1988 Renault 5 Extra Wheelchair Van - Ramp Fixed and Saying Goodbye

[vulgalour]

I'm not looking to get another vehicle, certainly not another van.

[captain_70s]

2 hours ago, vulgalour said:

The van is dead.

Bums.

Your diagnosis sounds spot on to me, sounds a lot like how the Dolly spun a big end bearing and heat seized. Although that was terminal wear rather than thinned oil.

[vulgalour]

Funnily enough when I was on the bridge I did think briefly about your adventure and wondered how far I'd get.

[yes oui si]

Absolutely shit news. Glad you got home okay. 

Hopefully someone picks it up so it can live on. 

[vulgalour]

The exhaust did sound pretty cheeky and always made me smile, so here's how that job went. There will be a few more Renault vids coming out over the next few weeks because I've got the footage so I might as well use it.

 

[SilverMachine]

bumhats. 

just watched the death knoll video of the van, just days after seeing your cherry bomb install... bet it sounded meaty! (i had a 19 many years ago which lost its first connector clamp and sounded like a racecar..) 

main thing is your okay, the van will hopefully be adopted by someone already posessing the parts and time free to resurect it! maybe loserone or briggsy dont know if theres other extra / 5 or renault/ volvo turbo peoples that are local ish up here.

i seem to have missed a few updates somehow. i apologise, hopefully your pretty much sorted with your move, after moving my mother and then myself to temporary digs during covid, my last move from temp digs back to my house after the renters left i did pay people to move me - and it was worth it!

hopefully the bits you wanted to move in the van will fit in the princess, or there will be some available alternative. (if you want to borrow the aldi a3 your welcome to but it rattles as i aint replaced the drop links yet!)

 

[vulgalour]

It's definitely thrown a spanner in the works!

Couldn't use the Princess as back up due to some structural welding that was needed (and still is) that I'd opted not to risk digging into until the car was transported to the new place.  It's a repair I can do, I've already done the other side, but knowing how quickly it can become more work I knew that chancing the Princess for the long drive wouldn't be a good idea.  At least the van broke just before the Princess was collected, that meant I could shove some awkward shaped things in it instead of trying to figure out how I was going to sort that for the removal people.

As things stand, today I'm down to just the stuff I need to use on the daily and the stuff in the cupboards I need to use up.  I'll be travelling the 250ish miles to the new place by train (about £70 for that) and as a result travelling as light as I possibly can.  It's going to be a very unpleasant time for me however I go about it, the van breaking just added one more issue I could have done without... at least it didn't do it when I was on the drive to the new place, that's something to be grateful for.

[SilverMachine]

250 miles by train? thats potentially devon london or scotland! but yes travel as light as you can, you really dont want to have more than one bag and take some hot sweet beverage if its a cool day! and maybe sandwiches as there always overpriced as they have a captive market!  headphones can be good if its busy even just to muffle the noise from others if you still want to hear train announcements!

 

[vulgalour]

Aside from almost giving up at St Pancras due to barely being able to walk, I made the journey relatively unscathed to the new place and I'm now settled and trying to get myself back up to speed again.  There's a few more videos to come here on the van even though it's moved on to pastures new and I'll be posting them for the sake of completeness and to get the info out there since I struggled to find anything on how to do these jobs.

It's amazing how much is still available new for these vans, and Renault 5s in general.

[lesapandre]

Overall 9 million Mk1 and 2 Renault Cinq were made. Plenty of survivor vans on the road in France which were manufactured up until 2000  - and outlasted the car version.

Renault quote between 1985 and 2000 1.7 million vans made - so there is an impetus currently to keep spare parts flowing.

Cinq also assembled in Spain, Venezuela,  Iran, Mexico,  Uruguay Taiwan, S. Africa and Yugoslavia.

[vulgalour]

This time we're going to replace the front window regulators and front door locks.  Again, parts that are still readily available.  Not a bad job as it goes.

 

[stuboy]

good too see it being loved 

[vulgalour]

Nearly at the end of the series on this one now.  This time taking a look at what's causing the heater controls not to work, and getting the lighting sorted out.

 

[vulgalour]

It's the final episode on this little story.

It was absolutely fun while it lasted and I wish I could have gone just that bit further with it.  Fantastic little van that met the needs I had at the time I had it so I regret absolutely nothing about the experience.  The only tiresome thing was how many people would suggest it would make a great micro-camper.  Personally I wanted to keep it just as Atlas (the company that did the conversion) intended and make use of the ramp for easy loading and unloading, was really handy as a tip run van and I had hoped to use it to transport pushbikes and the like.  Would also have been a lot easier for getting things like engines transported since the ramp would let you roll trolleys and whatnot on and off.

I do hope that wherever it ends up it is useful and that it doesn't just get gutted for spares or turned into a micro-camper.  Out of my hands now, so what happens to it is what happens.

[Stinkwheel]

Where did it find its new home? Is it anyone from here?

[Rocket88]

15 minutes ago, Stinkwheel said:

Where did it find its new home? Is it anyone from here?

Yup… me. Now passed onto a serious Renault licker who’s going to sort it out, and convert it into a service van for his track Renault 5 turbo

[vulgalour]

The collection was delightfully hassle-free, highly recommend.

[95 quid Peugeot]

42 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

The collection was delightfully hassle-free, highly recommend.

Any deal with @Rocket88 is hassle free

 

[SilverMachine]

On 09/07/2025 at 13:14, vulgalour said:

It's the final episode on this little story.

It was absolutely fun while it lasted and I wish I could have gone just that bit further with it.  Fantastic little van that met the needs I had at the time I had it so I regret absolutely nothing about the experience.  The only tiresome thing was how many people would suggest it would make a great micro-camper.  Personally I wanted to keep it just as Atlas (the company that did the conversion) intended and make use of the ramp for easy loading and unloading, was really handy as a tip run van and I had hoped to use it to transport pushbikes and the like.  Would also have been a lot easier for getting things like engines transported since the ramp would let you roll trolleys and whatnot on and off.

I do hope that wherever it ends up it is useful and that it doesn't just get gutted for spares or turned into a micro-camper.  Out of my hands now, so what happens to it is what happens.

top quality tinkering there! i always try and remember to like! and looking forward to seeing the renaults next incarnation with mr rocket88!

slight renault tangent- 

one thing im not sure about with the 5 is that i dont know if we got the mk1 (with longitudinal fwd instead of transverse) as ive never seen one in the metal here! 

[barefoot]

Yes we did.

My English teacher's 950 example could reach an  indicated 100mph, five up, on the m1 northbound before exiting at j23.