Faults:

Having booked the car in for its first MOT, 3 days prior to it going to the garage, it started to shudder whilst being driven, and the Engine Management Light came up on the dashboard. This is the first problem I've had with the vehicle, and I made contact with my local Renault dealership, who said the earliest they could look at it was the following week, and it would need to go onto the Diagnostic Test Machine.

I then drove to my local garage who were carrying out the MOT and told them that the vehicle had developed a problem and asked them to look at it before doing the MOT. They said it could be anything, and common faults were the Coil Pack, TDC Sensor, MCU or the harnesses.

I left it at that, and driving home the engine became more erratic, and on reaching home I decided to go on the web and check to see if there were any comments on the Clio. To my surprise there was numerous comments, but one that took my attention was posted on the 30th May 2007.

I decided to explore myself, and point 1 was the Tamper Proof ECU Plug Box. I lifted the top of the box, and sure enough the wires had been rubbed through. After some simple repair I replaced the lid and the engine was running normal again. I took the car for its MOT, the garage reset the onboard computer, it passed its test, and the costs were minimum.

Great information on the site, and I'm pleased I found it, however disturbed to see the number of common known faults that Renault are aware of. I did note that lots of the wiring had been wrapped with adhesive tape, post manufacture by Renault to extend the life span. I did ask Renault that if the fault was found to be Coils etc, would the 3 year warranty cover this and they said NO as the vehicle was now 3 years old.

General Comments:

The car has been a good runner apart from this recent incident, however the costs could have been horrendous.

Faults:

I took my car for its first MOT last week, & it almost failed due to a back brake light not working.

Sounds simple to fix, but no.

Renault has soldered the bulbs to the casing, therefore they could not be taken out.

I have a Clio Extreme 1.2 16V 2004 which came with crystle rear lights, any one else had this problem?

I'm having a war with Renault now because it cost me to put it right when it shouldn't have been like that in the first place.

There is also a stupid rattle in the sunroof!

General Comments:

The car handles really crap in the rain.

Faults:

One week before its first service (coincidentially 2 years and 10000 miles on the clock) the engine diagnostic light illuminated and the car would not start. I kept on trying to start the engine and finally after about 10 goes drove the car to the main dealer in emergency mode or whatever its called at 15 mph. They serviced the car and fixed the rattle in the sunroof, but when I went to collect it the engine would not start so I had to return a week later after the throttle, wiring loom and fuel management unit were changed.

Three days later I had to call the AA as it would not start and the diagnostic light was on again. The mechanic got the car to start and cleared the errors, but said a fault still existed so I returned the car to the main dealer again. They found nothing wrong, but changed the spark plugs anyway.

The following day I attempted to start the engine and the diagnostic light came on again. The engine started on the second attempt but sounded spluttery.

I have dropped the car back to the dealer again today.