Any other subject : Small automotive remarks.

As an indication, I have never worked in mechanics. So I have no practice on the subject.

Times being what they are, in France, we are now confronted with exorbitant vehicle maintenance costs and a lack of professional skills in conventional mechanics.

And yes, you have to go electric. Hmm, for a whole bunch of reasons, I don't think going electric is the solution to the planet's problems, any more than to energy independence.

I even think that the switch to electric is a big mistake. I am much more in favor of a reasoned use of energy, and of adapting to a low-consumption lifestyle.

I own a Renault vehicle, but I should say Matra, since 1998. It now has 250,000 km. It's a 3L V6 engine. I don't use it much, as little as possible in town. I really appreciate this vehicle for its comfort and the simplicity of its operation.

I'm not going to tell the story of the Matra car brand here. To sum up, this is a company which has produced vehicles that are always quite special, which has greatly distinguished itself on the racing circuits, and which definitively closed the doors of its Romorantin-Lanthenay site on February 26, 2003.

Entrance to the site today :

Part of the interior of the production site:

This site is now a large green space, surrounded by new housing construction, as well as a large rest center for old people. Sad end... for such a great company

Well, actually, my car is almost a collector's car. 

As it works very well, I want to keep it in working order. So, for that, I realized my first mistake!

Indeed, we must regularly pass our vehicles to the technical control. Last time it said there were engine leaks. This does not surprise me since there is no one left to carry out the maintenance work. So, as I don't use it much, I haven't done any maintenance for a long time.

In order to go back to the technical control, after having changed a part on the front axle anyway, I decided to clean the engine with a water jet.

In principle this is not a problem. Before performing this operation I had researched information on this subject without finding anything embarrassing. So I cleaned the engine. Everything worked very well. A few minutes later, the engine still started to misfire.

Of course, I suspected what had happened. 

And this is where the real problems begin. I had to remove the coil ramp to access the spark plug wells but I didn't have the tools, of course... I had to wait a while to finally find a TORX T30 wrench.

I expected to find carnage when I removed those coils. I was not disappointed:

Inevitably, in this state, it was not likely to work properly. I even wonder how the engine managed to start in these conditions. Anyway, pistons were 'missing' and you could hear it. There was only one thing left for me to do. Clean all this dirt as best as possible and also remove as much visible rust as possible on the central well:

It's already better! 

After reassembly, the engine works normally again.

However, I still have to change the spark plugs because with the rust, they might weld on the cylinder head. I also need to change the coil ramp. It has plastic parts that are beginning to deteriorate. And anyway, the contact springs have rusted as well. I even think it was one of them that caused this beautiful rust in one of the spark plug wells.

Concussion: do not pass an engine to pressurized water when it has spark plug wells. The coil ramp is not waterproof and lets water through to the spark plugs!

I just have to get the new parts, as well as a spark plug wrench, diameter 16mm!