Renault Clio 1.2 1997 petrol - Engine misfires after replacing broken timing belt

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Wed 5 Jan 2011 19:20
Renault Clio 1.2 1997 petrol - Engine misfires after replacing broken timing belt - pav

Hi,

The timing belt broke on my clio while driving. The garage fitted new belt just to get the car running and to see if there is more damage to the engine. They charged me very little for this job but they don't do engine repairs. Car now runs but misfires at low revs/in low gears. Obviously some valves were bent. The car did 66000miles.

1. Is it safe to drive the car in this condition without further repairs? Or am I likely to break down soon or cause more damage to the car?

2. With the car being so old would it be worth it to have the cylinder head either repaired or replaced and would that solve the misfiring problem?

Thanks for any advise.

Edited by pav on 05/01/2011 at 19:23

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Wed 5 Jan 2011 20:05
Renault Clio 1.2 1997 petrol - Engine misfires after replacing broken timing belt - injection doc
Your call on changing the valves, they do bend & they may snap off when driving.
i would recommend you don't run.
Sometimes renault do some crazy prices on exchange heads , cheaper than you can replace the valves for!
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Thu 6 Jan 2011 11:00
Renault Clio 1.2 1997 petrol - Engine misfires after replacing broken timing belt - foshizzle
The car is only an 8v and replacing the cylinder head is a pretty easy job for any competent mechanic. It is an interference engine so you could have bent a valve, but i would be certainly investigating if the timing belt is actually fitted correctly as one tooth out could cause this problem.

Secondly have a compression test done. Bent valves or knackered seats would show up as low compression on the affected cylinder :D
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