Clio 220 trophy failed MOT on headlight fault, help please

[Dameo220]

My car is like 9 years old now, it failed on

• position lamp not working nearside front

And it got an advisory on

• offside front (daytime running light operates dipped beam)

Renault specialists at arnold clark have looked at the car today and can't find why it's happening, and suggested I replace both headlights and control boards, cost of £2400!

I'm hoping someone can link some aftermarket headlights for the 220 trophy that are cheaper than that please? Or suggest a fix that might work? I have until Monday to get it fixed and retested, the car is my daily driver which I need for travelling to work and back.

A bit more info on the fault, the drivers side mud guard was left off the car for around a week while I waited for new rubber rivets to fix it back in, during that time I had to do motorway driving in the rain, I'm convinced the water damaged something becuase the fault started a few days later. When the car is turned off, it looks like it's the side light, it flickers or stays lit, either or, for around ten seconds, then goes off. It flickers the whole time the engine is running too, but it stops flickering when the headlights are turned on. I noticed a plug with a lot of wires up inside that wheel well, could that plug be the cause if it's corroded or something?

 

[PP200t]

I think the headlights are the same as a standard Clio, so not specific to the trophy or rs models, so should be able to pick some up cheap on eBay or similar. However as they are led headlights on the facelift they will be expensive.
When I read it first I thought of my old 200 mk4 which was pre facelift and the sidelights weren’t fitted as the standard Clio because of the led lights in the bumper, but obviously yours is different.
An idea with the wiring would be to use some electrical terminal cleaner spray to see if that is an issue? Cheap try

 

[ex-Chinese Dave]

I'd start by checking all of those wires and connections that have been exposed to the weather after you removed the mud guard. There shouldn't be any corrosion from just a few days of rain but there could have been some from before that has now been found out. Unclip the connections and clean the contacts and then give them a spray of WD40. Give any other wires there a spray, too. I had a problem with my engine cutting out that turned out to be moisture in a connector, so a little water can really screw things up.

 

[Dameo220]

I'd start by checking all of those wires and connections that have been exposed to the weather after you removed the mud guard. There shouldn't be any corrosion from just a few days of rain but there could have been some from before that has now been found out. Unclip the connections and clean the contacts and then give them a spray of WD40. Give any other wires there a spray, too. I had a problem with my engine cutting out that turned out to be moisture in a connector, so a little water can really screw things up.

Yeah that's a good idea, thanks, I really hope it is just a connector that needs cleaning/ replacing, although you would assume they tried that at the garage, but I suppose it can't hurt to double check and make sure it isn't that before spending a shitload

 

[Dameo220]

I think the headlights are the same as a standard Clio, so not specific to the trophy or rs models, so should be able to pick some up cheap on eBay or similar. However as they are led headlights on the facelift they will be expensive.
When I read it first I thought of my old 200 mk4 which was pre facelift and the sidelights weren’t fitted as the standard Clio because of the led lights in the bumper, but obviously yours is different.
An idea with the wiring would be to use some electrical terminal cleaner spray to see if that is an issue? Cheap try

Sorry, I didn't see your comment earlier,

Yeah I'm expecting it to be very expensive regardless, I was hoping I could replace them with an aftermarket set that may be a lot cheaper as manufacturer parts are always eye watering prices, but I can't seem to find anything online. But if the standard clio lights fit then that might be an option, I'll get the car back tomorrow and have to have a dig around and see if I can fix it somehow. If not I'll probably have to take the car off the road as £2400 is just not an option. It's very annoying since the lights work fine, personally I don't see why it's even an MOT fail when they do actually work while driving.

 

[Typhoon]

Yeah that's a good idea, thanks, I really hope it is just a connector that needs cleaning/ replacing, although you would assume they tried that at the garage, but I suppose it can't hurt to double check and make sure it isn't that before spending a shitload

You think they tried that at a dealership? They probably dipped the connections in water to make them rust faster so you can cough up the dough.

 

[Dameo220]

You think they tried that at a dealership? They probably dipped the connections in water to make them rust faster so you can cough up the dough.

🤣 Yeah you're probably right

 

[Martin_172]

Renault specialists at arnold clark

No such thing. That is the issue. Take it to a well regarded local auto electrician.

The headlights are as above, the same as any facelift mk4 with the LED front headlights, loads about on ebay for £300-£400 each if required

 

[Dameo220]

No such thing. That is the issue. Take it to a well regarded local auto electrician.

The headlights are as above, the same as any facelift mk4 with the LED front headlights, loads about on ebay for £300-£400 each if required

I figured the same thing tbh, I've taken my rs Clio's to arnold clarke quite a few times and been told they can't find the fault, so they probably aren't specialists as they claim, so I have booked it in to be checked over by an auto electrician tomorrow to see if they have more luck. It's good to know £400 per side is feasible though, so thank you, I'll have a scout around and see what I can find. I'm just concerned I may end up buying some that either don't fit or don't work on the car. Do you know if the headlights need to be coded to the car or something?

 

[Martin_172]

No issues with coding, just swap the unit over 👍

Yeah I've only used Arnie Clark for RS cars under warranty and they are utterly atrocious.

My wife bought a brand new Clio from them last year, factory order, waited 4 months for it as expected, picked it up, developed a fault on the way home, called them and they said they can't look at it as they didn't have a master tech anymore, need to take it to a branch and hour away, but not for 8 weeks! They had it for an hour and called to say they couldn't find a fault, I advised loads of people were having the same issue and Renault were offering a software update to rectify it, what codes was it showing? They said no codes, I went thru plugged in my diag machine and listed 20+ codes from the BCM and dash systems 😂

 

[Dameo220]

No issues with coding, just swap the unit over 👍

Yeah I've only used Arnie Clark for RS cars under warranty and they are utterly atrocious.

My wife bought a brand new Clio from them last year, factory order, waited 4 months for it as expected, picked it up, developed a fault on the way home, called them and they said they can't look at it as they didn't have a master tech anymore, need to take it to a branch and hour away, but not for 8 weeks! They had it for an hour and called to say they couldn't find a fault, I advised loads of people were having the same issue and Renault were offering a software update to rectify it, what codes was it showing? They said no codes, I went thru plugged in my diag machine and listed 20+ codes from the BCM and dash systems 😂

Yeah that sounds very similar to my experience with them, this time it cost £156 for nothing basically, I still have no idea what is causing the fault, they seem to be pretty useless. The reason I took it to them is becuase in the past I've taken the car to other garages and they haven't been able to even read the car, saying only Renault/arnold clark have the right reader to get into the computer. Supposedly the car isn't showing any fault codes even though the lights have issues and the car sometimes dies after being started when already warmed up, has even gone into limp mode a few times after it died, but I'm hoping that is just a battery replace to fix that.