Running out of ideas, Stupid Clio!!

Hyper · 15 Mar 2011 at 20:22

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 :rolleyes:

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

Hyper · 15 Mar 2011 at 22:01

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

Hyper · 16 Mar 2011 at 12:49

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.

Hyper · 5 Apr 2011 at 20:51

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