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The Epic Austrian owned R16 from Germany doing French things in a Parallel Universe near England Saga


Junkman

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Sorry, not a witty reply to your thread but reading about your travels and the 'phantom', randomly glowing warning lights; I can offer a few suggestions as a former R16 licker:

 

- Check that the engine to body cable is making a good connection. The battery -ve lead goes to the gearbox casing; but the body?

- The oil pressure sender wire can fall off and as it floats around randomly grounding itself it will bring on the red lamp of impending seizure.

- There is a little fuse box just behind the spare wheel on the O/S inner wing strategically placed for water coming through the vents to trickle over it. If one of these has a poor circuit all the dash lights and gauges go dead (normally when it's raining - wipers on - and you press the brake pedal - stop lights on). What looks like an ammeter on the dash is actually a voltmeter of sorts.

- Check that the area under the scuttle panel is not filling with water due to blocked drains. The wiper motor and heater fan both live here and their electrical connections pass through the bulkhead. Steam coming from the windscreen vents and wipers that suddenly stop are the result of ignoring the sloshing sounds. How do I know ;)

 

Oh the memory of the delights of Renault electrics...

 

Squirrel2

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All the while I'm waiting for the still not arrived numberplates to arrive, plus expect the now ordered with a different supplier numberplates to not arrive either, I was watching some films.

 

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What I find really fascinating is how much smaller the small cars were that were dwarfed even by an R16

and how we were incrementally coaxed into accepting the humungously bloated rolling jabbas

we have today.

 

 

How did they go from the R16 to the Craptur, and  from  making innovative / interesting cars to the shit they've been making the last 20+ years?

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Sorry, not a witty reply to your thread but reading about your travels and the 'phantom', randomly glowing warning lights; I can offer a few suggestions as a former R16 licker:

 

- Check that the engine to body cable is making a good connection. The battery -ve lead goes to the gearbox casing; but the body?

- The oil pressure sender wire can fall off and as it floats around randomly grounding itself it will bring on the red lamp of impending seizure.

- There is a little fuse box just behind the spare wheel on the O/S inner wing strategically placed for water coming through the vents to trickle over it. If one of these has a poor circuit all the dash lights and gauges go dead (normally when it's raining - wipers on - and you press the brake pedal - stop lights on). What looks like an ammeter on the dash is actually a voltmeter of sorts.

- Check that the area under the scuttle panel is not filling with water due to blocked drains. The wiper motor and heater fan both live here and their electrical connections pass through the bulkhead. Steam coming from the windscreen vents and wipers that suddenly stop are the result of ignoring the sloshing sounds. How do I know ;)

 

Oh the memory of the delights of Renault electrics...

 

Squirrel2

 

 

I shall work off that checklist, although the oil pressure sender wire has been checked and found firmly connected by means of a nut and toothed washer on the switch. Also, mine is such an early model, that it doesn't have a separate oil pressure light. It still has the single light of all doom, that also comes on when the temp is too high.

 

Where would the body earth band be located, if it had one?

 

The scuttle area drains well, however, the car fascinates by having puddles on the floors in areas where you wouldn't expect them. It's impossible to trace how they got there.

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I shall work off that checklist, although the oil pressure sender wire has been checked and found firmly connected by means of a nut and toothed washer on the switch. Also, mine is such an early model, that it doesn't have a separate oil pressure light. It still has the single light of all doom, that also comes on when the temp is too high.

 

Where would the body earth band be located, if it had one?

 

The scuttle area drains well, however, the car fascinates by having puddles on the floors in areas where you wouldn't expect them. It's impossible to trace how they got there.

I think there was a strap between one of the bellhousing bolts and one of the brackets that supports the steering rack. However my last one (and the most extensively worked on ) was a '78 TX so there may have been differences.

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While I had breakfast this morning, the postman squeezed by the Green Lean Machine and dropped off a parcel.

 

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Many hours later:

 

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Oh, and the sending unit for the fuel gauge has done a Peugeot.

 

Correction. If a fuel gauge shows an empty tank, it might not necessarily be broken. Instead, there might be only dust left in the tank.

Due to this, the car stalled today and didn't want to restart, believe it, or not. After extensive troubleshooting, some fuel was administered straight down the carb and it indeed did a few coughs.

Half a jerrycan full of a substance presumed to be petrol was hence emptied into the tank, which led to the car firing right up and driving to a petrol station without grouse nor gnarl. It subsequently swallowed 50 litres, which, considering that that's the capacity of the tank, would indicate that the tank was indeed rather not the fullest. On restart, the fuel gauge flipped to the full mark like a freshly greased lighning.

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The scuttle area drains well, however, the car fascinates by having puddles on the floors in areas where you wouldn't expect them. It's impossible to trace how they got there.

That'll be the Renault Elf at work, pouring water on things to leave you confused. Later on they advertised this as a feature and also a reason for things to stop working; it had mutated into a gremlin but Renault PR thought that "Elf" sounded less harsh. Vehicles fitted with one could be seen with the appropriate stickers in later years.

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Either I'm getting old, or I'm out of practice. Or, which is most probable, both.

Just worked on the car all day and now am knackered and feel every bone and fiber in my body.

 

The worst thing is, it was all about little niggly bits, so you can't even see that I've done something.

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Next major thing will be a complete front brake overhaul. It feels like it's only braking at the rear.

Well, there are invoices of a complete rear brake rebuild not long ago.

There is also something wrong with the maitre cylindre. If you keep on the brake, the pedal sinks slowly.

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Let's drive to Leeds...

 

OMG d00m!

 

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There was steam coming out of the phamous phlap.

Hence:

 

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And fuck:

 

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Consequently:

 

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This got us going to the next exit, where we found a Sainsbury's.

There we could fill the system with Sainsbury's cheapest mineral water and bleed the system.

No further hiccups were experienced on the subsequent trip back to the Junkbase.

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I always find whenever I buy an old car it takes a year to get it up to scratch. The good news is you've put a lot right already, the bad news is it's French so may explode tomorrow. The brake master cylinder may never have been replaced/overhauled, in one car I had the brake pedal would go slowly to the floor when stationary with the footbrake applied. Upon investigation the master cylinder rubber seals had turned into a sort of grey gum. A new one cured it instantly.

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