Replaced HPFP and power has reduced

[RoCZy]

Hi, in an earlier thread I got advice on replacing the HPFP, which I did. The engine seems to be running great and on light use all seems good. However, going up a hill I have noticed that the power seems to be way down and I need to drop to fourth gear, and even then there is little pulling power. I had a go trying to drive a little more aggressively and it doesn’t seem to have the guts it used to have, even for a 156bhp. Any thoughts?

 

[TheWest]

Hope I'm not going to patronise you here (certainly not my intention), but my best guess would be the adaptions. If you've been running lean for a while, the ecu will adapt to try and keep things running smoothly. This will alter things like short term fuel trim, long term fuel trim, air fuel ratios etc. based on data gathered over a period of time. This data comes from a combination of engine sensors, and driver behaviour.

That data is stored, so the car remembers what kept things running smoothly in the past, and this doesn't automatically reset when you replace a part / resolve a problem. That has to be done with an adaptions reset.

Could be something else, maybe fuel starvation, bad coils or injectors etc. Occasionally, a big problem like a failing HPFP can hide other problems that only become apparent when you start repairing things. Sudden increase in engine output could reveal a turbo problem for example (ask me how I know). But I always go with the most obvious explanation first.

You live extremely close to me. I can recommend a couple of garages in wirral if you need, but hopefully you already have somewhere in mind.

Any more questions, feel free to ask!

 

[RoCZy]

Thanks for getting back to me, and in no way were you patronising me!
I had never heard about an adaptations reset before now, but it makes sense. After suffering hard brakes I replaced the vacuum dump yesterday, as the plastic/rubber parts had disintegrated, and did an oil and filter change. I disconnected the battery whilst doing the work. I had noticed when I did the HPFP that the end of the air inlet attached to the turbo had split but thought I could get a decent sealed joint. I put it all together again and went out for a short test drive…and it felt a lot livelier. Okay, I didn’t have the long haul of the hill coming back from Llandudno but the improvement was noticeable. Could either of the things I mentioned explain this?
Even if performance had improved I don’t suppose you know that it’s running as good as it could without a reset. I’m heading to the ice hockey tonight so will have a better trial run.
Thanks again.

 

[Pedro]

Turbo could be lagging I would also check the fuel rail pressure ?

 

[TheWest]

Absolutely could be causing it. Even the cold intake has a sensor which could contribute to running problems if there's a leak in the system. But a leak on the high pressure side of the turbo system would reduce the power output to just a regular 1.6.

But yes, as Pedro said, you can check the fuel rail pressure really easily with a £5 OBD reader (and many other things).

 

[Gina0151]

Happened to me a few years back. The garage didn’t perform the necessary BCI reset procedure to re-learn the ecu on acceleration and gear correlation. So the car loses its umf in higher gears with noticeable lack of acceleration response in 4th or uphill.
I’m on the Wirral too and after having High Pressure Fuel Pump replaced I immediately noticed a lack of acceleration on pulling iff and it felt weak in 4th gear. I turned around went back to garage to complain that my car now has reduced acceleration power, no turbo and like a delayed gradual speed increase instead of the super fast nippy responsive acceleration it had before going in to the garage. On a side note They’d had it a week and put 100 miles on the clock so I knew someone had ‘borrowed’ it.
Have you checked the reset procedure was done from cold engine, and without touching the brake? It has to be done from cold before engine reaches 50degrees and without braking - so drive take it up through 1st, 2nd, 3rd gears to around 35mph and without braking take foot off accelerator and let car naturally slow down to put it in 2nd gear, then accelerate up through 3rd and 4th, take foot off accelerator let it slow down without breaking before putting it in 3rd, then finally accelerate up to 50 ish mph and slide it into 5th then let it slow down before putting it in 4th once your speed is around 35mph.
Most garages don’t both doing this because there isn’t enough length of quiet road nearby to perform the process without braking.
I had to do it myself as garage couldn’t be bothered and afterwards I regained better speed acceleration. Plus I alternate between E10 and E5 petrol at the pump because E10 doesn’t really agree with my 2011 RCZ.

ps. Do you find most garages on Wirral are reluctant to work on RCZ like its some kind of alien spaceship or they lump it in the category of “all Peugeots are crap” They know nothing! Haha 🥹

 

[Gina0151]

Sorry just realised the above procedure I described is NOT called BCI reset (I forgot the name) but it’s the Throttle Body relearn procedure. There are several different recommendations for achieving same re-learn of the acceleration throttle body calibration (manual gearbox only obvs). But yeah the steps mentioned in my post above calibrated the throttle to match the correct gear/speed and provide throttle acceleration. Worked for me. Others just go on the motorway or dual carriageway and try this:

Drive at Highway Speeds or 40 MPH While Accelerating and Deaccelerating for Some Time​

To complete a throttle body idle relearn procedure on some vehicles, you may have to drive at highway speeds or 40 mph while accelerating and deaccelerating for a certain amount of time.
Eventually it relearns and speed acceleration performance improves as you drive and keeps learning iver the following days.