Renault Dealer Advice......

crosstownk

I just got off the phone with a Renault dealer who has told me that the EGR valve is blocked up and in order to clean it out I should drive the car for 180 miles at approx 50kp/h in a low gear in order to clear it out. So I told them "no way - whose job is it to fix the car - yours or mine?".

Apparently they are saying this to all Renault owners........

Anybody else been offered this 'advice'

colm_mcm

what caused the problem?

crosstownk

EGR valve is gummed up with carbon apparently and it needs to do a complete a cycle at high RPM to fully rectify itself - which is apparently 180 miles in second gear at 50km/h!!!! Sounds like total horsesh1t to me. I'm waiting for a call back from someone at the dealer to enlighten me further. Given that they said that they are telling all their customers with the same problem I was hoping that someone here might have been told the same.

As I learn more I'll post more...............

TempestSabre

You couldn't make this up.

Anan1

crosstownk wrote:

I just got off the phone with a Renault dealer who has told me that the EGR valve is blocked up and in order to clean it out I should drive the car for 180 miles at approx 50kp/h in a low gear in order to clear it out. So I told them "no way - whose job is it to fix the car - yours or mine?".

Apparently they are saying this to all Renault owners........

Anybody else been offered this 'advice'

I'm not a mechanic, but couldn't the EGR valve be removed, cleaned and replaced?

VeVeX

That is the strangest bit of dealer drivel I have heard. They expect you to stay in second or third gear for near enough six hours. I take it you can pick up on this 50kmh odyssey at your leasure or did they stipulate its a continuous journey?

A friend of mine was told by Park Motors that his Mercedes had an inbuilt safety feature...

He had brought the car back because it was pulling left just after he bought it. They said that Mercedes do this normally because alot of old people drive mercs and if they were to fall asleep rather then drifting into oncoming traffic they would come to a slumbered stop gently against their side of the road.

junkyard

Thats a new one on me VeVex:rolleyes: No disrespect to you crosstownk but I don't understand how people are still buying Renault's, they are one of the most overrated pieces of junk on the market and I'm speaking from experience here. It amazes me what bullsh*t people accept from main dealers and expect people to swallow it. Like VW Golfs burning oil and when they go back to the dealer and complain they're told that all Golf's are like that and sent on their way. Most of the car's nowadays seem to have lots of faults and the owners are used as guinea pigs and get fogged of when the sh*t hits the fan.

maidhc

crosstownk wrote:

I just got off the phone with a Renault dealer who has told me that the EGR valve is blocked up and in order to clean it out I should drive the car for 180 miles at approx 50kp/h in a low gear in order to clear it out. So I told them "no way - whose job is it to fix the car - yours or mine?".

Apparently they are saying this to all Renault owners........

Anybody else been offered this 'advice'

Can you not just drive like a complete lunatic instead... surely the EGR won't notice the difference.

EGR valve caused problems with my Focus before I owned it (black smoke and poor comsumption apparently), but a new modified one was fitted under warranty.

Spit62500

Is there a warrenty involved in all of this? Its a bit strange that the garage wouldn't be gagging to haul the car in and present you with a big bill for their work - the ony time I've been offered 'free' advice by a service department is when they were avoiding their responsibilities....

SouperComputer

Complain and tell them to get you two vouchers for a track day at Mondelllo and a new set of front tyres. That'll clear that EGR no bother!

crosstownk

junkyard wrote:

No disrespect to you crosstownk but I don't understand how people are still buying Renault's, they are one of the most overrated pieces of junk on the market and I'm speaking from experience here.

I can't understand it myself - unfortunately they are fleet cars - I've about 40 of them to look after:eek: 40 Renaults give more trouble than the other 1000 cars together!
I've had a wee bit of an update from the dealer - apparently this is just with diesel models. Basically a warning light appears on the dash which relates to an emissions fault caused by the EGR valve. Still though, the driver of this car did as the dealer suggested and, hey presto, the light went out. However. I don't think its good practice to ask the customer to drive the car at 50km/h for such a distance - surely the dealer should repair the fault even if it's as simple as a mechanic driving the car for 180 miles - is this not what warranty is for?

VeVex - Nothing surprises me with Park Motors - I left an A6 in there a few years back and they broke the rear screen with a golf ball that was in the back of the A6 - It took 2 weeks to get a new screen in from Germany:rolleyes:

crosstownk

Ok - I've spoken to someone in the Renault dealer who seems to know what he is talking about. It is not the EGR valve that is at fault - it is a unit called an FAP which is a device that filters particles from the exhaust. When the car does continuous urban driving this filter blocks up and the injection light and the yellow service light show up on the dash - this usually happens after 180miles of urban driving. When this happens the car must be driven for at least 20 mins in a low gear at approx 50km/h to force the particle filter to 'regenerate'. When this 'regeneration' starts the driver may well get a burning smell and very soon after the lights on the dash will go out. I am told that this 'cycle' is quite normal and is not a fault - it is simply an environmental control.

As you can see this considerably different from the story I was given yesterday.

Make what you will of it - but it sounds - er - 'unique' to me!

BrianD3

It is a strange one alright. The bizarre thing about this is that the dealer is doing himself out of work by telling the customer how to fix the problem himself (that's assuming that the advice is correct of course) It would be very easy for the dealer to charge 100 quid or whatever for "servicing the EGR valve" and then charge it either to the customer or to Renault if under warranty.

So perhaps this is a (misguided?) attempt at improved customer service? Personally I have found Renault dealers a bit hit and miss. Some dealers are better than others but even the same dealer can be good one time you use them but poor another time.

Based on what I read in this forum and my experiences with Renaults and other makes I'd say Irish Renault dealers are about average when it comes to being competent. I don't believe I have ever heard a bad report about a Toyota or Honda dealer and dealers of other Japanese makes also seem to be decent. But certainly I have heard of or personally experienced bad, dishonest, incompetent or way overpriced service from dealers of Ford, Fiat, Alfa, VW, BMW, Mercedes, Peugeot, Opel and just about every other make too!

AlanD

When reading the posts I was thinking to myself, that sounds awfully like the process for cleaning out ther FAP on my Peugeot. Thing is, the dealer is right. There is no need to replace it at all. Driving it is the process for clearing it out. But what you don't need to do is drive at 50km/h for 180 miles. A free revving open road drive will also work. It's just the urban driving stopping, starting, M50 style carpark stuff that causes the filter to clog up totally.

I had it in my 607. Looked it up in the car's manual and followed their instructions and it cleared. So for Peugeot's with a FAP, it's in the manual. Check your Renault manual too. It's probably there too.

It might seem unusual these days because not too many cars have these particulate filters compared to older cars. I bet you all of them though would succumb to some level of clogging which would require similar clearing.

As for the dealer, I agree, he should have driven the car for you. But then, how happy would you be to discover he added 100 miles to your clock without your knowledge or even charged you 2 hours labour for it? He saved you a few bob I reckon and rightly so.

crosstownk

AlanD wrote:

As for the dealer, I agree, he should have driven the car for you. But then, how happy would you be to discover he added 100 miles to your clock without your knowledge or even charged you 2 hours labour for it? He saved you a few bob I reckon and rightly so.

I agree - but this particular car is under warranty...............

It appears as if it is a standard 'feature' with this engine type. It's a bit of nuisance factor, tbh.

AlanD

crosstownk wrote:

I agree - but this particular car is under warranty...............

It appears as if it is a standard 'feature' with this engine type. It's a bit of nuisance factor, tbh.

my car too is under warranty, I just checked my handbook first and saw the solution there. It's not something that should happen a lot, but I agree it is a nuisance if you do a lot of urban slow driving you could potentially come up against this more frequently.

Personally, I would not be happy if a dealer charged me for driving my car to clear out the filter though. It's not that much hassle when you know about it, there's just no need to stick to 50km/h. My handbook says you need to drive faster than about 30/40 mph for a period. That's all.

Actually, on a different note, I had to get the fluid that is used in the anti-pollution device which could be related to the FAP refilled a few weeks back. Now that was a nuisance. Fluid lasts only 60k apparantly.

crosstownk

AlanD wrote:

Actually, on a different note, I had to get the fluid that is used in the anti-pollution device which could be related to the FAP refilled a few weeks back. Now that was a nuisance. Fluid lasts only 60k apparantly.

I can see dealers refusing warranty on this as its 'normal' - just like regular servicing.

I didn't know there was fluid in the FAP - how much did it cost and did you get it done in a dealer? I would imagine the Renault system is similar to the Peugeot.

AlanD

crosstownk wrote:

I can see dealers refusing warranty on this as its 'normal' - just like regular servicing.

I didn't know there was fluid in the FAP - how much did it cost and did you get it done in a dealer? I would imagine the Renault system is similar to the Peugeot.

yes but as others said, a lot of other dealers would do the work for you under warranty, cos they won't care who pays them, you or the warranty company. Although these days, dealers are covering warranty themselves instead of a separate company. So I think it's great that they told you that you or the driver could remedy the problem for free.

Yes I went to a dealer to get the fluid refilled. He covered it under warranty for me. It would have been dear enough though if I paid since it took them about 2 hours in total to do it. So I could have been looking at a 150-200 euro cost. They covered it I suppose because I bought the car off them second hand less than 12 months ago. But usually it would be a normal cost not covered under warranty.

It only needs refilling when the appropriate light comes on too.