Allright, so this is a post I wasn't hoping to have to do, but my car doesn't want to start anymore, and I'm a bit clueless. It's a Clio 172 ph1.
Let's start at the beginning. I don't know how related all these problems/symptoms are, but I just want to mention them.
Last October, I had a trackday, and when starting the car and driving to the line up, the car was running very rough, and didn't want to rev. I drove back to our place in the paddock, and made this little video before turning the car off.
When I started the car again back home, the car ran fine?
But shortly after, the gearbox noise and rough running returned.
So, what do you do? I pulled the engine, and replaced the gearbox with a Gripper'd version. Always wanted one, and now I had a good excuse. I also improved my timing a bit, as it wasn't perfect. And I replaced my Daihatsu Cuore alternator, as I could barely spin it round. Hoping that was the problem for the rough engine running.
I mounted everything back, and the car started at first attempt, had it running for about half an hour to let the air out of the coolant, and started it twice. No issues, so, at this point, I'm thinking, great, when is the next trackday.
That same evening, I went to the garage for something else, and I heard a strange noise. Turned out it was the idler valve, and the actuator relay.
This is with the car turned off, just the key in the ignition. I pulled the actuator relay, as the idler valve was a bit warm from doing this for quite some time apparantly.
The next day, I pushed in the relay, tried to start the car, but it didn't start.
The engine cranks over just fine, it just doesn't want to fire. The immobilizer has been deleted by EFI. I also couldn't hear the fuel pump.
I first pulled the fuel pump, and hooked it up straight to the battery, and it started running, so the fuel pump is fine.
So, I then started looking into the actuator relay and fuel pump relay. First I replaced both of them, with spare relays I had in my garage from stripping the interior.
I have this wiring diagram:
Combined with this parts list and ecu pin-out:
The actuator relay:
Pin 1 and 3 are bridged, so are constant 12v. Pin 2 goes to pin39 at the ecu, and I measure 12v there as well, doesn't matter if the car is on ignition or not. At pin 5, I measure 3v. And I believe this is the problem, I just can't figure out why there is only 3 volts here. I also don't understand how a relay is still a relay if the normal switched live is bridged with the constant live. If I bridge from pin 3 to pin 5, I measure 12v at pin 66 at the ecu. I also have 12v at pin 1 of an injector.
Fuel pump relay:
Without ignition, I have 12v at pin 3. With ignition on, I have 12v at pin 3 offcourse, but also at pin 1 and pin 2, all the way pin 68 at the ecu. At pin 5, I have 0v.
If I bridge the fuel pump relay from pin 3 to pin 5 I have 12v at pin 3 from the ignition coil, and 12v at the fuel pump.
I also measured pin 24 and pin 54 at the ecu plug to see resistance across these lines and the TDC sensor. Resistance was around 215 Ohms. I have a spare TDC sensor, and resistance on this one was around 225 Ohms, so that seems about right to me. I also measured the wires from pin 24 and pin 54 to the TDC plug, and they seem to be in one piece.
I do not have access to diagnosing equipment, I plan to get my trailer from storage, and get the car over to the local Renault dealer to have it diagnosed, hoping that this will help me further.
In the meanwhile, do you guys have any ideas, any pointers, which I can check?
Let's start at the beginning. I don't know how related all these problems/symptoms are, but I just want to mention them.
Last October, I had a trackday, and when starting the car and driving to the line up, the car was running very rough, and didn't want to rev. I drove back to our place in the paddock, and made this little video before turning the car off.
When I started the car again back home, the car ran fine?
But shortly after, the gearbox noise and rough running returned.
So, what do you do? I pulled the engine, and replaced the gearbox with a Gripper'd version. Always wanted one, and now I had a good excuse. I also improved my timing a bit, as it wasn't perfect. And I replaced my Daihatsu Cuore alternator, as I could barely spin it round. Hoping that was the problem for the rough engine running.
I mounted everything back, and the car started at first attempt, had it running for about half an hour to let the air out of the coolant, and started it twice. No issues, so, at this point, I'm thinking, great, when is the next trackday.
That same evening, I went to the garage for something else, and I heard a strange noise. Turned out it was the idler valve, and the actuator relay.
This is with the car turned off, just the key in the ignition. I pulled the actuator relay, as the idler valve was a bit warm from doing this for quite some time apparantly.
The next day, I pushed in the relay, tried to start the car, but it didn't start.
The engine cranks over just fine, it just doesn't want to fire. The immobilizer has been deleted by EFI. I also couldn't hear the fuel pump.
I first pulled the fuel pump, and hooked it up straight to the battery, and it started running, so the fuel pump is fine.
So, I then started looking into the actuator relay and fuel pump relay. First I replaced both of them, with spare relays I had in my garage from stripping the interior.
I have this wiring diagram:
Combined with this parts list and ecu pin-out:
The actuator relay:
Pin 1 and 3 are bridged, so are constant 12v. Pin 2 goes to pin39 at the ecu, and I measure 12v there as well, doesn't matter if the car is on ignition or not. At pin 5, I measure 3v. And I believe this is the problem, I just can't figure out why there is only 3 volts here. I also don't understand how a relay is still a relay if the normal switched live is bridged with the constant live. If I bridge from pin 3 to pin 5, I measure 12v at pin 66 at the ecu. I also have 12v at pin 1 of an injector.
Fuel pump relay:
Without ignition, I have 12v at pin 3. With ignition on, I have 12v at pin 3 offcourse, but also at pin 1 and pin 2, all the way pin 68 at the ecu. At pin 5, I have 0v.
If I bridge the fuel pump relay from pin 3 to pin 5 I have 12v at pin 3 from the ignition coil, and 12v at the fuel pump.
I also measured pin 24 and pin 54 at the ecu plug to see resistance across these lines and the TDC sensor. Resistance was around 215 Ohms. I have a spare TDC sensor, and resistance on this one was around 225 Ohms, so that seems about right to me. I also measured the wires from pin 24 and pin 54 to the TDC plug, and they seem to be in one piece.
I do not have access to diagnosing equipment, I plan to get my trailer from storage, and get the car over to the local Renault dealer to have it diagnosed, hoping that this will help me further.
In the meanwhile, do you guys have any ideas, any pointers, which I can check?
