Renaultsport Megane 230 F1 Team R26
Discussion
Start of a new car journey...
Evo's review: https://www.evo.co.uk/renault/megane-rs-230-f1-tea...
Car's review: https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/renault/...
A nice view...
Hanging with Euro-mates
More to come.
Want a longer read? See how I got here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Evo's review: https://www.evo.co.uk/renault/megane-rs-230-f1-tea...
Car's review: https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-reviews/renault/...
A nice view...
Hanging with Euro-mates
More to come.
Want a longer read? See how I got here: https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
Smitters said:
Thanks all - they're ludicrously undervalued for what they are. I've had it a month, so there is some catching up to do. Like the headlight bulb... Hmmm.
I've had mine for over 8yrs now and I still enjoy driving it. I was also actually enjoying reading your updates on the MG!Btw, it's easier to whip off the front bumper to change the lights. It isn't that difficult to take it off, handful of screws and some push-clips.
I test drove a LY from Chester Renault back when they were fresh. Loved it but the PX on my Clio Trophy was unpalatable. Who'd have thought my Trophy, which I still have, would be worth at least as much as I paid for it then? Great car the Megane and still pretty looking, before Renault jumped on the bandwagon of sameness. IIRC LY was a plus £1k option. I believe that these will be iconic in ten years and of great value. Nobody pushed the freaky boat out like Renault. They must have put something in the designers breakfast baguettes!
So, long time coming, but here goes.
I'd taken my MG as far as I was prepared to and while I still adhere to the view that it's well suited as a road car in terms of power to weight and practicality to fun, it wasn't quite cutting it on track. In the wet it was a hoot and more than capable of keeping more powerful stuff in check, but in the dry it suffered a number of issues. Mainly, the bushes and suspension were soft and the tyres lacked outright grip. In addition, while I'd done the front arb, the rear one needed attention, meaning it had a tendency to understeer. All solvable with money, but that would be money down the drain. Plus, I had the itch. An F1 came up very locally, was already a trackday car and had all the desirable mods for such activities. I was three days too late. But then the idiot side of my brain kicked in when I saw the above...
It's got 130k miles on it and a dubious history from about 100k to now. Prior to that it was owned by (or by the OH of) a PHer who'd built his own Dax and Ultima, so I wasn't that worried about the lack of stamps, because they were offset with receipts for oil, filters etc at just the right intervals.
In a previous life...
Those receipts dried up at 100k and the ownership count grew from one to five, each passing it on quite quickly. The most recent owner saw fit to make a number of modifications (we'll come to those later) but had also been unlucky in breaking a selector fork in the gearbox, so it had a recent rebuild (retaining the LSD - no el cheapo swap out) as well as a clutch. He'd been planning to get it mapped up to about 260bhp, so was being modified and prepared accordingly. On the up, or downside, depending on your point of view, it had been for sale for a while and the price had dropped a couple of times. I suspect the issues were twofold. One, it was well overdue a cambelt, by time or miles, and two, the owner only wanted to converse via text, which made asking any questions prior to viewing a total ballache. Why is the cambelt an issue? Well, as I found out, it's not quite as simple as the one on a k-series. For a start, the tooling to do the timing is significantly more expensive than a Sealey camlock tool from Amazon. And then there's the decision. Engine out, or have tiny hands... Um. Right. I rang a few garages. For those who took a message, no-one rang back. For those that responded right there and then, I discovered why. By the book it's 12 hours+. Renault wanted many, many pounds.
It's pretty... I like yellow cars...
Paperwork! Until 100k.
However, I decided to go and have a serious look. Because it was yellow, and I thought it was very pretty, plus it was only 80 minutes away. Where exactly was difficult to ascertain - I only got the actual address to meet on the day of, which turned out to be an industrial estate where he worked, because the car was parked there uninsured and sorned. Brilliant. At this point I was primed to walk away, especially when the weather turned torrential, putting me right off a thorough go through of the bodywork and mechanicals. However, I sent my long-suffering dad in to chat to his dad (I'm nearly 40, whereas he was only 20, so his is yet to be long-suffering), while the seller and I went through the paperwork. It transpired he was a genuine car enthusiast, a nice lad and just a bit GenZ in his communication preferences. My dad - wise to car buying matters, confirmed the same - a nice car-mad family, not a gang of scam merchants.
Sporty interior... if a little, er, grey and decidedly un-special-feeling
A test drive in a biblical rainstorm meant it wasn't quite as thorough as I'd like, but hey ho. To me, the major negatives were:
I'd taken my MG as far as I was prepared to and while I still adhere to the view that it's well suited as a road car in terms of power to weight and practicality to fun, it wasn't quite cutting it on track. In the wet it was a hoot and more than capable of keeping more powerful stuff in check, but in the dry it suffered a number of issues. Mainly, the bushes and suspension were soft and the tyres lacked outright grip. In addition, while I'd done the front arb, the rear one needed attention, meaning it had a tendency to understeer. All solvable with money, but that would be money down the drain. Plus, I had the itch. An F1 came up very locally, was already a trackday car and had all the desirable mods for such activities. I was three days too late. But then the idiot side of my brain kicked in when I saw the above...
It's got 130k miles on it and a dubious history from about 100k to now. Prior to that it was owned by (or by the OH of) a PHer who'd built his own Dax and Ultima, so I wasn't that worried about the lack of stamps, because they were offset with receipts for oil, filters etc at just the right intervals.
In a previous life...
Those receipts dried up at 100k and the ownership count grew from one to five, each passing it on quite quickly. The most recent owner saw fit to make a number of modifications (we'll come to those later) but had also been unlucky in breaking a selector fork in the gearbox, so it had a recent rebuild (retaining the LSD - no el cheapo swap out) as well as a clutch. He'd been planning to get it mapped up to about 260bhp, so was being modified and prepared accordingly. On the up, or downside, depending on your point of view, it had been for sale for a while and the price had dropped a couple of times. I suspect the issues were twofold. One, it was well overdue a cambelt, by time or miles, and two, the owner only wanted to converse via text, which made asking any questions prior to viewing a total ballache. Why is the cambelt an issue? Well, as I found out, it's not quite as simple as the one on a k-series. For a start, the tooling to do the timing is significantly more expensive than a Sealey camlock tool from Amazon. And then there's the decision. Engine out, or have tiny hands... Um. Right. I rang a few garages. For those who took a message, no-one rang back. For those that responded right there and then, I discovered why. By the book it's 12 hours+. Renault wanted many, many pounds.
It's pretty... I like yellow cars...
Paperwork! Until 100k.
However, I decided to go and have a serious look. Because it was yellow, and I thought it was very pretty, plus it was only 80 minutes away. Where exactly was difficult to ascertain - I only got the actual address to meet on the day of, which turned out to be an industrial estate where he worked, because the car was parked there uninsured and sorned. Brilliant. At this point I was primed to walk away, especially when the weather turned torrential, putting me right off a thorough go through of the bodywork and mechanicals. However, I sent my long-suffering dad in to chat to his dad (I'm nearly 40, whereas he was only 20, so his is yet to be long-suffering), while the seller and I went through the paperwork. It transpired he was a genuine car enthusiast, a nice lad and just a bit GenZ in his communication preferences. My dad - wise to car buying matters, confirmed the same - a nice car-mad family, not a gang of scam merchants.
Sporty interior... if a little, er, grey and decidedly un-special-feeling
A test drive in a biblical rainstorm meant it wasn't quite as thorough as I'd like, but hey ho. To me, the major negatives were:
- the gearshift was a disaster
- it was a bit louder than I'd expected
- it was on perished rears and £40/corner budget fronts
- and of course, the cambelt.
Smitters said:
However, for £3,500, I still thought it was a fair price. Until the engine lights came on and it developed the mother of all misfires under load...
They all do that sir! Seems a common issue, my Trophy had this fault intermittently and my F4RT engine Megane iii does it too, I've never really gotten to the bottom of it.Gary29 said:
Smitters said:
However, for £3,500, I still thought it was a fair price. Until the engine lights came on and it developed the mother of all misfires under load...
They all do that sir! Seems a common issue, my Trophy had this fault intermittently and my F4RT engine Megane iii does it too, I've never really gotten to the bottom of it.Cheers folks. Good to hear some love from former owners. I've rarely heard a bad word, to be honest. I actually bought it for a fun year round and track car in fact. I've had open cars (without heaters) and that really puts you off a wet trackday! And winter. And summer trackdays on airfields. And cold mornings.
The seating is a little bit high compared to ideal, though a fixed seat will help, but that's optional. The Recaros are very comfy and seem good for holding you in place - mine are half leather, so I won't be sliding about in the corners. The nature of the car puts the metalwork of the doors, scuttle etc. quite high too - I suspect this contributes to it's good EuroNCAP, so a lower seat for a midgety bloke like me and I'd need a bloody cushion to see out anyway!
I'm not super-clear on the differences between standard and RS Meganes, but it's got 225 tyres up front, which definitely doesn't give a light wheel. It's significantly heavier than my Elise, but not as heavy as my old Caterham, which had 195s that were cambered significantly, obviously unassisted and off a 280mm wheel. I'll be changing the standard steering wheel at some point for a dished job that's got a smaller diameter, so that'll add some weight too.
The seating is a little bit high compared to ideal, though a fixed seat will help, but that's optional. The Recaros are very comfy and seem good for holding you in place - mine are half leather, so I won't be sliding about in the corners. The nature of the car puts the metalwork of the doors, scuttle etc. quite high too - I suspect this contributes to it's good EuroNCAP, so a lower seat for a midgety bloke like me and I'd need a bloody cushion to see out anyway!
I'm not super-clear on the differences between standard and RS Meganes, but it's got 225 tyres up front, which definitely doesn't give a light wheel. It's significantly heavier than my Elise, but not as heavy as my old Caterham, which had 195s that were cambered significantly, obviously unassisted and off a 280mm wheel. I'll be changing the standard steering wheel at some point for a dished job that's got a smaller diameter, so that'll add some weight too.
Edited by Smitters on Friday 25th October 11:49
So. Misfire. I’m sure many people know the feeling. You’re all delighted with your new purchase, pleased you got what you think was a bargain and then pop/bang/clonk etc. Funny noises, warning lights, odd smells, unexpected puddles. Got to love cars.
It’s part and parcel of buying at the low end of a market and buying privately, but sometimes it’s hard to remind yourself you saved money on the purchase for a reason. That’s doubly so if you stretched the budget even to buy privately and don’t have much of a contingency fund up front. In my case, my contingency was tied up in the MG ZS, so I needed that sold.
It was way too wet on the test drive for anything like full throttle on budget tyres. Naturally then, when I put my foot down for the first time in the dry and it sounded like I’d hit some horrible rev-limiter, I was downcast. I started imagining all sorts of issues, all expensive. First port of call was Amazon for a Book of Lies. In this case, one doesn't exist, but the closest thing to it would do.
Appalling colour-scheme. Also, why no F4RT engine section. Damn you Haynes.
I’d had a look through the paperwork and knew it had recent spark plugs, so on a hunch, searched for the seller’s name on various Facebook groups and sure enough, there were questions over a misfire, various recommendations and then dated a few days later, a receipt for plugs from RPD. Obviously, plugs weren’t the issue, so I started investigating getting coils, injectors tested and cleaned etc. Google also suggested that remapped cars don’t like Tesco99 and while mine was standard, it had been mapped up and found to have a slipping clutch, so was reset to OEM. I did wonder if it was totally OEM, especially because of the noise on over-run. It was rudely loud, with many, many pops and bangs. I used the car very gently, since it had a full tank of Tesco and once it was 3/4 down, dosed it with VPower plus a double shot of Redex. This did absolutely nothing. I'd assumed as much, but we can all hope, eh?
More experienced car folk may have got there already. I’m still low down on the learning curve, but misfire + pops and bangs equals unburnt fuel. The easiest thing to check first was the plugs, so after I’d stopped assuming the worst, and read that the F4RT engine is very sensitive to both specific spark plugs and spark plug gaps, I ordered a cheap gapping tool, dug out the spanners and got stuck in.
First up was to check the spark plugs in there were the ones on the receipt (which were the correct ones for the car). Second was to inspect them, have a look at the coils and see if anything was obviously wrong. It was.
Grotty plug
Spot the difference
Having confirmed the plugs were the correct spec, I set about the gaps. The perceived wisdom is 0.6mm. Mine were 0.75, 0.95, 0.85, 0.8. The two middle coils and the two biggest gaps corresponded. So, with my new gapping tool I tried to close them up. It turns out I have the hopelessly weak hands of a lifetime office worker... so having seen Scotty from Haltech do it, I "tapped" them gently on my garage doorframe. Then because fists of ham (ironically), I then used the tool to gap them back out from 0.00000000001mm. All set at ~0.6 (between 0.6 and 0.65), I cleaned everything up and popped it all back together.
Could it really be that two misfires on two cars had been resolved with a total outlay of less than £5 and in such quick succession. Well, yes actually.
There were rude (but happy) words, whoops and much smiling. Turns out of course the plugs weren't checked before being fitted, so with the gaps all over the shop, cylinders 2 and 3 were unable to cope with the fuel volume on even 30% throttle, never mind flat out. It's even moderately socially acceptable on over-run now, though still far too loud for track use.
So now it's time to turn my attention to two separate avenues.
Firstly, to go on track, it needs to be mechanically solid (and quieter). First in that queue is the cambelt and at the same time, a visual check over by someone who knows these cars. I asked about and despite the unassuming name, Trade'n'Save in Gloucester have a very good rep as Renault specialists. I had a chat with Rob, the owner, and agreed a time to tie up his #1 mechanic for a day and for me to give him slightly more that I'd received for the MG ZS. Oh well. Contingency fund gone.
Secondly, since this is not a sub-grand s
tter, I'd quite like it to look exactly how I want it to look. I'm not part of any scene, tribe, squad or whatever. I just have a good idea of how I'd like the car to look. And since I'm already far too old to be driving round in a very noisy bright yellow hot hatch (complete with tints) I will just be doing what I want, because I'm too old to care really. Part of it will be sorting out some irritating cosmetic issues like the torn FIA badge on the 3/4 window and part of it will be making it individual, in what I hope will be tasteful ways.
Next week I'll get to the "fk me that's loud" conundrum, a headache inducing funny smell, a swift bulb change and why taste is clearly subjective, or I'm just secretly a barryboy at heart.
It’s part and parcel of buying at the low end of a market and buying privately, but sometimes it’s hard to remind yourself you saved money on the purchase for a reason. That’s doubly so if you stretched the budget even to buy privately and don’t have much of a contingency fund up front. In my case, my contingency was tied up in the MG ZS, so I needed that sold.
It was way too wet on the test drive for anything like full throttle on budget tyres. Naturally then, when I put my foot down for the first time in the dry and it sounded like I’d hit some horrible rev-limiter, I was downcast. I started imagining all sorts of issues, all expensive. First port of call was Amazon for a Book of Lies. In this case, one doesn't exist, but the closest thing to it would do.
Appalling colour-scheme. Also, why no F4RT engine section. Damn you Haynes.
I’d had a look through the paperwork and knew it had recent spark plugs, so on a hunch, searched for the seller’s name on various Facebook groups and sure enough, there were questions over a misfire, various recommendations and then dated a few days later, a receipt for plugs from RPD. Obviously, plugs weren’t the issue, so I started investigating getting coils, injectors tested and cleaned etc. Google also suggested that remapped cars don’t like Tesco99 and while mine was standard, it had been mapped up and found to have a slipping clutch, so was reset to OEM. I did wonder if it was totally OEM, especially because of the noise on over-run. It was rudely loud, with many, many pops and bangs. I used the car very gently, since it had a full tank of Tesco and once it was 3/4 down, dosed it with VPower plus a double shot of Redex. This did absolutely nothing. I'd assumed as much, but we can all hope, eh?
More experienced car folk may have got there already. I’m still low down on the learning curve, but misfire + pops and bangs equals unburnt fuel. The easiest thing to check first was the plugs, so after I’d stopped assuming the worst, and read that the F4RT engine is very sensitive to both specific spark plugs and spark plug gaps, I ordered a cheap gapping tool, dug out the spanners and got stuck in.
First up was to check the spark plugs in there were the ones on the receipt (which were the correct ones for the car). Second was to inspect them, have a look at the coils and see if anything was obviously wrong. It was.
Grotty plug
Spot the difference
Having confirmed the plugs were the correct spec, I set about the gaps. The perceived wisdom is 0.6mm. Mine were 0.75, 0.95, 0.85, 0.8. The two middle coils and the two biggest gaps corresponded. So, with my new gapping tool I tried to close them up. It turns out I have the hopelessly weak hands of a lifetime office worker... so having seen Scotty from Haltech do it, I "tapped" them gently on my garage doorframe. Then because fists of ham (ironically), I then used the tool to gap them back out from 0.00000000001mm. All set at ~0.6 (between 0.6 and 0.65), I cleaned everything up and popped it all back together.
Could it really be that two misfires on two cars had been resolved with a total outlay of less than £5 and in such quick succession. Well, yes actually.
There were rude (but happy) words, whoops and much smiling. Turns out of course the plugs weren't checked before being fitted, so with the gaps all over the shop, cylinders 2 and 3 were unable to cope with the fuel volume on even 30% throttle, never mind flat out. It's even moderately socially acceptable on over-run now, though still far too loud for track use.
So now it's time to turn my attention to two separate avenues.
Firstly, to go on track, it needs to be mechanically solid (and quieter). First in that queue is the cambelt and at the same time, a visual check over by someone who knows these cars. I asked about and despite the unassuming name, Trade'n'Save in Gloucester have a very good rep as Renault specialists. I had a chat with Rob, the owner, and agreed a time to tie up his #1 mechanic for a day and for me to give him slightly more that I'd received for the MG ZS. Oh well. Contingency fund gone.
Secondly, since this is not a sub-grand s
tter, I'd quite like it to look exactly how I want it to look. I'm not part of any scene, tribe, squad or whatever. I just have a good idea of how I'd like the car to look. And since I'm already far too old to be driving round in a very noisy bright yellow hot hatch (complete with tints) I will just be doing what I want, because I'm too old to care really. Part of it will be sorting out some irritating cosmetic issues like the torn FIA badge on the 3/4 window and part of it will be making it individual, in what I hope will be tasteful ways.Next week I'll get to the "f
k me that's loud" conundrum, a headache inducing funny smell, a swift bulb change and why taste is clearly subjective, or I'm just secretly a barryboy at heart. #Loud #DeafnessIsCool #F*ckMyNeighbours
Once criticism I read (I'd not heard it, I'm deaf now, remember) was that the RS Meganes sound a bit lacklustre from the inside. I can sympathize with this - my old 350Z apparently sounded pretty good, but you'd hear nothing in the cabin without adding an offensive JDM cannon and immediately looking like a desperate F&F wannabe. Well, I can't tell you if that's true, because, as I knew when I bought the Megane, it had had a backbox delete.
What this seems to have entailed was the purchase of a cheap mild steel backbox, out of which the silencer was chopped. The pipes were replaced with stainless steel, but this left rusty tips and much noise.
I've borrow the following photos from D7Rs Facebook page.
The pipework looks (and still looks) great, but the tips are a bit grim.
While I was having a poke about under the car, I noticed a bit more space. I revisited the Facebook groups and sure enough, I found a few more posts that gave me some clues to the car's mod history. Seems like there's been a "mid-box delete". And a "cat delete". Soooooo. That would explain both the noise and the P0420 code and fun, fun engine lights. I'm had a suspicion about the cat as the Meg has a message system on the dash to go with the EML, so I'd had emissions system flashed at my on start-up already. Add to that a funny fuelly, exhausty smell in the cabin and evidence of instant-gasket around the turbo-cat (or decat as it transpires) joint and I was merely confirming suspicions.
So, several things to resolve:
I prioritised, and...
I think we've answered the "Am I secretly a barryboy at heart?" question. They're pretty indefensible, but they're also only £16, push on, hide the rust and in the absence of a nice Milltek system or similar, will just have to do for now. And they make me smile.
I also took more adult steps towards points 1-3. I got myself an OEM exhaust system from the cat back, a set of OEM dampers with Eibach springs, a spare rear bumper and a set of spare front wings, plus had a night away with the older boy as part of the adventure. I only wanted the OEM system really, but the guy wanted rid of the rest so I took it all for a good price.
We road-tripped south toward Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon and found a nice spot to camp.
The boy is under 5, so the prospect of sleeping in a "wild-camp", weeing in a bush and having a midnight snack is impossibly exciting. I just like camping out, so picked a nice view for the morning and settled in before collection day.
Next morning we were greeting with a good view.
And then after some money changed hands, another good view.
My not so cunning plan was to try each silenced section, one at a time, to try and balance a decent exhaust noise with acceptable silencing but it turns out the custom midpipe joins the rear section at a different point to OEM, so it's all OEM or no OEM. Bah. Of course, this was only obvious once I could see the OEM parts alongside the custom ones. Back to the drawing board.
My next thought was perhaps just putting the cat back in would lower the levels to acceptable for track, solve the EML and the MOT conundrum that's approaching in spring next year. So I Googled cat replacement on an R26 Megane.
I immediately wished I hadn't. For something that appears on the face of it to be six bolts on flanges, plus the sensors, the forum tales of woe were plentiful. Because, for some reason, you have to remove a driveshaft. What the actual fk Renault? Since second hand cats are a couple of hundred quid for an R26, the only way I'd entertain this would be by getting some luck. I fired off a message to the seller, who told me two things:
Another early start, to meet him at Castle Combe and I was now in possession of an OEM exhaust system from the turbo back. So, I have the means to build an MOT and trackday compliant system, which has cost me less than £100 and will simply require a Herculean amount of patience, nine wrists, three elbows and the hands of an infant to fit.
That's one end of the spectrum. The other end, which is a bit closer to ideal, is to get a midpipe remade with a really common cat in it. I know this means extending sensors, finding a cat suited to under-car instead of engine bay mounting and finding a way to keep a bit more heat in the pipes from the turbo back, but if the access is as bad as I'm told, it'll be a cheaper option in the long run, even if it requires replacement. I would then like to buy a small repackable silencer and have that inserted into the rear section, bringing the noise levels down and adding some control to the volume.
In the mean time, my local garage has said I can bring the car down one lunchtime to see just how badly it'll fail the MOT as is. I'll also do a video once I get a spot of dry weather, just to demo the noise we're dealing with here. Next up. That quick bulb change...
Once criticism I read (I'd not heard it, I'm deaf now, remember) was that the RS Meganes sound a bit lacklustre from the inside. I can sympathize with this - my old 350Z apparently sounded pretty good, but you'd hear nothing in the cabin without adding an offensive JDM cannon and immediately looking like a desperate F&F wannabe. Well, I can't tell you if that's true, because, as I knew when I bought the Megane, it had had a backbox delete.
What this seems to have entailed was the purchase of a cheap mild steel backbox, out of which the silencer was chopped. The pipes were replaced with stainless steel, but this left rusty tips and much noise.
I've borrow the following photos from D7Rs Facebook page.
The pipework looks (and still looks) great, but the tips are a bit grim.
While I was having a poke about under the car, I noticed a bit more space. I revisited the Facebook groups and sure enough, I found a few more posts that gave me some clues to the car's mod history. Seems like there's been a "mid-box delete". And a "cat delete". Soooooo. That would explain both the noise and the P0420 code and fun, fun engine lights. I'm had a suspicion about the cat as the Meg has a message system on the dash to go with the EML, so I'd had emissions system flashed at my on start-up already. Add to that a funny fuelly, exhausty smell in the cabin and evidence of instant-gasket around the turbo-cat (or decat as it transpires) joint and I was merely confirming suspicions.
So, several things to resolve:
- I need to quieten the thing down or I'll never make it on track as it'll fail the noise test.
- I need to find out if it'll fail an MOT as is, or if I need to put a cat in.
- I may need to buy a cat.
- I need to trace the smell, as I'm getting a headache when driving the car, which can't be good.
- I need to sort the cosmetics out.
I prioritised, and...
I think we've answered the "Am I secretly a barryboy at heart?" question. They're pretty indefensible, but they're also only £16, push on, hide the rust and in the absence of a nice Milltek system or similar, will just have to do for now. And they make me smile.
I also took more adult steps towards points 1-3. I got myself an OEM exhaust system from the cat back, a set of OEM dampers with Eibach springs, a spare rear bumper and a set of spare front wings, plus had a night away with the older boy as part of the adventure. I only wanted the OEM system really, but the guy wanted rid of the rest so I took it all for a good price.
We road-tripped south toward Portsmouth on Saturday afternoon and found a nice spot to camp.
The boy is under 5, so the prospect of sleeping in a "wild-camp", weeing in a bush and having a midnight snack is impossibly exciting. I just like camping out, so picked a nice view for the morning and settled in before collection day.
Next morning we were greeting with a good view.
And then after some money changed hands, another good view.
My not so cunning plan was to try each silenced section, one at a time, to try and balance a decent exhaust noise with acceptable silencing but it turns out the custom midpipe joins the rear section at a different point to OEM, so it's all OEM or no OEM. Bah. Of course, this was only obvious once I could see the OEM parts alongside the custom ones. Back to the drawing board.
My next thought was perhaps just putting the cat back in would lower the levels to acceptable for track, solve the EML and the MOT conundrum that's approaching in spring next year. So I Googled cat replacement on an R26 Megane.
I immediately wished I hadn't. For something that appears on the face of it to be six bolts on flanges, plus the sensors, the forum tales of woe were plentiful. Because, for some reason, you have to remove a driveshaft. What the actual f
k Renault? Since second hand cats are a couple of hundred quid for an R26, the only way I'd entertain this would be by getting some luck. I fired off a message to the seller, who told me two things:- Yes, he still had the cat he'd removed, taking up garage room.
- Yes, I could have it for nowt.
Another early start, to meet him at Castle Combe and I was now in possession of an OEM exhaust system from the turbo back. So, I have the means to build an MOT and trackday compliant system, which has cost me less than £100 and will simply require a Herculean amount of patience, nine wrists, three elbows and the hands of an infant to fit.
That's one end of the spectrum. The other end, which is a bit closer to ideal, is to get a midpipe remade with a really common cat in it. I know this means extending sensors, finding a cat suited to under-car instead of engine bay mounting and finding a way to keep a bit more heat in the pipes from the turbo back, but if the access is as bad as I'm told, it'll be a cheaper option in the long run, even if it requires replacement. I would then like to buy a small repackable silencer and have that inserted into the rear section, bringing the noise levels down and adding some control to the volume.
In the mean time, my local garage has said I can bring the car down one lunchtime to see just how badly it'll fail the MOT as is. I'll also do a video once I get a spot of dry weather, just to demo the noise we're dealing with here. Next up. That quick bulb change...
If there was one thing I already knew about the Megane, it was that changing headlight bulbs was tricky. I'll say now, as posted above, it's not tricky per say, but it's not something your 60 year old mum would tackle lightly. Mine's Xenon too, so no el cheapo bulbs from Halfords. In fact, it was surprisingly difficult to find the rights spec bulb, with various numberplate checking sites offering D2S and D1S. I went with the majority and bought D1S, which was correct. I opted for Amazon because the returns were simplest if I was wrong, but even so, £30/light was a reasonable price I thought.
To actually make the switch, you have a number of options:
1) Wheelarch, wheel on. For this, you'll need to have the car on a hard lock to make some room, and you'll have to know exactly what you're doing once in there, because it's blind. Not an option for me.
2) Wheelarch, wheel off. Extra time required to jack it up and remove a wheel, but the same fundamental issue - you need to know what to do once in there. Still no.
3) From the top, in the engine bay. Nope. Not a hope.
4) Remove the bumper and the whole headlight. In this scenario, the bulb change is actually very simple. You unscrew a cap to expose the inside of the headlamp, you unclip a springwire and swing it out of the way, you remove a small plug from underneath the lamp back, then withdraw the lamp, replace and reverse the above. Fine with the headlamp unit in hand, much trickier when doing an automotive James Herriot for options 1 and 2.
So, guess what we went for?
The downside to 4 is of course you have to remove the bumper. The actual task is pretty easy in terms of popping plastic panel pins, but I have issues because of the inherent risk of paint and panel damage coming off and going on. Having removed mine, it was clear this had been done a few times. The panel pins were worn and loose or missing in places and the retaining tabs of the bumper had obviously been in and out a few times, with one torn and another badly bent where it had been carelessly forced into nearly the right place. The Book of Lies also suggests you have to remove the bonnet alarm switch. You don't, but it's a ballache if you do so, then realise you didn't have to. Cheers Haynes.
In this image, shamelessly stolen from I know not where, you can see the caps unscrewed, the spring wire holding the xenon unit in place and the power wire underneath. I cannot imagine getting these successfully undone blind, especially the power wire, which was very tight on mine, though I'm sure there plenty of folk out there who can!
As I was in there, I also had a look at the induction set-up. There's a flexi-pipe that runs from low down in the bumper, under the battery tray and into the airbox. In my case, this was badly crushed, so I suspect I've done the cheapest bhp increase ever by routing it more carefully. However, it's still not perfect, so I think a solid pipe may be in order, or perhaps I'll go full barry and get a cone filter.
Crushed pipe = hard to breathe
I also added a little detail I do on all my cars. I don't know why, but it makes me happy. Apologies for the bloody awful photo.
To actually make the switch, you have a number of options:
1) Wheelarch, wheel on. For this, you'll need to have the car on a hard lock to make some room, and you'll have to know exactly what you're doing once in there, because it's blind. Not an option for me.
2) Wheelarch, wheel off. Extra time required to jack it up and remove a wheel, but the same fundamental issue - you need to know what to do once in there. Still no.
3) From the top, in the engine bay. Nope. Not a hope.
4) Remove the bumper and the whole headlight. In this scenario, the bulb change is actually very simple. You unscrew a cap to expose the inside of the headlamp, you unclip a springwire and swing it out of the way, you remove a small plug from underneath the lamp back, then withdraw the lamp, replace and reverse the above. Fine with the headlamp unit in hand, much trickier when doing an automotive James Herriot for options 1 and 2.
So, guess what we went for?
The downside to 4 is of course you have to remove the bumper. The actual task is pretty easy in terms of popping plastic panel pins, but I have issues because of the inherent risk of paint and panel damage coming off and going on. Having removed mine, it was clear this had been done a few times. The panel pins were worn and loose or missing in places and the retaining tabs of the bumper had obviously been in and out a few times, with one torn and another badly bent where it had been carelessly forced into nearly the right place. The Book of Lies also suggests you have to remove the bonnet alarm switch. You don't, but it's a ballache if you do so, then realise you didn't have to. Cheers Haynes.
In this image, shamelessly stolen from I know not where, you can see the caps unscrewed, the spring wire holding the xenon unit in place and the power wire underneath. I cannot imagine getting these successfully undone blind, especially the power wire, which was very tight on mine, though I'm sure there plenty of folk out there who can!
As I was in there, I also had a look at the induction set-up. There's a flexi-pipe that runs from low down in the bumper, under the battery tray and into the airbox. In my case, this was badly crushed, so I suspect I've done the cheapest bhp increase ever by routing it more carefully. However, it's still not perfect, so I think a solid pipe may be in order, or perhaps I'll go full barry and get a cone filter.
Crushed pipe = hard to breathe
I also added a little detail I do on all my cars. I don't know why, but it makes me happy. Apologies for the bloody awful photo.
Ah, great cars, real fun to drive. My brother has had 2 and I've had one, spent a lot of hours underneath them fixing stuff, mainly the lower swivel bearings. A pain in the ass job but well worth it in the end.
For parts look at Renault Parts Direct, very cheap genuine bits. The R26 R dampers are a great, cheap upgrade btw.
Misfires - New coils don't cost much if it does come back.
And a word on the gear shift, its awful but more worryingly/annoying is on 2 occasions in 2 different cars one of the gear cables has popped off in the shifter box, which is exhaust off and removal from below.... Just something to be aware of should you lose some gears.
Other than that enjoy, and if you run into running issues with the exhaust/decat some O2 sensor spacers help a bit, but not as much as a remap.
For parts look at Renault Parts Direct, very cheap genuine bits. The R26 R dampers are a great, cheap upgrade btw.
Misfires - New coils don't cost much if it does come back.
And a word on the gear shift, its awful but more worryingly/annoying is on 2 occasions in 2 different cars one of the gear cables has popped off in the shifter box, which is exhaust off and removal from below.... Just something to be aware of should you lose some gears.
Other than that enjoy, and if you run into running issues with the exhaust/decat some O2 sensor spacers help a bit, but not as much as a remap.
Great cars these. I first looked at them over 10yrs ago when the wife wanted a 225 4door as bigger replacement for her 182 cup pack.
I’ve had my mildly tuned low mileage one for two and half years now, bought originally as a replacement train station car priced at 10x PCP payments of the Audi S4 I decided to hand back 10mths early.
The only thing that has actually broken is the boot switch, but it’s has a new stainless exhaust and a retrimmed Clio200 steering wheel- because petrol head.
It’s not my main track car, but both my boys popped their track-day cherry in it as it’s very forgiving.
I’ve had my mildly tuned low mileage one for two and half years now, bought originally as a replacement train station car priced at 10x PCP payments of the Audi S4 I decided to hand back 10mths early.
The only thing that has actually broken is the boot switch, but it’s has a new stainless exhaust and a retrimmed Clio200 steering wheel- because petrol head.
It’s not my main track car, but both my boys popped their track-day cherry in it as it’s very forgiving.
Good to see the appreciation. I've got to get under mine and have a look at the gear change, but I've promised to service my OHs Beetle before I do anything mechanical on the Meg.
I need to get it on track and see where the weak spots are, but suspension and steering will be a target. There are some funny noises coming from the front end. Nothing horrific, but the odd clicking on lock. That'll need resolving before it sees any fast cornering.
Mechanical stuff aside, while there's plenty of visual appeal to the exterior, seats aside, the interior is a sea of grey. Inspired by the fastest road legal elan, I quickly learned to make carbon fiber parts...
Ignore the vinyl tools. They're coincidental...
I need to get it on track and see where the weak spots are, but suspension and steering will be a target. There are some funny noises coming from the front end. Nothing horrific, but the odd clicking on lock. That'll need resolving before it sees any fast cornering.
Mechanical stuff aside, while there's plenty of visual appeal to the exterior, seats aside, the interior is a sea of grey. Inspired by the fastest road legal elan, I quickly learned to make carbon fiber parts...
Ignore the vinyl tools. They're coincidental...
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