A couple of weeks ago I was giving the engine bay a clean, and also under the scuttle panel. It was then I noticed the dreaded soot around the welds on the manifold flange - cylinders 2 and 3 in this case. The odometer was on 63,900, and the car is now about 6.5 years old.
After going from the the extreme of considering changing the car
anic:, to being a bit more pragmatic and getting it fixed, I set out putting together a "repair kit" which consisted of:
Had it fitted at RS Murray's in Leeds (Paul at RS Tuning's parent's place) and they managed to get it done in 4.8 hours, so less than the Renault book. Their solution to the subframe fouling issue that people have reported with the Toyosports manifold was to bend it rather than set to it with an angle grinder.
Result: a lot of vibration due to the Powerflex insert, but no knocking of anything, and the exhaust sounds quite nice under load. Sounds no different to standard on the motorway, which is something I was concerned about. There's a slight flatspot, but it's nothing you can't drive around. Still, a good excuse for a remap.
All in, it came to about £620 - could be worse.
What I would do as these cars get older is encourage people to invest in a new upper stabiliser and a new lower torque link, as the bushes in those that came off mine were completely shot. As in, there was about 10mm of play in all directions - no wonder the manifold broke :001_rolleyes: This by the way on the lower torque link was on both bushes, not just the one in which the Powerflex insert goes, so getting the insert will not help. With the upper, the Powerflex is a whole new bush, so as long as the bush for connecting the mount to the bulkhead is solid, then it should be okay - just be prepared for it to idle like a diesel!
(I figure the left and right hand mounts should be fine, as they are effectively what the engine pivots around, but the upper and lower links are going to be subject to more displacement due to their location.)
Hope this is useful information for anyone suffering in the same way.
Joe
After going from the the extreme of considering changing the car
anic:, to being a bit more pragmatic and getting it fixed, I set out putting together a "repair kit" which consisted of:- Toyosports manifold (Reasonably good build quality, got it for less than the "buy-it-now" price, but not convinced by the packaging - as in, it was the manifold in a cardboard box, and that was it.)
- Powerflex lower torque link insert
- Lower torque link (8200 042 454)
- Upper stabiliser (8200 298 484)
- Exhaust mount (8200 157 364)
- Exhaust manifold gasket
Had it fitted at RS Murray's in Leeds (Paul at RS Tuning's parent's place) and they managed to get it done in 4.8 hours, so less than the Renault book. Their solution to the subframe fouling issue that people have reported with the Toyosports manifold was to bend it rather than set to it with an angle grinder.
Result: a lot of vibration due to the Powerflex insert, but no knocking of anything, and the exhaust sounds quite nice under load. Sounds no different to standard on the motorway, which is something I was concerned about. There's a slight flatspot, but it's nothing you can't drive around. Still, a good excuse for a remap.
All in, it came to about £620 - could be worse.
What I would do as these cars get older is encourage people to invest in a new upper stabiliser and a new lower torque link, as the bushes in those that came off mine were completely shot. As in, there was about 10mm of play in all directions - no wonder the manifold broke :001_rolleyes: This by the way on the lower torque link was on both bushes, not just the one in which the Powerflex insert goes, so getting the insert will not help. With the upper, the Powerflex is a whole new bush, so as long as the bush for connecting the mount to the bulkhead is solid, then it should be okay - just be prepared for it to idle like a diesel!
(I figure the left and right hand mounts should be fine, as they are effectively what the engine pivots around, but the upper and lower links are going to be subject to more displacement due to their location.)
Hope this is useful information for anyone suffering in the same way.
Joe
