What happened there?

alwaysadub

Ok,i was driving along a while ago no bother,when i went to over take someone on a dual carriage way. All of a sudden,the speed in the car just dropped from about 50mph to 20mph. Tried changing gears,made things worse. Managed to get over to the hard shoulder. Tried driving it a few times,most of the time it wouldn't go over 10mph no matter what gear i was in. It was shuddering to bits at times, kept expecting it to conk out,but it didn't.
Turned off the engine,left it for a minute,and tried again and it worked! Managed to get home. Didn't drive more than 40odd mph to be safe, but apart from it shuddering a few times,specially going up hills,it got me the 40miles home.
The lights or radio never once flickered during the whole thing,so don't think it was the battery?
I had noticed though,that when i had gotten out of the car earlier,there was a noise coming from the bonnet,like as if the engine was still running albeit loudly.
I know a mechanic told me a while ago there was a very small hole forming in my gear box,but he said it'd be at least a year or so more before i needed a new one.

So anyone any idea what might've happened? Would it be the throttle,or the gear box or something?
It's a 03 Clio and only got a full service about 5 weeks ago.

vectra

Rain..
sounds like the electrics got wet and the engine started misfiring. WD40..give the plug leads....etc a good spray with it..
Might help you.

User Friendly

could it be the computer?

loobylou

vectra wrote: »

Rain..
sounds like the electrics got wet and the engine started misfiring. WD40..give the plug leads....etc a good spray with it..
Might help you.

Be careful, I did this to a Peugeot recently. When the fault re-occurred I was told that I had invalidated tne warranty by spraying "gunk" unquote on the engine block.

Cookie_Monster

ignition coil gone?

happened to me and a friend in his clio a few months back. Was on a very steep hill so couldn't get it going again but the engine would keep going with a little throttle.

jimmycrackcorm

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

ignition coil gone?

happened to me and a friend in his clio a few months back. Was on a very steep hill so couldn't get it going again but the engine would keep going with a little throttle.

+1 on a megane also but noticed the engine sounded like it had been transplanted from a trabant.

hi5

Sounds like your engine went into Limp Home Mode
You will still need to find the problem which caused this and reset your computer after.

vectra

loobylou wrote: »

Be careful, I did this to a Peugeot recently. When the fault re-occurred I was told that I had invalidated tne warranty by spraying "gunk" unquote on the engine block.

LOL
I wouldnt accept that from a salesman that only knows about money

no1beemerfan

I'd second (or third!) the coil packs. I've a Laguna and mine was pretty similar to what you described.

Get a set in a breakers and replace all. Only cost me €20 and three or four yrs later its still going.

alwaysadub

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

+1 on a megane also but noticed the engine sounded like it had been transplanted from a trabant.

/googles trabant..

Yep,sounds like mine did yesterday alright!