Laguna V6 24v woes

[25v6turbo]

Well thought i would give yo an update on my V6 Laguna i bought a few weeks ago,and a bit of advice.....

I won the car from a trader with 100% feedback and he answered all my questions i asked,i paid not a lot for so much car(its a R reg V6 24V executive)so has all the toys and full leather,was top of the range when new...

I only paid £500 for it delivered to my work(i wasn,t there to meet the seller but someone else did the paperwork etc)

Now i know i,am a bit fussy but i did ask about anything that didn,t work,scuffs,dents,rust etc etc

So i was less than impressed when i arrived at work to be greeted by something a lot less as described!!!!

He knew i worked for Renault so i know my stuff,i already own the identical car(my wifes,this one is for my dad).

Well no service history,which i knew, but rumoured to be 40k from new,this i actually proved to be correct by using our warrenty history(first 3 years)and the VOSA site which lists MOTs back to 2006,2 keys as said,4 owners(the listing said 2)scuff on front bumper,various chips,and its been through every bush in the U.K down the N/S,its terrible,all wiper blades split,no radio code,bone dry on fuel(a tenner didn,t put the light out)both front fogs cracked plus a few other faults,WHY don,t people tell you about all this,why lie???

Now its all mint now after spending 10 hours on it over the weekend at work,full service,new fogs,radio code found,wipers replaced,full valet including a detailed mop,vax etcit does look really nice,but its been a bit of a struggle,still owes me under £600 though so not bad at all??

One question,when its running it smells very rich,its C/O is fine,not high,what do you think this could be?,coolant temp sensor,oxy sensor??,it runs fine,starts spot on hot/cold,any thoughts?,its actually turned out quite a nice car,the interior is mint,never smoked in,unused spare/toolkit but i do need a climate control panel if anyone knows of one in a scrappy!!

I must admit the roar it gives is great but maybe the cat is knackered hence the rich smell?,but the MOT was fine so was the C/O test.

[M'coli]

Fill it up, drive it about and fill it up, see if it's using much more fuel that it should do.

[dieselnutjob]

to be honest it still sounds like a bargain. it could have been a lot worse.

[25v6turbo]

Its showing 30 MPH and thats after a run from Kent to Surrey,i think thats not bad at all?

[Timewaster]

Its showing 30 MPH and thats after a run from Kent to Surrey,i think thats not bad at all?

 

That sounds terrible!

 

How much fuel did it use at that speed?!

[25v6turbo]

My wifes V6 only does 19MPG around town...

30MPG on a run is good,the other one did 32 at the most on a trip to devon,with careful driving.

[r.welfare]

Is there a way of reading ECU codes on one of these? My wife's Avensis still smells very rich when cold; code reading indicates one of the cats isn't working at full efficiency but no issues in driveability (other than a slight hesitation/holdback until 3000rpm, consistent with a blocked cat I suppose) or CO/HC reading. Does rev quite high (1600rpm) when stone cold but I'm led to believe that's normal. I would expect some hunting when warm or stalling when cold if there was a lambda sensor issue (I had this big style until I replaced all 4 of the damn things), not sure on the temp sensor though. If it's cheap to get one, might be worth changing?

 

30mpg on a gentle run from a V6 (it's an auto, isn't it?) sounds about right to me, to be honest - I can't remember my Mitsubish Sigma 3.0V6 auto getting that far off that on a run; I had a manual 3.0V6 Omega that did about 31-33mpg when driven (very) gently.

[AXrescuer]

Its showing 30 MPH and thats after a run from Kent to Surrey,i think thats not bad at all?

 

That sounds terrible!

 

How much fuel did it use at that speed?!

 

Boom boom! lol

[25v6turbo]

The C/O test says 2500-3000rpm 0.01 co, 0.20 max and HC 18PPM with 200PPM max,so looks very weak?

At 450-1500RPM the C/O is 0.01 with 0.30%vol max,so i,am guessing its running weak there

My 25 stunk aswell but was spot on with the C/O aswell and that was pre cat.

The Cat is def a bit throaty as the car has a huge and quite pleasing roar when pushed.

[Guest]

No offence, but it's a £500 car, and a complicated £500 French car at that. If you wanted something in better condition you should have held out for something that met your expectations and was more money. It really doesn't sound bad for what you've paid. Even if a seller said a car for that money had 'no faults' I wouldn't be shocked if it did. Cars age, things break.

 

Please don't tell me you bought it unseen? You're almost sounding as if you feel like you got done. Even with the [fairly minor] faults that you listed, it sounds like a decent car for the money. I don't know why the seller lied about the number of owners - I would expect a car that age to have had a few.

 

And just to play Devil's Advocate for a sec, I bought my 480 off the strength of the seller's eBay description. He could spell and form cogent sentences, and the text wasn't in neon yellow and an enormous size. He missed a few things off which weren't immediately apparent on the photos, and a couple of things he didn't notice not being a car person. 'It's an old cheap car so what did you expect?' can only get you so far, but because he was a reasonable bloke he gave me the benefit of the doubt despite saying that his 'specialist mate' (who thought the car was a turbo 'because it had a loud [read knackered] exhaust) 'didn't notice any of those things'.

 

You sound like someone who takes great pride in his cars, and wants everything about them to be present and correct. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you dip your toe in at that end of the market, not everyone has the same standards as you, especially 'because it's a cheap car'. You can't expect perfection and things inevitably get missed off. I'm not saying that's right, that's just what happens with cheap cars. There has to be a fine line between getting the thing out of the door and shooting any chance it had of selling to pieces by listing every faulty item in sight. Even you admit the Laguna V6 24V was a niche interest model - how hard do you think it must have been for the seller to get it out of the door?

 

As for the problems ('woes' is a bit strong don't you think? - that read to me like you'd bought a crock of shit) have you checked the MAF sensor? If that's sending the wrong information to the ECU it can send your fuel bills west very quickly indeed. An ECU fault code reading session would probably be a wise course of action as well, I'd think a main agent *might* still have the right diagnostic equipment in stock. Failing that I'd be taking it to a Clio V6 specialist, as they used the same basic engine, albeit reworked.

[peter9000uk]

Wat, Dave works at a Renault main dealer!

 

BTW, Dave have you let Martin have a look? He has worked there for ages and will probably have a good idea.

My thoughts.... Do these have a chacoal canister on the emissions set up? Vent pipe off the fuel tank? Leaky fuel pipe of filter perchance.

 

Italian tune up

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Gotta be honest i'm with WAT on this one, you might just as easily have driven it 100 miles and the head gasket had a prolapse or something. if its mint after a days cleaning and buffing and drives OK returning 30mpg sounds like you're doing alright to me! Lets see a few pics, is it a manual bocks?

[Guest]

Crumbs, it didn't have much fuel in? Should have walked away.

[25v6turbo]

I know i,am sounding a bit pissed off,but on first viewing the car(no i didn,t bother looking at it first,it was cheap i guess and no time)i was upset at the things that i wasn,t told that needing looking at,none a real issue at all,but i had a budget that my dad had set and with a few things added to it it gone a touch over but not much,and at £600 its a lot of car for the cash,goes like stink,sounds great(its an Auto ZF box)i got it plugged in at work tonight,didn,t show any problems,but did get a comment about it smelling a bit,but going to live with it,i must say,owning 2 of these that they are great cars in my opinion,much better built than the later laguna 2 V6s and you can work on them,plus the engine/box are a great reliable unit,anyone else on here own one?

[Bren]

Never owned the V6, but I once had a p reg 2.0 RT auto. Great car, quite nippy, but bailed out after a scare with the auto box. Cost me £250 to put it right, the previous owner admitted he had spent £500 when it stopped shifting properly.

 

Saw my arse and sold it to a polish lad, only lost £200 in two years. I think it went to Poland with him.

[Mr Lobster]

Sounds like you've done alright with that to me considering the money. If you've managed to get it all sorted and minted and it still owes you under £600 then I'd reckon you've done alright on it tbh.

 

Old, cheap cars have faults. Could have been a lot worse.

[Guest]

Old, cheap cars have faults. Could have been a lot worse.

 

Yeah. It might not have had much fuel in it. Caveat emptor.