[Brooksy1976*]

Hi , I've test driven an 08 model this week, seriously interested. Our local independent renault specialist is selling it. The history of the car is that it had an electrical fault that burnt out part of wiring loom due to badly wired tow bar. Advised all fixed now, drove very nicely too. I'm advised that a new computer had to be fitted because of the wiring loom burning out. New computer is from a manual though not automatic. It did throw up a few faults such as gear box and a list of faults in the injection system, but apparently this was because of the computer being from a manual and not an auto and im advised all is now good..
Does anyone have any advice or experience of whether I'm being spun a yarn.
Thanks.

 

[Dancingdad]

Walk briskly to the nearest exit, don't look back.

The wiring side is fine IF repaired correctly/completely.
The ECU swap??? They have fitted a second hand unit and either not tried to set it up to the vehicle or failed, quite possibly the latter.
Upshot of this is that while the motor may drive nicely, gawd only knows what things like fuel consumption, emissions and error messages/fault finding is going to be like.
Plus if any error messages that may indicated emission control fault are showing, some MOT places will fail it.

 

[Nexxusone]

RUN - run very fast.

 

[Brooksy1976*]

Walk briskly to the nearest exit, don't look back.

The wiring side is fine IF repaired correctly/completely.
The ECU swap??? They have fitted a second hand unit and either not tried to set it up to the vehicle or failed, quite possibly the latter.
Upshot of this is that while the motor may drive nicely, gawd only knows what things like fuel consumption, emissions and error messages/fault finding is going to be like.
Plus if any error messages that may indicated emission control fault are showing, some MOT places will fail it.

Hi, thanks for taking the time to reply. I believe a new ECU was fitted and indeed was a second hand one. (I think it was an ECU, they said computer, but I thought it was the same thing). I was told that because it was from a manual car and this is an automatic this caused the faults to show up. But there are no faults showing now because they have now set it up properly, allegedly...

 

[Dancingdad]

Your money, your choice.
If they have now set it up properly, if they know what they are doing and if they have done it right, it is probably okay.
Couple of big IFs in there and a probably.
And I am cynical, why offer it for a test drive when it was not working right and have they corrected it properly?

Realistically it now comes down to trust, price and whether or not you want to take the risk.
I would want to reduce the price to market value less the (potential) cost of the ECU being replaced again with a brand new, virgin unit.
Not sure what the appropriate values are but checking places like autotrader and ebay will generally give an idea what you should be able to buy a similar vehicle for..... then look to knock a grand off of that.

 

[Brooksy1976*]

Your money, your choice.
If they have now set it up properly, if they know what they are doing and if they have done it right, it is probably okay.
Couple of big IFs in there and a probably.
And I am cynical, why offer it for a test drive when it was not working right and have they corrected it properly?

Realistically it now comes down to trust, price and whether or not you want to take the risk.
I would want to reduce the price to market value less the (potential) cost of the ECU being replaced again with a brand new, virgin unit.
Not sure what the appropriate values are but checking places like autotrader and ebay will generally give an idea what you should be able to buy a similar vehicle for..... then look to knock a grand off of that.

Really appreciate your help.

I'll just expand a little if I may. Its an independent renault specislist, my family has used them for years on all of our cars. There is only two guys, the owner who is the main mechanic (used to work for renault main dealer) and he employees a guy that just does MOTs for him. I enquired about the car a while back as I saw it in the back of the workshop. He advised about the burnt out loom and that it needed replacing but it would be a while before he could fix it because he had a lot of work on. I asked again after a few months when he was servicing my car, he advised it now needed a new computer. They called me up about a month ago to say no good and he would be breaking it instead as after fitting the new computer it threw up a load of faults, such as gear box and a list of faults in the injection system. My dad then took his car for a service there last week and the mechanic asked him to tell me that they'd sorted the problems that they had with the car and that it was because he had fitted a computer from a manual espace in this car which is an automatic. He got advice as to how to set it up and then this sorted the problems.

He's asking £2400, 119k on the clock, body work ok, bit of what looks like bubbling around the door handles, not bad though, I'm being picky. Inside is clean but needs a complete valet as is a bit of mould visible in places. Its the Dynamique model, no sunroof though. Tyres looked good as did alloys, looks like new battery.

We would like an espace but if as you say it could be no good then it's not a problem we aren't desperate to get one quickly, we'll just keeping looking until a better one comes around.

 

[ours2012]

You might find a few issues..
The VIN inside the donor ECU kit ( AS in ecu, uch, key card ) wont match the VIN of the car.. SO should you ever need a spare key card, you would need it to match the donor VIN if getting a card from the main agents
Remember this ..



The gearbox, they would have changed a configuration setting in the UCH to manual instead of Auto .
So that should not be an issue..

IF YOU are happy, and you are happy with the price then go for it..
Just take on board, you might find little niggles along the way, not normally associated with the car ..
Especially if it throws a wiring fault ,, as this could be a long and tedious task to solve

 

[Dancingdad]

Hmmmm.
Sounds more tempting.
At least from a known source and issues not being hid.
And you know about the issues and know the garage.
As opposed to an Arthur Daly on tinternet making out a complete bodge is absolutely A**
Only two 2008s on Ebay at moment, both around 100K, one at £3.5K other seems rather optimistic at £4790 so his £2400 seems attractive and realistic. (just seen another at £4K)
Get 12months MOT and him to valet it if you decide to go for it.
Make sure two keys that both work.
And haggle on the price.
No one can guarantee trouble free and if in doubt, walk away.
Your money, your choice

 

[Brooksy1976*]

You might find a few issues..
The VIN inside the donor ECU kit ( AS in ecu, uch, key card ) wont match the VIN of the car.. SO should you ever need a spare key card, you would need it to match the donor VIN if getting a card from the main agents
Remember this ..



The gearbox, they would have changed a configuration setting in the UCH to manual instead of Auto .
So that should not be an issue..

IF YOU are happy, and you are happy with the price then go for it..
Just take on board, you might find little niggles along the way, not normally associated with the car ..
Especially if it throws a wiring fault ,, as this could be a long and tedious task to solve

Thanks for your comments, really appreciate it.

 

[Brooksy1976*]

Hmmmm.
Sounds more tempting.
At least from a known source and issues not being hid.
And you know about the issues and know the garage.
As opposed to an Arthur Daly on tinternet making out a complete bodge is absolutely A**
Only two 2008s on Ebay at moment, both around 100K, one at £3.5K other seems rather optimistic at £4790 so his £2400 seems attractive and realistic. (just seen another at £4K)
Get 12months MOT and him to valet it if you decide to go for it.
Make sure two keys that both work.
And haggle on the price.
No one can guarantee trouble free and if in doubt, walk away.
Your money, your choice

Thanks for you help, really kind of you to check Ebay as well.

Top man.

I'll have a think over the next couple of days and make a decision.

 

[Brooksy1976*]

Would anyone know about the 6 speed automatic gearbox? This might be a daft question but in automatic mode are all 6 gears used?
I went for a test drive today but it didn't feel like automatic mode got past 4th gear on a nice long A road that I drove down. I did knock it over to manual and put it in 5 and 6 so the gears are there and working, just seems a bit strange why automatic mode didn't seem to change up through them.

Thanks for any advice.