Help needed with sick 207 GTI please - blowing oil

[Markgw]

Hi,

Looking for someone to help with a list of possible causes for my brother's sick 207 GTI. Its a 2008 model with the 1.6 THP 175 engine.

Last week it was running with a lumpy idle and plugging in a diagnostic gave two error codes:

P2336
P1385

Doing some research, this seems to be indicating carbon deposit or a timing issue.

But before doing anything else, the engine has now blown out the dipstick spraying everything in oil.

To my mind, this sounds like a head gasket or piston rings but does anyone have any experience of similar problems or what else I can check?

Thanks

[xantia_v6]

It is also possible that the check valve on the rear PCV has failed, allowing boost pressure from the manifold to pressurise the crankcase.

http://www.motoringalliance.com/forums/ ... oblem.html records a case of a possibly similar problem.

The engine top covers are rather expensive from the dealer, but while Googling "PCV delete" a few days ago I stumbled across an eastern European company that makes repair kits for the valves which are much cheaper than replacing the engine top cover.

You could consicer a "PCV delete", which would of course eliminate that faulty valve from the system. This is not as drastic as it sounds, as this engine has 2 PCV systems and only one is deleted. Peugeot themselves did this (along with some other changes) for the 2012 model to reduce the problem of carbon build-up on the inlet valves.

[xantia_v6]

Found the PCV valve repair part: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Peugeot-EP6-MIN ... 2019048337

I have not had one of these apart yet, so I am not sure if the check valve and the vacuum regulator valve are part of the same thing.

If nothing else, it would be worth checking before declaring the engine dead.

[wurlycorner]

Yep, agree with above. Piston rings or fault/blockage on the pcv/crank case breather systems.

[Markgw]

Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated. I'm due to have the car on my drive saturday to start figuring things out.
Apparently the car starts and runs but is seriously down on power.

The PCV will be looked at. I've had an old land rover defender where deleting that same sort of device was one of the first jobs. The amount of black sludge that came out the intercooler was surprising.

Will start with diagnostics and a compression test and will take it from there.

Thanks

[CitroJim]

Very interested to hear of how all this pans out Mark so please keep us informed

Fingers crossed it's nothing too serious...

[Markgw]

Cause found - Piston rings in #4 have gone.

Eventually got hold of a compression tester and tested from left to right. All was going well until I reached number 4 where the pressure reached a not so great 0 bar!

Adding oil brings it back up to 1 bar, when cylinders 1 to 3 are all reading 10 bar.

A full strip down is beyond my expertise so my brother wants to get rid.

I'll upload some photos etc. but looking for offers for the complete car collection from near Bristol.

Car is very clean and worked fine until this problem. 2008 THP175 GTI eith 83k miles and service history.

Will repost to sales section when I have the full details and photos.

[CitroJim]

Gosh, I'm surprised such a young engine would suffer ring failure... I'd love to know the root cause of it...

[Bick]

You and me both Jim - the fact adding oil only bring the pressure up to 1 bar makes it sound like a serious piston failure.

[CitroJim]

You and me both Jim - the fact adding oil only bring the pressure up to 1 bar makes it sound like a serious piston failure.

Indeed. Something has quite surely badly let go...

[DHallworth]

It's quite common on these engines, Jim. The THP engines of the 07 - 09 era are a disaster. It's not if it fails, more a case of when it fails. My brother has spent thousands on his 207 GTi (about £8k over 2 years) and things just keep going wrong with it. He's getting rid of it anytime now as he's just bought a Golf R due to being so fed up pouring money into the 207.

David.

[CitroJim]

David, in this day and age that is utterly shocking! Do you know why they fail so badly?

[xantia_v6]

My guess is that a piston has started to melt due to pre-ignition caused by uneven air distribution between the cylinders, caused by carbon deposits on the intake valves. Was there any unusual burning or debris on the spark plug from cylinder 4?

There is a fairly good chance that the bore has been scored. Pistons are available, but I don't know if the block has replaceable liners, or can be sleeved.

[CitroJim]

That sounds a very likely scenario Mike... Yes, if the bores escape damage it'll be a miracle under such conditions...

[DHallworth]

There's a lad I met at the D Rally last year in Little Horwood who had a DS3 racing. It was only on 40k miles or thereabouts and was on it's 3rd engine!!

I like the big V6's as they're relatively unstressed engines, however, extracting 200bhp from a 1.6 was bound to have reliability issues, I think they found them. Interestingly, the RCZ R and 308 GTI have got 275bhp from the 1.6 Turbo. Apparently they're now forging the internals on those though.

David.