The Safrane.Info Forum!

So, I promised I would let you know what I had bought.

It was an ebay purchase;-

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1997-RENAULT- ... true&rt=nc

Paid £380 for it. It has a full history up to 60000 miles (now done 104000). Full years MOT and drives really well.
So far, I have found the following issues;-

Smashed drivers fog light lens (new one bought for £10)
Missing drivers door armrest (the hinged cover). New one bought for £10 but I've yet to work out how to fit it. Seems like there should be a couple of pins holding it in but I assume I have to strip the door trim off to fit them.
Missing aerial. Seems as through the old one was snapped off as there is something in the middle of the thread where it should screw in. This will be a pain I assume!
Climate bulbs blown as the display is very dim on the passengers side. New bulbs bought for just over £1 each.
Difficult to start. I have put another battery in that I found but it seems to turn over very slowly and then start. Sometimes it doesn't start at all as if the battery is flat but the battery has been sat on my drive for about 6 months so might not be the best!
Some minor rust around hatch handle, rear wiper and corner of the boot.
Exterior temperature sometimes displays, sometimes doesn't but when it does it reads 49 or 50 degrees C. Replacement received today from SAFRANEV6RXE - many thanks for this. I really appreciate it. I will have to work out how to strip the mirror to get to the old one and replace it.
Noisy heater fan. Not looked into this yet.

That's about it. Very comfortable, aircon works a treat and I am hoping for many miles of 'wafting'.

For the last few years I have bought so called 'undesirable' cars for very little money and enjoyed them very much.

By the way, I have a book called Top Gear Crap Cars and on page 16........Renault Safrane!!!!!

I'm sure I will be on here frequently updating you on progress.

Michael

I was going to have a bid on that myself,but the seller told me he would sell for £350,so he sold for £30 more!!
Interesting about the rust as the seller painting a perfect picture of that except the scuff on the front bumper,but it does look clean and £380 with a years MOT is nice.
Pleased you got the sensor,i think you will have to remove the glass and the backing to get to it properly.
Noisy fan motor may well be this viewtopic.php?f=15&t=190
Looks nice and clean,keep up the good work and i,am sure Phase 2 owners will help with the other stuff.

Hi Michael,

So you bought old smoky eh? We saw that car a couple of times on ebay and I gotta admit I wasn't an admirer due to the engine fire but apart from that it looked a reasonable clean model. For the money you paid, you've probably got a good bargain.



No there are no pins. Well, no thats not quite correct, you see there are but they are plastic, very small, fragile and they basically snap off. They are actually on the grey plastic panel and the arm is supposed to clip on / in to them. The snag is they are so small and frail that they just snap off. If you want to fit your own metal pins, you will need to remove the plastic door card and gently heat the plastic before putting a small nail or something in. Thats only theoretical as I've never done it myself but I remember thinking I'd never get a drill in the confined space - not even a dremel with a flexi cord.



No idea about a pain but I would assume you could possibly wind it out? I did have a spare one of these but I've not seen it for over two years so I have no idea where it is. Your best bet will be to contact the ebay seller you got the fog lamp from and see if they have it still.



Get your hands on another battery for testing purposes to start with. If that doesn't do it then you may have a blocked breather / pcv which is a bugger to do but it is a diy doable job. From memory you won't need to drain anything either just have a lot of patience and a socket set with a universal joint for the two bolts on the manifold near the P/S pump. I doubt it is that though - thats worst case scenario. The other things to check are the fuel filter (known for making these incredibly hard to start) or the distributor. As its the volvo 5 pot engine the distributors are easy to get from volvo parts. Failing that, our honorary member SAFRANEV6RXE may be able to get you one cheap but renault do charge more than volvo (though V6 might get it cheaper than volvos rrp).



Common problem. On 2/3 safranes we've had both had rust around the handle. Unlock the boot by pulling the handle and then pull it up using the spoiler. It's the friction from the handle agains the metal that causes the rust to set in there. Daft design. As for the wiper, I have that on one of ours and although its not bad it does become an issue. No idea how I'm going to deal with that yet. Corner of boot?



No idea about that I'm afraid. If its electrical on a safrane I dread dealing with it. They're far too complex electrically speaking. I stripped out the wiring loom recently from one I'm breaking and it must weight 15-20kg (I mean the internal cabin loom).



The plastic cover comes off. I only found this out after a collision with a lorry where my mirror exploded and the cover landed 15m up the road (yeah it really did fly high). It clipped back on pretty easily but was damaged so from memory didn't stay on for long but they will come off if you can persuade it.



Move the passenger seat back, under the dash the motor is under a bit of carpet and the whole thing is held up with 3 screws from memory. Torx 20 I think you'll need to undo them with (I really should know this it was only a few weeks back I did this myself and my memory seems to be shot already ). Anyway you'll find quite a bit of crap in there that builds up (leaves, plastic, other bits of crap it manages to suck in from some unknown source etc). Unplug the motor, empty it outside the car and then put it back in. It'll be lovely and quiet



It often does in these cars for some reason. Despite the age and the so called seal leaks the safranes do seem to hold the gas well until you have an accident or prang etc. The weak point in the air con is the black canister / drier attached to the condensor which is basically holding water in it and of course that encourages the metal to rust. Once it reaches the point of no return the gas will leak out of it and they're a pita to replace - I think the nuts need to be heated to undo them properly.



Safranes suffer from badge snobbery but anyone who has ever had one, driven one or been in one will tell you they're great cars. Utterly loveable, comfy, great on motorways, reliable (until you tinker anyway), and still look pretty decent looks wise. What they suffer from is the renault badge and the automatic gearbox. Renault autos are known for being chocolate teapots but these are 4 speed aisin warner boxes that Volvo also use in the 850 and they're indestructible. Sure they make a (scary) thud when you move into D or R but they are solid gearboxes and the thud can be softened with an ATF change. Most folks however don't know any of that and will look at a safrane as being a worthless unreliable renault. Great - lets keep it that way



TG don't like french cars in general and they especially don't like renault a lot and rarely have anything good to say about them. It's true the ph2 safrane was out of its league against other brands in that price bracket / target market however its still a good and reliable design. Granted the electricals can be a bit screwy but you get that with most cars these days.

OK, nice dry day yesterday so an update for you....

Smashed drivers fog light lens (new one bought for £10) - now replaced and looking good, thanks Saffles for the instructions

Missing drivers door armrest (the hinged cover). New one bought for £10 but I've yet to work out how to fit it. Seems like there should be a couple of pins holding it in but I assume I have to strip the door trim off to fit them - now fixed. Drilled a little hole at the end of the armrest (bit that goes into the hole in the door card), drilled another small hole inside the door card where the original clip would have gone and used a tie wrap at each side through the holes to hold it in place. Works a treat.

Missing aerial. Seems as through the old one was snapped off as there is something in the middle of the thread where it should screw in. This will be a pain I assume! - Used my portable dremmel with the cutting disc. Cut a slot at the top of the aerial holder and then the inside bit just screwed out. New aerial to be purchased (about a tenner from Halfrauds).

Climate bulbs blown as the display is very dim on the passengers side. New bulbs bought for just over £1 each - removed the unit and replaced all 6 bulbs whilst I was there. Now bright and shiny.

Difficult to start. I have put another battery in that I found but it seems to turn over very slowly and then start. Sometimes it doesn't start at all as if the battery is flat but the battery has been sat on my drive for about 6 months so might not be the best! - Took the battery out of my other car (Passat V6) and it works a treat. As the Passat is for sale, I put the Safrane battery in it (apologies in advance to the prospective new Passat owner!).

Some minor rust around hatch handle, rear wiper and corner of the boot - not yet looked into this.

Exterior temperature sometimes displays, sometimes doesn't but when it does it reads 49 or 50 degrees C. Replacement received today from SAFRANEV6RXE - many thanks for this. I really appreciate it. I will have to work out how to strip the mirror to get to the old one and replace it - Replaced the sensor with the one SAFRANEV6RXE sent me (what a star he is). Bit fiddly due to wire lengths but now works a treat. Said 5 degrees c this morning which was about right.

Noisy heater fan - Not looked into this yet.

Also replaced the stock radio/cassette with my Alpine Bluetooth CD receiver. I have ordered a remote interface so I can control it from the Renault stalk adaptor. Sounds great and I have a handsfree phone facility as well.

Refilled the front and rear washer bottles. Front one took over 3 litres to fill! How big is it?????

So, all in all a good weekend.

One further question, how do I tell the paint colour on the car (apart from the fact it's blue). There seem to be 3 different blue colours on the Safrane and I don't know which mine is. Is there any colour code on the car somewhere???

Michael

Front washer does indeed take around 3 - 4L of screenwash. It's quite a big thing and it is behind the drivers side wing panel and runs lengthways behind it. It's 1ft long at least.

The colour code is on a label at the bottom of the frame inside the drivers door. By frame I mean the bit in the middle of the front and rear door. There are lots of different codes there though and I've not a clue which is which but halfrauds will be able to tell you. Be warned though, after 10 years the paint won't quite match so you'll need to get it custom faded somewhere.

Good work,getting all ready for a long hot summer!!!!
The paint code will be on the oval plate sticker at the bottom of the B post on the drivers side,being Blue it will start with a 4 it MIGHT be 432 Monaco blue,but it will start with a 4.

Fan removed and you were right. It was full of crud and leaves and other unknown items. Now nice and quiet.
Aerial replaced (the halfords Renault one was 6mm and didn't fit) but their Rover/Toyota one was 5mm and works a treat.
Found my paint code which was Monaco Blue and touched up a couple of scrapes on the bumper and door mirrors.
So far everything seems to be working as it should and I'm really pleased with the car. I will be travelling to Leeds next week (520 mile round trip) so that will be the big test of the car!

Good to hear the Safranes going well and you have done some jobs to get it looking smarter and i was right about the colour!!
Not bad for someone who doesnt know much about Phase 2s.

Thats breakfast for any phase 2 safrane.