Clio 200 - anyone had/heard of this one?

[roystinho]

Mrs R was driving the car yesterday (she'd been good) when all of a sudden it totally cut out on her. No drive, power steering went and she was stuck in the middle of the road. She had the little one on board so couldn't recall any lights etc as she obviously panicked. Car would not start at all. Brake pedal was really firm and couldn't be pushed in, and when you pushed the start button the starter motor went bezurk, but the engine didn't fire

I arrived rang Renault assist who sent someone out. Whilst waiting, tried starting a few times and did the same thing to me. Just before the AA truck arrived, gave it one last go (about 45 mins since the last time) and it fired. Fired every time since. AA man found no fault, looked like a right

Took it to the dealers today (Harratts Ponte) who got me straight in, had a look, no fault codes or anything.

At this point thought it was just being 'French'

However, on the way back from the dealers, just about to turn into my road and it cut out again, right in the middle of a busy road. The drive just went, steering went (luckily was straight piece of road). It flashed up 'select neutral' so I did, whilst still rolling along the middle of the highway, then hit start and it did fire straight back up

Now, I know this is a bit dramatic (or is it?) but I don't really want to drive it. What if my family were on it and it cut out on the motorway (extreme case).

Anyway, Harratts have got it in for a few days next week to ascertain the problem (courtesy car no problem), but just wondered if anybody has any ideas so I can help them when I drop it off?

Cheers

 

[Foxspeed]

at a guess possibly fuel pump fault....

 

[roystinho]

at a guess possibly fuel pump fault....

Funnily enough I checked my petrol receipt to make sure I stuck super unleaded in as it felt weird (I did)

The other thing that happened was the air-con went off then came on in it's over zealous nature that it does which makes me think electrical?

 

[Foxspeed]

its a tough call on possibilities

i think they can run a full systems check on the renault clip system and they might even re-flash the ecu in case its a software failure

either way let us know what it is:foxspeed:

 

[roystinho]

its a tough call on possibilities

i think they can run a full systems check on the renault clip system and they might even re-flash the ecu in case its a software failure

either way let us know what it is:foxspeed:

It's been plugged in today and threw up nothing, that's what's really confusing me

 

[Foxspeed]

It's been plugged in today and threw up nothing, that's what's really confusing me

theres plugging it in and "plugging" it in - i am sure they can run a dianostic test on the system - what they did today would have been to read any error codes

we used to run diagnostic checks and it would sometimes show up a "potential" fault or a reading not out of specification but close to it and show up a potential failure point or areas to look at

not sure how deep the renault system goes - when i fixed particular trucks we could run a full systems check and it would drop a cylinder off one by one until it was running on one cylinder and then switch them back on and afterwards give you a print out of each cylinders efficiency

 

[inwardnoise]

Defo sounds like fuel pump / delivery issue hope they sort it whatever it turns out to be

 

[ipodsandguns]

Checked the battery terminals?

 

[Ed...]

I would go for fuelling issue does it sound rough or low on power when it is running? Checked your oil level and coolant level? When you say the brake pedal goes stiff do you meen after you have pumped it a few times with the ignition off?

 

[roystinho]

I would go for fuelling issue does it sound rough or low on power when it is running? Checked your oil level and coolant level? When you say the brake pedal goes stiff do you meen after you have pumped it a few times with the ignition off?

This happened when mrs tried starting it, I think it went hard be as she kept pressing it to start it up

 

[KMB]

Something to do with a wired in starter button poss?

 

[gaz]

My fuel pump failed about a month ago. Giving it some berries, as you do, then it just cut out. Free wheeled to a speed camera pull in. It would wind over but would not fire, had to be towed home in the end behind my dads landy!

Pump had failed, what a job that was, tank drop wasn't cheap either, and i got it at cost


Now got AA membership just incase!

 

[Ed...]

the fuel pump is attached to the fuel tank am I right?

 

[gaz]

Yes in the top.

 

[roystinho]

I'll definitely mention the fuel pump when it goes in. Cheers

 

[BenW]

I had a very similar thing on an old car, turned out it was a dodgy connector into the ECU.

If you have no registered fault codes then perhaps that could lead to the ECU losing power and therefore not being able to record anything.

 

[Foxspeed]

the fuel pump is attached to the fuel tank am I right?

its submerged in the tank

 

[Chemist]

Just wanted to share with you guys an experience I had in the past which was quite similar. My first car was an Opel Corsa (Vauxhall Nova in the UK) Sport 1.4i-16V. Bought it new and it was fine for about a year (at that time this was the warranty period). Few months later car suddenly stalled, steering went dead and didn't start for minutes. First thing dealer told me it was because I was driving around on cheap fuel and bla bla bla. So they poored in some injection cleaner flasks obviously without results. After that they changed spark plugs a couple of times so I ended up driving around with plugs from a Calibra Turbo ... fancy that. Anyways, still the same intermittent problem was showing up from time to time. Mechanics took cylinder head off, did some work on that (valve seats) -> still no improvement. Got so angry that I sold the car and bought a Toyota, swearing I'd never buy a European car again in my life :nope:
Few months later a friend of mine told me some bright ass mechanic found the problem. Turned out to be a truckload of bad lambdas that found there way to the factory and wasn't discovered 'till then...

Sure hope they find the solution to your problem mate.

Rgds
Wim C.

 

[roystinho]

All fixed, was a fuel sender problem.

All sorted by the top guys at Renault Ponte

 

[ryan197]

its submerged in the tank

Isnt part of the fuel sender unit and accessable under the rear seats?