That Lovejoy Safrane

[RustyNuts]

On 28/08/2024 at 18:06, James M said:

Definitely. 

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

I recognise both of those registrations on them safranes!

Did you by any chance by the Ph1 from a guy called Dave or Luke?

The Ph2 was on ebay years ago.

On 29/12/2024 at 10:17, andyberg said:

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

You might be able to one use from from a 2.5 or a Volvo 850 2L as most of it is the same as the volvo setup with the exception of the engine mounts and timing marks on the cam pulleys (on all three Safrane engines I've had out, the cams are swapped - the exhaust cam pulley is on the inlet cam and the inlet pulley is on the exhaust cam). Failing that a good electric motor rewinds place will rebuild it. Try Robson and Francis rewinds in London. They rewound the armature on my vans automatic hydraulic pump - £95 plus vat. Everywhere else wanted a minimum of £500.

[James M]

10 hours ago, RustyNuts said:

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

I’ll definitely need to try this. I really appreciate you taking your time to write that all out. There’s definitely water ingress in the car hence why the bloody electric seat stopped working. Possibly coming in through the sunroof or the driver’s door. Regarding the ph2 Safrane I had; I got an alternator for it eventually and ended up selling it on. Insurance was horrendous and I couldn’t justify keeping it

[RustyNuts]

49 minutes ago, James M said:

I’ll definitely need to try this. I really appreciate you taking your time to write that all out. There’s definitely water ingress in the car hence why the bloody electric seat stopped working. Possibly coming in through the sunroof or the driver’s door. Regarding the ph2 Safrane I had; I got an alternator for it eventually and ended up selling it on. Insurance was horrendous and I couldn’t justify keeping it

 

Oh crumbs, sorry to hear you sold the ph2. They're not the cheapest to insure but the engines in them are fairly bomb proof as long as you don't disturb them like I did lol. I still have the original engine in storage and then ended up doing the head gasket on the replacement in situ which was a horrible job.

So with the locking I assume you're now taking about the phase 1 instead.. I don't know much about those but I would imagine the receiver is still in the same place with similar woes but I think on those the aerial is at the front of the car? So it could be leaking directly onto the receiver. Also check your key is transmitting by pressing the button and holding the ir emitter in front of a camera (eg the camera on your phone). We can't see IR light but a digital camera can and it will let you see if it is working.

With regards to your electric seat what's wrong with it? Mine stopped moving back and forth but the motor was still trying. The runner had seized due to corrosion and I had to dismantle the whole chair (working around a live impact triggered air bag in the process). It took me 5-6 days with tools everywhere, grinding, cutting, welding, replacing bearings etc but I got it going again! Pig of a job but there's pretty much nothing I've not done on this car - I'm fairly knowledgeable with the ph2 at least. On the ingress side of it there are electronic computers under the driver seat. Disconnect them and let them dry out and they might come back to life. Also you can't see it but water can collect under the carpet in the front footwell. I literally found a large puddle in there. You can remove the side trim and then lift the carpet partially to check. If you find water, stick some wooden car litter pellets in there for a few days and then you can vacuum it all out.

I did know an expert in ph1 and he has an account here but he sold up a few years ago and got out off the Renault game.

PS I've edited and added content to this reply several times so hit refresh in a few minutes just in case you've missed anything.

[James M]

Looking pretty dry up here. Held the key right up to the black dome and pressed the button on it yet sadly got nothing from it.

[Arthur-walker]

wasn't the ecu completely corroded?  could that be causing the issue with the key?  I think I said this before but a good auto electrician is what you need here, just fork out a bit of cash and get it running again because I bet it is something simple to the right person who knows where to look.

[James M]

My worry is spending a ton of money on an auto electrician and still not get anywhere with it. I can imagine lots of folk will probably turn the job down too.

[Arthur-walker]

12 hours ago, James M said:

My worry is spending a ton of money on an auto electrician and still not get anywhere with it. I can imagine lots of folk will probably turn the job down too.

yeah fair enough, maybe just get an idea from one so at the very worst you lose a call out fee, at best they might give you the reassurance they can fix it but it's your call obviously!