Can anybody help ?, our Clio automatic suddenly within 1 mile of starting up decides to , without warning, go into safety mode, it changes down in gears and the engine management light comes on, but if you stop the car, switch off and start up again it does not do it again on that journey, the problem is made worse if you are in traffic you have to pull over to restart it,

I have had the car checked on a Bosch diagnostics but no fault show up,!

This has happened to me twice - as with you, it happened within a mile of starting the car - I was doing about 60mph on each occasion. Renault have done a full check but there is no record of the events on the inboard computer. My experience is that there was a loud clonk from the engine compartment then the car went into safety mode. Renault advise me to take the car straight to them if it happens again and to keep the engine running so the warning light is still lit for the engineer to see. They say safety mode is max of 40mph. I also had a problem starting the car yesterday. The engine wouldn't turn over as though it had been left in gear when the engine had been switched off. The car had correctly been left in park. Rocking the car freed the problem but, again, Renault can't locate the error. Please let me know if you resolve the problem.

Can anybody help ?, our Clio automatic suddenly within 1 mile of starting up decides to , without warning, go into safety mode, it changes down in gears and the engine management light comes on, but if you stop the car, switch off and start up again it does not do it again on that journey, the problem is made worse if you are in traffic you have to pull over to restart it,

I have had the car checked on a Bosch diagnostics but no fault show up,!

Can anybody help ?, our Clio automatic suddenly within 1 mile of starting up decides to , without warning, go into safety mode, it changes down in gears and the engine management light comes on, but if you stop the car, switch off and start up again it does not do it again on that journey, the problem is made worse if you are in traffic you have to pull over to restart it,

I have had the car checked on a Bosch diagnostics but no fault show up,!

I have the same problem now! Did you get it sorted?

hi had the same problem apparently it means that the gear box is low on oil if u put about a litre in the gear box that should cure it if not have a look around that area and see if theres a leak allso to the not starting try hiting the starter moter its obviyously just stuck hope this helps jay

dear guys
this problem is the worst thing in renault manufacture
i have renault clio2 -2004 1.4L 16V 5doors hatchback and still complainig this problem also i checked everything at renault it was ok and no faults the problem still
exisit
the final solution was to change the solonoid of automatic trnasmission the problem comes from low temprature of gear oil thats why sensor goes
to safemode and when you go up hill or down hill the sensor also will change to safe mood

Hi guys.
It's a relatively common problem with the DPO auto gearbox.
It's not, as mentioned the worst manufacturing in Renault as the box is shared with Citroen, Peugeot and a few Korean cars under different names.
Take the car to a garage that can diagnose the ECU fault codes. Our son's 2003 Clio auto had the same problem. It's a solenoid/pressure regulator in the transmission. A couple of hours labor to change and the part isn't too dear. 2 months out and the Clio here is perfect and drives so much better.
The problem was only there until the car was warmed up too.

Hope this helps.

PM me for further details if needed.

P.S....didn't read all of xerion's post, sorry. Yep, that's exactly correct. Peugeot and Citroen have the same issues. I spoke to the owner of Cobra Trans and he told me the boxes are good and it's all down to maintainence in the end.
I personally recommend 60,000km transmission oil changes too.