idle problems on 2001 1.6

[matttatham]

Hey guys, i've recently bought a clio 1.6 dynamique 3dr. i've had it nearly two months and have recently had trouble with the engine idle speed. I had aircon switched on and the car stalled on the motorway and wouldn't re-start.

Got that fixed and now it idles about 400rpm, which i think is too low. Whenever i drop into neutral or put the clutch in it dies on me? Anybody have the same problem or any clue whats wrong? Thanks!

[bigtim]

Hi there, my girlfriend has a 1999 clio RXE 1.6 which has the same problem as you have, the car dies when you put the clutch in and a really bad idle. It had a similar problem a few months ago and it turned out that there was water in the oil, not because the head gasket had blown but because one of the cylinder head walls between an oil way and water way had erroded away. I had the head welded and skimmed and all seemed to be fine, until the last couple of days when the car has started acting as it did before, but this time its definatly not the head gasket. Did you find out the cause of your idle problems??

[matttatham]

Alright mate. Yeah think i got it fixed. Took a couple of trips to the garage but so far she seems to be running ok. They had to clear 3 fault codes that came up when they plugged in a diagnostic computer, but she was still idling way too low so they tried messing with the throttle sensor which helped for a short while. Then they took off the idle control valve and flushed it out. It seems to have done the trick but the engine is still rough on start-up sometimes. I've also been running it on Shell optimax. Not sure if it has any effect on making the engine run better but it definately feels mores responsive. Hope you get your girlfriends clio sorted.