The chammy

[Chris H]

May 2004

There I was needing another car as the sky blue 1.4 had been in an incident.

So I was on Ebay and saw a ph1 Chamade in 449 blue with a starting bid of £80. It was located in Carlisle.

The advert said bald tyres, defective power steering, broken engine mountings and a few other issues.

I stuck in a bid and won the car for £80.

Here are the Ebay pic's of the car.







I rang the seller asked about the tyres and so on and decided I'll just tell the car to behave and it will instead of fixing anything.

Besides over 100 miles isn't far to drive with no power steering, bald tyres and a collapsed engine mount really.

[BREAK]

May 5th

Amber, Emma (my sister) and myself all went down in Emma's white ph1 1.4 19.

We met the guy in a shopping complex car park.

he turned up in a nedded up mk2 Astra, here’s a pic of it, note the exhaust!



Anyway, got there got it running checked the tyres (only a wee bit bald), the power steering was totally dry so no assistance, but all the lights worked and so on. So homeward bound we were.

We pulled off at the services after a wee while as I needed to pee. Got 2 pics of it, Emma's white car beside mine.





Anyway the main problem was the vibration and noise from the collapsed rear mount, this had actually allowed the bracket to cut through the power steering pipes.

I soon figured that accelerating up to 135mph then backing off would take about 2 miles to slow to 70 ish, also the over run made the engine flip forward thus silence would enter the cabin and it was nice. So got home pretty quickly.

When I got home I used the standard scissor jack and another rear mounting I had lying about, I had it changed in about 15 minutes on the neighbours grassy driveway! I, to this day have no idea how I managed to do it.

So that was the engine sorted, I chucked some fluid in the power steering, the pump worked, the rack worked but leaked from the burst pipes AND the seals behind the gaiters, so needed another rack.

The alternator was also knackered as everything electrical pulsed up and down, the fuel pump was also very noisy. Both needed changed.

Feck that for today said I. Instead I took it out ragging it round the lochs. :lol:

[BREAK]

11th May 2004 (pic date)

I remember the rear brake discs not clearing properly and the fact there was very little effort on the rear, at most 10% or so and not the ACTUAL 35 - 40% the rear brakes actually do.

After a look I noted it was the bias valves arm that was sliding inside the adjustment tube.

So I removed the arm



I cleaned it all up and found another olive, I put it back together and the rear brakes started to work properly, however I wanted more. So I just cable tied the bias valve shut, as it was quicker and easier than adjusting. This meant the rear brakes didn't back off, so the rears would lock, that suited my driving just perfectly.

The car also ran cool, I mean cool cool, I knew the stat was probably stuck open, it wasn't cool enough for a stat to be missing. However the minute the heater was turned on the gauge would just drop and the heater was freezing. I remember this one night after taking Soneji home it was about 2am and (despite it being may) there was ice around, so I decided then and there next day I would investigate.

So I took the stat housing off and this is what fell out



yep that’s one rotten stat. So another was put in (89 degrees) and now it sat at the 1st line as it should.

[BREAK]

At some point during May I decided I should really replace the steering rack so I could get a fresh MOT on it and get the power assistance back cos I'm lazy. I still did nearly 1k miles with no power steering.

I also stuck another cambelt on the car and got it MOT'd.

JULY 2004

Some more pics of the car, note the old crappy small back box, also note at how low it hung due to the bracket having broken





note the bonnet rust, its a lot worse now!









[BREAK]

31st July 2004



Due to the erm, worn tyres I had to sling the spare on, I love the 16V steelies



This was erm the worn tyre



So I ordered 2 toyo's



And as I was busy I just slung the 17's on the back as they were legal, look good eh!



I also had a puncture in another good tyre, well not 1 but 2 nails!



I wasn't impressed



Anyway got the 2 toyos put on and the other 2 good tyres were stuck on the front until I got the money sorted out for the other 2.

[BREAK]

September 2004

I had noticed that on a few occasions when I got into the car there was a puddle on the passenger side mat. Yes the heater matrix was leaking, but not all the time, I slung a towel down there for a few weeks actually! :lol:

It was nice to see a perfectly clear blue coolant puddle, the hours I had spent flushing the system had been worth it and its STILL pristine.

Anyway bought a heater matrix,there's also a dodgy stat and CTS sitting beside it for some reason I have long forgotten, however I didn't fit the matrix until a few weeks later.



The aux water pump relay sometimes worked sometimes didn't as well so I sorted that out, as you can see it was only an issue in 1 corner



the other side



anyway cleaned it and still to this day it works perfectly.

[BREAK]

17th September 2004

Isn't she lovely, I can't recall why the steelie is on the passenger front



Anyway this was the day I set about changing the matrix

This crap was the renault fitted alarm, also known as the inbuilt fire hazard



Yes they used bullet connectors to wire in the alarm



dash coming out



alarm wiring



no dash



heater box out



matrix



view into the heater box, it was cleaned out thoroughly



whilst the dash was out I had a look at the screen as I knew it wasn't bonded right



with a little bit of finger pressure it opened up a gap of around an inch!



[BREAK]

September 2004

I dunno if you other chammy owners have noticed this but its extremely hard to keep a rear wheel on the ground turning into driveways, car parks and petrol stations and so on.

It does it a lot more in the chammy than the hatches do, presumably due to the stiffer shell.

Here’s a couple of pics of it going into the driveway, this was only a couple of inches off the ground if you hit it right the rear wheel was abut a foot off the ground which was handy to sneak a peak under the thing.





You may recall the windscreen wasn't bonded at the lower corners, well I chucked my phone into the car and it bounced off the screen cracking it, so it deffo had to be replaced



The car was generally used and driven everywhere, here’s a pic of it parked up by Loch Earnhead



It was also time to get the other 2 toyo's so I had the full set



Well i had them, didn't fit them for a while...

[BREAK]

October 2004

Here’s a couple of pretty crappy phone vids, it sounds nice though

Right click, save as

http://www.renault-turbo.com/chris/blue chammy/03-10-04_2041.mp4

hit the limiter a bit much in this one

http://www.renault-turbo.com/chris/blue chammy/04-10-04_1811.mp4

I had been using a universal Ripspeed IK and in fact I still am. Thought you might like some pics of it despite in not being exciting.





The inverted cone increases the filters surface area nicely, now this will never filter as well as a paper filter (NO after-market filter will) but the benefits it gives means its staying. More on that later.

On the 14th of October I was on my way to Soneji's and it happened



Yep 119k, 7 k in 5 months.

[BREAK]

19th October 2004

Amber and I were returning from a wee road trip at around 3am. I had been leisurely cruising at my usual 3 figure speed and came off my test track to join the public highway. I then noticed the temp gauge was creeping up, so nipped into ASDA's car park.

Popped the bonnet and a hose had gone pop.

A nice easy to access hose? Nope, the hose that turns back on itself under the inlet manifold (its for the oil cooler on models so equipped). So Amber and I walked up to the flat got into Ambers car then headed down to my mums to get a hose off another car.

I then changed the hose in ASDA's car park in the pitch black, what fun. Went into ASDA and bought a 5 litre bottle of water, topped it up bled it and it was all fine again.

That morning I got pics of the hose, looks like a little split



I knew it would be worse inside, so I cut it open and had a gander



as you can see it was just hanging in there!

David had sent me up an air-box. I wanted one so I had one, I also decided to try it out, I even went and bought a new FRAM (oe) air filter for it.

The screws that hold the halves together were seized and chewed so I had to remove them to fit new ones

here’s what I managed to get out, as you can see they were pretty rough



here’s the air-box itself after a clean



The bracket to fit the box





Air-box fitted to the car



I test drove it for a few days with the air-box. Well I lost an average of 3mpg, it lost the noise, it didn't rev half as freely and was noticeable slower.

So the IK went back on and the air-box is in the shed. The red car has the stock airbox and since my mums driving my Chamade she really notices the difference the IK makes, she hates the noise though. Anyway the IK back on and its staying on.



[BREAK]

22nd October 2004

I finally got the screen replaced, here’s the old one after it was removed



Biggest annoyance is the replacement screen isn't tinted which is very annoying, the renault glass is tinted you see.

[BREAK]

31st October 2004

I was through at Soneji' sin Edinburgh, its just under 60 miles door to door.

We were heading back to his house and I noticed the throttle was playing up, floored it to go down the junction, went to change gear and the revs were bouncing off the limiter, the throttle pedal was stuck to the floor, some taps got it freed off but it would still stick so it was gently gently until we got to Soneji's.

We had a gander and say the cable was in a bad way, I removed some loose strands to try and free up the pedal a bit and routed the cable to keep it as straight as possible where the bracket is



I then drove the nigh on 60 miles home rather gingerly

The next day 1st November, i had a look at it.

The routing of the cable to straighten the cable where it passes into the bracket



then had a proper look at the cable, yes that is ONE strand only, I managed to drive that all the way home like that to!



So ordered a new cable from Renault and had to wait for that to show before I could sort it.

[BREAK]

7th November 2004

Since the car was going nowhere until the throttle cable arrived I decided to sort out other issues.

One such issue was rectifying the renault dealers bodge job of installing the alarm which i had removed. I needed to sort out the ignition modules power supply.

So I cut a pin and section out of another loom I had



the wire on the car, yes renault had chopped into it and twisted them together, I had just removed the alarm wire and re-taped it as a temp measure.



So it was time to put my new wire into the loom



First bit of solder, it was tidied up



taped



pin back into the plug



loom taped back up



all back together



[BREAK]

10th November 2004

My throttle cable arrived so it was time to fit that



pulling it through into the cabin



at the engine end



Cable restored the nice smooth, precise feel to the throttle pedal again.

[BREAK]

12th November 2004

It was time to clean up the ignition components, something I had put off for ages

Dizzy cap, note colour of HT leads





Dizzy came off, removed the plastic shield (most are long gone by now) and the mangled mess is the old rotor arm



As you can see the dizzy spindle was corroded which is why I had to break the arm to get it off



Cleaned the spindle up and the dizzy housing, spindle was lightly oiled before the new arm went on



Cleaned the HT leads and put if back together, leads came up nicely didn't they.



[BREAK]

13th November 2004

I popped through to Soneji's to just check the car was running ok

mpg was about right



got new trainers, took a pic of them as well :lol:



That was me after wasting a Clio 172, the 19 pulled away from 110 on, I went right to the limiter, however taking pics at 7krpm in 5th is dangerous, taking them at 130 whilst slowing down is ok though :lol:



Coming home



cruising on light throttle behind other cars





5 mins later still behind other traffic



That’s what I love about the chammy, its very, very good on fuel, the red car wasn't as good.

[BREAK]

18th November 2004

It was oil change time

I fitted a gearbox plug with the hex head in place of the standard square key only sump plug, new washer as well of course



Topping up the beast with its fresh oil



New filter as well



old filter



Old oil, not to clever looking, but i was rectifying previous owners neglect, it comes out cleanish after each change now



There we go, petrol light on but decent oil pressure



It was quicker after the oil change, even the Mrs noticed!

So I got a couple of vids of it again

right click save as

http://www.renault-turbo.com/chris/blue chammy/drive off.mp4

http://www.renault-turbo.com/chris/blue chammy/in car.mp4

[BREAK]

29th November 2004

I noticed the coolant level had dropped a wee bit, I sourced the leak, the upper matrix hose was slightly loose so left these puddles when it was sat overnight



that rusty stain was from the Ford Onion



So nipped the clip up and all was well with the world again.

[BREAK]

6th December 2004

I finally got round to fitting the Toyo's to the other 2 wheels, I took them down in the onion to be fitted





The spare needs anew tyre, still not changed it as its technically legal and holds air, besides non directional tyres in the size required are not cheap!



here it is with all its new tyres on it



[BREAK]

With it being December it was a bit cold and a lot of things were frozen, including the ront indicators.

Now the ph1 front indicators are not the best design, water gets in and corrodes the lamp holder and they stop working

So I took the indicators out to give them a good going over



mud in the lens



cleaned



blinging



However the next day it was a tad chilly, yes that’s ice ALL over the body as well





Indicator wasn't working popped it out, yes full of ice



Thawed it out and it worked fine again

[BREAK]

21st December 2004

What with the polar bears at the door wanting some shelter and so on it was clearly cold, the passenger side heated rear view mirror wasn't heating

Glass out, the 2 wires are the heating wires, note crack in mirror, got another un-cracked one on there now



Checked the wiring right through to the shell (it was fine)



the back of the mirror, the tab actually broke off so I shoved in a bit of bent metal in there, worked fine then



[BREAK]

29th December 2004

Coming back from Rustyarchs with Amber the temp gauge shot up, fecking hell not again said I. Pulled into a petrol station and the top heater matrix hose had split. So bought some tape from the petrol station and drove the 30 miles home just fine.

The next day again I got a pic of the split



So stuck another hose on there.

[BREAK]

4th January 2005

My nice NEW Toyo was flat. I wasn't impressed



So had to pop on the spare, note the disc, that was from standing over night and being frozen



gotta love the steelies though!





the offending nail!



Anyway got it repaired with a plug



However it wasn't just a flat tyre that was the result of the, well flat tyre

My Chamade missed the recall for the sunroof fix, so if its not level water leaks in via the sunroof.

The flat tyre had dropped the rear passenger side enough to let the water leak into the cabin.

In the boot



trail where the water ran down from



the large wet patch on the headlining





I still need to sort this issue, basically you run a bead of mastic along the edge where the 2 sheets are spot welded together on the sunroof.

I also fitted new battery terminals that day



Also note earth lead direct to the engine.

[BREAK]

29th January 2005

The second-hand rear mount I had put into the car when I got it had finally given up, to be fair it had already done over 100k on another car then another 10 or so on the chammy. Try as I might I couldn't change the damn thing despite doing it in 15 minutes when I first got the car, instead of fannying about I just pulled the engine out, much easier and I could do the cambelt easily again as well.

up she comes



easy







why I have so many pics of it half out I don't know btw



my mum deciding to come out after its done and look like she done something :lol:



cambelt covers off



tensioning the belt



The subframe

bit oily



master cyl



yes I am an idiot I forgot to remove the lambda wiring...





engines back in in this pic



but not this one for some reason :? anyway note triangular plates for strength





Anyway I had to buy stuff so the engine never went back in that day

[BREAK]

31st January 2005

The heat-shield nuts, these are hard to get these days, renault never order the right bits in when you ask for them but I managed to find a couple more so I had a complete set



I also picked up my nice new exhaust stud from renault as well



I also got the back-box welded up at the MOT station for free





obviously its squint here as its not attached to the mid section!



However the picture shows its right up in the bumper as it should be instead of dangling 3/4 inches underneath it!

I also fitted another used but only had 10k miles on it rear mount as well



Fitted the new exhaust stud as well



[BREAK]

3rd February 2005

I decided I had better get the engine back in, before that happened though I had to repair the lambda sensor wiring which I damaged



mid soldering action





tape to finish



other 2 wires soldered



The engine was then stuck back in and all was right with the world again

[BREAK]

8th February 2005

The alternator light started to flicker and then came on and stayed on.

Had a rummage and found this



yep the main charging lead had shed its terminal



I then removed the alternator to give it a further going over, found this on a rectifier pack lead



the brushes on the right are very worn and are what came off the alt, the ones on the left are from an old 1.4 alt, so I used those brushes



1.4 alt on the right, 16V on the left



I got new terminals for the alt wire





stripped the insulation back to reveal good copper



nearly there





I put it back together and the light was still flickering slightly when a lot of loads were on.

A pic of the back-box after it was fitted back on right btw



[BREAK]

10th Feb 2005

I added a fat earth to the top earth point to the scuttle, the old one was just the wire. I had already added the long braid from the batt neg to the engine, this was just something to further help



It was also time to change the rocker cover gasket as it was weeping very slightly

plug lead cover off along with the strut brace



everything clear, just needs unbolted



Cover off



nice new gasket fitted, then it was just a case of bolting it back together



[BREAK]

11th Feb 2005

The car broke down on me, well broke down isn't an accurate description, it cut out and refused to re-start. No fuel pump.

I had to push it off the road, messed about in the aux fusebox and it started back up, time to go sort it out.

Went home, fuel relay first item to check



Pop the cover off, check for arcing, bad smells and so on.



It was fine.

Righty that left the wiring, this of course is where the standard immobiliser is wired in, I had left the immob disconnected when I re-fitted the engine and just used a connector block



the terminal removed from the relay plug.



took the short section of wire in to solder on a longer length



secure it properly





This allowed me to cut back the wiring on the car to good wire and then I soldered that in.

Problem solved.

[BREAK]

16th March 2005

I changed the fuel filter, I removed the fuel filter bracket as I had a better one to put on, heres the old one



No other pics sadly, but that bracket wasn't quite as nice as I'd have liked which is why I changed it.

I also had a look at the rear brakes as they were not clearing to well





Also the calipers needed bled and tidied up. the unions and nipples were corroded of course





note cleaned up nipple, pads out as well



pads out, they were knackered



there’s a new pad above the worn one, the new pads were 5 quid Ebay bargains



back together, it needed new discs but that would do for the moment



[BREAK]

24th March 2005

Typically just a few days after doing the rear brakes something popped. There was brake fluid all over the bias valve. I thought the valve will probably be fine it'll be a pipe.

However, I wanted to get a valve in case it was that, rather than take it all apart then not have the bit to sort it.

So a nice new bias valve was bought







Nice and shiny eh!

Righty time to get to work.

Old bias valve and bracket removed



a close up in the bottom of the bracket, yep a holed pipe as i suspected



all the pipes off



the last leaky pipe, typical I had to remove all the others to get to it



where it was holed



can't make the hole out due to it being on a camera phone





time to fabricate a new pipe



its to go from the left into the right shape



getting there



removed the bias valve and cleaned it up



new pipe fitted and all back together



The new bias valve is still in its box on the shelf. The brakes worked fine as well. I was very glad I freed off the bleed nipples the few days before hand.

[BREAK]

31st March 2005

I decided to mess about and fit an earth directly to the ECU, I wasn't expecting any difference as it was well earthed at the other (engine) end. Still I fitted it anyway

ECU with the top cover off



earth lead fitted to a mounting bolt



the lead from the ECU to the battery neg terminal



made feck all difference as expected, but you can never be earthed too much eh!

[BREAK]

11th May 2005

I decided to remove the pin stripe someone had put on the side skirts, it looked crap tbh



stripe all off, much better, made the car look lower as well



a before and after pic



after



Whilst I was there I decided I might as well tidy things up and change bits so i can easily remove the bumper etc

This is a rear bumper screw, it was a bit awkward to get out



got the head off it as can be seen in the last pic, this left the rest of the thread in the u clip



this is the thread cleaned up so it would unscrew (which it did)



The bumper stripe has always poked out, it was time to sort it, this is how it poked out



behind the bumper, you can just see the grey peg



a new sprag clip fitted



held back in place, yes there is a slight kink which is annoying



this is one of the lower bumper retaining clips thats under the boot floor, rare to get them off as cleanly as this





Anyway all the fixings were sorted out which means I can remove the rear bumper easily if I feel like it.

[BREAK]

16th May 2005

I washed the beast





Its nice when its clean

[BREAK]

23rd May 2005

The day before my birthday, I was due in court as apparently my Chamade had smashed into the back of a Clio and destroyed its rear 1/4's, boot floor and bumper etc

So before going to court I took some pictures, after all my car to cause that damage should at least have some marks on it if nothing else eh!

So here’s a load of pics showing how straight it is





nice straight chassis rail



nice straight front end



no damage



yep that’s straight too







Anyway after months of fighting the case was eventually dropped as there were no witnesses, it doesn't matter that my car was undamaged as apparently I could have repaired it and accurately replicated 13 years of grime and light corrosion. :roll:

Criminal justice systems a poor joke, it really is.

[BREAK]

6th June 2005

A nice picture of the engine bay, with a decent camera



The side-skirts came off as well, as its a ph1 I expected no rot, and I was right, some light surface rust in places but its nothing



This clip was never fitted right from the factory



which caused this



the clip forced the skirt out slightly which made the rear door rub on it when it was opened and closed

another pic of the skirt, rear door, this was all cleaned off of course, but its as solid as a solid thing



[BREAK]

8th August 2005

Had another wee look at the rear brakes

As you can see it was clearing more of the disc now, it was rusty as it had been sitting for about 3 months at this point



disc and carrier off, revealing backplate, not many still have the back plates.



back plate off



back plate



cleaned the backplate up and re-fitted it



rear disc, like I said before they needed changed



all back together



old pads which were still lying about



pic through to the discs, the car had gentle bens 16's on at the time as his clio was wearing my alloys



I also bought and fitted new handbrake cables



[BREAK]

Hell of a jump from August 2005 to May 2007!

The car had sat off road for all this time, the car was always MOT'd and always ready to go but due to me being banned its just sat in the drive patiently.

So what’s happened since its been off the road? New rear discs and rear pads (no pics sorry), new back box (again no pics) and a new clutch.

i will take some pics of the car as its about time I did.

The car is currently in daily use as the red car needs a windscreen, it was pressed back into service when my mum popped the red cars engine last month, the red cars ready to go apart from windscreen, typical eh.

I also got a new drivers door brought down to me from Dougal.

So here’s the story

The old door notice kink etc. Also note how I had started to remove the upper pinstripe, its gone on the rear 1/4. The new door has no pin stripe you see and I wanted the stripe off



So Dougal brought down my new door and helped me fit it.



note all pin striping apart from the wing is gone





Its not perfect needs tweaked slightly to get it perfectly in line but it can wait.

Last night (9th June 2007) I changed the alternator - again, now there’s no more flickering of the light when a load is on and there’s no dimming at all of lights when it drops to idle or the fan kicks in.

[BREAK]

December 2007

Well I finally got around to swapping the door lock and window seals and glass over from the original door, only took about 8 months, not too bad tbh lol.

I also put new front discs and pads on, total waste of time really as the old gear was fine, disc maybe 0.5mm thinner than new. But I bought em so stuck them on.

The beast still runs perfectly of course.

[BREAK=MOT'd again]

7th June 2009

Car was MOT'd and sailed through again.

[BREAK=Some tinkering]

11th September 2009

Well the beast decided to get a soggy boot, this is not cricket, nothing major but a small puddle . Anyway dried it up got inside with no boot carpet or rear seats and had my mate hose the beast down. Nothing, eventually there was a sign of water. It was coming in the badge holes I removed the badges years ago and just put tape on the inside of the lid to seal against the weather, well 4 years later they ain't sealing any more, so put new tape on. I'll either sort the holes out right or put badges back on, not decided yet.

So whilst I was messing I decided to do a bit more messing, the cars not been washed in about 2 years! Shocking I know but it actually still looks ok, still looks clean aside from the rear lights and under the bumper strips.

So I pulled off the os rear light, dirty but not to bad really



a quick wash to double check there’s still no rust and there’s not, awesome. I will clean it properly soon



I then looked at the tailpipe, this was letting the show down, I mean look at it



So after a quick wash it looked like this



After more washing and a bit of polish



And a pic from underneath looking up at the underside of the tailpipe



Looks a bit better, need to get it up and polish the underside again, the exhaust and heat-shields have lost their shine and for some reason the rear shockers have started to get rust spots on them, which is annoying as they were polished and looked like new.

[BREAK=New Heart???]

27th February 2010

I just picked up an F7R 710 engine. Do I stick it in or not...



Ignore the F7P on the sticker!



what to do, what to do...

[BREAK=On the road]

25th June 2010

Well as of yesterday the beast is back on the road.

Fully legal and fully awesome.

I forgot the MOT had run out on the 6th June so had to get an MOT, then off to the post office for tax. £205 for a years tax!

TWO HUNDRED AND FIVE POUNDS for a years tax! Last time I taxed this car it was £165!

Anyway the car is as good as I remember and a few things have come to my attention and I shall list them;

1. I drive the oldest car on the road. In Scotland everyone has a new car, a Y plate car is ancient most are 08 plates tbh.

2. Compared to newer cars you feel very exposed, there’s loads of glass in the 19 which makes visibility great but weird if you drive modern vehicles all the time.

3. Everyone stares at it, half think wow what an old car the rest think I can have that.

4. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE wants to race you. At lights you get idiots on bikes, BMW’s, new clios, corsas etc etc all blipping the throttle to race you. I have yet to lose btw.

5. It gets over the ton by the end of 99% of slip roads with ease.

6. Its amazing on fuel. 80mph (trip speed 85 ish dial speed) gets 38mpg. If taking it easy above 40 most of the time occasionally above 50mpg. So far done 230 miles to 30 quid. The Laguna will do about that to 50 quid.

7. I can fit in the car better than the Laguna, there is more leg and shoulder room.

I have annoyingly got a nail in my drivers front tyre which is annoying, first day out and a nail in the tyre just my luck.

The engine oil and filter need changed as it was done last year, but its only done the 230 miles its driven since yesterday.

The gearbox oil needs changed, the ATF in it is a bit thin and its a good 4 years old at least.

Will get pics up soon.

[BREAK=Gearbox oil change]

29th June 2010

Well I bought some gearbox oil today in the hope changing it would help the 2nd gear synchro issue.

So drain out the old ATF



A mix of Laguna engine oil and atf



Old sealing washer on left, new on the right



The last drop, the ATF was still clean and had no particles in it, I was watching it intently usually when I do box oil changes its a silvery gold colour due to the particles. But as this is the 2nd or 3rd box oil change I have done on this car i didn't expect anything. It was a still a nice cherry red see through colour



New EP80 box oil in, go out, its slightly better in some areas and the same in others.

The change seems a little smoother in slow driving but it seems to stick slightly when pulling out of a gear, hard to explain right. The crunching going into 2nd from a higher gear is pretty much the same. I think the gearbox with its hard 126k miles on it the synchro is worn and that’s it tbh.

So I'll live with it just now.

I also topped up the engine oil with fresh oil I will leave the filter change and oil change till winter time, the oil and filter have done 300 miles now since it was changed.

All the brakes etc are new on this car, they have just sat idle for years, the wishbones etc are also new but have succumbed to the weather and have got rusty, nothing structural just look a bit scabby now.

Anyway just to show how well the brakes are bedding in here’s pictures of the discs inner faces, perfect, like mirrors, full contact face being used as well.





Jobs that need doing on the beast.

Sort the pull to the left, its quite a pull been there since I done the TRE's years back, never got it tracked.

Repair the puncture on the osf tyre

Finally sort out a decent bonnet or make a good one out the two I have.

Get a new fuel tank the fuel evaporates out the damn thing, I need that to stop so I can also fill the tank to the max and I also have another fuel pump waiting to put in it.

The other big pain is the thing is so hot inside! The leather doesn't help nor does the large glass area. But its ridiculous, I think the leather is the biggest issue.

[BREAK=800 miles since MOT]

4th July 2010

Well this morning it hit 800 miles since the MOT a few days ago.

The gear change seems to be getting slightly better as changing down into 2nd is a possible task now.

Yesterday on the track with Soneji hit over 130 and then again by myself later on.

Feels perfectly composed and happy at that speed, so it should everything on it is new pretty much.

It doesn't have the same pace it used to though, It used to hit the limiter in 5th with relative ease but once it gets to 130 now it seems to pick up after that very slowly.

MPG is good as well, done 52 miles last night hitting 130 on the way and it only used 1.2 Gallons.

It needs a wash now as the front wheels are covered in brake dust.

You really forget how limited the car is going semi off road though, into the national parks car parks etc is a nightmare, your all over the place avoiding any sort of slight hole otherwise the car will bottom out or break a bit of bumper off or something.

Here is a picture from the other day whilst I was out for a wee drive



[BREAK=Break down!!!]

1st August 2010

Disaster! Ok a bit dramatic but the clutch cable snapped today.

We were all in the car as well, this was the first time the Mrs had been in the Chamade (we take the Laguna as the baby seats are in that but they were put into the Chamade yesterday).

In town going from 2nd to 3rd the cable snapped. So just drove it home, only once was I worried, there’s traffic lights in this 60 zone near me on a hill. They changed to red for me of course.

So engine off, green light first gear and started it, only just, the started doesn't like to pull the car uphill to start it :lol:

Got home with no issues. In fact for some reason 2nd gear crunches LESS when not using the clutch, this probably due to me having to rev match the box.

Anyway hunted high and low but I must have scrapped all my clutch cables, so need to buy a new one.

The most annoying thing is the cable has maybe 4 k miles on it.

New cable, new clutch, new release fork, new release fork pivot bush etc.

But the clutch is one of those heavy duty GTT clutches and its always been heavy, the other cars which I have done the clutches, pivot bushes and cables on all have light clutches.

Oh well tomorrow hopefully a new cable.

[BREAK=New cable]

3rd August 2010

Well I got a new cable, £11.50 from the factors, as I was neither willing to wait or pay for Renault.

Yes I know i preach use only Renault but I did have an AA temp one in the 1.4 that lasted 50k miles...

The new cable was more Megane that 19 but it works and the pedal is a bit lighter.

[BREAK=Front End play]

18th September 2010

The last couple of times I have had the car out i have noticed a slight knock occasionally. But no real evidence to what it was.

With me using the bike 90% of the time the car wasn't used.

However I have used the car a lot more over the last 2 weeks.

The play started, a slight vagueness above 120 was where it started, over the next 2 journeys (I do big journeys so maybe 500 miles) it was getting hard to keep in a straight line at low speeds.

I was at Sonejis the other night and borrowed a torch and had him wobble the wheel and could see the offside bottom ball joint had a good 10mm of play in it.

So Thursday I bought 2 new lower ball joints and 2 new track rod ends.

This is annoying as none of these components had done more than say 5k miles tops!

Also this free play has killed my front tyres as well so I have had to buy another 2 tyres.

I also spent a bit more and got Delphi parts as last time I just used FAI parts.

Here are the lower ball joints



Old and new



On doing the nearside I also saw why its leaving a puddle, oil is leaking form the nearside drive shaft gaiter, the lower bolt appears to have now stripped. It was fine and it never leaked with the ATF in it. So i will have to sort this out as well.



nearside track rod end, no play but screwed anyway, the offside has some play



This is the offside tyre, it still looks new, the rears which are a couple of months older have nearly 8mm of tread on them still! now both front have worn down to being screwed due to the scrub angles created



So it now goes straight(ish) and more to the point it goes where you aim it, I am also hoping the dodgy wheel bearing noise is these worn tyres as the bearings (all 4) are new, well maybe 5k on them.

I have put on 3k miles since the MOT 2 or so months back and its not been used for over a month (bike) so doesn't take long to add the miles up.

So the track rod ends and bottom ball joints came to £26 and i bought 2 new tyres.

Tyres I wasn't sure what to go for.

I currently run Toyo T1S which I found to be excellent.

however I wasn't sure what to go for now, I narrowed it to Uniroyal Rainsport 2's, Toyo PX4's and Toyo T1R's.

PX4's out the window right away based on various reviews.

Rainsports have had almost 90% gleaming reviews. The t1R's which replaced the t1S's had both bad and good reviews.

Eventually price settled it for me. £63 delivered from Camkills website compared to the cheapest of 85 for the rainsports.

So hopefully they come this week and I will get it tracked properly and fit the new tyres on the beast.

i will try the rainsports next year, by next winter I should require all 4 tyres and will replace all 4 with rainsports or something else if there’s better.

[BREAK=Oil and filter change]

10th November 2010,

129,000 miles

Well today another oil and filter change. This seems to have brought up the engine oil pressure.

when I brought the car back into service the oil and filter were last changed in 2006, it had done 10 miles in the following 4 years. So i just changed the oil. In the 3k miles I have put on it in the last few months I have topped it up as at first it was burning quite a bit (stuck rings from lay up) so required frequent topping up.

The oil consumption has gone done a lot and I decided to change the oil and filter. The oil that came out was pretty black and quite thin, obviously this is due to blow by from the stuck rings.

But the rings are no longer stuck so new oil and filter, took it out for a blast (on the test strip in my private church car park) seeing 130 mph 3 times and doing 40 miles I returned home.

Dipped the oil, clean as it was when it was put in. It also sounds sweeter. Result then.

So now I will carry on with my normal oil routine which is different to 90% of the worlds and indeed my recommendations to others (I recommend sure fire safe alternatives in this libellous society).

I never got any pictures of the filer or oil but rest assured it has the details on it in pink paint marker.

I did get a snap of the oil pressure on the phone, naughty I know but was in the private church car park...

Note the bleeding LCD screen, this is really annoying me, it was fine until i brought it back into service!



Also the other issue is engine temp, note the temperature. that’s as hot as it gets with this weather. The thermostat was new about 15k miles ago which due to the way the car has been driven is almost 5 years ago, so could do with a change I reckon.

My tyres came, still not fitted them, really need to. i done the tracking by eye and it seems bang on, can enter water on the motorway and the wheel doesn't tug to the side etc, just tracks straight and true.

[BREAK=Tyres fitted]

11th November 2010

129,002 miles

Well i fitted the new Toyo T1R's.

These were fitted to the rear and the t1s's that were on the rear are now on the front.

this picture shows the rear half worn T1S and the new T1R



This next picture is the front nearside T1s which was worn very quickly, yes that is the canvass!



Its now better to drive as its not sliding all over the place, so safer and a bit quieter inside.

[BREAK=Thermostat change]

26th November 2010

I bought another thermostat (£11.71! that’s double the last one I bought for it) and set to fitting it yesterday.

I removed the coolant for re-use, its clean and newish. Then pulled it all apart, all in the job took maybe 15 minutes.

Here is the new and old units, it was closed by the bypass hole I made was either flowing to much or the stat was opening early.



where the stat bolts to, sadly the scale in the head will always be there unless its removed and dipped which i can;'t be bothered doing. Although doing so would improve heat transfer to the coolant



The housing itself



The coolant I removed and re-used



Coolant back in, bled it through then off for a drive.

Right away the car was a lot warmer a lot quicker. Driving around means now the needle is above the first line instead of under it and the heater works great, burns your fingers now.

A quick snap



this temperature according to the XRD is 70 degrees, The CTS despite being new is obviously dodgy so I imagine the temp to be closer to 80 ish degrees at this temp. At the second line the stat opens cleanly and the needle drops instantly back down to this position.

I look forward to the fuel savings I should get.

[BREAK=headlights]

17th February 2011

I had noticed the headlights were not as good as they were, the main beam was still excellent but not so much the headlights.

Now I have never changed a headlight bulb in this car that I can remember, which means they are probably needing changed by now.

But I also know from extensive work on vehicles that voltage drops are the number 1 issue with dull headlights.

So headlights on (not main beam) and the offside shows this



Moved the leads to the battery and it shows this



Yep nigh on a 2 V drop. When revved to 3krpm the voltage at the headlight went up to about 12 v where it should be nearly 14v same as the battery.

So I fitted the nearside with additional wiring and relays 9more room here to do a temp setup and the voltage now read



Pretty much battery voltage. A responding improvement in light output colour was noticed. White instead of yellow.

I took it out for some testing. Whilst its better, much better its still a bit poor.

But its obviously improved as I can turn off the offside headlight and the light output is changed little.

The biggest issue I had was I used some relays from a rover and the one for main beam is sticking so most of the time it will stay on after you have turned it off.

The other side affect is the headlight is on full with the sidelights, this is due tot he small ballast current from the headlight resistor activating the relay. This is a phase 1 only thing though. But it allowed me to essentially turn the offside headlight off and see what difference that made.

Which was little so I should do the offside as well. The offsides voltage has as a result increased slightly as half the load is gone now.

Also the dash lights no longer dim.

Shows how slowly things like this sneak up on you though.

Before the March meet I also have to change the fuel tank for the one I bought off Wicked Neo months ago and i also now need front tyres, they have worn evenly but the nearside tyre is down to the wear markers.

[BREAK=Big Update]

27th February 2011

A big update today.

Since I got the car the head-gasket has leaked, at the start this meant I had to bleed the radiator out whenever I went above the ton. Recently this has progressed into the header tank splitting every time its repaired, fitting the lower pressure brown cap and also bleeding it every time the engine is run. Still 20 k miles with a dodgy head-gasket is good going.

Now there is a misting of oil in the header tank, in this picture you can also see the tank repairs, basically this involves a blowtorch and a chisel to melt the split closed :lol:



better view of the oil



The driving of the car is also now affected, stuttering and the occasional cloud of smoke. So I need to change the head-gasket asap.

I done a compression test the other day (24th February 2011) and compared to results from 2 years ago.

Cyl 1 - 12.5 BAR - 181 PSI (tested last btw)
Cyl 2 - 12 BAR - 174 PSI
Cyl 3 - 12 BAR - 174 PSI
Cyl 4 - 11 BAR - 159 PSI

That was whilst hot and having been up to 125 on the tack on the way back to the pits, all plugs out throttle closed.

I have these readings from when it was laid up dated 5/6/09, this is all plugs out but stone cold throttle closed, stone cold as in months since last start

Cyl 1 - 12.5 BAR - 181 PSI
Cyl 2 - 13 BAR - 188 PSI
Cyl 3 - 11.5 BAR - 166 PSI
Cyl 4 - 12 BAR - 174 PSI

Compression is ok nothing to really lose sleep over. Could be a bit more even.

The plugs show a very lean mixture, they were white, the pictures don't show how white they are, so the thing is basically on borrowed time as well. This is despite it no longer getting up to temp and warm up enrichment being activated!







Not to good as the last engine that ran lean ended up dead (project Y's first 16v engine).

Also noticed an oil leak, the oil pressure switch is leaking oil!



Its all happening now.

I was suspecting the fuel pump was a bit tired as this is a pump from another car I put in when I first got the Chamade. I pulled the pump out of the black ph2 saloon before scrapping it and it was ok. So I found it, cleaned the sender etc up and then tested it It transferred just over a litre in 25 seconds, ahead of the recommended 1.08 litres in 30 seconds the Haynes mentions. Couldn't pressure test it as my gauges have gone walkies. Good enough flow so it'll do.

Here it is after cleaning and testing



New tank



Fuel pump fitted





Onto the car, this is me siphoning out the fuel, you can clearly see where it had been leaking



Old tank out



Swapping the Fuel level sender over to the new tank





Old tank out, electrical connections and pipes hanging waiting for new tank



I also cleaned up the brake line since I could access it.



Tank all bolted up, this wasn't easy as the tank didn't fit at the offside rear corner right, it took some force and bending to get it to fit.



After that all I had to do was fit the spare wheel cage and stick the spare wheel in.

Some more pics, this is me siphoning out the rest of the fuel from the old tank through the level sender hole



Another pic of the filler tube on the tank



The old fuel pump's filter sock covered with debris from the tank



The new pump is a lot quieter and it seems to have helped a bit with the running of the car. But it won't be right until the head gasket is sorted.

[BREAK=New front tyres and box disaster!]

1st March 2011

Well up early off to get the new Toyos fitted to the front wheels. Used wheels I had lying around, strange ones as follows

made in Germany



new rubber



Made in WEST Germany



The odd hub face



It has a rim leak though!



I also adjusted my track rods by a 1/4 turn each to hopefully get it better as the plan was to go to the March meet in the Lake District. But the car had other ideas.

The gearbox played up AGAIN.

Took it out to see how it was with the tracking adjustment, pull out from a junction changing from 3rd to 4th it goes to the neutral position no other gear selectable.

Roll into a quieter street fit with the stick get reverse and 1 - 4. Enough to get home. I try 5th on the move and it goes in.

head home and decide to drop the oil and check the 5th gear bolt and nut as this may be the issue - I hope its the issue - in vain it turns out.

The oil I put in just 6 or so months ago. I drain it into a clean tub, erm oh dear, this isn't good!



Get the end cover off and check the bolt and nut, still tight - damn.



Inside of the cover





This tube is meant to be on the cover, but its snapped and has been rubbing on the inside of the input shaft



This bit here is the biggest chunk that came out with the oil (10mm bolt head for scale), it must be off a synchro ring, its been well machined in its journey through the box



So took it out again, seemed fine then like the other day it clunked and made the horrible grinding noise but stopped again 100 yards up the road.

So need another gearbox now. Can't use the thing as it could break down anywhere and at any time.

[BREAK=various stuff and tank off again]

12th April 2011

Ok this update covers the last 2/3 weeks.

Start with the easy stuff.

Fog light switch bulb died, so replaced it





done



When the first new pump failed my pioneer head unit face got damaged so I found another radio to stick in, a JVC I used in the escort diesel, it never had a surround found a Sony one one seems to fit i also glued back in the Renault cover magnets



Glue set Renault cover fitted



Oily tailpipe needed cleaned again



Clean but not clean enough, need to be more thorough



Right fuel tank and pumps. Both are getting me down.

If you recall the new tank and the pump from the black ph2 was used.

Then the pump started making noise.

So I bought a new pump to fit into the tank.

I pulled the tank out AGAIN, it got dirty in a week eh!



Pulled the pump, wtf is this? Hair? Not mine, i got the tank off of Wicked neo and it went straight into the red car and sat until it was fitted, not sure if he had a cat or something. Basically this probably caused that pump to screw up.



New uprated pump



Back together, starts run great. take it out pull away from a junction it dies then picks up, turn back dies won't start. Pump makign noise but note changed.

After all sorts of messing about including ripping my hand wide open needing 10 stitches get it home.

Get another pump sent out, this one works ok.

Add more fuel its fine. Fuel level drops down to 3 gallons, yes 3 gallons or roughly 15 litres if you will.

take right hand bends the car starts to cut out ans strutter, goes fine on left hand bends or when it straightens up.

the problem?

the fuel tank.

The fuel tank because its a cheap copy doesn't have the same baffling as the original Renault item so its starving of fuel on right hand bends unless its well over 3 gallons in the tank.

I managed to get it to do it with 5 gallons on the gauge and some hard cornering.

So that tanks absolutely a waste of time and money.

The plan is repair the rotten original one and put it back in, that way I can drive the thing without having to stop for fuel every 100 miles to prevent it cutting out. Roundabouts are plain dangerous.

Not happy.

Went out today cranked it no compression one at least 1 cylinder it fired right up but only running on 3 then the 4th came in. took it round the block to get heat into it pulled the plugs and done a compression test.

cylinder 4 13.5 bar the rest all at 12.5 bar.

The thing is just getting more bizarre.

[BREAK=Rear damper and general update]

11th September 2011

Been a while since the last update.

Still needs the headgasket done, the nsf and osr tyres have slow leaks at the rim and the gearbox is still done.

I had to take the mrs cousin up to Dundee yesterday. So I decided I better throw in some gearbox oil, took the full litre and still wasn't full, oh dear. Still on the upside that made it a lot quieter and smoother :lol:

The journey was a total of 230 miles and average speed on the digi dash is 82 mph so it done not bad.

However on the return home I took the scenic route and was a bit spirited, the car took off on a jump and when it landed the nearside rear shocker popped through and started banging on the rear seat, thankfully I'm tall so i could flick the rear seat down whilst driving.

The usual rusty washer had happened, done not bad in this case, the car is used hard and its never gave me any problems.

So pictures, as it was when I got home



Nut, top washer and rubber bush removed, you can see the steel sleeve and whats left of the bottom washer



So wire brush and blowtorch came into play, it needed to be heat cycled a few times for the sleeve to finally give in, the mole grips also acted as a heat sink to keep the heat away from the damper body



Sleeve off, patience was the key here, oh and heat



Sleeve off and whats left of the bottom washer



Top washer and the remains of the bottom one



Everything after a clean (note the damper body has rusty spots, this is because I haven't polished the car like a weirdo for a few years. It also shows the replacement washer I dug out.



Put it all back together and it works as it should again, yay.

I will do the other side as its probably not far behind.

Got to love the old beast, it tackled heavy rain etc no bother at high speeds, made Dundee from Glasgow in under an hour loaded up.

[BREAKifferential Circlip]

3rd December 2011

Well Thursday the 1st of December I pulled out of a junction. To bad the washer decided to grip the diff gear twist and break.

So I jumped out car still rolling and pushed it out of the way.

Eventually my mum (only person available) came to my rescue, she grudgingly towed me about half a mile to a housing estate, the Almera 1.4 struggled. She called the RAC, then we waited about an hour and the guy was decent enough to listen and just straight bar towed me home.

Ordered the new clip and washer on Thursday afternoon and they were in on Friday morning. I collected them and then had to head to uni on one of the bikes (CBR1000 that day in case anyone cares).

That brings us to today (Saturday 3/12/11), I got on with it.

Job started well just as it was about to be buttoned up it went wrong. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

Drained the gearbox first of all as it needed done again, its saturated with golden flakes very quickly from the brass synchro rings.

This is the driveshaft out and this is the inner cv gaiter, the washer and circlip pop in here when this happens



Diff gear poking out a bit, note leaky streak mark :lol:



New parts



lovely, yeah this is what constitutes the oil these days



Pulled the gear out, note damage to the teeth probably caused by that brass chunk I pulled out a few months back



new clip left, old right



old washer left (missing its tab) new on the right



new washer fitted



clip fitted



So getting it all back together, wheel back on the ground final tightenign up of the hub nut, it goes loose and spins. Not good.

I try and wind it off, no go.

After messing about I get a small cold chisel, sharpen it on the grinder and go to town



Eventually I got it split then it came off. Then I had to use a small pick to remove the slithers of metal fromt eh threads then I modified 2 hub nuts to chase the threads then fitted a new hub nut and all was solved.

Doing the clip took about 25 minutes, the actual nut took about 2 hours.

Sorted now though




For additional circlip info see

http://www.retro-renault.com/forums...tial-circlip-december-2011-update.html#post79

[BREAK=New gearbox]

March 2012

Well the diff circlip went again then again.

This time the circlip and washer suffered no damage upon ejection. Box officially dead. Bear in mind its been broken since I got it nearly 30k miles ago.

This all happened in January, the car sat for over a month before I even looked at it.

I got a gearbox off of Mike (webuyoldrenaults.com) from a clio 16V(not ideal will cover this later) in a swap for parts I had.

I got the box home and started on the actual box itself, the gear selector wouldn't move, this was due to the end casing being dented in (common issue upon a less than delicate removal/storage and not an issue in reality.

In these pics the soft pedal conversion is in place as a test fit



I then pulled the box end cover off for a look, the usual water ingress these boxes ALWAYS have



The dent preventing the gears being selected, easily knocked out, I just stuck the chamades one on, I will replace it with a newer unit which is not rusty



I just cleaned it up checked it over and cleaned out the bolt holes for the 19 mount.

I decided on fitting the soft pedal conversion because I had it and it will relive the cable of a lot of pressure. This is worth it alone I reckon.

I used the bits from our written off 1.6 Scenic (project baby bus), here are said parts



The parts are, bolt and nut to hold the new extended cable outer to the old guide, the pressed steel new cable holder, the rubber gaiter and the new longer (cast) release arm. I also had a new bush which I put on (I bought 10 of them last time I needed some).

This picture shows the new pivot bush in place and also where you bolt the extended cable holder to



A comparison of the old pressed arm and the new longer cast arm



The old arm is thin pressed steel and the release bearing hooks into it, the new cast arm is thick and the old bearing won't fit unless you break the lugs





I just broke the lugs off as the clutch kit is only a couple of years old and about 10 k miles and I couldn't be bothered buying a new suitable one.

I decided to remove the box alone and leave the engine in place, in all honesty its as quick either way really.

Dropped the subframe slightly (slightly not like the jokers that yank the column out etc) and it was easy enough.

Here it is box out, would be more pics but I was myself and using the phones camera. Funny how short a time a new clutch cover can go rusty eh!



And here we are box in



Since the bolt holes were ok I could refit an earth in the proper place on the gearbox. So I fitted one of my earth leads I made up a few years back, these things are great. I tested them by doing pull ups with them, never coming apart.

The dots can be seen around the bolt hole where the jaggy washer was, the other end goes to the top side box mount bolt hole



My earth strap



Bolted up



For the last few months there has been an oil leak from the oil light pressure sender, this has made a mess, it was an ideal time to change it and the long over due oil filter. I also fitted one of my much larger oil filters.



In the laguna in this picture, you can see it leaking at the base and inside the sender itself. I just got a new one.





New sender fitted which is hidden behind the new big filter, I love the big filters



So new box oil and blah blah.

Car back on the road after nearly 6 weeks.

Oh yeah the nearside front spring snapped whilst it was standing, not a problem I have others and a new damper to go on there anyway.

So the clio box. The bot is fine, no leaks very quiet.

However the ratios are terrible. Its a proper 16V unit as the bell housing is correct, but the ratios are much shorter and its made the car much slower as theres an extra gear change involved and then a massive jump from 4th to 5th. Where as the old 051 box was had superb ratios.

Its amazingly quieter, the thing no longer sounds like a spitfire, theres no constant droning of a dying gearbox.

I need to sort out an 051 for my 2 litre for sure though.

[BREAK=Rear brakes]

15th March 2012

Well today was a day and a half, the mrs Laguna 2 needed back brakes asap, the chammy was fine. Now its not.

Went for lunch, met my sister, here is the chammy (not washed for 2 years now :lol: ) and her Laguna.



Well I went to buy a new car (Skoda Fabia, new as in still in the wrapper), the back brakes started to make a funny noise, had a look through the wheel discs all pitted, wtf the discs are basically new!

Not much I could do but I bought new pads thinking I could put them in and extend the life a few days/weeks as required.

Went to buy the Skoda, coming home and the thing won't stay in third gear! I can't even hold it in gear and I'm pretty strong. So I need ANOTHER box again.

Anyway get home pitch black need the car tomorrow pull the back wheels off discs are a hell of a mess, pads still have plenty of meat on them The pads and discs are gen renault only fitted 2/3 years ago (car was sat for around a year with them un-used though)

This is a picture



I am not a happy bunny.

TBH I cba with the car now, I will most likely take it off the road and use the Safrane. Which is still to be tested as the track rod end only came in today.

Cars are money pits.

[BREAK=Old box strip and why its not on the road]

16th May 2012

Well first I have been using the Safrane for a good few weeks as my car which is expensive to run as its about 100 quid a week in fuel!

The reasons why the Chamade was put off the road.

1. The gearbox that I put in and its jumping out of third issue. Although after that night it never really done it again.

2. The rear brakes. I'm still pissed about that.

3. The high pressure power steering hose burst and due to various issues I have neither the time or inclination to swap it out. I have the pipe I just need to fit it.

So the Safrane was used in its place. Now the Safrane has had a few issues as the report on that covers.

I need to sort the Chamade out as its cheaper to insure, faster and much cheaper to run than the Safrane.

So I plan to get on with the high pressure pipe change soon and see about getting the rear discs cleaned up on a brake lathe.

Anyway on Monday I had time to pull the old box apart, the one I changed in January/February or whenever it was.

Now I thought a synchro ring had cracked or a selector had gone creating the golden mess. After stripping it proved to be a selector fork.

Its strange at how long this issue was not an issue, indeed the fact the diff circlip popped every 5 minutes is really all that forced me to change it. The box was just notchy and noisy, but better than some cars in good condition I have driven!

Anyway pictures, this is the box split open. This is the magnet that's inside all the boxes. A lot of sludge and in it there's various metal particles including non magnetic ones that are just stuck in the sludge. Note the golden flakes, that's bits of selector fork



Other side a few big chunks





See anything odd here? Yep one side of that selector fork has snapped off









Synchro rings, surprisingly these still looked good, no real damage, the grooves etc still clear and sharp



Another shot of the magnet, its sitting inside the casing



It was then further stripped to sort into the appropriate scrap bins.

Its amazing the thing ran ok for so long like that tbh. Also the fact when the other box went int her car became silent just shows how bad the bearings etc in the box were due to the debris wearing it all out.

There was no significant excess play in the bearings or anything.

[BREAKS pipe]

16th May 2012

Well last night I started the PS pipe job.

This involved removing the radiator, loosening the coolant pipes, removing the clips on the plastic cable/pipe guide thingy and so on.

Pipe off from the pump



Another angle



The pipe I have to replace it is a ph2 item that doesn't have the transient idle switch on it, shouldn't be an issue though, that's the joys of ecu control.

Then the rain came so I still have 2 securing brackets to loosen and undo it from the rack. I just need the weather to break and get it jacked up.

I miss driving the beast.

Here's a picture of Elizabeth driving it to the beach apparently



[BREAKS pipe fitted]

19th May 2012

So the new pipe is on. Not without drama of course.

If the car was LHD it would have all been easy, but since its rhd it took a bit of work. Easy enough or it should have been.

Basically the job, in theory.

Remove downpipe, undo rack pipes remove old pipe. Fit new pipe and back together.

Now the cars been apart loads and always coated it copper grease etc to prevent any issues with stuck fasteners. Well thats not quite worked out.

Now to get the downpipe out you need to move the driveshaft, easy job, roll pin out, loosen bottom hub bolt remove top one pull it out and slide the inner cv off the box. No problems, 2 minute job.

Downpipe, this had been blowing at the downpipe to CAT join (I had noticed it before I took it off the road), this had not long been off (maybe a year or so) so it should have came off fine. It didn't, now I hoped they would snap (I drilled it out to use just a nut and bolt years ago) one did snap the other made me wind it all the way off. Still the rear cat bolts look perfect still which is strange.

The downpipe to manifolds. I renewed the studs here a few years back when I had the engine out. And I had the downpipe last off maybe 2 years back. Now the studs look like they have been on the titanic. Really corroded. Now I can surmise whats happed, the bonnet vent deflector basically dumped water right onto the exhaust manifold and thats just corroded them rather quickly.

Anyway back to the point they snapped. The stud is there on both but its not easy to get to when the engines in the vehicle. I changed the studs when the engine was out and used plenty of copper grease but I probably tightened the nuts up a bit too much and thats not helped.

So what to do, I can try and remove the studs with the engine in, which won't be easy. I can take the engine out (not a big deal but I can't be bothered).

Or I can take the head off. I need to do the headgaskert anyway...

I cannot be bothered but tbh it needs done and I have put it off for several years.

I soaked the studs in penetrating fluid probably won't help but it will have plenty of time to try anyway. If I had a proper hot spanner not just a small blowtorch I could have them out in a jiffy without pulling anything.

Anyway the pipe is installed and I have some pictures. Its just a shame that the job grew with the issues.

Old and new pipes together. The old pipe has the switch and also has a longer solid pipe at the rack end. This solid metal pipe makes the removal very hard. The new pipe with the flexi bit means installing it is a doddle. It goes in easily.

Also note the massive crack in the red cars tyre!



This shows the pipe to the top of the rack undone and moved out of the way so I can get to the main one



The pinion housing on the rack itself



Bottom pipe, downpipe spring and some oily mess



Bolted up at the pump



I cable tied the brackets in, I could have used a nut and bolt but I had cable ties handy so used them. Note crack in subframe, need to get that sorted



So one thing fixed anyway, still plenty others to go!

[BREAK=Headgasket]

June 2012

7 or so years I have had this car, that's a long time.

When I bought it the headgasket was dodgy. Its lasted all that time and 30k of HARD use. Its hit the limiter in 5th many times, I usually drove it about and bled the air out of the radiator when I stopped. However I started to note it was slower, no longer would it hit the limiter in 5th, 135 ish was the top whack instead of the 150 indicated when bumping the limiter.

It was still running but due to the manifold to downpipe studs snapping I saw it as an omen to finally get the job done.

The other issue is the oil consumption, theres a few leaks (turns out the cam seals were weeping slightly), but the fact when sustained high revs (5 krpm and above for a good few miles) when you come off and stop, erm in the pits a cloud of oil smoke would sometimes overtake the car :lol: . Sadly I think this may be worn/stuck rings rather than valve stem oil seals as the inlets are pretty clean, still not seen the exhaust ports yet (will be explained later).

Anyway the job went smoothly, only 1 bolt was troublesome coming out. I got a pic of it which you will see later. Easy job, its been a while since I last done one and the stuff I do headgaskets on are plain bread and butter family cars or trucks or bikes it made a nice change.

A slight but not totally unexpected find was the heads been off before, the car suffered a snapped belt at some point prior to my ownership, I have no idea when as there is zero history for this vehicle before my ownership. The piston crowns never even had the damage smoothed over, which I will rectify, as that won't be doing anything for power, although I'm surprised it ran so well, it is/was one of the faster 16V's I have had/driven/been in. The type of damage that is created when the valves hit pistons is usually hot spotting so the knock sensor pulls the timing back to compensate which it doesn't really do. Never mind the fact that bits can break off and just create a bad day all round.

Why this picture is first I have no idea, the rest are in order but here it is, the head is off, gasket removed and before cleaning



The dodgy bolt, from the front of the car this is the rear left bolt



Head bolts are out here ready for lift off





Head off and gasket still in place, not very healthy looking is it. Which is GOOD news as it means its the gasket and not something more sinister



Note oily residue on crowns, better look at the gasket here



The head face



Gasket breaking up, there was also evidence where the rot had breached the fire ring so thats why it was pressurising





Bit of mayo, there was very little of this actually



scoop it out



Cleaned up the piston, this was very easy and quick, carb cleaner and a wipe with paper towel. You can see the damage on the exhaust valve cut outs where the pistons smashed into the valves at some point. Speaking of which I don't know if new valves etc were fitted or a complete replacement head was stuck on. I guess I never will either.





Number 1 piston before a clean





All pistons cleaned up, deck face isn't nor are bolt holes etc etc





So this was 10 days ago I pulled the head off. I have done nothing else. I know ridiculous. I need to get a move on.

I have pulled the inlet manifold off and tried to get the exhaust manifold off, its stuck on 2 studs, will get it off of course. Then the valves out cleaned up new stem seals and blah blah blah.

Its mainly laziness thats prevented progress. I have 2 motorbikes and the Safrane (and access to a laguna 1 and a Laguna 2 should I need it)so its not like I need the car.

Still I miss the beast.

[BREAK=Head]

October 2012

So the head was taken off in June and its pretty much taken until now to actually do anything.

So everything off the head and all the valves out.

It turned out all 8 exhaust valves were bent to varying degrees. The following pictures will show the seats which show no real contact.

What is impressive is like this the car still started easily, ran and indeed the top speed was down to 135 ish mph. But the compression figures read fine and the fact it ran without any cylinder actually sealing properly I find interesting and impressive.

Every inlet valve was perfect. You couldn't make this up.

Head stripped, ignore clean parts in chambers, this was me with solvent as a test etc



Inlet seats good, inlet port pretty clean, note the poor exhaust side though



The usual build up on these



Clean exhaust and dirty one, this si where I found they were all bent to varyign degrees





Inlet valves





Then it was time to clean the head, this takes a while and is really a pain if you do it yourself by hand as I do. But I get to know it very well.

Ignore the actual face, the chambers and ports are pretty much done



getting there















This is the centre drain back on the head, this is actually a good one, most are more closed off. I further opened this up to allow better drain down from the head



[BREAK=Head build up]

October 2012

So time to build it back up. First job is get the valves all lapped then check theres no leaks, they were all perfect of course.





Then I sorted out the actual head face then built the head up properly



I wish I took a before picture. But the issue why I changed the gasket was because the cooling system was being pressurised. There was no strong evidence on the head or gasket where this was occurring.

However upon closer inspection the large channel at the back of the block (number 1 cylinder in Renault 4 on anything else pretty much) there was a groove that the fire ring of the gasket had made just in front of the water channel.

So this was taken out, theres 2 places of light pitting on the head face but these are not an issue.

This first picture is near where the groove was, its now gone so that should be the pressurising issue solved



This is the other end of the head (belt end) where the only other light pitting is



It was then a case of fitting up the hydraulic tappets (I popped one open, it was spotless, I change the oil a lot so no need to do anything to them), the cams and sealing the cam carriers to the head and fitting new camshaft seals.

I then cleaned off any sealant residue with a razor blade, nothing looks worse than a head build with loads of sealant squeezing out of the joins!

So its ready to be fitted.

[BREAK=Head fitting]

Its 3rd August 2013 just now this took place in December of 2012, yes 6 months the head sat waiting to be fitted...

It was cold in December



The block needed cleaned out thoroughly. This was a time consuming job. Basically jacket drain bolt out then flush with water and a variety of rods to clear out any debris and a lot came out which is surprising as the coolant was clean. Goes to show you though!

Drain plug removed and the debris trickling out



Plug beside the oil pressure gauge sender



Funnel in to flush through



Debris I caught!



With the block cleaned out it was time to fit the head





Can anyone spot my stupid mistake? Cam pulley related...





Now I took the cover into work where it was wet blasted then Scott painted it, I wanted grey I got crazy shiny silver, I hate it





I actually built this backwards, I should have put the manifolds on before putting the head on but I wanted the head on before the really bad weather hit. Got there in the end anyway.

Continued on next page...

[BREAK=It runs but sprung a leak and the back end dropped]

June 2013

So got it back together and it started first turn of the key as expected. Seemed a lot smoother than I recall but then again before it had 8 bent exhaust valves...

So I filled it with coolant etc and left it running after a while it started to misfire,I pulled a plug lead and it was wet with coolant. The core plugs I knew I should have changed with the head off sprung a leak. So ordered new plugs.

Where the plugs are, between the spark plugs



Holed



coming out



coolant is reflecting through the hole



This is the other one which is also on its way out



First one fitted



Other side removed, in a bad way as you can see, I was always on top of coolant changes and it was always clear. Still it had 13 years of abuse/neglect before I got it







All back together and running like a champ



So I go out one morning, car is fine, come back and as I pulled into the drive I noticed something was wrong with the car. Within the hour or so of me leaving the car alone the rear suspension went soft!



Nothing had snapped or broken, the bars just gone weak like the old diesel we had.

The bars hadn't skipped round although this looks rough but its sat for years



Low





So the car needs rear arches and the rear beam sorted out and it will be sorted. I have wheels for it, they are on the white chamade which is my daily just now.

 

[Chris H]

righty thats this report up to date now, read it mofo's

 

[Chris H]

wee update

 

[Larry]

nice job on the exhaust, now that's sheen

 

[Chris H]

an update - of sorts...

 

[bbracer16valver]

get it in when no one's looking chop chop

 

[Chris H]

I had thought about just banging it in. Sadly it looks like I have to rebuild it fully.

 

[bbracer16valver]

i done nearly 1000 miles since monday didnt need much work though

did you pay much?? get much else??

 

[tracklogic]

Looks vaguely familar that F7R.. i've eaten many a breakfast talking to it

 

[tracklogic]

I had thought about just banging it in. Sadly it looks like I have to rebuild it fully.

Eak... is it that bad? Sorry dude I hope I've not wronged you like i said i've not really looked at it....

 

[Chris H]

its cool don't worry Matt.

Ash the price was fair :lol: never got anythign else but I have heads, 1.8's etc etc here anyway

 

[Soneji]

have you had it apart yet?

send you a pm maybe found something you may need

 

[Prab]

Chris i think an F7R in a nice clean bay would finish the car off a treat

 

[Chris H]

updated

 

[minichapperz]

ATF in a 19 ?

 

[Chris H]

whats the question here?

 

[minichapperz]

Just your last comment on the latest page about the atf being old, Should it not take ep 80w 90????

 

[JR]

good to drive a 19, i'm yet to drive any 19 other than a cabrio...about the oil, why change engine oil only after 230 mile in a year?

 

[Chris H]

ep 75 - 90 but ATF does the job as well. ATF is also fully synth and it usually gets a slicker shift but tbh on my 18 year old gearbox that missed the 2nd gear recall issue I think something thicker may help the synchros as I beat them too easily on 2nd and 3rd. More so on 2nd due to the missed recall issue which also allows it to pop out of 2nd occasionally on overrun.

As for the poil change, I changed the oil every year regardless of mileage, in fact some years there has been zero mile sput on but its been started and ran and not got hot enough to boil off any water etc.

Same for this year the oil was in for a year ran in the driveway probably 30 mins a month in total then it done 230 miles, sure its nice and clean looking but I take care of my cars.

The exhaust was full of water as well, the joys of the internal combustion engine. Most of it is out now thanks to the high speed nature of the drives.

Also the smoking it developed has stopped and its smoother. I reckoned it was stuck piston rings as the compression was down on when it was used daily about 6 years ago. The sitting around let the rings stick and thus it smoked and idled a bit lumpy. Now theres no smoke and nice and smooth.

Saw 130 on the test track last night as well, but the pace car slowed it down...

 

[minichapperz]

ahh ok ! what was the 2nd gear recall all about ? (being a pain in the arse btw)