Renault Engines

[mark_n]

Hello,

I have been looking at a few Renault Megane III. What are the engines like for reliability? I am a little put off by Renault engines as a friend had a 2001 Laguna with a 1.9 diesel engine which had numerous engine faults inc a new turbo.

Thanks

[Northern_Mike]

There has been six Renaults in our family over the years. Every single one of them caught fire, even a 16,000km, 18 month old, bought new, always dealer serviced Twingo, that nearly killed my dad and stepmum when it went up so quickly...

[Citroenmad]

Every single one of them caught fire ...

That is not really what you want is it

I guess your family now avoids Renaults Mike?

We had a couple of Renaults which had serious design faults, a shame as I like quite a few of the range.

The 1.9DCi is a terrible engine on the whole, more have issues than not, same with the 2.2DCi. The 1.5DCi and the 2.0DCi are not bad engines.

The MeganeIII looks a nice car and the interior quality is certainly an improvement. The petrol engines never seem to give much trouble and the newer diesels seem good too. I suspect electrical gremlins are still to be watched for.

Id consider a MeganeIII but really like the LagunaIIIs.

[Deanxm]

Not a car and it is off topic but i will never buy a Renault commercial van again, mine has been a massive pain in the arse, utter rubbish tbh, bought at 40k ish now just rolled over to 77777miles but............. its had a new head, aux tensioners, 14 injector seals, and injector, a clutch, two wheel bearings, the handbrake keeps seizing all the time as the cable routing means water sprayed from the road runs down the cables and roggers them by sitting inside, the alarm packed up 3 times by sounding and not being able to turn it off dispite having a new alarm unit (Although to be fair the new unit did last 18 months) , Now its popped its 15th injector seal and the headgasket is letting go, utterly cr*p engine.

D

[myglaren]

Renaults have not been the same since they stopped using Estelle Skornik to advertise them.

[Northern_Mike]

Every single one of them caught fire ...

That is not really what you want is it

I guess your family now avoids Renaults Mike?

My dad lives in Greece. They were on their way back from a late-night party on a mountain road towards Athens. My dad smelt and saw smoke from under the dash, and then the whole thing literally just went up instantly. Couldn't even get his wallet out the glovebox I have pictures of the finished article somewhere....

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/1174 ... 3881988514" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My dad writes " It had actually done 23000 km! Serviced in excess of requirements by the main dealer from whom it was purchased. Not touched by anyone else! Garaged all its life. Spontaneously combusted and fire brigade took 45 minutes to arrive. Renault unhelpful and arrogant in the extreme, claimed that the car did not have climate control and ABS, for which we paid a lot extra (and have thr invoice) and the only concesssion offered was a discount if we bought another. No more french motors for me!!"

My dad, before this, loved French cars.

What made it completely bizarre is that his wife , whose name the car was registered in, was prosecuted for endangering his life by the Greek authorities! Eventually all charges were dropped, but it took a couple of years. How mad is that?!

[Citroenmad]

What made it completely bizarre is that his wife , whose name the car was registered in, was prosecuted for endangering his life by the Greek authorities! Eventually all charges were dropped, but it took a couple of years. How mad is that?!

That is crazy! Its not as if she made the car herself, though probably could of done a better job!

[R9UKE]

Keep up with regular servicing (once a year or 10k miles - NOT the recommended 18k miles) and you will be absolutely fine with the modern dCis.

[KevMayer]

I've just got myself a brand new Megane III. It's a 1.5 dci sport tourer with a 6 speed EDC twin clutch auto transmission.

So far it's returning 52 mpg.

The EDC box is very smooth and with 110 bhp the engine performs very well.

[Stekelly]

There has been six Renaults in our family over the years. Every single one of them caught fire, even a 16,000km, 18 month old, bought new, always dealer serviced Twingo, that nearly killed my dad and stepmum when it went up so quickly...

In my 14 years driving I havnt even come across 6 cars that have go on fire (on their own ) nevermind any in the family. Are you sure peopel arent smoking on the sly ?

We've had 1 Clio II, a Scenic I PhII, A Grand Scenic II , 2 Safranes , a laguna I and a Megane III, between me, the missus, my mother & father in the last 12 years, All have been/were pretty faultless.Small bits over regular maintenance. In the extended family and friends theres been a few Meganes ( II's) , Clio III . Friend of my dads has had big Renaults going back to the 80's.

Incidentally the only cars I've been anyway stranded by were my 2 forays away from French cars, a 94 Accord 2.0 and it's badge engineered sister, a 94 Rover 620.

[myglaren]

Oddly enough I just passed a new Mondeo on fire on my way home from work.

[Stekelly]

Oddly enough I just passed a new Mondeo on fire on my way home from work.

The most recent (and one of only 2 or 3 ive ever seen) car I;ve seen on fire was when I was over in Blackpool in MArch. We were staying in Bolton and just got on the motorway headign to Blackpool , on the far side there was a current model Zafira with flames comeing from the engine bay and a woman (and kids iirc) standing back from it watching it burn.

[R9UKE]

There is an ongoing safety issue with Renault at the minute about their electric mirror switches. These stay live ALL THE TIME, and there have been numerous cases of them overheating and causing fires in the Scénic.

I can safely say that none of my brood have spontaneously combusted just yet.... probably because I love petrol too much to buy a dCi

[scrapcar]

Hi R9UKE, do you know what years this fault covers?

[Deanxm]

My van once again re kindled my hatred of modern Renaults, its been in the garage for a week having ANOTHER set of injector seals but then an injector packed up, i picked it up from the garage last friday and 4 hours later she was running on 3, then 2 and it had to be towed, it seems because the things been worked on so much all the wiring in the engine management loom is breaking all over the place, got a new loom fitted and picked it up yesterday, this lunch time the power steering pump seized, got the pulley shaft red hot (with no noise at all) melted the oil seal and then spewed oil out at a fantastic open ended pipe sort of way which then promptly produced a smoke screen and oil trail on the dual carrageway James bond would be proud of
so now it needs new brakes, aux and cam belts its the worst engine ive ever had the misfortune of owning

D