Renault life. Chopping stuff up and large turbo

[Brigsy]

Evening all.

Renault hoarder checking in.

First one up is the daily driver clio 1.5dci.

Bought in 2019 for £280 as a cheap runner for work use, bodywork rust free but ten footer at best. Mileage was quite low at 107k and had a/c which was essential but didnt work as expected. Test drive was hilarious due to no power and all the black smoke due to knackered egr.

Done a few bits to it, turbo, cambelt, ac repair and fixed a load of oil leaks from previous bodgers working on it. Converted the back to a van with the mk2 clio van panels as i had ladders and surveying gear in the back all the time and wanted to keep unwanted eyes from looking in.

Put a clutch in at 125 ish thou, and shortly after that it started smoking from cold, which got worse and worse until it was smoking the street out with blue smoke when cold/accelerating.

The oil consumption was something daft like 4ltrs per 1000 miles at 143k. It was running ok apart from oil consumption, so pulled it to bits xmas 2021 and give the engine a 2 day freshen up.

Head and sump off, pistons out revealing stuck piston rings with no spring left. Flex honed the bores in situ, new rings, new h/g and cambelt etc around £250 in parts, and back to hardly no oil consumption around 1ltr per 6-8k which is acceptable.

After running in the new rings the best way which is hard, i done a few thousand miles without issue then at 150k had the offer of a £25 trade price 'stg1 80hp' map..flashed it on with mpps v18 and have sent it ever since. 75mpg on a run and high 60s all the time regardless of driving.

Over the last 60k all its needed is service bits, an alternator, another 2nd hand turbo as the one i fitted was a bit tired 80 thou later. Also recently it had starting issues which i resolved after a bit of trial and error, replacing one injector with high leakoff and the fuel pressure sensor died one day.

It passed 200k a couple of weeks ago and is over 201 now with a trip to London with work earlier this week.

Mega value for money and its paid for itself over and over again on 45ppm company mileage. Drives good, ac is ice cold, low key park anywhere kind of vehicle.

Plan is to run it until the bodywork expires and its still rust free where it counts, so might take a while at this rate!

[SiC]

That yellow RS 225 F1 👀

@cort16 on here has one too, with similar miles as your Clio

[cort16]

23 minutes ago, SiC said:

That yellow RS 225 F1 👀

@cort16 on here has one too, with similar miles as your Clio

226 you can't forget about that extra 1 bhp 😂

Here's mine with 204,000 miles. It currently has a seized alternator and has been off the road for 18 months, Currently trying to get up the enthusiasm to fix it. 

[Brigsy]

43 minutes ago, SiC said:

That yellow RS 225 F1 👀

@cort16 on here has one too, with similar miles as your Clio

Cant beat a high miler.

16 minutes ago, cort16 said:

226 you can't forget about that extra 1 bhp 😂

Here's mine with 204,000 miles. It currently has a seized alternator and has been off the road for 18 months, Currently trying to get up the enthusiasm to fix it. 

Nice! Love the meganes. Mines on 140k and a bit like triggers broom, falls right into the autoshiter experience as it was bottom price for liquid yellow when i bought it. I also have a ph1 225 and mk3 250rs currently, prefer driving mk2 as more fun.

[Brigsy]

A few pics of the mk2 r26 track car.

Got offered this 2 years ago whilst on holiday, running/driving project for £3k which was prob the cheapest liquid yellow mk2 megane for sale at the time. Id said no more cars but holiday thoughts of a cheap track car/sun and drink influenced it.

Viewed it when home and it looked better than anticipated but still needed a fcuk load of work doing, on test run it was pulling left and right when accelerating straight and suspension looked like it had been in the sea. Eventually purchased after a bit of tail chasing with previous owner and sat like this for 2 month whilst work done. 

This included full front and rear suspension/perfo hub rebuild, cambelt, loads of other stuff that was missing or fcuked. Ended up spending a few quid putting it right, but still a cheap car overall.

Ran it for a bit then upgraded a few bits, intercooler, half roll cage, mapped to 273hp to keep reliable.

Turned out to be a decent car. Ive done quite a few uk trackdays in it and overseas including Spa Francorchamps and touch wood, its always delivered.

Im not too precious about using this all the time and daily it quite often. It drives great on the road. 30-40mpg on a run on cruise, decent ac. Its the go to car if not using the blue clio.

[Pauly.22]

I’ve got a mk1 koleos daily driver. 
Renaults are not as bad as people think imo 

[Brigsy]

7 minutes ago, Pauly.22 said:

I’ve got a mk1 koleos daily driver. 
Renaults are not as bad as people think imo 

Dont see many mk1 koleos about now.

Defo, clio makes a good daily. Parts are 2 a penny for them, tallying up over last 100k/6years the blue clio has cost nowt to run, 2grand in parts tops. 

Just the right amount of tech. Abs, power steering and electric windows. No apple carplay tele on the dash.

[sierraman]

Renaults are uniformly slagged off but the more recent ones are pretty durable. The Megane 2 and the Laguna 2 DCI were rightly slagged off as they weee appallingly made. But the Laguna 3 was vastly vastly better to the point they make a good reliable car. 

[Brigsy]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

Renaults are uniformly slagged off but the more recent ones are pretty durable. The Megane 2 and the Laguna 2 DCI were rightly slagged off as they weee appallingly made. But the Laguna 3 was vastly vastly better to the point they make a good reliable car. 

Agreed, meg2 build quality was questionable at best and laguna2 was criminal. Only plus side was both dont really rust.

Newer ren is decent, well no worse than the rest. Same shit different flavour describes them well i guess.

 

[RayMK]

A long time ago I bought a Renault 12TS.  It dropped a valve at 156K but was reliable and comfortable prior to that (I had it from about 52K).  Understeer was appalling though and it struggled to pull our 14ft caravan, requiring 3rd gear a lot of the time.  A bit later I had a Renault 20.  A comfortable old barge which pulled  the caravan with ease.  It liked to rust!!  Have not really considered Renaults since then, except for the small, recentish rear engined one but was put off by the lack of interior space.  My 2007 Mitsubishi i which had a similar configuration had adequate room for 4 adults, unlike the Renault (and the Smart version) which only had rear seats suitable for kids or amputees.  

@Brigsy Your orange Megane looks good and obviously goes well.

[cort16]

I've had way less problems with all the Renaults I've owned compared to the german stuff right up until the brake problem with the MK4 Megane daily I had, which was a nightmare.

Even then I'm not sure it was necessarily a Renault issue other than the corroded connectors as all newer cars now have parts coded to the vins and worse on the very newest stuff. 

[loserone]

This thread is highly relevant to my interests 

[JMotor]

9 hours ago, Brigsy said:

Oh my 😍.

That really suits the MO's.

Good work on the Clio too. Can't beat having a handy wee van like that. 

[FakeConcern]

I got Mk2 Clios for both my daughters to learn to drive in and Mrs Concern had a Mk1 ph3, she now has a Modus. 

I joined Cliosport when I needed help with the kids cars and followed @Brigsy's Megane build, I love that thing in Liquid Yellow! Nice to see you on Autoshite...

[IronStar]

Can someone clue me up on what’s up with mk2 Lagunas? I know that 1.9DCI is prone to grenading the engine when turbo blows, and keycards are a bit shit, but other than that….

There’s plenty of them around here left. My ex’s dad had one, 1.6 petrol estate, and whilst completely gutless because too small engine (not helped by the fact that we always borrowed it to fully brim the cavernous insides) it was ridiculously comfortable, well equipped, especially for a low-specced model. 

[sierraman]

EGR sticking then grenading the turbo.

[bigfella2]

Enjoyed reading about the RS powered kangoo on another forum if your the same person. Don't you also have a daft Renault 5 van?

[artdjones]

Also. Window regulators, and electrical problems. Alloys that bend if you look at them. I would like a late 2.0DCi 150, but MK2 Laguna's have disappeared from the face of the earth.

I always thought they were better than their rep. Especially if you bought a fairly low spec one, and looked after it. 

[loserone]

2 minutes ago, bigfella2 said:

Don't you also have a daft Renault 5 van?

If in doubt, sort it out.  They're brilliant.

[IronStar]

1 hour ago, sierraman said:

EGR sticking then grenading the turbo.

Ah, that’ll be it then. They’re all blanked out here 🤣

[Pauly.22]

20 hours ago, Brigsy said:

Dont see many mk1 koleos about now.

Defo, clio makes a good daily. Parts are 2 a penny for them, tallying up over last 100k/6years the blue clio has cost nowt to run, 2grand in parts tops. 

Just the right amount of tech. Abs, power steering and electric windows. No apple carplay tele on the dash.

I’m on my second one now. 09 reg one had had a hard life before I got it and need too much for another MOT
 

[Rocket88]

Of a slightly more elderly disposition….

[Brigsy]

13 hours ago, JMotor said:

Oh my 😍.

That really suits the MO's.

Good work on the Clio too. Can't beat having a handy wee van like that. 

Cheers mate! Mo's were a rare find as i believe they were used for testing on pre production 225.

Clio just keeps going and going its been mega.

12 hours ago, FakeConcern said:

I got Mk2 Clios for both my daughters to learn to drive in and Mrs Concern had a Mk1 ph3, she now has a Modus. 

I joined Cliosport when I needed help with the kids cars and followed @Brigsy's Megane build, I love that thing in Liquid Yellow! Nice to see you on Autoshite...

Cheers mate! Recognised the name. Ive been lurking on here for a little while just got round to posting. My kind of forum this😁

10 hours ago, bigfella2 said:

Enjoyed reading about the RS powered kangoo on another forum if your the same person. Don't you also have a daft Renault 5 van?

Cheers mate! I do indeed own the Kangoo and the Extra. 

10 hours ago, loserone said:

If in doubt, sort it out.  They're brilliant.

The Extra vans are mega. I have a later ph3? Challenger on r reg. Highly modified owned it for 17 years.

[Brigsy]

A couple of my other Renaults. Vans this time.

I have owned and worked on renault 5 gt turbos forever, since early 2000's. 2008 i bought my Extra van as i fancied converting it to r5gtt power. Spring 2008 and it was done and road legal.

17 years later its still here going through a few different upgrades. Current spec is efi converted r5gtt engine with various upgrades 250hp/27psi boost. Its on leda suspension and has a quaife lsd too, brake upgrades etc. Fast and fairly reliable, i mainly track day it now but have been everywhere in it ove the years including a few europe trips.

[Floatylight]

11 hours ago, IronStar said:

Can someone clue me up on what’s up with mk2 Lagunas? I know that 1.9DCI is prone to grenading the engine when turbo blows, and keycards are a bit shit, but other than that….

So, I had an early mk2 1.9dci at 2 years old, in the sorry 2 years i had it suffered with:-

Terrible fuel economy (could not get better than 35mpg)

Keycards not recognised (twice, need AA out)

Rear caliper seized

Steering rack failure

Gearbox oil leaked out down driveshaft and onto brake disc (came into dartford crossing toll booth sideways)

Sunroof got confused and stuck open

Many other niggles and grumbles but the final straw was the turbo failing at 80k miles and the dealers failings causing the extended warranty not to pay out.

In the two years it must have seen at least 20 visits to the dealer who clearly knew what a crock of crap they were.

That said, when it was working it was lovely to drive and comfortable

[Brigsy]

I also have a Kangoo mk2 compact. Its the swb model which is rare ish in the uk. I bought the van for £450 2019 with half a diesel engine in with the idea of converting to megane rs running gear. I had it completed and road legal 2021 and i believe its the first ever megane rs converted one in the world. 

Its running a forged megane rs engine 350hp, megane 250 6 speed gearbox with lsd. Ast coilovers, megane 225 front suspension and perfo hubs. Loads of other bits.

It works pretty well in its current guise but as always there is room for improvements.

Its also absolutely useless as a van..the back of the blue clio is bigger..its the same wheelbase as mk2 twingo. Enough room to pick baguettes up with or whatever😅

[loserone]

5 hours ago, Brigsy said:

Kangoo mk2 compact

This is superb and the only CS thread I was following.  Great build!

[Matty]

19 hours ago, IronStar said:

Can someone clue me up on what’s up with mk2 Lagunas? I know that 1.9DCI is prone to grenading the engine when turbo blows, and keycards are a bit shit, but other than that….

There’s plenty of them around here left. My ex’s dad had one, 1.6 petrol estate, and whilst completely gutless because too small engine (not helped by the fact that we always borrowed it to fully brim the cavernous insides) it was ridiculously comfortable, well equipped, especially for a low-specced model. 

I had a phase 2 tourer with the f4r 2 litre 16v in it. Couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding and liked front springs but apart from that it was faultless. Nice looking thing as well. Leccy handbrake killed it in the end.

[Matty]

7 hours ago, Brigsy said:

I also have a Kangoo mk2 compact. Its the swb model which is rare ish in the uk. I bought the van for £450 2019 with half a diesel engine in with the idea of converting to megane rs running gear. I had it completed and road legal 2021 and i believe its the first ever megane rs converted one in the world. 

Its running a forged megane rs engine 350hp, megane 250 6 speed gearbox with lsd. Ast coilovers, megane 225 front suspension and perfo hubs. Loads of other bits.

It works pretty well in its current guise but as always there is room for improvements.

Its also absolutely useless as a van..the back of the blue clio is bigger..its the same wheelbase as mk2 twingo. Enough room to pick baguettes up with or whatever😅

Fuck me that's marvelous.

[bigfella2]

Shorty kangoos look so comical it's unreal.