RS200 engine lights coming on, advice needed

[Mmmini]

Hi, I've got a 2011 RS200 that I've owned for about 3 months. Over the last 2 months the ignition light has been coming on from time to time. It hasn't seemed to result in any major performance issues so I've just kept driving on it. The check emissions light then started coming on about 4 or 5 weeks ago and I get an infrequent misfire around 3 or 4000rpm - sometimes the light will be on but it won't misfire and it's very intermittent. The engine seems to go perfectly otherwise with loads of power.

Occasionally the Check Injection light also comes on. I do get a fair bit of water collecting around spark plug 1 which is see is quite common, so I wondered if it could be something to do with that. Also could low octane fuel cause any of these issues? The highest octane fuel we have locally is 95 and I have to drive out of town about 120km to get 98octane so a lot of the time I'm running 95. I ran it on some octane booster and that was when the emissions light first came on so I haven't used that since, though not sure if that is related to this or not.

Last weekend my clutch decided to join in the fun and dump all the brake fluid on the drive so i lost my clutch and brakes. I had to get that sorted out by the local Renault specialists as I was a bit out of my depth.

While it was there I had the codes scanned and they said that they "found DTC stored for camshaft circuit current code". Apparently they went to the command procedures in the ECM to try and command solenoid on but it wont command on. They say it requires a new "camshaft shifter solenoid" however I can't find anything for sale online by that name.

Can anyone tell me what that is - is it the Camshaft sensor, or is it the Dephaser Pulley Solenoid, or is it something else? Also is it easy to replace - I'm pretty good mechanically however this is my first Renault so still getting to grips with it. She's my daily driver so is this something I can sort out replacing easily in a weekend. I live in New Zealand and there's not a whole lot of these on the road over here - I don't think the RS200 was officially sold in NZ so it's a Japanese import. The garage quoted me $600 just for the part as they'd need to get it from France so I'm more inclined to buy the part and do it myself. Any advice on this would be appreciated, TIA.

 

[VeiRoNv2]

Do you have the fault code number please? It should start with a P.

 

[Mmmini]

Do you have the fault code number please? It should start with a P.

Hi, they didn’t tell me the code number unfortunately. Only that it needs a “camshaft shifter solenoid”.

 

[LiamP]

"camshaft shifter solenoid” would be describing the 'vvt solenoid' which is situated right next to spark plug 4 (far left), I would first change the plugs and check the wiring to the solenoid. The part itself is about £170 here and would take 5 minutes to change so you are better off purchasing/fitting yourself if required.

You can plug in a cheap OBD scanner and see if any other codes come up / monitor the timing advance to see if it is faulty.

 

[Mmmini]

"camshaft shifter solenoid” would be describing the 'vvt solenoid' which is situated right next to spark plug 4 (far left), I would first change the plugs and check the wiring to the solenoid. The part itself is about £170 here and would take 5 minutes to change so you are better off purchasing/fitting yourself if required.

You can plug in a cheap OBD scanner and see if any other codes come up / monitor the timing advance to see if it is faulty.

Okay cheers for that. I’m going to look to get an obd scanner so I can keep better track of it. I took her on a long drive out of town and filled her up with 98 octave fuel. On the drive home after refuelling I red-lined her in 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear and all the fault messages disappeared and she was good for the next 120km home. The check ignition message came on this morning on the drive to work. Maybe she doesn’t like the shorter runs?