Engine misfire 197

[MichaelD]

Hi guys.
I desperately need some advice with my car.
The car has a misfire on one or multiple cylinders. Problem is, I can't pinpoint the exact problem.
My first thought was the injectors, which seem to be fine, secondly I thought it might be the coils which I tested today and all four of them have a reading of about 7.6k Ohms. While inspecting the coils I noticed that some of them have cracked boot plugs and one totally tore off. After doing some research I found that it may cause a misfire as it sparks against the cylinder head. Long story short, I phoned every store I could think of and nobody sells those rubber boots.
Renault only sells new coils which come with them, but seen that my coils are fine I'm not going to pay that for rubber boots.
I made a redneck plan and used electrical tape to tape those boots so if they crack or break they won't spark against cylinder head.
I started the car which feels a bit better, not sure if its my imagination but it still has a misfire on one or multiple cylinders.
Plug out a coil while idling and I definitely see a huge difference as the car definitely misfires.
If it could be coil wires, would they still supply enough voltage for the car to idle at enough for just a small misfire?
Could it be anything else?
Now and then the engine light flashes and then goes off.
I don't know where to look anymore.
Someone even told me it could be a faulty catalytic converter, which I can't confirm because my knowledge is not sufficient enough.
If anyone has any advice I would highly appreciate it!

 

[turkie172]

Nice to see a new user to the forum you should become a member it cost £5, how long have you had the car and has it ever ran right. The coil packs can be faulty with no dash warning light I have had a 197 that I fixed for a car dealer had 2 faulty coil packs the spark plugs had tell tail signs but then again you might not have the correct coil packs or plugs to begin with. There was someone fitted some green top coil packs new and went to a dyno for mapping and the coil packs had to be changed for used ones to do the mapping and the others refitted after so the dyno time was not a wasted and they could change them after. With these cars get the correct part number first for what you need then search by the part number or cross reference it from there never buy parts on description etc or you will end up with the wrong part for a normal Clio or a different model Renault sport Clio. Using electrical tape will be a mess if not dangerous the glue with the heat will run all over the plug if not catch fire using it in that location.

 

[Cento186]

As said above, in all likelihood it's probably a coil that's gone bad.

Mine had a missfire between 2-3k revs under load that got worse and worse over the whole rev range and would idle with a small stutter. New coil sorted it right out. No EML light at all. Unplugging the bad coil still made it run much, much worse as it hadn't stopped working totally.

Checking condition and replacing the plugs is worth doing for sure just to rule them out and possibly identify the bad coil based on plug condition.