2008 Renault Sport Megane 175
Discussion
Always enjoy reading these threads, but never seem to get round to making one, so here goes...
Backstory - for the last six years I've had an MG ZT CDTI. Driven over 100k miles in it, done a lot of modifications, fixed it when it went wrong (quite a bit). A saloon sounds practical, but with a massive sub I had no boot space, and my dog didn't enjoy sitting on the passenger seat. I was bored and wanted something else.
It was quick enough in a straight line with 170HP, and while it handled well, I wanted something a bit more fun - but due to the mileage I do it needed to be a diesel.
I thought about lots of options - but the only one that really hit the spot was the Renault Sport Megane 175.
For those that don't know - the Megane 175 is (in my opinion!) a proper hot hatch - the same fancy suspension and brakes as the rest of the Renault Sport Meganes, only with diesel engine (as found in the X-Trail and Trafic / Vivaro vans, but we won't go there...) instead of a petrol - this was important to me as most other "sporty" diesels are actually just a trim level and don't have much in common with the actual petrol performance versions.
There weren't many variants to narrow it down to, but somehow I still did - they came in four colours - silver, black, red & blue - but only wanted red or blue. There were two "packs" - cup (even stiffer suspension, different steering and ESP calibration) and lux (leather seats, keyless, climate control) - and I wanted both. I also wanted a low-ish mileage (under 100k) as I was going to pile on the miles, and ideally around £3-4k. There were only ever thirty something cars sold in the UK matching this criteria, so unsurprisingly after a year or two of looking I didn't find one!
I tried to be flexible and saw a couple - the first was a repaired write off but the sellers story didn't add up. The second was in poor condition externally and even had some rust on it.
Finally, I found one on Facebook fairly local, that met most of the criteria - red, cup, 80k, in budget - fantastic! Ad was sparse on detail, with two rubbish pictures of the outside only. For some reason I persevered and it took over a month to get more information out of the seller.
I arranged a viewing, only to HPI it to find outstanding finance. The seller managed to sort this (was an error) and I went to see it.
Took it for a spin and it seemed to drive ok - had an annoying "pinging" that the seller said was a worn shock that would need replacing for the MOT (due in a month or two). Asked for the service history and got given a receipt for a budget tyre and tracking.
Despite this - I knew it was the best I'd seen and so bought it anyway (was I mad?). Plan was to change the shock, get it MOTed, park it up until my car sold, then enjoy. Only once I bought it did I realise it only had one key card, and the emergency key (for if the card reader breaks) was missing.
Got it home, gave it a good going over and started to plan what needed doing.
Wheels were terrible, centre caps missing, various little bits broken, no mats, absolutely everything needed servicing as I had no proof of anything, original (8 year old) battery.
I hadn't told my girlfriend I was even going to see the car - the last she heard was the it had outstanding finance - so she was very pleased to see it on the drive when she got home... not.
I've seen shocks being changed before - undo pinch bolt, push down on arm, undo top mount bolts - done. Simple. Bought the shocks and got started.
First problem - on this car you can't do that. Pair of shocks is a five hour (book) job, which requires removing the hubs (!) and cutting the scuttle panel.
I start to realise I might of underestimated this a little, but then it gets worse - I find that the hub bearings are seized and as such when you go round a left hand bend, one of the two bolts that holds the hub to the car undoes until it basically falls out.
Luckily, the bearings are cheap (£20 a side), but fitment means properly removing and dismantling the hubs.
The guide online to do this job says you can tap them out with a mallet - I struggle with a 10 ton press. It's at this point I accept it's going to be a project, and at this point the MOT runs out!
I've missed my chance on the MOT - but I could use this as an opportunity to freshen up the suspension. So I go a bit crazy and replace:
Shocks (OE)
Swivel Bearings (INA)
Ball Joints (OCAP)
Front and Rear Arm bushes (Powerflex)
Track Rod Ends (TRW - OE supplier)
Anti Rotation Links (TRW - OE supplier)
All parts are a nightmare to remove, everything is seized solid. I had to cut the track rod ends off the inner tie rods - at this point I wonder how the car's tracking was adjusted six months ago!
At this point the car has no front suspension and is looking quite sad
I realise that now is also a good time to get the wheels refurbished
Before (they were scuffed, and large chunks of paint were missing)
After
The paint looked fantastic, and the price was great (£160). I'm normally not keen on dark wheels, but I think it works on this car - also the Cup pack is distinguished by grey mirrors and wheels, and it would be a shame to lose that. Unfortunately, I found out that one wheel has been repaired (welded) AFTER it had been refurbished. Had I of known, I would've swapped it for the spare. The nuts were looking a bit rubbish, so I asked for those to be painted at the same time as the wheels - stupidly I assumed it was obvious that they should be the same colour as the wheels, but they came back having been painted black. Oh well.
I also catch up on the servicing - I'd underestimated how much work this would involve:
Fuel Filter,
Gearbox Oil,
Engine Oil & Filter,
Air Filter,
Pollen Filter,
Brake Fluid
While changing the brake fluid I also put some braided brake hoses on, and replaced some worn engine mounts with a mix of replacement and powerflex items, fit a short shifter, a new stereo and a bluetooth kit - all essential on a car parked on axle stands with no front suspension.
Having had the car for over two months, it's back on it's wheels for the MOT. I drive it down to the MOT station and am amazed that despite having had it all apart - it drives straight and true. I know it needs tracking, but it's handy that it's not a pig to drive until I can get this sorted out. Unfortunately - it fails on inner tie rods - I should've change them when I had everything apart. So, back home, new inner tie rods and an uprated steering rack bush, and another £30 day insurance policy and I finally get an MOT. Only since having taken the track rod ends off again, the tracking is now miles out. Ooops.
At this point, I can now actually sell my old car - and once that's gone the Megane is now pressed into daily service.
Various new niggles are discovered - a horrible knocking noise, doesn't ever get to temperature, various dash lights not working, tracking out, wipers need changing, seems to steam up easily.
So out come the spanners again - drop links are the only part of the front suspension not new, so they get replaced - but the knocking turns out to be the top mount bolt being loose (despite being torqued correctly).
Thermostat gets replaced, although its clear any job on the engine will be difficult - the engine bay is very cramped
Thermostat involves removing the battery, ecu, undertray, wheel, arch liner and officially even the wiper arms and scuttle (although I avoid this). Luckily this allows me to cross off coolant replacement from the outstanding service list.
My last car used LED lighting for window switches etc which I thought was standard - but on this car most are filament bulbs. I don't even realise that certain things are meant to light up because none of them work. So far I've changed the window switch and heater panel bulbs - I've found out that the traction control button is meant to be backlit, but the bulbs gone so theres still more to do. The bulbs aren't designed to be replaced but luckily someone clever has worked out how to do it so at least it's not expensive.
Steamy interior turns out to be blocked plenum drains - again and easy enough fix.
At this point I actually get on to drive it a bit, and take some rubbish pictures
My dog approves
I then continue driving it until it desperately needs a clean
And then someone takes the wing mirror off, which was nice - temporarily bodged back together with the mirror glass from my old car, some newspaper, masking tape and sellotape
I also fitted an obscenely priced gearknob as the "pointy" previous style was horrible to use
It's been a long journey - the parts spend is now (just) in four figures which is a bit embarrassing on a car that I bought fully working - but hopefully I've saved myself some work in the future. Luckily I've been able to do all the work myself so no labour, although I've used it as an excuse to buy a lot of tools.
Now I've had the chance to drive it - it's growing on me. It's very practical, the handling is on another league compared to my last car - even on the ditchfinders it's come on ("CatchPower" and "Lanvigator"). The interior is very cheap, and it's a bit of a pain to work on (especially the engine) - but if I want a small car with good handling, I have to accept a compact design and complicated suspension.
Over Christmas I've taken the whole interior out to fit some new speakers, a dash cam and a reversing camera. I have a lot of plans, probably too many to tackle all at once - but the main focus is going to be on the interior & electrical, and power - the chassis and brakes are excellent, but with only 175HP it's not actually that quick in a straight line.
If you've got this far, you should probably go and lie down now.
Backstory - for the last six years I've had an MG ZT CDTI. Driven over 100k miles in it, done a lot of modifications, fixed it when it went wrong (quite a bit). A saloon sounds practical, but with a massive sub I had no boot space, and my dog didn't enjoy sitting on the passenger seat. I was bored and wanted something else.
It was quick enough in a straight line with 170HP, and while it handled well, I wanted something a bit more fun - but due to the mileage I do it needed to be a diesel.
I thought about lots of options - but the only one that really hit the spot was the Renault Sport Megane 175.
For those that don't know - the Megane 175 is (in my opinion!) a proper hot hatch - the same fancy suspension and brakes as the rest of the Renault Sport Meganes, only with diesel engine (as found in the X-Trail and Trafic / Vivaro vans, but we won't go there...) instead of a petrol - this was important to me as most other "sporty" diesels are actually just a trim level and don't have much in common with the actual petrol performance versions.
There weren't many variants to narrow it down to, but somehow I still did - they came in four colours - silver, black, red & blue - but only wanted red or blue. There were two "packs" - cup (even stiffer suspension, different steering and ESP calibration) and lux (leather seats, keyless, climate control) - and I wanted both. I also wanted a low-ish mileage (under 100k) as I was going to pile on the miles, and ideally around £3-4k. There were only ever thirty something cars sold in the UK matching this criteria, so unsurprisingly after a year or two of looking I didn't find one!
I tried to be flexible and saw a couple - the first was a repaired write off but the sellers story didn't add up. The second was in poor condition externally and even had some rust on it.
Finally, I found one on Facebook fairly local, that met most of the criteria - red, cup, 80k, in budget - fantastic! Ad was sparse on detail, with two rubbish pictures of the outside only. For some reason I persevered and it took over a month to get more information out of the seller.
I arranged a viewing, only to HPI it to find outstanding finance. The seller managed to sort this (was an error) and I went to see it.
Took it for a spin and it seemed to drive ok - had an annoying "pinging" that the seller said was a worn shock that would need replacing for the MOT (due in a month or two). Asked for the service history and got given a receipt for a budget tyre and tracking.
Despite this - I knew it was the best I'd seen and so bought it anyway (was I mad?). Plan was to change the shock, get it MOTed, park it up until my car sold, then enjoy. Only once I bought it did I realise it only had one key card, and the emergency key (for if the card reader breaks) was missing.
Got it home, gave it a good going over and started to plan what needed doing.
Wheels were terrible, centre caps missing, various little bits broken, no mats, absolutely everything needed servicing as I had no proof of anything, original (8 year old) battery.
I hadn't told my girlfriend I was even going to see the car - the last she heard was the it had outstanding finance - so she was very pleased to see it on the drive when she got home... not.
I've seen shocks being changed before - undo pinch bolt, push down on arm, undo top mount bolts - done. Simple. Bought the shocks and got started.
First problem - on this car you can't do that. Pair of shocks is a five hour (book) job, which requires removing the hubs (!) and cutting the scuttle panel.
I start to realise I might of underestimated this a little, but then it gets worse - I find that the hub bearings are seized and as such when you go round a left hand bend, one of the two bolts that holds the hub to the car undoes until it basically falls out.
Luckily, the bearings are cheap (£20 a side), but fitment means properly removing and dismantling the hubs.
The guide online to do this job says you can tap them out with a mallet - I struggle with a 10 ton press. It's at this point I accept it's going to be a project, and at this point the MOT runs out!
I've missed my chance on the MOT - but I could use this as an opportunity to freshen up the suspension. So I go a bit crazy and replace:
Shocks (OE)
Swivel Bearings (INA)
Ball Joints (OCAP)
Front and Rear Arm bushes (Powerflex)
Track Rod Ends (TRW - OE supplier)
Anti Rotation Links (TRW - OE supplier)
All parts are a nightmare to remove, everything is seized solid. I had to cut the track rod ends off the inner tie rods - at this point I wonder how the car's tracking was adjusted six months ago!
At this point the car has no front suspension and is looking quite sad
I realise that now is also a good time to get the wheels refurbished
Before (they were scuffed, and large chunks of paint were missing)
After
The paint looked fantastic, and the price was great (£160). I'm normally not keen on dark wheels, but I think it works on this car - also the Cup pack is distinguished by grey mirrors and wheels, and it would be a shame to lose that. Unfortunately, I found out that one wheel has been repaired (welded) AFTER it had been refurbished. Had I of known, I would've swapped it for the spare. The nuts were looking a bit rubbish, so I asked for those to be painted at the same time as the wheels - stupidly I assumed it was obvious that they should be the same colour as the wheels, but they came back having been painted black. Oh well.
I also catch up on the servicing - I'd underestimated how much work this would involve:
Fuel Filter,
Gearbox Oil,
Engine Oil & Filter,
Air Filter,
Pollen Filter,
Brake Fluid
While changing the brake fluid I also put some braided brake hoses on, and replaced some worn engine mounts with a mix of replacement and powerflex items, fit a short shifter, a new stereo and a bluetooth kit - all essential on a car parked on axle stands with no front suspension.
Having had the car for over two months, it's back on it's wheels for the MOT. I drive it down to the MOT station and am amazed that despite having had it all apart - it drives straight and true. I know it needs tracking, but it's handy that it's not a pig to drive until I can get this sorted out. Unfortunately - it fails on inner tie rods - I should've change them when I had everything apart. So, back home, new inner tie rods and an uprated steering rack bush, and another £30 day insurance policy and I finally get an MOT. Only since having taken the track rod ends off again, the tracking is now miles out. Ooops.
At this point, I can now actually sell my old car - and once that's gone the Megane is now pressed into daily service.
Various new niggles are discovered - a horrible knocking noise, doesn't ever get to temperature, various dash lights not working, tracking out, wipers need changing, seems to steam up easily.
So out come the spanners again - drop links are the only part of the front suspension not new, so they get replaced - but the knocking turns out to be the top mount bolt being loose (despite being torqued correctly).
Thermostat gets replaced, although its clear any job on the engine will be difficult - the engine bay is very cramped
Thermostat involves removing the battery, ecu, undertray, wheel, arch liner and officially even the wiper arms and scuttle (although I avoid this). Luckily this allows me to cross off coolant replacement from the outstanding service list.
My last car used LED lighting for window switches etc which I thought was standard - but on this car most are filament bulbs. I don't even realise that certain things are meant to light up because none of them work. So far I've changed the window switch and heater panel bulbs - I've found out that the traction control button is meant to be backlit, but the bulbs gone so theres still more to do. The bulbs aren't designed to be replaced but luckily someone clever has worked out how to do it so at least it's not expensive.
Steamy interior turns out to be blocked plenum drains - again and easy enough fix.
At this point I actually get on to drive it a bit, and take some rubbish pictures
My dog approves
I then continue driving it until it desperately needs a clean
And then someone takes the wing mirror off, which was nice - temporarily bodged back together with the mirror glass from my old car, some newspaper, masking tape and sellotape
I also fitted an obscenely priced gearknob as the "pointy" previous style was horrible to use
It's been a long journey - the parts spend is now (just) in four figures which is a bit embarrassing on a car that I bought fully working - but hopefully I've saved myself some work in the future. Luckily I've been able to do all the work myself so no labour, although I've used it as an excuse to buy a lot of tools.
Now I've had the chance to drive it - it's growing on me. It's very practical, the handling is on another league compared to my last car - even on the ditchfinders it's come on ("CatchPower" and "Lanvigator"). The interior is very cheap, and it's a bit of a pain to work on (especially the engine) - but if I want a small car with good handling, I have to accept a compact design and complicated suspension.
Over Christmas I've taken the whole interior out to fit some new speakers, a dash cam and a reversing camera. I have a lot of plans, probably too many to tackle all at once - but the main focus is going to be on the interior & electrical, and power - the chassis and brakes are excellent, but with only 175HP it's not actually that quick in a straight line.
If you've got this far, you should probably go and lie down now.
Edited by Jakg on Wednesday 26th July 13:47
Edited by Jakg on Wednesday 26th July 13:47
Edited by Jakg on Sunday 12th November 20:43
Edited by Jakg on Sunday 12th November 20:45
GrantB5 said:
Sounds like you have had a ball ache with this.
Now all that work is done I'm sure you will start to enjoy the car, until something else pops up.
Nice motor
That sounds like a pretty accurate summary - "works fine until it doesn't"!Now all that work is done I'm sure you will start to enjoy the car, until something else pops up.
Nice motor
On that note - I now have a "CHECK INJECTION" message so more work required
benjijames28 said:
You took a chance and a dishonest private seller screwed u big time.
Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I don't think he knew - he wasn't a mechanic. My girlfriend, for example, wouldn't notice that her thermostat was faulty - but I would.As this thread doesn't seem to have bored everyone to sleep, I'll put some more updates up.
The spare wheel provides support for the carpeted boot floor. In my case, the spare wheel isn't secure, so the floor is uneven and makes funny noises. I'd seen online some suggestions to use foam to help secure the wheel - I used some carpet underlay. Unfortunately, at this point I noticed that the spare wheel is flat (dead valve), unusable (sidewall separating from tread) and unfittable as there's no jack or wheel brace. I've now go to decide whether I want to fix it all, or just ditch it and use the space for something else.
I fitted my reverse camera - on my last car I had a cheap eBay one with night vision LEDs (I think they were infrared so you couldn't see them, but helped illuminate) which was actually really good. I spent a bit more and got a CCD one this time (vs cheaper CMOS), again with nigh vision LEDs - but the "night vision" LEDs are actually just LEDs, and despite saying CCD the quality is rubbish. Perhaps I got conned...
Before the MOT I gave all the lights a good going over to make sure it wouldn't fail on something silly - and I noticed that only one rear fog light worked. I know that some cars only have one - but I could see a bulb through the cluster so I assumed it was meant to. Took the light unit out to find a holder and bulb - but no wiring. Seems an odd way to do it. I prefer two (I find it helpful to illuminate when reversing at night) so wired it up off the other one.
I know this will be a bit divisive, but I'm also into car audio - currently I've put a new headunit in, but long term the plan is decent speakers, some deadening, a sub and an amp or two. Unfortunately, this isn't an easy car to do it in. I've got a set of Rainbow components to fit, but I hadn't realised the rather odd door card design - on my last car, in the door was the outer skin, then the window, then a weather seal, then the speaker, and then a door card on top.
Here there is an outer skin, window, no weather seal, and a kind of water deflector built into the door car which wraps around the speaker. The idea is that instead of keeping water out of the door, it's just directed away from sensitive components. Unsurprisingly - Megane's are known for having leaky doors!
The water deflector is designed around the standard (tiny) speaker, so my Rainbow units don't fit - I need to get creative to mount them in a way that they can still be protected from the weather.
Edited by Jakg on Wednesday 26th July 13:53
Vitorio said:
Any plans for performance increasing mods rather then just fixing it/doing backlogged maintenance?
As you asked:I feel that of the three areas - handling, braking, engine - the engine is the weakest and so where I need to focus my upgrades - this is because the rest of the car was designed with 225+HP in mind.
One of the things that sold me on the cup version were press reviews when new - better handling than the non-cup version, and yet paradoxically better ride comfort - so I'm keen not to significantly alter the suspension (lowering, coilovers etc) and lose this.
Power:
(Slightly) larger turbo - there are some bolt on turbos from other cars that are a little larger
DPF Removal,
Decat,
EGR Delete,
Remap
The above should see around 230HP - the idea is to get it all done at once to save time and money, but first I need to get all the parts.
I'm also looking at intercooler and pipework upgrades - but this isn't a priority.
Handling:
I've sourced an R26 rear beam, which features an anti roll bar where mine does not - I can also polybush this.
I would like to uprate the front anti roll bar - but this is quite a bit of work so on the backburner
Braking:
I'd like to fit Megane 250 brake calipers and larger discs, but to be honest this would be purely asthetic - because a lot of people track Meganes this upgrade both seriously improves performance, but also seriously hurts the wallet!
In reality I'll probably just buy a new set of calipers all round to refurbish and paint and then swap them over. I may also change the pads / discs - I don't know whats fitted but based on the rest of the car I don't have high hopes.
bungz said:
Lurchers 
Does yours like cars? Mine pukes everywhere
I've now got a greyhound as well. Both love cars!Does yours like cars? Mine pukes everywhere
I think it helps that the lurcher has been in a car a lot since he was a puppy, and the greyhound is an ex-racer so is used to going places all the time.
Any excuse for a picture...
On a car related note - top mount has completely failed and actually come off (!). Not happy. Will have to change it this weekend. As I touched on above - on most cars it would be pretty easy, but not on this.
Wheel off, caliper off, disc off, track rod end off, anti rotation link off, drop link off, split bottom ball joint, remove driveshaft from hub, disconnect ABS plug, unbolt top mount from shock turret, remove shock assembly, compress spring, remove top mount... and repeat.
The top mounts were one of the few components I didn't replace. Typical.
Jakg said:
On a car related note - top mount has completely failed and actually come off (!). Not happy. Will have to change it this weekend. As I touched on above - on most cars it would be pretty easy, but not on this.
Wheel off, caliper off, disc off, track rod end off, anti rotation link off, drop link off, split bottom ball joint, remove driveshaft from hub, disconnect ABS plug, unbolt top mount from shock turret, remove shock assembly, compress spring, remove top mount... and repeat.
The top mounts were one of the few components I didn't replace. Typical.
This is what I spotted the other day.Wheel off, caliper off, disc off, track rod end off, anti rotation link off, drop link off, split bottom ball joint, remove driveshaft from hub, disconnect ABS plug, unbolt top mount from shock turret, remove shock assembly, compress spring, remove top mount... and repeat.
The top mounts were one of the few components I didn't replace. Typical.
The ring in the middle of the shock is the top mount - the top mount on this car doesn't actually do much work (the spring doesn't rotate - only the hub turns with the steering) which I guess is how I didn't notice. Still drove fine!
Had a crack today - was expecting it to be an epic as removing them the first time took me several days (albeit in small chunks).
Tools out, wheel off and up in the air
Disc and caliper off
Remove drop link, driveshaft, anti rotation link, track rod, top mount, abs sensor and unbolt bottom ball joint (that was a time saver) and it starts to look very empty
Surprisingly only took me an hour to get this far.
This is how it looks once I pulled it out - you can see how the hub pivots here
And into the shed to strip it down and fit the new top mount
Compressing the spring took me another hour (!) as I couldn't get it lined up right and then all bolted back together - about 3-4 hours all in. Much quicker than I expected (although still slow I know!)
Had the rear door cards off recently and noticed very noisy without them. No real deadening on the panel which explains it. Added a layer of silent coat to stop vibrations and then a layer of carpet underlay to absorb noise.
Djw John said:
Er, hate to say it but in that pic of the spring it looks snapped to me, it should be a nice 90 degree cut at the end, not whatever has happened there.
I did notice that, but it seems to look the right length and I don't remember them looking uneven when side by side.Annoyingly the springs are £95, each.
EDIT - Yes, your right. Balls. I'll buy another pair and do the job again... for the third time...!
Edited by Jakg on Sunday 8th January 00:25
Rensko said:
I know its not the most exciting question in the world - but what kind of mileage are you getting? I have a fairly long commute and want something fun/interesting - but can also hack a stack of motorway work!
Over the last 3k miles, 46MPG (brim to brim). My commute is half motorway, half b-roads which is why my car is so dirty - this obviously affects economy. The same commute in my last car (MG ZT diesel) was 44.5MPG.I took it from Suffolk to Manchester and back and got 51MPG.
I've decided to replace both springs - it wont take that long now I've done it so many times, but it's a bit frustrating - when I was looking for a car the two options I was interested in was the cup pack (suspension) and panaromic sunroof. Unfortunately the options were exclusive. The cup pack was suspension (springs & dampers), rear axle and ESP configuration (steering and stability control settings), and grey wheels and mirrors. If I've replaced all the front suspension, will soon do the rear axle, repainted the wheels and replaced one mirror, I've basically done all the work to convert from a non-cup to a cup so might as well of got one with the sunroof as you can't retrofit that!
DanielSan said:
Go for a set of Cooksport lowering springs at £220, the car sits a lot nicer with them, handles better and rides pretty much identical to standard. I've got them on my R26 and can't fault them, they're even better than Eibach and H&R springs I've had on previous cars.
Jakg said:
One of the things that sold me on the cup version were press reviews when new - better handling than the non-cup version, and yet paradoxically better ride comfort - so I'm keen not to significantly alter the suspension (lowering, coilovers etc) and lose this.
The 175 is quite a bit heavier than the petrol ones - I think in the order of about 60-80KG - and this is one of the reasons it has different suspension. I've seen lots of people talk about how much lower the car sits when fitted to a diesel, but the handling and ride is said to be much worse. I also don't want the car to be any lower for fear of grounding out everywhere.It's a shame as I can get the Cooksports for the same price as just two fronts... and I know my rears probably need replacing too!
Time for another update.
"CHECK INJECTION" message turned out to be a blocked up EGR valve. Diagnosed via my new purchase - a Renault Clip tool allowing me to plug the car into my laptop. Very handy.
Access was... difficult. It's the circled thing in the picture.
Officially you need to remove the bumper to get to it but I managed to do it all from above, but destroyed my fingers in the process - on reassembly everything got covered in blood!
Doesn't look that bad in pictures, but was caked in reality.
Changed the auxiliary belt (and associated rollers) so I'm now fully up to date on the servicing requirements. I managed to pick up a genuine Renault kit on eBay from Germany for less than £50 which was a bargain - the Renault part number was wrong, but via the Gates reference it appeared to be cross-compatible so I took the chance and it all worked out ok.
According to info online, only the R26 model has a rear anti-roll bar, the rest don't. It's not removable so I made arrangements to purchase a new rear beam with anti-roll bar included, and bought a set of Powerflex bushes for the rear axle to go on at the same time. I was looking at the EPC one night and noticed that it's actually listed as being present on my car too - a quick check underneath revealed this to be the case.
On the one hand, I'd saved myself the hassle of collecting and fitting a new rear beam, on the other hand I'd bought the bushes already - so I decided to fit them anyway.
Again, officially you need to remove the rear beam for this - but it's possible to drop it down one side at a time. The passenger side was relatively easy, so I took a few pictures.
Removed the shock and beam bolt and it hangs down just enough
Easy enough to remove with nothing more than a drill and chisel - it's got a plastic outer
Put the bushes in the freezer first and they slid in snugly by hand
After all that, it turns out the rear anti-roll bar bush is destroyed - so I'll be fitting another soon.
I then tried to fit the drivers side, which was a LOT more complicated. The bracket where it bolts through also routes the handbrake and brake lines (both rear brake lines connect on the drivers side), and the bolt is so long that you have to disconnect all three to move them out of the way to get the bolt out (if the bolt & nut were the opposite way round - wouldn't need to do that at all!). So a lot of messing around later, including bleeding all the brakes, and all done.
The rear beam bushes have made a surprising difference to the ride - I can't say it feels any better in the handling department but it's certainly harsher over bumps, which is a little unpleasant sometimes.
I originally wanted the lux model, which came with a leather interior - but I just couldn't find one, so I settled for the cloth interior. The plan was always to junk this, so I ignored the interior when I viewed.
Note the ingrained dirt at the top, massive tear in the bolster, and unexplained white stain on the seat. Yuck.
I found someone selling the seats from a 225 being turned into a track car about 40 mins away for only £110 - absolute bargain - I would've spent £250+!. Only snag was that they are keeping the door cards (mine are fabric, and I want leather) so I'll have to keep an eye out for them. They are fitting fixed bucket seats so have an airbag fault coming up which I managed to disable with my Clip tool as a way of thanks. Unfortunately their seats hadn't arrived yet, as I was looking forward to seeing how they felt to sit in, so we had to sit on the floor.
Over the moon with how they look, and even got to upgrade to a leather armrest. A little bolster wear on the drivers seat but again for the price, and considering what I had before, it's fantastic. Now I've just got to get rid of the old seats.
While the seats were out I thought I'd try to clean it up a little
Worryingly I found a SIM card underneath the seat. Who has so many SIM cards they don't even notice they've lost one? On seconds thoughts I don't want to know.
Still not found the time to clean it since late last year
But at least the boys like it
"CHECK INJECTION" message turned out to be a blocked up EGR valve. Diagnosed via my new purchase - a Renault Clip tool allowing me to plug the car into my laptop. Very handy.
Access was... difficult. It's the circled thing in the picture.
Officially you need to remove the bumper to get to it but I managed to do it all from above, but destroyed my fingers in the process - on reassembly everything got covered in blood!
Doesn't look that bad in pictures, but was caked in reality.
Changed the auxiliary belt (and associated rollers) so I'm now fully up to date on the servicing requirements. I managed to pick up a genuine Renault kit on eBay from Germany for less than £50 which was a bargain - the Renault part number was wrong, but via the Gates reference it appeared to be cross-compatible so I took the chance and it all worked out ok.
According to info online, only the R26 model has a rear anti-roll bar, the rest don't. It's not removable so I made arrangements to purchase a new rear beam with anti-roll bar included, and bought a set of Powerflex bushes for the rear axle to go on at the same time. I was looking at the EPC one night and noticed that it's actually listed as being present on my car too - a quick check underneath revealed this to be the case.
On the one hand, I'd saved myself the hassle of collecting and fitting a new rear beam, on the other hand I'd bought the bushes already - so I decided to fit them anyway.
Again, officially you need to remove the rear beam for this - but it's possible to drop it down one side at a time. The passenger side was relatively easy, so I took a few pictures.
Removed the shock and beam bolt and it hangs down just enough
Easy enough to remove with nothing more than a drill and chisel - it's got a plastic outer
Put the bushes in the freezer first and they slid in snugly by hand
After all that, it turns out the rear anti-roll bar bush is destroyed - so I'll be fitting another soon.
I then tried to fit the drivers side, which was a LOT more complicated. The bracket where it bolts through also routes the handbrake and brake lines (both rear brake lines connect on the drivers side), and the bolt is so long that you have to disconnect all three to move them out of the way to get the bolt out (if the bolt & nut were the opposite way round - wouldn't need to do that at all!). So a lot of messing around later, including bleeding all the brakes, and all done.
The rear beam bushes have made a surprising difference to the ride - I can't say it feels any better in the handling department but it's certainly harsher over bumps, which is a little unpleasant sometimes.
I originally wanted the lux model, which came with a leather interior - but I just couldn't find one, so I settled for the cloth interior. The plan was always to junk this, so I ignored the interior when I viewed.
Note the ingrained dirt at the top, massive tear in the bolster, and unexplained white stain on the seat. Yuck.
I found someone selling the seats from a 225 being turned into a track car about 40 mins away for only £110 - absolute bargain - I would've spent £250+!. Only snag was that they are keeping the door cards (mine are fabric, and I want leather) so I'll have to keep an eye out for them. They are fitting fixed bucket seats so have an airbag fault coming up which I managed to disable with my Clip tool as a way of thanks. Unfortunately their seats hadn't arrived yet, as I was looking forward to seeing how they felt to sit in, so we had to sit on the floor.
Over the moon with how they look, and even got to upgrade to a leather armrest. A little bolster wear on the drivers seat but again for the price, and considering what I had before, it's fantastic. Now I've just got to get rid of the old seats.
While the seats were out I thought I'd try to clean it up a little
Worryingly I found a SIM card underneath the seat. Who has so many SIM cards they don't even notice they've lost one? On seconds thoughts I don't want to know.
Still not found the time to clean it since late last year
But at least the boys like it
Edited by Jakg on Monday 13th February 00:06
Edited by Jakg on Sunday 12th November 20:49
Jakg said:
On a car related note - top mount has completely failed and actually come off (!). Not happy. Will have to change it this weekend. As I touched on above - on most cars it would be pretty easy, but not on this.
Wheel off, caliper off, disc off, track rod end off, anti rotation link off, drop link off, split bottom ball joint, remove driveshaft from hub, disconnect ABS plug, unbolt top mount from shock turret, remove shock assembly, compress spring, remove top mount... and repeat.
The top mounts were one of the few components I didn't replace. Typical.
Wheel off, caliper off, disc off, track rod end off, anti rotation link off, drop link off, split bottom ball joint, remove driveshaft from hub, disconnect ABS plug, unbolt top mount from shock turret, remove shock assembly, compress spring, remove top mount... and repeat.
The top mounts were one of the few components I didn't replace. Typical.
Djw John said:
Er, hate to say it but in that pic of the spring it looks snapped to me, it should be a nice 90 degree cut at the end, not whatever has happened there.
Hold my hands up to this one - the top mount was fine, the spring was broken. The spring coils narrow at the top to make sure that it seats properly - as the top bit has broken off it didn't seat properly which is why it came off.
A new top mount was £65. This was not only unnecessary, but funnily enough the one I fitted last month has already broken - part of the upper mount has been detached. I kept the old one so I've gone back to the old top mounting but the new bearing.
Both sides swapped, again... this time down to three hours a side. Annoyingly a driveshaft popped while putting it back together so I'll have to top the gearbox oil up soon.
Bowen86 said:
Good updates and nice review of the bushes.
What's next?
The plan was to fit my DPF delete pipe this weekend, while I work up the courage to attempt fitting a decat and new turbo myself... I took one look underneath and put that in the "do that later" pile! Very little access. I think I'll end up having to take the subframe off and do it all at once alongside some other jobs.What's next?
One of the plans was to fit a larger front anti-roll bar (22mm vs 20mm standard) from a Renault Espace but having bought one I've changed my mind - I've tried to keep the fundamental suspension design original (because Renault know more than I do) and altering the stiffness of the front end goes against this. So I've settled for polybushing the one I've got. This is quite a bit of work though - http://www.meganesport.net/community/showthread.ph...
Some of the more ambitious projects I've got on the go at the moment are to paint the front calipers - this isn't hard, but I've decided to buy a complete set of calipers to refurbish with new seals, bleed nipples and pistons (if required), to make some custom projector headlights (xenon or LED, undecided) and my cat is currently on it's way to Portugal to hopefully get a decat pipe made up.
In advance - not much PH material here.
When replacing the rear beam bushes, I noticed the rear antiroll bar bush has come cracks on it. The rest was also looking very crusty!
Replaced the bush, clamp and bolt, and cleaned up the bracket. Was expecting the nut to put up a fight but luckily after lots of Plusgas it came off easily!
Bushes are a bit unusual so could only get them from Renault for £20 which was a bit annoying.
While swapping the springs over, I couldn't get the upright to sit on the wishone - it just wouldn't go in far enough. I then noticed that there was some fluid pooling under the engine... that'll be the driveshaft pulled out then! Only lost a little but had to top up the gearbox oil. Annoying as only changed the fluid a couple of months ago.
Next annoyance was the heater panel backlight - one side never worked, I changed them out for LEDs but since then the same thing has happened and now the other side has started flashing which is annoying. Removal requires pulling the centre console to bits
Rather than just replacing the bulbs I took the unit apart to have a proper look, and I could see the housing had a small crack in it such that when putting the bulbs in blind they wouldn't make contact properly. Re-assembled with this knowledge, and success.
I fitted a double DIN stereo when I got the car, but I did a rubbish job at it - cage never sat right, surround fell off after day one, stereo has been hanging half out the dash since then. Tried a better quality Kenwood cage and now it's all gone together perfectly. Don't have a before picture - but it really has transformed the interior.
Next job was upgrading the speakers. Doors are a bit of a weird design - no weather seal, mid speakers mount on the door cards, and theres a plastic water deflector to stop them getting wet. This is designed around the standard slim speakers, so nothing else really fits except for one aftermarket co-axial speaker - but I want to stick with components, and something better, so I had to get inventive.
You can see the water deflector in the middle on the left
Cut the deflector out and fitted a weatherproof speaker enclosure - jobs a little rough as the plan is swap for leather door cards when I find some and tidy it up then.
I went for a set of Rainbow component speakers
Added some sound deadening to the door as well
And back together
Then the crossovers - key card to show scale - these are massive! My last car had plenty of dead behind the dash etc to hide bits like this but very little here. One went behind the centre console, and the other in some free space below the drivers side air vent.
Tweeters took some modification to fit in the dash cutouts also
The suspension may be stiff - but Ollie still loves it
Finally got around to washing it, so obligatory snow foam shot
Front tyres swapped from budgets to Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta's. Ride is better, although funnily enough handling seems the same - I just don't think I've got close to the limit yet.
Fitted a module to make the mirrors fold / unfold when the car is locked / unlocked.
I specifically chose an (expensive) reversing camera with "night vision LEDs" - my last one had IR leds and an IR filter on the camera so that you couldn't see them, but at night the picture was much brighter than it would otherwise be. The new one had... 4 LEDs. It was quite chunky, and then two of the LEDs died, and the picture seemed to have a wierd circle on it - so I've swapped it out for an identical mode, but smaller as it doesn't have the LEDs.
All the PH mods are on hold as I'm still waiting for them to arrive...
When replacing the rear beam bushes, I noticed the rear antiroll bar bush has come cracks on it. The rest was also looking very crusty!
Replaced the bush, clamp and bolt, and cleaned up the bracket. Was expecting the nut to put up a fight but luckily after lots of Plusgas it came off easily!
Bushes are a bit unusual so could only get them from Renault for £20 which was a bit annoying.
While swapping the springs over, I couldn't get the upright to sit on the wishone - it just wouldn't go in far enough. I then noticed that there was some fluid pooling under the engine... that'll be the driveshaft pulled out then! Only lost a little but had to top up the gearbox oil. Annoying as only changed the fluid a couple of months ago.
Next annoyance was the heater panel backlight - one side never worked, I changed them out for LEDs but since then the same thing has happened and now the other side has started flashing which is annoying. Removal requires pulling the centre console to bits
Rather than just replacing the bulbs I took the unit apart to have a proper look, and I could see the housing had a small crack in it such that when putting the bulbs in blind they wouldn't make contact properly. Re-assembled with this knowledge, and success.
I fitted a double DIN stereo when I got the car, but I did a rubbish job at it - cage never sat right, surround fell off after day one, stereo has been hanging half out the dash since then. Tried a better quality Kenwood cage and now it's all gone together perfectly. Don't have a before picture - but it really has transformed the interior.
Next job was upgrading the speakers. Doors are a bit of a weird design - no weather seal, mid speakers mount on the door cards, and theres a plastic water deflector to stop them getting wet. This is designed around the standard slim speakers, so nothing else really fits except for one aftermarket co-axial speaker - but I want to stick with components, and something better, so I had to get inventive.
You can see the water deflector in the middle on the left
Cut the deflector out and fitted a weatherproof speaker enclosure - jobs a little rough as the plan is swap for leather door cards when I find some and tidy it up then.
I went for a set of Rainbow component speakers
Added some sound deadening to the door as well
And back together
Then the crossovers - key card to show scale - these are massive! My last car had plenty of dead behind the dash etc to hide bits like this but very little here. One went behind the centre console, and the other in some free space below the drivers side air vent.
Tweeters took some modification to fit in the dash cutouts also
The suspension may be stiff - but Ollie still loves it
Finally got around to washing it, so obligatory snow foam shot
Front tyres swapped from budgets to Vredestein Ultrac Sessanta's. Ride is better, although funnily enough handling seems the same - I just don't think I've got close to the limit yet.
Fitted a module to make the mirrors fold / unfold when the car is locked / unlocked.
I specifically chose an (expensive) reversing camera with "night vision LEDs" - my last one had IR leds and an IR filter on the camera so that you couldn't see them, but at night the picture was much brighter than it would otherwise be. The new one had... 4 LEDs. It was quite chunky, and then two of the LEDs died, and the picture seemed to have a wierd circle on it - so I've swapped it out for an identical mode, but smaller as it doesn't have the LEDs.
All the PH mods are on hold as I'm still waiting for them to arrive...
Jakg said:
I specifically chose an (expensive) reversing camera with "night vision LEDs" - my last one had IR leds and an IR filter on the camera so that you couldn't see them, but at night the picture was much brighter than it would otherwise be. The new one had... 4 LEDs. It was quite chunky, and then two of the LEDs died, and the picture seemed to have a wierd circle on it - so I've swapped it out for an identical mode, but smaller as it doesn't have the LEDs.
Quick pick of the camera - tiny, barely noticable, but quality is very good. Impressed.
All important mod
One day I must get a proper picture
Cruise control clutch override switch packed up, so the cruise control kept cutting out - a liberal spray of contact cleaner fixed it, but as a new switch was less than £7 I replaced it anyway.
The car came with a full size spare, but the valve was duff so it was flat. Replaced the valve (had no idea you could do that) and it then became apparent the rest of the tyre didn't hold air, either!
I've never used a spare, but my breakdown cover won't cover me if the car came with a spare but it's missing (no idea how they'd know) so I knew it had to be addressed. I decided on a space saver as it was cheap, and gives me enough space under the boot floor the rest of the tools etc that I carry.
Wheel was £10 and unused (from a Scenic). But was in a bit of a state
Quick repaint
And it looked semi-presentable
I have some more PH parts to fit (more on that next time) so I decided to try fitting it myself - bit of a stretch on what I've done before but I thought I'd try.
First step was to remove the complete subframe, inc wishbones and steering rack. This was not fun on axle stands on my own!
Took the opportunity to fit Powerflex anti-roll bar bushes, and to replace the clips on the inner tie rod gaiters - they come with clips that simply cannot be tightened unless the subframe is off, which would be ridiculous to do for an otherwise 10 minute swap, so I used cable ties at the time.
Unfortunately with the subframe off it was clear the rest of it was beyond my abilities without a workshop so I then put it all back together... 14 hours later and all I'd done was change a pair of anti-roll bar bushes! Booked in with a specialist (Mark Black) to try next month.
While I was under the car I noticed that the centre exhaust hangar had given up
Literally held together by a thread
As one was so bad I thought I'd check out the rest... broken too so that'll be a job for next week.
Lastly, an example of terrible packaging. On a regular car, a fuse is easy to change - open the bonnet, lift a flap, sorted.
On the Megane? not so. Remove battery, (engine) ECU, battery tray and extract UPC (body ECU) from housing, and then you'll find the fuses... upside down. Worse still, fuse wasn't even a problem!
So far, ownership costs have been stratospheric due to the money I've poured into replacing bits, but hopefully this will stand me in good stead as ownership continues, but I'm slowly bonding. Practicality of a hatch is a real win compared to the bootspace I used to have...
Jakg said:
"CHECK INJECTION" message turned out to be a blocked up EGR valve. Diagnosed via my new purchase - a Renault Clip tool allowing me to plug the car into my laptop. Very handy.
Unfortunately, this diagnosis was not correct.When the fault was reset, it would go away for a couple of days - which meant that it was quite difficult to pinpoint.
I'd cleaned the EGR and throttle body multiple times, and replaced each with a second hand replacement - but still had the same problem.
The fault description was "INLET AIR FLAP POSITION CONTROL" so I guessed that it was some kind of sensor issue.
Using Clip, I was able to test the actuator on the car.
This allowed me to see that the actuator was working
I was a bit stumped at this point so I had a look inside
Basic motor setup with a contract / track setup to record the position of the flap.
You can see the contacts highlighted in red
I noticed that one actuator had a lot more carbon on the ends of the contacts. I cleaned all the connections with contact cleaner, and bent the contacts up slightly to make better contact with the tracks. Seems to have fixed it for the last couple of months!
One of the areas I wasn't happy with was the colour of the calipers - I like red calipers, especially when it matches the body colour.
Some Megane's came with them from the factory - others got silver ones. Can't really find any reason as to why the difference (the calipers are the same).
My car came with silver ones, which were in quite poor condition with the "Brembo" branding damaged.
On my last car, I rushed this job and I was never happy with the results, so this time I took my time.
I picked up a set of front and rear second hand calipers.
First step was to break them down and inspect
The pistons were all good on the fronts (which is good as a new set would've been £100!), but I replaced all dust boots, seals, mounting pins, nipples and retaining springs.
The rears were in much worse condition - they are known for being a bit of a weak spot so was expecting some difficulties. The piston was very very difficult to remove, and when the piston came out it was clear to see that there was a problem. As such I replaced the rear piston also. Old vs new.
The next step was to clean the calipers to prepare for paint
Annoyingly I ran out of brake cleaner so tried WD40... this ate the rubber dust boots so I had replace them again. Annoying!
I used VHT's caliper paints consisting of primer, colour and lacquer followed by baking.
My dusty shed is not the best paint booth.
While the process of preparing the calipers was done at leisure, the swap itself wasn't. The weather was awful so no pictures, and I managed to drop a caliper which damaged the paint. Another has damage from being touched by tools. The paint is nowhere near as hardwearing as I'd hoped - next time I'd go powdercoated. They look good from afar, though.
The rear pads were getting low, so I swapped them for some Mintex M1144's.
The front pads where fine, but the calipers I bought came with a set of discs and pads. I hadn't realised my car had Apec (cheap) pads fitted, which explains the squeal under braking, and the used calipers came with mid-spec Ferodo pads so I fitted those instead.
I've bled the system twice and the pedal feel (bite specifically) is still not quite what I'm after so I will have to work on improving this next - hopefully I'll be able to bring the pads back with some abuse and perhaps some decontamination.
Some Megane's came with them from the factory - others got silver ones. Can't really find any reason as to why the difference (the calipers are the same).
My car came with silver ones, which were in quite poor condition with the "Brembo" branding damaged.
On my last car, I rushed this job and I was never happy with the results, so this time I took my time.
I picked up a set of front and rear second hand calipers.
First step was to break them down and inspect
The pistons were all good on the fronts (which is good as a new set would've been £100!), but I replaced all dust boots, seals, mounting pins, nipples and retaining springs.
The rears were in much worse condition - they are known for being a bit of a weak spot so was expecting some difficulties. The piston was very very difficult to remove, and when the piston came out it was clear to see that there was a problem. As such I replaced the rear piston also. Old vs new.
The next step was to clean the calipers to prepare for paint
Annoyingly I ran out of brake cleaner so tried WD40... this ate the rubber dust boots so I had replace them again. Annoying!
I used VHT's caliper paints consisting of primer, colour and lacquer followed by baking.
My dusty shed is not the best paint booth.
While the process of preparing the calipers was done at leisure, the swap itself wasn't. The weather was awful so no pictures, and I managed to drop a caliper which damaged the paint. Another has damage from being touched by tools. The paint is nowhere near as hardwearing as I'd hoped - next time I'd go powdercoated. They look good from afar, though.
The rear pads were getting low, so I swapped them for some Mintex M1144's.
The front pads where fine, but the calipers I bought came with a set of discs and pads. I hadn't realised my car had Apec (cheap) pads fitted, which explains the squeal under braking, and the used calipers came with mid-spec Ferodo pads so I fitted those instead.
I've bled the system twice and the pedal feel (bite specifically) is still not quite what I'm after so I will have to work on improving this next - hopefully I'll be able to bring the pads back with some abuse and perhaps some decontamination.
More boring updates:
Original battery (yes, original as in 9 years old!) was always a worry. I had picked out a replacement for when it died, and one day it was flat so I called it quits.
Replacement is a Varta E44 battery - which is a Bosch S5 (top of the range) battery with a different name (and a more palatable price!).
I also moved up to 096 size from the standard 075 - although an 096 was never fitted to a Megane (as far as I know!) the battery tray is a perfect fit for one.
Straight away I noticed the car turns over and starts much faster.
I also managed to swap my headunit+Bluetooth kit for the next model up of headunit with built in Bluetooth and end up with some cash in my pocket, which was nice. This allows me to use an external microphone which should improve call quality.
After having had the subframe on and off twice recently, I had a four wheel alignment carried out. After the first removal, it was clear I'd knocked something as the car was pulling to the side. But by complete fluke, when measured after the second removal it was bang on - so didn't even have to pay.
Original battery (yes, original as in 9 years old!) was always a worry. I had picked out a replacement for when it died, and one day it was flat so I called it quits.
Replacement is a Varta E44 battery - which is a Bosch S5 (top of the range) battery with a different name (and a more palatable price!).
I also moved up to 096 size from the standard 075 - although an 096 was never fitted to a Megane (as far as I know!) the battery tray is a perfect fit for one.
Straight away I noticed the car turns over and starts much faster.
I also managed to swap my headunit+Bluetooth kit for the next model up of headunit with built in Bluetooth and end up with some cash in my pocket, which was nice. This allows me to use an external microphone which should improve call quality.
After having had the subframe on and off twice recently, I had a four wheel alignment carried out. After the first removal, it was clear I'd knocked something as the car was pulling to the side. But by complete fluke, when measured after the second removal it was bang on - so didn't even have to pay.
Final update
I'd planed up getting a remap at some point, so I figured it'd be worth doing it all at once to get it out of the way.
A (slightly) larger turbo (GTA1749LV vs GTA1549LV). This is a 0 mileage unit from a new engine (from a Scenic) which was an absolute bargain.
I couldn't find an off-the-shelf decat (I have since though!) so I had to have one made up. I bought a standard cat and had it posted to a company in Portugal to have it copied. It took a while, and I was starting to think I'd made a big mistake and I'd either get left empty handed, or with some incorrect piece of junk coming back but amazingly it all came back perfect at a great price.
Having tried to fit this on my own, I gave up and got Mark Black (Midlands Renault Specialist) to do it. The speed at which he removed all the bits was incredible.
This shot is with the whole front subframe removed (which in itself is quite a big job). You can now see the cat attached to the flexi, but hopefully you can see why it is so difficult
Out with the old turbo
In with the new
Shot from below with decat fitted
I also had a Ktec DPF delete fitted at the same time. Considering how expensive it is for a straight pipe with one bend in it, it's quite poor it is missing the brackets the standard DPF has. I was worried the weight of it would damage the flexi over time (especially as my decat is missing a support also) so made an adjustable bracket with an exhaust clamp and some metal
All gaskets and bolts were replaced also - Binx locking nuts were used on the turbo to cat studs as they have a tendency of coming loose if not careful, elsewhere stainless bolts and washers with copper nuts.
After some gentle running and an oil change, it was down to RS Tuning for a remap.
Unfortunately, things didn't go to plan... I fitted an EGR blank to blank off the EGR valve, but while on the dyno it was bending and causing issues. The standard pipe was at home so nothing I could do but go home - on the journey home it got much worse and was smoking all over the place. Having swapped the part back over, the car was still too smokey which suggested the map needed tweaking.
Back at RS Tuning again and...
199 HP & 350 ft lb torque (vs a claimed 171 HP / 265 ft lb standard).
Not sensational figures, and certainly much less than I expected based on claims from various forums, but from talking to Paul at RS Tuning it seems right on the money.
I think my wallet needs a break now. On that note, average over the last 10k ish miles has been 47.6 MPG brim-to-brim which I think is very reasonable.
I'd planed up getting a remap at some point, so I figured it'd be worth doing it all at once to get it out of the way.
A (slightly) larger turbo (GTA1749LV vs GTA1549LV). This is a 0 mileage unit from a new engine (from a Scenic) which was an absolute bargain.
I couldn't find an off-the-shelf decat (I have since though!) so I had to have one made up. I bought a standard cat and had it posted to a company in Portugal to have it copied. It took a while, and I was starting to think I'd made a big mistake and I'd either get left empty handed, or with some incorrect piece of junk coming back but amazingly it all came back perfect at a great price.
Having tried to fit this on my own, I gave up and got Mark Black (Midlands Renault Specialist) to do it. The speed at which he removed all the bits was incredible.
This shot is with the whole front subframe removed (which in itself is quite a big job). You can now see the cat attached to the flexi, but hopefully you can see why it is so difficult
Out with the old turbo
In with the new
Shot from below with decat fitted
I also had a Ktec DPF delete fitted at the same time. Considering how expensive it is for a straight pipe with one bend in it, it's quite poor it is missing the brackets the standard DPF has. I was worried the weight of it would damage the flexi over time (especially as my decat is missing a support also) so made an adjustable bracket with an exhaust clamp and some metal
All gaskets and bolts were replaced also - Binx locking nuts were used on the turbo to cat studs as they have a tendency of coming loose if not careful, elsewhere stainless bolts and washers with copper nuts.
After some gentle running and an oil change, it was down to RS Tuning for a remap.
Unfortunately, things didn't go to plan... I fitted an EGR blank to blank off the EGR valve, but while on the dyno it was bending and causing issues. The standard pipe was at home so nothing I could do but go home - on the journey home it got much worse and was smoking all over the place. Having swapped the part back over, the car was still too smokey which suggested the map needed tweaking.
Back at RS Tuning again and...
199 HP & 350 ft lb torque (vs a claimed 171 HP / 265 ft lb standard).
Not sensational figures, and certainly much less than I expected based on claims from various forums, but from talking to Paul at RS Tuning it seems right on the money.
I think my wallet needs a break now. On that note, average over the last 10k ish miles has been 47.6 MPG brim-to-brim which I think is very reasonable.
StoatInACoat said:
Good thread and stealing some ideas, particularly the speakers as they really are complete crap as standard. Do your windows open fully still and where did you get the waterproof enclosure things?
Windows open fine - there's not a whole lot of room between the speaker aperture and window glass (when the window is dropped) so you need to be careful with the speakers (or at least measure first). By complete fluke mine were a perfect fit with a couple of mm clearance.The enclosures are called "DEI Boom Mat" - I went for the slim 5.25" ones. Were about £14 off eBay. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/172599916344
Paintwork update
Picked up some damage on the rear bumper so thought I'd have a go at a DIY smart repair.
First off, masked up up and wet sanded it back.
Couple of layers of paint and then some lacquer
As you can see - not the best piece of work!
Deliberately chose to start somewhere not very visible so if it looked awful it wasn't the end of the world.
Too much paint area up to the masking tape has left straight edges.
Some work with a DA later and it looks better but still visible from some angles. But better than before. And I think I've learned my limitations...
I had another issue to deal with - the car has a clear vinyl guard over the rear arches form the factory to protect from stonechips.
Years of abuse and it was starting to discolour so I thought I'd replace it. Unfortunately, when peeling off the old one, all the lacquer came off too, leaving the base coat only (!). To say I was annoyed was an understatement, but I knew I'd need to do something about it.
Wet sanded the edges back, sprayed a couple of layers of lacquer and then some work with the DA, followed by a new vinyl protector
Difficult to tell in the wet, but it came out very well which was a complete surprise!
I have another area of lacquer peel which I might try to the same technique on... unfortunately it's in the middle of a panel so that might be a bit too far.
I need to go over the rest of the car with the DA really and then perhaps I might get some decent pictures
Considering that (I think!) the car is a bit... interesting, I always thought it was a bit plain on the outside.
Renault made some "Renault F1 Team" commemorative decals, and someone from the Facebook group has reproduced them for an affordable price.
Never fitted anything like this before but I think it looks quite good. Unfortunately the first one I fitted has bubbles as I wasn't aware of the best technique (for reference - cover surface in soapy water, then install and get rid of the bubbles while it's still mobile on the surface).
Picked up some damage on the rear bumper so thought I'd have a go at a DIY smart repair.
First off, masked up up and wet sanded it back.
Couple of layers of paint and then some lacquer
As you can see - not the best piece of work!
Deliberately chose to start somewhere not very visible so if it looked awful it wasn't the end of the world.
Too much paint area up to the masking tape has left straight edges.
Some work with a DA later and it looks better but still visible from some angles. But better than before. And I think I've learned my limitations...
I had another issue to deal with - the car has a clear vinyl guard over the rear arches form the factory to protect from stonechips.
Years of abuse and it was starting to discolour so I thought I'd replace it. Unfortunately, when peeling off the old one, all the lacquer came off too, leaving the base coat only (!). To say I was annoyed was an understatement, but I knew I'd need to do something about it.
Wet sanded the edges back, sprayed a couple of layers of lacquer and then some work with the DA, followed by a new vinyl protector
Difficult to tell in the wet, but it came out very well which was a complete surprise!
I have another area of lacquer peel which I might try to the same technique on... unfortunately it's in the middle of a panel so that might be a bit too far.
I need to go over the rest of the car with the DA really and then perhaps I might get some decent pictures
Considering that (I think!) the car is a bit... interesting, I always thought it was a bit plain on the outside.
Renault made some "Renault F1 Team" commemorative decals, and someone from the Facebook group has reproduced them for an affordable price.
Never fitted anything like this before but I think it looks quite good. Unfortunately the first one I fitted has bubbles as I wasn't aware of the best technique (for reference - cover surface in soapy water, then install and get rid of the bubbles while it's still mobile on the surface).
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