The Safrane.Info Forum!

Well the Safranes dampers are feeling tired, the joys of speedbumps, potholes and swerving to avoid them. The stuff is all original and its done about 120 ish k miles so not bad for the weight they damp.

Has anyone converted to Laguna struts up front? Easier to find uprated parts and cheaper.

What about the rear?

Anyone converted to the Laguna 2 308mm discs up front?

I've never thought about using Laguna suspension to be honest. The safrane is a lot bigger and heavier than a laguna and I'm not sure the laguna suspension would be rated for it.

No idea about the discs I'm afraid.

If you decide to replace your shock absorbers though, be very careful with the springs. They're meant to be hydraullicaly compressed and they are massive and very strong. You can compress them using hand tools but you need to be very careful and I only recommend one set of spring compressors that I can trust. They're made by laser and have 3 compressors so you can space them at 120 degrees apart for better stability and they also have safety arms to stop them pinging off the spring too:

theres not much weight difference between the Laguna and safrane TBH.

Also when you factor in max train weight they are fine. Just the fitment, I suppose I better check with one of the lagunas I have available.

The strut bearings are the same on the renault 5 as on the Safrane, that shows how much cost cutting there is on renaults parts. The bearing collapse on them.

The struts are easy enough, done them both for new bearings when I first got them and considering my occupation has covered everything from cranes to snow mobiles I'm used to strange and powerful springs.

Heres some pics of when I done it







new bearing and you can see my old (very old) faithful spring compressors (only 2) that I done the job with. Yeah the ones I had at work would have been easier (just wind em up with the gun) but theres a knack for these things, bouncing the spring to lock them on is one of the techniques



The bigger brakes should go, Laguna 2 is the easiest thing to find them on, but if plans go the way I'm thinking I would rather the extra bit of braking to haul the barge up.

Ah ok, I didn't know you'd also done them in the past

I've also done them (numerous times) and yes the bearings are rubbish! I remember once I snapped the 3 bolts that hold the shock in the safrane. Luckily I had a spare shock in the shed from another safrane I had dismantled. The problem was the big nut on top - I couldn't get it off! What I ended up doing was cutting through the spring with an angle grinder while it was still under tension Not the best of things to do I know but I cut a vertical line through the spring so that when it gave way it would slip past the cutting disk and not onto it if you see what I mean. After that I just cut off the telscopic part of the shock and then clamped it to undo the nut.

Do you also get the steering rack groan? - Whats the cause of that? Do I need a new steering rack?

The bolts snapping is a common issue on them all tbh, Renault have uses 2/3 13mm bolts to hold the strut to the turrets on bigger cars for a long time. If you get a new car with them in copper grease them. Dodgy ones belt with a hammer and work back and forth and use so penetrating spray (wurth rost off ice or pb blaster or plus gas).

Often Stilsons or decent moles at the top of the shock can get the stubborn ones off if you can get in. If you get it right at the top then its fine to reuse as that bit is in the bumpstop on full bump and not in the actual damper body.

But you do what you need to to get things out the door.

I just fitted a rack to mine, pretty easy actually, the subframe dropped ok though, often they don't.

The rack itself is quiet (aside from a knock on the nearside, I assume the track rod needs changed as the end is fine, but no play with it unloaded that I noticed.

Anyway back to the point, with the rack disconnected and turning the struts I get an annoying groaning squeak noise so I assume the bearings need done again. I can hear that sometimes when I steer it. So I don't have rack noise but strut noise.

I also of course have fresh fluid and I also greased the rack (peel the gaiters back and grease, lock to lock, repeat until it won't take any more grease in.

I've had two distinctly different sounds - one is the springy 'tranging' sound - caused by the bearings but the worrying one is a metallic groaning sound when steering. Rather scary that especially when the car shakes with it!

Do tell me more about this subframe dropping, is that the two big bolts under the car where the downpipe is? - I'd find it a bit tricky to remove that if it is as thats where I put the axle stands!

does the noise change with it jacked up? Have you checked the springs?

Subframe dropping, if you look on my luxo barge report on retro you will see it.

Basically, the 2 30mm bolts and 2 16 or 18mm bolt holds the subframe to the floor.

To get it off you need to also remove the 2 18mm bolts holding the exhaust mount plate thing (mine had sheared) and undo the column to rack bolt and the rear engine mount (21mm bolts)

Whats I did was jack it op on the subframe and put the stands on the round jacking points (with wood as always to protect the underseal etc).,

The way I done it left everything else attached, wishbones etc as I wasn't taking it off the car, just dropping it to get easy access to the rack

here is a quick pic of it dropped though and the rack off

Ah ha!

Thats incredibly useful. I didn't realise that whole thing came out and could be replaced! You sir have just made my day for several reasons which I shall come back to you about when its warmer

I'm intrigued now, what reasons is there?

Well as mentioned previously, steering is the main one however access to the power steering pipes connected to the rack is also a PITA too. I've had to remove the engine once purely to get a pipe out to get it repaired by a hydraullic specialist (the hi-pressure pipe is no longer available from renault). Then there is the rust thats started creeping in and the wishbones that need attention...

It'll make life a lot easier to take it all out from the bottom and service everything in one go - I didn't realise it came out!