Perfohub upgrades have been done the Megane III’s in various forms. The easiest method is to simply dismantle a donor Megane III with Cup (Perfohub) suspension and bolt all the required parts onto the recipient.
In this post I break out the Dialogys diagrams and the part numbers associated. I’ve not included the descriptions as anyone doing this conversion should be able to tell a spring from a bolt 🙂
Megane III non-Perfohub Suspension Part Numbers (Part 1)
Index
Part Number
Diagram
1
544010579R
1495/M/31/0110
2
7703602185
1495/M/31/0110
3
7703602185
1495/M/31/0110
4
7703602335
1495/M/31/0110
5
7703602335
1495/M/31/0110
6
544F00003R
1495/M/31/0110
7
7703602295
1495/M/31/0110
8
544C50004R
1495/M/31/0110
9
544C40006R
1495/M/31/0110
10
7703602193
1495/M/31/0110
11
7703602193
1495/M/31/0110
12
544640003R
1495/M/31/0110
13
7703602235
1495/M/31/0110
14
7703602235
1495/M/31/0110
15
547271392R
1495/M/31/0110
16
547273347R
1495/M/31/0110
17
8200976877
1495/M/31/0110
18
7703053968
1495/M/31/0110
19
7703053968
1495/M/31/0110
Index
Part Number
Diagram
1
545016101R
1495/M/31/0217
2
545006560R
1495/M/31/0217
3
7703102026
1495/M/31/0217
4
7703102026
1495/M/31/0217
5
7705098191
1495/M/31/0217
6
7705098191
1495/M/31/0217
7
7703101623
1495/M/31/0217
8
7703101623
1495/M/31/0217
9
7703033209
1495/M/31/0217
10
7703033209
1495/M/31/0217
11
7703034281
1495/M/31/0217
12
7703034281
1495/M/31/0217
13
540100134R
1495/M/31/0217
14
540100134R
1495/M/31/0217
15
401330006R
1495/M/31/0217
16
401330006R
1495/M/31/0217
17
544180003R
1495/M/31/0217
18
544180003R
1495/M/31/0217
Index
Part Number
Diagram
1
401609060R
1495/M/31/3010
2
8200624491
1495/M/31/3010
3
7703034247
1495/M/31/3010
Index
Part Number
Diagram
1
543020942R
1495/M/32/0110
2
543020942R
1495/M/32/0110
3
545880001R
1495/M/32/0110
4
7703034212
1495/M/32/0110
5
545880001R
1495/M/32/0110
6
7703034212
1495/M/32/0110
The Parts Lists
On the following linked pages I’ll cover off the parts that make up the Mk3 Megane GT220 and RS265 front suspension packages along with the diagrams from Renault Dialogys.
I have been a little slow on writing the next installment of the ownership experience with the actual 12th months of ownership arriving in mid-June 2014. However as the car isn’t being driven much this 4 week lag really reflected a grand total of maybe 300km of driving!
The 6th month Review had seen us covering almost 7000km, which is a stark contrast to the barely 4000km covered in the last 6 months. So much so that over 25% of this distance was completed in a single week!
Operating Costs:
It’s amazing how cheap a car is to own when you don’t drive it! Fuel consumption is still averaging a low ~9L/100km in mostly city driving, although the usage pattern has a lot more short trips that are inevitably edging consumption higher.
Total Distance (km):
10706.9
Total Fuel (l):
994.28
Average Consumption (l/100km):
9.27
Average Fuel Price:
$ 1.73
Average Cost/KM:
$ 0.16
The numbers above are cumulative – that is based on the total 12 months of ownership – and I guess more than anything reflect a lack of change in the usage pattern.
Service costs on the other hand finally copped a hit with the required 10000km/12 Monthly servicing being completed slightly early in April. The cost was the fixed $299 Capped Price (Elf Oil used of course) and no other expense was incurred.
It’s a Renault. What has fallen off it?
Nothing. Nada, Zip!
That’s not to say there’s not been a few quirks that have raised their head.
Quirk 1: I raised it in the last review installment but as a recap the car was delivered without a fairly simple rubber seal fitted across the bonnet shut-line. This seal doesn’t appear to do much except prevent bugs and dirt from getting into the engine bay from above, for someone with a bit of a detailing fetish like me this is a good thing. At any rate the missing seal was fitted during the first service in April. I’ve not noticed any impact of this change so I guess I didn’t have to demand it be fitted.
Quirk 2: The stereo, OK another repeat from the 6th month point, it’s not great but the real issue is that unless it’s placed into “Driver” Mode the tweeters aren’t being driven. This naturally produces a flat and somewhat muddy sound quality. Unfortunately “they all do that” and until Renault realises that EVERY Megane Wagon with the 2013/2014 stereo has this problem I’ve found a reasonable workaround with manual tweaking of the Driver mode (including changing the LHD bias) to make it “acceptable”.
Quirk 3: It’s actually a bit of a precious flower when it comes to fuel quality, in my town everything is just perfect with Shells 98RON fuel, switch to an alternative brand like Caltex and suddenly “starts second time every time” for cold starts comes into play. It’s not a big deal but something to keep in mind – change fuel brand to something more to her taste and voila problem solved.
Fault 1: Yes we have a fault, just one, and it’s not critical, but it can be annoying. The passenger seat base has a rattle, only without a passenger in it, and most likely related to something needing a little plastic sleeve or bit of tape around it, but not having that sleeve or tape. Either way bumps on the road or a light tap on top trigger it. The entire seat base is most likely to be replaced under warranty.
Back to the Living and Driving with Question
Earlier this year I did a couple of solo long runs in the car, in Australian terms they were not that long – round trips of 500 to 750km – completed in single days.
In both cases Celeste reaffirmed by confidence in her dynamic abilities and tourability.
The trip out to Temora was a great run on rural roads in generally poor conditions, with the highway run up to Sydney later that week tested the carrying capacity, and the driver aids late into the night.
The Visio (Lane Departure Warning) and the Adaptive BiXenons certainly work together very well, and when I was dead tired the beeping alerts of the Visio system were a great “NO, Seriously you need to take rest stop” reminder. The headlights themselves are stunningly effective in High-beam and it’s sad to hear that the 2014 Facelift models don’t get the Adaptive BiXenon lights – even as an option – then again there’s no more GT220 model available in Australia either.
The “white” leather has remained surprisingly resilient to staining with any marks coming off during regular cleaning and treating with Meguiars or Chemical Guys leather products. It’s still a little daunting when chucking unknown fabrics into the car though – I’m waiting for the day where there’s some strange coloured mark left that just won’t come out.
The Carminat (Tom Tom) navigation system has been updated quarterly as new maps have come available. The update service cost me AUD69.99 last year and the next 12 month renewal should be a lowly AUD49.95 as long as I don’t let the offer lapse. The update process is a little clunky requiring the SD-Card to be ejected from the SATNAV unit, then updated on a PC before being returned to the car. I’ve no complaints with the system itself, and while Tom Tom doesn’t make the LIVE or RDS Traffic services available in Australia it’s hardly Renaults fault.
There’s not much more to add, tyre wear has been good, despite the front end scrabbling for traction due to the lack of LSD. Brake wear is minimal despite the heavy layers of brake dust on the wheels (Bowdens Own Wheely Clean works wonders) and the pedal remains progressive with good feel. It turns out the front rotors and pads are shared with the Koleos soft-roader so there’s a few options available in the aftermarket when the time comes.
Well not quite but as I start to sell out the remaining stocks of parts (Check out what I have listed on eBay; http://www.ebay.com.au/usr/au.mih2) I’m making my fleet of (now retro) Mini-Z the best it can be.
There’s a few MR01, an MR02 and Monster or two in the mix. Some are still in storage but as they get unearthed and hopped up they’re going to appear here.
Now that I have limited access to Dialogys software I’ve been able to start working through the Parts catalog and establish what the differences are between the RS265 and GT220. So far as “the Internet” already says they’re the same.
From the diagram you can see the oil/water heat exchanger and the supplemental coolant pump to circulate water through the turbo under various conditions. To say the system is complicated is an understatement.
Over time I’ll get all the diagrams and parts lists working and maybe online. But his is just a teaser before I get the Perfohub conversion parts lists completed.
How is that going? well this morning I extracted the diagrams and over 100 part numbers for the “stock” GT220 setup. It takes quite a while as each part needs to selected individually and transcribed.
Perfohub is the magic front suspension design that Renault developed to separate the drive and steering axis of their the Megane RS. Otherwise decribed as the “Cup” suspension option and usually paired with an LSD and Brembo 4-spot front brakes.
Otherwise known as a “double-axis” strut system the basic principle has been used by Ford, Opel and Renault on their pinnacle hot-hatches to resolve some of the negative handling characteristics of hight performance front-wheel-drive systems.
Can Perfohub be retrofitted?
For buyers of special editions such as the Mk3 Megane GT220 there’s no choice to tick the “Cup” box so we get what Renault provides, a well tuned combination of conventional strut hardware and all that goes along with it.
These pages are the compiled parts lists and technical drawings to show the parts required for retro-fitting the Perfohub suspension, the swap has already been done by other owners – however they have used complete (used) RS265 subframes to achieve the swap.
Considerations
This is not going to be cheap, either using used parts or new parts from Renault.
There are a lot of “sundry” items that increase the costs. Things like wheels with the rather unique RS265 offset. Standard GT220 wheels will extend at least 15mm out from the body line!
You need to address both ends of the car, the conversion will increase the front track of the vehicle and a matching increase should be made to the rear – ie doing the equivalent RS265 parts swap there.
The benefit of Perfohub without an LSD can be debated – yes you will get less torque steer, yes you will be able to get better grip and cornering accuracy. Refer back to the comment about sundry costs.
Important!
I’m approaching writing this as the owner of a 2013 Megane GT220, a chassis that already has a lot of RS265 DNA – the brake master cylinder is the same as the Brembo equipped RS265, the gearbox and engine are the same and so on. If you have a different model you should research further.
The Parts Lists
On the following linked pages I’ll cover off the parts that make up the Mk3 Megane GT220 and RS265 front suspension packages along with the diagrams from Renault Dialogys.
You know the feeling you get when there’s a task you should do but really don’t want to do because there’s something more unpleasant in the way?
I’ve got that feeling these days thanks to a spare (cheap) set of wheels lined up in the garage.
The problem is they’re dirty, the kind of dirty that doesn’t come off with detergents or All Purpose Cleaners, the kind of dirty that comes off in your hand and not in the wash. The kind of dirty you hope your daughter will never be.
So what better opportunity to get some of the “off the shelf” wheel cleaners and have a go at comparing them. The best bit was these wheels need refinishing so any damage done wasn’t going to upset me.
The Test Subjects
I’ve seen on forums talk of IronX and similar – decontamination chemicals that turn purple as they work – and when I read that Bowdens Own “Wheely Clean” did the same I was keen to try it. My other contender, from the UK was Autoglyms “Custom Wheel Cleaner”.
Both claim to not damage wheels or paintwork, both claim to strip away contamination, both claim to make the job easy.
The two products were bought from local resellers at/around their respective RRPs. They’re both just under AUD20 so neither is a “budget buy”.
The Test
The easy bit – tape up a wheel into three sections, one for each brand and one “before” section. Use each product according to instructions, compare before and after. The best result wins.
As the picture shows the Bowdens Own Wheely Clean has delivered a better result, neither product breaks down grease and tar effectively so a further cleaning process would be needed to deliver the best possible results.
I believe the two products are quite evenly matched, however the Bowdens Own product instructions specify more agitation and soak time than the Autoglym. Naturally this will contribute to a better outcome.
The Bowdens own product does turn purple, and while neither has the greatest scent the Bowdens really does get “on the nose”. If I was a betting person I’d be thinking Peroxide (as in hair bleach) is the key ingredient – maybe an experiment is in order.
After the initial comparison I re-cleaned the entire wheel with Bowdens Own – again I doubt the results would be significantly different had I used the Autoglym – but the second clean was worth the effort.
Recommendation
I have no doubt that every home detailer needs to have a product like these in their kit. The speed of the result and the overall ease of use lift them head and shoulders above scrubbing with with old-school soap products.
The downside is cost, I’ve gone on to use these products in conjunction with my regular detailing and would say that 12 wheels is about the maximum you can expect to clean per bottle. I’d recommend using a wheel cleaner like these to break down heavy buildups of brake dust and and contamination, but for weekly washes I think you’ll find greater value in using a good set of cleaning tools and normal detergents.
For my money I’ll be sticking with Bowdens Own – their wheel cleaner product works and it’s a great opportunity to support an Australian business that is bringing good products to market.
The following oils have been confirmed to have RN0710 compliance/approval/certification in the Australian market.
There are some oils that are approved in other markets but companies are careful to point out that formulations may vary. As more information is confirmed by Australian importers it will be added.
A little while back on OzRenaultSport I semi-volunteered myself to look at a couple of the local auto parts stores and determine what oils where available off-the-shelf in Australia that clearly met the Renault RN0700 and RN0710 standards.
The Renaultsport vehicles all required the RN0710 standard oils, while the “run of the mill” models can generally use either RN0700 or RN0710. The exception is diesels with the particulate filters, they need RN0720.
This was never meant to be a qualitative exercise, just one that would help owners of these great cars buy an oil of their choosing that didn’t lead to Renault Australia reducing warranty coverage due to “non-approved lubricants”.
Why are we all so keen to use a different oil? It’s not like the Elf products Renault supplies through their dealer network are terrible, they’re definitely up to the task, but they’re also expensive when purchased through dealers and not very widely distributed. This means for most owners we have to source oil for intermediate servicing from the dealer or freight 5L bottles of oil around the countryside. Neither is really cost effective. On the other hand this study of commonly available oils isn’t about finding the cheapest option, it’s about cutting through the maze of labelling (or lack thereof) and letting owners make choices based on their own brand preferences.
To achieve this I’ve created a Google Docs Form that can be used to enter oils into a Docs spreadsheet that I’ll then use to create the “output”.
This diagram represents the basic schematic and several other iterations were generated to take into account variations and modifications to suit other builds.