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2005 1.2 16v Throttle Potentiometer Fault



Greetings from Iberia!
My Girlfriend recently got a 2005 Clio 1.2 16V, and shortly after we bought it the car started having a few gremlins.
Initially, it had 3 faults:
- Crankshaft position sensor
- Pedal potentiometer circuit track 2
- Catalyser (sensor after the catalyser malfunction? can't exactly recall)
The crankshaft position sensor and connector were both replaced, the throttle pedal connector was cleaned and the coil pack, leads and spark plugs were replaced.
The car was fine a few hunderd km but after that Engine Management Light and "electronic" light popped up and the car is in limp mode. My mechanic plugged the car in and the only active fault is the Pedal potentiometer circuit track 2.
I've searched a bit on the forum and it seems this can be caused by pretty much anything it seems.
I'm just looking for some pointers on my next moves. I asked my mechanic for a quote on a second hand pedal unit, but I'd like to avoid spending money on that (or a throttle body).
I saw some commenters said to check for water buildup under the fusebox in the engine I believe, so I guess that's worth a shot. I also saw plenty of comments saying to clean the Throttle body, but to be honest I'm a little afraid of taking it out. But if it's worth a shot I'll do it.

Any other ideas on the cause? Or things I can look into for free?
Thanks in advance!
 
I took a look at the fusebox today. It's sadly in pretty bad shape, but I managed to identify the white plug some poster mentioned in another thread. I could remove it as the fusebox is too crowded, but I managed to "jiggle" it in place and upon starting the car the "electronic" light was not on. It came on soon after, but this gave me hope that cleaning this connector as some poster mentioned might help the problem. I'll try to take a stab at it this weekend
 
So I did get around to it this weekend and managed to get the plug disconnected, tried my best to clean the pins, 2 of them seemed a bit dirty/crusty but had some trouble getting to the pins do clean them. I did give it a spray with wd40 and dried the connector. Upon putting it back in, the "electronic" light was off and starting the car and giving it some gas while stationary did not bring the light on, but as soon as I pulled out the light came back :(
Considering that the light came back only when I started going, it got me wondering if the clutch pedal isn't the one triggering the fault? Would be weird considering the fault name, and I'm not sure if the clutch pedal has any electronics in it.

The only ideas I have left are to try to clean the throttle body, or to try replacing the gas pedal, but I'm not so sure if any of these will word.
Any other ideas on things I might try? At this point my girlfriend is seriously considering just getting rid of the car, and I'm trying to salvage what we can from the situation so it's not just money down the drain

Thanks in advance!
 
Well, just got back from the garage, gave cleaning the throttle body a go. Managed to do it just fine, but the throttle body itself wasn't all that gunky. Gave it a rinse and dry and mounted it back on, no changes from before.
Only thing left I can think of is replacing the throttle :(

Any other things I should try before?
 

hopgop1

ClioSport Club Member
I'd change the pedal, simple enough. Assuming the clutch is a similar setup to a sport, it'll be a simple cable clutch, think they only have a switch for the clutch pedal for cruise control if you have it.
 
An update on this.
While waiting for my mechanic to get back quotes for new and used pedals for me, we have been driving the car as usual and the "electronic" light has went off by itself. I stopped by the garage to erase the failure and the check engine light, and will drive it as usual for the time being. We have the pedal ordered anyway as I think the failure will eventually come back, but for the few dozen km I've driven it since everything seems fine.
 
The fault light eventually came back.
I did a few tests, sometimes it stays off for a while after starting to drive, sometimes it comes on right away. I did notice that when it comes on right away, it comes on after stepping on the clutch pedal. I can start the carr, rev it, all god. As soon as I step on the clutch to start going, the light comes on. This doesn't really make sense to me, since I believe the clutch is only mechanical.
Either way, I'm waiting on a accelerator pedal to replace the current one, but if anyone can make sense of this behavior I would appreciate it since I'm starting to doubt the pedal is the problem.
 

Brigsy

ClioSport Club Member
  T.Turbo
As above change the pedal.

Had same issue i grabbed the pedal, wiggled it a bit side to side and it seemed to work a bit longer before light on again
 


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