OV9

jamcg wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 7:37 pm How you tried posting on renaultsport/alpine Facebook pages? As it’s more or less a megane engine there may be some knowledge out there. The dephaser pulleys were a known issue to change on the twingo when I had that, so the vvt stuff could be a possibility on yours

I’ve been holding off posting on the Facebook groups. Dealer is on there.

Anyone I speak to about these says the engine is bulletproof. Nobody ever has any issues.

I’ve spoken to Alpine Uk, the Alpine Glasgow master tech, David Life110 Pook and now Rentec. Nobody has ever had an engine issue with these. There is not much information out there on these. It’s not like a Lotus where more or less someone somewhere has seen or had any issues and there is a fix.

jamcg wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 7:37 pm How you tried posting on renaultsport/alpine Facebook pages? As it’s more or less a megane engine there may be some knowledge out there. The dephaser pulleys were a known issue to change on the twingo when I had that, so the vvt stuff could be a possibility on yours

I’ve been holding off posting on the Facebook groups. Dealer is on there.

Anyone I speak to about these says the engine is bulletproof. Nobody ever has any issues.

I’ve spoken to Alpine Uk, the Alpine Glasgow master tech, David Life110 Pook and now Rentec. Nobody has ever had an engine issue with these. There is not much information out there on these. It’s not like a Lotus where more or less someone somewhere has seen or had any issues and there is a fix.

scotta wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 7:49 pm

jamcg wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 7:37 pm How you tried posting on renaultsport/alpine Facebook pages? As it’s more or less a megane engine there may be some knowledge out there. The dephaser pulleys were a known issue to change on the twingo when I had that, so the vvt stuff could be a possibility on yours

I’ve been holding off posting on the Facebook groups. Dealer is on there.

Anyone I speak to about these says the engine is bulletproof. Nobody ever has any issues.

I’ve spoken to Alpine Uk, the Alpine Glasgow master tech, David Life110 Pook and now Rentec. Nobody has ever had an engine issue with these. There is not much information out there on these. It’s not like a Lotus where more or less someone somewhere has seen or had any issues and there is a fix.

BeanieSport in Bedford (I know, not very easy) have impressed me a lot, so much so that I’ll be taking the Clio there on Wednesday for some work.

They do the Megane engines in Twingos and Clio conversions and have a very good reputation.

Hopefully not needed but ammunition should it be needed.

Dave!

Indy took the nearside front apart, and found nothing amiss, but after reassembling the noise is gone. Best guess is that something hadn't gone back together right. He did mention finding a pebble on the garage floor, but whether that came from the car or not is anyone's guess.

V8Granite wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 8:58 pm

scotta wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 7:49 pm

jamcg wrote: Thu Jul 17, 2025 7:37 pm How you tried posting on renaultsport/alpine Facebook pages? As it’s more or less a megane engine there may be some knowledge out there. The dephaser pulleys were a known issue to change on the twingo when I had that, so the vvt stuff could be a possibility on yours

I’ve been holding off posting on the Facebook groups. Dealer is on there.

Anyone I speak to about these says the engine is bulletproof. Nobody ever has any issues.

I’ve spoken to Alpine Uk, the Alpine Glasgow master tech, David Life110 Pook and now Rentec. Nobody has ever had an engine issue with these. There is not much information out there on these. It’s not like a Lotus where more or less someone somewhere has seen or had any issues and there is a fix.

BeanieSport in Bedford (I know, not very easy) have impressed me a lot, so much so that I’ll be taking the Clio there on Wednesday for some work.

They do the Megane engines in Twingos and Clio conversions and have a very good reputation.

Hopefully not needed but ammunition should it be needed.

Dave!

Ah yes. I’ve also spoke indirectly with them - through a mutual mate. They suggested timing chain and tensioner. He also sent a video of a Clio Turbo (same engine albeit 1.6) with a stretched chain showing similar issues. I’ve asked for further advise from them again indirectly but he didn’t reply.

Eldest miklet called me earlier - approx 4 miles from home he’d rounded a corner to find a rock in his path. Gash in front nearside tyre sidewall. No spare. And we’d prefer not to resort to foam.

Went to meet him with a jack and decided to try the plug repair kit. It’s not designed for this kinda thing - didn’t need to use the teaming tool as the gash was already big enough. Didn’t expect a plug to hold air, but…. it did.

Stuck 25psi in it as a compromise - not too much pressure to blow the plug out - not so little pressure that the sidewall would be deforming excessively on each rotation. Followed him home.

As a “get you home” emergency measure - pretty happy with that!

Imgur is acting up and won’t allow me to post jpg’s

My answer to cars not having spare wheels is to get at least one from eBay in the correct proper size (not space saver) - if you have it available in the garage then you have a reasonable short, medium - even long - term solution until you can get it repaired.

Must get around to buying a sticky string kit. Far more preferable to trying to change a tyre at the side of the road, to at least get somewhere safer.

Very much doubt foam would have fixed that anyway.

I do keep a string kit in each car - refreshed a year or two ago because I’m sure the strings must dry out over time.

mik wrote: Sat Jul 19, 2025 3:41 pm
Imgur is acting up and won’t allow me to post jpg’s

Yeah, dunno what they're playing at with the app, seems you have to go to the web platform (and avoid it auto opening the app) in order to get the jpg link.

Conversely I tried to post an imgur album like Mik did and it wouldn’t work - I went back to posting individual photos in the usual tags. Consistency would be nice.

Jobbo wrote: Sat Jul 19, 2025 4:52 pm My answer to cars not having spare wheels is to get at least one from eBay in the correct proper size (not space saver) - if you have it available in the garage then you have a reasonable short, medium - even long - term solution until you can get it repaired.

I think the front and rear on my Merc are different sizes, so that means 2 spares in the garage.

mik wrote: Sat Jul 19, 2025 3:41 pm Eldest miklet called me earlier - approx 4 miles from home he’d rounded a corner to find a rock in his path. Gash in front nearside tyre sidewall. No spare. And we’d prefer not to resort to foam.

Went to meet him with a jack and decided to try the plug repair kit. It’s not designed for this kinda thing - didn’t need to use the teaming tool as the gash was already big enough. Didn’t expect a plug to hold air, but…. it did.

Stuck 25psi in it as a compromise - not too much pressure to blow the plug out - not so little pressure that the sidewall would be deforming excessively on each rotation. Followed him home.

As a “get you home” emergency measure - pretty happy with that!

Nice bodge/repair skillz there Mik!

I usually put a plug repair kit under the seat of my motorbike which is tubeless when going on a long trip, but I've never thought about keeping a kit handy in my cars - I'll have to buy a couple of them to throw in the boot.

I've used them a few times now on the motorbikes, as they seem to pick up punctures much easily than cars (well, they do with me, anyway!) they're normally quite effective. The only time I've had them not work is when the tyre I was trying to plug was punctured between two cords, which were super tight to each other and the insertion tool was too wide to penetrate (not a problem I've had before ) Fortunately it was a slow puncture that I noticed when the bike was in the garage, so I just took the wheel off and had the tyre replaced.

As for having a spare wheel, I guess I'm lucky that I've never had to use the one which was in the Golf, or is in the back of the 968.

I noticed earlier that the eldest DJlet looked a bit squished in his car seat, so when we came home we took it out to see if he was ready for a booster or just bum on seat. Turns out the latter. So that's the first second row seat free of "overlay".

As I took the seat out the level of grime on/under it prompted me to dig the hoover out. And from there it was a small step up get the BIG socket out and remove all three seats.


Yuck. More hoovering needed.

As ever there were some good finds: a 10p coin, one hairband, three hair clips, two pieces of Lego (one being the missing half of Darth Maul's light saber), a bracelet, four stickers, and enough crumbs to make a decent size meal.

Car is much nicer to be in now.

Simon wrote: Sun Jul 20, 2025 9:43 am

Jobbo wrote: Sat Jul 19, 2025 4:52 pm My answer to cars not having spare wheels is to get at least one from eBay in the correct proper size (not space saver) - if you have it available in the garage then you have a reasonable short, medium - even long - term solution until you can get it repaired.

I think the front and rear on my Merc are different sizes, so that means 2 spares in the garage.

So £100 rather than £50 on eBay

DeskJockey wrote: Sun Jul 20, 2025 5:10 pm I’m

As ever there were some good finds: a 10p coin, one hairband, three hair clips, two pieces of Lego (one being the missing half of Darth Maul's light saber), a bracelet, four stickers, and enough crumbs to make a decent size meal.

An admirable haul

i3 didn't have Carplay, but it seems BMW fitted everything for it to work by the time they got to cars of this age. So £10 on an ENET cable, and £18 to a guy in Ukraine and I have full-screen wireless Carplay activated. Was a bit skeptical about how well it would work on a non-touch setup but it's OK, it helps that buttons like "map" on the iDrive go to the maps in Carplay when you're using it.

*breath deep and do not scream*
This evening I was greeted by this


After a deep breath and some screaming I started searching for the source of the Nile.

The water was coming in from the bonnet release catch and as I was parked on a slope it pooled down to the rear footwell.

I removed the pollen filter trim and could see the brake reservoir area was flooded. The bonnet release cable entry point to the interior sits 5mm higher than the drain

However the main drain on these is higher up - it collects water from the windscreen cowl, then goes onto the pollen filter trim, then goes off into the wing drain. And here I found my problem and I’m unsure how to proceed

The below technical document illustrates the ideal path of the water


However on my car the cowl does not seal against the pollen filter trim and the water goes under it bypassing the main drain, thus flooding the tiny backup drain and my interior.


Now what do I replace to sort this? I’m unsure how to proceed as the current panels all clip into each other perfectly. Perhaps the very hot weather recently has warped the top of the old panels?
Cowboy Mito would silicone it up and call it a good job but I like to think I’m a better human now

Oh I may have found the problem. I’m missing a clip


That innocuous clip pushes the cowl down and lets the pollen filter housing clamp up to the cowl. Without it there’s no pressure to clamp down.

I’m off to get pissed

I've returned my son's Ibiza FR today after 19 months and 19k miles.

I leased it for him as a first car as I'd had a tit full of used cheap cars after my daughter's Mito

Predictably it was faultless only needing a litre of oil, a pair of tyres and a minor service. Insurance was peanuts at £2200 for 19 months given it's a new sporty albeit 80bhp car and everyone in the household used and enjoyed it.

Lease was circa £5,500 including the early termination fee which was comparable to the Mito's depreciation and maintenance costs over a similar period.

The 80 horses was the death of it as he got bored and wanted something quicker and with 1 years no claims bonus and being 18 insurance becomes less of an issue.

It also ticks the 3 cylinder box for me as well


système binaire