Repairing a car up north

Kashkai

Is it cheaper to get a car repaired in NI?

My meganes window regulator has packed up for the second time in two years and Renault want 460 euro to fix what they "fixed" two years ago. So if it's cheaper and if anyone knows a good Renault garage up north, I'd appreciate the advice.

Theanswers

Usually Yes, check with the garage before hand.... Possibly you could do it yourself? Just by the part up north... Now that WOULD save your money!

Dunne.Drift

No, not from my bosses experience.. He priced getting his transit passenger door fixed down here & up the north in a few different garages & actually up north where charging more for the parts than down here in the Republic :eek:

That was just in his case & experience but over all i would expect it to be a bit cheeper..

Andrew33

L/H driveshaft for an Octavia

Supply only:

Eire = €405
N.I = £250

Supply & fit

Eire = €560
N.I = £350

All prices from main Skoda dealers Nth & Sth

Yawns

It's sometimes cheaper to get the parts for cars down here in the South. bUT 8/10 times it's cheaper to buy parts up north. The usual rule would apply in all cases anyway - SHOP AROUND.

This means googling auto factors north & south, garges etc and asking how much. Make sure you have total incl vat for the part and if getting it done in a garage, make sure you find the cost of labour too.

i'd stay away from a main dealer for a regulator to be honest, call into some ind garages for a quote.quote.

BrianD3

If that's a front window regulator they are 64 or 96 quid sterling + delivery from eurocarparts (cost of part depends on whether you need one with or without a motor) Any mechanic could then fit it, labour would probably be 1 hour.

Surprising that a 2 year old regulator isn't covered by warranty seeing as the car would have had a 2 year warranty from new and there was an extended warranty on the regulators.

Kashkai

BrianD3 wrote: »

If that's a front window regulator they are 64 or 96 quid sterling + delivery from eurocarparts (cost of part depends on whether you need one with or without a motor) Any mechanic could then fit it, labour would probably be 1 hour.

Surprising that a 2 year old regulator isn't covered by warranty seeing as the car would have had a 2 year warranty from new and there was an extended warranty on the regulators.

Renault have insisted the replacement regulator only had a 12 month guarantee. I'll check eurocarpsrts site and I might give it a go myself then. Thanks

Gumbo

go to a small decent garage in Dublin.
window regulator supplied and fitted to my brothers A4 last week was 170e.

Kashkai

kceire wrote: »

go to a small decent garage in Dublin.
window regulator supplied and fitted to my brothers A4 last week was 170e.

I tried a couple of indy garages and the cheapest price I got was 380 euro.

BrianD3

Have a look on www.renaultforums.co.uk there may well be an illustrated guide on how to change a regulator on a Megane. I'd suggest that before you order any parts, you take off the door car and have a look, that way you should be able to determine if you need a regulator with a motor or just the regulator. IMO it is likely to be the latter.

Kashkai

BrianD3 wrote: »

Have a look on www.renaultforums.co.uk there may well be an illustrated guide on how to change a regulator on a Megane. I'd suggest that before you order any parts, you take off the door car and have a look, that way you should be able to determine if you need a regulator with a motor or just the regulator. IMO it is likely to be the latter.

Now I'm a bit confused. I thought the regulator/motor where one and the same thing. Obviously not I see. Can you please explain the difference si I know what I'm looking for. I know I appear to be a bit thick now but actually I'm not and I'm fairly competent at diy so I'd appreciate the info before I take the door lining off today

-Corkie-

Yes they are different dave i found out this on an old passat i had the regulator holds the window in position in the door frame, while the motor obviously drives it up and down. My regulator was going for ages and i didnt bother fixing it which wore the motor out so i ended up replacing the two.

BrianD3

A "regulator" is generally taken to mean the entire electric window winding mechanism i.e frame, cables, pulleys, motor etc. On Renaults and maybe other cars as well, when there is a problem with the regulator it's often with the cables etc., not the motor. So you can buy a new regulator minus the motor and use your existing motor with it, saving you money.

Then again if you order a new regulator which includes a new motor it will be slightly easier to fit, also it removes the possibility that your old motor might not fit properly into the new part.

Kashkai

So how will I know what's broken? If the regulator is the problem, then I should see damage to a cable etc (the last time the window failed, it had fallen down into the door and wouldn't come back up so this was a regulator failure then?).

This time round, the window has stayed up and there is no sound coming from the motor when the switch is activated so my guess would be the motor has gone.

nmacc

You could have a simple wiring fault, but the falling-down window is a common problem in the Megane and is usually caused by a small and rather fragile piece of nylon. Unfortunately in the recent Meganes the entire mechanism has to be replaced as no parts are sold separately and this applies both North and South of the border. So yes, we're being screwed on the spares, but we're being screwed by Regie Renault and not by Bill Cullen.

However when I priced a regulator late last year, the Northern price was around 60% of the Southern price, so it's worth the trip. I would advise caution with Europarts. Although I have had good experiences with them and know folks who swear by them, I have also had some deliveries of extremely poor pattern parts, including my last shipment of which 50% were unusable.

BrianD3

nmacc wrote: »

You could have a simple wiring fault, but the falling-down window is a common problem in the Megane and is usually caused by a small and rather fragile piece of nylon. Unfortunately in the recent Meganes the entire mechanism has to be replaced as no parts are sold separately and this applies both North and South of the border. So yes, we're being screwed on the spares, but we're being screwed by Regie Renault and not by Bill Cullen.

Looking at ebay UK, there are some "repair clips" for Megane II regulators.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MEGANE-2-WINDOW-REGULATOR-CLIP-FRONT-LEFT_W0QQitemZ180434324461QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM?hash=item2a02b94bed

What do you think of this, is this the part that fails?

@ Prosperous Dave, if there is not a sound out of the window it may be a bad connection, failed motor or a frayed cable could be jamming the motor completely. Check and reseat the wires and connections first, if that doesn't work then examine the motor for jamming. If its jammed, try detaching it from the rest of the mechanism and see if it works on its own. While doing any work on the regulator, jam the window up with a piece of wood or else tape it to the door frame with strong tape - because the window may fall suddenly and break if you start cutting cables and removing motors.