Grrr who knows about cars - EDIT 10/8 *RIP wee car*

[daftscotslass]

We've had huge problems with our car over the last couple of months (it's an 8 year old Peugeot 206) - the engine autodiagnostics light keeps coming on. Every time it rains the car loses power, today worse than ever. It hits about 2.5k revs and then jumps back to 2k revs meaning that every time my OH tries to drive more than 40 it jumps back to 30.

A month or so ago we got it hooked up to autodiagnostics at the dealership only for them to tell us it was an intermittent fault and they couldn't do anything because the fault wasn't happening at the time. They suggested we replace the battery as it was dying anyway so we did and it cost us about £160 in total for diagnostics, labour and new battery. It's been running OK since but then the weather was nice! Today it's raining and OH has just had to turn around and come back having had to drive at 30 down 15 miles worth of motorway. Called up the dealership and went on a mega rant because the same thing is going to happen again - they'll charge us the £60 odd quid for the diagnostic and tell us there's nothing wrong. AARGH! They said it MIGHT be this it MIGHT be that... if we could afford to just scrap the thing we would.

We'd finally just paid the effing thing off and now it's all gone horribly wrong. Soooo can't afford a new car right now.

 

[Jade&Evie]

I'll ask John when I see him tonight- he's a mechanic at Ford.

Have you taken it to a smaller garage and asked them at all? Did they take the car out and drive it?

 

[daftscotslass]

I'll ask John when I see him tonight- he's a mechanic at Ford.

Have you taken it to a smaller garage and asked them at all? Did they take the car out and drive it?

TY

No they never drove it the first time round but will insist on it this time, especially if the weather's wet! Our small local places don't have the autodiagnostics equipment unfortunately and told us to go to the dealership. Funnily enough my uncle's best mate actually sells the autodiagnostics equipment to garages across the UK and we've hooked it up to his demo equipment a couple of times in the past (though all it told us was that the battery in our key was low - ha!).

 

[Jade&Evie]

Our small local places don't have the autodiagnostics equipment unfortunately

That may be better as they will have to drive the car. I don't trust the machines- it's not the same as driving a car in wet weather on a road!

Definately insist on them driving the car but be careful- Ford charge their customers by the hour for road testing. DON'T pay for it- they can do it free if they want

ETA: Make sure if they do road test it you go in the car! John has told me awful stories about how they drive customer's cars!

 

[CoreysMummy]

Sounds like the car is missfireing. What engine does it have?! Did anyone suggest a problem with the coil pack possibly? A clio I had used to pick up a missfire/engine managemenet light would come on too and it goes into 'limp home mode' when the coil pack had gotten wet. But I cant see a reason that any part of your engine is getting wet when it rains?? Presuming you have a bonnet !!

Id stear well clear of pug main dealer. You could have got a battery from halfprds for about 20quid and fitted it yourself, it really is easy. There all a rip off. Take it to a smaller garage if you can, preferably when the problem is happening.

EVEN if the car has not got the problem at the moment that you took it to peugeot... because the engine management light came on, a fault has been loged on your ECU. So they can see the fault code, and that will tell them what the problem is... anyone can do that, if you have RAC/AA cover, call them out, they will hook up their diagnostics machine and tell you exactly whats wrong!! I dont know why pug didnt do that for you, disgusting really to take your money like that.

 

[daftscotslass]

Oh well, another update.

2 garages we spoke to told us to take it to the dealer so we did and I managed to whine myself into a free instead of £60 autodiagnostic. Same crap again - "intermittent fault, it might be this, it might be that". Suggested we replace the coil pack and a potentially faulty sensor so we did. £200 lighter. OH drove to work 4 days later and the car was juddering like a bumper car and losing power. Tried going out in it yesterday and it's now losing power all the time, not just over 30/40mph. Going to speak to the dealer tomorrow as this has done eff all to fix it as we at least want to be able to drive it to the garage to trade it in!

We have advisory notes from the last MOT for...

Front suspension will need replaced
Due a major service (timing belt to be replaced as it's now 8 years old)
Slight leak from one of the cylinder heads - may go at any time

So we've officially had enough and it's bye bye car. Can't afford to be throwing £200 a month at it.

We saw a nice little car today (a Ford) with 5 doors, not the engine size that we were looking for but only 3 years old and it was in our price range. They are willing to do a £1000 trade in on our car (another garage offered us £500), 3 year warranty and 6 months road tax (we'll also claim a refund on the tax on our existing car) so it looks like it might be the one for us. Totally can't afford a new car right now (but OH needs it for work) so my mum has offered to lend us the money and we'll pay it back the same amount as a loan but will be £900 better off when it's all paid as she doesn't want interest. It's part of her savings. Don't know what I'd do without her.

Oh well, end rant. Anyone want a bouncing 206?

 

[LisaJ1986]

I really wanted a 206. I'll rethink now!

 

[daftscotslass]

I really wanted a 206. I'll rethink now!

According to 206 forums online (but not dealers or Peugeot central customer services) what I've experienced is really common - some people whose cars were under warranty have had whole engines or even the whole car replaced. There's also an even more hazardous fault - where the engine cuts out completely when driving at speeds. It even featured on BBC's watchdog about 4 years ago!

http://www.dvdcompare.net/peugeotfault.php

I don't think I'll be buying a Peugeot again!

 

[Funkylady]

This is soo weird! our car is exactly the same

We've got a Astra 2.2 SRi 16v and its been doing this for months. We've had a new exhaust, new plugs and last week a new catalytic convertor!! and NOTHING has helped, and we are about £500 down! we are soo short of cash at the moment, its really getting us down.

We want to trade it in, but can't see a garage wanting a crappy old kangarooing, burning oil smelling car!

help!

xx