TheFinn's modded one

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TheFinn
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TheFinn's modded one

Postby TheFinn » Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:14 pm

So far I've been posting updates of my mods in the Introductions section, but finally realised this is the right section for posting mods. Doh!

In the future I'll be posting any new mods under this subject, but first a quick(?) recap of what's happened so far: :D

I first fitted a Pioneer DEH-P55BT headunit with an iPod adapter, but the steering wheel control adapter reacted too sluggish to my taste so swapped back to the original Tunerlist headunit. With the addition of the Renault Tunepoint that adds aux/usb/iPod connectivity. Here's the Tunepoint box fitted inside the glovebox:

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The Tunerlist seems to have a very poor radio reception even with the standard long aerial, so I thought I'd finish off the misery with an even worse aerial. Who gives an F about the quality of reception as long as it looks good.... 8-)

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Right after buying the car I swapped the H7 halogen headlight bulbs for an aftermarket HID kit. They gave very good lighting but there was a lot of glare. So I decided to bite the bullet and fitted a complete OE factory system with proper xenon projector headlights, ballasts with automatic beam height control, axle height sensors, modified wiring loom, the lot!

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From this mess....
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...became a decent wiring loom after all!
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Chrystal clear rear lights (original Renault/Valeo items) were added, together with an aftermarket LED clear 3. brake light:

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Come spring 2008 and it was time for a height-adjustable H&R coilover kit:
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Here the car is freshly lowered and on the original 17" Nervasport alloys:

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Looked well nice already, but some proper oversize wheels were called for:

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I find front foglights quite useless since we're not allowed to have them on unless it really is foggy (which it rarely is over here). So I binned the fogs and fitted some LED daytime running lights instead. They come on automatically when the car is started, as an added bonus having them on instead of the headlights' dipped beam saves the xenon bulbs at daytime. This mod required some fabricating, the foglight openings in the bumper had to be enlarged and adapter plates had to be made of 3mm aluminium:

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I've also added some wheel spacers to bring out the wheels closer to the arches. Eight mils per side at front, 15mm per side at rear:

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Also added some bling to the sides. There are polished stainless steel caps over the door handles and the lower side window rubber mouldings. Not to have too much clutter on the sides, however, the original white side repeaters were replaced with smoked ones:

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Not wanting to ruin the clear rear lights in the winter I've decided to tint the original red rear lights to use during the winter months. The red reflectors were left untinted for safety reasons:

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In the picture above the car's ready for winter on 16" steelies. The winter tyres however are already quite old so I've bought some new Continentals fitted on the Nervasport alloys:

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I'll be giving the Nervasports a couple of layers of wax later today to try and protect from the road salt. Tomorrow I'll try to get inspired enough to swap them, armed with my new floor jack especially designed for lowered vehicles. I finally got tired of always having to drive each corner on a piece of 2x4 to be able to get the jack under the car...

The original 49mm offset Nervasport would be left sitting too deep in the wheelwells so I'll be fitting my existing 15mm spacers to the front axle to achieve an offset of 34mm. For the rear axle I ordered new 25mm spacers from H&R, that'll make an "effective" offset of 24mm for the rear wheels. These H&R Trak+ spacers are first bolted to the hub using their own bolts and then the wheels are bolted to the spacer using the cars original wheel bolts:

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Wheel spacers are strictly taken not legal in Finland, so I've since painted them in matt black so they're less obvious from between the spokes....

Here's the "setup" so far:
- front mud flaps
- pure white LED bulbs for all interior lights: ceiling, glovebox, doors, boot
- pure white LED bulbs for license plate light
- Philips Silvervision indicator bulbs
- Valeo flat blade windscreen wipers
- Renault Tunepoint iPod/AUX adapter
- Pioneer TS-Q131C "plug-in" replacement front loudspeakers
- Helix dB5.1 rear door loudspeakers
- shark fin antenna
- chrystal clear Renault/Valeo rear lights (summer)
- tinted original rear lights (winter)
- clear LED 3. brake light
- full OE xenon conversion
- black side repeaters
- door handle covers in polished stainless steel
- side window lower moulding covers in stainless steel
- H&R height-adjustable coilover kit
- S-Line replica alloys in 8.5x19" with ET43mm front / ET38mm rear (summer)
- Continental ContiSportContact3 225/35R19 (summer)
- FK wheel spacers 8mm/side front + 15mm/side rear (summer)
- original Nervasport alloys in 6.5x17" ET49mm (winter)
- Continental ContiVikingContact5 205/50R17 (winter)
- FK wheel spacers 15mm/side front + H&R Trak+ wheel spacers 25mm/side rear (winter)

To come:
- smoothed engine cover (in the making for over a year now....)
- 225 replica bumpers (already have these but not happy with the quality, might sell on)
- Bastuck stainless steel 225 rear silencer (already have this but will sell on if 225 bumpers not fitted)
2,0 16V 6-speed manual: Image - Image

Andy_CC
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby Andy_CC » Sat Nov 22, 2008 4:50 pm

Very nice matey, looks classy and clean! :D

especailly like the audi/vw alloys really suit the car well.

im having the same problem with my tunepoint and radio reception. the radio just crackles all the time! is there a cure for this???
07 Megane CC 1.6 Dynamique and Nissan Navara Avantura with 215 bhp and 480n/m Torque wooohooooo!!!!

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busternlouie
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby busternlouie » Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:00 pm

Looks really good mate. How was retro fitting OEM xenons like jobwise? Also with the daytime running lights do people not just think you have got your foglamps on?
2005 Megane Sporthatch 2.0 VVT Dynamique Extreme Blue

Toosh
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Currently Drives:: 03 Megane 1.9 dCi 120 Dynamique Sport Hatch in Black.
Nervasport alloys, Comfort Pack, Full Leather interior, 6 Disc CD Changer,
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Location: North Yorkshire

Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby Toosh » Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:02 pm

Tastefully modified. Love it 8)
Black 03 Megane dCi 120 Dynamique Sport Hatch. Gone but not forgotten.
Black 56 Pug 207 GT 1.6 Turbo

Paddy
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby Paddy » Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:13 pm

That looks well fin. Very nice. But a question... on the side of your car it says 2.0 16V but your wheels are only four stud?....

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A13XDT
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby A13XDT » Mon Nov 24, 2008 10:38 am

Looks really good Finn.
Just out of curiosity where did you buy the clear high level brake light from?? Hoped i could find one on ebay but can't anywhere.
Cheers
Alex
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TheFinn
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby TheFinn » Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:28 pm

Thanks for the feedback guys! :)

@Andy_CC: Improving the radio reception is a bit different for the CC as the antenna sits on the bootlid which is made of plastic. I once saw a thread somewhere discussing the reception issue on the CC, can't for the life of me remember where it was though... :( The French CC forum, maybe?
I'm not an expert, but sometimes the crackling problems seem to be related to the antenna base and/or the antenna cable's shielding not getting a strong enough contact with the ground. Some suggest running a separate wire from the cable's shielding directly to an earthing point on the body (e.g. where the rear lights are earthed originally).
Or sometimes it can be that the central core of the antenna cable is not connected to the aerial, i.e. there may be an incontinuity inside the antenna base.

@Eddie: Not really liking changing the wheels as I don't have access to a garage. Yesterday I changed the wheels in the worst blizzard yet this winter. Not nice...
If you want to check out some reputable spacer manufacturers' sites, then https://www.fk-automotive.com and https://www.h-r.com are good places. I first checked them out to see what I needed, and then searched for the best price on the (German) eBay.

@busternlouie: Most of job was head-scratching as no-one seemed to have done the complete swap before. But basically, once you know what to do and buy all the necessary parts including the wiring loom, then it's just a matter of replacing old parts with new ones (headlights, front loom, dashboard thumbwheel) and bolting on new extra components (rear wiring loom, axle sensors). I chose to modify the front wiring loom myself, which meant a little extra work. Running the rear wiring loom from under the rear seat to the rear axle was a bit tricky as the petrol tank basically block access/view, but other than that the mod is pretty straight forward.
As for the DRLs, yes, some people seem to mistake them for fogs and flash me, but I flash them back with a clear conscience! ;-)

@ulrich100: Non-turbo 2.0 16V Mégane II is always four stud. It's only the 2.0 Turbo, the RS and its derivatives and the 2.0 dCi that are five stud.

@A13XDT: I ordered mine from https://www.reichhard-motorsport.com. The Megane II brake light is a rare sight e.g. on eBay nowadays but it pops up every now and then. These links expire sooner or later, but here's one in chrome and here's one in black.
2,0 16V 6-speed manual: Image - Image

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busternlouie
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby busternlouie » Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:51 pm

ulrich100 wrote:That looks well fin. Very nice. But a question... on the side of your car it says 2.0 16V but your wheels are only four stud?....


Mine has 4 studs too.
2005 Megane Sporthatch 2.0 VVT Dynamique Extreme Blue

Paddy
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby Paddy » Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:04 pm

TheFinn wrote:Thanks for the feedback guys! :)


@ulrich100: Non-turbo 2.0 16V Mégane II is always four stud. It's only the 2.0 Turbo, the RS and its derivatives and the 2.0 dCi that are five stud.



Would that be on the expression model? As i own a 16V 2.0 Sports Saloon Dynamique and its a five stud... thats why i wondered...? P

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TheFinn
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby TheFinn » Tue Nov 25, 2008 3:57 pm

ulrich100 wrote:Would that be on the expression model? As i own a 16V 2.0 Sports Saloon Dynamique and its a five stud... thats why i wondered...? P


Now you have me scratching my head.... :hmm Never before heard of a 2.0 petrol non-turbo being 5-stud! :eek A friend of mine had a 2.0 16V saloon (MY 2004 iirc) until recently and that was 4-stud, too. Maybe it's an age thing, what MY is yours?

Can't see how it could be related to equipment level (Expression vs Dynamique) unless the Dynamique is "fully loaded" and thus exceeds some weight level Renault has decided needs five studs instead of four??? Just speculating here, but this is really interesting...

Eddie-- wrote:o one more thing see for fitting your arieral taken the roof trim down how'd u mamage this with the air bags if any in your roof ?


I disconnected the battery. Simple as that really. :D
The airbags are not attached to the roof lining so there's no need to touch the bags.
2,0 16V 6-speed manual: Image - Image

Paddy
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby Paddy » Tue Nov 25, 2008 9:41 pm

TheFinn wrote:
ulrich100 wrote:Would that be on the expression model? As i own a 16V 2.0 Sports Saloon Dynamique and its a five stud... thats why i wondered...? P


Now you have me scratching my head.... :hmm Never before heard of a 2.0 petrol non-turbo being 5-stud! :eek A friend of mine had a 2.0 16V saloon (MY 2004 iirc) until recently and that was 4-stud, too. Maybe it's an age thing, what MY is yours?

Can't see how it could be related to equipment level (Expression vs Dynamique) unless the Dynamique is "fully loaded" and thus exceeds some weight level Renault has decided needs five studs instead of four??? Just speculating here, but this is really interesting...

Eddie-- wrote:o one more thing see for fitting your arieral taken the roof trim down how'd u mamage this with the air bags if any in your roof ?


I disconnected the battery. Simple as that really. :D
The airbags are not attached to the roof lining so there's no need to touch the bags.


No I had the centre cap off today, definitely 5 stud... I’ll take a photo if needed... Would it make a difference that it’s the 2006 sports saloon?

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TheFinn
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby TheFinn » Wed Nov 26, 2008 4:35 pm

@ulrich100: No need to take a photo, we believe you. :D Just wondering when exactly Renault changed this and why...
2,0 16V 6-speed manual: Image - Image

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TheFinn
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby TheFinn » Sat Mar 07, 2009 6:40 pm

Let's see what's happened since my last post.....

Managed to source a new genuine Renaultsport 225 rear bumper:

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Still on the lookout for a 225 front bumper. While waiting for one to show up I snapped up a pair of these ready to be installed in the 225 bumper:

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All of the above will be fitted once we get closer to summer.

Today I did manage to fit some goodies for the interior. First two arty shots:

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2,0 16V 6-speed manual: Image - Image

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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby anth_dci » Sun Mar 08, 2009 12:50 pm

how does the spacers effect the handling? They look quite large, dont know if i would be comfortable having them on my car. Looks really good apart from that.
Megane II dynamique 1.9 DCI 120bhp, 5 door, 52 plate.

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TheFinn
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Re: TheFinn's modded one

Postby TheFinn » Sun Mar 08, 2009 6:48 pm

No ill effects on the handling, though obviously I haven't bothered to conduct a scientific with/without driving tests in similar road conditions... :D Surprised that the original front wheel bearings haven't given up the ghost yet, the rear ones did but that might be down to water having got inside them (someone having pressure-washed the hubs probably...) Might be the increased track width too, but so far the new ones have kept quiet, knock on wood.
2,0 16V 6-speed manual: Image - Image


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