Just changed the air filter on my 2004 Renault Scenic. They were having a laugh when they designed that car, the amount of fragile French plastic you have to unbolt and unclip just to get to the filter box. Then you discover you ain't removed quite enough yet, with half the front end on the drive, and need to remove more to actually get the filter out! Madness, I wish I had got a K&N or similar now so I could leave it for 50,000 miles before I had to do it again! Thankfully, the cabin/pollen filter is much easier and only takes 10 min at the most (brew included if the wife makes it).

The advantage to doing it is now half the forest and insects I removed from the two filters and their hosings has now been returned to nature for my car to ingest again! (less the insects unless they come back to life)

Edit to say that I still don't know where the fuses are for the front fogs or the heater control illumination, more hours of fiddling required. I'd like to say it's annoying but I do quite like messing around with my cars. Changed all the interior lights to LED at the massive cost of £2. 10 LED's in total less the vanity lights behind the sun visors. (I didn't know they were there till today so ordered 10 more LED's which is cheaper than ordering two)

Edited 3 March, 201115 yr by andy-fisher

You've reminded me of the company Peugot 405 I had years ago. I went to check the oil (and this thing used it like it was going out of fashion). And couldn't find the filler cap. I finally realized that you had to pull the oil breather pipe off the top of the engine to add oil. This was perfectly placed to catch the solenoid connector on the starter motor and break it off, leading to me being stranded in a petrol station in Newbury for a couple of hours!

I have a mate with a Clio 182, who was stunned to find you need special tools to change the alternator drive belt. Only Dealers have access to said tools, of course.

Do the people who design French cars ever actually drive them?

Phil

YOu didn't need to remove the bumper as such, but one of my neighbours had a Pug 309 TDi, and the air filter was accessed by lying on your back and reaching up between the front bumper and the LH inner arch!

I have no idea off-hand where the oil filter on my Octy is!

I've had all sorts of minor headaches working on French cars :wonder:

Apart from my dad's old 406 1.9D XUD, that was wonderfully simple compared to some

Its always been the same with Renaults. Optimised for production not for servicing.Try doing anything on an old Renault 4.

Nick

Ex gf's father had a 1.3 Kia and the ferkin oil filter was under the inlet manifold on the back of the engine. Nasty job to get to, as you needed the car elevated just to get yourself under the solid plastic bumper lip.

She had a Clio 1.2 8v at one point too, had a chain oil filter remover, only problem being is that the filter is right next to the flange where the sump mounts. Making it impossible to get the chain around the filter.

I resorted to a huge screwdriver and a big hammer in the end!

Never worked on a French car since!

By way of balance, anyone changed the air filter on a 2.0TFSi? :S

Whoever came up with that arrangement needs shooting, or showing the door - or both! Strangely it didn't make it through to the 2.0TSi design. I've no idea why....

Thankfully, I didn't need to remove the bumper but just about everything else. I need to remove the bumber to change the fog light bulbs or alternatively, the wheel arch liners, thats why I want to check the fuse first but in the owners handbook, it lists the fuses in the glove box but for the ones under the bonnet it says, 'due to the difficulty in accessing these fuses, take it to you Renault dealer' I didn't find getting to that fuse box difficult as I had to remove the cover of said fuse box to get better access to the air filter, they just don't tell you which fuse is which and there are a lot. I didn't want to take them all out and look as I don't want to mess anything else up. Haynes manual is in the post now but I don't think I will be disconnecting the battery first!

Our car park at work occasionally floods whenthe adjacent river rises suddenly and everyone has to leave once it starts before it gets too deep. We have twice had renaults with destroyed engines because the air filter is so near the ground and they left it a few minutes late, whilst other vehicles had no problem. Don't ever try to ford a river in one!

Renaults have been like that for years.. Years ago a neighbour had a J plate 1.9D Clio..Went through some fairly shallow floodwater...Water went straight up the air intake..Engine hydraulic'd. All 8 valves bent, plus the bottom end destroyed. Bill was nigh on £2k back then for another engine. He was well peeved.

Renaults have been like that for years.. Years ago a neighbour had a J plate 1.9D Clio..Went through some fairly shallow floodwater...Water went straight up the air intake..Engine hydraulic'd. All 8 valves bent, plus the bottom end destroyed. Bill was nigh on £2k back then for another engine. He was well peeved.

One of my mates did that to a Sierra XR4x4, that he'd only taken delivery of 3 months earlier; dunno about costs, because FOMOCO picked up the bill since the water was only 2" deep.

Renault 5 mid 80's Had to drain and remove radiator to get to the battery.

90's R 25 Family. Remove exhaust manifold to get to spark plugs.

Nuff said

MK4 golf, head light bulbs......

MK4 golf, head light bulbs......

They are easy compared to a Renault!

MK4 golf, head light bulbs......

Brake light bulbs on a mk4 golf -- if you put the bulb in the holder, the holder+bulb is too wide to go back through the access hole. If you put the holder in first, the access hole is too narrow to fit the bulb!

Brake light bulbs on a mk4 golf -- if you put the bulb in the holder, the holder+bulb is too wide to go back through the access hole. If you put the holder in first, the access hole is too narrow to fit the bulb!

Brute force works well with the rear bulbs i find...

Brute force works well with the rear bulbs i find...

Haha! The Octy mk2 FL design is ace, i upgraded my main beams the other day. Pull a lever, undo a thumbscrew, pop of a connector plug then take the whole headlight inside to swap the bulbs in the warmth!

Wait til you the Saabs

The dipstick is the filler cap aswell

The Alternator is under an engine mount

and the air filter is a bit fiddly under some hoses under the nearside headlight.

Try changing a alternator on a duratec engined ford ka.......now thats a pig of a job! :( ford should of left the old ohv engine in!

Is that the current shape Ka, or the proper shape one?

If proper, I didn't know they'd changed engines on it - thought it used the pushrod 1.3 till the bitter end!

Renaults do my head in. Need to jump start my girlfriends megane one time thought somebody was taking the **** when I couldn't find the battery. They'd hidden it under a really stupid plastic cover I mean which French idiot thought that was a good idea and it was difficult to remove!!!

don't you have to remove the scenic engine to replace cambelt??

some car's are just stupid!

fabia vrs for example, power steering resevior, below battery?

so to check it you need to remove battery and housing to access filler cap

Took us 20 mins the other day to find the battery in a peugeot extra mini bus, looked in the handbook in the end. It was under the rubber mat in front of the driver! Who the hell would think of looking under there?? lol