Please don't turn this into a Renault bashing thread!

Just picked up brand new Scenic, brought home, showing off the electric sunroof and now it won't close fully! Book says that it may bounce back if it hits something but it is not. I can press the centre of the button to make it creep forward according to the book, but this isn't working.

I realise that it will need to go back to dealer, of course no mechanics in till Monday, have called the AA out but atthis moment in time he is dumbfounded as well!

Anyone know of this problem and how to fix? Read more

Just caught part of a news item on the rapid growth of car ownership in China. If I heard it right it claimed 1000 new vehicles were being added to the roads in Beijing alone every DAY and that this rate is increasing fast.

Whilst it's impossible to condemn anyone for wanting what we take for granted, the implications of this rate of growth on future fuel prices, the world economy and the environment are alarming especially since oil reserves are apparently on the wane. Read more

Hello all.

I hope someone can give me some advice regarding my 1999 facelift Omega 2.5 V6 GLS saloon. I bought the car just under a year ago from a Vauxhall main dealer with just over 30,000 miles on the clock. At the time I paid extra for a full 2 years of Network Q warranty on the car. The deal when I bought it was supposed to include a full service and multi point Network Q check. Ever since I collected the car the engine has emitted a very high pitch, high frequency rattle when hot and under any load. It is not a loud noise, but is outstandingly irritating. Also, when starting the car from cold, or when applying the power after slowing down in a high gear (engine hot) it gives out a short sharp hard rattle/clatter which to my ear sounds like 'piston slap'. This only happens for a slip second, but it is severe and can be felt by passengers through the floorpan of the car!!. It sometimes does this when hot starting too. I have sent the car back to dealer many times and every time they say that there is nothing they can do. They cannot find a 'hard fault' with the engine, but the Omega mechanic (who I have great respect for) at the dealership has told me that it is the only Omega 2.5 V6 that he has ever heard make these noises. He acknowledges that it is not right, and guesses that the ECU mapping could be to blame, but says that on the late Omega's the mapping cannot be altered. I am further annoyed by the fact that he told me the car is overdue for a cambelt (it has now covered 44,000 miles). This should have been replaced before the car was despatched with a Network Q warranty and service surely. I have had no luck with this car it has needed a new exhaust back-box (replaced under warranty) and two new headlamps because of water ingress (again, under warranty)- even the drivers door is showing signs of rusting from the inside along the bottom. I have again told the dealership and they say that they are 'awaiting a decision' from Vauxhall. After many happy years of Senator ownership, this is not the Vauxhall-Opel flagship that I was expecting. Am I within my rights to ask for a replacement car or a refund?. Any comments will be gratefully received.

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..in my benighted adopted home country, in which I have just had a dreadful week for a variety of reasons.

Where I live you renew your annual registration based on the last figure in your plate number, e.g. 7 for July. The Land Transportation Office send round a crew to your local area on the first Saturday of each month to save you the hassle of going downtown and sitting in a shed with the hoi-polloi in the baking heat or teeming rain (delete as req'd).

So you rock up to the local clubhouse in a convivial atmosphere while a very polite chap with a pickup truck does your emission test (no one ever fails), stencils your VIN on the application form, ticks all the boxes to confirm your vehicle passes all the requirements to be driven on the highway (no bothersome MOT's here) and an extremely pleasant lady sells you your third party insurance, and another lady with her infant on her knee types out your policy in between texting her paramour and you go back in 3 days and collect your stickers for your licence plates. During this particular episode (took about 90 mins) I met a chap with an immaculate 1955 BMW bike, a journalist (Brit) with fascinating tales to tell of our recent (rigged) elections and a delectable movie starlet with a Land Cruiser and substantial appurtenances who wouldn't give me her cellphone number. The whole thing was worth every cent (penny) of the £10.90 to reg and insure my bike for another year. Plus small tips of course to these obliging staff. Oh, and the cost of the Diet Coke for said starlet wannabe.

All this under the trees with a cool breeze blowing and a chap pedalling by on a trike selling hot coffee, cold beer and hot dogs.

When this place drives me nuts (which it does regularly) little cameos like this make me think again. The bureaucracy is normally horrendous (hence the corruption) but what a rare streak of brilliance to send the reg people round once a month to a street near you.






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Does anyone have the wiring diagram for the Air Con system on a 98 Primera (96 - 99 model) which they could email me ?

I have the factory manual for the P11 - 144 model (1999 - 2002), but this is of no use as it shows a fully automatic climate control, where mine is the basic manual system Read more