Discussion
So, what does £100 buy you these days?...According to my son, a XBOX one Controller to replace the one he lost and a totally unsuitable game.
Alternatively, perhaps this beauty which i found lurking on a local facebook group
(Apologies, didn't realise it was blurry!)
The car was sold as having no MOT and a knackered electric handbrake. For those that know their Renault's, this is normally an expensive fault to fix. You either pay Renault £500 upwards for a genuine replacement or take a gamble with a second hand unit. Naturally any vehicle breaker worth his salt knows this is a common and expensive failure - and charges appropriately.
So why did i buy it? Well, i already have a Laguna with the same engine. My plan was to strip all the useful parts off and store them in my garage, that way I'd always have a supply of replacement parts when required.
Trouble was, the car itself was in surprisingly good condition. It seemed a shame to start harvesting bits off it and a part of me felt sorry for the old girl. However, the stumbling point for getting this roadworthy was always going to be that handbrake, if i couldn't repair that cheaply, pulling it apart and weighing in the leftovers was the only sensible option.
The first thing that struck me with the handbrake, was there was no power getting to the switch - odd for what i assumed was going to be a mechanical failure. Armed with a multimeter, i started by checking over the wiring. As expected, there was no power at the switch, so the next port of call was the wiring to the handbrake mechanism. Lurking next to the tank sender unit under the rear seat, i came across this;
Could it really be that simple? The main power feed to the handbrake unit had been chafing on the fuel sender unit, eventually water got in and pop - too much current and not enough wire to carry it.
I had a go at soldering the wires back together, which failed miserably. I won't post photos of that because i got more solder on the car than i did the wires! Plan B then, and a trip to the local motorfactors yielded a free bullet connector, which in conjunction with some heatshrink and self amalgamating tape sorted the handbrake problem.
Okay, so that was the main stumbling block addressed. Figured it was worth seeing what else it was going to need to pass it's MOT. A quick check over the car revealed a couple of obvious faults.
Easiest way to find out was to remove it. Not much thought given it its location however, a ring spanner won't fit. Luckily i had a deep 24mm socket lying about, not that i could get the ratchet on it.
Plugging up the hole so all the gear oil didn't piss out, here's the switch
The plunger is supposed to stick out 5-6mm and be sprung loaded, clearly the spring has gone so the car thinks its in gear. £16 later and the problem is solved.
Secondly, from all the knocking at the rear end, it was clear that the suspension bushes were hopelessly f
ked. This is a common MOT failure on Lagunas, which luckily for me means that replacement parts are cheap and readily available. Here's how the bush looked on the offside
That bush is supposed to be flat to the suspension arm, but the bonding between the rubber and metal had failed (on both the outside and inside of the bush).
Now there's two ways to remove these bushes - either take out the whole rear axle and get the bushes in a hydraulic press, or buy a cheap removal tool off ebay and pull them out in situ. Taking out the whole axle is far too much like hard work, so i went with option 2 and bought a bespoke bush removal took. That cost me £10 thanks to a £20 voucher that ebay sent me.
My first attempt to remove the bushes suggested that they weren't going to come out without a fight
The threaded bar snapped long before the bush was going to move! To be fair to the guy who sold it to me, he did send me out a new bar the following day - which snapped as well! It was about now that i remembered that the big ass bolt that came with my spring compressors were much more macho, i soon had the bd out and replaced with a shiny new one
£25 for a pair of bushes and jobs a goodun.
Feeling especially smug with myself, something was bound to go wrong and it did. One of the 4 large bolts that hold the rear axle assembly onto the chassis sheared off.....great. Naturally it sheared off flush to the body and you can't access the other side. Heat is a big no no, as the bolt sits a couple of CM away from the fuel tank.
This just left drilling it out and retapping the hole - but how can i get enough purchase to drill into it this close to the floor?
This was my solution
Few pumps of the trolley jack, and we're cooking on gas. Old bolt is drilled out with minimal fuss.
With the a bolt in place, all that's required is a MOT and a bloody good clean
Alternatively, perhaps this beauty which i found lurking on a local facebook group
(Apologies, didn't realise it was blurry!)
The car was sold as having no MOT and a knackered electric handbrake. For those that know their Renault's, this is normally an expensive fault to fix. You either pay Renault £500 upwards for a genuine replacement or take a gamble with a second hand unit. Naturally any vehicle breaker worth his salt knows this is a common and expensive failure - and charges appropriately.
So why did i buy it? Well, i already have a Laguna with the same engine. My plan was to strip all the useful parts off and store them in my garage, that way I'd always have a supply of replacement parts when required.
Trouble was, the car itself was in surprisingly good condition. It seemed a shame to start harvesting bits off it and a part of me felt sorry for the old girl. However, the stumbling point for getting this roadworthy was always going to be that handbrake, if i couldn't repair that cheaply, pulling it apart and weighing in the leftovers was the only sensible option.
The first thing that struck me with the handbrake, was there was no power getting to the switch - odd for what i assumed was going to be a mechanical failure. Armed with a multimeter, i started by checking over the wiring. As expected, there was no power at the switch, so the next port of call was the wiring to the handbrake mechanism. Lurking next to the tank sender unit under the rear seat, i came across this;
Could it really be that simple? The main power feed to the handbrake unit had been chafing on the fuel sender unit, eventually water got in and pop - too much current and not enough wire to carry it.
I had a go at soldering the wires back together, which failed miserably. I won't post photos of that because i got more solder on the car than i did the wires! Plan B then, and a trip to the local motorfactors yielded a free bullet connector, which in conjunction with some heatshrink and self amalgamating tape sorted the handbrake problem.
Okay, so that was the main stumbling block addressed. Figured it was worth seeing what else it was going to need to pass it's MOT. A quick check over the car revealed a couple of obvious faults.
- One of the track rod ends was falling apart and was replaced in minutes with a £18 Eurocarparts special.
- The exhaust hanger on the backbox had failed, leaving the exhaust almost dragging along the ground. Again this was sorted by our friends at ECP and a useful Easter discount code - £20
- Nearside brake light inop, i found a replacement in the glovebox
- One of the alloys had a puncture and was in the boot - £10 later and it's repaired.
Easiest way to find out was to remove it. Not much thought given it its location however, a ring spanner won't fit. Luckily i had a deep 24mm socket lying about, not that i could get the ratchet on it.
Plugging up the hole so all the gear oil didn't piss out, here's the switch
The plunger is supposed to stick out 5-6mm and be sprung loaded, clearly the spring has gone so the car thinks its in gear. £16 later and the problem is solved.
Secondly, from all the knocking at the rear end, it was clear that the suspension bushes were hopelessly f
ked. This is a common MOT failure on Lagunas, which luckily for me means that replacement parts are cheap and readily available. Here's how the bush looked on the offsideThat bush is supposed to be flat to the suspension arm, but the bonding between the rubber and metal had failed (on both the outside and inside of the bush).
Now there's two ways to remove these bushes - either take out the whole rear axle and get the bushes in a hydraulic press, or buy a cheap removal tool off ebay and pull them out in situ. Taking out the whole axle is far too much like hard work, so i went with option 2 and bought a bespoke bush removal took. That cost me £10 thanks to a £20 voucher that ebay sent me.
My first attempt to remove the bushes suggested that they weren't going to come out without a fight
The threaded bar snapped long before the bush was going to move! To be fair to the guy who sold it to me, he did send me out a new bar the following day - which snapped as well! It was about now that i remembered that the big ass bolt that came with my spring compressors were much more macho, i soon had the b
d out and replaced with a shiny new one£25 for a pair of bushes and jobs a goodun.
Feeling especially smug with myself, something was bound to go wrong and it did. One of the 4 large bolts that hold the rear axle assembly onto the chassis sheared off.....great. Naturally it sheared off flush to the body and you can't access the other side. Heat is a big no no, as the bolt sits a couple of CM away from the fuel tank.
This just left drilling it out and retapping the hole - but how can i get enough purchase to drill into it this close to the floor?
This was my solution
Few pumps of the trolley jack, and we're cooking on gas. Old bolt is drilled out with minimal fuss.
With the a bolt in place, all that's required is a MOT and a bloody good clean
I've got a spare Aux lead knocking about somewhere for one of these , so I'll get that whacked in tomorrow as well as giving it a good clean!
The lead was a replacement for one i bought from ebay for my other car. Came straight from China and was wired up incorrectly, hopefully this one won't be the same.
The lead was a replacement for one i bought from ebay for my other car. Came straight from China and was wired up incorrectly, hopefully this one won't be the same.
poing said:
Because if I attempted the things the OP has done it would have results involving a 4 figure bill, a local power cut for the surrounding houses and a trip to A&E.
Seconded, bought a small fiat with a knackered head gasket. Stuck it in the garage for fixing up, due to time constraints this took me muuuuuuch longer then i anticipated, and by the time i had it sorted found out there was more rust then i anticipated and killed the project, sold what i could and chopped the body into parts, since apparently retrieving a non-rolling body sitting on axle stands is too much work for local scrap merchants.Ive still got spare parts out in the shed...
littlebasher said:
colin_p said:
Top work.
What does the car owe you now, £200?
Another £25 to the tally and now we haveWhat does the car owe you now, £200?
So yeah, we're at about £225 now
Now just have to decide what to do with it. It runs much better than the other one i have, but that's an estate so useful for tip / Ikea runs!
Shame to sell the better of two cars simply because of the odd tip run, what, 4 times a year where you've got really big stuff?
eltax91 said:
This one is a hatch though? If so, with the back seats down flat doesn't it have roughly the same load space as the estate? If a hatch, aperture won't be a problem.
Shame to sell the better of two cars simply because of the odd tip run, what, 4 times a year where you've got really big stuff?
The rear seats in the estate fold flat, where as in the hatch they fold but not flat. Tons more space in the estate, which comes in handy more often than I'd like!Shame to sell the better of two cars simply because of the odd tip run, what, 4 times a year where you've got really big stuff?
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