Clio waring light question.
Discussion
Our eldest's 1.2 16v Petrol 52 reg Clio has an orange warning light that looks like a glow plug symbol/heart monitor. The car has been difficult to start lately, so I replaced the battery (it wasn't holding charge) and put a new set of plugs in it today, but the light is still lit, though it now starts bang on the button.
As we didn't get an owner's handbook with the car, could someone who has one have a look to see what this symbol means?
As we didn't get an owner's handbook with the car, could someone who has one have a look to see what this symbol means?
It seems to be the 'electronic incident warning light'. It might be the coil pack which includes plug leads (and probably worth changing anyway if original), MAP sensor or even a 'black box' (which I need to locate) that sometimes chaffes through the wires due to a metal lid! All stuff that I can do myself (although I'd prefer it to have been warmer as I'll have to do it outside).
Follow up to this story:
The car went into the local main dealers today for them to put it on diagnostics. I turned out that the new spark plugs were the incorrect type (supplied by my usually reliable motor factors) so they replaced them with their part which has cured the warning light issue. I'm very sceptical of all this, so will be checking the plugs that they fitted today to see exactly what type they are some time soon. The comment on the report simply says along the lines that the plugs fitted were NGK so not correct, which I find surprising if it's just the fact that they are NGK... Unfortunately I wasn't in phone range when the garage rang, s0 my OH couldn't get hold of me, so she just agreed to let them fit the plugs which cost double the price of the motor factor ones, plus labour, making them £70 inc VAT compared to £12 for the ones I'd bought.
The car went into the local main dealers today for them to put it on diagnostics. I turned out that the new spark plugs were the incorrect type (supplied by my usually reliable motor factors) so they replaced them with their part which has cured the warning light issue. I'm very sceptical of all this, so will be checking the plugs that they fitted today to see exactly what type they are some time soon. The comment on the report simply says along the lines that the plugs fitted were NGK so not correct, which I find surprising if it's just the fact that they are NGK... Unfortunately I wasn't in phone range when the garage rang, s0 my OH couldn't get hold of me, so she just agreed to let them fit the plugs which cost double the price of the motor factor ones, plus labour, making them £70 inc VAT compared to £12 for the ones I'd bought.
I've been meaning to update my post to say it was one of the other lights lit up on my clio that was of a result of the coolant - I realised this a few days later when I eventually went out in it, but glad you found the cause.
I recently bought some new spark plugs from Eurocarparts (based on the model of my car), think they are NGK ones The only reason why I haven't fitted them yet is because I haven't got a spark plug socket to fit - they are really narrow and none of my friends have such a version. That's a costly spark plug service though. I'll be interested to see if mine cause any problems, when I eventually get round to fitting them.
I recently bought some new spark plugs from Eurocarparts (based on the model of my car), think they are NGK ones The only reason why I haven't fitted them yet is because I haven't got a spark plug socket to fit - they are really narrow and none of my friends have such a version. That's a costly spark plug service though. I'll be interested to see if mine cause any problems, when I eventually get round to fitting them.
Thanks Planet Claire. What I'm not sure about is whether once the light comes on, if it will then go out if the cause is found and sorted? If you have to get the dealer to clear the light even if it was caused by a part which you've since replaced then you wouldn't know if you'd fixed it without involving the dealer.
Things are much easier on my RS2000 as it only has a warning light for the battery.
Things are much easier on my RS2000 as it only has a warning light for the battery.
The problems with plugs on french cars and particularly Renaults are pretty common, even if they are listed correctly for the car they don't always have the correct internal suppression and cause RF interference. This can give all types of symptoms and one of the first things a dealer will do is blame the plugs unless they are OE.
Having said all that, the light came on with the old set of plugs in that I gather had been there for some time so it's pretty unlikely that this was the cause of the fault. Much more likely that the fault code needed clearing to turn the light out and they did that whilst it was in there. It might have been a one-off glitch that just locked the light on or the fault may recur, time will tell!
You don't need a dealer to do this kind of work, a good independent diagnostic specialist should be able to take care of it.
HTH
Steve H
Having said all that, the light came on with the old set of plugs in that I gather had been there for some time so it's pretty unlikely that this was the cause of the fault. Much more likely that the fault code needed clearing to turn the light out and they did that whilst it was in there. It might have been a one-off glitch that just locked the light on or the fault may recur, time will tell!
You don't need a dealer to do this kind of work, a good independent diagnostic specialist should be able to take care of it.
HTH
Steve H
Just to clarify, the plugs were changed at the same time as a new battery was fitted. FWIW They seemed the same as the ones I'd taken out as well. The light came on after that, so initially I thought that I'd disturbed the wiring some how, or that the initial jumpstart I did when the original battery was flat had caused the problem.
I do wonder if the fault code just needed clearing, which if so, then that's pretty naughty of them for not just doing that as we'd specifically booked it in just for analysis of the code- no work was to be done to the car. They called my OH and told her that they needed to fit the plugs to allow them to confirm if the fault was cleared...I wasn't available for her to check with, so she went along with this. I thought their code reader would be able to confirm what the fault was without having to fit parts to confirm?
I know we didn't need to go to a main dealer, but the family friend who was going to check it out let us down, so we just needed it checking sooner incase further driving might cause harm (thinking more of the Cat here).
I do wonder if the fault code just needed clearing, which if so, then that's pretty naughty of them for not just doing that as we'd specifically booked it in just for analysis of the code- no work was to be done to the car. They called my OH and told her that they needed to fit the plugs to allow them to confirm if the fault was cleared...I wasn't available for her to check with, so she went along with this. I thought their code reader would be able to confirm what the fault was without having to fit parts to confirm?
I know we didn't need to go to a main dealer, but the family friend who was going to check it out let us down, so we just needed it checking sooner incase further driving might cause harm (thinking more of the Cat here).
Gassing Station | French Bred | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff