by Mick Pittman | Jan 24, 2013 | Case Blogs
Vehicle: Renault Megane II Year of manufacture: 2005 Engine: 1.5dCi (K9K) Symptoms: Message “Steering unlocked”, No noise from steering lock, No dash lights present when card inserted and “Start” button pressed Fault codes: DF002 Duration: 2 Days Customer Brief: The customer came to see us with this vehicle after it had been to a local franchised main dealer who informed the owner that a new card reader would be needed at a cost of over £108 + vat and less fitting. The customer being, fairly car electronics savvy, didn’t entirely trust/believe this diagnosis so sought us out for a second opinion. Day 1 – Initial investigation: With problems like this we always have to start from the beginning no matter where the vehicle has previously been seen. This isn’t so we can make more money out of you after already having spent some on the issue but because we simply do not trust other peoples “Diagnostic” skills so rather than tell you that an expensive part is required based on a previously incorrect diagnostics session (only to find we’ve fitted and paid for parts that weren’t actually needed) we’d sooner spend a little of your money and know exactly what is, in our opinion at least, required to rectify the problem (and we have a very good success rate to) – In this case it was doing just this that saved the owner of this vehicle over £280 in unnecessary parts and labour! Firstly we carried out some basic conformity checks – These checks take about an hour to perform but are a lot more in depth than just plugging in a computer and reading the fault codes. The basic UCH/UPC fuses...
by Mick Pittman | Jan 24, 2013 | Case Blogs
Vehicle: Renault Laguna II (Phase 2) Year of manufacture: 2007 Engine: 1.9dCi (F9Q) Symptoms: Poor performance, DPF Warning light & “Injection Fault” message Fault codes: DF308, DF311 Duration: 2Hrs Customer Brief: The customer came to see us with this vehicle after it had been to several other garages who had tried (unsuccessfully) to clear the fault codes on generic diagnostic equipment with complaints of poor vehicle performance, a flashing DPF warning light and the generic message “Injection Fault” displayed on the vehicles multi-function display. Initial investigation & rectifying the fault: DPF faults on modern diesels are commonly misdiagnosed especially on Renault vehicles as requiring the actual replacement of the DPF unit (Diesel Particulate Filter) which is not only an extremely costly exercise as the filters alone can cost over £800 but is in most cases not actually required. After a quick look at the vehicles live data parameters it was evident to us that the vehicle did indeed have a blockage within the DPF unit and could see that the vehicle had attempted (and failed) a total of ten times to automatically regenerate the system so a forced regeneration would be required (See below for more information on “Self regeneration” and “Forced regeneration”). Your DPF is essentially a large kiln like oven which requires the exhaust gases flowing through it to bring it up to normal temperatures of over 400 degrees centigrade. This temperature allows it to burn up, upon entry, any soot particles that enter the filter and in return greatly reduces the visible black smoke that diesels of old are notorious for emitting. Blockages like this are normally caused by too many short “Start/Stop” journeys which stops the DPF achieving its normal operating temperature...
by Mick Pittman | Jan 13, 2013 | Case Blogs
Vehicle: Renault Megane II Year of manufacture: 2005 Engine: 1.6 16v (K4M-761) Symptoms: Running issues & “Injection Fault” message Fault codes: DF080, DF119 Duration: 2 Day Customer Brief: The customer came to see us with this vehicle after exhausting their options with other garages unable to resolve an issue with the camshaft sensor. The problem involved the vehicles Engine Management “MIL” light being on along with the generic “Injection Fault” warning message being displayed. The vehicle also made a metallic ratting noise at warm idle and used more fuel than normal. Day 1: The car was delivered to us so first things first, after which we carried out our initial hours diagnostic. This confirmed that there was indeed a fault present with the camshaft sensor but as previous garages had already swapped the sensor out several times (with cheap, non-genuine parts before finally fitting a genuine item) we knew the sensor itself was unlikely to be the actual issue. From here we launched straight in to some basic conformity checks which look specifically at the sensor circuit so lets start with the basic supply… is the sensor getting any power? In this specific case the sensor was indeed receiving +12v from the UPC’s after ignition relay which ruled out a fault in this specific area so next up were the links between the sensor and the ECU itself (which requires the removal of the vehicles battery and battery box). There are two wires from the camshaft position sensor which run directly to the ECU and they are the sensor earth and the sensor signal. The camshaft sensor is susceptible to electric noise interference so any damage to the physical wiring which isn’t detected...
by Mick Pittman | Jul 21, 2011 | Case Blogs
Date: 06/11/2009 Vehicle: Renault Megane Coupe Year of manufacture: 2000 Engine: 2.0 16v IDE (F5R-740) Symptoms: Running issues & cutting out Duration: 2 Days Customer Brief: The customer bought the car to our attention after a breakdown late one night on their way home from work. The week prior to the actual breakdown the car had steadily been misbehaving more and more frequently which started out as an occasional but minor misfire when lifting off the throttle. Eventually, a few days later, the minor misfire grew into a major issue on the motorway leaving the owner stranded at the roadside as the vehicle refused to restart. Doing what any normal person would do the owner called their breakdown company who sent out a patrol and attempted to diagnose the problem at the roadside… apparently the issue was the transmission temperature sensor. They attempted to restart the car but it immediately cut-out after a few seconds and so towed it from the roadside back home. Day 1 – Our call-out & initial inspection: The car had obviously had time to settle over night and all appeared to be fine as the car started normally. Diagnostic tools were connected and general ignition and engine sensor components were checked which revealed nothing looking or sounding out of the ordinary. The car performed flawlessly on the initial road test until we returned and left the car to idle where a slight audible misfire was noted so we attempted to drive the vehicle again with very little success – By now it was seriously misfiring, eventually cutting out and failed to restart. The diagnostic equipment was hooked up once again to find no obvious errors only this time when the vehicles fuel injection became the subject of investigation problems...
by Mick Pittman | Jul 21, 2011 | Case Blogs
Date: 16/12/2009 Vehicle: Rover 75 Year of manufacture: 2001 Engine: 1.8 16v (K16) Symptoms: Vehicle refusing to start Duration: 1/2 Day Customer Brief: The customer bought this car to our attention after being recovered by a well known recovery company to his local garage after having some engine work carried out. The vehicle was running fine the day before but just refused to start the morning after. The recovery agent diagnosed the issue as low fuel pressure but could not fix the vehicle and advised the customer to get a new fuel pump fitted at his local garage (Which he did at a cost of £220 for the fuel pump alone). This didn’t remedy the situation and so the customer turned to us for help tracing the fault. Day 1 – Call out & Inspection: The car wouldn’t start as advised but we like to make sure we know where we stand so all the basics were checked out first just in case they’d been missed. Diagnostics were connected and all engine and immobiliser systems were checked, found to be in order and the injectors appeared to be working fine on the oscilloscope (so far, so good). The engine had a strong spark and thankfully would run fine when “easy-start” was added to the throttle body (hurrah); the problem was obviously fuel supply related and as originally diagnosed by the recovery firm, the fuel pressure was found to be too low to supply the injectors with fuel. Moving towards the rear of the car and under the rear seat bench the fuel pump wiring was next to be checked but all seemed fine as the pump was getting good power and...
by Mick Pittman | Jul 21, 2011 | Case Blogs
Date: 10/12/2010 Vehicle: Peugeot 206 CC Year of manufacture: 2001 Engine: 2.0 16v (EW10J4) Symptoms:Vehicle missfiring & unstable cold start idle/P0300 present Duration: 1 Day Customer Brief: The customer bought this car to us after it had done the rounds at other garages and the problem could not be rectified. The symptoms; Misfiring, poor idle, nasty knocking noises and generic messages being displayed on the display such as “Cataletic Convertor Failure” and/or “Poor Catalyst Efficiency” along with the engine management light flashing the owner to death when the vehicle was started. Day 1 – Our call-out & initial inspection: As with all problems like this we always check the basics even if they’re been done by others and ruled out – This isn’t to waste time and rack up an expensive bill but rather so we know its correct and working! This vehicle presented us with a bit of a challenge as it had already had a number of expensive ignition parts replaced by others in an attempt to cure the problem. Initially, diagnostics revealed very little as being wrong so a compession test was carried out to ascertain the general health of the engine despite its fairly low mileage. This showed a fairly major inbalance between the cylinders when the engine was cold. Curiously the problem went away if the vehicle was driven till it warmed up and then re-tested. It was at this point we hit the books and came across a little known technical bulletin stating that a common problem found in this engine, caused by poor assembly & servicing, causes the compression leakage and applies to various models in the Peugeot range such...
