23rd Mar 2008, 17:29
THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR AN ALMOST 300 POST THREAD.
Wish I had read it before! 90% of this thread must be about the toxic fumes warning light and the injector coils issue.
I have a 65,000 miles Clio 1.2 expression 52 plate. Had it for two years, no major problems. Regularly serviced.
TOXIC FUMES light on this weekend coming home from work - over the Easter holiday!
I ll be looking forward to a £800 bill next week to sort this out. + expenses for rail fares to get to work + 2 extra hours of commuting time. Gutted : (
Afraid a company the size of Renault should have been big enough and honest enough to create a national recall. I was put in a very dangerous situation going 75mph on the motorway with the engine shutting down, clearly a well known problem to them, but covered up. Not amused at all.
Once fixed I will be trading in for a VW Polo or a Japanese car - only 65 posts of complaints compared to nearly 300 here mostly about the same fault.
23rd Mar 2008, 18:52
Hi could anyone shed light on which warning light is which?
I currently have the warning light on the far right of the dash flashing. Is this the gearbox warning light?
25th Mar 2008, 21:45
Hi another clio owner here 2001... This car is dangerous come - on Renault, the cars are not only a hazard to the driver, but also to the other road users.
26th Mar 2008, 18:04
My wife has a Clio 1.2 Extreme with idle problems; lack of power and random cutting out. I think extreme is an understatement when it comes to unreliability. It's a 52 plate with 29K miles and has had the throttle body replaced at 22K miles and needs replacing again!?*?! I contacted Renault HQ but they wouldn't help at all. I've contacted Watchdog and no joy from them either.
I know the throttle body needs cleaning as it's only covered 7K miles in 18 months, but I can't seem to find any step by step instructions on how to do this (ideally with pictures). Just want to get is fixed cheaply so I can get rid of this car. My wife and I have had this car from new, and it's been back to the Renault dealer 14 times with different problems.
I will never buy a Renault again. My Ford Focus is 7 years old and has one problem, which was fixed 1st time round free of charge. I said to my wife we could buy a 15 year old Escort and it would be more reliable than this peace of crap.
Every Clio driver in the UK should hassle Renault and Watchdog until somethings done about this design fault. I heard a rumour that Renault recalled the 1.4 Clio's and resolved this problem, but as 80% of Clio sales are 1.2's; it would cost too much to recall these!!!
9th Apr 2008, 17:29
I have the same problem.
I have had the car from new in 2002, a few years later this started not cutting out but jittery idle. its defiantly worse on first start up and in wet weather. it has also jittered at 80mph on the motorway in heavy wet weather. this is when the Electronic fault warning light (coil) first came on and it was jittery all the way home, next time I went to drive it it was perfect for the first time in a long time, it came back a few days later.
I have just come across this forum now, with this information and the facts. my first guess would be shorting due to black box. so will check this tomorrow. if that doesn't fix it I will strip down and clean the throttle body.
Big thanks to everyone whom has posted on here!
14th Apr 2008, 12:40
After reading all the posts, I realized that I also had made the mistake of buying a Renault Clio...
I have had the same problems outlined by others and I have had enough; my finance company are letting me swap my car for a different one.
As with the problems, I also lost total power, lost speed on hills, etc.
I have literally just tried the black box method and this seems to have worked, (wires touching each other and touching the box lit itself so I covered them in 24p insulation tape). I want to point out that I have had my fuel sensor, crank shaft sensor, new plugs, and a few other bits replaced, some of which I don't know as the guy at the showroom never told me.
I'm going for a drive now so I will post my results.
Good luck anyways.
15th Apr 2008, 07:04
Clio Auto 1.6 RT stalling:
Can someone please help. My auto 1999 Clio starts well and runs well until it come to a traffic light when at idle it suddenly stalls. I turn the ignition on again and starts immediately without any problem but on pulling out I feel the power is not there even though it drives. Also when I approach a hill, the car does not pull fast enough, again lack of power. I need to adjust the gas up and down to get the speed. Another problem I noticed is when I drive for a long distance, say 5 to 10 miles without any stoppage and when slowing down to park the car, the car stalls before I manage to finish parking the car. Other faults I have with the car are: the central lock does not work and the radio/cassette player has no power. Can anyone please tell me what could be causing the stalling problem and does it have anything to do with the electronic system since the central locking system does not work. My email: mra18@msn.com.
15th Apr 2008, 15:07
Hey all. You know the drill:
Juddery when idle, splutters when easing off clutch. Last Friday the exhaust emissions light started flashing, cue me crawling and cutting out on the way to work. Thankfully managed to get it home again and to a mechanics, where they looked at it and saw nothing on the diagnostics.
Car seemed OK from then until today - just came off the motorway (thank the lord) and that stupid annoying light started flashing at me again. Cue me crawling home again.
REALLY annoyed. I'm meant to be driving cross country for the next couple days with the missus.
Doesn't seem like it methinks!
Renault, I'm afraid first impressions of you are awful, I'm never going to buy one of your cars again. Yes, it took me 5 weeks to realise that.
1st Mar 2008, 20:13
Hi I tried to drive my 1.4 Clio earlier today. I put it into reverse, but when I lifted the clutch to the bite the car would reverse slowly, but it felt like I was driving with the handbrake on and the car was relucutant to move. The car was also making a very loud grinding noise and it felt like something was dragging on the floor. I checked under car and nothing loose.
Also had the same problem when I tried it in first. Some friends think it could be the clutch cable, any ideas? many thanks.