Have you noticed this noise? ... (sorry for the long post)
We bought a new Clio 1.2 TCE in April 2009. It produces a fairly loud resonance noise in all gears at certain rev ranges, usually around 2300 and 2900 rpm for a narrow band of about 300 revs. The noise happens when the engine is under load eg accelerating or going up-hill but not when stationary.
The problem does not appear to have been reported before so an RTE engineer at the dealer has had to spend quite a while tracking down the problem. He has now determined that it is the turbo re-circulation valve that is making the resonance noise. Unfortunately they have also found that another 1.2 TCE Clio they were comparing with, approx 6 months older, makes the same noise! And then checked another one and found the same.
So it appears to be a problem affecting a potentially large number of cars. The 1.2 TCE has been available for, we think, just over 2 years. So the problem may affect all of these, or maybe the the valve has changed at some point and so the problem affects more recent cars.
We consider the problem to be unacceptable - no other car makes such a resonance noise. It would be OK if it was more of a whistling or whooshing noise but this is a vibration resonance noise which just sounds bad, plain wrong! To an extent it's subjective, some people can drive around blissfully ignorant to all kinds of noises! The problem apparently has no other adverse effects so the car can be driven - as long as you don't mind looking like an idiot whose bought a new car that sounds rediculous. Any car designer with self-respect would also find it unacceptable, they must after-all commit a lot of effort to ensure there aren't any strange resonance or other undesirable noises.
The dealer has done the hard work of identifying the cause of the problem and has raised it with Renault as a technical alert and Renault in France know about it as well. So it's out of the dealer's hands and we're now waiting for Renault to investigate it etc. If we have to live with it for a significant length of time we may be reluctantly negotiating for a refund or replacement with an NA engine.
Customer Service has so far been great both at the Dealer and Renault UK. We just hope we can get a resolution to all this.
The question is to anyone with a car with a TCE engine, have you noticed the noise? If so, what age is your car? Have you reported it to Renault? If you haven't noticed it yet, please could you listen out for it?
The more it's reported, the more likely Renault will take action to change the valve.
We bought a new Clio 1.2 TCE in April 2009. It produces a fairly loud resonance noise in all gears at certain rev ranges, usually around 2300 and 2900 rpm for a narrow band of about 300 revs. The noise happens when the engine is under load eg accelerating or going up-hill but not when stationary.
The problem does not appear to have been reported before so an RTE engineer at the dealer has had to spend quite a while tracking down the problem. He has now determined that it is the turbo re-circulation valve that is making the resonance noise. Unfortunately they have also found that another 1.2 TCE Clio they were comparing with, approx 6 months older, makes the same noise! And then checked another one and found the same.
So it appears to be a problem affecting a potentially large number of cars. The 1.2 TCE has been available for, we think, just over 2 years. So the problem may affect all of these, or maybe the the valve has changed at some point and so the problem affects more recent cars.
We consider the problem to be unacceptable - no other car makes such a resonance noise. It would be OK if it was more of a whistling or whooshing noise but this is a vibration resonance noise which just sounds bad, plain wrong! To an extent it's subjective, some people can drive around blissfully ignorant to all kinds of noises! The problem apparently has no other adverse effects so the car can be driven - as long as you don't mind looking like an idiot whose bought a new car that sounds rediculous. Any car designer with self-respect would also find it unacceptable, they must after-all commit a lot of effort to ensure there aren't any strange resonance or other undesirable noises.
The dealer has done the hard work of identifying the cause of the problem and has raised it with Renault as a technical alert and Renault in France know about it as well. So it's out of the dealer's hands and we're now waiting for Renault to investigate it etc. If we have to live with it for a significant length of time we may be reluctantly negotiating for a refund or replacement with an NA engine.
Customer Service has so far been great both at the Dealer and Renault UK. We just hope we can get a resolution to all this.
The question is to anyone with a car with a TCE engine, have you noticed the noise? If so, what age is your car? Have you reported it to Renault? If you haven't noticed it yet, please could you listen out for it?
The more it's reported, the more likely Renault will take action to change the valve.