Renault Megane advice please!

Ivyleaf_2

Hello all, please can anyone advise me on the problems we're having with our car? It is a Renault Megane 1.6 Classic and about six months ago we noticed a slight leak from the front which the Renault garage said was a oil leak from the head gasket (same thing as a cylinder head gasket?). It has needed the oil topping up a couple of times since (only loses a few drops a day) so that seems to be fairly accurate. They also said that a metallic rattle from underneath was the exhaust baffles breaking up. However the rattling stopped of its own accord but the exhaust has now got a bit noisy (just the usual exhaust noise but louder) which seems a logical consequence of damaged baffles (assume these are the same things as silencers?) but since there are no other signs, is this not more likely to be a problem with the exhaust pipe itself- maybe a hole?

Anyway the upshot of all this is, does it sound like it's worth getting these two problems seen to? The car is about twelve years old and the garage quoted £1300 to fix these two things which is more than it's worth. If we could get the head gasket ourselves, how much should we expect to pay to have it fitted (I assume it's not something that can be repaired and needs to be replaced)? And to fix either part of the exhaust pipe or the baffles? Any advice that anyone could offer would be gratefully received!


Many thanks :-)

hartcjhart

head gasket set £40 plus vat

Head skimmed, £80 apx(not always needed but advised)

exhaust centre box £52 plus vat

this is from Euro car parts website

you should be able to shop around and get the job done for between £250/£350 for the labour,perhaps a little cheaper,

obviously this would not be at a main dealer

LandyAndy

You should probably factor in a cambelt change at the same time (assuming Meganes use a belt and not a chain) as you would effectively get this for the price of the parts.

If you can get the lot for around £500 -550 and the car is otherwise decent I would do it.

swstevewil

I previously owned a Renault megane classic (R reg) and to be honest towards the end I was repairing something on it every other month. I managed to keep costs down by doing a lot of jobs myself but even then it just wasnt economical. I kept thinking that if i get this fixed it would be allright for a while but then another part would fail.

As yours is 12 years old unless it is in excellent condition, very low mileage or high spec I think it would struggle to be worth more than £700 and you may be better off getting shut of it, The thing is you will find it even harder now with repairs needed.
Bad situation to be in I know. I ended up being in the same with my megane.

I got rid and bought a vauxhall vectra and find it much more reliable, second time i have had a vauxhall and the first one was also reliable.

harveybobbles

Classic = 4 door. Which is highly undersireable. However, I'd personally sell it in the paper. Meganes of this age suffered problems with the cats getting blocked and/or falling appart - so you could have the early stages of this.

On the other hand you choose to keep the car if it still runs fine and does what it needs to.

cyclonebri1

To be honest there can't be many 12 year old cars that do not lose "1 or 2 drops of oil a day".

If the car is running fine it wouldn't be financial sense to do the head gasket yet.

If the exhaust is annoying get a couple of quotes and get it done, £120 max? I agree though that the cat could be failing, ie falling apart, causing the rattle