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My cat's used all nine lives....

Miguel 4747

New Member
Recently i had a coil go, replaced it, then a week later two more went so i thought 'Renault can have it back as it still has one months warranty left'. They had it and replaced the coils, i picked it up and on my way home i noticed there was a rattling sound under load and on the overrun. It sounded like it was coming from my K-tec backbox so i had it taken off at a local garage and they found it was fine and suspected it was the cat. Got the Vee back to Renault yesterday, they spent 8 hours stripping out the exhaust and all the cat parts. It seems every part of the cat inside has been barbecued, loose parts rattling inside everywhere, they suspect the faulty coils have caused fuel to burn through it, even though the car has never driven more than a few minutes with one down.

The garage have ordered all necessary parts from France (retails at over £3500!!!) and given me a roller skate to drive for what could be a few weeks. I feel lucky that i still have warranty cover, although the garage said they would expect renault to cover anyway given that it only has 16200 miles on the clock.

This has made me more keen than ever to change my coils to trophy ones because a bill like this in a year or twos time would ultimately ruin my joy of this car, and certainly end my ownership. Renault at Canterbury have been superb thusfar and have said they can't imagine any further damage could have occurred, if anyone thinks something else could have been affected, please, please let me know.
 
The service guy reckoned a rough estimate for total cost (retail) of parts to build a complet car would be something like 60K [smilie=icon_albino.gif]
 
Renault lost money on each car to begin with too - they are just trying to recoup it in the retail sale of spares :approve:

Martin
 
I guess so, my ktec backbox is much better than the stock one which they told me retails for £1100 -and it so much more shiny! :D

The courtesy car i have is a new clio 1.something piece'o'crap -really, really naff car, but it feels really light, i am pretty sure that if you wanted to (and i am not saying i have done this loads of times over the past two days) you could pull awesome handbrake turns :badgrin:
 
£3500!!! ouch that would be enough to end my ownership of the car!

although...i would definately ring up k-tec and order the janspeed full decat system for £1100...and just slip an MOT tester £20 to make it pass :)
 
Thought i would post an update:

My car is still in the workshop at Canterbury Renault. They have two parts of the cat (delivered from Dieppe i think). The third is having to be manufactured apparently, hence the wait. I am told i should be able to have the car back sometime in January :(

My warranty ended yesterday so i have paid for a years cover with warranty direct which on the face of it seems a good deal (especially considering what this repair must be costing Renault!).

Its actually quite a nice change driving a car that doesn't attract so much attention but the novelty is wearing off. I want my VEE back [smilie=icon_cry.gif]
 
'IF' the dealers wanted to be funny couldn't they say you've modified a connecting part from standard and therefore replacing the cat is voided under warrenty?
 
I have been open and honest with them from the start; explaining that i have fitted a pipercross airfilter and k-tec backbox. They said these would have no adverse effects on the cat system. I guess if they wanted to be difficult they could have, but given the fact that i have registered complaints with Renault Uk after each and every coil failure, they probably wouldn't have a case.
 
Miguel 4747 - if you mean the main dealer opposite Mitsubishi etc then, speaking from experience, be very very careful about what they say they've done, how much they charge you etc - I've ended up writing to their dealer principle 3 times, involving trading standards twice and one of those times was due to catching them out claiming to have carried out work, charging me for it and then that work not taking place.

My entire experience with them was absolutely appalling including the pre-sale foreplay.
 
Thanks for the heads up, at least this work is all being paid for under warranty i suppose. So where do you take your vee for servicing etc? There are very few garages round my way that have ever worked on these, at least Canterbury has some experience. They have persuaded me to let them do a service and MOT when the cat is finished, anything i should look out for? Also, i am trying to get hold of a full set of trophy coils from SG, it would seem like a good idea to get them fitted by the stealers whilst doing everything else, whaddyareckon?
 
Well in the end I went independent, also my car's now not exactly standard so it's looked after by Ashford Motorsport.

For a service/MOT they should be fine but expect to be told that you need new discs and pads as that's a particular favourite.

It's when you go outside their "comfort zone" that the problems begin - so whilst things like fitting the coils should not be a particularly tricky or expensive job I'd advise that you get a written quote prior to the work taking place and then ask for the original coils afterwards. Alternatively any auto-electrician should be able to do them especially as I think on a MK2 it's simpler to do than the Mk1 which required removing the inlet plenum.

Here's story to illustrate my "issues" with them

They charged me £800 to remove the air-conditioning from my car which because I was naive I paid over only to find 2 months later that £800 had paid for a shorter auxillary belt.

I went back at the busiest time, queued at the service desk, holding a carrier bag containing the air-con condenser and some other bits and peices which I had removed myself including the invoice for removal. I showed the condenser to the service guy in front of everybody and asked him if he knew what it was to which he replied "It's an air-conditioning condenser" so I asked him if he would consider it a part of the air-conditioning to which he replied "yes, of course" then I handed him the invoice and asked him to explain why they'd charged me £800 to remove the air-conditioning and yet here I was handing him parts which he himself confirmed where from the air-conditioning system. Needless to say I was quickly escorted to the Dealer Principles office where a heated "discussion" took place.
 
Okay, just to update anyone that may be interested...

I finally got my car back on the 4th Jan. Renault had it for about six weeks in total whilst the new cat system was being made in France. They kept me mobile with a hire car which was appreciated. I had the Vee serviced and MOT'd by them so it was tip-top when i got it back. Its running as sweet as a nut now, but i still have the sagem coils in it (albeit, three new ones), so i ordered six trophy coils from SG which i will be fitting this weekend. I asked Renault customer services if they would fit them at their cost and at first they agreed, but then later told me they wouldn't as the coils are not Renault approved parts or something, but as a gesture of goodwill they have sent me £70 'towards fuel'.

Looking at the trophy parts, there is definitely a lot more more to them than standards, so i am hopeful this will mark the end of my coil woes.

This has all taken a long time and cost Renault UK a lot of money to resolve which makes it even more of a shame that they wouldn't listen to me the first time i had a coil failure, they simply wouldn't entertain replacing all six in one go.

I had always been told that driving for a long period with a cylinder down could damage the cat system -I drove less than a mile! so my advice to everyone is get your Vee straight on a recovery truck where possible or always keep a spare coil handy.
 
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