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 Less stronger points of the Renault 18 (and
how to overcome them)
On this page you'll find some of the less stronger points of the R18
I came across through the years, along with some useful tips on how to overcome them.
If you have any points to add to this list, please drop me a line.
You can reach me at
richard@renault18.com. Any
useful addition, suggestion and tricks to keep an 18 running I will put on this
page.
You might also want to visit Less
Renault 14 et 18 - Accueil on technical subjects. As the French part of this site is
best developed, the link is especially useful if your French is not as rusty as
mine!
Use these links to quickly navigate to a subject:
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 Corrosion:
The Renault 18 has a reliable, almost unbreakable powerplant, and uses solid, proven
technology. So technically speaking it's a solid and reliable car. But...... it was also
build of rather poor quality sheet metal. So (as a typical French car) the most important
enemy of the Renault 18 is rust. Often it consumes the metal stealthy from within and when
it shows it has already eaten through the sheet metal. What doesn't help either is the
rubber/plastic/glue like substance they spayed on the bottom of the car and in edges and
joints. I figure this stuff was meant as rust protection and sound proofing of the car.
However on some places it doesn't stick to the metal and moist starts to build up behind
it. The result of this becomes apparent when it's already too late. From the moment we
owned this R18 I gave the body work considerable attention. Never the less my 18 also
wasn't spared from some rust holes, most of which I patched with glassfiber and polyester
(Most of this is damage control, until time, space and money allow for a thorough
restoration....one day.....). |
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In the picture I marked some of the most important trouble spots.
The most important areas to look for corrosion (based on my experience) are:
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| The front mud guards. They tend to corrode at the upper edges under the
bonnet where they are bolted to the chassis and at the edges of the direction lights
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| The underside and corners of the doors (especially the front doors)
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| The hollow door thresholds
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| The onderside of the metal 'ridge' that goes over the taillights inside at
the back of the trunk
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| The downfolded tail edge of the trunk lid
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| The battery hold, especialy the metal left of it between the right headlight
and the radiator
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| Every other matal part I didn't mention in this list :-)
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 When
you have a R18 that is still in good shape be sure to protect it well against rust. Spray
the inside of all hollow parts (see list above) of the chassis (don't forget the botom)
with a corrosion preventive compound like Tectyl Bodysave and ML (I emptied many a spray
can of these in and on my R18 through the years). And when you spot even the smallest
spots of corrosion my advise is to tackle it straight away, as the small spot often turns
out to be part of larger section that is rotten, but just hasn't surfaced completely
yet.....
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| Breaking
clutch cable: For some odd reason the clutch cable of my 18 broke three
times in the car's life. All three times this was at the pedal's end and all times clean
off at the hook that connects it to the clutch pedal. I'm not sure if this is due to
faulty production of the cables, because they are too thin, or because my clutch is going
too heavy. Anyway I have become an experienced 'clutch cable replacer'. I now check the
state of the cable every now and than, so I can replace it in time.
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According to Bob Blossom from Spain a solution to this problem might
be in the the cylindrical plastic bearing that goes between the arm of the actual shifter
on the gearbox. This bearing might be a source of extra friction that the cable has to
deal with. Bob's 18diesel also suffered three broken clutch cables. But his friend he sold
the 18 to has not had this discomfort in the last three years. (Thanks for the tip!)
Bali Paez Ascanio from Mexico City
owns a Mexican produced R18 with a 2 litre engine. He also experienced clutch problems his
remedy is to cover the cable with some heat resisting tape.
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 Cabin Heating:The cabin heating tends to give some
problems. One of the problems is that the blower from the heating/ventilation system
starts to make all kinds of squeaking and other funny noises as the car comes of age.There is a remedy for the squeaking. Danielle Forster (You can find the two
R18s she owned in the guest gallery) wrote "To
overcome this problem my dad drilled a very small hole in the plastic of the ventilator
just where the axle is. Add a few drops of oil and the noise is gone ..."
Although the bearings are a bit hard to find from the outside, this
trick is definitely worth a try! The picture of the heating system will give you a
clue......
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| An other problem is the heating itself. The squeaking blower sucks
the outside air in and blows it over a small radiator that is warmed by the coolant from
the engine. However in the winter time the temperature of the coolant stays very low. Too
low to warm cold the outside air. So to prevent your fingers from freezing in the winter
you can put a piece of cardboard behind the grill. Don't block the entire radiator because
the engine still needs cooling, but a piece about the size of the grille does the trick.
Just keep an eye on your temperature gauge and don't forget to remove the cardboard when
the outside temperature goes up in the spring time. Otherwise you might overheat your
engine. If the cardboard doesn't help the small radiator might have become congested
through the years. If so try to flush this radiator. |
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| Door locks:
The cylinders of the door locks operate the lock mechanism with a small plastic rod that's
attached to the back of the cylinder. It beats me why the engineer responsible for
designing this part didn't use metal for it. On the drivers side the rod has broken twice
(last time on the day I ordered my new Renault Clio. I guess it took revenge on my by
denying me access :-) ). One of the mechanics at my garage told that this happened with a
lot of 18s especially when autumn was coming and the plastic becomes brittle due to the
cold. There is nothing to prevent it. Just buy a new part and replace it. And when you do,
lubricate the mechanism so it operates as smooth as possible. |
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 Disassembling the dashboard: The dashboard of the
car is reliable, well organised and works fine. But even light bulbs don't have eternal
life and they are quite difficult to replace. I took out the complete dashboard to get
this job done. Through an e-mail I got from Tangi Quéméner from
France (Thanks Tangi! You can find his R18 site here) I learned that there is a less rigorous way to go about this job
:-). I will give you both ways. They start off the same: |
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Part 1: disconnecting the gauge unit...
- Disconnect the battery.
- Disassemble the casing around the steering column. To do this, first
get out all screws. The casing has two parts. The small top part is attached to the bottom
part with a 'click' system. When you turn the wheel you can see two small notches on
either side. Turn the wheel to 90 degrees. Put a large screwdriver in the small notch and
turn it. Do the same on the other side and than you must be able to hatch the top part.
This goes best when the wheel is turned 180 degrees. Pull the switch for the fog light
out, disconnect it and carefully pull the casing from the column.
- Take the panel where the fuse box is in off.
- There are two connectors attached to the gauge set on the left side.
Take these off and disconnect the drive cable of the speedometer.
Part 2a: getting the whole dashboard out...
If you just want the gauge unit out and not the complete dashboard skip to here. If you first want to take the whole dashboard out read
on.
-
 Take off the glove
compartment. This is attached with several screws. One of them is in the corner at the
right side of the dashboard behind the door. You need a short screwdriver to get it out.
The top side of the glove compartment it's attached to the dashboard with three small
nuts.
- Take out the six screws with which the outer part of the mid console
(with radio and ash tray) is attached to the car. And pull it away from the dashboard. The
inner part of the console is attached to the dashboard with two screws. Take these out as
well.
- The dashboard is kept in place by two screw bolts on the bottom and
three plastic clips just under the wind screen (you can see two of them on the picture
above). After you get the bolts out you must be able to push the dashboard upwards and out
of the clips.
- Lift the dashboard a bit and pull the third connector on the right
side of the gauge set from it's socket.
- The two ventilation shafts in the dashboard are connected with the
heating system in the centre under the dashboard. (If you look you can see them on both
pictures). Pull these off.
 Tataaaa: You must now be able to pull the dashboard from the car towards the
passenger side. Once you know how it works it's rather easy. First time this operation
took me almost a complete morning. The last time I got the dashboard out it took me about
15 minutes.
Getting the gauge unit out is described below. Follow the
description from step two.
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Part 2b: Getting the gauge unit out...
If you (just) want the gauge unit out this is what you have to do:
- On the right hand side of the gauge unit there is also one connector.
You can reach it with some difficulty if the dashboard is still firmly in place.
Disconnect it. (If you took the whole dashboard out you have already done this of course)
- Take out the two screws under the gauge unit.
- On each side of the unit there is a groove that points about 45
degrees down when the unit is in place. On the dashboard itself there are two pins sliding
through these grooves. So the gauge unit first has to turn to get it passed the pins. Pull
the top of the unit down and turn it towards you. With some effort you must now be able to
negotiate the unit out of it's place. Mind that the wheel is in such position that you can
get the unit passed it. Even with the complete dashboard out It took me a little while to
figure out the way to turn the unit, so with the whole dashboard in place it is
certainly not easy.
It's wise to replace all the most common used bulbs like the
dashboard lighting, direction indicator, headlight indicator, etc. at the same time. This
way you don't have to repeat this operation every time a bulb gives up.
The bulbs have a pretty long life. In my 18 the first bulb (the
headlights indicator) gave up after 15 years.
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 Slow speedometer: After I replaced some light
bulbs and put the dashboard back my speedometer got haywire. It reacted very slow and
didn't indicate correctly. After trying several remedies I found that the only thing the
matter was some dust. The 18 years of dust the mechanism had collected caused too much
friction. I didn't like the idea of dissembling this 'precision instrument', but the R18's
speedo turned out to be easier than an egg timer. Some cleaning and lubricating and a
small drop of oil on the axle did the trick. |
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| Printed circuit
board and fuse holders: The printed circuit board under the dashboard (on
which amongst others the fuses are situated) is not of the best quality. In my 18 the
board burned through at one of the connectors, due to a bad connection combined with the
high current that is running through it to the blower of the heating system. I cut this
wire from the connector and welded a new single connector directly on the circuit board.
Also the fuses themselves might give some problems. If for instance all your direction
lights stop working, the holder of the fuse is a likely source for this trouble. A piece
of sandpaper and/or some contact spray might solve it. Mind that if your direction light
fail, your brake lights might also be out of order, because (at least in the 1982 18 GTL)
they run through the same fuse! |
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 Cold start: Her engine is
very very reliable. The only bad habit I experienced is that if the car has not run for
more than a week, the engine needs some encouragement to get in motion. She always starts,
but if you have not used the car for some days you need some patience. This apparently has
has nothing to do with her age, because this problem has been around for at least as long
as we own her, which is since 1987 when the car was five years old... I have never been
able to trace the source of this slight inconvenience, nor have the 'experts' at my
garage. And as I said she always starts..... That is until Christmas day 1999, when her
ageing battery could not cope with a third attempt at getting the frozen engine in motion.
However with the help of the youthful energy of my Clio, a jump lead and my youngest
brother and his girlfriend, who helped push the 18 out of her parking space and in front
of my Clio, I performed a successful reanimation :-). |
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If you have any tips or tricks to add please drop me a
line at
richard@renault18.com |
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The box sections at the front jacking points and especially the jacking
points themselves (On the picture you see the left jacking point of my R18. If you look
careful you can see the rubberish layer I pealed away from the box section before
attending to the rust)