Gooner II V6 - Reliable motoring at its finest*

[Kiltox]

In two minds whether to flush the Scenic's gearbag - it definitely holds in gear longer than it should but shifts smoothly when it finally gets round to it

 

Also thinking given I'm committed to cambelt roulette in it for the moment that it'd be a bit pointless!

[SiC]

In two minds whether to flush the Scenic's gearbag - it definitely holds in gear longer than it should but shifts smoothly when it finally gets round to it

 

Also thinking given I'm committed to cambelt roulette in it for the moment that it'd be a bit pointless!

At least the fluid isn't expensive on it though and pretty easy to refill.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triple-QX-ATF-Dexron-III-5-Litre-5L-Automatic-Transmission-Fluid-DII-/290994733693

Even the level isn't that fussy like on the AW55 based boxes.

[SiC]

I'm in a bad mood today.

 

Because of this...

 

Fucking bollocks

 

First time, in nearly 13 years driving and several hundred thousands of miles, that I've ever damaged a car like this.

 

Pulled in here, kept nose in so I didn't hit the Mazda

 

Just a bit too tight and caught the corner here.

 

It wasn't even that tight to pull around o. Just misjudged it.

 

Bodywork was pretty much spotless. Until now...

 

So utterly pee'd off with myself.

[Kiltox]

Gutted

 

I'd imagine that could be smart repaired though - once you've sorted the gearbag and cambelt out

[tooSavvy]

[stewart]

 

'The first cut.....'

 

[/stewart]

 

 

TS

[RayMK]

Paint identical marks on the other side and claim they are French styling transfers.

[PhillipM]

Don't worry about it, the cambelt will go soon anyway.

[billyboy406v6]

Hope the wall is ok !

[purplebargeken]

That would be very frustrating indeed

[Slartibartfast]

Ah balls

[oldcars]

Shame, i would be gutted to 

[Danblez]

Bugger, this sort of thing only ever happens to motors you care about. Also see parking dents.....

[Parky]

That will smart repair no problem.

[Guest Hooli]

I couldn't get the cover completely off without removing the top engine mount. But managed to bend it back and got these pictures. Was getting dark at this point, so phone camera flash was on.

 

2016-04-29 20.53.26.jpg

2016-04-29 20.53.34.jpg

2016-04-29 20.53.48.jpg

 

The mark on the belt below is the aux belt where I caught it with the cam cover. Only light scuff.

2016-04-29 20.55.07.jpg

 

Doesn't look too bad shape to me? Are cambelts date coded?

 

The aux belt doesn't look too bad either

2016-04-29 21.05.36.jpg

 

Not as tight between the engine and car body as I thought. Sealey ratchet at the top for size reference.

2016-04-29 21.08.23.jpg

 

Why does that look like a chunk of belt missing in the 2nd pic?

[SiC]

That's a plastic part of the back bit of the cam cover. It's above the cambelt. You kinda can see it on a different perspective on the first picture.

[egg]

we've all done it. haven't we?

 

Bloody annoying though.

[sierraman]

I'd get to Halfords, filler, filler primer and some paint. With the potential for other grief I wouldn't spend a lot tidying that up.

[SiC]

To follow on from yesterday, the garage did a oil change on the gearbox. I wanted them to do it twice, but through a miss-communication it only got done once. Booked it in for 2 weeks time to have it done again though. Tempted to buy a oil suction can + long funnel and do it a couple of times myself.

 

Driven it around since. Seems exactly the same. Which is probably not a bad thing just yet! Especially as only 3.3l have been changed from a total of ~7.5l.

 

So after the parking miss-hap, I decided to have a go last night fixing the parking sensor.

 

Renault say its a bumper off job, however I picked this post here: http://www.renaultforums.co.uk/17-electronics/39192-fitting-instruction-advise-reverse-parking-sensors.html

 

It reckoned that if you took the side light off, you could get access to the sensor without taking the bumper off. I couldn't quite see how that worked, but as its a lot easier (single hand screwed bolt), I'd thought I'd give it a go.

 

Took the light lens off. Aha! A hole has been revealed.

 

There's my prize down there - the thing sticking with white plastic. I have no idea what that other connector just haphazardly flailing around there connects to though? I can only guess maybe numberplate bulbs.

 

So continuing on with the thread above, while scratching my arm to pieces on exposed plastic corners, I carefully unclipped the plastic bumper insert.

 

 

Actually turned out after I removed it, I could have just unclipped the sensor from the bumper insert. Oh well.

 

Grabbed my replacement scrapyard one and gave the paint a good rub with paint thinners to remove the existing paint. A bit of work later, I got it back to bare plastic. I haven't got any touch up paint yet to colour code it, but its ready enough to do it later.

 

Connected the replacement sensor up, stuck the gearbox in reverse and beep beep beep beep as it registered the wall behind!

 

Popped the plastic trim all back in again. Job jobbed.

[SiC]

Current snagging list:

• ABS module needs replacing.

  Replacement obtained. Need a free weekend for me to fit

• Tyre Pressure Sensor antenna fixing or just disabling.

  Connector wire broken off. Need to obtain new connector

• Wheel vibration - hopefully just need wheel balancing.

  Pretty certain this is a buckled alloy, as steering wobbles at very low speeds too. Will find out which one and get it refurbed.

• Thermostat appears to be sticking/duff, as stats around middle in traffic and drops on the motorway at speed.

  Another job for a day, as need to drain coolant system first. May wait till cambelt, as water pump removal will mean drain anyway.

• Rear parking sensor replacing.
• Temperature Sensor Fan rattles (really annoying!) - there is a tiny little fan that sucks air over the temperature sensor.
• Fusty smell - pollen filter+air con bomb hopefully will kill this.
• Headlight washer doesn't pop up - not a concern yet, but will be a MOT failure.

  Replacement obtained. This can be done when I have the bumper off for the ABS above. Really needs to be done soon - I think the pipe has fallen off somewhere as the lights cry when the washer jets are activated

• Steering wheel lock - doesn't really engage! Turn the wheel, it locks, turn the wheel the other way it comes off. Not bothered about this, unless the MOT tester picks it up...
• Battery - seems alright at the moment, however this can cause things to really fritz out. As its been sitting around for 6 months or so, it can't be in a great state.

  Still seems to be working ok

• Clean/check sunroof drain tubes. More of a preventative measure, so the UCH doesn't get a soaking.
• Gearbox oil change/flush. Changes gear fine, pretty smooth, but not as smooth as I think it should be. Also never been changed (sealed for life), so probably a good idea to get it done 20% done. Probably DIY the next changes
• Cambelt - This is the big one (~£500). I can't find anything in the history to say that it's been changed. However it has Renault history for the first 5 years, so may only be due - I need to check with Renault.

  On hold for now. At least until the gearbag has had a few flushes

Getting there slowly. At least I don't have anything more to add to that list. Well apart from the new scratch on the side needs sorting... (even if touch up to protect bare metal).

[stripped fred]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has lists for my cars! I tend to leave things that don't adversely affect it's safety or reliability though. For instance the aircon and remote locking don't work on my 406 but I wouldn't spend £££'s on fixing these. Admittedly yours looks a bit nicer. I would echo sierraman's comments and just touch up the scratch for now. If the car behaves itself and turns into a keeper you could get it sorted then.

[SiC]

I have a job interview at lunchtime but its raining and I am driving a 2000-era French car in.

I'm more nervous about the drive in, than I am for the interview.

 

[Guest Hooli]

That's a plastic part of the back bit of the cam cover. It's above the cambelt. You kinda can see it on a different perspective on the first picture.

 

Now you say it, I can see it. Thanks.

[SiC]

Had a lovely sunny (free) weekend, which gave me plenty of fiddling time.

 

First piece of news. It's now 3 weeks since I've bought it and it's not suffered a FTP. What a shocker.

 

Things I've done...

 

The trim on the passenger door was coming loose and rattling in the wind. About the only rattle on it and very annoying. I assume it was a clip that was broken, so I gently pulled it away from the door trying not to break any more. Started to come away quite easily.

 

And then I realised why.

 

 

Yup, Renault just used some double-sided foam tape to stick it on. Cleaned off the old foam tape and put on some of that double-sided numberplate tape. Then it rained.

 

3 days later, it stopped and I got a chance to press it into place.

 

The bit of trim at the top is really bugging me though. Doesn't sit flat or line up properly on the top. This is the kind of thing that will bug me everytime I get in as a passenger but know there isn't anything I can do that won't make it worse.

[SiC]

Fast forward to this weekend.

 

You might remember me saying that the TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System) didn't work - it wasn't showing anything. Usually this thing isn't an essential piece of French engineering that you expect or even want to keep working. However every couple of days, I get a query from my other half that "the front tyres look flat" - even though they're fine. So getting this working was of course a priority...

 

I got a replacement receiver (that lives under the car), but it turned out to be the power wire broken. Corrosion. Quite why Reno put it on the bottom I don't know.

 

As it was broken right up in the connector, I couldn't chop out the offended corroded bit without leaving nothing left. Unfortunately I forgot to cut the connector off the car in the scrapyard, so I had to improvise.

 

Turns out that the reversing sensor connector pins are the same diameter, just a different style.

 

Pulled the TPMS connector apart, stuck the plug contact in and a bit of wiggling and bending with a screwdriver got it in place.

 

Now to apologise, I twisted the wire up and wrapped in insulating tape. My soldering iron has a proper soldering iron station and bit of a pain to remove from my desk. So I couldn't be bothered. Lets face it, by the time this fails, it's probably in the scrapyard anyway. Also I'd rather fix this properly later with a proper contact.

 

Even more insulating tape wrapped around for belt-and-braces engineering and pushed it all back in the clips under the car.

 

Turned the ignition on and took it for a drive (need to be >20mph to activate the sensors). Error still showing with no tyres. Hmrph

 

Tested it with a multimeter, power was getting through. Gave it the tried and tested shake and could hear something rattling int here. Decided to open up the back of the receiver to take a look.

 

I gave it a shake to be greeted by a face full of water. Oh Reno, why did you put this on the bottom of the car? Opened up my other second hand one and despite being sat in a puddle in a scrapyard, it was bone dry.

 

Connected it up and went for another spin.

 

Wahoo! I now haz tyres. 3/4 thumbs up though, because one sensor is not working. Turns out looking at the wheel, its not even got a sensor there! Well that will explain that one.

 

I know these have the valve stems seize up, so I guess the previous owner didn't want to spend out the £50 or so for the sensor + programming time to replace it. Don't blame him tbh. However you can get genuine sensors now from eBay for around the £30 mark and chuck another tenner in for a local tyre garage to fit. Then I'll program it in myself.

 

Its the kind of thing that will bug me if I don't get it fixed.

[Kiltox]

Had a 407 with missing sensors and it was just like you describe plus one of them actually sheared off due to corrosion and the previous owner needed the car working again quickly so a standard valve stem was fitted

[SiC]

Next on this list is to fix the headlight washers - an MOT failure point if not working (as HID Xenon lights). This requires safety footwear to be donned.

 

30 minutes later of trying to find bumper fixings and gentle pulling, it was off.

 

Foglight connectors were completely mullered and held back together with electrical tape. So I guess someone has been here before and physically ripped the bumper off.

 

The washer pump looks like it has seen better days. Tried activating the pump to see if it still worked, but no go. No fear I bought a spare. At this point, I removed the washer bottle and gave it a thoroughly good rinse out of years of gunk.

 

Put the replacement on, tried again. Nothing. Drats.

 

I could hear a relay clicking but nothing was happening. I wonder if it was a fuse?

 

... Where is the fuse?

 

Well its not listed in the main fusebox. Turns out there are 2 other fuseboxes, one above the UCH (body computer and the fusebox). To get to this one literally requires removing the UCH. Not impossible but damn fiddly.

 

Required removing the electronic handbrake lever. Cue frantic beeping from the dash about a handbrake fault.

 

This allowed a torx head to get in and remove this one bolt.

 

After a lot of swearing, I managed to just about get to the two fuses. You might be-able to faintly see on here. To be honest the pictures are clearer picture than it was trying to do it separately. I probably should have removed the UCH, but that would require disconnecting the battery and I cba to do that at the time.

 

The fuses are the Green and Yellow blurry parts in this photo on the right.

 

Both are good. Hmm.

 

Lets try the other fusebox. This was easier to get to as its in the glove box. Removing the glove box trim and a a bit of fiddling to release the fusebox+relay holder and I could get access.

 

Turns out the bottom left relay under the purple one is the headlight washer. Hmm all 3 of those fuses work fine and testing the contacts on the relay, it looks like its got power.

 

At this point, I realised that I didn't do the simple thing and actually check the damn connector on the pump first.

 

12V when actuated. Damn the electrics work fine, its the pump that is seized.

That's nearly 2 hours of faffing wasted.

 

Going back to the pump and it appears that the shaft it jammed - on both. I assumed that this was a just quirk thing of these pumps. List price on a new pump is £50 and I can't see any new compatible ones available. So only thing left is to fix the pump.

 

Plenty of PlusGas (to clean out the dirt, grime and grit) and some gentle wiggling of the casing got it apart pretty easily.

 

Well it turns out to be a lot simpler that I thought. Being a high pressure pump, I was expecting a whole manor of gears to speed up the impeller, close tolerances, etc. Turns out to be a standard (rather crusty) brushed motor (same as used in remote control cars and boats)

 

A rubber bung, an impeller and casing.

 

Gave the motor a liberal spray of plus-gas and then bike PTFE spray to loosen it up. Connected it up and gave a quick test...

 

Well at least that worked.

 

Carb cleaned out the pump casing and put it all back together again. Another quick test...

 

Cool.  

 

Onto the washers themselves. One is jammed solid, I bought a s/h one to replace it. Connected the washers up. Hmm turns out one that I thought worked pisses water all out the bottom. Drats.

 

I tried pulling it apart but unfortantly they make them out of a special type of chocolate plastic that grabs really hard and keeps it all together but then falls & snaps apart when you try and pull it apart.

 

Not a lot in these things.

 

Looks like its this rubber seal that is the problem. It had fallen off in the washer jet and was all torn up.

 

Put it back into place, kind of squished all the plastic into roughly the right shape and put it back together.

 

Connected the washers up and tried again.

 

Success! I may have to replace that other cobbled together one, as I suspect at some point it will explode the bottom piece off and loose all the bits. New ones are £120 for a pair, working second-hand ones on eBay are going for around £15-20 and there is one still spare at the scrappy.

 

Fix them onto the bumper. Left washer first.

 

Then right washer.

 

And cue a lot of swearing while trying to get the bumper on single handily, not scratching the car body & bumper and connecting the washers pipes + fog light bulbs.

 

At this point, I was a good 4 hours in on the job and a bit fed up. So even though you need congratulating for getting to this point in the thread, I unfortunately don't have a video or thumbs up of them working.

 

However this stock video is pretty much identical, so have this instead.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OULXRFvBkN0

[SiC]

Sundays job was another gearbox fluid change.

 

I bought this top-sided fluid extractor that was previously recommended on another thread on here, for Smart car oil change (they have no sump plug and need to be drained through dipstick tube).

 

Tube down dipstick, 30 pumps and 15 minutes wait. It usefully makes a sucking sound (like drinking a milkshake) as its sucks air that lets you know its done.

 

This job was the one I was most worried about, as it was essential I put the same amount I took out back in. However I need a way of getting it back in.

 

I was going to cobble something together, using this Draper funnel+tube set I got from the local motor factors. Turns out that the tube is a perfect fit to fit down the dipstick tube.

 

Nothing really dramatic in the end. I sucked out 2.2l on Sunday, did it again on Monday morning and got 3.2l out - I don't think I pushed the tube in far enough on Sunday.

 

Really did need a change. Old ATF vs fresh.

 

Old

 

New/fresh

 

Not coming out cherry red yet after a change+drive. Still got a good few more changes to do before it starts coming out clean though I suspect. Currently on the 3rd change so far.

 

The primary reason for changing the fluid was that there is this weird slight flare between 2nd and 3rd that is very annoying. Most noticable when full throttle and also most annoying during it too.

After Googling around trying to find a video, turns out that it may just be a "quirk" of the box...

 

Check this out at the 24s-26s mark to see what I'm talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__Txv8G2Y4E

 

Speaking to a mate who is a Volvo nut (Volvo uses this box a lot), he's not seen it in his V70 T5 but has seen it on Volvo D5 autos.

 

Low and behold a D5 auto changing: (6-8 second in)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-Chp16z6-s

 

Another reason I did the change was that changes are not buttery smooth and sometimes clunks a bit. Resetting the Computers Adaptations has helped a bit, but still is hard sometimes. However again, I suspect it may be normal and I'm expecting a bit too much from it...

 

It's no Merc box after all.

 

However, given the state of the fluid, I don't regret changing it. As long as it doesn't kill it! Touch wood so far it hasn't got any different...

[SiC]

I guess after that massive update, I need to update my list.

• ABS module needs replacing.

  New: Turns out there was a recall on these where Renault replaced for free. Unfortunately it only went up to cars 8 years old.

  Replacement obtained anyway. Need a free weekend for me to fit

• Tyre Pressure Sensor antenna fixing or just disabling.

  New: Fixed! Just need a new TPMS sensor for N/S rear wheel

• Wheel vibration - hopefully just need wheel balancing.

  Pretty certain this is a buckled alloy, as steering wobbles at very low speeds too. Will find out which one and get it refurbed.

• Thermostat appears to be sticking/duff, as stats around middle in traffic and drops on the motorway at speed.

  Another job for a day, as need to drain coolant system first. May wait till cambelt, as water pump removal will mean drain anyway.

• Rear parking sensor replacing.
• Temperature Sensor Fan rattles (really annoying!) - there is a tiny little fan that sucks air over the temperature sensor.
• Fusty smell - pollen filter+air con bomb hopefully will kill this.
• Headlight washer doesn't pop up - not a concern yet, but will be a MOT failure.

  New: Done!

• Steering wheel lock - doesn't really engage! Turn the wheel, it locks, turn the wheel the other way it comes off. Not bothered about this, unless the MOT tester picks it up...

  New: Fixed itself.

• Battery - seems alright at the moment, however this can cause things to really fritz out. As its been sitting around for 6 months or so, it can't be in a great state.

  Still seems to be working ok

• Clean/check sunroof drain tubes. More of a preventative measure, so the UCH doesn't get a soaking.
• Gearbox oil change/flush. Changes gear fine, pretty smooth, but not as smooth as I think it should be. Also never been changed (sealed for life), so probably a good idea to get it done

  New: 40% done.

• Cambelt - This is the big one (~£500). I can't find anything in the history to say that it's been changed. However it has Renault history for the first 5 years, so may only be due - I need to check with Renault.

  New: Gearbag probably is actually alright. Quote from Renault dealer for £399 (special fixed price offer) - cheapest Renault independent was £700. Exc pump, but still for that price (with the pump), its going to be totally worth doing!

Finally, Well done for anyone who's managed to read through some of my more epic long ramblings.

[tooSavvy]

Ahhh....

 

 

... for those of us who just cannot be harassed.

 

 

 

TS

[406V6]

All this fixing is top class shiteing. Well done.

 

(and relieved that my chariot doesn't have a TPMS or headlamp washers)