Running out of ideas, Stupid Clio!!

Hi All,

Had so many issues with my first car (Clio 2001 1.2 16V) so before I begin I would like to warn everyone, stay well clear of this car!!

From day one it has been plauged with electrical issues making it run poorly,

The most recent one which I cant seem to get to the bottom of is the car misfiring loads and almost stalling when cold, the problem isnt anywhere near as bad after a minute or so but misfire is still noticeable at low revs,

I have tried the following:

• Changed coil pack & spark plugs
• Cleaned Throttle Body
• Took rocker cover off and gave the engine a good clean and checked for any blocked breather pipes
• Replaced the MAP sensor
• Replaced the Coolant Temp Sensor
• Took off the black box at the back of the engine and repaired wiring
• Replaced lambda sensor before cat
• Replaced TDC sensor

The list goes on and on to be honest and the car is still running very poorly and showing poor MPG,

Now I am running out of ideas but since I have thrown so much money at this car trying to get it fixed it would seem a shame to give up now,

I have been reading people saying NGK spark plugs and Renaults dont agree (those are what I put in when also changing the coil pack) so I have some original Renault spark plugs on order.

Can anyone else think of anything that may be worth trying other than the obvious and scrapping this french pile of crap

I was thinking if all else fails go down the route of replacing the wiring loom, does anyone have any expierenced with this?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated,

Thanks, Sam

Im having similar issues with my jeep, had the sparks changed, coil changed and now found out its the intake valves that are knackered and its going to cost $1500 to fix

Have you taken it to a garage to see if they can find the fault rather than just replacing random components?

Yes and it came back as the MAP sensor being faulty, replaced and checked wiring but no further forward.

Vac and compression test may be worth a go.

I see you replaced the cam sensor, there's not a silly one on the crank too is there?

Hyper said:

Yes and it came back as the MAP sensor being faulty, replaced and checked wiring but no further forward.

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Have you had it diagnosed since changing the sensor? Maybe you have a faulty one or there is another error showing now.

HT Leads? Distrubutor cap?

Throttle position sensor? Idle control valve (IACV)? Sticky hydraulic tappets, even?

How confident are you that the loom has been 100% repaired correctly, as new looms are just over the £100 mark (or used to be) and they're usually damaged well enough to just scrap.

Have you done your basic tests - compression/ignition/fuel - ie good compression even across all cylinders, strong spark at each plug, each injector firing correctly?

Thanks for all the replies, have gave me some good ideas!!

Once these new spark plugs arrive I will fit them and if they make no difference I will take it down to my local garage to get it hooked up and see if they can shine anymore light on the issue.

I will do the above tests aswell.

Thanks again.

Gaygle said:

HT Leads? Distrubutor cap?

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Fitted with neither. Either has pencil type coils or a coil pack with integrated Leads.

Things to do-

Compression test
Check engine timing.

Does the car have variable cam timing? the renaults have masses of issues with the phase sensors and pulleys but that's normally on the larger engines.
Also to check would be the wiring loom where it leaves the ECU to see if it has chafed on the anti-tamper frame.

If no faults are showing via EOBD then it may be worth seeing if there is a firmware update for the ECU.

Another update for anyone with a clio with similar issues (no doubt a lot of people out there!!),

After trying all of the above I recently replaced the NGK spark plugs with original Champion ones, things seemed a little better with less misfire but still not great and the light remained lit on the dashboard. I took it to a local garage who ran it through the diagnostics again and it showed more faults than ever, they suggested I changed the coil pack (once again) as the one that was on was split on one of the ends. So I changed that (another £40) and the misfire was totally gone and things were looking up but the light remained on...

After loads more reading around the internet and starting to think there was little else I could change I found a second but fully working ignition wiring loom from a dealer on ebay who ensured me it was tested and working. So I went ahead and bought it, took my old wiring loom off tonight, that was the hard part as the connections seem harder to remove than put back on with stupid little clips. Fitted the new one and to my surprise the light was no more, the carbon cannister was not ticking and there was absolutely no misfire or revs dropping.

Took it for a little spin before and everything seems better than ever (touch wood) so if all else fails with these things I definatly recommend changing the wiring loom.

Going to give it a full service over the next few weeks and a good clean.

Over the moon to say the least... for the minute that is

Thanks for all the advice guys,

Sam

My Megane is having similar problems, the garage checked it out and cant find anything wrong, my guess is that it's just Renaults, wont be getting another

help,new on here. my daughter has a 51 plate diesal clio. this has had mechanics scratching their heads.wont start until orange light comes on on dash. has changed glo plugs but still not right , sometimes takes twenty mins to start. garage say change oil air filters while others say not to . anyone had same probs ??

edit: shoulds read the thread

chelsea1954 said:

help,new on here. my daughter has a 51 plate diesal clio. this has had mechanics scratching their heads.wont start until orange light comes on on dash. has changed glo plugs but still not right , sometimes takes twenty mins to start. garage say change oil air filters while others say not to . anyone had same probs ??

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Tried the crank sensor? Had the same problem on mine

I've had to change the earth leads on lots of renaults over the years which causes various different problems, from lights dimming to engine not starting first time, running badly, randonly cutting out.

I always now attach a jump lead to the engine block and negative to rule out any possibilities about earth.