The CD's arrived this morning Anders, just ahead of the postal strike.
Not a straight forward installation though... starting with disk 3
and having to uninstall current versions of Quicktime, Acrobat Reader and Java 2 Runtime and go back in time by installing Acrobat Reader 4, an old version of Quicktime and Java version 1.3.1 (after uninstalling v11) in order to get it to run.
I was going to put it on an old laptop but discovered that my son had returned to university with both of my laptops so I had to chance an installation on my main desktop machine but it ran OK other than for not launching from the shortcut so had to kickstart it from the batch file. BTW, the installation set-up give options for English, French, Spanish and Portugese languages.
Although a lot of messing about the installation is of the Renault Dialogys system that dealers use but obviously without any on-line facility. It has Repair Manuals, Technical Notes, Service Bulletins, Exploded views of assemblies and components and by clicking on the item number on a parts diagram it itemises the part number and gives option to add it to a parts list. If it is added to the parts list it gives a price excluding VAT. I guess that the prices are well out of date but nonetheless give an indication as to how far you are going to get your leg lifted for the parts. But if you have the job done by a dealer you can also check if they have loaded the labour because the time allowed for each task is also detailed within a service time schedule
Anyway, I discovered that the seal which has failed on my gearbox is subject to a technical bulletin and an updated seal... obviously something that they have had problems with before... but the bad news is.... surprise, surprise... you need a special service tool to install the seal to the correct depth in the gearbox casing.
I also found how to check the gearbox oil level.... even the dealers are told to make themselves a gauge from a length of wire rod with dimensions given in the technical note as to where to mark the graduations.
Essentially the correct level should be no higher than 22mm from the lower edge of the filler hole in the side of the gearbox but you have to remove the left hand road wheel and the plastic inner wing panel to gain access to the filler plug before you can use your homemade dipstick.
I also discovered that an intermittent problem I had reported when the car was still in warranty is also a known fault despite the dealer saying that they couldn't find anything wrong. Randomly it has jumped out of 1st gear as you are trying to pull away... which is somewhat disconcerting as it's usually at a busy road junction. I wonder if, having already reported the fault and it being a safety issue, I can get them to resolve that particular problem under warranty. The gearbox has to come out so they could replace the seal at the same time and I'd only have to pay for the seal and 15 minutes labour.... and whilst they've gone that far I could get them to change the clutch for the cost of the parts and with most of the labour already being covered by the gearbox job.... dream on.... wishful thinking if past experiences are anything to go by... but it costs nothing to ask
Martin