Gooner II V6 - Reliable motoring at its finest*

[Parky]

Why not arrange for any South Western shiters to descend upon your place the weekend before your wedding? I can't see any reason why the future Mrs SiC would have any issue at all with that?

[Eddie Honda]

Problem with DIY is that I'm mega slow on cars. So this would probably take me a couple of weekends to do.

That's eleventy-billion times quicker than the giga-sloth speed I usually manage. Head gasket jobs for instance telescope out to years.

 

I think the last "quick" job I did was just 4 days before I got married and I manage to get the clutch on the 106 done in a mere day-and-a-half.

[tooSavvy]

'Marriage' - 'no time to fiddle[with car]'

 

GOOD.... got your priorities right M8

 

 

TS

[billyboy406v6]

Well if you are getting married you will soon be banned from playing with old cars. Numbers 12 and 44 please.

[tooSavvy]

Well if you are getting married you will soon be banned from playing with old cars. Numbers 12 and 44 please.

.... I was thinking more "Ahh, whole new meaning to 'full lube job'", actually

 

TS

[SiC]

Usual garage I use got told by his ex-Renault mechanic friend to not even touch it unless you have all the proper tools.

 

His friend recommended Renatec in Bristol - who are a Renault specialist. However I've seen & heard mixed reports about them.

 

Gonna have a saunter up to Bristol 2CV (only 45 minute walk or so from my office) that Angle recommended above and see what they can do.

[alf892]

Hang on though.....don't be too harsh on what you've heard. It must be tough being a Renner specialist..........given that you fix one thing and another goes tits up.

 

The old 'ever since you put that brake light bulb in the bloody thing cuts out at junctions' scenario is perfectly possible so maybe 'mixed' report is the best you can get.

[406V6]

Of all the jobs fixing mass market cars I used to reckon that being a Citroen specialist was the hardest although these days I figure it's Renault. It must be tough to get the right fix every time given the obscure ways in which they go wrong and I can imagine some owners having trouble accepting that even the specialist might not fix the problem first time round.  Give 'em a go. They might well have the tools to do the job.  If you really get stuck my local specialist might be able to help but they're hardly local to Bristol - 80+ miles away.

[Slappy]

Someone on here, I think 1 of the "Phils" did their Avantime V6 DIY a year or so ago. Bonus points as I believe it was the first belt they did, but it didn't break into a million pieces after, so it's do-able.

[SiC]

Maidenhead isn't too bad if I have to travel, if I run out of options here. The other half's parents live in Newbury, so I can use theirs as a base to wait at while they do it worse case.

 

There actually seems to be couple of PSA specialists in Bristol, while only one Renault specialist. A little bit tempted to try a Renault dealer for the lols.

 

Useful to know that someone did an Avantime DIY. The Avantime is notorious in that its an engine out job to do it. It'll definitely be a good couple of months before I have a weekend free to do it though. With it being such an unknown, using it makes me very nervous - hence willing to throw money at it.

[barefoot]

You could always telephone your local Renault dealer.

If the worst comes to the worst, it'd give everyone a bloody good laugh & there's a chance they might surprise you.

[406V6]

Have you done a Google search for Laguna V6 cambelt change ?  A few interesting snippets came up including a reference to a Renault specialist in Exmouth.  Not exactly Bristol I know but in the right part of the country.

[stripped fred]

Sometimes it's worth booking a day off work and travelling to someone if they can do it for a good price and you trust them. I travelled to County Durham from Leicester to have my mr2 belt changed. Saved money and i know it was done properly. I stopped in a travel lodge the night before and drank beer.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo SiC, its probably piss all help but I'd come and do a Saturday or Sunday on it with you, I bet we could tackle it in a day. I've read that 406 coupé how-to and it looks pretty manageable. Couldn't do it till the second half of May though so probably useless.....!

[Dave_Q]

Yo SiC, its probably piss all help but I'd come and do a Saturday or Sunday on it with you, I bet we could tackle it in a day. I've read that 406 coupé how-to and it looks pretty manageable. Couldn't do it till the second half of May though so probably useless.....!

 

Top offer there from the GOONA MASSIV, Bollox has done more financially unwise fixing of old heaps than I've had hot dinners, surely the man for the job.

[PhillipM]

Someone on here, I think 1 of the "Phils" did their Avantime V6 DIY a year or so ago. Bonus points as I believe it was the first belt they did, but it didn't break into a million pieces after, so it's do-able.

 

 Doing mine on the 406 at the minute. The worst bit is if you have the old style tensioner system then to fit the new version which is all factors supply, you have to dick about finding water pumps that will fit (what factors list as fitting usually isn't right, there's about 3-4 variations) with it or angle grinding sections off your old one...

 

And if it hasn't been done for a while everything tends to be fucked and all the tensioners, pump, drive belt tension, idlers, etc, soon add up, mine had a cracked camshaft drive ring too.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

The avantime is a Nissan engine right? 3.5 v6

[SiC]

If PSA use the same engine, would a Citroen specialist work? I've only used them for older stuff, but I've only got good things to say about Bristol 2CVs in Redland.

Walked up and had a natter with him. As soon as you mention v6 I got the usual "not something we'd be interesting in". lol

 

He said on the 406 coupé, it requires 3 pairs of hands to do and they haven't got the locking tools either.

 

However he said about Chandler Motor Company (formally Citratech) may be able to help. I also got recommended them from my guys too, so I'll call him and give them ago.

 

He did suggest that the big quote that the other guys offered may have been including the cost of the locking tools into it. Which is probably exactly right.

[SiC]

Yo SiC, its probably piss all help but I'd come and do a Saturday or Sunday on it with you, I bet we could tackle it in a day. I've read that 406 coupé how-to and it looks pretty manageable. Couldn't do it till the second half of May though so probably useless.....!

That'd be awesome. At the moment I'm busy all May (wedding crap) and most of June (honeymoon stuff) too, so I might just take you up on that very kind offer if I don't get anywhere locally!

 

Bound to be someone here prepared to do it. Local dealers usually charge around £100 p/h here, so avoiding them if at all possible, otherwise it'll be silly expensive.

[SiC]

The avantime is a Nissan engine right? 3.5 v6

Avantime is L7X - same as mine, but I think slightly older design in that they revised it later with different parts. But generally the same.

 

The 3.5 V6 Vel Shatit and the Laguna 3 is the Nissan lump. I think that's chain driven.

[Kiltox]

Is it the 3.0 or 3.5 that you get in an Espace ?

Tempted by some big engined madness when the Scenic gives up and getting quite used to having an automatic petrol engined "van"

[SiC]

Espace Mk3 has both the 3.0 PRV and then the newer 3.0 ES9/L7X (same as mine).

Espace Mk4 has Nissan 3.5 v6.

[sierraman]

I'd honestly be inclined to run it till the belt goes. The reason they are quoting silly money is because they don't want the work. I'm guessing access is awful, fiddly, prone to some batshit bolt rounding off you absolutely CANNOT get to. Then to top it off you have to use some bizarre tools that look like something you'd sling in the bin to fit the belt. On the face of it I'd get Mike Brewer to get Ed China to have a look at it, with that mans luck with rusty bolts he'd have it ready to put back together by the time the adverts come on.

[scaryoldcortina]

 

That doesn't look fun at all.

[trigger]

Sod that. Considering what you paid for the car and what it would be worth with a new belt it hardly seems worth the egro, it could well last another 40-50k without any problems. I'd just run it into the ground until it pops.

 

[Rusty_Rocket]

Holy moly. It doesn't look fun.. However, I would give it a go I think, even if it took you two days! Mind you, I think you'd need the holding tools. Any connections in the Lagoona Owner's Fellowship?!

 

I love the way the Espace takes twice as long according to Autodata.. what a flippin treat that must be.

[scaryoldcortina]

I guess that in an espace step 1 is "remove the engine"...

 

 

edit - I checked, it is.

 

[sierraman]

Sounds a fucking doddle that.

[billyboy406v6]

I will be doing mine later in the year, it my toy so can take my time. Plan for the best and expect the worst. Some help/info/ on the Coupe owners forum. WCPGW ??

[rantingYoof]

+1 for the cambelt lottery.

 

I've documented on here a few times that Mason the Lexus was at least six or seven years overdue. I hardly drove it like a nun.

 

I didn't expect there to be any car that garages would quote "NOPE" for doing cambelts on more than the Omega....