E30 Zone

Hi guys,

Doing an oil change on somebody's Clio, and i've dropped a damn spanner through the engine bay and it's shorted on the alternator and an earth. Lots of sparks.

Now there are no electrics at all, APART from the central locking :S
When I turn the key there are definitely some noises, but no dash lights, no heater, no horn, no hazards etc etc.

Anybody have any ideas?!

Check all fuses would be a good start, and search the main battery cables for fusible links.

Bloody French shite.

Any petrol in the tank?

The fusible link is blown.

Hopefully available from Renault at less than a million pounds

Oh well, better that than fried electrics, eh?

Whereabouts are they on Clios, and are they similar to BMW ones?

they are on the positive battery terminal....

Interesting to know, thanks - my brother has a Clio Sport.

If you wanted to get it up and running while you wait for the replacement part to arrive, you could wire a suitable fuse across those two terminal posts.

Sorry, i had to laugh ! Sh1t like this only ever happens on French scrap, hence I not having touched one for over ten years. I doubt if they have got better

daimlerman wrote:Bloody French shite.

+1

I'm not touching a Renault ever again

To be fair, that sort of thing could happen on any car, and at least they thoughtfully put a fail-safe in place to prevent burnt-out electrics.

On older vehicles, it was common to disconnect a battery terminal prior to starting any work, but with modern cars with all the engine management, immobilisers, etc., people are afraid to do so in case it loses its settings!

Yea I am thankful of the fail-safe to be honest.

It just seems however that whenever I work on a Renault something ridiculous happens!

They're not all bad. We replaced the front coil springs on my brother's, and it was a doddle. However, doing the cambelt and alternator wasn't quite so easy - the engines are really crammed in.

Yea I find anything suspension/brakes related on Renaults simple and trouble free, but anything engine/electrical is usually unnecessarily difficult!

My Clio III has been pretty good tbh! Only thing that has gone wrong is the live terminal in front of the battery corroded and caused the ABS to shit its self.

Your lucky Rix, they have a habit of setting off the airbags for stupidity like that, a local weirdo I know pretty much wrote of his mk3 clio when he hit a kerb due to swerving around a kamikaze taxi, dash airbag, seat airbags, seatbelt pre-tensioners and damaged wishbone, no more than 30mph