Get ready for a rally, baby!

[Magsimus]

New poster! (less than 10 posts)

Hey guys.

I'm new, and I've just bought a 5 GTT that I'm hoping to get up and running for a rally in June.

Problems I have thus far (I've only gone and boshed out some bullet points!):

• Front bumper brackets have rusted out, so welding needed there (have all brackets).
• Driver's door a bit crumpled so needs replacing.
• Front wheels are sagging as disconnected from front mounts where strut brace was.
• When I turn ignition on both indicators come and stay on (yes, I've looked at the hazard switch, ha).
• Bonnet latch is a little loose and has no support rod to hold it up.

Other than the above, being a range of grey and primer, and a being a little scruffy inside, it's not in bad nick. All sills, arches, boot and windscreen have been recently welded and are looking solid. Will probably find a mahoosive hole somewhere now I've said that, ha.

Hoping to get it road-worthy and running healthily. When at that point, might look to uprate it as wouldn't mind a little more horsepower. However, apart from the dump-valve, it's all the original engine, so I'm in a bit of a quandary on whether to keep it that way or not.

Soooo, after all that waffle, from what I've listed are there any alarm bells ringing? Any warnings I should heed? Also, I know about CGB but not familiar with any sites/stores that offer parts etc (I'm finding it tricky locating a door, for example), so any suggestions would be great.

Any help is much appreciated, chaps.

Cheers.

[JP Racing]

Hi mate welcome to the renault 5 family

Nothing jumps out to me with body work as long as all the areas you mentioned have been done
Power from a std engine can be as much as 170-180 with the right mods. Its all about fueling and cooling
For parts people normal use ebay, mike at gt spares http://www.gt-turbo-spares.co.uk/ (mikes on here too and is very helpful) and cgb. You can also keep an eye on the classifieds on here and put a wanted add too it might help any info on anything just ask as someone will know

[Wallace]

Hi mate and welcome

For sure as above as JP has mentioned

Only things I'd add, possible rust area o/s behind the head light inside of the engine bay, mine was terrible and had caused bubbling on the front wing too, seen a few like it, and ended up replacing the front wing,but depends how much you wanna do really as it'll be a rally car

Also, electrics.........on a standard car, beneath the big coolant bottle (header tank) is a white electrical connector plug, just check there's no corrosion as this can cause all manor of things to fail

Lastly.........where the FRICKING pictures

[Alastair]

What sort of rally are you doing?

Would be good to know of someone else having success rallying 5s in the uk!

[Goobie]

Your want to take the rear side windows out to and pull the rubber seals off, easy todo, could be hiding rust there, also pull the carpet up and check the floor and along the inner sill joining and lastly the rear wheel arch inside and outside around the center part can be a sneaky place.

Get some decent pictures loaded up so we can see if we spot anything you may of missed buddy.

[Magsimus]

New poster! (less than 10 posts)

Hi mate welcome to the renault 5 family

Nothing jumps out to me with body work as long as all the areas you mentioned have been done
Power from a std engine can be as much as 170-180 with the right mods. Its all about fueling and cooling
For parts people normal use ebay, mike at gt spares http://www.gt-turbo-spares.co.uk/ (mikes on here too and is very helpful) and cgb. You can also keep an eye on the classifieds on here and put a wanted add too it might help any info on anything just ask as someone will know

Hello mate.

Cheers for the heads up on those sites - ordered some bits already.
170-180bhp is plenty for me for the moment to be honest (although my friend and I weigh 17 stone so the poor little car will by lugging 34 stone in our rally. Killer).

As for bodywork and what-have-ya, I've taken some pictures today so will wing them up here when I get a sec (and better internet connection, it's like dial-up here).

Cheers.

[Magsimus]

New poster! (less than 10 posts)

Hi mate and welcome

For sure as above as JP has mentioned

Only things I'd add, possible rust area o/s behind the head light inside of the engine bay, mine was terrible and had caused bubbling on the front wing too, seen a few like it, and ended up replacing the front wing,but depends how much you wanna do really as it'll be a rally car

Also, electrics.........on a standard car, beneath the big coolant bottle (header tank) is a white electrical connector plug, just check there's no corrosion as this can cause all manor of things to fail

Lastly.........where the FRICKING pictures

Hey dude.

Had a gander behind the headlights this morning and can't seem to see any rust (not enough to worry about anyway). Both front wings have recently been replaced, so I hope to body-swerve issues there.

Electrics are beyond me, to be honest. Had a look around the coolant bottle but couldn't see any white plug - it could well have been staring me in the face and I missed it, mind - but everything I did see looked fairly good.

As for the FRICKING pictures, I took a ton today so will post up asap so you can all have a good laugh at the heartache I have ahead of me

[Magsimus]

New poster! (less than 10 posts)

What sort of rally are you doing?

Would be good to know of someone else having success rallying 5s in the uk!

Hey mate.

Unfortunately I won't be rallying in the UK or in the cool sense. My rally is more of a leisurely jaunt through some of Europe's finest landscapes to Monte Carlo. Think my 4-tone 5 will fit right in with the Veyrons and Lambos, ha.

[Magsimus]

New poster! (less than 10 posts)

Your want to take the rear side windows out to and pull the rubber seals off, easy todo, could be hiding rust there, also pull the carpet up and check the floor and along the inner sill joining and lastly the rear wheel arch inside and outside around the center part can be a sneaky place.

Get some decent pictures loaded up so we can see if we spot anything you may of missed buddy.

Hey mate.

Had a good root around this morning in the areas you said apart from under the carpet (will check that later). All looks fine to these untrained eyes. Will wing up some photos tonight or tomorrow so y'all can see what I'm working with.

Cheers.

[Magsimus]

Morning chaps.

Here's a link to my album so you can meet Pepe, my 5 GTT (feel free to mock).

https://www.rtoc.org/boards/album.php?albumid=1882

[Bigfoot]

From those pics the strut tops are ok, they are supposed to look like that

[Magsimus]

Shouldn't they be in line with, or protrude through, the holes above them? When I got the car (trailered over), both front wheels are sagging outwards at the bottom. I assumed it was the struts being disconnected for whatever reason. If they look all right, do you have any ideas what would be causing the front wheels to lean inwards?

Cheers.

[Bigfoot]

Phase 1 and non GT turbo came through the hole, the phase 2 GT turbo were like this. Depending on how far out the wheels are, may have non phase 2 suspension legs, bolt holes are straight rather than at an angle. Could be wrong suspension arms, possible from a Clio, or its just because the car is lowered and would then just need camber adjusting bolts which should line the wheels back up.

[Magsimus]

Ahhhhhh right. Nice one, mate.

Cheers.

[Mr Raider]

Good solid base for a project, remember seeing this for sale on facebook group, handy sills already been done

[Goobie]

As above, good base you got there to start with, dont be put off by miss match colours etc.

I don't see why it won't make the trip, just fire up any question etc you have on here and we'll all on hand to help.

A lot of members have driven to the Ring, few laps and back without fault.

As long as you get it all set up right, there no reason to doubt the upside down skip.

[Magsimus]

Cheers chaps.

Yeah, definitely handy having the welding already done (apart from front bumper mounts) as I've seen some rust horror stories with these little cars. I've had a good look round and can't see any hidden rust so fingers crossed it's all good and won't break in half when going round a corner.

Once the bumper's on, the wheels adjusted and the brakes bled, it should at least be up and rolling.

[Magsimus]

Morning chaps.

Done a bit more planning on the rally route I'm undertaking in June. It's about 2000-or-so miles over 6 days. My concern is will this be too much for my 5 GTT's little engine? I don't expect it to explode, but I am concerned about overheating making it go into meltdown, particularly travelling for hours at a time in the middle of summer. It is 27 years old with 80k on the clock, after all. I won't be thrashing it the whole way, obviously, but being a nippy turbo I don't want to nurse it along either.
The longest leg will be about 6-7 hours (probably more with traffic). I assume I'll just have to take it easy and take regular breaks (or is that worse?).
My mate who's doing the rally with me in a Scooby thinks I should get a 5 GTT with a Volvo turbo engine so, apart from being able to keep up with him, the car will be more reliable and get all the way around. I'm not a purist, but I like the idea of doing it in an original 5 GTT, however, something more reliable does have its allure. I don't want to give up on poor ol' Pepe yet, but I do want to complete the trip. Pondering doing what my mate suggests and keeping Pepe as a fixer-upper that won't have to be ready for June.

Thoughts?

Cheers.

(Not sure why the font size has gone all Tomy.)

[Bigfoot]

As temperature might be an issue with some of the countries you are going through, just make sure you got a good rad in there and the cooler ducts are around the rad. You will be doing 70mph or maybe more I am guessing, might be worth getting a larger turbo so it wont be spinning up constantly at that speed like a standard T2 does. Do you know what sort of boost you will be wanting to run, or just keeping it sensible with around 12psi?

[Magsimus]

Cheers Big Foot.

Will look into the rad and coolers.

As for boost, not really considered it. As I am planning to do it in a standard motor, I assumed I'd run on standard boost. I want a bit of fun with the punchy little pocket rocket, but don't want to give it a constant headache. Any benefit of running bigger boost other than power?

Cheers.

[Bigfoot]

Apart from the grin factor I guess not really as you will be mainly driving at the same speed so no point in power really.

[Brigsy]

If you want it to reliable you will need to check all the coolant hoses carefully for splits. Make sure the rad is in good nick and you will be fine.

I would take plenty of spares with you. Looks like its been off the road for a fair bit

[Magsimus]

Could you elaborate on which spares I'd need? Not that I'd know much what to do with them, mind.

Also, meant to ask if there is a Haynes Manual etc for 5 GTTs? I found a similar handbook online but it's all in French. Not overly handy.

Cheers.

[Wallace]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SEALED...item461c3a8011

For the reliability of the car, it really does come down to the individual car, and it's 'life's' history........age of components and condition - how well has it been maintained?

The C1J engine (R5 standard engine) is so basic, that if something did fail, its highly likely it could be fixed at the side of the road (as long as you had spares)


You just really need to have a good look at the car, and follow brigsy advice....check all hoses! And the radiator!

Drive it around and get a feel for it, I think it's fair to say that an R5's engine needs to be learned, it's not like an injection car, get in turn the key, they all have their own characteristic

Some spares I carry all the time

- cable ties
- self amalgamating tape
- insulation tape
- some oil
- 'o' rings
- spare coolant
- torch, tools and a jack

Sure there's more

[Wallace]

Just another thought, renew the brake fluid perhaps! And check the brakes

When I did the alps on a road trip (£250 cars too) my mates 106 brakes failed and it was pretty sketchy to say the least

[Magsimus]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-SEALED...item461c3a8011

For the reliability of the car, it really does come down to the individual car, and it's 'life's' history........age of components and condition - how well has it been maintained?

The C1J engine (R5 standard engine) is so basic, that if something did fail, its highly likely it could be fixed at the side of the road (as long as you had spares)


You just really need to have a good look at the car, and follow brigsy advice....check all hoses! And the radiator!

Drive it around and get a feel for it, I think it's fair to say that an R5's engine needs to be learned, it's not like an injection car, get in turn the key, they all have their own characteristic

Some spares I carry all the time

- cable ties
- self amalgamating tape
- insulation tape
- some oil
- 'o' rings
- spare coolant
- torch, tools and a jack

Sure there's more

Awesome, cheers for the link to the manual. Does it cover the 5 GTT or does that not really matter considering they're pretty much the same motor?

As for owners, Pepe's been a bit of a slag and been about I think. Once it's up and running, I'll try and get the lay of the land with him and see just how temperamental he'll be.

Cheers for the spares list, too. I can see my boot becoming a war chest of parts, ha.

[Magsimus]

Just another thought, renew the brake fluid perhaps! And check the brakes

When I did the alps on a road trip (£250 cars too) my mates 106 brakes failed and it was pretty sketchy to say the least

Just has the master cylinder replaced, and the brakes need bleeding so will give them the once-over then. I've heard brakes aren't too bad on 5 GTTs, but I'll believe that when I'm not careering through a load of bushes and landing in a tree.

[Wallace]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RENAULT-5-...item5d4a040242

I assume they are the same it's what I use anyway

Just reread what I wrote last night, and that applies to any car 20yrs+ really, so not very conclusive

All I'd say is, make the cooling system spot on, and have a butchers over the electrical wires and connections

If it's fueling well and cruising well then happy days

My cars failed on me twice......both times it's been due to me: fuel pump failed because I'd made a bad connection to the pump.

The cooling fan failed to come on, this was after I'd changed the oil filter, and I'd snapped the connectors.

Other potentials are just leaks etc.......

[Bigfoot]

If going to buy a Haynes manual, this is the better out of the two

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Renault-5-...item20e120a381

Else this is cheap, seeming it will cost about that to post the manual.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Renault-5-...item5d4a0f78a3

[Magsimus]

Me:I can't find the Haynes Manual or similar anywhere online.
Everyone else in the entire world: Here's one on ebay.
Everyone else in the entire world and his mate: Here's another one on ebay.

I am rubbish at manuals. Cheers for the links, chaps.

[phase i 16 v turbo]

Me:I can't find the Haynes Manual or similar anywhere online.
Everyone else in the entire world: Here's one on ebay.
Everyone else in the entire world and his mate: Here's another one on ebay.

I am rubbish at manuals. Cheers for the links, chaps.

Have loads in stock also

[Magsimus]

Okay chaps, I have a dilemma.

So I'm doing a 2,000mile rally/jaunt to Monte Carlo and back (via a few good runs in Switzerland) in June.

I currently have a standard 5 GTT for the trip, but have my eye on a 5 with a 1.7 Volvo engine. The original needs a little work to get it into shape for the task, but the one with Volvo guts is pretty much good to go. Beneficial given the time I have/can allocate to the cars.

So with that, which one do I go for? I know fun and reliability seldom sit together, but that's what I'm looking for. Part of me wants to do it in the plucky original, but the extra oomph and reliability of the tank engine is looking the better option. Apart from the dead basics, I won't know how (or have the resources) to fix any problems that might crop up along the road sadly.

Torn. Thoughts, gents?

[B18ftMOJO5]

For a peaceful trip id say the volvo 1.7t but then again i am biased. Regarless of engine you wont find a more comfortable seat (monaco, leather) for a long journey, like an arm chair Lol

[Brigsy]

The volvo engine is no more reliable than a well sorted c1j in my opinion mate.

An engine swap will require a fair amount of skill to complete and be reliable, you might struggle if fixing the original engine is out of your skill league. Keep it simple.