to prevent any leaks. Other than this didn't work, so it will stay there for while.
Hope it is final bleed. New bleeding is so cool, I don't even need to pump anything.
Small parts from Renault. Had them in shop, didn't had to wait at all.
After final assembly, there is not much new to see. Maybe though you can spot quite big holes there. Will be sorting them out on holiday.
This evening I am doing an test drive.
I forgot how low a 16v is. Haven't driven more than 15mph, because efficiency is quite low. Hand brake needs more adjustment. It is more stronger even without a bigger adjustment. After longer time I noticed more leaks in exhaust on down pipe. It is a bit annoying, will have to change this bit.
In day light I will investigate piping on brakes, to spot are there leaks or not.
Before test drive haven't seen any, so it will be just precaution.
[BREAK=Getting ready for The Big One]
Not much been going on during last few days. Had little time, and not much willingness. But eventually got my hands on it, because The Big Trip is coming up. Journey across Europe, if we would believe google it is 5600 km.
This is how it looks like.
Everything is already planed. It will take 3 weeks. This is what we call a proper holiday
So first things thirst, some rust coming up.
Took bumper off obviously, spare wheel and bracket, tow hook. Treated with some hammerite, and painted. Wire brushed body, applied under-seal and this is how it looks before assembly.
Bumper before taking it off was a bit wobbly so I was wondering why. In picture you can see why.
Snapped, both of them. Solution is simple, do some screwing. Surgeons job, but it holds.
Got really dark when I finished. But it isn't wobbly any more, and looks just great.
Spent all day running around a car to sort out rusty corners and small dents. It was a bit there and there all round it, so no wonder why it took me all day to finish it off. Final result isn't a masters job, but as a rookie I think I did not so bad.
Renault 19 badge is still not in place as I have no glue and plastic bits for it. So this one will be a final touch, before I go it would be great to buy spare clutch cable and alternator belt. Sort out leaking tires and go for The Big One. During this period will try to weld holes under side-skirts, arches and anywhere else where I will discover them. So a lot more to come.
[BREAK=Testing]
Yesterday Got my cable from Chet, and went straight away to test the car.
This is what I have got from diagnostics.
Thirst thing that you notice is that speed is 128km/h it is a lie, I was standing still
Second LAMBDA values just before going to zero were as shown - 1020mV. I assume lambda gives wrong values to ECU and it can be felt in engine work. When it is started engine works almost with no RPM drops, but after some time it starts to drop to 500. But when values from LAMBDA change to 0, it works around 900rpm and smooth.
Every other values seem to be ok. I assume I have to change sensor ASAP.
[BREAK=The Trip]
So little update about my trip. I include a picture with the stuff we squeezed to back of my Renault. It was nearly to the top.
There are some reference points on how big things are. Roll and tissues.
Now some figures.
Distance now done is 2256 km with 169 l of fuel burnt. Average consumption is 7.5l/100km or 37.66 mpg. I'm pleased with these numbers as I was doing 120-150km/h or 70-90 mph 4/5 of the way whole distance.
Problems that I found on the way are steering rack play and gearbox. When speed is around 170km/h 110mph you can feel it significantly as you have to do small corrections in direction you are going. 5th gear is making just a little bit too much noise with indicates wear. Everything else seem to be perfect. With that load we were carrying I would say noise was very low. Now I'm preparing for 2nd stage of my trip and hoping no issues what so ever. That is it for this time.
[BREAK=Sills and more]
It has been a lot of movement under the car recently. I have spent whole week working underneath sorting out bits and bobs. So everything started with exhaust, cost of it 20quid plus 20 to fit it. It is not quite the same shape as original, so had to be adjusted. Apparently tone has changed, at the moment I do not very like it, but may be I have to get used to it.
Biggest job of the week was to find all parts for sill change. New ones cost me 25 quid for one, plus 50 to fit. They look quite nice all thought are a bit thinner than original ones.
When I took wings off found more rust.
After some sweat and swearing happy with the result.
Because I had to remove all front panels, got my hands on old problems - tow hook. After some more effort drilled out broken bolts, threaded holes, painted and walla. Also I made a support from the bottom of a hook to prevent bumper bending.
I must admit result is very red.
To finish it off sprayed under-seal where ever possible. It looks brilliant.
Finally got my hand on plastic sills. Had to drill all the holes and paint areas where needed everywhere else just under-seal. My girl helped me a lot with with these ones.
Final result is in pic.
As you have seen in pics there are some problems witch will have to be sorted soon. Power steering cooling bit is very rusty. By the way I have fixed an issue with my handbrake, so it works now just fine. I will try to pass my MOT on the last days, and be on my way home. I haven't covered all the distance as planed before this holiday due to some car repair issues. The car now is in very good shape and hoping to finish my trip with no problems what so ever. I will try to update when I pass my MOT.
[BREAK=little update]
So finally I got home, fast and safely. Covered 6thousnad kilometres with consumption average 7,5l/100km. Although car developed a problem. When you rev it up to 5k rpm it stalls. It could be because of distributor cap. I have got excessive amount of overdrive when slowing down in gear. Everything else seems to be as always.
Managed to pass MOT, well nearly passed it. Hand brake efficiency demanded - 16%, my car showed - 16,6%. Also did routine maintenance, and alignments. With Megane shock absorber top mounts camber: -2o18` and -1o42`.
But just a day before I had to start get going tried to teach my girl how to drive that beats and clutch cable snapped. Happy me. Managed to get away of problems in the middle of a way.
If you can see from this picture cable snapped at gear box not at pedal. I do believe it is because it is 5cm to short. My ABS is in the way. Changed that cable quite quickly.
Also bought one extra just in case. The same old one lasted me for 4 years, it's not too bad for 10 pounds.
So to celebrate my come back I cleaned interior. I can not think of any other car that has got so good seats as my 16v. You sit in it for few thousand kilometres and no back or neck pain. Brilliant!!!
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