restarting a Renault van

Last November the van was rumbling confidently across France when with no warning at all the engine died and all the dashboard warning lights came on. It refused pointblank to restart. It was collected by tow-truck, eventually expensively fitted with new glow plugs, and made it to England, then back to Spain, over a thousand miles racked up on short and longer trips without any further hiccups, problem sorted. Well, turns out, not. Last Sunday afternoon it was rumbling confidently across Spain, heading for the Santander ferry, 5 hours into the trip, when with no warning at all the engine died and all the dashboard warning lights came on. It refused pointblank to restart, was collected by tow-truck, and finally, after at least 3 different van-rescue people had one way and another scratched their heads, met the magic Spanish mechanic who not only fixed it in minutes but showed me how to restart it myself.

It had run out of fuel, even though it clearly still had 3 bars still showing on the fuel gauge. Even though it had had a major service, including fuel filter, there was a blockage. It IS easy to fix. Under the bonnet, tucked high up into the left corner, almost invisible if you don’t know to look, there’s a plastic bulb about the size of a grenade. Squeeze it, and you’ll see fuel surging along a plastic tube draped across the adjacent bit of engine.

The mecánico mágico who showed me the trick had me trying to start the engine, revving enthusiastically, while he squeezed several times, and it is definitely easier with 2 people but I did manage on my own, 3 hours from Plymouth on the way to Berkshire – squeeze squeeze squeeze, jump into the driver’s seat, turn the key and rev rev rev. It took two tries the first time on my own, fired obediently after one try the second time (an hour later)

(BTW one complication I had when it died on the A44 – it wouldn’t even TRY to start. Turn the key, nada. I therefore did assume the whole breakdown was because of my immobiliser because that played up once before. My central locking very very rarely beeps but the immobiliser does, and you have to make it beep to reset. The two times it has happened to me, both the first helper and the mecánico mágico seemed to sort it by just pressing the “unlock” several times. Google suggests locking / unlocking 3 times to reset. Not an issue with the two English stops, so I can’t confidently report how to do it)

Basically if you are a few hours into the drive, and the fuel has dropped below 4 bars, and your van suddenly dies on you, this is worth trying. Google says all older vans are occasionally prone to doing it, and lists some very complicated suggestions to try. There was nothing useful on youtube, just one gent suggesting disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, which frankly on the side of the busy A44, without tools, in 46C temperatures, wasn’t an option anyway. I have now made my own very inexpert video and put it out there. (https://youtube.com/shorts/aWlKiI6ut64?si=jzwRFoV8e2x-JKzh )

Lesson finally learned – top up diesel often, on a long drive. I’ve done dozens of trips of up to two hours and never had the problem before even when fuel was below 4 bars. It did happen to a friend on a local trip when he was borrowing the van, but sorted itself out and started within minutes. Go know.

Those warning dashboard lights ARE terrifying. Looked up individually in the manual, they all say get straight to a dealer. However they are also part of the initial ignition display. So if you switch off, and switch on again, they will always appear, but wink out again. If one of them doesn’t, ok, that’s different, you have a problem, but these vans are workhorses and tough as blazes and this particular quirk is forgivable now that you know how to fix it. Good luck, and safe travels.

I have the least chatty readers in the world: my entirely unpromoted books still bring in a steady trickle of royalties but no recent reviews (not even bad ones, be grateful for small mercies) and my last blog about the van had over 100 readers yet you guys creep in, read, creep away again, leaving no trace. But for any of you who own an older Renault Master, hope this blog was good news and you never have to call for rescue again.