groar's 1997 Megane Modding Thread

[PaleMelanesian]

Ok, Denis, I confess. I'm not very good about French pronunciation. It's been bugging me for a long time. How do you say the name of your car? Is it MEH-gahn, meh-GAHN, meh-GAH-neh, or something else (probably ).

[groar]

Mégane is a French first name, so it's pronounced as the latter.

From this page, it's /me.ɡan/
the last "e" is silent.

Renault is a common last name in France, so lots of people had the full name "Mégane Renault". 20 years ago nobody protested, but since Renault announces a future model called Zoé, lots of people whose first name is Zoé is trying to "protect" their first name against such a use.

Denis.

[Nevyn]

Or, Pale, you could be the stereotypical American jerkface and pronounce it like the American version of the name - Megan.

[Arragonis]

Originally Posted by Nevyn

Or, Pale, you could be the stereotypical American jerkface and pronounce it like the American version of the name - Megan.

We get the same car as Groar's here in the UK - it is also pronounced as in the English accent version of the American (Irish ?) "Megan".

Groar is the Megane you have the one that is based on the old 19 ? I had a 19 16v as a company hack in the early 90s for a couple of weeks and it was very very nice.

[PaleMelanesian]

Thanks! Interesting info about the proposed Zoé name.

[groar]

Aragonis, yes it's an improved version of the 19. Extract from here :

The Mégane I was unveiled in the autumn of 1995, as a replacement of the Renault 19. The car was essentially a reskin of its predecessor, and carried over the 19's floorpan, engines, transmissions and chassis design, albeit with much modification.
[...]
Safety was a key focus of the Megane I, Renault's first car reflecting their new focus of selling on safety. [...] Megane I achieved a best-in-class 4-star crash test rating in the 1998 round of testing by EURONCAP.

I have the rare (in France) "classic" version which is a 4-door saloon, as French do prefer hatchbacks.

Denis.

[groar]

Because rear seats were watered, I removed them, as well as junk&co in the trunk :

seat (horiz) : 5kg
carpets :      6kg (rear and trunk)
misc :         8kg (included 5L diesel jerrycan)
seat (vert) : 18kg (included 2 headrests)
spare tire :  20kg (included all tire accessories)

For a total of 57kg = 125lbs. For my 1130kg = 2491lbs car this is a 5% reduction This is more than a full tank : 60L * 0.85kg/L = 51kg = 112lbs.

I got a errand with the car and my butt-o-meter felt the difference in coasting distance so I tried to beat my 2.6km (1.6mi) coast (from 120 to 40km/h - 75 to 25mph)... I reached 2.8km
OK this is a non-scientific test, as the speed is the one indicated by the needle and the distance is the one read on the trip odometer at +/- 0.1km. The road is non-flat and in bad condition.

Playing with the calculator (in fact this file : http://www.geocities.com/frontsidesk8er/delsolaero.xls) I got :

70km/h = 44mph : 5.24hp to 5.13hp ie -2.1%
90km/h = 56mph : 9.38hp to 9.25hp ie -1.4%

Sadly, I can't let the car as is : I will have to put back the rear seats as the baby seat can't be put on front seat.

The vertical part of the seats are foldable 2/3 - 1/3, but I can't find the correct tool to detach one part from the support at least I can remove the headrests.
I can put back only the 1/3 horizontal part of the seats, but that will save only 3kg which doesn't worth the fact I'll loose 2 seats.

I'm seriously thinking about not putting back the spare tire and its accessories... as well as the trunk carpet which is really heavy. Already "lost" the misc junk, except the 5L diesel jerrycan that will not come back in the trunk before 1400km = 870mi...

Denis.

[Arragonis]

Interesting figures. I looked at removing the rear seats from Helga to try and make my off white / black / muddy seats white again but they didn't want to come out. Also the seats don't seem to be as heavy as yours when I was tilting them to try and remove them - mine are smaller though.

I run without the spare and tools which are quite heavy (full size wheel etc) and carry a portable inflator (~2kgs) and a can of sealant (~1kg) and a recovery rescue card (~10g) and the alloy wheel socket and locking key adaptor (~1kg). That way I can try a 3 level approach -

1. Reinflate - may be enough to get to a repair place if a slow puncture.
2. Seal and reinflate - if not.
3. Call the RAC and get them to take me home or to a tyre place. I have the socket and locking key to get the wheel off for repair.

If I go to the Highlands again then I will probably put this lot back as rescue could take quite some time.

[katiep]

This is so chouette! I'm definitely going to have to copy your aeromods merci mille fois! I think I can manage your uglyback or miniback until I get the courage/time to do a boat tail. Though, what you have seems quite adequate! I checked out your 10:10 thing too I always seem to find more projects for myself.....

[groar]

During last tank I installed a solar panel to charge the battery (*) through a solar charger :

• The solar charger :

The voltmeter is connected to the consumer connections of the solar charger. The switch is between the solar panel and the charger.

The engine was off for several hours when the picture was taken and the sun at its highest.

The solar panel :

This one is a low cost panel that is only 13W in amorphous silicon, so I can't hope having more than 7-8W... here the charge was varying between 0.4 and 0.5A, ie between 5.2 and 6.6W.

Yes the glass is dirty I tried to remove the old sticker but it's very sticky and stinky

When I drive, the solar panel is lowered and blocked with the baby seat

While driving with the voltmeter, I have been able to see that when I'm FASing the voltage is going down more slowly and at bump start it is going up more quickly, even if the power delivered by the panel is so small compared to the 4 * 15A * 12V = 720W that are used by the heat plugs during the 8 seconds they heat up at each FAS and each bump start...

This is more a geek project, but now I can say my car is a

• diesel - momentum - gravity - solar hybrid

(*) the battery was changed last autumn by a "mild hybrid battery" (OEM in some stop&start German diesel) : a 70Ah AGM one.

Have fun,

Denis.