1991 Renault 19 16v chamade. Aaarggahhh wont bloody start!!

[neilos626]

Hi all, heres my latest project a 1991 Renault 19 16v chamade. I bought it from a seller on this site at the end of Jan. I had a budget of £500 didn't have any particular car in mind, but was after something that needed a bit of work, to keep me busy on the weekends.

The seller had bought it with the intention of breaking it a putting the engine into his twingo van. He decided that in the cold light of day it was too good to break. However he'd recieved little interest in the car and was about to break it when I contacted him. I went to view it, decided it needed saving and duly handed over the money.







The bodywork on the car is solid, but there are a few scraps and dings, nothing too serious though.




The guy I bought it from directed me to the retro renault website, as the car was known on there. After introducing myself on the forum I was pointed in the direction of one of the previous owners build threads. Here's the link.
www.retro-renault.com/forums/renault-1990-1992/3897-project-pheonix.html

It was nice to know that the car had been well looked after in a previous life, but sadly it at some point had fallen into the hands of a chav. Daft stickers plastered all over it, damaged front bumper, damaged rear wing, awful bright blue checkplate mats and the daftest windscreen wipers I've ever come across. Not too far gone, but left with the chav any longer and who knows how long before it was on Barryboys.

Daft stickers



Retina burning mats found in the boot


Sexy windscreen wipers


So aside from De-chaving it, heres the list of jobs that need sorting.
New battery
Central locking not working
Rear door handle broken
Passenger window only opens half way before falling out
Sunroof only opens half way
Fan speed switch not working
Replace front bumper
Repair damage on rear wing

I wanted to crack straight on with it, however not having a garage meant that snow delayed play

[neilos626]

Once the snow sodded off I got to work on the car.

Stickers had to go first



Then removed the windscreen wipers, went to Halfrauds to buy replacements £20! So had a look on ebay and found a set for £2.50 lovely, whilst I was at it I gave the wiper arms a coat of satin black.



much better.

Next was to tackle the broken external rear door handle. The handle had split in the middle and couldn't be opened from the outside as it had become disconnected from the mechanism. I could still open the door from the inside until I had a crazy blonde moment. For some reason knowing full well why the door couldn't be opened from the outside, I still convinced myself it was down to the child lock. So I flicked the child lock over and duly shut the door, as it clicked shut it dawned on me that I had been a complete idiot, I was now unable to open the door from the inside as the child lock was now engaged!! So I now had a door that I couldn't open doh. Not to worry I thought, I'll just remove the door card, nope as usual where cars are concerned nothings ever simple. I could not remove the door card unless the door was open. At this point I contemplated destroying the door card to gain access to the locking mechanism, thought better of it and decided I had nothing to loose by completely destroying the already broken exterior door handle.
One busted door handle

Left me with this

On closer inspection I was left with a small 2 inch hole to try and prize open the door.


A few minutes later, I had the door open, cue a couple of fistpumps in celebration. I promptly dis-engaged the child lock. A quick look on ebay and a replacement handle was found for £12.
New handle fitted and door mechanism connected.

[neilos626]

Next job to tackle was the central locking. Whipped the door cards off and gave them a spruce up at the same time.



After asking some advice on the retro renault forum, I was told that dodgy central locking is a common problem and was likely down to seized mechanisms. On the rear doors and the boot the metal pivots moved freely but the plastic pistons were stiff. I removed these and had to split the casings with a screw driver and mallet, once opened I clened them up and lubricated them.


Put them back on the car, boot and rear door locks now working fine, on the front doors though the metal pivots have seized. These can be removed by unscrewing 3 star screws on the side of the door. However, mine will not budge for love nor money, even after a dosing of WD40. Car has to go to the garage anyway, so I will ask them to remove with heavier duty tools than I have.
seized metal pivot


Now that I was unable to go any further with the central Locking I change my attention to the passenger window, which would open half way the promptly fall out. With the passenger door card off I could see that the rubber that sits inside the window runner has fallen out.

Also the one that sits on the bottom edge of the window had fallen off.

I put these back on and tried the window, no joy it's still falling out. I had a look at the mechanism and that was working fine. So kept trying the window, but it jumped out at the same place everytime. After some head scratching I checked the window rubber, it looked fine from the outside, however inspection of the inside revealed that a chunk of rubber was missing. Each time the plastic retainer on the window got to this point, it would jump out as there was nothing to hold it in place. Got on the phone to renault and ordered a replacement for £22, not bad, just waiting for it to be delivered.

[neilos626]

By this point the start of March had rolled around, I was dying to drive it, so replaced the battery and bought some tax. It was a bit grubby so got my son to work to give it a clean.

He did a good job and has earnt his keep for the month lol.
Checked out all the fluids.

Ready to go


So I fired her up after a couple of months of sitting, let her idle for 30mins. All was fine, felt confident in taking her out although I did notice a whine from the fuel pump.
So drove her round for 20mins with no issues, car was running lovely, I came up to a roundabout, went to pull away and lost all power. Just manged to crawl off of the roundabout and park the car up, by this point it was pitch black, great! I tried to restart the car, she was trying hard but just wouldn't fire. Although I had put petrol in, I thought maybe fuel guage is out or theres a leak. So called the wife, she brought me some more fuel, put it in the renault but she still wouldn't fire up. I had to be at work soon and as I din't have breakdown cover I had to abandon the car for the night.

I got home a promptly joined the RAC for £30 before going into work, this way I knew I could get the car recovered the next day. So I called the RAC at 5a.m. told them that I was finishing work at 6.am so could they meet me at the car then. They were there at 6 on the dot.
The RAC man carried out the basic checks that I had the previous night and still no joy. I mentioned to him that the fuelpump was whining and we should check this. Sure enough the fuel pump wasn't engaging. He offered to tow me to a garage, don't worry I said, I can fix this on my drive if you can tow me home.


So got her home but didn't have time to attempt repairs until the following weekend. I checked the relays first as I was told these can fail when dirty.

I cleaned them up as they were fairly grubby, nut no luck getting her started. I then popped open the fuel tank access hole and was hoping to pull out the fuel pump. Nope, all I could remove was the fuel sender. Had a check online and it turns out the tank needs to be dropped to access the fuel pump doh! I don't have the means to do that, if only I has of known before hand I would have had RAC tow me to the garage. Now I have to have the car recovered from my drive. Anyway I ordered and new fuel filter and a walbro fuel pump from bay, total cost £15. These arrived today.

So thats it for now, she's hopefully off to the garage in he morning and will be ready for a good drive on the weekend.

[luckygti]

Good save, I can remember seeing these all over, but can't remember the last time I saw one. Look forward to seeing it at an 8 ball meet sometime

[Sinky]

Nice motor you'v got there.

[renofan]

My father had the first Renault 19 in our town way back in '89! Glad to see you are saving this and doing it right. A friend of mine has a 19 16v in the hatchback form that he has been restoring over the last while. Love the look of them.

[tubthumper]

I always fancied one of these , and your right, they are a rare sight now

What else have you got planned for it ?

[neilos626]

I will be changing the wheels at some point, not sure what to go for though, so suggestions are welcome.

Don't think it needs hitting with a stick as it's already fairly low.

Fix up the cosmetic bits and get it looking good again.

It's booked onto the garage for fuel pump replacemnt on Thursday so all being well it will be running by the weekend.

[surprisingskoda]

I like those wheels. If you must change them, maybe hunt down a set of 15" Centras? That would raise the bar a bit.

[Clement]

I'd go for Gottis or something that says Renault used to be the rage in rallying. It's a bit older than this car but since it's a ph1 it'd still work with the lines.

[neilos626]

She lives!!

Garage put replacement fuel pump on today and she fired up straight away. Work can commence this weekend.

[neilos626]

I have a problem with the sunroof only opening halfway. A common fault on R19s, the sound deadening drops and prevents the sunroof from opening fully.


Obviously to get at this the headlining had to be removed.
Trim off first


Then started on the headlining, attached by velcro, however the vecro was tearing away from the lining, so had to persuade it apart with a screwdriver.




heres the offending piece of sound deadening


couldn't quite get at it so had to drop the sunroof and finally removed it.


Fully opening sunroof


I also bought some soundzzzz from the local booty last weekend


£9 all in, chuffed with finding 90s period Goodmans speakers. No idea if any of it works yet though.

Next job to sort is central locking.

[pabblo]

Good save always liked these myself. Have had two J reg 19's over the years but just a 1.4 an a 1.9 diesel both were great cars wish i hadn't sold etheir. Lot better than people give them credit for. All the best with it an lookforward to seeing more progress with it. Sure these are 4 X 100 stud fitment so you should be able to find a good selection of alloys. Could go for some Borbet's though they can be a bit tasty on the £££'s some period 90's aftermarket alloys would be a good look like the TSW Hockenheim alloys etc.
An they used to race these in the BTCC when i was a kid too, just remenbered.

[neilos626]

Yep thats what I was thinking, some period 90s tsw's. Got a strange attraction towards venoms at the moment. I used to hate them, but I think they will work on the car.

They did indeed used to race in the btcc heres a pic.

[dungbug]

I remember this in the for sale section, nice to see someone took her on (looks like she's in good hands too). My first thought when you were talking along the lines of 90's TSW's was a nice set of Imola's or Evo's, maybe in black or anthracite. A mate of mine (back in the 90's) had Venoms on his MK2 Astra GTE, caught the spokes a few times on them with the kerb (we used to say it was his cack parking ;D).

[neilos626]

Long time, no update. Constant rain, house move and new job have all gotten in the way at some point. However this week I got off my backside and gave the car some much deserved attention.

I finally repaired the central locking mechanisms on the front doors, plenty of lube and loosening seems to have done the trick. So now have fully functioning remote central locking and this now means I have been able to refit 3 out of 4 door cards so that the interior has started to resemble a proper car again.

[neilos626]

At the start of the thread I mentioned that the passenger window jumps out of its runner when you open it. At the point where it jumps out there is a chunk missing from the window rubber. Thinking this may be the cause, I bought a replacement one from ebay.




So i removed the old window rubber.


And heres the damaged area.


I put the replacement runner in, tried the window and it still popped out DOH! It has improved but is still hit and miss. I may have to modify the plastic dooberry that guides the window along the rubber.

[neilos626]

I also bought some wheels from ebay £69 bargain.


They didn't fit, but managed to sell them a week later for £112. Any one have any Renault fitment alloys for sale?

[neilos626]

Upset by the lack of new wheels, I got on with installing some of the pseakers I bought months ago and a new head unit.
This is what I was greeted with on removing the old head unit.


Tidied it up


New USB head unit installed


90s spec Goodmans speakers hooked up and actually sounding pretty decent.


Also installed a clock where there was once a messy eyesore of a hole.