First i had the inevitable dephaser pulley (or as the rest of the world knows it the VVT) fail withen a day of having the car. The trader of course paid to have it fixed, but my confidence was already slightly knocked.
A big improvement obviously, but still i didn't feel i had any power in the car, it was lumpy in pulling away, and just seemed to at it's own pace. Plus it had still a problems starting, revving up then dying out.
Then in quick succesion Full Service, MOT, Camshaft Sensor. i was thinking that must have got it, fluids have been changed, sparks, camshaft sensor, plus they checked over the ignition coils. It did feel kinda better, psychological ?
All confidence drained now, resigned to the fact that i've bought a friday afternoon car from a model that's plagued with faults anyway.
Last chance, after checking over the forum and looking at a youtube video i thought i'd change the TDC sensor. Even the garage said that the part had been modified because they had been faulty. Surely this was it. NO, a few days later the car started then the revs died almost to stalling point.
Ultimate Last Chance. I took it to another Renault garage, they obviously wanted to the to obligatory clip test, which obviously came back with no errors. But then the mechanic said did i want the THROTTLE HOUSING cleaned? Right this is the very last thing, so i agreed.
Now after all my troubles with this car, things might be psychological. But i'm not joking when i say i'm driving a different car. I just wanted to stop the starting problems, but i feel like they've chucked in a few more horses into the engine. When you put the foot down it goes, when i'm pulling away it's smooth quick and responsive. TOTALLY DIFFERENT, even te mechanic remarked what a difference it had made, and they never normally say anything.
It's still early days, but it cost me £49 inc the clip test. And it's made the biggest difference. I reckon the while the dephaser pulley was failing crap was building up in the engine and then being sucked through the throttle housing, you'd never normally have to have it cleaned at such a low mileage.
To anyone still having performance issues make sure you get this done.
