Renault Reviews

This is a more common problem than you might imagine. Because air has to escape the fuel tank to allow the fuel in, you can sometimes achieve what is pretty much an air lock when the nozzle prevents the air getting out fast enough. Either that, or the fuel filler neck is shaped so that it splashes the fuel back against the pump nozzle, making the sensor in the nozzle think the tank is full.

Some cars will be fine on some pumps and not others, while some cars are just generally a pain to fill. Yet other cars will be fine on a flat surface, but won’t fill properly on any sort of an angle or slope.

The best trick to try is to insert the nozzle into the filler neck and then turn it 90 degrees. This has the effect of directing the fuel spray somewhere other than straight back up the nozzle’s spout and triggering the pump’s shut-off mechanism. The other thing to try is to pull the trigger on the nozzle, but not all the way. That can sometimes slow the flow enough to prevent the shut-off. If that doesn’t work, you’re stuck with trickling the fuel in very slowly to avoid the pump shutting off.

Rain water is very good at getting past rubber seals. So pretty much anywhere where you have a piece of glass (windscreen or side windows) sealed against the rest of the car, you have a potential leak point. But water can also get past other types of rubber seals, including the ones that are supposed to seal the door and hatchback/boot openings. Even a small twig that gets caught on these seals can allow water in during a rain-storm.

The other possibility is that the air-conditioning drain hose is blocked or dislodged. This hose is designed to drain the moisture from the air (which separates when the air-con is used) from the air-con unit in the car to somewhere outside the car. If the drain is blocked or missing, wet carpets are another very real possibility.

But the fact that you had overnight rain before noticing the problem suggests a rubber seal is either dirty, torn or missing or has simply gone hard with age and allowing the rain in. Start with the windscreen and work your way back. A good way to find the leak is to sit in the car while somebody sprays it with a garden hose. From inside, you might see the drips of water as they make their way in.

This situation raises a few questions. The first of which is how a car with just 9000km showing needs new front tyres. I know the Megane is a powerful front-wheel-drive car and will, therefore, be potentially very hard on front tyres, but 9000km? Surely it must have been driven hard in its previous life to chew through a set of tyres in such a short distance. I’m smelling a car that has been used for track days and, therefore, driven hard.

The other thing is that a performance car like this will absolutely live or die on the quality of the tyres under it. Putting cheap tyres on it will seriously compromise its performance and even potentially its safety in an emergency.

But it’s not too late to make things right. Tell the dealer that you’re prepared to pay the difference between the cheap tyres and the Potenzas the car should have and see if they’ll play ball. I know it would have been nice if this had all been explained to you before you signed on the dotted line, but some dealers (like some business people in any industry) will do everything they can to save themselves a few bucks. In this case, though, the result is a potentially compromised car in your driveway.

If the dealer won’t play, and you still want to buy the car, take it straight to a tyre shop and have a performance tyre fitted. But don’t forget that some of the Chinese tyres on the market now are far from as bad as people think. While you’re at the tyre shop, ask for a professional opinion on the tyres the car was supplied with.