Roverageous Goes French. Laguna Content.

[Roverageous]

Hi All,

After many years of Rovers and the off Volvo here and there, I've finally gone French. I needed something that could accommodate boxed digital pianos (estate), cheap and something I wouldn't get too emotionally attached to, and a Laguna II Sport Tourer turned up a couple of miles away for £800.

It's a late 2007 car with 111,000 miles and seems to have most of the bells and whistles. Interestingly enough, everything works, but I'm sure there will be some impending electrical doom somewhere along the line. Picked it up on Sunday just gone, and I've done a few hundred miles in it since then. Can't really fault it - it's very comfortable.

I'll get some pictures up ASAP!

[GregZX]

I had a 54 plate Lag II Estat.....err.....Sports Tourer that clocked up 140k before I sold it on. Only thing that went wrong was that the accelerator pedal suddenly dropped to the floor one day. That was fixed under warranty. Lovely big car.

[Roverageous]

Well here it is! The interior was minging, but slowly I'm getting that cleaned up and back to how it should be!

Just a couple of niggles that I've discovered so far... 

1. Rear nearside window doesn't work (don't care)

2. Aircon is cold but could be cooler

3. Hands free locking often "forgets" to lock the car as you walk away (I'll just use the button on the card).

 

 

 

[Macscrooge]

Nice looking cars these. 

[155V6]

That's a late one.Mine's an 07 plate,& is probably the best all round car I've ever had

[Noel Tidybeard]

the armchair experts will tell you that a p12 primera is a loonyguna uunder the skin- but i only found 2 swappable parts

1. rear wiper arm (hatchback)
2. interior light

even the wheels are different stud pattern!

[Daniel R25]

Hi,

I do like these lagunas as well. I now own a 2.0t Version on lpg which is great.

You can get Auto lock to work if you swap the door light bulbs for LED (w5w) ones.  I suppose the display does not show if a door is open either? Cheap and quick fix. 

Daniel

[High Jetter]

14 minutes ago, Daniel R25 said:

Hi,

I do like these lagunas as well. I now own a 2.0t Version on lpg which is great.

You can get Auto lock to work if you swap the door light bulbs for LED (w5w) ones.  I suppose the display does not show if a door is open either? Cheap and quick fix. 

Daniel

Do you have a 25, going by your name?

[Daniel R25]

Yes, a r25 turbo...

A 1991 green one, lhd. I am considering selling it as I just don't use it. I am sure there is a thread about it.

Here is more info on the auto lock problem https://www.renaultforums.co.uk/threads/laguna-door-switch.60945/

Dan

 

 

[Roverageous]

On 7/28/2022 at 11:09 PM, Daniel R25 said:

Hi,

I do like these lagunas as well. I now own a 2.0t Version on lpg which is great.

You can get Auto lock to work if you swap the door light bulbs for LED (w5w) ones.  I suppose the display does not show if a door is open either? Cheap and quick fix. 

Daniel

Funnily enough I had come across this fix on a Facebook group too. Swapped the bulbs for LEDS this morning and hey presto - we're in business! The keycard can now stay in my wallet and not risk getting lost.

Still lagun-ering around very nicely - done nearly 500 miles this week and no issues. Brake pads at the front look a bit thin & there's a slight wobble under braking from motorway speeds, so I think discs and pads are in order - but that's literally it.

The thing I'm most impressed with is the 2.0 DCi engine. I've driven many diesels and this thing is the most petrol-like diesel engine I have ever driven. Incredibly flexible, plenty of power, and pretty incredible MPG. I'm knocking on the door of 50mpg with a week of 'combined cycle' commuting and a bit of motorway. It'll be interesting to do a brim to brim check and see what it's actually doing, but based on how much fuel I've put in, and how many miles I've covered it's pretty good!

[Roverageous]

Just done my first brim-to-brim MPG calculation in this. The trip computer was showing 43.7mpg, however, I was secretly hopeful it would be a bit more than that, as the mileage covered vs range seemed to suggest we were on for better.

55.6mpg is what the car actually managed. Pretty bloody happy with that!

[Roverageous]

Little update - had this in the garage yesterday for a couple of bits. Despite the service counter showing that it had completed less than 1000 miles since the last oil change, I opted to have it done again for peace of mind. There was also an "advisory" for brake pads on the receipt with the car, so got front discs and pads done too. £220 all in - can't grumble really.

Should just be able to plonk mileage on it now

[Roverageous]

Second brim-to-brim calculation came in at 44mpg - a big difference - but this week it's done a lot of town work and also been in the garage for work. Still very happy with that - we'll see where it settles in general use.

It's obviously been a dog car previously, as I keep finding hair everywhere! I'm getting it cleaned up slowly, and getting through lots of vanish. Check out the difference of the vanished rear seat base vs the untouched seat back:

 

[Roverageous]

Could do with some advice on this, as I'm in two minds...

 

The Laguna has a bit of a wheel wobble at 55-60mph. It not severe, but it is annoying, especially as a lot of my driving is done on single carriageway A roads.

I've inspected the tyres (don't fancy a blow out!) And I can't see any defects which might cause this, no cracking on the sidewalls & evenly worn tread. I did pay to have the wheels balanced when I got the car a few weeks back, but this made minimal difference.

One half of me thinks run it until the MOT (December) and see if a ball joint / bushes / track rod end are picked up, but the other half of me thinks I should get it looked into now to prevent any other wear I might be putting on (wheel bearings etc...).

WWYD?

[Rocket88]

Swap wheels around

[horriblemercedes]

Do you know anyone who has wheels that would fit? It would be great if you could try it on wheels and tyres from a car that doesn't wobble. It could be a buckled wheel

[Roverageous]

So, having checked, the car had a full size steel spare with a brand new Michelin on. Tried to put that on, but broke the wheel wrench thing trying to undo the wheel nuts. Quick trip to Halfords (I was at work, and no other cars near by to use one from!) and we were in business.

Good news - I think. The wobble has decreased in severity (not that it was very bad anyway) and now happened at 60-65mph, rather than 55-60mph.

I think I'll try moving one of the rear tyres onto the other front wheel and see how that feels - I'm pretty sure it is tyre related. The car has done less than 5000 miles in the past 6 years, so I'm assuming they've gone out of shape somewhat.

[Roverageous]

Wobble banished!

Having swapped the front wheels (one from the rear, and the spare) the wobble has vanished totally - hurrah!

I'll run it as is for a few weeks, and then after pay-day I'll get a couple of part worns on the front so I have a full set of alloys on the car.

[Floatylight]

I had an early one of these (20yrs ago!) And the alloys buckled really easily, worth checking from the back that one of them doesn't have a flat spot on it.

[beko1987]

I remember seeing a fair few wheel weights appear on one alloy vs less on the other 3 when I took my Paris in for alignment and balancing after I changed the inner tie rods. It got rid of a similar shake. 

Was quite sad when i  scrapped it and bought the 2nd laguna as the 2nd had a beautifully mint set of steel wheels with matching genuine trims but the tyres were knackered so I had to keep my tatty alloys with OK tyres on to get the car on the road and scrap the remains of the Paris (which also needed to be rolling) 

[Roverageous]

On 8/15/2022 at 8:50 AM, beko1987 said:

I remember seeing a fair few wheel weights appear on one alloy vs less on the other 3 when I took my Paris in for alignment and balancing after I changed the inner tie rods. It got rid of a similar shake. 

Was quite sad when i  scrapped it and bought the 2nd laguna as the 2nd had a beautifully mint set of steel wheels with matching genuine trims but the tyres were knackered so I had to keep my tatty alloys with OK tyres on to get the car on the road and scrap the remains of the Paris (which also needed to be rolling) 

Coincidence of the day... I bought this car from Thame.

The Laguna continues to Lagune well overall. Unfortunately the wobble came back pretty quickly, so I'm not sure what's going on there. Going to get some new (part-worn - ASM) tyres on it ASAP.

It does seem to have at least one electrical tantrum each day, but so far nothing that stops the job. This morning it was that the drivers window would only lower by 1cm at a time.

Getting incredible MPG though - averaging 50mpg over 50 gallons of fuel (yes, I've done stupid mileage over the last month). Like it.

[beko1987]

I've had part worns from asm before, they were really good. 

The ex cracked an alloy on her zafira, and it was cheaper and easier to just buy 4 vectra alloys with bloody good tyres on than find a matching Penta alloy! 

[Roverageous]

My Laguna was bought purely as a tool to save money. Thing is, you never quite know whether a car is going to save you money when you buy it, do you?

Here's my results so far. I'm mightily impressed by the Nissan-Renault M9R engine.

15p per mile in fuel over the mileage I've done so far. You can see a comparison vs what I'd be getting from either my CDTi Rover 75 or the petrol V6 one.

Maintenance wise, it's working out at 8p per mile, so we're looking at 23p per mile all in at the moment. I expect the maintenance figure to come down a bit as I do more mileage (hopefully!).

Maintenance so far has been wheel balancing, front discs & pads, oil & filter service & a headlamp bulb.

[Roverageous]

Feeling very grumpy with this car today.

Nothing particularly wrong with it but it's been niggling at me with one thing or another all day today. Grrrrrr.

First thing this morning it wouldn't start. Had power, but as soon I pressed the start button, everything went dead. No power. Open the driver's door and boom power is back. Got bored after three tries... took the battery connections off, put them back on, fires straight up. 

Went to leave work, and it would start but then cut out a few minutes later, and no power again. Open the driver's door and the power comes back! Jiggled the battery terminals and that sorted it.

Came to turn the engine off this evening and it took about 5 seconds to shut down... press the stop button, interior lights sort of half come on, engine almost stops and then chugs away for a second or so before turning off with a massive vibration through the car.

What the f?

[High Jetter]

C'est francais!

[beko1987]

I still class my 6 speed manual 1.9dci early basic lag 2 as one of the better cars I've had. Was just bloody nice to get up the road in! 

Then they go all French... 

[vaughant]

13 hours ago, Roverageous said:

Feeling very grumpy with this car today.

Nothing particularly wrong with it but it's been niggling at me with one thing or another all day today. Grrrrrr.

First thing this morning it wouldn't start. Had power, but as soon I pressed the start button, everything went dead. No power. Open the driver's door and boom power is back. Got bored after three tries... took the battery connections off, put them back on, fires straight up. 

Went to leave work, and it would start but then cut out a few minutes later, and no power again. Open the driver's door and the power comes back! Jiggled the battery terminals and that sorted it.

Came to turn the engine off this evening and it took about 5 seconds to shut down... press the stop button, interior lights sort of half come on, engine almost stops and then chugs away for a second or so before turning off with a massive vibration through the car.

What the f?

I did some minor bodywork on one of these years ago, think it was a touch earlier than yours maybe a 54 plate? 

Anyway the guy I did it for didn't really like the car and offered it to me for the cost of the repairs and I think £300 on top, told him I'd think about it, I still had it another day to hand it back to him. 

I loved the way it drove, great on fuel, looked good, plenty of room and power, dog loved it too but it started doing that wierd thing you're describing a few hours before I was due to make a decision. 

Then it started playing up not recognising the key card, then it said there was an injector fault on the dash then after a quick battery off and on it worked so I drove it straight over to him and said I wasn't really interested. 

He had it a few weeks of perfect ownership then the exact same thing happened but it had to be recovered and the root cause never found. 

Shame as when working they are really fantastic cars. 

[Roverageous]

I was very tired last night and it shows in my post.

I really like it as a car - I could never love it in the same way I have some of my other cars - but that's the point. It's a good drive, comfy, decent ride & very very very good on fuel.

Been out in it this morning and it behaved faultlessly, other than the interior blower not working. That's usually fixed by turning it off and on again.

[Roverageous]

Sitrep... This car is currently averaging around 500 miles a week for me at the moment, and no show stoppers yet. Despite being caught in 3 hours of traffic when the M1 was closed the other day, it's most recent tank returned 51mpg & I'm averaging 49 mpg since buying the car.

It certainly has it's niggles, and these are:

• Doesn't like cold starts. It's something electrical, but will sometimes hit the start button and the dials flick around for a minute and it gives up before even cranking the engine. Try again and it tends to be fine.
• Keyless locking works, but keyless unlocking has become flaky from the driver's side. Probably the sensor on the driver's door handle.
• Courtesy lights on the door flicker incessantly. Quite annoying, but I've reseated the LEDs etc... Can't get them to become stable.
• Interior courtesy light flickers. Again reseated the LED bulb and cleaned the connections, but it's not having it.
• When turning the engine off, it now seems to send a horrible shudder through the car. Don't think it's engine mounts, as it starts nicely and I'm not getting any vibration through the seat or steering wheel from the engine.
• Steering still has a bit of a wobble at about 55mph. I'll get new tyres in the next couple of weeks, then chuck it through an MOT and see if anything comes to light.

 

[Roverageous]

Slight update...

This car managed to catch fire* in the centre of Aylesbury during rush hour and generally make a bit of a nuisance over itself. First I knew about it was when the car just cut out with no electrical power at all. Thankfully a kindly garageman was passing and towed me to his yard where he managed to coax it all back to life.

It was very simple... the positive battery terminal was all a bit skew-whiff (they're a bit complicated on these) and melted something plastic, which helped the droopy under bonnet sound deadening to get a bit smokey.

*Not so much a catching fire, but a singe-ing of the under bonnet sound deadening material.

It lives to commute another day!