Ph1 1992 Renault 19 16v.

History:

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Renault 19. When I was a kid my dad had a few Renaults, and I always preferred them to the Fords and Ze Volkvagons he had at the time.

So…fast-forward a few years, I had passed my test and got a tidy, 19 RT, with the 1.4 Energy engine. I loved the car and drove it for about 40k miles. Finally, the head gasket started leaking at 140k miles, after taking the head off, it was clear that the head would need skimming and some of the valves were quite pitted, which would have been more time, money and effort than the car was worth, so it was exiled to the scrapheap never to return.

In the meantime, I needed a car to get to and from work, and I had my heart set on a phase 1 19 16v. In typical fashion, they were all over the pages of eBay, until I was actually looking to buy one. For the whole month pretty much there were two on there. The first one looked like a peach. A J plate, in 449 blue, 70k and 2 owners. Unfortunately the ABS had packed up, and I needed something on the road now.The second car was another J plate in Red, poor pics, no real description and the promise of £300 to drive it away.a completely unknown quantity! So I rang the owner up and we had a chat, I decided that I would buy it, and run it for a while and see how it goes.

My mate and me travelled all the way to South Wales on a coach. When we got there, I had discovered two things:

1. Public transport is clearly not an acceptable way of getting from A to B.
2. The car was not quite as good as I was hoping.

But it was good enough for £300, and it drove.so away we went.

Since then I have covered 11k miles in it, and have got to know it pretty well inside and out. The paint is a bit faded, but the bodywork is actually in very good condition, as with any car this age, rust is the killer and the car seems to have survived surprisingly well, as a good prodding with a screwdriver on the sills suggests.

I was thinking of selling or breaking it and getting another one this year, however, I have decided that I will be keeping it for a while and sorting out the number of problems it has. I could probably go out and buy another one, but pretty much all of the ph1 19’s around have some problems anyway, and I know where I am with this one.

I started ‘The Project’ the other day when I sat down and listed all of the things I want to do with the car, small niggles and all. The list was pleasingly short and there is nothing on it that I am not equipped to have a crack at myself.

I have budgeted £250 per month to spend on the car.

The following is the current ‘to-do’ list:

I will be updating this project as they get completed, with mini-tutorial type articles for the tasks.

Red = Urgent
Orange = Needs Doing
Green = Would like to do.

Mechanical Tasks:

• Replace catalytic converter.
  Cat appears to have broken up, most likely caused by wet plug well misfiring. Will probably ram it out, and replace with a new one from GSF before MOT time.
• Remove broken stud from gearbox.
  Gearbox currently has a broken stud in the N/S driveshaft tripod. Seeps a little gearbox oil. I am going to try and remove this with a stud extractor this month.
• Full oil +gb oil + coolant change.
  Routine maintenance, but needs doing this month and on a schedule from then of this month.
• Replace N/S front wheel bearing.
  Wheel bearing has began to whine. Annoying, will take it to local garage as it’s cheap to get them done and I don’t have a press.
• Replace N/S driveshaft.
  Knocks a little when on full-lock. Probably starved of oil at some point due to gearbox oil leak.

Body + Appearance:

• Replace bonnet.
  Bonnet is rusty around the vent. Not really fixable.
• Replace wing mirrors.
  Wing mirrors have both got cracks in the casings. Will be keeping an eye out for a new pair.
• Touch-up bumpers & Spoiler.
  Paint on the spoiler and the front bumper have scratches because some people get a hard-on when they dig a screwdriver into paintwork.
• Window seals.
  Usual story, window seals going around the corners.ho hum.don’t hold much hope of finding any decent ones but you never know.
• Paint rocker cover and clean up engine bay.
  I think colour coded rocker covers set the engine bay off nicely. Sorry.
• Ph1 16 Wheels.
  Car is currently sitting on a set of TSW 15’s. A set of nice ph1 alloys would finish the car off nicely.

Interior:

• Replace rear doorcards.
  Scruffy doorcards in the rear. How you manage to damnage a doorcard in a 3dr I’ll never understand, but they did.
• Replace gearknob & gaiter.
  Something tasteful I think.
• Buy new car seat.
  New girlfriend means I am resigned to hauling a 3yr old around.

So, nothing too frightening there, which brings me on to the shopping list. If anyone on here has any of these items, please do get in touch. I will be keeping this updated. Any parts must be for a R19 16v.

Don’t mind travelling, and have cash waiting.

Shopping List:

Last update 11/02/2008

• 3dr Ph1 rear doorcards. Again, must be presentable.
• Ph1 bonnet in Red. Again, must be in good condition. Don’t mind if it has the vent or not.
• Wing mirrors. Must be electric. Preferably in black plastic or red. I *think* I have found a pair.
• 3dr hatch window seals. Oh we live in hope!
• Ph1 alloys. Must be presentable condition.