Car starting trouble. Clio

[sauluk]

Battery seems ok as all lights and everything come on but girlfriends car won't start. It sort of turns over in 'pulses' or short bursts instead of continuously and then firing up, so it can't fire up.

Dodgy battery connection? Will try cleaning and regressing but seems to rhythmic to be a faulty connection

[beabert]

No expert but 'seems ok?' you need to test it #or just charge it, takes a lot of current to turn over a car engine :-)

[embee]

Now is the open season for batteries, they become terminally (sic) ill over the summer but die now. It is the most likely culprit unless there's something else obvious wrong.

How old is the battery?

To be sure, put a known good charged battery on it and try a start (even if temporarily purely for the exercise, no need to bolt it in situ).

If it starts fine then you know for sure it's the battery. Unfortunatley they don't "heal", only solution is euthanasia and replace.

Older cars often exhibited all sorts of odd behaviour when the battery was getting poorly, start and stall was a common thing (voltage compensation for afterstart wasn't very clever sometimes). New battery cured it often as not.

[Dicky Ticker]

CLIO= French, Possibly on strike or protesting like the rest of the nation;)

[sauluk]

Thought it could just be on strike. It does that a lot.

Tried jumping it today with my car but it just turns over and then after a couple of seconds will give off a 'click' and stop trying?? So still not firing up. Makes me think the battery isn't helping but it's definitely something else too.

[xXBADGERXx]

Have you fired a squirt of WD40 near the air filter , it can suck it in and fire something up that appears dead . I got a Triumph started that way , it chugged and chugged and chugged with no chance of a spark , clouded it a bit near the air filter and it whoofed into life on 3rd attempt . See if it fires , turn it off and then see if it will spark up on it`s own . Do you have a Multimeter at all or access to one ?

[Stuuk1]

Check the spark plugs... Take one out at a time and hold it close to the bodywork, if it sparks then its fine, find one that doesnt spark to the body and there is your problem...

[svrich]

My old landrover did something like this and it was the starter motor that had gone. However, it could have easily been the solenoid, earth conections or battery so test these, starting with the battery. Get a meter on it while it's turning the engine and see what the draw is. Even a small drop from normal can cause starting issues.

[sauluk]

But I've tried jumping it with a good donor so it would have worked if the battery is cocked.

Haven't got time for spannering a Clio, it's just not interesting. Will get it recovered to garage, that's what breakdown cover is for I guess. Used it 4 times already this year!!

[yorkie_chris]

Check the spark plugs... Take one out at a time and hold it close to the bodywork, if it sparks then its fine, find one that doesnt spark to the body and there is your problem...

you need to get it cranking properly before worrying about spark

[gedt5]

have you checked the spade terminals on the starter motor.that was what was wrong with our clio although it was an older shape r reg.
could also be the coil pack that controls the spark to the plugs.a common fault on clios that sends it into firing on 2-3 cylinders.
try bump starting it if it starts its a good chance its something to do with the starter although the do say dont bump start a car with a cat converter so up to you if you give it a go.

[sauluk]

Nah, I'll take it in. The coil pack was replaced before as it was running on 3 cylinders so it might be screwed again and will be on warranty (although call me sceptical but they'll probably make some other thing up)

[G]

The coils are notorious on clios.

My girlfriend used to have a 51 plate Clio and there was a connector that also always got dirty to, you would have to pull te connector off and clean the connection and it would be fine. It's at the front of the engine and looked like a small can. If you take a photo of the bay I could point it out. This used to give the same symptoms you describe.

[svtomo]

have you checked the spade terminals on the starter motor.

+1, give it a wiggle and she should go(extremley common on 1.2 16v) unless the starters chuffed.

[Jordy]

I had a clio T reg (99) That had the same symptoms as this, turned out to be the crankshaft position sensor which was mucked up with road crud. I drenched it in WD40 and never had a problem again. HTH

[benji106]

The starter motor on the clios is located where it gets absolutely covered in road crap, clean up the connectors to the starter motor would be my suggestion. had this problem with 2 clios myself.

EDIT: should have read the whole thread first.

[sauluk]

I just had a look at the starter motor and even checked all the connections coming from the battery and they all seem ok. None seem excessively dirty albeit a couple are a bit rusty.

[chompy]

i have this problem and solve it by disconnecting the battery and re connecting it, seems to happen now and then but when i do this it fires back to life