What have I done! (R4 GTL)

[petak]

Changed inner rubber belows on both driveshafts. Both semerings and Orings on gearbox covers where driveshafts are pluged in.
Changed both steering wheel ball joints. Checked and changed two out of four rubber grommets on ball joints.
Four silentbloks on left and right upper wishbone.

To me it looks like silentbloks went in little bit to easy.
Will see how long will this one last.

Made tool for removing gearbox covers.
Not nicest tool ever made but really useful.








At the end i had to do wheel alighment.
That is for today.
Took me almost whole day but now it is done and car is again nice to drive

 

[Jurjenz]

Good work!

 

[petak]

Thank you Jurjenz.

I forgot to tell.
For sometime now i was feeling big vibrations of steering wheel and whole car at speed between 90 to 95km/h.
It was same on summer tires and winter tires. Even after i have balanced both sets.

So when i was changing rubber bellows noticed that on one driveshaft cross is felt apart.
Put another one from spear driveshaft that i have.

Today on road test i can say that vibrations are mostly gone. at least big ones that i was feeling at 90-95km/h.

Still i can fill hard bumpy noise when i go across bigger transversal bump on the road.
I will try to tighten steering rack if he has loosen

And still feeling vibrations from rear end at speeds 80-to 100km/h when i am in slight corners.
It feels like shocks are not following road anymore and they have delay and that delay is causing vibrations.
But that is just my tough..... i really do not know what is going on at rear end. And do not know what else can be checked.

 

[petak]

While i am waiting two new rubber belows for another driveshafts so i can change leftt driveshafts on car to see if i will manage to solve vibration problem i was again under the car to see if i can find reason for bumps on right side.

All ball joints, silent blocks are rock hard.
I have find out that brake caliper bracket have some play in bolts/sliders.

Here is bracket and sliders.






I have few of those bracket with sliders but they all have same amount of play. At least like this on table.



I have removed those sliders. On one there is rubber end.




Will it make any differance if i change that rubber.?
Is there something that can be done with this used sliders so that they can be reused.
Or i must find new one and change them.

Thank you for reading.

 

[petak]

Today i got new sliders.



And change them immediately



Noticed that slider with rubber was really hard to put inside hole

Had to pull it out and in few times so i can push it fully in.
Even then slider was really hard to nove inside hole.
Now there is no any play on caliper.

But i am not certain that i fix my locking sound.
When i hit upper wishbone with my hand i feel like metal, knocking sound) is coming from bolt and silent blocks. Wishbone is standing solid without play on it.

Tomorrow is test ride.
Will see if there any progress

 

[malcolm]

Brake calipers won't normally cause vibration problems when you are driving. Vibration around 100km/h is normally caused by wheel imbalance. No wheel is ever completely balanced but the dampers will normally control a little wheel imbalace so long as the dampers and their bushes are in good condition. Driveshafts too can cause problems.

What problem are you trying to fix? Is the vibration in the floor or steering wheel? And if steering is it side to side or up and down?

 

[petak]

I have two problems that i am trying to solve.

First is vibration of the steering wheel (and consequently) whole car from 90 to 95km/h. Same thing is happening on both sets of wheels. First thing that i have some was rebalancing wheels. Did not make any difference to vibrations.

Vibration dropped significantly after changed needle cross in driveshafts. Now i am trying to find one good driveshafts out of 4 that i have to change it and see will that make difference. There is another topic about driveshaft.


Second thing that i am trying to solve is hard metal knocking on right side when i go over transversal bumps on the road. That is why i have changed those sliders as i have noticed some play on calipers. It was small chanca that will make some improvement but i had to try.
Today i hit the upper wishbone with my hand and to me it looks like sound is coming from bolt but silent blocks are new (two-three weeks old) and i can not feel any play.

Next idea is to buy brand new left and right upper arm and change them.
But that will take some time as i need to wait them.

 

[petak]

I had to redone caliper sliders as i have been told that slider with rubber should go in hole easily.

So take bracket of the car and pulled slider out. It has been really hard job to pull it out.

Take some measurement.
Hole is 11,8mm in diameter, and slider with rubber is 12mm. Old slider with rubber was 11,5mm.

Put slider in drill and sanding paper


Cleaned hole with Cooper wire brush


Peak inside the hole


Now slider is going in and out easily as it should.

Put everithing back.

Today had test run and it seams i have reduced metal noise little bit but not all.

Noticed one thing more.
My balans bar is moved to right side.

Next pictures are taken at flat surface

Left side


Right side

 

[malcolm]

I wonder if the anti-roll bar is causing the noise by knocking against the torsion bar. Can you see any witness marks? I'm sure I've had a knock before from the front but I can't remember the cause. I recall adjusting the bit of rubber around the torsion bar to prevent contact with the floor but that might have been for some other noise. Upper wishbone bushes maybe if the metal of the wishbone can touch the mountings.

Hopefully the driveshafts will fix the vibration. That speed is typical of wheel balance, and if the wheels are OK it is normally due to weak dampers.

 

[petak]

When i notices possition of anti-roll bar start to think that there might be noise problem.
Today will try to adjust possition of anti-roll bar and see what will happen.

I had floor noise when cornering from torsion bar touching floor pan and solution was to move rubber little bit more to the rear of the car. But that noise is different from what i have now.

I tought also that wheels are out of balans but apparently they are OK.
I can rebalance them again just to be 100% sure.
Also it feels that my monroe dampers are not the same as they were 4 years ago.
I am trying to save money for AVO adjustable. Not because they can be adjusted but i hope with them i will be in peace for some longer time (at least regarding dampers). I was thinking about SPAX also but they are more expencive.

Any toughts about AVO or SPAX?

 

[edwin]

The knocking. Can it be from where the exhaust pip comes out of the front wheel arch and bends under the floor, knocking against that front edge of the flat floor. It happened with mine and I changed the front underside rubber fixing and the noise has gone.

 

[petak]

TX Edwin.....but it is not exhaust....Checked already. All rubber mountings are new, and exhaust is firm and it is not touching inner wing. When exhaust rubber mounting brakes it sound more like rattling

Put antiroll bar back in place.
Left side


Right side


I couldn't see any traces of antiroll bar hitting anything around.


But noticed that bushing on right side are more worn than left side. So i need to buy new ones and change them

 

[Andy McGhee]

Hi Petak

I'm sure new bushes would make a difference, but the nuts on the right-hand bracket look very loose - could the knocking be coming from there?
Forgive me for copying your photo!

 

[petak]

Not a problem Andy.

Picture was taken after i loosen bolts to move antiroll bar to the left. After setting it right have tighten those bolts back.
But i am amazed how you noticed it .

I remember when i was put fresh bushes on antiroll bar they were tight without gap between rubber and antiroll bar. I event had to lubricate bar little bit to move rubber bush at right place.

And here you can see gap is about 2-3mm

 

[Andy McGhee]

I thought that might have been the case!
Perhaps you already have a source for the bushes, but I got mine here:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Renault-...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-caoutc...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

 

[petak]

TX again Andy..... I still did not looked for them. I know that franzose have it but shipping to me is way to much so i kind of avoid franzose.

 

[Richnd1974]

Your pathway looks like the Renault logo

 

[petak]

Everything in the tone

Last week i have done MOT

Without any problem.

Even asked test guy to stretch front suspension to see if he can find where knocking sound is coming from.
But after some time on the hydraulic bench he could not point finger to anything. Aldo said that upper arms are acting strange to him.

Advise from him was to change brake oil as it has reached lower legal limit. That was intention as i did not change it since car is put back together (5th year now)

Made 16943km last year. Now at 230tkm.



Before MOT i have put another carb (cleaned in ultrasonic bath) on car as old one was not good on idle aldo driving and acceleration was fantastic, starting easy (cold or hot), and fuel consumption was good (5,8l/100km - cca 40mpg )

Now car is running great on idle, have easy first morning cold start but but very poor start when hot or after 20-30min. I can't drive it when engine is hot and chock is fully pressed (shut off) but it drives nice when i pull chock for only 1mm. Acceleration looks little bit slower than before but it is reasonable good.

Again i have problems to adjust carb on the car (adjusting on table is not a problem) to get smooth ride with it.

 

[petak]

Find myself silly jobs to do.
My licence plate light was loosing connection to earth so i decided to fix it.


Small shim under one bolt was so rotten that there was almost no shim to transfer earth.


Take off small rivet


Cleaned bulb collar out of corrosion. Collar was made from thick metal so after cleaning it was in good shape. I will reuse it.


Other metal conductor need to be made new.


I used computer power metal housing for it.


Cut it, shape it.



Testing fitment

 

[petak]

Had to order small copper rivet (3mm in diameter) from china. They came long time before this corona. But i was to buisy to deal with it till the end.



Testing all together with rivet



Finished



Till next silly small job on my R4 stay good and keep safe

I decided to change cooling fluid in my car as this one become very brown and full of sludge