Hey everyone! Here's a thread of my Megane 275 that I purchased in April 2021. The car was purchased pretty much as is shown, with the previous owner having spent some money in all the right places which is why I had a huge urge to buy the car when it came available at a local Dealer in Cardiff (which turned out to develop into a huge headache - I'll continue to explain a bit further in). Plans to replace/alter a few things and give it myown touch whilst getting it cleaned up. Car Spec: 2016 Megane 275 Nav (s/s) CC - Liquid Yellow - Climate Control - RS Monitor - Sat Nav - Cup Chassis w/ LSD -Red Brake Calipers Modifications on purchase Performance Upgrades - GT Performance Decat - GT Performance 2.75" Titanium Exhaust - Airtec Stage 2 Intercooler - Uprated Circulation Valve (brand unknown) - GT Performance Boost Pipes - Ktec Racing Induction Kit - Powerflex Upper Engine Inserts - Vibratechnics Lower Gearbox Mount - Grams Lowering Springs - HEL Braided Brake Lines - Motul RBF600 Brake Fluid - Zero Point One One-Off Short Shifter - Federal 595 RS-R Tyres - Winmax 6.5 Front Brake Pads (removed later) Interior - Corbeau Sprint XL Red Back Driver Seat - Corbeau Clubsport XL Passenger Seat - Corbeau Red 6 Point Harnesses - SW Motorsport Seat-to-Floor Sidemounts - Rear Seats removed Exterior - 18x8 et45 Calibre Suzuka Alloy Wheels - Maxton Rear Spoiler Extension - Maxton Rear Diffuser Extension - Black Exhaust Tip Trim - Diamond Performance Black Badge Covers (removed later) Photos of the car as purchased: So.. Here's where the things turn sour.. A week after buying the car, my partner and I went for a drive through the Brecon Beacons (as per the photos above). The first time we'd been out without the kids for a fair while before this. On the way back home, on the dual carriageway I noticed a whining noise that I had not heard from the car previously. Now, the car is loud and stripped, coupled with the fact I only had the car for a week I questioned whether it was just another noise from the car now that I'm used to the exhaust and tyre noise etc. Anyway, long story short - it turned out that the gearbox had developed bearing problems during this short drive out. I visited an ex-Renault Master Tech (Grange Service Station in Cardiff if anyone wants to know) who said if they raise the front wheels and spin on side, there should be no noise. If there is a knocking then there is as problem with something based around the differential. Sadly the gearbox made horrible noises and the chap told me it needs the gearbox out and stripped to see whats going on. .......
....... I returned to the dealer, who to be honest gave the impression they couldn't care less about my concerns and started saying things like 'people uprate the diffs on these all the time, we'll get the parts cheap as chips for this' - which wasn't what I wanted to hear. Anyway - the dealer took the car a few days later after I had told them I had visited a few companies locally and once they caught wind that I had bought a faulty car, they couldn't collect it fast enough. Even then, after mentioning a potential gearbox issue the dealer then proceeded to drive the car hard and give me a whatsapp voice note claiming 'He'd given the car a good go and the diff seems lovely, but they'll get it in the air and take a look anyway' - cause the best thing to do with an internal fault is to give the car a thrashing, right? I asked the dealer if they would be ok for me to buy and supply an upgraded differential, such as a Quaife, and have their workshop fit it whilst the gearbox was apart - no labour cost, made sense to me. But sadly Quaife didn't develope a diff for the PK04 gearbox, and a Gripper was too much for my use of the car. The diff idea was left there, until that is, the garage where the car was said that the original differential could be part of the problem and that there was a full bearing set needed. The garage also pulled up the front brakes, which the disks were severely lipped and the brake pads had less than 0.5mm left on the internal face of the disks. Considering all cars are supposed to go through a multi-point RAC check before sale, makes you wonder. The brakes are changed a bit further on, with some photo's.. When I spoke to the dealer next they brought up why I haven't supplied a differential yet, and I explained that Quaife don't offer one for the car and that a Gripper was too much for what I wanted and therefor I was sticking to the original (which was potentially part of the problem). The dealer then said to me that he isn't going to replace the differential because I offered to supply an uprated one - after a bit of back and forth they offered me a 50% contribution toward a new diff and would finish the rest of the gearbox problems. At this point I had already purchased a brand new Renault OEM Clutch kit, clutch damper delete and a new TTV Single Mass Flywheel (all supplied by Supreme Motorsport in South Wales) to go in the car upon reassembly, so I was invested in the cars being fixed or I'd have been out of pocket £1000 for these bits. The response to the brakes needing to be replaced was 'what have the brakes got to do with us, you test drove the car and looked it over - that's down to you'. I accepted the offer of contribution but ensured I had evidence what the contribution was for and for how much - which was specifically for a replacement differential. I also had purchased a brand new set of Genuine Renault front brake disks and PFC Z-Rated front pads at this point which some of the contribution was put towards. Wait, There's still more.. Four weeks passed waiting on parts from back order @ Renault, and the garage tell me the car will be due to be finished in the next day or two. Great. Excitement to get it back kicked in that I was getting my new car back. A few hours after the chat with the garage the dealer then called me, not to let me know about the car, oh no - but they were calling to check I was still 'picking up the bill' upon the work being finished because I had already received my 50% contribution. As you can imagine, a heated discussion pursued until the dealer read my whatsapp message back to me on the phone and realized they weren't able to pull the rug from under me on this occasion. Claiming the contribution was toward the entire gearbox repair, not just the replacement differential. After realizing he has been caught out trying to pull a fast one they literally just said 'Ok we'll get it sorted' and cut me off the phonecall before another word could be said. A few days later I had a text from the garage to tell me it was ready - Woohoo! I went to collect as soon as I could, and then at the next opportunity I had between work I got the Megane up in the air to change the front brake disks and pads. Here's the comparison between the old & new brake disks and pads up front to show how thorough the PDI was on the car.. ........
At this point the car was where it should have been to begin with - a few weeks later I was threatened with solicitors by the dealer because I hadn't provided them with an invoice for what I spent the contribution money on - which of course they did nothing, nor did I need to provide them with anything at all. This was the point where I washed my hands with them and set about enjoying the car as mine now. I also purchased a new set of private plates for the Meg during it's time away. Having 'H15 SCV' on my daily VW Passat I thought I'd keep things constant and get another similar plate, this time 'H12 SCV' After seeing a few MK3's with smaller front plates I decided to get a 520x90mm one from FancyPlates and a small thing makes such a big difference to the front of the car after a well needed bath to rid over 5 weeks of build up sat in a garage yard. As I was totally obsessed with the car, and I'm a very impulsive person who cannot stop myself buying something I like - I ended up buying a Ktec Full rear boot mat and a rear cargo net & bar from Doncaster Trimmers. The Ktec Mat being black with black edging, cargo ned in red and a black net bar which I wrapped in satin before fitting. Total transformation of the rear of the car, brings it to a more finished level. I also fully removed the rear seatbelts and put them into storage, but I have no intentions of putting seats back in the rear (not that they'd be accessible because of the fully fixed front buckets). First time out in the car at a proper organised driving morning through the Black Mountains, first time visiting and many more times to come.. More updates have happened since this, but for now I'll keep adding to the thread with the progress to keep everything updated regularly.. Thank you for reading this far, I'll try get up to speed with the rest of the small things over the weekend. - Aaron
Sorry to here you had so much problems. Good to see you are getting over it. A few questions: What was the whine like? only at motorway speeds? What Mileage is the car on? What was the fault in the end with the gearbox or the diff? Also when you said smaller plates I assumed you were cutting down the width? Having less digits you could have a chunk less plate at the sides. I have been thinking of doing this myself.
Yeah, appreciate that used cars can have issues - It was the dealer that was the total nightmare to be honest, but as I said to them - I bought a car that developed problems, the problems are resolved and I'm leaving it there. So I did consider the shortened plates for the 6 digit reg. But as the car is yellow it would have been pointless on the rear as you'd not notice it was short, and on the front there is a slightly raised area on the gloss black section which would have stuck out if I shortened the front. So I decided on a standard size rear with a height-reduced front to tidy it up.
Good point. I have a 6 digit plate also. Nothing special but there does seem to be extra plate either side. Not sure how noticeable that raised black bit at front would be. Any info on the whining noise?
Oh man, reading your story brings it all back for me. I had exactly the same problem with the box - the dreaded whine got worse and worse over a few months. It’s a 275 Cup-S and had only done 27k miles. It was the diff bearings - I’ve got a thread from last year on here talking about it. I got a refurbished box via Renault who also did the fitting at Renault Basingstoke - a good job and excellent customer service. it took nearly two months to source the refurb box from France and then fit it. I had to pay 50% of the box and fitting because I was just out of warranty, but I pushed the case for them to pay - I mean, 27k miles! And it had not had a hard life. So I feel your pain! Let’s hope they’ve fixed it.
@notadiesel the whine sounded like a wheel bearing droning and was linked to road speed not engine revs, but was clearly coming from the centre of the car not the wheel area. It was faint to start with and after a few months of daily driving it became louder and really irritating. Weirdly it never seemed to cause problems cornering. But jacked up, with both front wheels in the air, rotating one of them made a tinkling rattling noise in the box . Not good.
It's not THAT noticeable, but would have really irritated the hell out of me. The whine was very faint but could definitely be heard as a different noise to what I'd heard up until that point. Was not effected by engine speed/revs, only road speed. Continued whilst free-coasting in neutral at motorway speeds, both clutch in and out made no difference either. I still have all the videos of the noises and also the horrible gearbox noise as described below if you need me to somehow ping them to you for reference. My gearbox was on 42k Miles at that point. As BillyA mentions, it also clicked/clunked when the front was raised and one wheel spun. Ahh I bought mine through a nonRenault dealer. After back and forth heated discussions they replaced the bearings and the other gearbox issues. Had a copy of the invoice for my history too, £1800 bill (not including the contribution they gave for the potential diff) Exactly this - except mine wasn't left for a few months - I went back the very next day. The parts were on back order from Renault for about 4 weeks or so, which included time waiting for the dealer to play their part in giving the garage the green light for things.
So following on from the last progress post, I've pretty much been just enjoying the car and have to say I am absolutely obsessed with it and am so happy I both bought it and weathered the storm caused by the dealer. I've sadly not got much time to get the polisher on the Meg at the moment, but the MOT is due to expire in October (another thing the dealer failed to do, provide a new MOT on sale) and I'm planning on putting the car away in dry storage through winter. I'll look to get some cleaning done during its hibernation. I have managed to wash it a few times, including taking both seats out to give it a thorough vacuum though. A few random shots from many drives out.. Brecon Beacons (actually the day the gearbox showed problems, hence the original Reg) Black Mountains, Brecon The carbon fiber surround of the ZPO shifter was then removed and covered in a Satin/Matte Paint Protection Film (PPF). As the factor dash trim was a Matte finish, I wanted to make the carbon faceplate match. Instead of a satin lacquer, a quick PPF application not only removed the gloss finish but also ensured the carbon is safe against scratches. You can't really see a noticeable difference in photos, but it is alot more noticeable in person. A pair of fresh rubbers for the front, sticking with the tyres that came on the car - Federal 595 RS-R. Truth be told, I've never been one to spend high money on tyres, the most costly tyres being the Uniroyal Rainsports fitted to my daily Passat as it goes. But the Megane is becoming a bit of a money no object kind of car which isn't great for my wallet. - A
The car has recently been taken to EFI Parts in Runcorn, a 3.5hr drive from Cardiff. After a quick recomendation post on Facebook it seemed EFI and RSTuning were the two most popular options with EFI pipping the post by a few. So I booked a few months ago and finally the day came on Saturday 14th Aug. Sadly the traffic was a total nightmare on the M6, causing me to arrive 30 mins late for my slot. I cannot recommend Chris @ EFI enough, he was very understanding of the situation and made sure that the car was still done correctly. The car pulled a healthy 281bhp as standard power and Chris was happy to proceed with the map. The car was run a few times whilst alterations were made it settled at a 313.5bhp and 352ft-lb torque, keeping everything nice and safe for road use and an occasional track day in mind. I requested that the 'Normal' mode of the car be replaced with the standard 'RS' mode map so reduced power is now 281bhp instead of the original 245ish. This meant the car was now 281/313 bhp and 265/352ft-lb between normal and sport. Tehe The car pulls so well now, you can certainly notice the difference between the power modes, really pleased with the outcome. _________________ I've also driven an 11hr round trip to collect a front splitter - but unfortunately at the moment that is a write off as it turns out the splitter is for a pre-facelift model and not a facelift. So this splitter will be for sale and I'll have to have another hunt. - A
Very nice looking graphs there Aaron, just had a sport cat and full miltek on mine, need to get it up to Chris for the injectors and mk3 turbo figment and map.
Next time you want to go fro a drive through Wales, hook me up and I'll meet you somewhere. We can run to hundred house, at a hundred
I've never actually had a car remapped before. This being a first for many things this car. Have to say though, took the Megane out for a little drive last night after getting fuel, just a general cruise about and when you do put your foot down it bloody shifts. I'm over the moon - not that my partner was that impressed me heading up country as 'anyone can map a car'. Of course mate - where about are you based?
