The Safrane.Info Forum!

Hi there, I chanced upon this forum through the Reno owners club. I have two Safranes, a 2.0 16v and a 2.5 20v. The 2.5 has badly worn n/s cv joint which I am trying to replace. I have found it very difficult to source replacement parts, if its the Phase 1 theres no problem but Phase 2 seems I have to send my cv joint for refurbishing. Any ideas on where I can get an off the shelf part? I have found refurbed complete driveshafts at my local parts shop for £125 plus a £50 surcharge, maybe thats best way to go.

Also so far I've been unable to undo the driveshaft hub nut, is the near side hub on a left or right handed thread?

Any help is much appreciated.

John

Hi John and welcome!



Only thing that really comes to mind is ebay I'm afraid. Best to look for one being broken however the 2.5s are rare beasts to find these days especially in scrap yards. Your best bet is almost certainly to go with the local parts shop BUT just in case you haven't, give your local renault dealer a shout as they can actually be cheaper for some parts than the others. I bought a rear shock a couple of years back - £85 at the renault dealers parts dept and £125 - £150 everywhere else.



No they're normally threaded but they are done up MEGA tight. The only way I could undo mine was with the car on the ground, put a 24" breaker bar on it and then jack up the end of the breaker bar. The socket kept slipping off the nut so I had to hold it on while my missus jacked the bar (I got a bit worried when it started to lift the car but it eventually gave in). I'm reasonably lucky that I had a 3T trolley jack and that was struggling to force the bar up - I honestly don't think a 2T £20 jack from argos would do the job - I reckon it would probably destroy the pneumatics. When it did go, it made one hell of a loud ping sound.. a worse sound than the dentist drill or scratching a blackboard

Hi Saffles, thanks for the welcome and thanks for the advice. I'm just recovering from an eye op and have been told to keep my blood pressure down, which all that shananigins with breaker bar and jack certainly wouldn't do so. My local garage said they would have a look at cv joint for me, so considering how tight the nut will be I think I'll give them the work.

When I bought my 2.5 it came on lowered suspension which I can no longer live with so I have bought a set of new springs that I want fitting, guess I'll just bite the bullet and spend some cash on this occassion. Goes against the grain to pay for work to be done as I have done all my own work on the 2.0 16v for past ten years, but to be fair it has never really needed anything, bar regular servicing.

Welcome Tubaboy.
As Saffles says,try your local Renault parts department,or give me your Reg and i will look it up at work...
Phase 1 parts are getting very rare!! Phase 2 are slowing down but Phase 1 parts are vanishing fast.
Buying S/H is going to be tricky,people say 2.0 and 2.5 are the same,how many miles has it done etc etc,buy either through Renault or a factors if they are sure its correct,most people haven,t even heard of a Safrane!
Post some pics if you can and if you need anymore help or advise please ask,we are all here to help Safrane owners.

Hi SAFRANEV6RXE

Well my local motor factors tried a few sources today and the main one who is a remanufacturer needs my driveshaft as they have none in stock. To be honest I'd prefer to just replace the cv joint, there are plenty for Phase 1 cars on ebay but none for Phase 2.

My reg is R87 AWO if you can advise that would be great, here in Nottingham the Renault dealer is part of a multi franchise outfit and not very interested in my enquiries.

John

Hi
I will look it up tommorrow and let you know a price
So its a N/S driveshaft,correct?
Got your reg so will be in contact tommorrow...
Was your 2.5 the one that was on E-bay a while ago with the larger aftermarket wheels?
Dave.

Found it...
How did you get on with the problems listed?
Was it as good as you thought it would be?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 500wt_1169

Yes its the passenger side driveshaft or just the cv joint if its listed?

Yes thats the 2.5 I bought, one of my sight unseen ebay specials! Not quite what I expected, some good points, notably engine and box, some not so good, of which the drive shaft was one. At some point in the past it has been lowered and they have done a good job of it, but I hadn't realised this looking at the pictures. I have done about 800 miles in it now, couple of big trips to wales and south coast and I can't live with the suspension, well more to point, my passengers can't live with it. So I've bought some regular height springs and will get these fitted, hopefully same time as driveshaft/ cv joint.

I have put the 17" wheels on my 2.0 and it drives well on those, fills the arches much better and no real difference to ride, but they are a very unattractive design. I have taken the 15" alloys from the 2.0, had new tyres fitted and these will go on 2.5.

I've also removed the dark window tints that were fitted to front and rear side windows, dangerous in my opinion and not very well done, an bizarrely the reason the rear windows weren't working.

The spoiler is very scabby and cracked in places, not sure what to do with that, but of less importance right now.

Hopefully when finished will be a good ride as car is remarkably tight, no transmission shunt or clonks and very smooth. My 2.0 has only covered 98k miles by myself and one other owner, and is like new in some respects but has been my daily driver for quite a while and now deserves some r&r.

Thats a very rare condition yet I also have it on my safrane on both sides. When I first bought it it was just the sides but over the two years I've had it, the cracking has spread and is now all over it. No idea what causes it but both the other two safranes never had this.

Very strange.

Update on the D/shaft
Not really good news,firstly its backordered,none in the country,but will arrive in short time.
The price in total inc discount,postage and the surcharge is £208,not cheap,but at least i had a look at the price,thought it would be a bit lower.
Good the hear the 2.5 is coming on,do you know what the problem is with the rear windows?
I think the only way to go with the spolier is to find another excellent replacement and get it painted,the crazing can be very difficult to totally make vanish so it might be better to try with a good S/H unit in the first place.