1.2 TCE not starting

[r3su]

Hi All,

Got a bit of a head scratcher with a 62plate Clio 1.2 TCE mk3. After a recent storm the car no longer starts.
I initially thought the other half had left the interior light on, so decided to try a jump start - still no joy.
I've checked the voltage and it read 12.11 when sat.

The central locking no longer works and the dash will not light up unless you persist in trying to start the car, at whcih point the dash will light up.

When we first realised there was a problem we noticed a clicking noise coming from the passenger side of the car. This then went after disconnecting the battery for a little while and after reconnecting the car would behave as normal up until you attempted to start the car. The clicking then was coming from the relays in the engine bay.

I thought, through a bit of reading that this could be an earthing issue so I connected a jump lead from negative to the gear box - no luck.
To rule out the starter I connected the jump lead from negative to the starter - still no luck.

Dash returned to either not working at all or flickering into life and then reporting ABS fault and Injector fault.
However on the next attempt,the dash didnt light.

Read somewhere taht someone had a similar issue and just banged the glove box and wiggled the wires on the underside. Tried that just to rule it out and the central locking worked!
Dash lit up as normal. Turned the key and the starter made a loud clunk, like it was about to start, however it didn't. and the clicking returned to the glove box area....

I understand that the UCH can be a weak point and water ingress is common, however after removal and inspection there doesn't appear to be any damage.

So Im at a total loss with the car... As above I seem to make some progress and then everything reverts back to how it was..

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Krarl]

Remove and refit the relays on the UCH as one will have either A) Worked it's way loose with passengers bashing it or B) water ingress from locked scuttle drains

If this doesn't sort it then the battery may have dropped a cell

 

[r3su]

Thanks for the response Kyle. Will give the battery a look in the morning. Is there anyway I can check the battery further? It does appear to be the original as it has the breather pipe routed in the original position.
If its dropped a cell, will it output lower Amps?

WIth regards to the UCH. It looks like the relays are soldered in?
I've attached an image of the internals if thats of any use.

 

[Krarl]

The only way to properly tell that its dropped a cell is to get an expensive battery tester, or just test the amps its putting out when you try to start the car. If it's not putting out what it says on the battery then it will be fubar

I'm sure there are some more smaller fuses and relays attached to the black box on the UCH. Your UCH doesn't look to be water damaged though which is more promising haha

 

[r3su]

Everything looks very clean, whcih is a bonus - was expecting a corroded mess!
UCH wise thats all I can find - I assume the relays are solderd in (the black boxes either side of the top socket).

Will get another couple of photos of the glove box area but i think it was just the UCH and some connectors to a loom to the engine bay

 

[r3su]

Its alive, ITS ALIVE!!

Turns out theres a reason I dont work on engines for a living - it was a dead cell.
Changed the battery and it started up a treat.

It has a weird rev thing now immediately after it starts up, idles jumps to around 1500-2000 for a little while - I think this is a dirty idle control valve

Anyway, I enjoyed tooling around with the clio.

 

[Krarl]

Winner!

Clean the throttle body, I did it on my sisters Clio tCe III as it was stalling all over the shop and then sometimes idling above 1500rpm. It took me all of 10 minutes to do and it drives perfect now. I cleaned the MAP sensor and air temp sensor too while I was in there