Renault 11 Automatique

[Zelandeth]

None of your decadent GTC...Just TC!

[Angrydicky]

5 hours ago, Austat said:

I know this is slightly off topic, but who owns the R6 on a very unusual V plate?

@wuvvum 's the owner of that fine steed.

[PhilA]

3 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

None of your decadent GTC...Just TC!

Did the TC or GTC get front and rear anti-roll bars? Mine squats but doesn't lean if you throw it into a corner. It just turns. It'll (a little unhappily) take a 90 degree turn into this street at 30.

I'm surprised at how well it handles. (195/50/R15 tires probably help that though)

Phil

[RobT]

7 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I know I was used to Metros and Novas at the time, but I recall the steering on my R11 being quite a bit heavier than on the other cars I was used to.

I'm probably incorrect in comparing it to a 4s steering then.  My Metro is certainly lighter, and helped by the huge steering wheel no doubt, but it feels like a crisp packet compared to the 11.

[wuvvum]

I have to say the Renault 9 Broadway I had (also a 1.4) was quite heavy on the steering.

[Parky]

Dads Renault 9 was heavy too but that was pretty much the norm in 1988.  We managed as we didn’t know any better!

[Zelandeth]

9 hours ago, PhilA said:

Did the TC or GTC get front and rear anti-roll bars? Mine squats but doesn't lean if you throw it into a corner. It just turns. It'll (a little unhappily) take a 90 degree turn into this street at 30.

I'm surprised at how well it handles. (195/50/R15 tires probably help that though)

Phil

No idea...but nothing visible in this snap I got of mine when the exhaust failed spectacularly one afternoon.  It went from "fine" to "dear god I can't see where I'm going because my eyeballs are vibrating out of my skull" in the space of about 0.2 seconds.

I do recall it handling really quite well once you got used to it feeling like you were driving a pillow and that it would go round the corner far more securely than the floating and rolling would suggest.

[PhilA]

Would be just out of shot there, the rear ARB is bolted to the arm just behind the fulcrum. Probably only the turbo that got it, mine has turbo trailing arms from the factory.

 

Phil

[Zelandeth]

Figured that might be the case...is the only photo I have of the underside of it though!

[hairnet]

ya and rob and oh forgot phil was a reno perv too

go all hnnng on the yank forget about the frog - i run out

 

[RobT]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

I do recall it handling really quite well once you got used to it feeling like you were driving a pillow and that it would go round the corner far more securely than the floating and rolling would suggest.

This.  I chuck mine about quite a lot, and haven't come a cropper yet.  Although I wish it would have more comedy lean.  Comes back to Phil's comment about torsional stiffness no doubt.

[Zelandeth]

It was the first car I put into a four wheel drift mind you, when I launched into a long sweeping curve at somewhere north of 80 which was slightly tighter than I remembered!  That was exciting!

Handling actually is to my mind very hydraulic-Citroen-like in the way it wobbles around but also sticks to the road astonishingly well.

For all mine was pretty much base even down to crappy flat door cards and no clock she was a really comfy little car.  Only reason I sold it was that spares were a royal pain as it was a changeover car between phase 1 and 2 which they had seemingly mad out of whatever they had rolling around in the factory floor meaning nothing matched the damned catalogues!  Especially given this was 2003 before internet resources were what they are now.  If I had the car now it would be a very different story I'm sure...plus I don't doubt I'd have any troubles finding a loving home for her on here if I did decide to sell.  Sadly she's long gone now, scrapped in 2006 I think from what I looked up.

[RobT]

1 hour ago, Zelandeth said:

It was the first car I put into a four wheel drift mind you, when I launched into a long sweeping curve at somewhere north of 80 which was slightly tighter than I remembered!  That was exciting!

Handling actually is to my mind very hydraulic-Citroen-like in the way it wobbles around but also sticks to the road astonishingly well.

Four wheel drift eh.  You've given me something to aspire too!

Even with the shitty Debica tyres I'm yet to have a 'moment'.  I'm also wondering if some new half decent tyres on the front will help lighten the steering a bit.

[Zelandeth]

5 hours ago, RobT said:

Even with the shitty Debica tyres I'm yet to have a 'moment'.  I'm also wondering if some new half decent tyres on the front will help lighten the steering a bit.

*Cough*...Colway Remoulds...*Cough*...

[RobT]

I consider myself top trumped in the shit tyre stakes!

[Zelandeth]

To be fair, they were what was on it when I got it and were binned in favour of some £30 apiece Kumhos at the first opportunity.  This was good as stopping from 30mph on a damp road on the tyres it arrived on required about a mile and a half and even the mighty 1.2 could spin the wheels in second.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

9 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

*Cough*...Colway Remoulds...*Cough*...

Yes, and Colway also produced metric tyres. Imagine that. Metric remoulds.

[RobT]

Some random tinkering yesterday. Although I've done a few tip runs in this, I've never had the seats folded down.  Pretty good load area, and the struts aren't too intrusive.

I've been meaning to check the rust situation behind the spare for a while, so off it came.

First off I wasn't sure how to release the carrier, but worked it out quickly enough.

Good job, as Régie's manual omits this bit of information.  It mentions nut 4, but there ain't no pic.

Apart from the brackets and a few small spots it's surprisingly good under there, so I cracked open the rust converter.

Further along the floors look well protected from the factory.  I was tempted to wire brush any dirt off, but there's the risk I'd split the OE underseal and just create future problems.  It's survived 33 years on rural Cornish roads like this, so why bother.  Likewise the outer sills and mud traps.  I cleared out some crud behind the front arch liners, but it really is solid in all places.  The only areas where I will lob some Dynax cavity wax is the box sections at the rear, as I could see a few rust spots in there.

The spare is old so that'll need replacing.

Made in Slovakia no less, so that's probably early to mid 90s.

I also noticed a small puddle of coolant on the garage floor, with the tank down to minimum, so that needs investigating.  I think it might be the ancient radiator cap spaffing out, as there's a trail of orange down the side of the rad.  I was expecting daily use this week to chuck up some issues!

 

[Zelandeth]

Interesting.  You have an additional expansion box on your exhaust.  Mine was just straight through to the silencer at the back.

[RobT]

Was yours a phase 1?  Also, what model?

[Zelandeth]

1987 11TC.  During the changeover from Phase 1 to 2, made apparently with whatever scraps were rolling around on the factory floor.  Barely anything matched the parts catalogues.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

That spare wheel and tyre has done a grand job of protecting that section of the floorpan....

[vulgalour]

Exactly the same spare wheel system as the BX uses and, if memory serves, Peugeots of the same era.  Seems to be a French car thing.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

15 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

Exactly the same spare wheel system as the BX uses and, if memory serves, Peugeots of the same era.  Seems to be a French car thing.

For a while, there was a spate of spare wheel thefts (God knows why) and it was mostly cars like these that were targeted. 

[Parky]

Seemed to hit the Hot versions mostly.  On a good night a scroat could nab a nice set of four Peugeot 205 GTI alloys with some bolt cutters 

[RobT]

23 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

That spare wheel and tyre has done a grand job of protecting that section of the floorpan....

Can't say I'm a fan of having spares slung underneath, but that's definitely a plus point. 

I once had a near miss avoiding someone else's spare that had dropped from its carrier, so that's the flip side obviously.

[TooManyPeopleMovers]

I agree with everyone's comments here that an underslung spare tyre is easier to steal...but if you do have a flat, at least you don't have to unpack the entire boot to change the spare! 

[dollywobbler]

1 hour ago, TooManyPeopleMovers said:

I agree with everyone's comments here that an underslung spare tyre is easier to steal...but if you do have a flat, at least you don't have to unpack the entire boot to change the spare! 

As long as you can actually reach the release nut... Also, these hangers have a nasty habit of seizing up through lack of use. 

[Jenson Velcro]

6 hours ago, dollywobbler said:

As long as you can actually reach the release nut... Also, these hangers have a nasty habit of seizing up through lack of use. 

It’s also not much fun in the rain, or if you have been driving on muddy roads and the spare wheel is covered in mud, or worse from local farms..

[RobT]

A few weeks ago I had my first FTP in this.

Fortunately just half a mile away, so I managed to leg it back home, fetch the Cav, and tow it to a safe place with the help of Mrs T.

It'd briefly fire, but no amount of fucking about pumping the throttle or giving it choke would help.  Turns out the choke flap connecting rod had fallen off.

So with some invaluable advice provided by Mr @320touring, I got some old fuse wire and bodged it so the flap was around 40% shut.

With some balancing of the manual choke I got it started late one evening and limped it home.  A slow coast towards one set of traffic lights, then it was down hill all the way.

Took the carb off the next day, which made me feel like a real man at last.  First time I've ever done so on any car.

The part I need goes where my thumb is up to the lever at the top.  Initially I was going to bodge something, but I contacted a few places and Southern Carburettors have the connecting rod in stock.  They had to order the mounting bushes, and apparently it's a known fail point where the bushes eventually wear and the rod just drops out.  Great that innit.  Oddly Webcon Ltd who are the UK distributor for Webers said the part wasn't listed or sold separately.

So hopefully the next update will be a working Renault, as I would actually like to use this again.