Hi all,
I've just registered for this forum as I seriously need some help with my Ph1. Having said that, i think you're going to see me on here quite a bit from now on. When I originally bought my Clio last Jan, I saw it as a bit of a stop gap car, but depsite being one of the cheapest cars I've had, it's also been one of the most fun - even the wife loves it, think that's because it's easy to see out of and park though!!
Anyway, last sunday I pulled out of a junction and thought I'd put my toe down a little - squeezed about 1/2 throttle and the wheels spun - it seemed to hit the rev limiter early (not sure whether it really did) then lost all power, engine cut out and would not re-start.
When I attempted to re-start I immediately noticed lack of compression, it was cranking over really fast as if there were no spark plugs in!
My immediate thought was cambelt failure, but I could see straight away that the cam was still turning through the oil filler cap. So then I wondered whether the belt could have slipped and bent valves? Is that possible or likely? Or has anybody else seen / heard of this sort of failure? Only other things I could think of were, have the spark plugs all blown clean out - very unlikely or has it put holes through all pistons - again, very unlikely!
When I got the car back I stripped off the plenum and all spark plugs are all ok. Couldn't see any nasties down the holes but you can't see much through there. I did a compression check and my fears were confirmed absolutely zero compression on all 4 cylinders!
The weird thing is, I couldn't hear any metallic noises when cranking over, if valves were bent I'd expect to wouldn't I?
Or could this be something to do with the dephaser pulley?
To be honest, I had no idea about this engine and started trying to pull the rocker cover off to see if any valves were stuck. This looks like a mistake as then the cambelt started tugging on the camshafts so thought I better slice through that - it was going to need a new one anyway right. I've since seen all the posts on here saying you can't time the cam without all these expensive tools etc.
Oh, I also, in my anger at not being able to get the rocker cover off, gave one of the alloy lugs a 'tap' with the hammer promptly smashing the corner off the rocker cover right through the cam bearing - great!
I'm thinking, whatever the problem is, it's going to be cheaper and easier to replace the engine for a 2nd hand one now, but am still very curious to know what could be wrong with it.
I probably sound like a complete idiot right now, but I do know quite a lot about engines & mechanics in general. However, I probably haven't worked on an engine this complex before - I just thought, it's an engine, how hard can it be! Some of the design features on it just baffle me though, it's crazy!
Any help greatly appreciated.
Nick
I've just registered for this forum as I seriously need some help with my Ph1. Having said that, i think you're going to see me on here quite a bit from now on. When I originally bought my Clio last Jan, I saw it as a bit of a stop gap car, but depsite being one of the cheapest cars I've had, it's also been one of the most fun - even the wife loves it, think that's because it's easy to see out of and park though!!
Anyway, last sunday I pulled out of a junction and thought I'd put my toe down a little - squeezed about 1/2 throttle and the wheels spun - it seemed to hit the rev limiter early (not sure whether it really did) then lost all power, engine cut out and would not re-start.
When I attempted to re-start I immediately noticed lack of compression, it was cranking over really fast as if there were no spark plugs in!
My immediate thought was cambelt failure, but I could see straight away that the cam was still turning through the oil filler cap. So then I wondered whether the belt could have slipped and bent valves? Is that possible or likely? Or has anybody else seen / heard of this sort of failure? Only other things I could think of were, have the spark plugs all blown clean out - very unlikely or has it put holes through all pistons - again, very unlikely!
When I got the car back I stripped off the plenum and all spark plugs are all ok. Couldn't see any nasties down the holes but you can't see much through there. I did a compression check and my fears were confirmed absolutely zero compression on all 4 cylinders!
The weird thing is, I couldn't hear any metallic noises when cranking over, if valves were bent I'd expect to wouldn't I?
Or could this be something to do with the dephaser pulley?
To be honest, I had no idea about this engine and started trying to pull the rocker cover off to see if any valves were stuck. This looks like a mistake as then the cambelt started tugging on the camshafts so thought I better slice through that - it was going to need a new one anyway right. I've since seen all the posts on here saying you can't time the cam without all these expensive tools etc.
Oh, I also, in my anger at not being able to get the rocker cover off, gave one of the alloy lugs a 'tap' with the hammer promptly smashing the corner off the rocker cover right through the cam bearing - great!
I'm thinking, whatever the problem is, it's going to be cheaper and easier to replace the engine for a 2nd hand one now, but am still very curious to know what could be wrong with it.
I probably sound like a complete idiot right now, but I do know quite a lot about engines & mechanics in general. However, I probably haven't worked on an engine this complex before - I just thought, it's an engine, how hard can it be! Some of the design features on it just baffle me though, it's crazy!
Any help greatly appreciated.
Nick
