GT200 Engine Fault - Power Loss

[Kirethidae]

Hello,

Six days ago I purchased a 2010 GT200 RCZ with 30k miles on the clock and running perfectly. Three days later it starts to go wrong. The 'Engine Fault - Repair Needed' light came on when I was accelerating obto the motorway but the car seemed fine except an initial juddering when it first came on. However after stopping and restarting I realised at lower speeds acceleration became janky and the car would struggle and sputter.

I took it back to the dealer, a place that is mainly an MOT and repairs shop, in Southampton, 50 miles away from myself. On the way it suffered a power loss again accelerating on to the motorway and went into limp mode, struggling to accelerate at all and was a struggle in fourth or fifth to push it to gain speed after it would dip from 70mph down to 50mphish when climbing hills.

The garage took a look and the codes read rich fuel mixture and combustion misfire (affecting catalytic converter). They reckoned it was the spark plugs and discovered one had been changed before for a Bosch one and reckoned this might have been causing the engine to misfire.

Changed all four for NGK ones. I took it for an extended test drive in Southampton pushing all the gears and around the motorway pushing it to 100mph, and all was fine. Drove 50 miles home, all good. The next day, today I start it up, and as soon as I accelerate on to a main road, same problem. One thing I have noticed also is that the MPG and range readings go off when it suffers a power loss.

Drove it back to Southampton and have now left it in and got a horrible 03 Civic courtesy car. They now seem to want to look at the coil packs and start from there. Upon reading forum posts here it seems there are a myriad of problems like this that it could be, but just wondering if anyone has any ideas because I really want this car and was amazing for the hundred or so miles I did before it started giving out?

 

[Plecodoras]

I don't know exactly of course, you would need to know the codes etc. But for me it sounds like fuel delivery, which I would be looking at coil packs and not forgetting the problematic high pressure fuel pump.
Now if you could get that replaced under warranty that's a huge plus because they are an expensive repair.
Good luck and please stick with the RCZ it really is a very good car in almost all respects. Please update post as it may help others in the future !
Cheers M. [THUMBS UP SIGN]

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[Kirethidae]

I don't know exactly of course, you would need to know the codes etc. But for me it sounds like fuel delivery, which I would be looking at coil packs and not forgetting the problematic high pressure fuel pump.
Now if you could get that replaced under warranty that's a huge plus because they are an expensive repair.
Good luck and please stick with the RCZ it really is a very good car in almost all respects. Please update post as it may help others in the future !
Cheers M. [THUMBS UP SIGN]

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

Doubt I will get anything expensive replaced under warranty except as a last resort as although the dealer are taking responsibility so far and being decent about it, they seem to want to check the common and simple things first. I'm annoyed with myself now that I didn't actually take down the code numbers the first time.

Another thing to consider is that over the past few years it has done very little mileage, and seemingly only 1,000 miles since end of 2017. It has full service history and services done within proper mileage intervals however the previous owner had taken it to Kwik Fit for the services...

I'm not a highly knowledgeable car person but I have just seen people talking about software updates fixing problems, would this be of worth mentioning to the garage?

 

[Plecodoras]

There are a couple of areas here to address.
1. Lack of mileage
2. Kwik Fit

1. The lack of mileage could be a good indicator that this car has had faults for a while and they haven't got to the source of the problem, and this car has spent a lot of time and probably money being passed around various outlets trying to fix it.
Peugeot garage are well known for replacing items until it is eventually fixed. This does involve replacing parts which are not faulty but in the check down list of what to do next.
2. Kwik Fit, if you are the kind of person who sends your car to be serviced here then no disrespect to the mechanics, but the RCZ engine needs a specialist garage to do the repairs and servicing. This shows the car was not looked on because it's special but just an A to B car.

In my opinion if the garage can't repair the car successfully or within a reasonable amount of time, I would be refusing it on a not fit for purpose grounds.
There are plenty enough RCZ's out there that you can find a decent one, I know it's hard when you have committed, but sometimes it's better to just walk away.
Don't let this tarnish your thoughts on the RCZ, it is a very special car that deserves coveting.

As for software, I haven't heard of that fixing any issues, except with the satnav system.
Cheers M :thumbup:

Sent from my CLT-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[Kirethidae]

Yes, I was wary of the Kwik Fit service history before I bought it but an extensive test drive and not being able to find a thing wrong with it initially, coupled with it being exactly what I was looking for in an RCZ along with low mileage, made me jump for it. The garage say they did not know of any issues and I believe them, as it took nearly two hundred miles of mostly motorway driving for the problem to arise and I don't expect they would have done anything like that being in the centre of Southampton.

I haven't yet brought up the idea of reversing the sale if they cannot fix it, but after reading about a lot of issues on here that sound similar and become very protracted I am paranoid and skeptical this will be something as simple as coils or another simple, cheap component like the dealer is hoping. Although they sound like they know what they are doing and are not trying to fob me off yet, they aren't Peugeot specialists and a lot of the RCZ issues seem quite particular to this car.

 

[Kirethidae]

Dealer just called to say that it is "definitely" one of the coils as the fault code said it was misfiring on cylinder 4 and after changing that coil to cylinder 3 and taking it for a drive, the misfire then appeared on cylinder 3.

I was convinced by reading some more that it was the HP fuel pump as the symptoms would make sense and it would explain why the initial fault codes referenced the catalytic converter as as far as I can surmise, the pump failing and car going into a low pressure mode would place additional strain on the catalytic? I mentioned this and they are positive it would not be this. I'm still paranoid and skeptical but am going ahead with changing all the coils and we will see.

 

[neilgsxr69]

Sorry to hear about your problems with your RCZ, with what you say I wouldn’t blame yourself for buying a car serviced by independent garages, as long as the proof was there it has been serviced and the low mileage and excellent condition, I did exactly the same, and almost 5 years on it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made! just because the car had low mileage doesn’t necessarily mean it’s been off the road due to problems, hopefully it’s just the coil pack and you can move on and enjoy your new car.
Keep us up to speed with how you get on. :thumbup:

 

[neilgsxr69]

What I didn’t mention was that just out of warranty my timing chain needed replacement at only 17K because my car had been serviced at independent garages Peugeot would not honour any possibility of helping with the costs of the repair even when they new there was a designe fault with the part! But the dealer who I bought my car from still had a legal obligation to repair the car and eventually agreed to let Peugeot do the work and they paid for it so result in the end :thumbup:

 

[Kirethidae]

What I didn’t mention was that just out of warranty my timing chain needed replacement at only 17K because my car had been serviced at independent garages Peugeot would not honour any possibility of helping with the costs of the repair even when they new there was a designe fault with the part! But the dealer who I bought my car from still had a legal obligation to repair the car and eventually agreed to let Peugeot do the work and they paid for it so result in the end :thumbup:

Hmmm how easy is it to check if the timing chain has "stretched" and does it depend on the severity? Wondering if I should ask the dealer to just check the timing chain so I know?

 

[RCZ-R]

Coils failing is a common thing on those engines (like on most engines nowadays).
I suggest you swap those coils and then go for a run/check. It is the cheapest fix. It is recommended to swap all coils at once as usually they fail one after the other. And you want to have the same ignition power on all cylinders. A new coil vs 3 old is not the best thing for the engine. It could cause other damages on a longer term (even damage to the catalyst as a worst case scenario).

A failing HP symptoms with very rough and irregular idle.

 

[neilgsxr69]

Would sound like a diesel on Cold start up is the tell tail sign of a stretched timing chain or a poorly operating tensioner :thumbup:

 

[Kirethidae]

Would sound like a diesel on Cold start up is the tell tail sign of a stretched timing chain or a poorly operating tensioner :thumbup:

Oh ok. Mine so far hasn't had any problems at all associated with start up so maybe that's not an issue... Yet.

Thanks everyone for the advice. Got a text to say the coils have all been changed, will pick up tomorrow and be wary until at least Monday methinks...

 

[pete.garratt]

If it comes back, I would now be looking at the high pressure fuel pump.

 

[Kirethidae]

Since the coils were replaced I've driven about 250 miles and not a bother from it. Hard accelerating, high speeds, low speeds, high revs, low revs - all seems ok with my RCZ now. Fingers crossed!

 

[neilgsxr69]

Brilliant result :dance: now enjoy :thumbup:

 

[Plecodoras]

Brilliant result :dance: now enjoy :thumbup:

+1

hope that's that fixed - happy motoring.....