Clio hesitation when cold

[elthorne]

My 1992 Clio 1.4 automatic recently started hesitating when accelerating from cold - a sort of 'blind spot'. If I accelerate very slowly I can avoid this. When fully warmed up the problem disappears. It is a bit scary when this happens when joining traffic flow on a busy road. Can anyone help this poor OAP? Many Thanks.

[Julian]

Elthorne,

I have a 1997 "R" registered 1.2 litre Clio and have recently experienced a recurrent "flat spot" when accelerating from a junction or a roundabout (just when you need the power most!).

I explained to the Renault garage and the guy there suspects that it may well be the coil pack which is at fault. This is apparently fairly common on the "DIET" engine.

It's only a short time to go before its next service (130k miles) so I'll have it all done together.

Hope this may be of help!

Julian

[elthorne]

Thank you Julian,
You have described exactly the problem I'm having. There is a huge difference between the 1.2 and 1.4 engines and everything that goes with it. I will look into what your Renault garage said. Many Thanks.
Steve.

[Julian]

Steve,

My 1.2 Clio has now had its 10k mile service at 130k miles, during which the coil pack and the timing belt were replaced.

Since then, there has been no hesitation as long as I'm in the correct gear. I can only assume that when engines get to a certain age, they are less able to deal with the torque at low speeds. I just wonder if the carburettor is in tip top condition and perhaps I'll try a tank full of Shell Optimax to see what that does!

Hope your getting somewhere with your 1.4!

Best Regards,

Julian

[Julian]

Steve,

From my posting on the bulletin board you may remember that I had similar hesitation problems with my Renault Clio. Although the Renault garage advised me to have the coil pack replaced this didn't it fact fix the problem although I imagined that there was a slight improvement.

Anyway I trawled the Web and came across www.tunemycar.com (http://www.tunemycar.com/) which is an outfit whose head office is near Nottingham in England. I was so impressed by what I read in some of the case histories that I booked an appointment for them to look at my Clio.

I drove up last week from my home near Cardiff and left the car with them while I had a look round Beeston which is a neighbouring town.

When I returned Roger, the technician was just finishing off. He told me that the diagnostic apparatus had revealed that the MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor was not working and that this was found to be due to a blocked pipe. Once this was sorted out everything was found to be in good order.

Driving the car now is an absolute dream to how it used to be - no more hesitation and spluttering at low speeds under load!!! The acceleration and maximum speeds through the gears are also greatly improved to the extent that it feels as though I've got a brand new engine.

I've just e-mailed Roger to say how pleased I am with the work he did and that I would have no hesitation in recommending him.

I appreciate that you are in Ireland but I would certainly suggest that you find someone with similar diagnostic and tuning apparatus to hook up to your Clio 1.4. You may well have the same problem!

Best Wishes from a once more very happy motorist!!

Julian

[Julian]

Steve,

In my account of my visit to "tunemycar", I forgot to say that Roger also set the engine management computer back to its factory settings and also replaced the spark plugs and HT leads.

Even with over 134K on the clock, my Clio is now a veritable driving pleasure!!


Julian