To update or to not update - Clio mk3 R27 - kangaroo / bunny hopping

[alexkyr]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a second-hand Clio Mk3 RS T-F1 R27 registered in May 2008, and according to a VIN decoder, manufactured in Dec 2007 (?).

The car is in great condition although it has circa 130k miles on it, however I noticed the famous “kangaroo / bunny hopping” issue when the car is cold. Since then, I have read a lot about it.

So, I called 3 Renault dealers (+ 1 Renault specialist but not official dealer) to ask them if they can perform the “Actis Solution 7103” update.

• The first one didn’t have a clue – no surprises here…
• The second one was knowledgeable but he warned me that if any 3rd party/custom ECU mapping is on it, it will be wiped. No issue with that to be honest. The opposite: I prefer the car being stock spec as much as possible. He seemed a bit reluctant to do that though, and aside the fact that the next available appointment was 2 months ahead (!), he said that any official dealer can do that…
• The third one seemed experienced too but he frightened me a bit. He said that once the Clip connects with the ECU, you can’t decide on go/no-go; it just updates if it finds a newer module version on the server for that VIN. He said that there is a very low risk that the ECU can become bricked without reason. Out of thousands of cars, he has seen just 3 going completely dead. In which case, he said I would need a brand-new ECU that may cost 1000 Euros! So, he suggested checking if Renault still produces the part so to avoid making the whole car useless.
• The 4th guy, who is a Renault specialist but not an authorised dealer, said that he does not even perform the update, although he can and he has the Clip to do so. Effectively he does not want to take any risk and he suggested me going to a Renault Dealership.

My view is that the update should not be treated as a nice-to-have and an optional update to the end-user, but rather a product correction in a similar way to a product recall. The fact that the car’s ECU was never (!) updated during the warranty period (3 years) when the car was doing its services in Renault Dealers, is in my view a Renault/ Renault Dealer issue – not an end-consumer issue. So I mean that I find it unacceptable for myself to bear the entire risk and associated cost of bricking the ECU if I perform the update through a Renault dealership, even if Renault did not update it (as it should) in first place!

What do you suggest doing and what are the recovery options should the ECU gets indeed bricked? I have read somewhere that I can obtain a used ECU for a 197 and ask to flash whatever info relevant to my car (immobilizer, VIN, milage, etc). Is this true? Or is there perhaps a factory restoration of the ECU possible via a 3rd party service? Or even via flashing B600 8200915772 original file via FastChip RSTuner?

At the moment, I have attempted to contact Renault in France to “force” the local Renault and in turn local dealers in my EU country to accept performing the update without me taking the financial risk in case of bricking the ECU.

If I had the option to have a robust backup solution such as having a clone ECU aside, I would feel more comfortable.

Waiting for your thoughts and suggestions.

Thanks in advance!