groar's 2001 Scenic Modding Thread
 

Hi,

My wife and I are sharing two cars. Usually we are swapping at the beginning of the month, but since June she was letting me playing with Megane. She made me understand that she wants to drive Megane, so I have to drive Scenic (see 1st picture) from tomorrow.

With all the coroplast I found lately, I quickly built a lower grill block (see 3rd picture) for Scenic.

Before that I verified where is the radiator (see 2nd picture). The radiator is tall and wide, it's the black box on the second picture. The red boxes are openings to the radiator. The green box is the opening to the turbo's radiator, I don't use the turbo a lot but the dashboard doesn't have a light in case of turbo dysfunction. The blue box was already closed, but was deeeep.

Finally I basjoosed the fog lights (see 4th picture). The transparent tape I have isn't so transparent, but it should be enough for next weeks. Anyway, the fog lights aren't mandatory in France. I added a little sheet of coroplast at the left to fill a gap.

Scenic has an on-board computer with distance (km), total consumption (liter), average consumption (l/100km), instant consumption (l/100km) and average speed (km/h) since reset, which we do at tank re-fill. I will be able to see in real-time how it reacts :) . With these data I will be able to estimate rather precisely (<0.3l/100) the daily consumption, so I will keep a daily log :) that I will try to comment as precisely as possible.

Even if Scenic is a direct injection (dCi = diesel common rail) and has DFCO (Decelerating Fuel Cut Off), I will try to apply NICE-On Coasting (Coasting in Neutral with Engine On) which gives me good results with Megane.

I already pumped up the tires to 3.0 bar (43.5 psi) vs 2.3 bar (33.3 psi) on placard and 3.5 bar (50.8 psi) on sidewall. While pumping them up I saw that I will have to change them soon : the 2 front are nearly slick :eek: I should have kept an eye on them this summer !

I hope to be able to skyrocket Scenic's logs :cool:

Denis.

Updated front grill block
 

First week-end after the grill block described on first message, we made a 2x200km highway trip with temperature around 15°C (59°F) one way and 10°C (50°F) other way. The temperature needle didn't raised over the normal "hot" position :)

After a few days, the morning temperatures dropped from 10 to 5°C (50 to 41°F) and I felt the hit on the FE. I decided to close the lower front grill even more (everything except toward the turbo) and block the upper grill (see 1st picture in next message).

I can remark that the temperature needle begins to raise later, but is at the "hot" position sooner. May be because there is less air circulation under the hood.

Denis.

Wiper cover test
 

During two weeks I also tested a wiper cover. As it was only a coroplast sheet taped with transparent tape, I had always an eye on it when I was driving with it. While driving it was always very stable, except when a truck was overtaking me then the left part was shacking a bit. I was also inspecting how well it was taped before driving.

I had a "no rain" position (1st and 2nd picture) and a "may rain" position (3rd picture). When driving the coroplast was pushed down and in the "may rain" position it was only at 0.5 cm over the wipers. The vertical sheet in the "may rain" position is simply stuck between the fixed and mobile parts of the hood. It can be put back and removed without untapping the cover.

Not only it removed the wiper from the air flow, but it also smoothed the angle between the hood and the windshield.

My best daily commute consumption since my first message in this thread is 57.3mpg. It has been done with the wiper cover in "no rain" position. The following best daily commute in that tank was 51.4mpg. But this record may have been helped by a very warm 18°C (64°F) day...

With cover 3/4 of daily commutes were over 47mpg while without cover 1/2 were under 47mpg before (with same temperature range and "full" grill block).

In my daily commute, when I leave the freeway I have to pass over it thanks to a bridge. At the top of the bridge I'm at 60km/h. I coast in neutral to go down. Without the wiper cover I reach 76-77km/h max at the bottom. With the wiper cover I reach 79-80km/h. I tried to follow the same curve, parallel to the right line. I did it 10 times with the cover and 5 without.

A funny thing : when it was raining then the drops fallen on the windshield under the level of the cover were pushed down to the wipers, effect helped by the fact I used an anti-rain product on the windshield.

I think this cover is a success :)

If I put the cover back then I will cut the lower corners so they are not pushed up by the upper sides of the hood. May be that will permit the hood to be opened without removing the cover. I may also cut the cover so it stop just before the wipers, which may help finding a "any rain condition" configuration.

Denis.

Renault and after market cruise control
 

I asked my Renault mechanic about cruise control but they only install cruise control at the factory on new cars, no mechanic is allowed to do so and Renault doesn't sell cruise control to mechanics, even Renault's concessions.

They know nobody that install after market cruise control :(

Denis.

Interesting - I am thinking about how to make a deflector for my Xantia and it looks as if it will be worthwhile, merci!