1997 Renault Megane hatch

villej

villej

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
658
Location
Finland
Car(s)
'03 and '06 Renault Megane
Yes, it's nothing too fancy or awesome, but I still like it.

I bought it about an year ago for a cheap but comfortable car to drive long distance trips, which are mostly between my home town and the city where I'm studying at university.

As I student I don't have that much extra money laying around, so I was not able to buy anything too new or expensive. This Megane does its job well anyway, it's good to drive and has a good ride quality, which I myself rank as important features for driving long trips. It had done 150000 kilometres before I bought it, but now it has about 20000 more on the clock.

It has one problem though, the speedometer doesn't work at the moment, thus I'm using the GPS navigator to show the speed. It's some sort of electric glitch, probably some wire from the speed sensor on the gearbox has corroded. I haven't yet had proper time to try to find the cause of the problem.

Oh, and it has 1,6 litre 8 valve 4 cylinder engine. It's not too powerful, but at least it gives a good fuel economy with the light car, which a broke studen't like me can appreciate.

Some pics:
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The car's on backyard because I have just deployed some stone chip protection to the underbody.
 
Not too bad. Far from a terrible car. The pattern all over the doors is kind of funny.
 
That pretty much sums up the '90s in car form. But I liked the '90s, so I like the car.
 
The good thing about it is, that it's still mechanically in very good condition. The body is also free of rust, because it has had extra rust proofings done by it's previus owner when it was new.

Yeah, and the straingth from the 90's interior is in like new condition. :D The previous owner has taken good care of it.

I hate the alloys though. I don't think they fit to the car at all. Also the current summer tires are too wide, and they make too much noise to my liking. When those tires are worn enough I'll probably just get some black steel rims and install narrower tires on them. I think the main point of the tires is to make the car handle well and make the ride good, the looks are inferior to that.

In Finland cars generally cost a little bit more than in most other industrialized counties, and even this car still cost about an year ago 3000 euros for me. It would have been possible to get a similiar Megane for one grand less, but the cars with that price were in much worser condition.
 
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For me, that's the prettiest M?gane ever made. I still remember when it went on sale, my neighbor bought one in dark red, it really stand out in the middle of so many old boring cars. Nowadays, it still looks like a modern car.
 
I see something has happened to the photos on the first post and I can't edit it, so I repost them here:

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I'll post now mandatory proof pic later.


Since the last post Megane has now seen 3 years, 60000 kilometres, 3800 litres of 95E and 98E gasoline, 18 litres of Teboil Gold fully synthetic oil, new front balljoints, a new water pump and a new timingbelt, a set of NGK spark plugs and one new set of summer tires. And it's still going well.

With increasing fuel prices and fallen bioethanol prices I have started to think about running the car with E85. Currently E85 costs 1? per litre when 98E cost 1,70 per litre. Even with increased consuption running on ethanol would be much cheaper alternative.

According to various French and Swedish enthusiasts Renault K7M engine should run pretty well on 75% E85 and 25% 95E mix even in stock configuration. But when the stuff in the tank is 100% E85 problems start to arise, because fuel injection system doesn't provide enough juice to the engine. Also ability to start the engine in cold temperatures is greatly reduced even with E85 and 95E mix. Here E85 conversion kits like Bioadapter come in to offer a helping hand, as they trick ECU to provide more fuel to combustion chambers.

I have also heard the horror stories about E85 eating my fuel system from inside out, blowing up the motor, killing my cattle and murdering my children, but I have hard time finding a single well documented case of E85 destroying a modern car. Everything is just hearsay. And what could happen at worst? Probably a fuel pipe could perish. Leaking ethanol on hot engine. Setting the car on fire... (OK, that demonstration didn't go well...) But anyway, it's not like E85 could cause that severe damage if the fuel pipes are inspected regularly. And I refuse to believe that modern rubber pipes could be that weak. And it's not like the car is worth a fortune anyway. And my life is too boring.

Will my Megane burst in flames next winter? Do I have to walk 100 kilometres to home in -30 degrees celcius? Stay tuned, as I have just ordered E85 conversion unit from bioadapter.com. E85 driving starts this fall.
 
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That's what I have heard. Someone says it takes 1 year, someone other says it takes 10 years. And third one claimed that E85 won't dissolve fuel pipes and seals used in modern cars at all. We shall see. :p
 
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Cool little car.. the direct descendant from my 19 :D
I think they even share the same engines...
 
As far as I know, the original Megane is a heavily updated R19. The engines were also carried over. We had a Volvo 460 in the family, a car which was heavily based on/developed alongside the R19. It had the 1.6 liter 8 valve too, even. It was cramped inside and had all sorts of little issues but the ride comfort is leaps and bounds better than the contemporary 850, no doubt thanks to its French genes. :) I liked the engine as well.
 
Just sold the car. For 600 euros. Which is nothing for a car that has 2 sets of almost new tires. Albeit the timing belt has to be changed next summer.

Now I feel a bit empty inside... My companion from past six years... Gone... :cry:
 
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I still cannot understand where did they see Coup? in this 5 door hatch. :lol: They did still have a proper coup? in lineup.
 
I drove with E60 mix for a month or two, and didn't have any problems. Only small unresponsiveness on lower revs. Then I encountered some obstacles in other areas which I had to tackle, and I didn't have time or will to do ethanol experiments any more. There wasn't a too large difference in fuel costs in any case, as fuel cosumtion became quite high with higher ethanol amounts. The Bioadapter kit was a bit of a dissapointment. It worked like it should, but the wires and connectors were too thin and flimsy, so I didn't have enough confidence in it to leave it installed permanently.

I believe the Coup? badge was Finnish importers invention. I don't understand what they were thinking.
 
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