Clio 1.4 RT power problems (sluggish)

JamesQB · Unread post by **JamesQB** » 21 Apr 2005, 02:16

Hello everyone, I live in the UK but my car is in Spain where I will be returning to live shortly and want to sort it out when I get there.
I've owned my present car - Renault Clio RT 1.4 1993 - for the past 5 years and it's served me well, just requiring a new exhaust and an overhaul of the starter motor.
It's had a few troubles from the start of my ownership of it, though, which I've never been able to cure, and since I can't afford to "buy and try", I've just had to stop guessing at what the trouble is.
I was wondering if anyone here would mind adding their expertise to the problem please?
On flats the car seems to be pretty powerful, tearing in third gear. As soon as the road slopes uphill, though, and the car has to work harder, the power disappears. To put this into perspective, I can be on the motorway and accelerating. I might reach 50mph at which point the road starts going uphill slightly, and the car then stops accelerating really. I get beeps and flashes of headlights behind me and can do nothing. Dropping a gear and putting my foot to the floor makes little difference, if the road slopes uphill a lot then the speed will not rise at all.
Yet my brother's Clio 1.2 RL has no such problems, it seems like a 1.8 compared to mine, on both the flats and uphill. He can overtake on slopes, whereas I couldn't dream of it, since I can't accelerate. In fact, I thought mine was nippy for a 1.4 until he shot past me one day. I thought in 3rd gear I had some poke, until I was in the car with him tearing past people with acceleration which beat mine. I took it to a different mechanic about this problem, but he went for a 5 minute drive around town in it and said it was about normal for a 1.4, perhaps not the nippiest, but normal. And since he didn't take it uphill or on the motorway, I don't think he got a grasp of the trouble. But then when does a mechanic ever?
So there it is. Any and all help will be appreciated a great deal indeed. And if you live near me, I'll send you a bottle of Grolsch.
Thanks,
James [:)]

JamesQB · Unread post by **JamesQB** » 27 Jun 2005, 00:54

*bump*

icenutter · Unread post by **icenutter** » 29 Sep 2005, 15:29

The 1st thing to check is the air filter. Is it blocked? Then take the plugs out after the car has been running and have a look at them - that should tell you if the car is running rich or lean etc.

TazzyK · Unread post by **TazzyK** » 28 Nov 2005, 23:08

maybe also renew sparkplugs / correctly set the gaps, change HT leads (they can sometime work ok until there is a lot of load on them and then they can breakdown) check the coil. Also, not sure but it may either have a MAF (Mass Air Flow meter) or more likely a MAP (Manifold Air Pressure meter) which could be faulty?