2002 Renault Clio Extreme from UK and Ireland - Comments

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 and 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.

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.

Hi, can you help? I brought a Renault Clio 1.2 1999. It was not running when I got it;

the head gasket needed doing. I have done the head gasket and the car turns over, but it has no spark. I have looked on the net - people say that it could be the ECU or the immobiliser. The light goes out for the immobiliser on the dash when I turn the key. The coil pack works and the fly wheel sensor works, because I tried it on different car, so I think it could be the ECU. Please can you help?

Thanks, Andy.

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.

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.

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.

FAO previous poster;

I had the same problem. No dashboard warning feedback, no error codes logged on the computer. My local, trusted, reliable garage (not Renault!!) went out of their way to diagnose the problem and it turned out to be the lambda/oxygen sensor (~£80 for the sensor, about 1.5hrs labour). Have your garage check it out - I didn't need Renault for this!

2004 Clio 1.4 16V Dynamique.

Sadly my car appears to be showing the initial symptoms of some of the problems shown here. Under acceleration there is a pronounced intermittent misfire. I took it to a local garage and sadly because there is no steady error shown, they are unable to diagnose it. The emissions light was on steadily for about a week (i.e. not flashing), but seems to have gone out.

I have had 3 of the coils replaced in the past so it may simply be the final one on its way out, but who knows. Any suggestions there? (My other thought is that it's the lambda sensor and it's running a bit rich... hmm)

Cheers!

P.

55 plate Clio 1.4 16v Expression.

I have obviously made an error! I thought that a 3 year old car with 15,000 miles on the clock would be a safe bet. Unfortunatly it's a Renault! It has started to seem like the gearbox is trying to make a break for it, I'm assuming this is due to engine / gearbox mounts but haven't had an inspect yet! Also got a horrible noise on LHS full lock I hope this is down to the tyres being the wrong size (later spec clio alloys?) although I've heard that it could be a driveshaft!! I've got it booked in for a 200 pound renault service, so hopefully they can tell me whats wrong with it!! I'm assuming that a car of this age should not be suffering with mechanical troubles like this especially with under 20k so may well have to fight renault to pay for it!!

CAR PROBLEM FIXED!!!

Car: Clio 1.2 16v Billabong Edition.

Problem:

I would be going along a road randomly at any kind of speed and the car would suddenly loose most of its power. The coil light would appear in the center of the dash board and sometimes the engine management light would also appear.

This became very annoying and dangerous. The only way that I could solve this problem would be to pull over and restart the engine a couple of times.

I could not have this problem happening anymore so I took it to a garage explaining what had happened, this did a diagnostic test on it and the results where:

4 errors with the throttle body

1 error with the accelerator pedal.

I am glad I read this site before because I would have then just replaced the throttle body... But after reading this site I decided to ask one of the guys at the garage to take a look at the black box at the back of the engine...

The results were amazing, the wire protector "the black box" had rubbed through the wires creating a wire short in the engine thus making the car go into idle mode. All I have had to do it wrap the wires in black thick tape and make sure the box is no longer catching on the wires.

Very simple outcome to what could have been a extremely expensive outcome to the diagnostics.

If you have any more questions:

james_marsh100@hotmail.com

Good look with your Clios :)

Oh I wish I'd have seen this site before I bought my sorry excuse for a car!!

I've a 1.4 05 Clio Extreme and have had nothing but trouble with it. I've only had it just over a year and have had two engine coils replaced already - however... that was a sign of much worse to come...

It wouldn't start last week for no clear reason - it would turn over but not fire up. I took it to two very reliable mechanic's who tried every possible solution, but in the end they had to admit to defeat due to not having the Renault diagnostic computers. So very reluctantly... I took it to Renault.

Well firstly - the customer service was an absolute joke! They told me I couldn't have a courtesy car for ten days - even though my job as a nurse relies on me getting to peoples houses.. So basically I could lose my job! Then they said they'd phone me before 5pm that day to let me know what the problem was from the £85 pound diagnostic test I'd been already charged for... and guess what? I had to chase them with over ten phone calls until someone would FINALLY talk to me.

Then this is where the fun begins...

They informed me that they needed to do a "wiring loom test" at £226, and if that did not solve the problem, I'd need a new ECU, which I have learnt from tonight's fruitful readings will cost me well over £700. And even then - all these posts lead me to believe that the problem won't be solved.

Conclusion??

Renault should recall this model and fix the problem instead of making innocent customers foot the bill for THEIR bad workmanship.

My Clio is not VA VA VOOM... rather VA VA DOOMED FOR SCRAPPING!

KEEP WELL AWAY FROM THIS MODEL, unless you're a glutton for punishment.

Clio 1999 1.6 8v. When I turn my Clio on it starts shaking when stationary, and sometimes feels like it is going to cut out. When I drive the car like this, it lacks power and is very slow. What could this be? Also the service and airbag light are constantly on.

Having already been through the coil problems, and having constantly told Renault about problems involving oil usage since buying the car, I was told my car was built like this to ensure the engine parts would last well over 100k ha ha.

I got a phone call from Renault, who once again have my car, to tell me that at 4 years old and with 75k on the clock, my car need an entire engine replacement.

Thanks Renault, it has been well worth wasting my money on your services and diagnostics.

My partner owns a Renault Clio Expression 1.2 16v 52 plate, owned from new. In September we took it to Renault dealer with the infamous orange 'coil' warning light coming on sporadically and resulting drop in power, meaning the car was a potential death trap in fast traffic, as 20 mile per hour suddenly became its maximum speed!

A cost of £85 was quoted immediately just to attach to a diagnostic machine! No mention from them that this was a problem they had seen before! They kept the car 2 days to see if they could replicate problem, but the car was fine! And no error codes appeared! However as the car is nearly 5 years old and has done 35k miles, they recommend the timing belt and water pump replaced at a cost of £455!

Unfortunately I had left word with my partner to OK any repair, as a car a must for her as she is a Staff Nurse, as I was at work and unobtainable. I foolishly expected the work advised to be connected in some way to the cars problems! So work okayed much to my annoyance the following morning!

Anyway - 2 months down the line the orange light is now on permanently, having never gone away, and car is virtually undriveable; wish I had discovered this website before going anywhere near that Renault dealership.

I do though find it very strange, that after reading these threads, I discover the lid of the black box mentioned has actually been removed at some point, and wires have been insulated with black tape by an unknown third party? This can only have been done at dealer or by an AA man some time ago, as they are the only people to have had access other than I to the engine bay! And I am sure the AA man would have mentioned it!

The car is going back to dealer tomorrow, and I HAVE TOLD THEM that I will not pay for diagnostics again, and the original problem was not cured, and I now have information that this is a notoriously common fault with Clios.

It is my hope that I can get this car running again to trade it in ASAP! I am finished with Renault and for that matter the dealership as I feel very let down.

I am currently considering replacing my own car as well as my partners, and there will definitely be no French connection! Japanese or German from now on!

Complain to Watchdog by all means, but I doubt this will do any good given Renaults past history. The best thing to do is vote with feet and 'STEER CLEAR' of them! That will hurt them more in long run! If the fault is actually fixed by the dealer tomorrow, I now have major doubts, I will post again!

Serv light and airbag light problems, I have just read the comments on this web site, and it does work.

I've just been to the car and wiggled the wires under the passenger seat, and the serv and airbag light went out, thanks all for this tips, now just need to sort out the coil light and cutting out at the lights and roundabouts.

Thanks anyway, each bit helps.

Carl