Renault Clio 1.2 2003 Toxic fume warning light

[greenc]

This light keeps coming up and the car runs poorly until the ignition is switched off, whilst its on the car will only run at about 30 mph. Looking at different forums it seems to be a common fault, although a deffenant diagnosis dos'nt seem to be apparent. Has anybody had the same problem.

 

[JEREMY2008]

Hi,

Yes, I've had the fault as well. It seems to be a combination of the fume warning light and the one in the middle of the display which according to the manual indicates electrical faults. It recurred a few times over a period of about two weeks a couple of months or so back. The fault was traced tot the throttle valve circuit. Then it recurred about a month ago, and as the service was due I got it in at the garage and they seemed to have cured it. I can't lay my hands on the bill / report at the moment but they said they had thoroughly cleaned the circuit through, as a new valve would be expensive to replace (£200 for the part alone). Today however, the light electrical fault light came on when I was driving home from work, the speed dropped (for me it's about 40 mph), and although it cleared after turning the engione off and on again, when I went to go out later, the toxic fume light was on and wouldn't switch off with the engine. It's very intermittent and has made the car annoyingly unreliable.

 

[dirkdangler]

wierd. funny you mention this . ma mums got the same problem with her clio. i pluged my diagnostic machine onto it and it came up ( no faults ). just seems to flash now and again. doesn`t seem to affect her car in anyway.

 

[^neo^]

lambda sensor?

 

[JEREMY2008]

The garage had the car for most of the day today, (mine is a 2001, 1.4 Clio Privilege by the way) doing tests and diagnostics, and could find nothing conclusively wrong with it. The fault light showed intermittently, as previously, but they could find no evidence it was affecting the perforrmance of the engine. I took it out after collecting it and drove about 20 miles, with no sign of a fault light. They said it was likely to be a slightly dodgy connection somewhere, just enough to trigger the warning, but they couldn't locate the fault.

I now have another slight problem - during their tests they must have disconnected the radio because it's now asking for a code, which, guess what? I don't have! I bought the car second hand so the radio was already set up.

I've done about of hunting around on 't'internet', to no avail, so it's off to a Renault dealer next week to try and sort it out, hopefully without paying through the nose for it.

 

[08122126]

Hi,

ive had the same problem that many others have also had with there Renault Clio, mines a 1.2 Dynamique 1.2 year 2002.

My car was running good yet over the last couple of weeks it would sometimes judder in gears although would go off. As i accelerated off a roundabout my car judder continuously and had no power what so every, i bearly got to 20 and finally stop on a layby because the toxic fume light was flashing.... i then turned my car back on to which the light came on again once i pulled away, the maximum speed i got was 50-60 but it had hardly any power to get there, it defiantly isnt just an electrical fault...

The problem to this seems very vague and im not very sure what it could be at all, could the exhuast course a problem like this if there was no back pressure??

Thanks Alot
Corey

 

[greenc]

This problem has gone on intermittently for ages although i changed the coilpack/leads and plugs recently and touch wood its running 100% better and no warning lights yet. Quite a cheap job so its worth trying. This problem seems to be inherant to clio's cannot wait to get rid and never buy Renault again.

 

[Burnerman]

With this one its worth having a chat with Renault regarding the Eolys fluid provision on these cars...this is a fluid that is injected directly into the exhaust system to clean the catalytic converter, which is occasionally necessary for those vehicles used on short runs.
John

 

[andyandy2]

Some of these emission warning light type faults can sometimes be cured by a "good thrashing" get the exhaust system really hot to burn out all the deposits, it doesn't mean you have to drive at high speeds to achieve this but drive in lower gear at higher than normal revs, obviously use common sense to avoid any engine damage, and drive carefully.

A mate had a customer in with a newish golf with emission light on, vw dealer had quoted nearly a thousand pound for new exhaust system, but the good old "italian road test" did the trick.

Modern engines perform better at their correct working temperature alot of cars never achieve this in small commutes to work or the school run or shopping trip

 

[mointainwalker]

I have never had a Tenault and must confrs i would be a little dubious about a car that had a specific "Toxic Fume Light "

What's next " Overwhelming Nuclear Catastrophe " light ?

 

[stryker]

Hi I have a 2002 Clio which I bought a couple of years ago at the time I bought it I thought I had done well getting a clean low mileage car for a decent price. On the way home I thought this doesn't seem to be as lively as I thought it might be how ever I presumed having had a slightly more powerfull car previously that this was just me. However after a couple of weeks things started to go a bit wrong with the car running a bit rough and hesitating on acceleration like a hiccup, then a couple of times on damp evenings I found it wasn't so keen to start. Then one day my son came home with a sick car, as said in this thread by others it went at about 30MPH and wasn't running cleanly and the fume light was coming on. I said I'll go out in a while and look at it. Did so an hour later and it ran fine. This scenario repeated it self several times. I went out and had a good look at the car having done some internet research but no further on.
I had a quick look and decided that I wasn't happy with the engine management loom at the back of the cylinder head. There is a box here with the cables running into it from both sides of the engine in a moulded black rubber rectangular cross section. There is a metal box cover over the junction of the arms of this loom. The metal box is supported inside by a foam pad, this had collapsed and the metal box was now sitting on the loom and had worn through the insulation and with the dampness to assist was shorting out.
I sorted this by applying a small amount of silicon over the wires let it set for an hour then applied insulation tape around it. I also put some 2mm foam protection on to the edge of the box and the car has been fine since, almost 2 years.
This may help some others as it seems that short circuits like this do not show as faults on the computers when the dealers attach them
Cost of repair nil as I had both in stock but if not £5 should cover it
Hope this maybe of some help to others.

 

[Banger02]

This light keeps coming up and the car runs poorly until the ignition is switched off, whilst its on the car will only run at about 30 mph. Looking at different forums it seems to be a common fault, although a deffenant diagnosis dos'nt seem to be apparent. Has anybody had the same problem.

i had the same problem, car would run lumpy and light flash, i changed the spark plugs and air filter, (cost £20.00) total realy east to do,

took the car and held in gear longer than normal to 6ooo rev, between each change, this cleared all the unburnt fuel in the system andnow runs perfect,

this started mild then got alot worse so dont delay the work it took about 20 minutes to do

 

[KingboyD]

A common prob on that engine is the ECU security bracket becoming loose! This is located at the rear if the engine, the bracket works loose and chaffes the main engine loom and causes intermittent problems, worth checking out!!

 

[denise1969]

Toxic Fume Warning ,,,,,My son has a CLIO with this problem I got him to join the AA ,,,found problem straight away ur car like my sons is remote control ,,,there is a sensor under ur accelerator pedal ,,,,, unplug it,,,,,,, blow it and plug it back in,,,,,,,,, I have waited to post this just in case,,,,,,,, but it has been fixed for a few months now and no more TOXIC FUMES lol,,,,,,,,, with ur car being remote control the sensor works loose really bad place to put it as u use this pedal every time u get in the car hope this helps eveyone xxx P.S. had the car in and out of garage 5 times under warranty nd didn't find problem lol and he had all the problems mentioned above intermittent loss of power hope it helps xxx

 

[andydugmore]

wonder if any one can help!
after finishing work, car was iced up. tried to start the car, but the car would not start, car was ticking over, but engine would not kick into life.
after having a roll start, the engine started up and after leaving the car running for 5 minutes drove home.
on the way home, i noticed that the toxic warning light had appeared on my dash.
i have read the previous postings, but wondered if anyone else can help me with my situation?
i drive 53 plate, renault clio extreme.
i was thinking about taking it to the renault dealer to see if they could help??