207 1.6 Sport suddenly takes longer to start

[PopPops]

Hello All,

I’m hoping to benefit from your expertise. My wife has had her 2010 207 Sport Auto for 11 years, bought with 6k miles, now done 42k. Peugeot main dealer serviced, then by a good recommended Indy. Car has never missed a beat in 11 years. About 800 miles ago got an anti pollution warning. Fault codes from Diagbox were P0014 and P11A8, exhaust cam dephasing fault, temporary. Been perfect since with no reoccurrence.

Now, all of a sudden, instead of requiring the usual, according to my ears, 2 compression strokes to fire, it takes about 3 times that of cranking to start. Cranking at normal speed. But it starts with no hesitation or roughness and runs fine, power and economy as before. It just gives the impression it’s not going to start. I can’t release my laptop for a few days to run Diagbox, so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas what this could be, as a “heads-up”. Not sure I want the phone call from my wife saying she is somewhere and it won’t start!!

Many thanks in advance.

[PaulC5]

If it is a vti engine it could be a worn timing chain amongst other things. We had a C3 with the 1.4 vti engine and that needed one at 50k miles and was giving a fault code to do with timing.

[PopPops]

Thank you! Yes, it’s a 1.6 vti. I was aware the timing chains caused problems, but not as early as 50k mikes! That’s a bit worrying. Not sure I want the codes from Diagbox now, when the laptop is free.

Didn’t chains used to last the life of the car, one upon a time?

[PopPops]

To follow up now I’ve managed to free up the laptop and run Diagbox.

One new temporary fault was logged:
P11A3 : exhaust camshaft dephasing fault
Status : Temporary fault
richness regulation status : open loop (special driving conditions)

I cleared the fault and the starting has returned to normal. Is that odd? It was a temporary fault. I assume the starting issue was due to the richness being “open loop”.

This does all seem to point to the timing chain, but there is no rattle cold or hot, and it runs perfectly with normal economy. I might do an oil change and put in decent oil and maybe change the exhaust solenoid and possibly the chain tensioner, all relatively cheap, before setting about changing the chain - the Land Rover is keeping me very busy at the moment……….

[PaulC5]

You might not want to waste about £40 on the correct Total oil and a new filter. I cleaned one of the solenoids (the one at the front) and it made no difference. Apart from the fault code our C3 had no other symptoms of chain wear such as rattling. It was the dealer who said it needed a new chain after we checked with them but in the end we did not fix it but part exchanged the C3 at the dealer for a Cactus with the 1.6 hdi engine, having no confidence in the petrol ones then available in 2017. The vti also used oil at about 1 litre every 2000 miles from when we got it on 12k miles and 3 years old and this seems to be another common problem.

If you have low oil pressure also have a read of this which turned out to be a problem with the filter housing https://www.peugeotforums.com/threads/p ... tby=oldest

[PopPops]

You might not want to waste about £40 on the correct Total oil and a new filter. I cleaned one of the solenoids (the one at the front) and it made no difference. Apart from the fault code our C3 had no other symptoms of chain wear such as rattling. It was the dealer who said it needed a new chain after we checked with them but in the end we did not fix it but part exchanged the C3 at the dealer for a Cactus with the 1.6 hdi engine, having no confidence in the petrol ones then available in 2017. The vti also used oil at about 1 litre every 2000 miles from when we got it on 12k miles and 3 years old and this seems to be another common problem.

Thanks for your comment.

As it’s my wife’s car and still looks like brand new, I think it will have to be fixed. It is due a service anyway (1 year) and the oil on the dipstick seems thicker than I would have expected. My Land Rover takes the same grade and that is much thinner. The main dealer and latterly a recommended Indy has serviced it (to keep the service record up to date) so I have no idea what oil went into it. I’m taking over all its maintenance now. Still can’t believe it needs a timing chain after being very well looked after and treated gently at 42k miles!

Something else to keep me busy…

Cheers.

[PaulC5]

I have just edited my last post so have another look at it, I mentioned about oil pressure.

[PopPops]

I have just edited my last post so have another look at it, I mentioned about oil pressure.

Thank you. No known symptoms of low oil pressure, but definitely something else to consider.

Cheers.