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Punto (Mk1) 1994 Punto Cabriolet ELX 90

Overview Gallery Discussion

Introduction

This is my recently acquired '94 Cabrio ELX, I bought it very cheap as a project to do up hopefully for the summer.

Initial Thoughts
When I went to look at the car the first time it was obvious its quite tatty. it has dents everywhere, scratches, moss growing in places etc. I took a test drive (fortunately it wasn't raining so put the top down) it is a pleasant drive, rides quite well but my main concentration was on the engine, the 1.6 is not fast... It's not slow either but its very mediocre... Secondly it has VERY short gears which I don't understand since surely the 1.6 would have longer gears than the other models yet it doesn't, in fact all the Cabrio's have shorter gears than their hardtop equivalents, presumably due to the extra weight. At 70mph in 5th the engine is spinning at just over 4000rpm :eek:

Background
The car came with the original manual which I assume is probably a rarity as many of them will have been lost/not passed on between sales. The car includes the original sales receipt from 1994 and some service history for the first 5 years of its life where it only covered about 1500 miles a year which probably meant it was a summer only car. Then there is a 9 year gap between 1999 and 2008 where I have 0 history for the car. From 2008 to 2016 I have MOT's and the odd service receipt, in those years its only averaged about 1000 miles a year too, with it passing every MOT after general serviceable items were replaced such as bulbs, worn brakes/tyres, wiper blades etc.

So here is the car as it stands now after a very quick wash,









A few months later and half a polish

Polish_Punto.jpg
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Done about 800 miles now, first thing to report, new parts! Yay :woot:



Wheel bearing kit and brand new hub to be fitted next week (y)
Going to do coolant just after its MOT as according to the gauge its all over the place, under constant movement above 40mph in warm weather (24-26C) the needle falls to about 75C ish so the thermostat is obviously staying open, under 30mph it remains at around 90-95, whilst sat still it'll climb as high as 100 or so with the fan on constantly, it doesn't really come down very much. The coolant itself is a murky orangey/brown so will be changed along with the thermostat.

Tried to roughly find where the rev limiter is, the engine was all nice and warm and had been running for about half an hour, accelerated part throttle in 2nd as I didn't want to slam into it at WOT, bottled at about 7400 when it didn't stop climbing :eek: I'm assuming it has a limiter somewhere :confused:

Sat in a long traffic queue on a slight downhill so rather than switching the engine off and on to crawl forward each time I just rolled with the engine off the whole time, been driving a car without servo assisted brakes for so long that it came as a big shock to me after the 4th or 5th stop that the brakes suddenly stopped doing anything :rolleyes: Fortunately did stop before rolling into the back of the car in front.

MPG is hard to work out because the useless fuel gauge, I don't think I'm getting more than about 36MPG out of it even with mostly motorway journeys.
 
This all sounds so familiar. I replaced a rear bearing on ours a couple of months ago. The sealed bearing had unsealed itself and was running hot. All ok now.
Ours does not like traffic queues, the clutch gets very lumpy and I don't reckon we get any better MPG than you are getting. I put it down to the low gearing.
Next job for me is to replace the sump gasket. I'm having a new driveway laid in September and I have to cure Bertie's incontinence. Leaky rocker cover gasket was replaced a couple of month ago and has since revealed seepage at the sump.
 
oh how i love that shiny new parts feeling!! :D

not sure whats going on with your brakes, you mean 4 or 5 big stops? could just be getting hot, some pads are terrible with heat. If you just mean in general then might be a leak on the vac line, not something i've really ever had happen that unless the engine actually cuts out and all of a sudden you have no vacuum for the servo at all... check the big rubber hose is on properly and not split etc as that sounds weird.

mpg wise just fill it right up and note the mileage, then next time do the same - whatever it took to fill it up the second time gives you a volume of petrol, minus miles from 1st receipt to 2nd gives you miles and then work it out. do that over a few tanks and then take an average, will give you a good average mpg and over most of your usual driving conditions if done over several tanks.
 
blu73 said:
not sure whats going on with your brakes, you mean 4 or 5 big stops? could just be getting hot, some pads are terrible with heat.
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Sorry most of my post was just general rambling gibberish, I meant that I'd gotten so used to non servo assisted brakes I forgot in a modern car without the engine on you suddenly lose your brakes, so when I was just free rolling in traffic on a slight downhill with the engine off I suddenly had no brakes the 4th or 5th time I tried to use them :rolleyes:
 
Been lots of hot sunny days here so roof has seen plenty of action, so much so that it now has trouble closing properly....
It opens fine although I have to push the little bar back as it gets about midway for it to fold properly (pretty common as far as I can tell) and it used to always shut fine but on 3 occasions now I've closed it and it doesn't line up with the windscreen properly, the clamps fall about 1cm short so you can't clip it down :bang:
I have to lower it and raise it a few more times until eventually it'll just about meet up although its still not quite all the way there because the clamps are really stiff to close it so the locking pin is scraping against the metal rather than seating nicely :(
Not really sure where to start? The roof looks normal when its shut, nothing appears to be bent slightly or in the wrong position :confused:
 
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We have exactly the same problem, both with the original roof and the replacement roof. It seems to happen when we have had the roof down for an extended period of time, particularly in hot weather (which is when we have the roof down for an extended period of time). I find the best solution is to drop all the windows (particularly the rears) and inch or so, then 'catch' the roof with the interior handle as it drops to the closed position applying forward pressure. As you have already found, it may take more than one attempt.
 
renaultvation said:
We have exactly the same problem, both with the original roof and the replacement roof. It seems to happen when we have had the roof down for an extended period of time, particularly in hot weather (which is when we have the roof down for an extended period of time). I find the best solution is to drop all the windows (particularly the rears) and inch or so, then 'catch' the roof with the interior handle as it drops to the closed position applying forward pressure. As you have already found, it may take more than one attempt.
Click to expand...
At least its not just me then, its also for when I have the roof down for extended periods, I also tried putting all the windows down, it does help a bit. Yesterday I couldn't get it to shut properly at all when I get home so I left it closed but unlatched and then went back out to it and about 8pm and then it would close fine, I'm guessing its to do with the heat... Which is of course when you want the roof down :bang:


In good news, I have a new MOT woo! And no advisories (thats a first for me), new hub and wheel bearing fitted, rear brakes needed to be balanced but everything else is 100%
 
If the 90 / 1.6 has a FIRE box with a different bell housing (it was discussed somewhere on the forum) would the drain/fill plugs be the same? I want to check my gearbox oil, there's quite a bit of rattle when in neutral with the clutch engaged which I'm assuming is either the thrust bearing or the layshaft? The gear change feel a little stiff and notchy in general although I quite like it but I'm not sure it's supposed to be that way? Regardless I want to check gearbox oil, don't want to undo the wrong plug and dump all my gearbox oil though :rolleyes:
 
Fill and check hole will be about half way up the box, drain will be right at the bottom, I don't know if they are in same place as C514 box but bit of common sense and you can't go wrong really. I would bet the oil has never been changed, I would consider just buying some fresh oil and draining and filling - don't spill the old stuff on your clothes mind, its proper stinky stuff and if you do don't put said clothes in the washing machine... Ask me how i know ;)
 
In the end we managed 1300 miles on 3 wheel bolts and now I finally have a fourth :worship:
Not checked gearbox oil yet, over the past few days at no point have I parked on a remotely flat road :rolleyes:

I've ordered bits for coolant change as promised after MOT. My main issue at the moment is somewhat trivial, the grey dash on a sunny day is reflecting in the windscreen making it actually quite hard to see, some of my passengers have even commented on it. On a very bright day with the sun high all you can see in the windscreen is the grey shape of the dash reflecting. Does anyone else experience this? I've been thinking of ways to solve this since I first noticed it, the easiest and jankiest way it to lay something black ontop of the dash, which does work, one day I just put a black T-shirt over the dash in front of me and the reflection is gone, obviously the t-shirt moves as you go round corners and its not a good solution in general.
I've thought about painting the dash but to do it properly it would be a dash out job (which I imagine is a lot of faffing) and even then I don't want to ruin a perfectly good dash which are probably quite hard to get. Next option was that horrible plastidip stuff, this way it could be peeled off the dash if I were to sell the car or change my mind, but its still a dash out job and I don't know how expensive/long lasting this stuff is...

Any other ideas?
 
Theres a white GT being broken very local to me... the question is, do I want anything off it? :chin:

EDIT: May have inquired about the front seats..... They wont match the rest of my interior but whatever :p
 
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Didge3 said:
That would require me putting adhesive all over the dash, and I'd lose some street cred for trying to make a slow car look like a race car ;)
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Well your options as i see it are flock it, continue just chucking something on the dash when its an issue, live with it, get the dash trimmed in masterial or get the dash so dusty it no longer reflects.... I'd go for leave it and deal with it myself lol.

With regard to the GT, do the cabbies have the rear disc setup the GT has? If not I'd get the brakes. Other than that its more a question of anything you need (other than the whole engine ;) )
 
puntofan01 said:
Couldn't you buy the whole car as another resto project? From what I understand, good GTs are like gold dust, and sought after.
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The seller is breaking the car (turns out he has 2 actually) several parts have been taken from each at this point, he won't sell either car as a whole.

blu73 said:
Well your options as i see it are flock it, continue just chucking something on the dash when its an issue, live with it, get the dash trimmed in masterial or get the dash so dusty it no longer reflects.... I'd go for leave it and deal with it myself lol.

With regard to the GT, do the cabbies have the rear disc setup the GT has? If not I'd get the brakes. Other than that its more a question of anything you need (other than the whole engine ;) )
Click to expand...
Oooooh dust :idea: That'll work :p

Cabbie has rear drums, not sure if getting the rear discs is worth it, I'm unlikely to ever use the brakes hard and often to get any brake fade from the drums. Half tempted to get the exhaust + intake manifolds for future potential to turbo the 1.6 :devil:
 
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