23rd Sep 2008, 07:54

I have just been outside in my PJ's and my heavily pregnant belly to check these little black relays. The first 2 looked fine but the third was really hard to get out. After a bit of leverage from a screwdriver I managed to get it out and it did have a little bit of white / green dry dusty corrosion, but it didn't look like much at all and the rest of the pins were silver and shiny. Would you still recommend changing them all and if so do you know where I can get them and what I need to ask for?

Sorry to sound dumb, but I am totally clueless and heavily pregnant, but need to try this before I torch this piece of tripe car!! Thanks!

Can e-mail me direct at x_dnadoll@hotmail.com if easier.

24th Sep 2008, 03:37

I had exactly the same fault, cutting out and orange warning lights. Garage installed new crank shaft sensor. Problem of cutting out happened again. I located black box with very loose cover and insulated the wiring. Taped cover on as securely as possible. Cutting out happened again. Cover was loose. Can anyone help - I don't want to drive it any more.

10th Oct 2008, 03:31

Fix for the problem - Coil light, engine cutting out at junctions & poor idling.

You do not need to replace the throttle body, you simply need to clean it! I say simply, but there is a step by step guide on how to do this here:

http://www.retro-renault.com/forums/renault-1997-present-day/106-chr-customer-car-mike-fs-mk2-clio-1-2-16v.html

The only extra info I needed, that I got directly from the guy who made the initial thread was how to get the inlet manifold off - I will admit it wasn't easy - some of the bolts are really hard to get to, but after a couple of hours we were in, cleaned it up put it back together in no time and the problem has gone.

-Getting to the inlet manifold-

Unplug the ECU connectors, the map pipe and the charcoal canister plastic pipe on the left of the manifold.

You need to unbolt the manifold from the head, this is the tricky bit, you'll need a 1/4 drive 10mm and a long extension to reach in the gap between the runners. There are 8 or 9 bolts.

When that's done it will be loose, but at the back there's 2 vertical bolts holding it in.

When that's done, it will lift up, flip it over and you'll see the loom clipped to the underside and the throttle body, it's held in by T30 screws.

All this cost me and my dad was a few hours of our time and a can of carb cleaner. I would definitely recommend doing this yourself, and save yourself being ripped off by Renault replacing all sorts of things that really don't need to be done.

15th Oct 2008, 17:39

My 2004 1.2 16v Clio (Dynamique) recently started suffering from a loss of power and poor idling. No feedback was displayed on the dashboard however.

I changed the spark plugs but that didn't help. Not a wasted effort however as they were 10K miles overdue a change anyway!

I took my car to a local garage (not Renault) who took a few days to diagnose the problem. Luckily they had access to one of the machines that can read error codes, so it cost me half the price of Renaults £60 inspection fee.

Problem: faulty lambda sensor. Cost £130 part & labour.

18th Oct 2008, 08:44

I wish I'd read all these comments before I bought my 53 reg 1.4 Clio Dynamique. It has broken down today - 5th time this year!

It started with me losing power while doing 85mph on the motorway - very dangerous! I took it to Renault who were very unhelpful but agreed with the AA man that it was a coil pack issue. The AA man said he's seen this with loads of Clios. So I had coil 1 changed then 3 days later, again on the motorway, coil 2 failed. Took it to Renault and asked if I should change 2, 3 and 4 to stop it happening again. They pretty much admitted that the coils would fail 1 by 1 until they were all replaced, so I had that done.

When I got the car back, it was revving so low when I started it that the whole car shook and it felt like it would stall. I took it back to them and they said nothing wrong with it and all Clios are like that - but mine wasn't until they had it in the garage. After arguing with them about whether there was or wasn't a problem, they sorted it by taking everything apart and cleaning it apparently (by this time its been in garage 5 times). Now I seem to have a relay fault and I'm dreading having to see Renault again because their customer service is awful.

My partner has an 06 plate Megane Dynamique, and his car has been in the garage 3 times this year too. Every time Renault have it in to look at, they seem to break something else. The Megane had an ECU fault where one side of the engine wasn't working (Renault's expert explanation!) so they fixed that but broke the air con! Then they had the audacity to say they were charging us to fix the air con - I think not!

Renaults are absolutely awful cars and we will never buy another one. I am taking out finance to trade the Clio in as soon as it's fixed. I cannot believe that Renault can get away will selling such poorly made cars.

23rd Oct 2008, 09:56

As many have said before - beware of buying the old model Clio - can't speak for the new model.

Bought a 2003 Clio Billabong (Basically a Dynamique) 1st thing noticed was that it felt that it was going to stall when stopped at traffic lights - asked Renault about this and they said that the engine was set like that to pass into the low road tax/ fuel emission bracket.

Gave the car to my son as a present (Sorry son) and he found one day the car just lost power. Took it to Renault and they said it needed an new Engine Loom - cost altogether near £500.00.

Last week car lost power again and when started revs were very high. AA man said probably coil problem (Seen these before haven't they!!). Took car to Renault and they said they could get the car on the road for £150.00 but it would run "Lumpy" and would probably give up in a week or two again. They said the CAT was damaged and eventually this would cost £700-£800 repair!! Got rid of car and got son a BMW mini - don't buy older model Clios - they are crap.

24th Oct 2008, 04:51

I have a 54 plate Clio Dynamique 16v. In the past month the engine has started losing power when accelerating (it's worse when going up hills) and the revs drop very low and it stalls at junctions. I've just had an MOT and all emissions are fine (offside track rod end gone though). I'm not getting any light on the dash, and I can't see the wiring loom wearing through. Can any one help? I don't want to take it to a garage after reading the threads. LOL.