What does this sound like?

[Robbie]

Hey,

Having a few problems with my car (03 clio). When I start the engine it will sit at about 15k idle then they will suddenly drop to 0 and the car will "stall". Starting the engine a couple more times seems to fix that most of the time but still very annoying. It stalled itself twice yesterday when I went to move away from junctions and on one occasion it took 5 or 6 tries to get the engine going again then it went into safe mode/limp home mode but when I started again it was back to normal.

At traffic lights yesterday I was moving off and the revs suddenly shot up causing me to wheelspin then went down to normal again - it was like I wasn't controlling the revs.

I've asked a couple of people, one said it might be the clutch and someone else said it could be an ECU fault. Any ideas? It's on it's original clutch and it's done just over 70k miles. Clutch pedal is also quite stiff compared to other cars but I believe this is normal on 16v clios?

Cheers for any advice! I'll probably take it to the garage next week anyway.

[You]

It could be the idle control valve? Mine was playing up on my Fiesta, causing it to start up at odd idling speeds or sometimes not start enough due to lack of revs, it too would also stall sometimes on the approach to junctions when I pressed the clutch down. Try simple things like ICV before jumping into Clutch and ECU. I'm sure there was a way to see if the clutch was on it's way out, by trying to move off in a higher gear (can't remember which, think 4th but google may help) and if it moved off, it was okay but if it stalled it was on its way out.. Something along those lines.


Edit: BTW, might also be worth considering the throttle body and cleaning it out.

[Robbie]

It could be the idle control valve? Mine was playing up on my Fiesta, causing it to start up at odd idling speeds or sometimes not start enough due to lack of revs, it too would also stall sometimes on the approach to junctions when I pressed the clutch down. Try simple things like ICV before jumping into Clutch and ECU. I'm sure there was a way to see if the clutch was on it's way out, by trying to move off in a higher gear (can't remember which, think 4th but google may help) and if it moved off, it was okay but if it stalled it was on its way out.. Something along those lines.


Edit: BTW, might also be worth considering the throttle body and cleaning it out.

Thanks for help, I'll rep later.

New problem, won't even start now

[You]

When was the last time it was serviced? Check the spark plugs, see if they're in good condition. Have you trying giving it the beans whilst starting it?

[Robbie]

When was the last time it was servied? Have you tried pressing the accelorator whilst turning it over?

Year and a half ago I think - I only got it in March and yeah I have

[You]

Hmmm. Not sure what else it could be. Have you tried looking and renult or clio owners club forums? Perhaps someone has had a similar issue, so they could narrow it down a bit more for you?

[Robbie]

Managed to get in started, took it round the block and it went in limp home mode. Did the clutch test thing where you rev it a little and put it in 5th then lift the clutch fully and see if it stalls. It didn't stall.

[Metric1]

You're pretty low on fuel.. the little light below the low fuel light looks like a glow plug light. I used to drive a Jetta TDI and when it would be extremely cold I'd have to wait a few seconds for the light to go off to start the car, but most times the light wouldn't event come on? Does that light always stay on? Is your car even diesel?

[Robbie]

You're pretty low on fuel.. the little light below the low fuel light looks like a glow plug light. I used to drive a Jetta TDI and when it would be extremely cold I'd have to wait a few seconds for the light to go off to start the car, but most times the light wouldn't event come on? Does that light always stay on? Is your car even diesel?

Car is a petrol. I actually had someone say the glow plug light is used as an ECU warning light on petrol clios. Also the exhaust emissions warning light comes on but you can't see it in the video. Both those lights stay on sometimes and the car goes into limp home mode and wont go past 20k revs. Fuel wise, the trip computer said I have 70 miles left but I filled it up with a petrol can anyway just to see if it helped but it didn't. In fact the miles actually went down to 60 after filling it up :S

Got another mechanic friend looking at it tomorrow.

[tdi]

I fixed a clio which had this problem, engine management light was flashing, idle was lumpy and inconsistent and had a complete loss of power. Just needed the injectos changed which cost £5 from a scrapyard.

IF it's the 1.2 16v engine then you need to take off the manifold with the 6 male torx bits on the top of the block, then there are 4-6 female T25 bolts on the curved section of the manifold, take these off and you can get to the fuel rail which is held down with two or three torx bolts. Take them out, then apply some gentle force to the fuel rail and it'll pull it out, disconnect the fuel pipe to the rail and remove the injectors.

You can test them by removing the HT leads one by one and listening to the engine note (before you take the manifold etc off), removing one from the cylinder where the injector works should change the tone of the engine, whereas when you remove the one with the dodgy injector there will be no change.

I found that there are two types of injector for the 1.2 16v, there are the pink ring ones and the brown ring ones, the newer engines use the brown and the older ones use the pink. (I can't remember if that's the right way round- one colour has four spray jets and the other has two) - however if you're replacing all of them it should not matter.