The Mégane II Owners' Club

Hello All,

I have a problem with my megane

03 Plate
1.5 dCi Authentique 86
With 83 k
Part sevice history.

As i pulled away from a roundabout there was an all mighty rattle from the engine, and a faint smell of diesel. I went to stop the engine, not knowing what was wrong while bringing the car to a stop.

I went to restart the car, it went to turn and then my dash went blank. It was dead after that.

AA called they just towed me home and said the engine still turns and that was that.

By doing some searching i found a 175amp fuse had blown to my starter motor, I replaced it i and got my dash back on and then tried again and it still blew.

Any one got any idea's (Please help)

This could be water ingress into the fuse box? You have'nt driven through any big puddles or been in a really heavy rain storm recently have you (daft question given the state of the British weather at the moment!)

You really need to get it to a garage ASAP for a full diagnosis.

My money is on the fuel pump.


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Thank you for the replies,

To start with what would cause it to rattle all of a sudden. And then refusing to start.

Do you think it could be something to do with the dephaser pulley ?

I've got a mobile mechanic comming out to it tomorrow at 30 quid an hour .

Does the DCI engine have variable valve timing or is that something you find only on the 1.6 and 2.0 litre engines?
Worse case scenario could be a broken con rod or possibly cambelt failure.

Just found out today the engine will only manually turn so far then stops, it wont turn no futher.

Could be that the Cam Belt has either slipped or snapped so that the engine will only turn until the pistons come into contact with the open valves.

It's only the 1.6vvt that has a Dephaser pulley.

It could also be that the compression of the engine is simply stopping you from hand cranking the engine.

If the cam belt had snapped when the rattle first appeared the engine would have stopped dead straight away. When was the cam belt last changed?

If the belt has snapped or slipped don't try and turn the engine over, or you will do more damage to the the engine then there could already be. You need a to get this looked at straight away.

Yes the cambelt is still intact, and i also have a reciept saying it was replaced at the begining of last year, from the place i bought the car from in september.

(Update for the engine rattle),

I have a taken the cylinder head off and found that a valve has snapped off and smashed into the number one piston making a right mess.

So i'm needing a cylinder head and a piston.

Sorry to hear about your valve problem. That is a rare occurrence on a vehicle except for when the cambelt snaps or slips, even then you usually get away with a couple of bent valves and occasional valve guide damage.

It looks like it has been over fueling in chamber 1 and 4, would this cause the valve to break ?

I now have to replace the engine because nobody will break up a good engine for parts.

Been getting quotes for engine, prices range from (1600.00 to 900.00) pounds. Then i phoned my local breaker on the off chance and they got one in for 475.00 with 31k on clock.

Just starting to take my engine out, and belive me it's harder than u think.

Does anybody know which parts of the engine r coded to the car, is it just the diesel pump and the alternator.

It looks like it has been over fueling in chamber 1 and 4, would this cause the valve to break ?

I now have to replace the engine because nobody will break up a good engine for parts.

Been getting quotes for engine, prices range from (1600.00 to 900.00) pounds. Then i phoned my local breaker on the off chance and they got one in for 475.00 with 31k on clock.

Just starting to take my engine out, and belive me it's harder than u think.

Does anybody know which parts of the engine r coded to the car, is it just the diesel pump and the alternator.