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Dacia sandero, biggest lemon ever

2K views 10 replies 3 participants last post by  dgc 
#1 ·
Was so excited to purchase my first Dacia as doing my research thought was a good budget purchase as I'm not into gadgets in cars and wanted something reliable, thought I found it. Now first dealer I popped into just to have a look at them, then constantly called my mobile after I visited the show room for a look around (big put off!). Second dealership kept me hostage for over four hours with a hard sell and I didn't see the third dealership for a year, and they were wonderful, very helpful and didn't crap me around.

Now the car, had to take it back as the rear wiper fluid stopped working, they ripped out the interior to fix the fluid pipe valves had to be replaced but didn't properly fit the interior properly, had to do that. The tow bar electrics were totally wrong and had to buy an adapter to tow. Paid extra for mudguards on the car, Micky mouse job on that as they've come off and paid extra to have them refitted.

Now we come to the BIG FAULTS first MOT turns out the drivers side headlight was for cars driving on the right hand side of the road, to give them credit they replaced for free, but should not have happened in the first place, I'd been driving a car that was a danger to other users for three years! Now come to today, car three years old less than 13k on the clock and I'm going out to buy my Christmas dinner meat from the butcher at 4pm. After leaving my village with the sun about to go through sunset I realise a few miles down the road my dashboard isn't working, NOTHING WORKING! No speedo, petrol gage, nothing! I pull over to check I have lights and indicators working. Only garage open to have a look at it was the Vauxhall garage and bless them checked the fuses, disconnected the battery and back again it was still not working, didn't charge me even after looking at the car for almost an hour (no Christmas dinner now as butcher closed)

I know I was almost to the ping in the car to tell me I needed petrol so put £10 in, still no dashboard, drove to the co op to purchase a well needed bottle of wine as I can't afford to repair this car but a £6 bottle might help at this moment. This car was paid for my dearest departed mum and dad, mum from cancer and dad motornuron.

Now I unlocked the car and the dashboard lights up, a few expletives come out off my mouth, I googled the problems with the sandero dashboard and apparently this is a known problem going back years! THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!
 
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#2 ·
Unfortunately the instrument cluster is an electronic PCB and electronics do sometimes go wrong. If you googled a bit more you would find it is not a problem confined to cheap cars. Indeed there are companies specialising in cluster repairs though probably not Dacias as there will be more margin for profit over dealer prices on the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes.

Here is a video, it is in Italian but shows how the cluster is removed and the PCB.



He is changing the colour of the leds,
 
#3 ·
Yes, had to have my old mk2 Scenic dashboard rebuilt by the ChipGuru with proper japanese components after it packed up, the manufacturer who supplied the dash to Renault supplied a number of car makers. Renault would give a years guarantee, within reason the repaired dash was now guaranteed for the life of the car.
 
#4 ·
Looked closely at the video and able to see that the the large component, mid top left, with 5 legs, no. 3 cut short, between the 470 and 100 microFarad caps is a 4275 voltage regulator available from several manufactures and described as Automotive quality. This or its soldering could be the source of the fault as it presumably supplies the whole board.
 
#5 ·
Looked closely at the video and able to see that the the large component, mid top left, with 5 legs, no. 3 cut short, between the 470 and 100 microFarad caps is a 4275 voltage regulator available from several manufactures and described as Automotive quality. This or its soldering could be the source of the fault as it presumably supplies the whole board.
Yes, quite often it's the dash power supply / regulator circuit components that blow. Again parts used that are close to their limit.

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#6 ·
Yes, had to have my old mk2 Scenic dashboard rebuilt by the ChipGuru with proper japanese components after it packed up, the manufacturer who supplied the dash to Renault supplied a number of car makers. Renault would give a years guarantee, within reason the repaired dash was now guaranteed for the life of the car.
Hi Hun, could you tell me the right way to go to get this sorted? Thank you in advanced
 
#7 ·
Unfortunately the instrument cluster is an electronic PCB and electronics do sometimes go wrong. If you googled a bit more you would find it is not a problem confined to cheap cars. Indeed there are companies specialising in cluster repairs though probably not Dacias as there will be more margin for profit over dealer prices on the likes of BMW, Audi and Mercedes.

Here is a video, it is in Italian but shows how the cluster is removed and the PCB.



He is changing the colour of the leds,
Looked closely at the video and able to see that the the large component, mid top left, with 5 legs, no. 3 cut short, between the 470 and 100 microFarad caps is a 4275 voltage regulator available from several manufactures and described as Automotive quality. This or its soldering could be the source of the fault as it presumably supplies the whole board.
I've never had a car with ''this fault, my question would be is when did you get your drivers licence? My car is the biggest lemon, and can you tell me why my car was fitted with headlights that were totally wrong for the uk. Online forums state this is a problem
 
#11 ·
PS Samara will not help, had our moments with dealerships and manufacturers, as I have said previously on this forum, we had a Mercedes A Class with approx 9k miles on the clock, wife nearly has a major road accident in the car the only saving grace she was not on the motorway, the steering column started to seize up and she to strong arm it around a slow speed corner and stop. On MB owners forum this was a known fault, MB not interested, £2000 for the due service and to fit new steering column, phone call to say come and collect car, a little later just before leaving to collect the car another call to say the car has been been hit by another customer's car in the dealership which was driven by one of dealership's staff.
 
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