That Lovejoy Safrane

[andyberg]

1 hour ago, James M said:

…

Fantastic chap, well done. A pretty good price too. 

[James M]

The beast has arrived.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

8 minutes ago, James M said:

The beast has arrived.

Nice work!

[Split_Pin]

Amazing!

[andyberg]

Fantastic. Looks bloody lovely. 

[beko1987]

Nice! 

Do the front seats work? 😂

[James M]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

Nice! 

Do the front seats work? 😂

Manual seats! Practically foolproof.

[beko1987]

2 minutes ago, James M said:

Manual seats! Practically foolproof.

Bar any errant 20p coins that shouldn't break! 

[James M]

4 minutes ago, beko1987 said:

Bar any errant 20p coins that shouldn't break! 

Definitely. 

Anyway, here’s the photo everyone wanted to see.

[James M]

This car is a pain in the arse. 

[HillmanImp]

Well, being the Lovejoy one, its gonna need the occasional Tinker innit. 

[beko1987]

Have you tried leaving an antique clock on the dash as a sort of offering to the gods? 

And some cheese to appease the French gods too

[James M]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

Have you tried leaving an antique clock on the dash as a sort of offering to the gods? 

And some cheese to appease the French gods too

Just about. The dash lights are back, but I think it needs the key reprogrammed now.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

On 28/08/2024 at 08:31, Dick Cheeseburger said:

Nice work!

This is still valid. 

[James M]

[andyberg]

What happened?

[James M]

14 hours ago, andyberg said:

What happened?

Alternator went kaput. Just spent a small fortune getting it through its MOT too.

[andyberg]

6 minutes ago, James M said:

Alternator went kaput. Just spent a small fortune getting it through its MOT too.

Well it lasted 20+ years. Way better than a modern alternator is going to last? Are they still available?

[James M]

Any ideas here folk?

It’s been like this for ages but I’m just coming back to it after a hiatus of putting it off due to a general lack of motivation. I’m not sure if it’s possibly needing a key reprogrammed or something else is completely fucked on it.

Renault Safranes are just something else…
https://youtube.com/shorts/ad7HBPFYMHU?feature=share

[Dick Cheeseburger]

4 minutes ago, James M said:

Any ideas here folk?

It’s been like this for ages but I’m just coming back to it after a hiatus of putting it off due to a general lack of motivation. I’m not sure if it’s possibly needing a key reprogrammed or something else is completely fucked on it.

Renault Safranes are just something else…
https://youtube.com/shorts/ad7HBPFYMHU?feature=share

Can't help unfortunately but a couple of observations... that ignition barrel looks the same as the one on my old 81 Mk1 Renault 5 from back in the day. They made the design last!

Probably just me, but the posh talking dash should ideally be a softly spoken French lass speaking in broken English. 

Good luck!

[Daniel R25]

Hi James,

You do know that the Car has to be unlocked with the remote to deactivate the electronic ignition lock?

My Uncle used to sell these. Especially at Petrol Stations after filling up these generation Renaults failed to start because the ignition Lock activated in the mean time.

The solution given over the phone used to be just to take the key out of the ignition, press the plip twice and the engine starts.

Same on Clios, r19 etc, but without the talking dash people knew even less what was going on...

Daniel

 

[James M]

29 minutes ago, Daniel R25 said:

Hi James,

You do know that the Car has to be unlocked with the remote to deactivate the electronic ignition lock?

My Uncle used to sell these. Especially at Petrol Stations after filling up these generation Renaults failed to start because the ignition Lock activated in the mean time.

The solution given over the phone used to be just to take the key out of the ignition, press the plip twice and the engine starts.

Same on Clios, r19 etc, but without the talking dash people knew even less what was going on...

Daniel

 

That’s the solution that I know of. Unfortunately the key no longer communicates with the car. Trying to lock and unlock it does nothing. I’ve replaced the key battery as well to no success.

[Daniel R25]

Oh,

That sounds like a shite Situation.

Early safrane like our 1993 2.5td did Not have this lovely function... Same with the early Espace 2 

For the Espace 2 the solution is to get an early engine Ecu. In the Espace 2.2 the imjectors and even engine temp Sensors changed as well. So If i was you i would spend some time with dialogys or in catcar.info and try to find the Renault number for an early 2.2si Ecu with the  same injectors as yours. Or scrap the car

You might try asking at turborenault.co.uk If they can think of a solution. There must be a workaround with a Code as well

Good luck.

Daniel

 

[James M]

10 minutes ago, Daniel R25 said:

Oh,

That sounds like a shite Situation.

Early safrane like our 1993 2.5td did Not have this lovely function... Same with the early Espace 2 

For the Espace 2 the solution is to get an early engine Ecu. In the Espace 2.2 the imjectors and even engine temp Sensors changed as well. So If i was you i would spend some time with dialogys or in catcar.info and try to find the Renault number for an early 2.2si Ecu with the  same injectors as yours. Or scrap the car

You might try asking at turborenault.co.uk If they can think of a solution. There must be a workaround with a Code as well

Good luck.

Daniel

 

Scrapping the car is definitely something I don’t want it to come to. However in the condition it’s in there’s absolutely no chance in selling it. If I was skilled enough, I’d probably plonk a 2.4 Volvo T5 engine into it and go from there.

[High Jetter]

I'd guess the key and the car aren't communicating, a decent auto locksmith should be able to solve that.

[James M]

4 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

I'd guess the key and the car aren't communicating, a decent auto locksmith should be able to solve that.

I rang one up a while ago. Said they’d need to see it for themselves first. I’ll definitely phone them again and go for it when I’ve got time to kill.

[mcmolloy1]

Have you located the receiver for the key fob? Most Renaults of this era it's mounted in the roof and would often get damaged by a leaky aerial 

[James M]

13 hours ago, mcmolloy1 said:

Have you located the receiver for the key fob? Most Renaults of this era it's mounted in the roof and would often get damaged by a leaky aerial 

I haven’t, no. Definitely worth checking out I suppose.

[RustyNuts]

On 22/03/2025 at 14:19, James M said:

Any ideas here folk?

It’s been like this for ages but I’m just coming back to it after a hiatus of putting it off due to a general lack of motivation. I’m not sure if it’s possibly needing a key reprogrammed or something else is completely fucked on it.

Renault Safranes are just something else…
https://youtube.com/shorts/ad7HBPFYMHU?feature=share

Hi James,

Sorry I'm late to the party but I've only just done my periodic Safrane search here and stumbled upon your problem.

I've had this with the 2.5 Safrane that uses the RF keys - your are infra-red however I have reason to believe that you may be suffering the same problem that caused my woes. Mine was dead for ages and a renault dealer reckoned it was the UCH (which these don't have) and that it would be mega money. I came across another safrane owner in 2008 with the same problem too but fear not, there is hope as it can come back to life just as mine did.

The receiver for the keys (both IR and RF) is in the panel in the roof where the light switches and sunroof switch is. If your car has moisture in it (eg a leak) then when the air pressure drops the water will try to evaporate away and thus becomes trapped against the metal roof of the car as it passes through the roof liner. It then sits there in rather large droplets and will periodically drip down onto the unprotected receiver board that is above those switches. You may find that once the drier and warmer weather sets in, the keys will work again and that will confirm it. My workaround for this was to enclose the receiver PCB in a small plastic bag and tape it up the best I could around the wires. I've had no problems with the central locking or immobiliser for over a decade. To check this out, there is a little plastic panel behind the IR receiver dome (the black thing) - you can pull it down by getting your finger nails in the FRONT of the panel and pulling it downwards. Once you've got that small panel out, if there is water up there (or has been) you'll see signs of it.

However the keys also use rolling codes and it is possible that the keys and your car are out of sync. Now, there is a procedure to resynchronize the keys to the car but off the top of my head I can't remember what it is (it's been a long time since I tried and because it was the PCB in the roof it never worked for me anyway). If drying out and insulating your receiver doesn't work, come back to me and i'll try to find the instructions for you on how to resync.

Mine had been sat a few months after giving up and I only noticed it had come back to life again by accident in teh summer months (moisture had dried away etc) and it had also had its battery disconnected so you could also try leaving the battery disconnected for a bit too - it won't hurt it and if you're not using the car as your daily, all the better as you can leave it disconnected for a month or two.

If you do have damp, the first few places to check are the drivers door (probably passenger door too) - water leaks in via the speaker. You can cut a piece of plastic (eg freezer bag) and stick it in behind the speaker to force water to stay inside the door and run down towards the drain - then it won't run into the car. The alarm siren under the scuttle has a wire going down through the buikhead and the rubber seal can come out of place - it's a pain to put back but if you don't, water runs down it into the cabin. There is also a wiring loom above the front drivers side steering wheel - it runs through a rubber seal into the cabin and helpfully that rubber seal is inside a plastic pipe. It deteriorates badly and then lets water run down into the footwell. Then there is the rear wiper motor. That can also fail and start letting water into the boot.

Good luck, keep me in the loop

[RustyNuts]

On 22/03/2025 at 22:06, mcmolloy1 said:

Have you located the receiver for the key fob? Most Renaults of this era it's mounted in the roof and would often get damaged by a leaky aerial 

On the ph2 the aerial is at the back of the roof above the radio preamp. The only thing that goes wrong with these is if you have the CD changer in the boot the wire to the preamp can graze against the roof and then short against the exposed metal and then the CD changer stops working (yet the radio carries on which is weird). The RX is at the front above the switches for lighting, locking and sunroof.