Get ready because you're about to do a lot of pre-work just so you can get access to this washer tank. Remove the bonnet/hood, remove the front panels, remove the scuttle panel, remove the front frame. You finally have full access to the washer bottle. It's only held...
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451 Windscreen Washer Pump
Remove the bonnet to reveal the windscreen washer bottle. Look down the side and you'll see the pump clipped into the side of the bottle. If you need to empty the bottle, pull the pipe off of the squirter nozzle and place it into a contain, start the car and pull the...
Roadster External Temperature Sensor
The external temperature sensor is hidden behind the nearside rear air vent in the rear arch panel. So, to get to it, you ideally need to remove the rear panels. However, you can remove many of the fixings on that side and pull the arch sideways enough to reach in,...
453 EQ Crash Sensor
453 Pyro Fuse Surprise! Unlike most other EV cars, the 453 doesn't have a pyro fuse. Instead of something easy to change, it has an entire controller which internally destructs in a crash. Symptoms You've crashed the car and it will no longer drive. Step 1, Delete all...
451 Stuck In Park
The 451 generally came with the standard TipTronic layout but American 451s and all electric drive 451s had the fake PRND layout. They had the parking pawl which manually locks the gearbox when the shifter is in park. When you turn the ignition to position 1, it...
453 Roof Rack
I bought my smart 453 roof rack from AliExpress. Click here (make sure you select the correct one for your car). Takes the key... ...place it in the lock and twist to unlock the side cover. Slide the side cover off... ...to reveal the business end of the rack system....
451 ED HV Battery Opening
This is the high voltage battery removed form a 451 electric drive fortwo. It's 178kg of nearly unmovable nightmares. All around the outside, if you look carefully, there are discoloured spots along the outside lip. I have marked them yellow below. The discolouring is...
451 ED HV Battery Removal
This job isn't to be taken lightly. You will need some specialist equipment but it can be done at home in your garage if you really have to. Step 1 is that you have to lift the car high enough so you can get the battery out on some sort of trolley. If you have a...
451 ED HV Mega Fuse
If you have a catastrophic high voltage electrical failure, the battery has a safety feature to stop all of that fire, sparks, screaming, running around and gnashing of teeth as everything in the local vicinity also sets on fire. This fault could be a damaged HV cable...
451 ED Battery Cell Charging
Traction Battery Voltage The 451 ED 400 volt traction battery contains 93 separate cells, all wired in series. At an absolute maximum, lithium ion cells should be charged to no higher than 4.2 volts. 93 cells at 4.2 volts = 390.6 volts but they call it a 400 volt...
453 Speedo Wiring
Speedo Pin Number Wire Colours Connects To / Function 1 Pink Illumination 2 Red/White Power Fuse 31 3 Black Earth/Ground 4 5 6 Pink/White or White Cruise Activation 7 White or Brown/White Cruise Reset 8 Green or White Oil Pressure Switch 9 Green/White or Green Brake...
453 Brake Light Failure
My Brake Lights Don't Work! This is becoming a new common problem on the 453 and it's sometimes not you think it is. The issue is that you rarely notice your brake lights aren't working until you miserably fail your vehicle inspection. Because you don't notice brake...
453 EQ Acoustic Presence Switch
If you have an EQ (electric drive) smart 453, it probably has the pedestrian warning noise maker fitted. Some countries didn't mandate them so you'll have to look and listen to know if yours has it. Up until the end of 2019, the car had a switch that could be pushed...
Apple CarPlay On Any Smart
Generally, the easiest option is to just replace the stereo with one that has CarPlay. That's dead easy on the 451 fortwo and 454 forfour as it takes any double DIN stereo so you have a choice of hundreds of stereos. However, it's not so easy on the 450 since that has...
453 Stuck In Park
If your auto gear stick is stuck in the park position, you'll need to press the magic button. Here is the magic lever... ...it pushes up. Thankfully you don't need to disassemble the car as much as is shown abouve to get to the magic lever. You just have to lift the...
451 High Pressure Fuel Pump
Highlighted below is the high pressure fuel pump. It's fed by the low pressure fuel pump in the fuel tank and is spun by the cam shaft. However, to get to this point you have to remove the airbox, intercooler and gear change motor. Disconnect the pipe highlighted...
453 Wipers Will Not Stop
Wipers Won't Stop & Battery Light On Even when the car is off, the wipers keep going continuously. The only way to stop it seems to be to disconnect the battery. However, as soon as you connect it back up, the wipers start going mad again. If you check the errors...
450 Heater Fan Removal
This is an old LHD 450, before the RHD was even available. It'll be similar on a RHD 450 but without the steering column in the way. Post yourself into the nearside footwell and look up and towards the centre of the car. There's the fan unit. Disconnect the electrical...
Air Bag Connectors
450 Fortwo Both the steering wheel and passenger airbag use the same connector. Amphenol CA252 Assuming the link stays live, this connector looks like item 5 here. Have a look around AliExpress and search for hairspring plug and then visually match it to what you...
453 Electronic Controllers
No one seems to know where any of the 453 controllers are or, if they find a controller, they don't know what it is. The main issues that causes confusion with a lot of people is four-fold. 1 - Being a Renault underneath, none of the controllers look like the old...