"ENGINE FAULT REPAIR NEEDED"

[HARWOOD]

Oh fook, oh fook and oh double fook.
Just taken the RCZ out for a drive after it's been sitting on my drive for a week (been out of the country). Started off driving gently and after about 20 mins I reached a nice stretch of road where I was able to open it up and all of a sudden the above message c/w the warning lamp shown at the top of page 26 of the manual flashed up on the dashboard? Prior to this, I had also noticed that the temperature gauge had risen normally after about 5 mins before dropping down again and then rising again to normal temperature. After the problem occured, I immediately reduced speed until I could find somewhere to stop and let the engine cool for a minute before turning off (The fan also seemed to be revolving ten to the dozen) I have just been out to the car again after 3 hours and started the car again and the same message and warning lamp is still present and the noise from the engine sounds weird (layman's terms)
Obvoiusly I need to contact a Peugeot dealer but has any body got any ideas what might be wrong?

Thanks to anybody that can advise.

 

[Anonymous]

Not got a clue. But would very interested to find out what it is when you find out. As I leave pearl stranded on the driveway for a week every other week.

 

[Anonymous]

I think I had a similar fault last month. The engine was up to temperature and I was accelerating, then completely out of the blue I got a message which (if memory serves) read "temperature fault stop engine immediately" I hadn't noticed observed the temperature dial prior to the warning. But it scared the **** out of me, I guess I'm more used to a more generic slightly less alarming engine fault light (on previous cars) which could mean anything. Anyway I took it to the dealer who apparently did a full check (although when I asked what a "full" check was they seemed a little sketchy on the details), they could find anything wrong, no error codes reported in the ECU and they put it down to an intermittent fault with a temperature sensor. I've not seen it since and the time it did happen it only appeared for maybe 2secs. No problems since...

...Well nothing temperature related!

 

[Anonymous]

Whenever the ECU Light is illuminated, 9 times out of 10 you have to take it back to the Dealer for a reset.

Even if the problem has corrected itself, it'll still need re-setting.

This is why 9 times out of 10 the usual response from the Garage is either sketchy or there is no fault.

Like all of us, sometimes you just have that little grouch and then you're fine for the rest of the day.
Fortunately, we don't have to go to a special place to be reset.

You should find it's nothing when you take it and it's reset. Be interested to be kept up to date with the result though, just in case it's another thing worth noting.

 

[HARWOOD]

Faulty spark plug(s) is the diagnosis??? Getting the replacement(s) fitted tomorrow as they are different on the THP200 engine compared to what the dealers carry in stock.
Advised not too accelerate to hard in the interim - keep below 2000-2500 RPM otherwise I'll be getting the message back flashing up on the display.

Cheers.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the update. Very pleased it's now't serious.

 

[HARWOOD]

Oh fook x 20, It's only just gone and happened again!!!!!! - Me thinks it's now something a lot more serious!!!!!!
Why me???

 

[Anonymous]

Because unfortunately main dealers employ young inexperienced people, who have little to no experience in "mechanicing." They merely replace the part that the computer tells them to. So we pay pay for a string of useless repairs until they stumble upon the real cause of the problem. In the mean time your wallet tends to getter thinner by the visit. Hey ho at least on this occasion you may be spared and it'll be a warranty job.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Harwood,

From how you described the initial problem, it was never going to be the sparkplugs - in my opinion.

Hope the second diagnosis goes better. Keep us updated of your progress.

 

[HARWOOD]

Thanks for all your concerns/comments...
Apparently, from what I was told when booking the car in for the same fault for the second time, Peugeot in France had recommended that the dealership change the spark plugs as I believe that the dealership had not discovered anything from doing an engine diagnostic check?????
Having this problem occur for the second time I can now describe in more detail what is happening-
As I accelerate hard but not overly hard (overtaking manoeuvre) getting up to about 45000 - 5000 rpm the car suddenly looses power and the warning light and message flashes up on the display. The engine noise then sounds burbly/blowy and it's as though it's not running on all cylinders - sorry, layman's terms.
Very annoyed with the dealership as well as they can't fit me in until this Wednesday -too busy - fault happened yesterday.
Received an e-mail survey from Peugeot and expressed my annoyance with the dealership as surely repeated faults happening under warranty should take priority?
I wouldn't use this dealership normally but they are only 10 mins away. I hope that driving the car there not doing more than 30 mph won't damage the engine further????

 

[Anonymous]

I hope that driving the car there not doing more than 30 mph won't damage the engine further????

Nope, you won't damage the engine at all.
Car will go into "Limp Home Mode" which means you can get up to around 50mph.
Once you attempt to go over 50mph, the accelator will "switch off" and you'll glide back down below 50mph.
You can then speed up to 50mph again, although the same thing will happen if you try to carry on accelerating.

Obviously, you won't be able to any fast standing starts :roll:

You won't cause any damage to the engine though. Useful that the Dealer is only 10 minutes away - not so good if they can't solve the problem though :eusa-think:

Good Luck and keep us updated.

 

[HARWOOD]

Apparently it's a faulty ingition coil now??? Here's hoping :eusa-think:
None in stock at the dealership so an order in and fix tomorrow.

 

[HARWOOD]

Cont...
Forgot to say that they are allowing me to continue to use the car until the fix has taken place - to get to work and back home. The engine is vibrating 10 to the dozen and the fan is constantly switching on whilst it's in this "Limp home mode"
Quite scary really!!!

 

[Anonymous]

take a video of it and lets hear the car. might be of use for some online boffins to diagnose

 

[FGRob]

Cont...
Forgot to say that they are allowing me to continue to use the car until the fix has taken place - to get to work and back home. The engine is vibrating 10 to the dozen and the fan is constantly switching on whilst it's in this "Limp home mode"
Quite scary really!!!

You should not be driving a car which is in limp mode, the idea of limp mode is just that get you home and then get it fixed, if it's vibrating and overheating then you are doing more damage - I have to say I would not have taken the car away, I would insist on a replacement while they sort it out.

I'll just add one further comment, if it's missing on one of the cylinders there's a good chance it's pushing neat petrol out through the cat which eventually will go bang - the garage needs a good bolloCking for this.

Rob.

 

[HARWOOD]

Sorry FGRob, unfortunately I know diddly squat about engines and have taken the dealership's word that the car could continue to be driven? If other issues develop as a result of there incompetence then I will most certainly kick ASS!!! Each visit has also been documented at the dealership so I assume that Peugeot would also come down hard on them???
Is my initial joy starting to turn into a mini nightmare?

 

[FGRob]

Sorry FGRob, unfortunately I know diddly squat about engines and have taken the dealership's word that the car could continue to be driven? If other issues develop as a result of there incompetence then I will most certainly kick ASS!!! Each visit has also been documented at the dealership so I assume that Peugeot would also come down hard on them???
Is my initial joy starting to turn into a mini nightmare?

Hey it's not your fault one bit, the garage should know better, well at least Peugeot can see what's going on as it's documented on here, just avoid using the car if possible, our cars have individual coil packs for each sparkplug so the car will run if one goes down so it gives you a false sense of security, but the vibrating would indicate one cylinder has stopped all together.

Rob.

 

[Anonymous]

i had a megane once that had this problem continually , loved the car but sold it because of it being unreliable, dont like separate coils for this reason. maybee peugeot ones are better.

 

[HARWOOD]

You should not be driving a car which is in limp mode, the idea of limp mode is just that get you home and then get it fixed, if it's vibrating and overheating then you are doing more damage - I have to say I would not have taken the car away, I would insist on a replacement while they sort it out.

I'll just add one further comment, if it's missing on one of the cylinders there's a good chance it's pushing neat petrol out through the cat which eventually will go bang - the garage needs a good bolloCking for this.

Rob.[/quote]

Had a lengthy conversation with the service manager when I returned the car this morning for the replacement coil and bought up FGRob's comments as posted above and there response was that the car had not gone into "Limp" mode and that it was totally safe to drive i.e. could not cause any additional damage to the engine and that if the cat had been affected in any way then the sensor inside would have instigated another warning light which did not happen.
He also said that the faulty coil had not broken down completely and that it was just not sending the "Full message" hence the juddering of the engine??
I also asked why they thought that the problem was the spark plug(s) on the first diagnosis and he said that the coil had probably not deteriorated sufficiently on the first visit so that led them to assume that the spark plug(s) were faulty!!
Anyway, the new coil has been fitted and all seems ok - dare I say, at the moment and I certainly hope that no additional damage to the engine/cat has been caused?
Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread and especially to FGRob for his technical concerns.
Hopefully that's the last of it and I can now start contributing to more positive aspects of the car.
Cheers.

 

[FGRob]

Hi Harwood.

Glad it's sorted, just keep an eye of the EML if it comes back on make sure you get the code from the garage. Not sure what mode your car went into then if it's not limp, needs a good run to clear the crap out, a bit of second stage will help

Rob.