I'm Back!

[robchalmers]

Sadly after the demise of my much loved VW Polo Diesel called chug. I went off the rails a bit, I commuted on my mountain bike for a while until I found a '01 Renault Megane 1.9DCI. Sadly that didn't last long, I didn't even put a profile for it on here! . in January I hit a patch of ice on the freeway and it plowed sideway into the side of a big rig @70mph. Since then I've been commuting on the bike again....

Until Last Friday When I bought this:


'03 1.9DCI Renault Megane Sport Tourer
120BHP / Buckets of torque
6-speed manual (1850rpm @ 70pmh!)
98,000miles (barley bedded in)

I love it its amazingly quiet and comfortable on the motorway/freeway/Route Nationale/Bahn (or whatever) and the boot is HUGE, perfect for family holidays, carrying race gear to swim meets, kart races, 10Ks etc

Can't wait to get more miles under it's belt and see how it does on economy runs, so far I'm doing my usual bench-marking exercise of cruising a 2000rpm on my commute and the average mpg is still climbing 54.1 mpguk / 45.0 mpgus when I pulled into the carpark this morning!

[kach22i]

When do the mods begin?

[robchalmers]

I'm going to do a couple of tanks worth of bench marking then i'll start on the mods.. first things first will be a grill block me thinks, maybe delete the roof bars

[MetroMPG]

70 mph sideways? Scary! Unless you're a Scandinavian rally driver. Glad you made out OK.

Congrats on the new wheels -- those first few mods sound about right.

[robchalmers]

Yeah it wasn't the most fun I've had sideways , especially the end part!

[some_other_dave]

I did find that spinning (multiple 360s, both directions!) at 70+ MPH was scary but fun.

(Closed course at an airfield venue, didn't even hit any cones, but had a really crappy time for that run.)

-soD

[jedi_sol]

Don't forget wheel skirts and boat tail and kill switch.... You know, the usual ecomodder arsenal

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

At least you got a nice car to replace your previous ones. I like this generation of the Mégane.

[robchalmers]

Hi Everyone! sorry for the lack of posts, been bouncing around the world again! l'Autre is racking up the miles nicely now, Granted the electrics are being a bit .... well ..... French (sorry! but I just seem to have very bad luck with French made cars and their sparky bits) the driver window has now coughed it last and has had to be jammed up and the control unit removed, the rear wiper is now working on its own personal whim, apart from that its doing great!

I'm get 50+ mpg sat at a speed barely legal in France. During this weekend I carried out a Oil/filters service on it and had it done in under 20mins including jacking time. While i was down there I spotted that it had a full front undertray, in fact it would have been a sub 20min change if I didn't have to fit with a spinning not-so-captive captive nut that the tray fixes to. Oh well thats one less eco mod to do!

at the moment I'm just going to concentrate on fixing the normal issue before I get too entrnched in the mods.

Eco mods/jobs

-After my brother clattered into a curb I'm going to get the tracking checked to make sure it isn't 'parachuting'
-EGR valve clear outpower delivery has gone a bit hit-and-miss which is normally a sign of a sticky EGR so gonna clear that out this weekend.


Economy has dipped recently , but i think thats got something to do with me 'enjoying' the torque that this thing has on tap - more than some US market V8s!

[elhigh]

70mph sideways at any time, are you sure you're not a Finn?

Nice Megane, looks good. We don't get them in the States. Renault's name is pretty much mud over here since their disastrous relationship with AMC and the anemic little econoboxes that were associated with that. Only a few people - most likely James Bond fans - remember any Renaults with any affection, and even then it'll only be a few select models.