kurtbrown73

Clio engine knocking sound

My 2009 Renault Clio with a gasoline engine is playing up. It's got 175736 km on the clock. I'm getting a nasty knocking sound from the engine, like pre-ignition. Power's way down, it jerks when I accelerate, and there's smoke pouring out the back when I put my foot down. The error memory is full. Thinking it might be deposits in the combustion chamber. Any ideas?

4 comment(s)

Sounds rough! I had something similar happen with my old Saab 9-3. Same kind of knocking, power loss, the whole shebang. Did you check your ignition timing? That was the first thing I looked at, but it didn't fix my issue. How often do you give it a good hard run? Someone once told me blasting it on the motorway helps clear out some of the gunk, but I'm not sure if that's just an old wives' tale.

Ignition timing is okay, I already checked that. I don't drive on the motorway that often, mostly short trips. What fixed your Saab in the end? And was the knocking sound really similar? Like a metallic 'pinging'?

Yeah, the knocking was definitely a metallic pinging sound. After trying a bunch of things, I took it to a workshop. Turned out I had a buildup of carbon deposits in the combustion chamber, pre-ignition, just like you suspected. They had to do a proper clean. I'd get yours checked out by a professional. You might end up causing more damage if you keep driving it like that. Better safe than sorry!

Took it to the workshop, and you were spot on. Combustion chamber was full of deposits. They cleaned it all out, and now it's running like a dream. Cost me 425€, but well worth it to avoid a bigger problem. Thanks again for the help!

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