2000 Renault Kangoo RXE 1.4 petrol

Summary:

A very practical and dependable family car

Faults:

Ancillary belt snapped at 90,000 miles damaging the engine. However this was accepted by Renault as negligence on the part of the garage as they only replaced the timing belt at 72,000 and not the other associated belts that come with the belt kit. Credit must be given to Renault for accepting responsibility for this shortcoming and covering the cost of a new engine. At the 72,000 mile service make sure they replace all the belts in the timing belt kit and not just the main belt. At 162,000 miles the torsion bar has just snapped whilst being very heavily loaded and crossing speed bumps.

On the whole after 5 years of very hard work and 162,000 miles I have found the kangoo to be very reliable and I would not hesitate to purchase another one. They may appear to be peculiar in some people's eyes, but their comfort, value, versatility, economy and dependability negate such a triviality.

General Comments:

It's very practical, economical, reliable and great value for money. I think I would choose the diesel engine next time though for fuel economy.

Not a high performance machine, but a great family car!

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 6th June, 2006

2000 Renault Kangoo RXE 1.4

Summary:

Disappointing

Faults:

I have gone through 4 windscreens due to stone chips turning into large cracks.

Front Brake pads and disc's replaced twice, last time dealer said the pads would last another 1500 miles even though they were metal to metal.

Rear Shoes and drums replaced once.

Clutch replaced at 30,000 miles, clutch plate overheated.

Cat replaced same time as Clutch.

Rear Bearing replaced at 30,000 due to incorrectly fitted.

General Comments:

This cars Clutch is unable to handle the weight that might be put into it.

The plate was smaller than that in a VW Polo.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 15th June, 2003

2000 Renault Kangoo RXE 1.9 diesel

Summary:

Good all round vehicle

Faults:

Broken key way on cam pulley, which bent all eight valves at 70mph on the M5. Interestingly a friend is working on a 1.9D Megane engine which also has the same problem. This appears to of been caused by a valve shim which jumped out of its pocket. Has anyone else had this problem with the 1.9D engine?

General Comments:

Good practical car.

Living in wildest Somerset the no nonsense interior is hard wearing and easy to keep clean.

Fuel consumption at motorway speeds are fairly dismal. Adding a turbo as standard would turn it from a good to a great car.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 15th January, 2003

13th Nov 2006, 13:01

I have same problem with a renault scenic 1.9td, 1997, luckily it was only 1 valve damaged, but my main problem is I went to Renault garage to get new shim which is 4.3mm in thickness, they told me the thickest shim available on their system is 3.7mm, which means valve clearance won't be right, have you had same prob?

23rd Feb 2009, 08:02

2002 Kangoo Trekka 4x4 1.6 petrol.

Fantastic car, unstoppable in snow/mud. Fuel consumption above 60mph is horrific due to aerodynamics. Faults so far:

1. Misfire (running on three cylinders) occurs without warning. This fault is due to the original faulty design of ignition coils. Don't mess about - just change all four coils for the later type (Valeo - brown top covers). Renault dealers supply them just as cheap as factors. It is a DIY job no harder than changing spark plugs.

2. Hard cold start/stumble/misfire eventually turns into a crank but won't start. Replace the crank position sensor and connector with the modified parts available from Renault. New sensor and connector with short length of wire requires soldering into original engine loom. Very difficult access on 1.6 petrol Trekka variant best left to dealer if you are not confident.

3. Water dripping from tray above windscreen - remove radio aerial and apply silicon sealer to base. This requires removal of the tray to get access to the 8mm aerial bolt. The only difficult fixing are the inboard sun visor clips. These are like cavity wall plugs, loosen the screw and gently ease them out to avoid damaging them.

Hope this helps someone!

In reply to 23rd Feb 2009, 08:02

6th Nov 2015, 10:29

Hi. Just purchased a Kangoo Trekka and had an unknown leak from the overhead tray.

Thank you for your post, I just didn't think it would be that.

Thank you for saving me hours of investigative work. I made a rubber gasket out of an old bike inner tube, silicon sealed the gasket to the aerial base, then a thin coat of silicon on the gasket and fixed to the car.

It worked great and no more leak.

Thanks again.

Thom Johnson (U.K. Owner)