Major issue with my RCZ...I think

[theseannery]

Hi all.

I've got an RCZ GT 2011 c.78k on the clock. Owned it for about 5 years. Love the car.

Always had issues with front left suspension struts/bars which need worked on once a year. Not too much money though and no garage appears to be able to absoultely solve the problem. Also, usually have to put lots of oil in (which isn't unusual for sports cars i've owned previously) after long runs.

Dipstick on the RCZ is extremely poor. Impossible to tell how much oil you've put in. Had to have the car emptied of oil twice due to this and oil fill up sensor going off when it was actually near full. Also, the advised tyre pressures are wrong. Was told by another garage after I wore down front tyres in a year that i'd over-filled them, following the advised guidance on the sticker on the passenger side.

Recently I put the car in for its next service according to the manual. The garage (who I trust) told me that that the car probably has a head gasket issue, before then I started getting coolant lights going off. I bought some head gasket sealant at £40, excellent reviews and now after a week and 200 miles of driving over this long weekend the engine failure indication has gone off. Coolant was at minimum (again), so topped up.

I don't want to boot my car, but not up for a £2500 plus investigation of the engine. I've just bought an OBD2 to see if I can diagnose myself. Really disappointing and I've NEVER had this issue before with any car i've ever owned, no matter age, mileage etc. I look after my cars.

 

[Pedro]

Worse thing you could do put head gasket sealer in the coolant tank it can cause more problems & its especially bad for the water pump are you sure its not the thermostat tank leaking as losing that much coolant inside the head would I suspect cause running issues ?

 

[liamcannonball]

Hi there ,I have just had the same issue had a coolant leak so bought that sealant in worked for a little while then the leak finally got worse so could make a good guess where was coming from. Upon stripping all this out found that also the cooling line that goes to the turbo has been blocked!

So for some time My turbo not been getting water luckily I think still okay but just got me thinking maybe that's what's happend to yours to cause the emergency lights. Buy some coolant flush to get rid off your sealant. Then flush with normal water, see if this unblocks it.

Then to find your leak I'd buy some uv Ink for leaks on ebay ,a florescent uv torch abd run your car on the path for an hour ,don't drive as will make the ink go all places and hard to see where the main spray is coming from. Also put a tissue paper in the exhaust so if it is a main gasket leak it the uv will make its way through there. Hopefully you can see where the leak is going. I bought a flexy camera hose too for tight corners can't see around.

 

[liamcannonball]

Hi there ,I have just had the same issue had a coolant leak so bought that sealant in worked for a little while then the leak finally got worse so could make a good guess where was coming from. Upon stripping all this out found that also the cooling line that goes to the turbo has been blocked!

So for some time My turbo not been getting water luckily I think still okay but just got me thinking maybe that's what's happend to yours to cause the emergency lights. Buy some coolant flush to get rid off your sealant. Then flush with normal water, see if this unblocks it.

Then to find your leak I'd buy some uv Ink for leaks on ebay ,a florescent uv torch abd run your car on the path for an hour ,don't drive as will make the ink go all places and hard to see where the main spray is coming from. Also put a tissue paper in the exhaust so if it is a main gasket leak it the uv will make its way through there. Hopefully you can see where the leak is going. I bought a flexy camera hose too for tight corners can't see around.

UV Dye & UV Torch Kit Leak Detection Fluid For Car Cooling Antifreeze System RLD2 : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

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[liamcannonball]

UV Dye & UV Torch Kit Leak Detection Fluid For Car Cooling Antifreeze System RLD2 : Amazon.co.uk: Automotive

Buy UV Dye & UV Torch Kit Leak Detection Fluid For Car Cooling Antifreeze System RLD2 at Amazon UK. Free delivery on eligible orders.

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[liamcannonball]

As you can see round the bends the sealant must get blocked and forms hard looking crystallised stones that end up stopping your coolant flowing round. Here is a video that helped me

,you'll need to do some of this to unblock your turbo cooling pipe if it's that

 

[theseannery]

Thanks all for your replies. I only put the sealer in after the warning light had been on for a week and after I took it to a garage for a service and they said that the head gasket was likley to go as parts of the timing belt had been sucked into the engine. However, they never investigated the engine. What would you do? Drop over £2k on an engine dismantle and it may not actually be the head gasket at all, but you pay anyway, or pay £20 on sealant?

Garage did a full oil change as, well, the car often asks for oil when it doesn't need it. I fill it up as the dipstick is impossible to read and voila...over-fill. This has happened twice now and i've never done that on any other car i've ever owned.

I then took it to a second garage close-by. I'd run an OBD on it before and the fault codes were saying faulty oil temperature gauge. I told the garage it probably needed a new one. They had it in for a day and said there was nothing wrong with the head gasket and it was likely dodgy electrics. They cleared the fault code off and had to put in yet more oil (this was a week after the first garage, I hadn't used the car in-between and there were no oil slicks where it was parked).

Since then I have driven the car a little and after 20 minutes, the 'engine fault, repair needed' comes on every time, even when not pushing the car speed-wise. To compound things the driver-side window is now making a grinding noise and hesitates moving up and down, so I no longer open it lest I can't lock the car! That's already been fixed once already since I owned the car and shortly after purchase. The car was one owner and had fsh when I bought it.

I love driving the car and economy is good for the spec, but in short, at circa 75k I feel issues will only get worse. I've always had to get strut repairs every service and have had random electrical issues as well.

Another thing is that the door panel sticker advising tyre pressure is incorrect. I always filled to the spec at different garages, yet had to replace about 6 tyres in the space of 4 years. Garage told me they were over inflated, so now I have zero idea what the inflation should be and just go to below the minimum all the time. Pretty poor of a manufacturer that the advised specs are incorrect.

So, in short although the car is a nice place to be inside and drives nicely most of the time, i've never had these issues with any car i've owned before. Maybe I just got unlucky, but i'm going to have to let her go, but I won't sell to a private seller due to the issues which means I get very little cash back for my investment.

 

[NF7]

Sad to see that you have so many issues with the car. Mine 200 has 120k km on it and I did a big service this year. My mechanic told me that it's ready for the next 100k km. To me, it looks like you have not found a good garage for the car as they tend to blow you off easily. If they cleared the codes and the error comes back, then you need to investigate more. Check voltages, temperature sensors, etc. A good garage would find the issue.

I had a burnt-out ignition coil last year. I took it to an authorized Peugeot Service, and they scanned it there was no fuel going to cylinder 3. They quoted me 1000EUR to check the whole fuel system even though they know a burnt-out ignition coil fails to start the fuel flow to its cylinder so it's obvious that if an ignition coil is bad, there will be no fuel in that cylinder. First, you check the obvious things. Took it to a private mechanic my father recommended. It took them 30 minutes to diagnose a faulty ignition coil and an hour to have it delivered and fix the car.