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Temperature Sensor Fault - DIY Repair! (Not a bodge!)

A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi all,

So like a good number of you on here, I have suffered the common engine temperature sensor problem. There is a lot of scattered information regarding this fault as the Z shares an engine platform with a few other cars; Mini's and DS3's etc. I thought I would collate it here to help anyone else suffering the same problems.

Symptoms
My symptoms were as follows:
- Engine temperature dial rises as normal
- Seemingly random spikes of max temperature, for short period before returning to normal anywhere from 1-10 seconds later. Temperature gauge immediately swings to max position, Temperature gauge warning light comes on, Warning message in dial cluster LCD, Warning message in centre console LCD
- After repeated occurrences of fault in short period, engine management light is triggered with "Engine Fault: Repair needed" message. This is accompanied by a P0117 error message in the ECU, which can be read with an ODB2 tool.
- After periods of good behavior, engine management light will clear.
- If fault occurs shortly before stopping, coolant fans run at max rpm for 30-60 seconds after engine is switched off.

Variants
There is seemingly a similar fault on both the THP156 and the THP200, despite the part in question actually being different. As yet I have no information on the 270bhp R model engine, but the other two are as follows:
THP156 - There is an external sensor, which plugs into the Coolant Outlet Housing(COH), retained by a spring clip. These can be bought on ebay for less than £10. I will try and detail the repair process for this later on. (I actually have one of these, bought in error, if anyone wants it let me know)
THP200 - This model does not have the external sensor, it is built into the COH, this means replacing the entire housing....or at least it did! Having spoken to my local Peugeot parts dealer last week, I was informed that there was a TSB(Technical Service Bulletin) for this model. It was explained that Peugeot had found a fault with this model and as such had issued a fix. Initially the guy was unwilling to hand over the info on this fix, but after a little persuasion and the suggestion that this was glorified racketeering he was good enough to print off a copy of this TSB for me. This document details the addition of a sensor assembly, which I think has been produced for exactly this reason. It is a much simpler process than replacing the complete COH and also cheaper. Peugeot offered this part at £46 inc VAT, better than the £77 for the complete COH. I however had a hunt around and found one on eBay for £25 delivered.

Repair
I have now fitted this part myself (THP200 version) according to their instructions and info from a workshop manual. It all went fine, taking about an hour and I have driven 500+ miles fault free! I took a load of pictures, which I am going to compose into a guide on how to do this job yourself, it really is dead easy! In short it consists of:
-Remove the air intake box
-Remove turbo pipe
-Remove air intake pipe
-Remove battery
-Remove bleed plug
-Fit sensor
-Refit removed items

I will try and get a full guide done asap!
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi - any more news on this?

I had the unit on my 200GT recently replaced after the warnings got progressively worse to the point where the car then wouldn't start. My local garage did it and tested the old unit finding it to have completely burnt out, hence the failure to read and then start.

Just 2 weeks later the warning is back but only when the engine is cold now. Once it's reached 90 degrees it's completely fine.

Doing a 3 lock/unlock/drive/lock/unlock/restart doesn't clear it.

I'm wondering if my replacement unit was old stock and with this new piece the problem will be finally resolved.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
High guys, I'm very sorry for the delay, but finally, here is a walk-through of how to fix this blighted part!

Step 1: Remove the top air pipe
This pipe needs to be removed to clear the way for other parts.

This is the part, sorry for the cruddy photo, forgot to take my own so had to use a web one.

Undo the screw circled in the image, loosen the jubilee clip. Also remove the hose indicated on the right, squeeze the two tabs and it should pull off, it might take a wiggle but it will come off reasonably easy

Pull back the heat shielding fabric and unplug the connector highlighted.

Remove the hose highlighted by squeezing where shown, like the one above. So unhook any cables from the pipe.

Once this is done, you should be able to pull the pipe out, it is a bit stiff at the front and takes a reasonable amount of force to pull off but it will go

Step 2: Remove air box cover
This part comes out next, un-clip the tab circled and slide the box upwards. The air pipe at the front should pull out easily
 

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A

Anonymous

Guest
Step 3: Remove Air Box
Next the actual air box comes out (I've just made up "Air box", it's a box and air goes through it, apologies if it has a real name that I should be using)
The part is highlighted here, to remove it undo the screw shown and loosen the jubilee clip

To lift it up and out there is a clip underneath that needs to be released

Once you have done the above, lift the box out, again a certain amount of wiggling will be involved to get the pipe off the box outlet, but it should be easy enough

Step 4: Disconnect battery
Before removal, the following steps need to be carried out
Disconnect this terminal, the tab highlighted should flip up and release the clamp

Remove this cover, there are a couple of clips holding it down, they are circled:

Remove this screw and lift off the junction plate...thingy
 

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A

Anonymous

Guest
Step 4: Disconnect battery (cont..)
Move the junction plate and battery terminal out of the way. I popped the screw from the junction plate back into the cover, didn't want to lose it!

Disconnect the rear battery terminal by undoing the nut circled, I believe it is a 10mm nut, possibly 13mm, can't remember off the top of my head.


Step 5: Remove the battery
Firstly remove the "Style cover", it should just pull out, diagonally up and forwards.

Now undo the nut shown, again I believe it is a 10mm but possibly 13mm, either way it is the same as the one before. I didn't actually remove the clamp entirely as I didn't want to have to struggle to get it back on.

With that done you should be able to remove the battery, this will clear the way for the next steps
 

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A

Anonymous

Guest
This is great - thanks.

Any chance you can also scan the TSB and/or provide a link on ebay where you found a replacement sensor?

We've had no joy with Peugeot and this TSB nor can I find anything suitable as a replacement sensor.

Thanks
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Right, where were we?

Step 6: Remove the lower air pipe
This is the last part that needs to be removed and should come out pretty easily.

Before taking this out make sure you have unclipped this pipe from the underside of the air pipe:

With this removed you should be able to remove the pipe, it might take a bit of convincing as there are a couple of tabs holding it in, shown on the left that clip into the highlighted sockets on the right. A twist of the pipe ought to do it, but you might have to get a flat head screwdriver in there to persuade it.


And with that out we finally have access to do the work we need to do!
 

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A

Anonymous

Guest
At this point, I guess I ought to just quickly cover the part we are about to fit. The part number of the part needed is 1611178280. Mine came boxed labelled as Peugeot/Citreon part, however the Prince platform that this engine is based on is also used by BMW in some of the Mini models, so don't be alarmed if it is BMW branded when it arrives, it should be fine. I actually got mine on eBay for £25 in the end, but they can be found elsewhere, here for example:
http://www.eurekacarparts.com/citroen/1611178280

The part looks like this: (Not my picture, taken from eBay, sorry, forgot to take one of the part before fitting)


Step 6: Fitting the new sensor
To fit it a bleed plug is removed from the "Coolant Outlet Housing", Peugeot's choice of words not mine, and the sensor is screwed in in it's place. Once that is done the sensor is electrically connected in line with the COH.

This is the bleed plug:


And this is the electrical connector that will be changed:


Before removing the plug, you need to prepare the following things:
-Release the pressure from the coolant system by opening the coolant reservoir(where you top up the coolant). If the car is cold then this shouldn't be a problem but it's better to be sure. Obviously if the car is hot then DO NOT OPEN IT but let it cool first, but just make sure there is absolutely no pressure in there before starting. I put the lid back on again before starting as I didn't want to allow air to enter there and have all the coolant syphon out through the COH when I took the plug out.
-Wrap some paper towel or rag around the plug port as some water will come out, not lots but better to catch what you can
-Apply some sealing compound to the sensor, on the thread opposite the flat. The Peugeot TEC refers to 'Seal Paste Index E4' which means nothing to me, so I used some compound I had at work. Not sure what would be best that's commercially available to be honest, maybe others could recommend? Whatever it is it must be suitable up to 100+ degrees.
-Place your prepared sensor in arms reach, in a minute your finger is going to be plugging a water leak, so don't put it too far away that you cant reach without letting go.

With this ready, you can remove the plug with either a spanner, socket or just a large flat head screwdriver, the last being my preference as it was easiest to get into the tight space. Once the plug is out, pop your finger over the end as quick as you can and fetch your sensor. Now take your finger off and pop the sensor in, as I said, there will be some water coming out but just a trickle so don't panic. You should be able to turn the sensor in by hand to begin with but resist the temptation to try and wind it in by twisting the cable, you don't want to break it before you've even started the engine! There is a groove across the back of the sensor, as you can see here:

Use the flathead screwdriver you ought to have to hand from previous jobs, and wind the sensor in until finger tight. The TSB states that once it is finger tight you should give it an eight of a turn to tighten it. This will all take a little bit of judgement and common sense as it's all very open to interpretation. Just bare in mind that you are screwing a metal part into a plastic housing, it is totally possible for you to over tighten this and strip the thread from the housing if you are not sensible. GO EASY ON IT!
 

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A

Anonymous

Guest
Step 7: Fitting the electrical connector
Now that the sensor is fitted into the housing, we need to connect it up in place of the old and buggy sensor. To do this we disconnect the connector shown previously and fit our new sensor cable in between the old sensor and the main wiring harness.

Remove the connector by lifting this tab, probably need a flathead screwdriver for this:


This shows the disconnected wiring harness connected into the new part, the connector in my hand will now go back into the COH connector that the just unplugged from.


With this then connected in between the two old connectors, fold the harness back on itself and cable tie it in place as shown, this stops the connectors rattling around and damaging the cables over time:


Finally cable tie the sensor lead to anything nearyby to stop it also rattling about and then YOU'RE DONE! :dance:

Now all that remains it to reverse all the other steps and replace everything that we removed. I'm not going to detail all that, if you've got this far then I'm sure you're capable of working that out yourself! I have faith in you!

I fitted this a month or so ago now and have not had a single problem since, I've probably done around 1500 miles, so seems to be fixed! I hope others can benefit from what I've learned here! I have a copy of the TSB which I will scan on Monday and upload somewhere, probably not here though due to the upload size limitation.

If anyone has any questions I'll be checking back and try to offer whatever help I can.

Happy driving!
 

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A

Anonymous

Guest
Fantastic - thank you!

Part ordered - fingers crossed!

Beers on me if this works :beer:
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
What a fantastic detailed thoughtful post ....... :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:
I've had this new sensor fitted at peugeot and it cost me £150 several months ago so this will save everyone money that's got basic mechanical skills........ And of course the all powerful Thp200 .......(what do u mean they've released an "R" version :wtf: )
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Great post, just a question if Peugeot have a TB on this then surely this would be covered FOC by them even outside the 3 year warranty window? I know vw did on a passat i had a few years back where they said bring it in and they would replace a part foc.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I'd have thought that too Biggyrick, apparently not though. I read a few posts on here that people had had theirs repaired FOC, I asked my local dealer and also called the Peugeot central service line and asked them, apparently my car was 'Not part of a batch that is subject to recall'. I did suggest that perhaps the fact I was having the problem was more relevant than a list of numbers, she wasn't convinced, logic eh, who needs it!

Seems like it's just a matter of luck if you're on the right list or not! :(
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Just doesnt inspire Peugeot confidence if they will do this.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Well so far so good!

I took yesterday afternoon off work to complete this slowly and properly. 45 mins I was done!

I found I only needed to remove the upper turbo and air box pipes to get access to both the plug and connector.

My engine was still warm so no chance to test the initial start up but did the 3 lock reset and then went for a test drive. The engine repair light and warning cleared. Game on!

Then this morning I started it up anxiously and bingo no errors, warnings or anything. I went for a drive and the engine warmed up nicely, no hint of the fan and the needle was rock steady at 90 degrees.

Fingers crossed :beer:
 
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