Renault common fault,fanbelt shreds,£5000

[mbundy]

My clio 172 cut out the other day whilst doing about 5 miles an hour, got the AA out to look, couldnt find fault but got towed home.

Get it to nearest garage, who then strips the engine apart, the whole thing is shot to peices, valves pistons, head, camshaft the lot.

Basically, need a brand new engine.

The mechanic working on the car does all of the MOTs for the local renault dealer and phoned them up, knows the mechanics there personally, theyve said its a common fault.

Its actually a problem with the fanbelt, it becomes misaligned and in quite a few cases a part can actually shred off.

In some cases not a problem, in my case, the bit that shreded off got into the cambelt housing, which has no guard on it at all, locked the cambelt up which in turn screwed my whole engine up.

Supposedly this whole thing has happened to quite a few renaults its seems like its a design fault with their 2.0L 16V.

Has anyone else heard of this, know anyone who this has happened too?

Know anybody or site that can help me kick renaults a**e in too taking some responsibility for this.

Kinda lost and absolutely fuming, looked after my car really well since the day I got it and a stupid design that renault know about at the moment is going to cost me around £5000.

Any help much appreciated.

 

[CocoPops]

Dont pay renault prices.

J3ned (pm him) can supply a brand new engine for 1600+VAT (If I remember correctly).

How old is the car?

 

[Dave]

How old is it? Mileage?

 

[mbundy]

Registered Feb 2002.

Quote is for labour from garage around the corner from me, standard costs, renault quoted them just over £3000 for the engine.

J3ned, you have some engines then, would these come with any warranty etc though?

 

[CocoPops]

Matt (j3ned) works for a specialist Renault Suppliers.

Seriously worth a discussion with him before commiting to a renault engine.
Where are you based?

 

[Dave]

Quote: Originally posted by mbundy on 09 August 2005


Registered Feb 2002.

Quote is for labour from garage around the corner from me, standard costs, renault quoted them just over £3000 for the engine.

J3ned, you have some engines then, would these come with any warranty etc though?





Its only just out of warranty really. Whats the MILEAGE? Regular servicing by Renault?

I cant help but think Renault MIGHT help you out with the cost.

 

[mbundy]

Just under 38,000 on the clock.

Mechanic said everything looked absolutely fine with the engine, apart from the damage obviously, there was nothing I couldve done to prevent this.

Unless of course , Renault had made people aware of the design fault and a shielding couldve been placed around the cambelt housing.

This has more than likely been sorted on the 182 model.

 

[Dave]

Id call Renault UK.

 

[mbundy]

Yeah got full renault history the works.

This J3ned sounds promising, how do I contact him?

How do you become a registered user on here as well, says its only going to let me post 20 messages every 24 hours.

Got a feeling Im going to be on here a lot over the next couple of days.

Im based near Reading in Berkshire. Just west of London.

 

[ViolentJ]

Unfortunately you cannot register at the moment. Well be moving to a new forum shortly.

 

[KyleB]

you cant become a member yet

just send a private message (PM) to j3ned.

 

[mbundy]

Cool, just sent him a PM so will see what he says.

Will keep you posted on this thread.

Absolutely gutted though, seems like you do your best to look after your car only for Renault to know about a design fault, keep it secret, and it could cost me £5000.

Going to be making some rather harsh phonecalls in the morning to the highest person I can speak to at Renault.

Any hears of anyone else this has happened to or just generally anything that could assist me, e.g, people to call to kick some a**. Let me know on mailto:mathewbundy@hotmail.com">mathewbundy@hotmail.com

Mush appreciate all help.

 

[Fred@BTM]

ring renault UK and MOAN LIKE A MOTHERf**kER

J3ned can supply a NEW crate engine for £1200+VAT (second hand are cheaper and come with a 90day waranty)

 

[sean]

is that a brand new engine for £1200 + vat ? is that an engine from renault and if so does that come with a renault warranty ?

 

[Fred@BTM]

Quote: Originally posted by sean on 09 August 2005
is that a brand new engine for £1200 + vat ? is that an engine from renault and if so does that come with a renault warranty ?

PM j3ned for details, as i said BRAND NEW CRATE ENGINE

HE HAS 40 in stock

or ring Specialist Breakers in Accrington (118500) and ask for matt

 

[edde]

Quote: Originally posted by sean on 09 August 2005
is that a brand new engine for £1200 + vat ? is that an engine from renault and if so does that come with a renault warranty ?

That a new engine j3ned bought a load from Renault. Im not sure on waenties but its a new engine.
Second hand engines are £650 I think and £350 to drop an engine in. Even if you have to pay £150 to tow he car to his garage thats still a good price.
This has happened before and Renault have paid a good % of the price to rebuild/replace the engine but unless they agre to over 75% of he price its probably better going to j3ned.

 

[JAY172]

£1200 a good price. The proper retail price of a renault recon 172 engine is aroud £2500

your aux belt should be changed at 36k,was it changed?

have you full service history?

what is your mileage?

if the mileage is low and service history etc is ok then renault may stump up some wonga towards the repair.

 

[BRUN]

ring Renault, i wouldnt put up with paying that if its a known fault

 

[172 Exclusive]

I would not say that this issue is a "known Fault"..

What actually happens is that the Accessory belt shreds/snaps/jumps causing parts of the belt to crack/smash the cambelt cover, or it slips behind the Crankshaft pulley and damages/snaps the cambelt.. So you end up with a buggered engine..

A commonish reason that the belt can jump of the teeth and/or shred can be due to a defective A/C compressor Pulley or Alternator Pulley.. The pulleys seize and voila the belt causes the damage..

The 1st question is: Was the Accessory belt replaced at 36K or 4 years.. If not then RUK will pay nothing.. The belt is a service item and MUST be replaced at 36K or 4.. If it was replaced then you may get a RUK contribution towards the repair..

This "problem" is seen on most Renault engines.. The K4M & F4P are very good examples of this issue.. We see 1 or 2 a month that have had accessory belt failure that have caused Camcover/belt/engine damage to occur..


[Edited by 172 Exclusive on 10 August 2005 at 1:07am]

 

[Chris&Amber]

Had a megane 2l 16V in with the same issue, just did all 16 valves though, not piston damage aside from marked pistons, not cracked etc though.

Heres a project thread I did on it

http://www.retro-renault.com/viewtopic.php?t=3959http://www.retro-renault.com/viewtopic.php?t=3959

 

[Gary G]

The alternator belt pretensioning unit on my year old 182 failed and caused the belt to foul the unit and cause excessive wear!! Basically the spring on the tensioner became un seated and wore a groove out of the belt! Only noticed because it sprayed shreaded rubber all over my engine bay lol.....check it weekly now just in case!

...Hope you get your car sorted asap mate

 

[mbundy]

Just phoned 3 seperate dealers enquiring about a 36,000 service and all of them say the belts not supposed to be changed then.

Gary G, sounds like exactly what happened to mine mate, unfortunately that bit wound around the cambelt and screwed my engine though.

 

[mbundy]

Does anybody have a number for Renault UK, headoffices or anything like that?

 

[Gary G]

Yeah its a poorly designed unit....definately not an isolated incident anyway!

Think this is the number for RUK customer services 08000 72 33 72

Hope that helps mate.

 

[16v_jon]

mine did this went intot he cam belt made it jump and f**ked the engine got a brand new one from j3ned 1200notes plus vat

 

[Dave]

Sounds like u will have a course of action with RUK. And for the rest of us....get the belt changed!