The yellow glowplug preheater light of our Renault Scenic 1.9DCi keeps coming on while the car is being driven. Additionally, my wife has noticed that the car has less power than normal.
Are these two matter srelated and what could it be.
The yellow preheater light has two symbols but I do not have an owenrs manual for the car to find out what they both mean.
Any help wopuld be appreciated. Thankyou.
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It means you have an engine management fault. The car needs to go to a Renault dealer for a diagnostic read out of the stored fault code.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I had the same problem with a 1.9dci it took various agents over 6 months not to find the problem,I was chatting to a man on Calaise docks waiting for the ferry and he wporked for Renault and told me to try the water temp sensor it worked .On one other 1.9dci we sold we never found the problem even after changing the maf,ecu,glow plugs and temp sensors.Renaults a law to them selfs you will either fix it very quickly or you are about to enter an abyss of heartache.
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Thankyou for the posts. It doesn't sound very optimistic. I hate going to our local Renault dealer and always use a local non-franchised garage whenever possible.
If it was the water temperature sensor causing the light to come on, that wouldn't explain the drop in engine power !
I gues I have no choice but to visit the Renault dealer.
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When you say a "drop in power", does this mean losing nearly all power and thick black smoke from the exhaust?
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Dont panic and dont worry about all the gloom and doom merchants, its probably something easy - specially as you have the warnng light up, it means it has picked up the fault.
Unfortunately your local non franchised garage probably does not have the experience or equipment to fully diagnose this one
And yes its fully possible for the water temp sensor to affect power output. These modern high pressure common rail system are fully electronically controlled, and rely on all sort of inputs. If the water temp input goes outside its known range the engine says "hey what the hells goin on here, I dont know what to do with this so I will choose a less powerful safe mode and log a warning"
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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The problem is that the ECU read out does give the precise fault mine daid maf error when it was the temp sensor ,then it said glow plugs talking about stabbing in the dark.The second one had a crew come from Renault to look at it cleared the fault two days later it was back ,could not retail it so blocked it .
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Thankyou for the additional posts.
My wife says that the car is not as powerful as it used to be. I do not drive the car on a daily basis so, when I drive it, I do not really notice any lack of power or that there is a problem. The car does not emitt and big bblack clouds of smoke and therer are no other signs of a probem.
The warning light only comes on intermittently when the car is cruising on the motorway. The light will come on for a short time (maybe 30 seconds) and then go out again. It does not stay on constantly and may only come on about once an hour.
Thanks again.
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I have isolated the warning light coming on and the power drop in engine power to when the car is going up hills only.
The light does not come on at any other time and the car drives normally.
Does anyone please have any idea why this should only happen on hills ?
Thankyou.
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You are losing power all the time the light is on not only on hills ,it is just that it is more noticable on the hills .As soon as that light comes on the ecu goes into limp mode and does not allow the turbo to run.
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Loss of power on these is most often caused by a faulty exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) valve. It's a large cylinder shaped aluminium lump secured by three screws. They usually fall apart so remove the unit, and fish out any broken bits with a magnet.
For a temporary repair re-fit the unit (obviously without the broken bits) 180° from the right way. Only two screws will line up and you won't be able to connect the plug. This will do until you can get a new one.
If it's not fallen apart simply give it a really good clean removing all the carbon deposits with carburettor cleaner then re-fit as normal.
Failing that check to make sure the turbo hose hasn't fallen off or split....
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Its a pity the diagnostic read out does not itemise these faults.But the above could be the problem I will remember that.
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Thankyou for the posts.
I have checked again and you are right Andy Bairsto, the car is losing power every time the light comes on.
Could this still be an EGR valve or turbo fault as the light is not on all the time ?
Thanks again.
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The car is only losing power when the light comes on.
Is this intermittent problem likely to be caused by an EGR or turbo fault or possibly something else ?
Thankyou
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Could also be the mass airflow meter, a common fault on Diesels right across all makes it seems. We had one go on our Astra, a 5 minute job to replace. The trouble is once the engine management light is triggered you will lose a lot of power as the engine operates in a safe mode to prevent any problem compounding itself though this wouldn't happen if it was just this sensor.
I changed the one on our x reg DTi Astra and the car took off like a rocket and the light went out.
Sadly the next day it sprung a terminal oil leak and was sold as spares or repair costing us £1700 in three months in depreciation.....OUCH!
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Thankyou for the reply Stuart.
If I was to put thecar into a Renault dealer, would their diagnostic equipment detect a faulty EGR valve, loose turbo hose or faulty mass flow meter ?
I do not want to get into the situation of Renault changing lots of different parts (at my cost) without actually finding what is causing the problem.
Thanks again.
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Unfortunately you will have to start somewhere and with Renault having all the relevent software this is were you will have to start unless there is a local Renault specialist.
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My last company Megane 1.9Dci (also 2002) did exactly the same thing. Intermittent showing of the orange warning light for a few seconds only over 12 months until one day it stayed on permanently and went into limp mode. Because it was a company car I don't know much about the fix apart from the dealer saying the EGR valve was replaced. Car fine for three more months & then the intermittent flashing of the orange warning light started again, often when climbing a hill. It went off to auction before it had the chance to breakdown again.
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I'd get it sorted sharpish.
I have a Volvo with the same engine and I reported a fault to Volvo who identified a fault with the EGR valve and the turbo was starting to go.
One turbo was ordered and fitted (to see if it would get rid of the whooshing noise I was experiencing) but one week later it failed in a cloud of smoke on the M62.
I now have another new turbo, a new EGR valve and a new exhaust.
Didn't cost me a penny, but if I were to have paid, the total bill would have been well over £1500 and that's not including any labour.
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Thankyou for the posts.
I'm looking to sell the car within the next few weeks and so spending any money on it will be a real pain.
I guess I have no choice but to bite the bullet and take it to my local Renault dealer.
You never know, I might be lucky and it turns out to be something simple and cheap.
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