Car starting trouble. Clio

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.

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.

Originally Posted by gedt5

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.

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

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.

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.

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