Mk2 Ph1 Clio Sport 1.4
Argh, what a nightmare few weeks I've had with my clio. The car is a mk2ph1 clio 1.4 8v. On the way to work the other morning, everything was normal with the car, was running absolutely fine.
I was cruising along in 5th at the NSL, and came to a reasonable hill with quite tight corners, so I slow down and knock the car into 4th to help me get up. There is a lack of power, i put my foot down but the engine feels like it is hesitating, or holding back, as if I had put it into too high a gear. So i try into third, and the same thing happens. I manage to get up the fairly short hill, or most of the way up, before I hear a slight bang, and then some nasty sounding noises.
My CV joint is on the way out, so, thinking it is that which has gone, clutch goes in, I slow it down a bit, but keep it rolling as it is in a very dodgy place to stop. Coast for a little while until it is safe to pull over, and do so, when I realise the noise is not anything like a driveshaft gone, it is my engine, now sounding like a tractor. i switched the engine off to look for anything very obvious, and lo and behold, one of the spark plugs is out of the cylinder. Now the strange thing is, I know they can blow out of the cylinder head in one piece if they are cross threaded or badly put in, and tear out the thread on the head, but this was completely different.
The spark plug had completely split in two pieces, not snapped, just detatched. The ceramic part with electrode in was all still in one piece, stuck still in the HT lead. The metal part, with the thread on it, I could still see, securely screwed into the head. The cap in the HT lead which goes over the spark plug was split, and had some of the plastic missing. i went to get a new spark plug and HT lead to try and fix by the roadside, but nowhere close had the right HT lead in stock, so I towed it to a garage. Have spoken to a few mechanics, and only one has ever heard of this happening.
So, any ideas what has happened here? And any ideas how it can be fixed, will it just be a case of new spark plug and HT lead and it will run, or has some other problem caused this? Hopefully, as the spark plug seperated but stayed in tact, there is nothing that has gone into the bore of the cylinder to cause problems? At the moment i'm just thinking a very dodgy spark plug. Oh, plugs were changed around 1000-2000 miles ago, and are genuine Bosch plugs.
Thanks a lot.
I was cruising along in 5th at the NSL, and came to a reasonable hill with quite tight corners, so I slow down and knock the car into 4th to help me get up. There is a lack of power, i put my foot down but the engine feels like it is hesitating, or holding back, as if I had put it into too high a gear. So i try into third, and the same thing happens. I manage to get up the fairly short hill, or most of the way up, before I hear a slight bang, and then some nasty sounding noises.
My CV joint is on the way out, so, thinking it is that which has gone, clutch goes in, I slow it down a bit, but keep it rolling as it is in a very dodgy place to stop. Coast for a little while until it is safe to pull over, and do so, when I realise the noise is not anything like a driveshaft gone, it is my engine, now sounding like a tractor. i switched the engine off to look for anything very obvious, and lo and behold, one of the spark plugs is out of the cylinder. Now the strange thing is, I know they can blow out of the cylinder head in one piece if they are cross threaded or badly put in, and tear out the thread on the head, but this was completely different.
The spark plug had completely split in two pieces, not snapped, just detatched. The ceramic part with electrode in was all still in one piece, stuck still in the HT lead. The metal part, with the thread on it, I could still see, securely screwed into the head. The cap in the HT lead which goes over the spark plug was split, and had some of the plastic missing. i went to get a new spark plug and HT lead to try and fix by the roadside, but nowhere close had the right HT lead in stock, so I towed it to a garage. Have spoken to a few mechanics, and only one has ever heard of this happening.
So, any ideas what has happened here? And any ideas how it can be fixed, will it just be a case of new spark plug and HT lead and it will run, or has some other problem caused this? Hopefully, as the spark plug seperated but stayed in tact, there is nothing that has gone into the bore of the cylinder to cause problems? At the moment i'm just thinking a very dodgy spark plug. Oh, plugs were changed around 1000-2000 miles ago, and are genuine Bosch plugs.
Thanks a lot.
