I know this might be a weired Question but how quiet is the australs engine when stationary? Mine sounds like a worn out deisel Ford Transit van from the 80s along with the vibration effecting the whole car when parked or moving.
Im not sure if if its the engine or gearbox neither is the dealer . I also feel it's rpm at idle is high. This is a new car. It has had this problem since I got it in august and it's now worse and all they say is renault knows about the problem and they are waiting for a fix. Also renault doesn't think it will damage engine or gearbox .Im not so sure about that.All the vibration and noise in a engine etc has never been a good thing. There are other problems but this one definately needs sorting.Any ideas or help appreciated. One thing I thought it might be is the generator at fault but that might be miles of the real fault.
Austral Power train problems
My Austral is pretty quiet but it arrived in October. There was a software update to the engine which is intended to make the engine quieter when stationary. It's not a formal recall and so would only be done at your next service unless you ask for it to be done earlier.
I've had my Austral Iconic Esprit Alpine since end of Nov 2023. The thing I found disconcerting was that it wasn't obvious if the ignition was on or off, because it was literally silent after pushing the ignition ON button. The only indication that it was on is the "READY" displayed on the instrument panel. At standstill, if the li-ion battery is low then the petrol engine would kick-in to boast the charge. The noise from the engine is obviously audible but nothing disturbing or out of the ordinary.
My wife's doesn't seem too noisy from new but I'll be keeping an ear out for it now that someone's mentioned it.
On her previous hybrid I'd sometimes hit the On/Off button again when not needed and put it into 'electrics only' mode or vice versa depending on what mode it was in. A couple of times I completely confused that car and if you were on a slope you could easily put it into gear / reverse and take the parking brake off. Of course you start moving silently and it's only when you realise you've got no power steering or brake servo you realise something is wrong!
The same could also happen if you tried to drive off before it had finished all of it's self diagnosis checks and given you the all-clear to start driving after you'd turned the ignition on. On one occasion I confused it (and myself) so much that it refused to try and start the ignition no matter how many times you cycled the switch with the footbrake engaged. I eventually had to just put the handbrake on and leave it where it was, get out and lock it in order to cycle it into a 'known' state to begin from again.
My wife had another full hybrid before this so quite used to having to check the dash to determine what state the ignition was set to but yeah, something that can be a bit disconcerting at first.
On her previous hybrid I'd sometimes hit the On/Off button again when not needed and put it into 'electrics only' mode or vice versa depending on what mode it was in. A couple of times I completely confused that car and if you were on a slope you could easily put it into gear / reverse and take the parking brake off. Of course you start moving silently and it's only when you realise you've got no power steering or brake servo you realise something is wrong!
The same could also happen if you tried to drive off before it had finished all of it's self diagnosis checks and given you the all-clear to start driving after you'd turned the ignition on. On one occasion I confused it (and myself) so much that it refused to try and start the ignition no matter how many times you cycled the switch with the footbrake engaged. I eventually had to just put the handbrake on and leave it where it was, get out and lock it in order to cycle it into a 'known' state to begin from again.
I guess this is the new era of car technology that we need to adapt our routine habits. I'm getting used to it nowtmonkeyuk wrote: ↑Sat Jan 20, 2024 4:28 pm My wife's doesn't seem too noisy from new but I'll be keeping an ear out for it now that someone's mentioned it.
My wife had another full hybrid before this so quite used to having to check the dash to determine what state the ignition was set to but yeah, something that can be a bit disconcerting at first.
On her previous hybrid I'd sometimes hit the On/Off button again when not needed and put it into 'electrics only' mode or vice versa depending on what mode it was in. A couple of times I completely confused that car and if you were on a slope you could easily put it into gear / reverse and take the parking brake off. Of course you start moving silently and it's only when you realise you've got no power steering or brake servo you realise something is wrong!
The same could also happen if you tried to drive off before it had finished all of it's self diagnosis checks and given you the all-clear to start driving after you'd turned the ignition on. On one occasion I confused it (and myself) so much that it refused to try and start the ignition no matter how many times you cycled the switch with the footbrake engaged. I eventually had to just put the handbrake on and leave it where it was, get out and lock it in order to cycle it into a 'known' state to begin from again.
Yeah!
I used to read through a car's manual just to see if there were any special features I might otherwise miss. Now I need to read through it just to understand how to make most of the features actually work properly .
Wonder how long it'll be before I need to read the manual BEFORE being able to drive off at all?
Bringing this thread up again as ours definitely seems a lot loader now than when we first got it. From inside the car it's not too bad but my wife got in it the other day whilst I was outside and it was almost embarrassing to be stood next to. Seems to be more pronounced when the engine is cold as well.
Would be interesting to hear how many others have noticed a change since first getting the car and also, if anyone has had the software updated by request, did it work?
Would be interesting to hear how many others have noticed a change since first getting the car and also, if anyone has had the software updated by request, did it work?