2012 Renault Koleos Pricing and Specs

The best place to start for some professional advice is a transmission specialist. They’ll probably inspect the transmission in your car and will be able to work out whether it can be fixed or if it needs to be replaced.

If you do need a replacement CVT, there are three main ways to go. You could buy a brand new replacement CVT which is likely to be the most expensive course of action. The second alternative is to have the transmission shop recondition the one you already have. This will also be quite expensive.

The third option is to find a good, tested second-hand CVT from a wrecked Koleos and have that fitted. This will be by far the cheapest way to go. But the gamble with option three is that the same problems might happen again, and you’d be back to square one.

I agree that a 2016 model-year car is too new to be thrown away, but failures of CVT transmissions are more common than they should be. It’s something car makers need to look at when they consider future designs and engineering.

It somewhat depends on which model Koleos we’re talking about. For some strange reason, both the two-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive versions of the Koleos have the same towing capacity. Even stranger is the fact that the much torquier turbo-diesel version of the 2018 Renault has a lower towing limit than the petrol-engined version with its peakier powerplant.

So, on that basis, the turbo-diesel Koleos has a 1650kg braked trailer towing limit. Which neatly rules it out. The petrol version meanwhile, can legally tow 2000kg so theoretically, you could use it to tow an 1800kg caravan. In reality, though, the petrol Koleos won’t do so effortlessly or (as you’ve described it) easily. In fact, it’ll be just about at the limit in terms of its performance and braking and the CVT transmission will really be earning its keep on hills. To be honest, there are better choices for this type of use.

It’s not something I’ve heard of, to be honest, but there are really only a handful of ways to get wet carpet. The first is that the windscreen or side glass is leaking and allowing water in. The other chance is that there’s a rubber bung or seal missing from the floorpan that is allowing water splashed up under the car to dampen the carpet. I’ve even seen worn or damaged door seals allow rainwater to be sucked into a car on the move.

The first thing I’d check would be the condition of the door and window seals and make sure there’s nothing stuck to them. Even a tiny twig or piece of leaf-litter can break the seal and allow water in overnight.

If it’s none of those things, then you have to start looking at possibilities such as a leak from the heater matrix. This is a serious hassle as often the whole dashboard has to be removed to replace the matrix. But your car should still be under factory warranty, so I reckon it’s back to the dealership and an in-depth look at what’s going on. Don’t forget, too, that even though the water is pooling in the passenger’s footwell, it could be entering the car elsewhere.