Gooner II V6 - Reliable motoring at its finest*

[beko1987]

Ah, I only have my 2.2 to go by! Enjoy the noise

[SiC]

I've just remembered, I left the tow rope in the spare tyre well that the previous owner left. I don't usually believe in such things, but I always kept it in there as a good luck charm.

 

As Laguna II are possessed, I'm pretty sure if it's taken out, it will break in all mysterious ways.

[Kiltox]

Seems the 2.2 is quite frugal once you put some water in it and stop driving it with the boot flat to the floor constantly....

[beko1987]

41.5mpg for me! Took eva out for a drive earlier though and got down to 39 but we were crawling along proper back roads/I was pissing off a van who decided to try and do 50 in a 30 that 20 was too fast for... Then hoofing it away when we reached a proper tarmac 2 lane road!

 

Have you mastered the auto handbrake yet Angle? It's quite good once you get used to it and don't try to pull away with it on, but blip the throttle to take it off then proceed!

[Kiltox]

I always just pulled away with it on in both manual and auto Gooners I've owned (three different ones) and never had a problem with it!

[Isaac Hunt]

Sic did well on the Gooner. Ran it for a year, fixed a few miniorish things, took a calculated risk on the cam belt, used it for a year and washed its face. VFM IMHO

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[angle]

Si taught me the throttle blip trick which works well - it's taken me 48 hours to stop going for the clutch as I slow down, mind. Not really used it much this weekend as DIY is taking priority, but I can confirm there's plenty of space to change a nappy on the back seat in Lidl car park. Oh the glamour.

 

Current average on the trip:

 

[angle]

Right, if no one minds I'm going to hijack this thread. While the Laguna is still behaving itself and munching through unleaded at a really quite scary rate for someone coming from an XUD, I got in a bit of a panic over the lack of an aux input. My CDs are all in my parents attic, and I found myself listening to Emma Bunton on Heart FM. Things had got bad.

 

Luckily, a man named mod18 on Ebay is clearly making a killing selling custom made cables designed specifically to connect obsolete iPods to the Cabasse stereo that you only get on facelift Laguna 2 Initiales (or not, in his words 'its a Renault, I'm not guaranteeing anything, but you can send it back if it doesn't work').

 

So, tools. And also, ALL MODERN IPODZ ARE SHIT.

 

 

Off with the emergency handbrake cover to route the cable into the armrest.

 

 

And off with the glovebox liner. This took much swearing and all my flathead screwdrivers.

 

 

And out with the amp.

 

 

Of course, Renault, so the amp only recognises an aux input if its powered. Cutting the power and earth into the amp wasn't scary at all.

 

 

Success!

 

[Guest Hooli]

You do know that when* the UCH explodes it takes the radio out so you still won't be able to listen to tunes while waiting for the AA.

[beko1987]

I'm wondering if thats what happened to mine, which is why ohnorenault won't talk to the UCH...

 

What does the UCH control?

[Guest Hooli]

I'm wondering if thats what happened to mine, which is why ohnorenault won't talk to the UCH...

 

What does the UCH control?

 

Everything except the engine...

 

UCH includes all the ignition circuits, windows, etc when mine died the ONLY thing that still worked was the headlights. I couldn't even lock the damn heap, lucky I live in a quiet place.

[Kiltox]

Sounds just like the BSI in PSA shit except that usually goes into a sort of emergency mode when it dies - headlights on, wipers on intermittent etc!

[beko1987]

Ah mine's not that bad then!

[SiC]

It's fine if you just keep those drains in the wheel arch clean. That's the major and almost always cause for it getting wet. Sunroof drains feed into the body computer (UCH) area, which then goes into a funnel type arrangement into the wheel arch. If the wheel arch drain is blocked, it'll back up and overfill over the UCH.

[angle]

Boring update time! A few long trips over the last few weeks means I've now done 1500 miles, and got the trip up from a depressing 22mpg to a much more respectable... 25mpg.

 

First thing that needed fixing now sorted:

 

 

Flappy rear wiper replaced, £3 for a proper Valeo one from eBay. Other than that, this:

 

 

Where I live is all narrow roads, but is the closest free on street parking to the city centre. Add in a mosque opposite and a big park at the end of the road, and I see a car get written off on my road once a month or so, so I probably got off fairly lightly, although it looked a lot worse before I got the polish out. Still need to glue a few bits of wing mirror together though.

 

Coincidentally, the untaxed, uninsured, out of MOT Mercedes CLK that I think belongs to someone round the corner also got some pretty significant damage around the same time and has since disappeared...

 

Also, when Autoshite does moderns: today I needed to take some cupboard doors to the tip. To make them fit, I had to move my seat forward and balance them on the head rest. Obvs, I hadn't taken memory seats into account, so as soon as I started the car my seat moved back, the door moved up, and took a hinge shaped gouge out of the headlining. Fantastic.

[SiC]

I was thinking the other day how much I'm genuinely missing this car.

[angle]

 

BOOM.

 

Although given my MOT prep consisted of throwing a fiver at the local Romanian car wash, attempting to clear the sunroof drains in the pissing rain, covering myself and the newly clean car in muddy handprints, giving up after doing one side and having a cup of tea, I reckon SiC deserves the credit here.

[SiC]

Woo! Great news. I don't know if I deserve any credit, its just a good car! Also I think previous owners have put a lot of care and attention in it.

 

Did A&D recognise the car?

 

If you ever get fed up with it and want to get rid, I'll happily buy it back. I genuinely miss that car.

[angle]

Oh yeah, I got a 'don't worry, it'll be fine, Simon loved tinkering with this' when I dropped it off, and a 'oh bloody hell, what's he bought now' when I mentioned your MG. They actually sounded quite enthusiastic about it, mind.

 

On a related note, and given that the only thing that causes me more anxiety than finding a new garage is finding a new barber, I can thoroughly recommend A&D to anyone that lives in Bristol. For reasons I don't fully understand ('we missed them first time round and didn't mention it when we called you') they wanted to not charge me anything for changing my rear pads, and then refused to take more than £20...

[SiC]

Haha! That's great. I was tempted to give them an Xmas card to say thank you for working on all the old crap I give them.

 

They're a proper good garage. Often when I pay, I feel guilty that they're too cheap. So I usually give them whole notes and tell them not to give change...

 

I do need to call into them soon and get this fuel tank changed. Also ask about welding the castle rail bit. Officially they usually only do patch repair for MOT, however they all own classic cars and I know they've done good work themselves on them. Also seen them doing major repair work on a escort.

 

A good barbers? Try these guys: http://www.scammellsbarbershop.co.uk

Only problem is that they get incredibly busy, especially at weekends. They do have game boys, Xbox and other stuff to keep you entertained while you wait though. Fair price for Bristol.

[25v6turbo]

Well done on the pass,V6 is the way to go,best version of a Laguna by far but the higher MPG and insurance does come with it,but the induction roar is great!!!

[angle]

So, turned into my road, went over a drain cover and got a massive fuck off bang. It still sits level and drives OK, but I'm fairly sure there's not meant to be a shard of metal sticking out of the bottom spring cup. Think it needs a ball joint or something on the other side as well.

 

GOONA LIFE

[SiC]

Ouch!

 

I guess it hasn't taken a tyre out?

[25v6turbo]

That sounds like a spring has gone bang,be VERY careful they have a habit of rubbing through the inside tyre wall after this has happened,get it checked ASAP also the ball joint on the other side aswell.....

[angle]

Yeah, think I'm going to need to give the garage a call on Monday. Looks like it's gone right at the very bottom of the spring and so the spring cup is still holding it mostly in place, and nowhere near the tyre at the moment, but still. Just a bit of an arse it happened about an hour after I spent the entire contents of my savings account on carpet...

[beko1987]

At least it didn't go at speed! That's when it gets messy from what I've seen on the gooner Facebook group, it shattered an alloy and fucked the wing, and everything underneath!

[angle]

Er, yeah. So I've just had a call back from the garage and it turns out that both front springs were broken. God knows when the other one went. Oh, and V6 springs are apparently special, and therefore expensive. Ace!

[SiC]

Bristol roads I tell 'ya. Pot holes, speed bumps and kerbs. Forgot to say the springs are different to most of the other models. Stiffer to support the additional weight of the V6. Same with the discs and pads. I believe the same suspension parts as the 2.2dci for similar reasons.

[beko1987]

Shame your about a month late for me to be able to help you! ASM in Thame had my old one if you wanted to give them a ring, I'd imagine it went straight in the baler, didn't pass go and didn't collect £200 on the way...

[angle]

 

Woop! Off the top of my head I can't remember whether the fronts are the Kumhos that have been on there a while or the Dunlops that Si put on - either way, I'll need to get the tracking done.

 

So, in a year its done 5k at 25mpg and its needed two front springs (£65 each plus a couple of hours labour, sod doing that myself) and a headlamp ballast resistor (£20 for a used one), which isn't bad. It's got a slightly creaky top mount bearing and there's been one time where its been standing in the rain when it started with a misfire and threw an EML, so although it sorted itself after a couple of minutes it might need a coil pack. Not too bad overall...