Hello everyone,
First post. Richard, from the North East of England. My car is a Peugeot 207 1.6 GT Turbo 56 plate which I’ve had for just over one year.
A few weeks after I got the car (first occurred aprox 11 months ago), I experienced a “depollution system faulty” error on the dash. After reading some advice online, the air filter was changed and the car ran at a steady speed for 45 minutes. The error was then cleared using a non-Peugeot computer attached through the port in the glove box.
I should really have come on the forum at this point, since my understanding of cars is poor. Nonetheless, the error did not reappear and the car ran fine for the best part of a year, so I did nothing about it other than an oil change and the usual checks.
During the middle of last month, the car started stalling on deceleration. Essentially, the car runs and doesn’t cut out in idle or when travelling at speed, but it does seem to be struggling to maintain a fixed number of revs from what I can see (the needle seems to fluctuate as if the car can’t find the right rev level to remain at). Sorry that I can’t give a better description.
I had a mobile mechanic look at it as the car didn’t seem safe to drive (I was concerned it might cut out at speed, however, this didn’t actually happen, it only cuts out when breaking sharply after the revs dropped below a certain point under 2,000, regardless of gear). His diagnostic machine was reading “Fuel too rich” although there was no warning light on the dash. No reappearance of “depollution” related faults. He gave the car a service, changed the oil and fuel filter and reported this made no difference. The problem seemed to be over his head and he recommended I take it to Peugeot as their machine may read the specific code, he suspected “Fuel too rich” to be a generic (and unhelpful) error.
I checked it in to a Peugeot dealership 4 weeks ago who promised to take a look at it after I'd given them the history. I’ve had a hell of a time with them in regards their communication, not getting back to me, getting conflicting stories, etc. I’ll try and summarise the technical aspects and avoid getting into all that, though.
Dealership said the Peugeot diagnostic machine could not read from the ECU. Asked if I would be OK for them to download it to a computer (apparently there’s a 1 in 1,000 chance this can corrupt the system), which I approved.
They then phoned me to say they’d need to strip the engine down, worst case scenario would be “timing chain and tensioners”, and I’d be looking at a total bill of £670 inclusive of the diagnostic and ECU download. I approved this.
This didn’t work. I then approved a further 3-4 hours of “manual diagnostics” to try and get to the bottom of this since I had no idea what to do next and challenging them on their previous promise was getting me nowhere. Total bill now over £900 follow these further diagnostic checks.
They rang me at the weekend to ask if I’ve ever jumped started the car (unsure of relevance, but I haven't), but that in any case, the ECU needs replaced. This will cost £800 and when pressed if they are sure that this will solve the issue, they’ve said they can’t make any guarantees.
I’m really unsure what to do, an already costly bill is about to rise to £1,700 on a 56 plate car, and they don’t seem to be able to make any estimation of whether this will resolve my issue despite paying several hundred quid for different types of diagnostic.
I know there’s no magic answer here, but I'm hoping for some opinions from those that understand these things better than I do of what you might do next in my position. Stick with this dealership despite them taking 4 weeks to get to this point and getting very vague information from them? Take it elsewhere? Try and sell the car in the state that it’s in? Really appreciate any thoughts.
In the mean time, I’m hopefully meeting the “head tech” this afternoon/tomorrow to see a written report of what they’ve been doing for the last 4 weeks.
Cheers!
First post. Richard, from the North East of England. My car is a Peugeot 207 1.6 GT Turbo 56 plate which I’ve had for just over one year.
A few weeks after I got the car (first occurred aprox 11 months ago), I experienced a “depollution system faulty” error on the dash. After reading some advice online, the air filter was changed and the car ran at a steady speed for 45 minutes. The error was then cleared using a non-Peugeot computer attached through the port in the glove box.
I should really have come on the forum at this point, since my understanding of cars is poor. Nonetheless, the error did not reappear and the car ran fine for the best part of a year, so I did nothing about it other than an oil change and the usual checks.
During the middle of last month, the car started stalling on deceleration. Essentially, the car runs and doesn’t cut out in idle or when travelling at speed, but it does seem to be struggling to maintain a fixed number of revs from what I can see (the needle seems to fluctuate as if the car can’t find the right rev level to remain at). Sorry that I can’t give a better description.
I had a mobile mechanic look at it as the car didn’t seem safe to drive (I was concerned it might cut out at speed, however, this didn’t actually happen, it only cuts out when breaking sharply after the revs dropped below a certain point under 2,000, regardless of gear). His diagnostic machine was reading “Fuel too rich” although there was no warning light on the dash. No reappearance of “depollution” related faults. He gave the car a service, changed the oil and fuel filter and reported this made no difference. The problem seemed to be over his head and he recommended I take it to Peugeot as their machine may read the specific code, he suspected “Fuel too rich” to be a generic (and unhelpful) error.
I checked it in to a Peugeot dealership 4 weeks ago who promised to take a look at it after I'd given them the history. I’ve had a hell of a time with them in regards their communication, not getting back to me, getting conflicting stories, etc. I’ll try and summarise the technical aspects and avoid getting into all that, though.
Dealership said the Peugeot diagnostic machine could not read from the ECU. Asked if I would be OK for them to download it to a computer (apparently there’s a 1 in 1,000 chance this can corrupt the system), which I approved.
They then phoned me to say they’d need to strip the engine down, worst case scenario would be “timing chain and tensioners”, and I’d be looking at a total bill of £670 inclusive of the diagnostic and ECU download. I approved this.
This didn’t work. I then approved a further 3-4 hours of “manual diagnostics” to try and get to the bottom of this since I had no idea what to do next and challenging them on their previous promise was getting me nowhere. Total bill now over £900 follow these further diagnostic checks.
They rang me at the weekend to ask if I’ve ever jumped started the car (unsure of relevance, but I haven't), but that in any case, the ECU needs replaced. This will cost £800 and when pressed if they are sure that this will solve the issue, they’ve said they can’t make any guarantees.
I’m really unsure what to do, an already costly bill is about to rise to £1,700 on a 56 plate car, and they don’t seem to be able to make any estimation of whether this will resolve my issue despite paying several hundred quid for different types of diagnostic.
I know there’s no magic answer here, but I'm hoping for some opinions from those that understand these things better than I do of what you might do next in my position. Stick with this dealership despite them taking 4 weeks to get to this point and getting very vague information from them? Take it elsewhere? Try and sell the car in the state that it’s in? Really appreciate any thoughts.
In the mean time, I’m hopefully meeting the “head tech” this afternoon/tomorrow to see a written report of what they’ve been doing for the last 4 weeks.
Cheers!