car game over..

Same car we’ve had all the problems with has now blown it’s turbo, it’s a 55plate 1.5 dci modus (worth 3k ish if working), garage says rough £1200 fix with £550 for the turbo itself and the labour/all the gubbings/flushings etc. and now wondering what the hell to do with it, would anyone take it part ex, i assume at a silly price if they do at all, or would it be better of ebay sold as spare/repair. have spent so much that definitely think the garage fix price is completely out of the question and the stress and everything else this car has given me means that my mind thinks hiring a tank for the afternoon to reduce it to scrap metal would be an option, however this is not a option financially.

can anyone offer any advice?

Have you entered into any form of contract with the garage the car is at ?
By that I mean have you asked them to do any investigation or dismantling of the car ?

My very first thought is, if at all possible, get the car home and get quotes from at least three mobile mechanics to fix it, bricks and mortar garages charge a premium as they have ground rent to pay and a management hierarchy to support.
A mobile chappie with spanners and knowledge can sort this out on your driveway with lower overheads, maybe even a cash deal to fit scrapyard parts if you want it running again to part ex.

A turbo rebuild kit on the bay-of-E is £30, an exchange turbo is £240, the garage is pulling your chain, you need a man with spanners and time.

i’m led to believe is the second time it’s gone (service history) so there must be an underlying factor causing it, research is leading to the EGR valve stuck open but like you know my level of fixing is all what i read and practically i’m pretty useless. no contract entered into with garage, i can go fetch the car so i assume they’ve taken nothing apart. the spanners guy around here that i know is a hit with hammer mechanic and has not the skill/equipment/confidence to do anything with these “modern” cars full of electrics and made so they can only be fixed by the manufacturer.
quote was £500 turbo
£50 oil filters etc
and apparently it is a 5 hour job so lots of labour! if its that much of a pain to get at even a rebuild will be expensive
really cant find any info on the web on the modus so no idea if this is realistic,other forum/hearsay report of people saying turbo and egr replaced at a cost of approx £1400, i know i haven’t taken it to a cheap garage but the last time it was fixed they seemed to actually know what they were doing and they were 1/2 the price of other garages. it turns over fine and idles but no idea how much drive it has to get home/to another garage/ or to a workspace where i can fix it or get it fixed.

ouch - I had heard it went boom again

Part ex is about the only way I can see this going, you got caught out - but that’s all history now so no point in saying what should have happened etc…

Find a decent Renault forum, post a few posts so you get the forsale forum and be honest about the history - that’s how I got shot of the mega-mot-fail-printer-ran-out-of-paper

Can you alter the turbo map, so basically it never cuts in? Or remap the ecu to the lowest bhp model that the modus came with - can at least get it somewhere. If the garage it’s at sells motors - ask them to make you an offer

Okay 2000 Grand US - £1200 is about right for a rebuild on that car. My question is rebuild on a turbo doesn’t make sense. The only reason it would require is if it went into a uncontrolled run up and that would have taken out the top end also. I would take home and take out the ECU module and have it re-flashed and she if that fixes. If it is running but running like ^&@H then it is more of a re-flash and cleaning than anything. Also the EGR could be bad but more likely is the ports heading to exhaust which cause a vacuum issue. The bad thing is the auto is only worth £3200 max in perfect order and now worth maybe £1800 if you can find someone. OUCH! is all I can say.

cheers for that step, you seem to have a good grasp of where the figures are at and thats what i was looking for, i have seen the modus in that sort of price range yet as it was low mileage and the higher Maxim model mine should be a few hundred higher. i bought for £3k and have already had several issues with that have cost in the region of £1k to fix already and thats before the current problems. forums i have read say if the egr is stuck open it will overheat the turbo causing it to fail, when it went it sort of gasped for air with a large squeal and i lost a lot of power. they all also say that the egr is problematic in this engine and should always be replaced when the turbo is replaced as not doing so will probably cause the same thing to happen again. your value of £1800 broken i hope isn’t too far out i’m obviously not happy about losing the money but if i could get anywhere near that i would be almost relieved to get rid. i was panicking that a broken car is worth nothing but slowly realising that a half decent mechanic will love the challenge and make himself some when he gets it running failing that it still has value as parts.

If its going to webuyanyoldcrap.com I would get the bare minimum fixed and offload before the fuel runs out.

It has the potential to be a good little car, I had a Nissan note, which is built on the same platform as a hire car and thought it went well for budget hatchback, took me a couple of days to notice it had a six-speed box.
The thing that spoils your car is the Bonnet logo, if any Frenchies only ever wanted a part time job then Monday afternoons for Renault quality control would be a prime choice.
Oh yeah France usually has Mondays off.

I know this from my two owner Espace with full history and its myriad of faults, haunted dashboard electrics, exploding exhaust, almost suicidally indecisive auto-box, appetite for serpentine belts/pullys and erratic oil leaks

the note is a grande modus i believe, the modus shares its chassis with the clio’s. i did all sorts of research first and this one i believe you have to blame the spanish for, it’s potential is brilliant yet it lived up to about 10% of it with its naff engine, to summarise for the googlebots.
renault modus 1.5 dci 86bhp
good stuff

  • low tax bracket - well it couldn’t go wrong here £30 a year.
  • practicality - 5 doors, loads of room even if you do have to choose between the boot and leg room for rear passengers.
  • the joys of driving a small car - nippy, nimble and easy to park for the mrs. felt spacious on the inside with the added height.
  • colour - ours was purple :ghey: made it easy to find.

bad stuff

  • 60+ mpg advertised - i never got over 45 mpg
  • maintenance - nearly an hour to change a headlight bulb with removing the front bumper… who’s idea was that!
  • reliability - i don’t believe renault know the meaning of the word. owned for 1 year and it has not been warning light free despite approx 15 trips to renault and other garages.
  • cost of repairs - high as such a compact arrangement to utilise the space that it’s a pain to do anything to and very difficult to find any details on.

i have someone looking into costs of fixing through friends/family who has an interest in buying so :xfinger:

now i can see why you are looking at double the cost for better brand cars of the same size/spec,

oh and why did i buy renault, false sense of security… the 19 year old renault 5 i have is still going strong, and passed its last MOT with only a couple of advisory notes.