Clio RS 197 , sporadic loss of power and strange intake noise

[Antti O]

Hi!

I have 74000km driven 2006 RS197 which i have had 3 years for now. I really like this car.
It is properly serviced by local renault dealer.
There was been 2 times when i drove car from work to home and i did notice that something strange is happening. It is normal when engine is cold that you dont have power in clio 197.. but today was +1 and i used block engine pre-heater as i do when is cold. Anyway i drove 5km and then tried to accelerate hard. Between 3000-5000 it was some kind of sluggish to rev and intake noise was strange. It did exactly the same some months ago and next day it was completely normal.
I did use universal obd bluetooth reader and there was not any fault codes present. Naturally the CEL light was not on.
Car was idling normal, taking revs. Just lack of power.

Any ideas?

Edit:
I tried it 10min ago and it run fine and sound normally. All power was there.
Is it possible that VVT-gear is broken? I cannot check with fault codes with proper reader today. I only have bluetooth obd universal reader.
Do VVT gear always give fault codes, do F4R engine have some kind of monitoring system for the intake camshaft angle?

 

[Tubsy250]

Had a similar fault with a vr6 corrado turned out to be a faulty crank sensor

 

[colwill197]

clean your crank sensor

 

[Antti O]

Okay, i can try it. Where it is located any pictures / DIY threads? Is this typical problem?

 

[Foxspeed]

Okay, i can try it. Where it is located any pictures / DIY threads? Is this typical problem?

its a sticky in this section :book:

and yes the 197 also runs a cam position sensor - its located on the inlet cam near the dipstick tube end of the head...

maybe also worth cleaning out the throttle housing as they can choke up a bit with oil/carbon deposits

 

[Antti O]

Again, i cannot see how hall sensor can do this fault. Because if ecu cannot read engine position it would not idle as good it is.. and there should be some error message or light in dash. If i will buy clip then i maybe see some more fault codes.
Recently car has been running fine. We have currently -14 celsius and snow .

 

[Antti O]

I bought new 60A battery for my car because it was original 2007.
Now there has not been any fault after that. Strange, maybe bad battery causes weird things if startup voltage is too low.

 

[Antti O]

And fault continues. Yesterday when i was leaving work there was -1 celsius outside and block heater active in the engine. Coolant temp approx 45celsius before start.
After warmup drive i gave it some pedal and i noticed that intake noise was strange and there was not power available. Then i immediately turned car off from the key and let it roll for 5 seconds engine off. Then started it again and it was running fine and all power ok!. It seems to be some kind of limp-home mode, but not any error (spanner) light on. In fact, there was never been any error lights in the dash. Also i did read codes with obd reader and there is not any faults stored in the ecu.

In nutcase the problem is: Low power, sluggish to rev, strange intake noise (in my ear the cam timing may be incorrect). Idles perfectly every time even the fault on..


Yesterday i took VVT-solenoid off from the head and cleaned it using brakecleaner. This morning was running fine.. have to see how it goes afternoon.

 

[Antti O]

I did clean the VVT-solenoid with brakecleaner and re-installed. Since then not any faults..

 

[lemonnobby]

I've had a valve play up same things happened. i would get the car on the lastest software etc.

 

[Antti O]

Update, again.. today when i was leaving my work it happened. I shut the car off, and started it again in the speed.. and power is back.
No any CEL light, nothing. Now it works and run perfect again.
What you mean by valve play?

 

[Ryan197cup]

Did anyone get to the bottom of this mines doing exactly the same the engine just kind of dies I have to drop down the gears to get the revs to lift like in driving up a massive hill or something but if I turn it off and re start whilst still rolling it's back to normal it's really strange, no fault codes or warning lights, any help would be great guys

 

[petbeemer]

Bolloxs

Did anyone get to the bottom of this mines doing exactly the same the engine just kind of dies I have to drop down the gears to get the revs to lift like in driving up a massive hill or something but if I turn it off and re start whilst still rolling it's back to normal it's really strange, no fault codes or warning lights, any help would be great guys

Mines doing similar but more heat related i think, from cold the governer kicks in to stop it revving anyway, but whilst warming up it feels as good as ever, happy to rev clean through all gears and pulls like a train, the moment it gets fully warm, it looses power, doesn't rev well at all, feels though you just lost 100hp

 

[Antti O]

I forget this thread sorry. Fault was found, it was caused because camshaft position sensor was faulty. I replaced that sensor near intake manifold and dipstick and all were fine after that. I sold car year ago.

 

[VolumeX]

So did you buy another Reno?

I forget this thread sorry. Fault was found, it was caused because camshaft position sensor was faulty. I replaced that sensor near intake manifold and dipstick and all were fine after that. I sold car year ago.

 

[mike_se]

Mine is doing this. I've changed the cam sensor but it's still doing it. Getting annoying now!

 

[Antti O]

So did you buy another Reno?

No i currently have 3-series:
http://aor.kuvat.fi/kuvat/BMW+E46+325i+M-Sport+II/DSC_1799.JPG/big

i am looking Clio 200 for weekend/summer car.