Clio 197 ownership VERY disappointing

[Beany]

Definitely take Beany up on his offer on a ride in his 200, because as well as being a top bloke, he's also one of the people who loves his car and that enthusiasm might rub off

Flattered mate, you after something Tho these cars are meant to be high revving and definitely at home on the B roads!

 

[chris1888-197]

Had clio 197 less than a week and finding it a bit hard to live with. The flat spot at 2000 rpm, the general poor quality really disappointed.
Had car to DDC Renault specialists in doncaster and they said it's one of better ones they've driven and has no faults (I'd hate to have one of the worse ones).
Not new to renaultsport cars I've had a 182 and a megane r26 f1 and this is by far the worst.
Anyone else had this feeling? Will I adjust?
Just for the record car is a mint low mileage example in a really nice blue (renault racing blue I've been told) with fsh. Just had all belts and waterpump done. HELP!!!! Have I made a massive mistake?
Thoughts please guys

Hi mate took me a wee bit to get used to the 197! I previously had a 172 for 7 years and loved it and did not think at the start I would feel the same way about the 197 as I did the 172, give it a bit of time to get used to it, as @nutwelshman said you need to ring it's neck to get the best out of these cars, they do come with their faults but if you get them sorted you will I think really enjoy the car. I have my 197 just over 4 years and even if I get something else I will keep the 197 just because the fun I get out of it. If you get a chance get out on track in one even if its as a passenger you will see the real side of these cars. Hope you start to enjoy it bud, as said took me a bit to get used to it but wouldn't want to let it go now, and I get to drive alot of different cars as I work in the motor trade and some really fast hot hatches but the clio is near the top for fun factor. Just out of opinion ? Does your clio have recaro seats ? I had the standard seats in mine for 3 half years and managed to get a hold of a set last year they in my opinion really make a difference to the car. Although the standard seats are by no means poor!

 

[Bigstu77]

Hi mate
I have standard seats in mine for the moment. If I decide to keep her I'll investigate in recaros. Definitely intend to get her out on track once I'm back in work sure I'll like it some more when I do

 

[gaz]

Echo what's been said here

firstly check the exhaust Is original and complete

If the belts have been done, and not by some one who knows what they are doing, the timing could be out. If out even by a few degrees it will be done on power/flat spotting


if it was me I'd get it to a specialist in here to check the timing, not the place you bought it from

 

[Bigstu77]

Echo what's been said here

firstly check the exhaust Is original and complete

If the belts have been done, and not by some one who knows what they are doing, the timing could be out. If out even by a few degrees it will be done on power/flat spotting


if it was me I'd get it to a specialist in here to check the timing, not the place you bought it from

Still not had chance to check exhaust due to foul weather but will as soon as I get chance. Interesting point regarding timing. Car at moment not suffering as bad with flat spot but I'm still not 100%. The car pulls beyond the 2 / 2.5k flat spot to the shift light coming on beautifully and feels really quick. I will have timing checked by a garage I know that I trust and to be honest are brilliant. I'll keep you all posted with any progress.

Thanks again for for all posts :thumbup:

 

[Bigstu77]

Hi guys
bit of a development.
i thought that the car had an awful flat spot that I have been complaining about. I no longer think this is the case!

i have gone from the flat spot symptoms to hesitation throughout rev range. It is intermittent sometimes fine then other times seems to misfire not really sure how to describe it. It doesn't pull cleanly above 3k rpm it stutters almost.

exhaust all checked. 100% standard and intact.
new plugs
new cam sensor
new coil packs x4
vvt solenoid removed checked and cleaned
had all modules checked twice now for fault codes but nothing showing / logged.

any of you guys had this issue.

i can try give more info but not sure what to say about it. Need to sort asap as it's driving me fu*#ing wild

 

[DS197]

Crank sensor?

 

[Bigstu77]

Is crank sensor associated with cars not starting rather than my issue? Is crank sensor hard to check? Where is it located?
i was thinking perhaps injector fault.

 

[DS197]

Is crank sensor associated with cars not starting rather than my issue? Is crank

That's true, but I reckon it's worth cleaning/replacing as it's one less possible cause

 

[chris1888-197]

Hi guys
bit of a development.
i thought that the car had an awful flat spot that I have been complaining about. I no longer think this is the case!

i have gone from the flat spot symptoms to hesitation throughout rev range. It is intermittent sometimes fine then other times seems to misfire not really sure how to describe it. It doesn't pull cleanly above 3k rpm it stutters almost.

exhaust all checked. 100% standard and intact.
new plugs
new cam sensor
new coil packs x4
vvt solenoid removed checked and cleaned
had all modules checked twice now for fault codes but nothing showing / logged.

any of you guys had this issue.

i can try give more info but not sure what to say about it. Need to sort asap as it's driving me fu*#ing wild

What fuel are you using [MENTION=54162]Bigstu77[/MENTION]? I have driven cars with these symptoms in work and you wouldn't believe the fuel quality that came out of them! Another thing I would do that only take 5-10 mins is remove the throttle body and see how dirty it is, give it a clean. Not saying these will fix your issues but just a thought. Hope you get it sorted m8.

 

[Bigstu77]

What fuel are you using @Bigstu77? I have driven cars with these symptoms in work and you wouldn't believe the fuel quality that came out of them! Another thing I would do that only take 5-10 mins is remove the throttle body and see how dirty it is, give it a clean. Not saying these will fix your issues but just a thought. Hope you get it sorted m8.

I always run my cars / bikes on shell v power. I don't even use higher octane fuel from another garage it's always shell! I have no idea what it's been run on before. Throttle body was removed a couple of weeks ago and was spot on. Getting to the point where I have no idea what to try next. Car just pisses me off and I don't actually drive it unless absolutely nessesary.
I wish car would just develop a fault that can then be diagnosed.

 

[jupp]

Hi,
I am new to this forum.
Bought the 200 4 weeks ago. But I have the same feelings as @Bigstu77.
Really disappointing. I have a flat spot between 2500-3000rpm depending on the throttle position.
The pre owner had removed the pre silencer behind the second cat with a straight pipe.
Meanwhile I have installed a RSTuner cal file I received from Henk, after telling him my car configuration. Was good for two or three days. Now it is back.
Driving slowly is really awful.
I cleaned the throttle meanwhile, I used a zip tie for the map sensor. But nothing helped.
At the moment I am thinking about selling the car. Never had such problems with a used car. (And I drove a lot of old minis...)
(And there are no trouble codes for the engine ecu.)
Fuel at the moment is RON102
And in the last 4 weeks I changed cam belt, aux belt, 3 engine mountings, new tires, 4 new brake discs with pads, 4 new spark plugs, etc.

 

[CallorFold]

Hi,
I am new to this forum.
Bought the 200 4 weeks ago. But I have the same feelings as @Bigstu77.
Really disappointing. I have a flat spot between 2500-3000rpm depending on the throttle position.
The pre owner had removed the pre silencer behind the second cat with a straight pipe.
Meanwhile I have installed a RSTuner cal file I received from Henk, after telling him my car configuration. Was good for two or three days. Now it is back.
Driving slowly is really awful.
I cleaned the throttle meanwhile, I used a zip tie for the map sensor. But nothing helped.
At the moment I am thinking about selling the car. Never had such problems with a used car. (And I drove a lot of old minis...)
(And there are no trouble codes for the engine ecu.)
Fuel at the moment is RON102
And in the last 4 weeks I changed cam belt, aux belt, 3 engine mountings, new tires, 4 new brake discs with pads, 4 new spark plugs, etc.

Sounds like you've done everything right to be fair, surprised you're still having issues. Only thing I can think of is the RSTuner map isn't great and it hasn't addressed the flat spot?

Who was the Cambelt change carried out by? Reputable RS Specialist?

I do agree driving slowly in the Clio is rather painful though. It's very hard to crawl through traffic/lots of stop start. It's quite jumpy and the throttle sensitivity is a bit "weird" (even more so when cold) - not like anything I've driven before.

 

[chris1888-197]

Really feel for you guys [MENTION=54162]Bigstu77[/MENTION] [MENTION=54095]jupp[/MENTION] nothing worse than buying a car and feeling let down like this! [MENTION=54162]Bigstu77[/MENTION] have you done a compression test on the engine ? Just to see if it flings up anything ? You have prob tried most things that causes these faults.

 

[montana]

@Bigstu77 have you had the timing checked?

 

[Antti O]

When i had clio 197 it was really easy to drive in city, slow speeds etc. No any flatsports. Stock exhaust, stock ecu program..

 

[DS197]

I do agree driving slowly in the Clio is rather painful though. It's very hard to crawl through traffic/lots of stop start. It's quite jumpy and the throttle sensitivity is a bit "weird" (even more so when cold) - not like anything I've driven before.

Glad i'm not the only one who feels the same way! It really is awkward at times, especially when changing down and booting it

 

[Beany]

Sorry to hear your still having problems

 

[jupp]

At the moment I am thinking about swapping the straight pipe to the original pre-silencer.

 

[turkie172]

The thing that seems to be over looked here is the lambda sensors this flat spot I find at first start-up in the morning, if I start the car and drive straight away within the first 1/4 mile this flat spot starts especially at constant throttle but not all the time it is tempting to put the foot down and hope the engine picks up but I find lifting off the throttle and bringing it back in gently has a better result getting out of it. I will have no more problems the rest of the day but my thought is that on my old 172 Clio I had a lambda problem where the pre heater in the lambda can fail which throws the fuelling out if both lambdas fail in this way unless they are getting enough heat from the exhaust gases to read true the fuelling will be wrong. Now I did have a engine light warring and limp mode on wet days and if I was driving very easy on dry days but not all the time, it took the Renault clip to state pre heat fault and on which lambda, std diag reader gave a general emission code no help. Now I understand you are getting no codes or warning lights but if the engine can rev free parked then it's not timing, if it goes above 3000rpm to the limiter driving then the fuel supply is good (pump and pressure, injectors not blocked). The only thing left is the fuelling controlled by fuel map, lambda, temp, map and bap sensors when we dyno race bikes we use a lambda sensor that stays with the dyno fitted and one dyno spare that's only used as a check if something is not right. So if the flat spot comes up again instead of flooring it back right off the throttle and reapply slowly and gently see how that goes to get you out of it, if you change anything in one of these Clio's use genuine if possible do not asked an aftermarket parts place for something on a parts lookup database, Always check the part number of what you have hopefully it's a genuine part and cross check the part numbers and ask or look for it you will find you can save money example I had a rear abs sensor go down (Clio 172) Renault where looking over £200 the parts places kept giving me the wrong type of sensor so I looked at the part and found ATE and a part number and tracked that part down for about £100 and knew it was the right one.

The guy that flashed the RS Tuning map contact the support and say after a couple of days it went bad again they might have some answers, my thought is the car has recalibrated it's sensors which must be wrong in some way re-flash it again if it goes good then you might need a map for the higher than normal fuel you both use I found that a busy forecourt basic fuel can run the car just as good, filling an empty tank with that and give it a go would be a step in the right direction to prove this out.