My Megane "Adventure"

[Jammie667]

Hi All,

Just thought i'd entertain you all with a little story about the issues i've had with my Meggy so far...

Bought the car in April last year, took her for a test drive and everything seemed hunky dory, drove her home from Sheffield to York on the M1 and she was a dream, smooth as you like. The place I bought her from only offered me a 1 month warranty on her, thought nothing of it at the time but now realise I should have forced their hand a bit with this.

Anyway, little over a month after I bought her she began to have problems starting. When you pressed the button you would sometimes get an awful metallic grinding sound, usually she would start at the second time of asking but eventually she completely gave up the ghost. RAC man said it was probably the starter motor so I rang a mechanic I know and took hr straight over. A few days later (and £160!) she was back, good as new... or so I thought!

A couple of months later the problem started again and she eventually gave up whilst at the Mrs' place of work. After a 45 minute walk from my work to hers the RAC man had turned up (same guy as last time) and again he said it was the starter motor, so off she went back to the guy I know (who didn't charge me for the second starter motor) he thought it could have been a duff replacements so replaced it again.

The lo and behold the problem began again. Another RAC man came and pushed her back and forth across the car park (in gear) and after 1 or 2 times she started again. RAC man diagnosed this as being the Flywheel. Can't remember the exact costing of replacing the flywheel, but I believe it was a fairly long job. It turned out that it had been removed once before for some reason or another and whoever put it back in had put it at a slight angle and as a result one side of it had completely worn away, so whenever you parked with the flywheel in a certain position it wouldn't engage when trying to start the engine. So, got it fixed and she was as good as new.

Then earlier this year she began making knocking noises when turning at slow speeds, took her back my mechanic who replaced a ball joint on the steering column which was apparently completely knackered. This however didn't stop the knocking, so she had both track rod ends replaced which seemed to do the trick.

Then a couple of weeks after this the "check injection" warning came up on the dashboard along with the "service" light. Checked all my glow plugs and 1 was completely dead with another on it's way out. managed to replace one of them without any problems, but when I tried to remove the completely duff one it was a bit tight, anyway, to cut a long story short the welding on the bolt at the top of the glow plug sheared and so the plug was stuck in the engine.

Took her back to my mechanic who ended up having her for 3 WEEKS because he was a lazy b*****d. He tried to drill the plug out but the element fell into the cylinder so he had to take the head gasket off at which point he relised that a load of shavings from the drilling had also dropped into the cylinder (I had told him to just take the head gasket off as the cambelt needed replacing, he ignored me and proceeded to drill it out, If the element had not fallen into the cylinder I am quite concerned as the damage that could have been caused by all the metal shavings that had fallen in it). Anyway, he replaced all 4 glowplugs and the cambelt. By this time it was very nearly time for the MOT, so I got him to do a service and MOT on the car. It failed the MOT for some reason, can't remember what exactly. So he said he would retest, this was the Monday of week 3. By Thursday I still didn't have my car back, so went across with my Dad to pick it up. When we got their he had the bonnet opne and was under the car fixing an exhaust rattle (forgot about that!). He fixed that, handed me the keys and watched me drive it away WITHOUT TELLING ME HE HADN'T HAD IT RE-TESTED! I got a very sheepish phone-call the next day from my Dad telling me, well I went mental. It got retested the next morning (Saturday) and I eventually got her back that afternoon.

It was such a relief to have her back, having had to drive round in my brother's MkII 1.2 Clio (pre-facelift) for the three weeks she'd been away. (I found out afterwards that my insurance didn't cover me to drive other people's cars, oops!)

Now I need two rear tyres and she's making a loud clunking sound whenever you accelerate or brake hard, which I think must be due to an engine mount somewhere. So it looks like she'll be going back into a garage next weekend. Hopefully it won't be a big job. I'd estimate that I've spent around £1500 keeping her on the round since I bought her. Oh, and I've got a leak in the AC system, the AC was completely empty when I got her, but got it re-gassed for £35 inc VAT by a local garage who put some dye in the system, when it runs out again I'll take her back there and get them to sort it all out, luckily it seems to just be a pipe that's leaking.

Still love my Meggy though
Jamm

[padiolet]

I once had a Mark II escort that constantly broke my heart. In one month alone, 30 years ago I spent £90. I hated the car. beware of your hard earned cash being absorbed

[chevin]

jammie - suggestion from my local stealership at 45 k miles/5 year service.
2 x £ 300 front and rear discs
£ 600 - timing belt
£ 180 new exhaust
£ 300 wirng loom for usual airbag problems
£ 200 service

- only the service was paid for as I went external for brakes, timing belt was done at 26 k miles/40 months as the dephaser went, exhaust was £ 5 of plastic padding. At least you've not had the rountine stuff go yet...............

[Jammie667]

She's already well past the 45k mark, more like 75k now Won't have the dephaser problem as mine's a 1.9 DCI, cambelt was changed during all my problems outlined above.

I think i've been lucky regarding the routine stuff, only routine thing that appears to have gone wrong on mine was on of the glow plugs dying. Although there is a banging noise under acceleration and braking which I need to have looked at, and also when on full lock to the left there is sometimes a loud bang from the passenger side.

[ChrisM]

and also when on full lock to the left there is sometimes a loud bang from the passenger side

Watch out for this, this by the sounds of it is the same as one of my probelms, top mount is under presure from the spring, my statred creaking on left turns from passenger side then the other week a massive BANG going over a sleeping policeman at around 10mph, turns out the spring had broke taking out the top bearing, sounds like you have had some fun with your DCi. From January this year I have had.

1 repaired key card
1 handbrake Mechanism (in car)
2 lower ball joints (failed MOT)
1 rear passenger window regualtor (2nd on there in 12 months now)
1 set of front discs and pads
1 glow plug
cambelt and water pump (leaking)
1 Head up unit for radio.
1 Spring and top mount
1 inner track control arm
1 outer track control arm
1 lower suspension wishbone.
1 set of rear discs and pads( being fitted next weekend)

Hands free locking that only works once every week off the door button.
Front indicator bulbs that stop working on a regualr bassis, (a slap of driver H/Lamp by wing gets it working again for a few months
Passenger H/Lamp that also need an occasional slap to get it working
an Airbag/service light on the dash comes on every 6 months or so to remind me to push the plugs together under the passeger seat in case I forget.

Funiest remark I have heard to date, when I took my Fiat to the local dealer for a diagnostic just before I sold it, the technician said!
"Hu wouldn't have one of these (Fiat Bravo) they are crap, I would have a decent motor"
when I enquired what a decent motor was, his reply!
"A RENAULT"
Well I have my Fiat Bravo from 42k to 150K (5 years with me)and spent around £400 ish in that time excluding tyres and service items and that was on a clutch and head gasket, 1 TPS, 1 clutch slave cylinder and a pair of rear drums, I have spent well over that since January with my Renault and it has just reached 67k started at 42k as well for me and was bought April 2009. so out of My Bravo and my CC which is the decent motor again? a T reg 1999 1.2cc petrol Bravo or a 2004 1.9 diesel Megane CC, so far I know which one I would pick, and I so want it back!
I think the age old adage "they don't make em like they use to" is wrong they still do, cars are just as crap now as they where in the 80's the only differance is now thay have made in nia on impossible for the average DIY mechanic to repair his own car on the drive, unless you have a garage full of specail tools and diagnostic computers, to the point where you can't even remove the inner track control arm as Renault have seen fit not to put any flats on it, yet the aftermarket one I have has got flats, is it really that hard, or just a case of stopping us doing it ourselves, but it doesn't - big pair of grips and off it came, who cares about damaging the ball casing, it is going in the bin, the replacement has flats to enable you to tighten it up. you will have to do better than that Renault