1995 Renault Laguna RT from UK and Ireland - Comments

Rear boot lock failed... new lock motor fitted. £30 second hand.

Recently rear door leaked causing big puddle in the back, this appears to be quite common.

Heater fan failed... this turned out to be the resistor unit behind the glove box which cost £55 from Renault.

Indicator flasher unit failed.

I have a strange knocking noise coming from under the car when I go over bumps... I have recently had a new exhaust so I know it's not that... if anyone has or has had the same problem it would be interesting to know what the hell it is.

Bulbs have blown behind the dash, which is annoying, but far too fiddly to bother with.

The handling is good and is reasonably quick for an 8 valve.

Quite economical and very comfortable.

Despite all of the faults above, the car has never broken down and has always started at a flick of the ignition.

Hi there,

i too had a knocking noise when I first brought my Laguna. it sounded like the back end of the car was falling off when you went over certain bumps. I found I could replicate this fault by jumping around in the boot. my fault turned out to be the shocks. I brought these from the local dealer at £115 (you have to buy 2 to be safe price is for both) I even installed them myself. a little tricky, but done it in half hour. much better ride now. the shocks are not brilliant, but I have never had any problems since. my only problem now is the immobilizer has packed up. off to the garage this time.

The noise you hear when going over rough ground is probably the suspension bush on the front shocks... to test push up and down on the front of car with bonnet open.. if they are faulty the whole rubber seal rises slightly from the bulkhead.

I had this problem recently, renewing this bush solved the problem, even though it did not get picked up an mot!

I also had problems with the knocking noise under the floor on my 1997 RXE Auto was just after the exhaust was replaced... It turned out to be that the 3rd party manufacturer of the replacement exhaust had made the pipe that connected onto the existing exhaust (behind the Cat) too long so the mid section silencer didn't fit into the indentation under the car correctly and knocked against the bodywork, this also loosened the aluminium heat shield in the same place which needed to be clipped back into place - the fitter of the exhaust simply trimmed a bit off this pipe and all is now silent again!

I have a more serious problem though, the heater fan only switches on with the fan switch in position 4 now and the A/C fails to operate (probably because of this). Are these symptoms the same as the resistor unit problem? If so I think I'll have a go at replacing the unit to see if I can get my A/C back, lucky that Renault also fit a sunroof.

Other than that I've only had 1 major problem and that was with the auto gearbox - 4th gear disintegrated at 100,000 miles, but that was diagnosed as a manufacturing fault by the dealer and I only paid part of the replacement cost.

I've had the car 4 years now and I think its great, the 2.0 8v engine is really responsive even when combined with the lazy auto gearbox - it really benefits from regular servicing too!

Your knocking noise could be the steering rack or one of the suspension link arm had this problem and now its gone.

I too have the knocking problem on my 1994 Laguna 2.0 RXE, I have taken it to several garages for an opinion on what the cause is.

The conclusion was that the suspension 'drop-link' bushes are worn and these will need replacing - although this is not dangerouse to drive with this issue, it will become and MOT failure.

I have had several quotes on how much this will cost to fix and the prices have been varied.

Renault themselves have quoted £50 each side for the part +VAT +fitting!!! - Don't GO TO RENAULT!!!

I have found the parts on the web for £20 each side and they are reasonably easy to fit. (Recommend having a mechanic fit the parts though!)

http://www.southwalesprops.com/anti_roll_bar2.htm.

Another issue I have also had is with the LED Dash - they have faded on one side and are only visible at night! Fortunately this does not require the fitting of a whole new control panel. They are backlit with LED's and are replaceable, but apparently fairly fiddly - but possible.

Just to reiterate - Renault garages are over priced, there are places to get parts cheap - and Haynes Manuals are a life (& wallet) saver.

Oli, Portsmouth.

Your problems are common to most mark 1 laguna's, the heater resistor unit can be repaired, if you have it removed from the air ducting you can remove the metal heat shield and see running underneath the resistors (spring like resistors) a thermal fuse that looks like a diode, you can buy these from maplin's electronics, but remember not to solder it into place as it will probably blow with the heat, I just soldered a piece of heavy gauge wire in place of this fuse and have had no problems as the circuit is fused elsewhere, its also recommended to look for any stray leaves in the heater duct while you have the resistor pack removed, replace the heat shield making sure each spring resistor isn't touching each other or the shield and refit to car and test.

Hello, my name is John, and I'm from Edinburgh.

I've recently bought a Renault Laguna 2.0 RTI 5 dr hatch. It's a very nice car inside and out, well looked after. It's a 1995 model, drives well, but when it comes to the cold weather, there is absolute no heat, the blower does not work in either 1, 2, 3, or 4 positions. I now believe I have to re-fit the resistor, which is located at the rear of the glove box. This is the section with a few wires and plugs attached to it. Just twist it off, likewise the fan, which is located on the lower left side.

Can anyone tell me what they think I should do here before I buy both sections? I can buy both parts for £40 all in to refit myself, but it's like a washing machine; carbon brushes that are very low and no connection from what I could see. Could this be the answer to the no fan thing? Any comments please contact sir-john@hotmail.co.uk

The heater resistor can be replaced by soldering a headlamp bulb instead of the resistor. I did that successfully. Make sure the bulb is away from anything which can melt. It illuminates the back of the dashboard nicely...