Engine of the month

Renault and Nissan have been an automotive alliance since the late 90’s. The sharing of platforms, technology and engineering paved the way for them to become the giant they are today; hitting sales in excess of 10 million units a year.

GM almost joined the party a few years later but a deal couldn’t be reached, leaving smaller projects on the table… such as the Vivaro powered by the M9R.

Every large manufacturer required a mid-range diesel to rival the tide of TDi’s and CDi’s and so on, flooding the market. The M9R was it!… fitted to anything from a family hatch to a range of highly popular vans; in either two- or four-wheel guise. Opel/Vauxhall distanced the relationship with Renault-Nissan by keeping the CDTi suffix; a contributing reason to why people thought it was a French powerplant fitted to the first 2.0 CDTi Insignia’s.

Spanning over a decade of use, this 2.0 ltr four-pot has been tweaked along the way, producing over 40 unique engine codes. A list that looks pretty baffling at first glance, is simplified by the fact that most hardware was carried from model to model despite the manufacturer.

The M9R certainly falls within the ‘work-horse’ bracket of engines and as a result, is worked on more than a British motorway. Long story short, you need the parts – we got the parts.