The Safrane.Info Forum!

Thanks to Dave (SafraneV6RXE on here) who sent me a new Ph11 front end for my car. I really like and it fitted it earlier. A simple enough job once you know how the front end is held together (which I didn't at the start of the day!) Really pleased with the result.

Blimey thats quick work,looks great,pleased you are happy with it and hopefully the heater motor should help aswell.

Was a bit cold doing it today but didn't take too long and didn't have any major issues - just one broken (brittle) plastic clip on one of the indicators but a pretty successful bit of work. I do think it makes the front of the car look a lot more upmarket. Haven't looked at the heater motor yet. May have a look tomorrow. Does anyone know if it is easy enough to get at before I attempt it?

Very easy,lay on your back in the passengers front footwell,look up and you will see a cover(sometimes missing)peel that back and the motor is there,3 screws and the connector should see it removed!

I had heard it was in a good location. Thanks for that!!

Had a look at this today. Turned out there was a piece of plastic in the fan and a few leaves! The plastic looks like it has broken from somewhere (possibly a cover/flap to stop leaves getting in?) and had wedged in the fan. So I didn't need to replace it but very nice to know I now have a spare. That's something that has irritated me for a while so very pleased to get it sorted.

I think that might be what holds up the felt / filter material at the top of the inlet area where the scuttle is. It's difficult to say really because when I broke up a 2.5 years ago I got the entire dashboard apart but the actual heater mechanism / plastic thing is not easy and I never managed to get it apart really - just break off a few bits here and there to peep inside. It's a real PITA to even try to get apart. It's just a big solid chunk of plastic that stretches all over the passenger side of the bulkhead and into the middle before spawning pipes all over th place on the drivers side.

I managed to salvage a few stepper motors from it and that was it - they were hard enough to remove. If you ever need to replace the heater matrix I wixh you luck because I found the git but it was held in by an invisible force and I only managed to find it because I broke the plastic it was inside of!

Anyway I'm surprised you managed to part Dave with that Chrome, I know he'd been after one for himself for a while (no idea why with a phase 1 lol). It does make the car look more upmarket but if you want the mean road hog look you need the larger open grill. Interesting to see that you fitted it onto the rad panel first and then fitted the plastic over it. I've always fitted it into the plastic and then reattached the entire thing. When I bought a replacement chrome piece for a safrane that I rebuilt (smashing its original chrome to bits in a prang that ruined xmas) the seller sent me the entire thing with the plastic that stretches under the headlights as he couldn't figure out how to remove it.

Interesting to see something about your safrane though.. as with all 3 that we've had, your driver side indicator doesn't line up with the wing panel like it does on the passenger side. Thats always irked me a bit with these cars. You can adjust it yourself (the 4 bolds on the black piece) but it's very fiddly to get right.

I got a diagram from the French forums on how to remove it all. Was surprised how easy it was really but looking back I think it would have been a lot more difficult to take it all out as one piece like you seem to have done. Beginners luck

Did the heater matrix on mine a few years back (the only big job I've had done on the car in 11 years!). Dashboard out and had to cut a hole in the bulkhead if I remember correctly. Not a job I would want to have done again!

Just made up not to have that irritating noise coming from the fan, it was quite embarassing when carrying passengers. I remember when it happened, I heard something 'break' in the upper dash and it then made a grinding noise on the fan ever since. Amazing to find out it was that.

The indicator on the drivers side was far more difficult to get back on, didn't seem to line up as well as the other side but hadn't noticed it when looking at the car.

The indicators on the driver side are a pain on these for some reason. I've had problems with all 3 of our safranes - they never line up with the metal wing for some reason yet the pasenger side is fine.

How come you had to cut through the bulkhead for the matrix? Is it welded in or something?

I'm amazed that you managed to remove your plastic without the grill - Just looking at how it all clips in make it seem impossible. I've certainly never managed to remove one without removing the surrounding plastic with it. The only hard bit I found was the annoying clip to the side of the renault diamond that slides sideways.

As I say, I saw this diagram and presumed it was the only way. It came away very easily on mine.



I can't remember exactly what the problem is with the matrix but I think it's engine out to get to it unless you take dashboard out and go in that way. The Renault dealer seemed to think it was the best way anyway.