THE MYSTERY ABIDES

About 50m from my house, at the beginning of a test drive as I was accelerating gently from 40km/h or so, the Renault’s brakes were suddenly applied, engine power was cut, an audible warning sounded, most of the dash lights flashed and an engine failure message appeared on the instruments. I restarted the car and drove home with the engine in limp mode. The problem didn’t recur on subsequent drives. I asked Renault Australia to investigate. The response: “The dealer has not been able to find any issues nor replicate the problem so (we) don’t have any information which could provide any enlightenment on the incident.”