renault clio juddering at 50

mighty_hammers

has anyone solved this problem. OH Clio shudders when he hits 50 & toxic warning light goes on, if he slows down to 30 it goes off. there are many different ansa on PC, just wondered if anyone had solved it, garage want £460. to take off cylinder 2 , just to have a look!

wongataa

What is a toxic warning light? I've never seen a car with that symbol.

peter_the_piper

Sounds more like wheel unbalanced than engine. imho.

Norman_Castle

Toxic fume warning light?
http://www.drivingtesttips.biz/renault-clio-dashboard-engine-warning-lights-symbols.html

Try asking on a Clio forum.

AdrianC

Reading between the lines, I'm guessing that one cylinder starts misfiring, and the garage want to pull the cylinder head to have a look as to why - so I'd like to think they've done a compression test and determined that one's down.

A few more details might help.

mighty_hammers

I have been on many sites and no one has come up with a conclusive ansa. The compression on cylinder 2 is showing low, but they aren't sure what it is and to pay out £460. to have a look, that's their time only. They want to remove head for further investigation, others talk about the spark plugs and coil, but as i said all different ansa's.

AdrianC

If they've done a compression test, and it's low, then there's really not much to be done without pulling the head. Any of the various options - piston, valve, rings, bore - is going to require internal surgery.

What age of Clio is it? It _may_ be quicker and cheaper to just get a good engine. Or it may be the end of the car.

colino

Go to a better garage, get them to do a dry and wet compression test then an engine leak down test. You will then know if it is the piston rings/bore or a head/gasket/valve problem and get a quote from there.

AdrianC

Colino - yes, you can narrow it down a bit (or, at least, take an educated guess). But you'll still need to pull the engine apart to actually do anything about any of them.

Slowly_does_it..

Both AdrianC and colino have very valid points, get a full pressure test done (wet and dry) to get a more valid quote before going in for open heart surgery.

Option 1 - Open engine surgery
Option 2 - Engine transplant surgery
Option 3 - Entire car replacement.

Good luck!

mighty_hammers

the car is 8yrs old an had it 2, only had it a few months and the steering column went £1400. I've told OH to trade it in, as outwardly it's in good nick and the garage will give a few quid. worst buy ever and i persuaded him to go for a smaller car.....:(
We are waiting for a mechanic friend to have a look B4 final decision