Peugeot 307 2.0 16V 100KW/136HP - P1160 fault code

[Blinderfluidenjoyer]

The car is 2004 Peugeot 307, 2.0 16V 100KW/136HP petrol suddenly throwing a fault code P1160. VIN: VF3**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]

I´m just a backyard mechanic and the weird chain of events leading to the code go like this. There was a surprisingly violent crash on highway with huge rabbit in 2024 autumn. Collision broke some plastics under the engine, broke the cooling fan, cracked the radiator shroud, obliterated it´s little plastic vents and the car also threw multiple weird fault codes which I just reseted and those were never seen again. All the wiring at the front seemed intact. Shroud has got new vents and is overall in usable condition. As I installed new radiator cooling fan I also put in one new fuel injector since it was malfunctioning and also replaced old NGK spark plugs to some Denso´s which were gapped accordingly. Soon after that engine felt little weak and slow to response. Usable though. The new injector was faulty and leaked fuel pressure when parked but I got a replacement. Didn´t change how car felt. I didn´t want to believe in bad plugs because that´s just how I am. As I cleaned the MAP-sensor just in case, since it´s easily accessible and original over 20 year old sensor, it´s screw snapped and off comes the intake manifold. Was not able to put in new screw otherwise for the MAP sensor. Lot´s of black gunk came out of the MAP when cleaning it. After stripping two intake manifold bolts during assembly and re-using old intake seals, cause I was in a hurry, everything seemed a bit better somehow but not like before the new plugs and the injector. In December fuel consumption suddenly rocketed and average with mostly highway driving was something like 10-11l/100km compared to the usual average of about 8l/100km before. Idle became rougher about the same time. Engine vibrated and there was some sudden variation with rpm though so slight was not noticable via rpm gauge. It was like idle was going through some cycle as if it was trying to find it´s place or something. Ignition didn´t sound like it was misfiring per se. I found some vacuum leaks.

To fix the weird idle and high fuel consumption I have since replaced the sparkplugs with new NGK plugs which are gapped right. Denso plugs had some sooth around the base but everything looked pretty normal. Maybe overall cleaner than one would expect for several month of use in an engine with 306 500 km on it. I have replaced intake manifold gaskets with new ones, installed couple of thread inserts for the broken threads and put all new bolts. Replaced O-rings for two of the injector since they both had a slight vacuum leak though they looked fine and I do use silicone grease when installing the injectors not to mess them up. EGR pipe from engine block to intake is secured properly. I have cleaned throttlebody and fully checked all the relevant vacuum connections and hoses both visually and with some start-up spray for leaks, excluding the purge tank hose. Relevant electronic connectors have been examined and cleaned if seen necessary but not tested with multimeter. I checked the EGR-valve. It was pretty clean considering the age but I found it slightly leaking when closed and filled with brake cleaner. I got new Delphi MAP-sensor, Wahler EGR-valve and new crankcase breather hose since the old one was not sealing properly at valve cover and got a crack in it while checking the old EGR. I know one should use OEM parts especially for the MAP but thought these would do. After all this car felt pretty normal as before the rabbit and this circus and idle is great. Engine vibrates some but the same amount it has always done, can´t feel it inside the car.
The car has total of two replaced injector in it´s lifetime to my knowledge. I also just ran a one full tank with Motul petrol fuel system cleaner which was advertised to clean pretty much everything. I am also now half way through running full tank with STP injector cleaner. I usually use 95 octane gas which in my country has appr. 10% alcohol. The tank with Motul additive I used 98 octane which has appr. 5% alcohol in it.

Anyway, I drove 100km total with the new MAP and EGR parts and car gave me codes P0107 and P1160 today just as I turned on my driveway. I have never seen these codes before with this car - even with the symptoms described earlier active. I understood that the first code is for intake manifold pressure and is MAP-related and the latter is also somehow intake related but that one results the car going to limb mode. Just to test quickly I switched the Delphi MAP to the old OEM sensor and took a 32km test drive. Work otherwise perfectly but just before our driveway on the way back, car went to limb mode and gave this time only the P1160 code. Driveway leading to our parking lot is short but steep hill taken with slow speed.

How should I proceed? I could check if there is visible evidence of the new EGR leaking and the purge can vacuum line also could be another thing to check. How can one confirm the EGR works right? Other than those I can´t belive there could be another vacuum leak anywhere else in engine bay. Reaching here but can the now properly sealing crank breather hose have some effect on this matter if there was enough blow by in engine? Engine consumes some oil, but well under 0.5l/1000km, not properly kept track on that. It got a bit better after switching from 5W-40 to 5W-50 last summer. Does not smoke. Should I measure somethings with multimeter and what could those be? Though I have PP2000, Diagbox V7 and V9.85 as a softwares available to me unfortunately I don´t have a proper VCI to make use of those at the moment. I only have some cheap ELM OBD2 reader and Torque app for the moment. It´s not much but it usually gives correct codes and can present intake vacuum value.

Thank you for reading and all tips and suggestions are welcome.

[Blinderfluidenjoyer]

Switching MAP-sensor from old to new and other way around didn´t do much on it´s own. Maybe little worse idle with the old one. Old EGR-valve does not activate fault codes but engine feels slower to response when beginning to accelerate and overall little weaker. With the new Wahler EGR in the engine is more responsive and with both new MAP and EGR installed engine runs much better. No indications of leakage through EGR gasket at least. The new EGR activates limb mode but always at the end of test drive and doesn´t matter how far you drive, only when almost at home even though similiar driving situations appear when entering city center etc. some attitude. I´ll try to have that new EGR returned and replaced.

[Blinderfluidenjoyer]

There has been some development in the situation. Today I took a trip to other city with the new MAP and old EGR-valve installed since thought they didn´t seem to throw fault codes. During the 150km trip, after first 60km highway driving and arriving to the other city the car begin to to go limb mode total 12 times. Every time it happened was after driving normally whatever speeds and as engine returns to idle either when stopping at traffic lights or pressing clutch in when at speed and letting rpm drop to idle. Almost instant limb mode and P1160 code. Engine works normally after just turning the ignition off and restarting it.
Paid full version of Torque app, I found, can have it log data and draw graph with choosed values like intake manifold pressure, O2 values, fuel trim, ignition timing advance etc. During the drive back home I observed the mentioned values and just a minute ago went for a little ride and checked throttle position values (can only see the throttlebody, not throttle pedal) and there is nothing suspicious about any of those. Everything very logical and nothing points to a vacuum leak or any other obvious problem. Car just activates limb mode when letting rpm drop to idle after driving when engine is in operating temperature and all mentioned values lock straight into the ones programmed for the limb mode.
Earlier in the story when I took out the intake manifold I of course removed the throttle body as well. There has been no problems following that procedure directly. I have electronic throttlebody with no direct linkage to throttle pedal. Have not needed adapting it so far. Throttle position sensor has been reseted with some instructions from internet, you know the ignition on pedal down and ignition off etc. but not sure if it actually did anything but it surely didn´t cause this.
When I installed the new MAP and EGR I had temp sensor, MAP-sensor, EGR-valve and throttlebody connectors off mainly for cleaning. Temp sensor connector was really oily, MAP and EGR was just little dirty and throttlebody connector I had off just to tape the wiring loom leading to it to support the wires more securely since original tape had left. I did not bend the wiring loom crazy or anything like that could cause some damage.

I´m now thinking if this P1160 and limb mode is more throttlebody related problem. The original problems that I was trying to fix were rough idle and high fuel consumption I believe are surely MAP and EGR related. Had those problems for months and suddenly this limb mode thing but after I added new parts but also now with the original parts too as tested. I think I need to wait for the proper VCI to arrive to get PP2000 running.

[PaulC5]

Have you tried to clean the MAF sensor yet if your car has one ? It seemed to work in this topic https://www.206info.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic/t=20398.html

[Blinderfluidenjoyer]

Have you tried to clean the MAF sensor yet if your car has one ? It seemed to work in this topic https://www.206info.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic/t=20398.html

Hey and thank you for the suggestion. MAF cleaning was my first instinct but my cars 2.0 ew10j4 16V 136hp engine does not have one. All the air related sensors are attaches to throttlebody like intake temp sensor which seemed to give proper value and also intake manifold as the MAP and EGR connection. I have cleaned the old OEM MAP and later replaced it with non-OEM Delphi MAP. I think getting the car hooked up to PP2000 would help a lot at this point. I have a full chip Lexia VCI on the way. Let´s check back in a week or so. This is not our primary daily driver so no rush with this car.

[Tucson]

Hi, I just registered to tell you that I have exactly the same problem with my 206CC 2.0 RFN.

I have seen countless videos and "literature" about it because it is driving me crazy.

There is certainly an air leak, but one of the "safest ways to check", according to a Portuguese guy, is to simply block all air inlet in the intake throttle with the palm of your hand (and fingertip). The car should die instantly.

If the car continues to run, it means that air may be entering through the injector seals, or the intake orings. In my case the car dies but I still have the P1160 problem, so this false air must be somewhere else.

Having said that, I have also read that the timing belt may be one tooth out of position, or the EGR is letting in too much air. I have even read about damaged cylinder head gaskets, but I don't see any symptoms of that, such as water consumption, combustion gases in the water or water in the oil or vice versa

One of the symptoms I also have is that the car is very abrupt when decelerating, especially in low gears, as if the engine mounts were broken, and you can also hear small gargles coming from the exhaust, when you go at approximately 30kmh... or rather when you approach a corner, it is very easy to hear.

There is air there, I'm 101% sure the problem is where!!!! Do you think the belt could be loose? Then the valves are not closing when they should, ergo causing "false air" .... it could be, I just can't think of any other causes.

[Blinderfluidenjoyer]

Solved. Fault for the code seemed to be caused by a vacuum leak through a loose EGR-neck that screws into front of the block to which the intake manifold EGR-pipe attatches. Also the new non-OEM PCV-hose didn´t have a check valve in it. We´ll see though when I get to drive more if the fault code returns. Engine a bit weak through 1000-2500rpm though.

If you wanna read more about this mess here it is.

After previous message I got a replacement EGR-valve just to be sure, put it in with OEM gasket since it´s much better it seems. Didn´t change anything. I got the full chip C-revision Lexia reader finally and ran it with Diagbox V7.49. Calibrated the throttlebody. Didn´t do much on the idle and code stayd away for a short while but soon returned. I took off the exhaust side valve cover since its supposed to house the PCV-valve, should there be any. I needed to chance the valve cover gasket anyway. I rinsed and shaked full bottle worth of white spirit through the cover and also some other strong solvent I found. Lot´s of dark brown gunk came out but no obstructions. Put on the new gasket. No difference on anything and the PCV system seems to work pretty right anyway based on the oil filler cap suction action when pluggin in and removing the PCV-line. Tried plugging the PCV end off of the vacuum line. Didn´t do anything. Got a vacuum gauge and checked the intake vacuum and compared it to the MAP reading through Torque app and it´s right on the money. I had the gauge plugged in to the purge valve port on throttlebody and it didn´t change anything so purge valve must be good. Was going to check fuel pressure but didn´t have the right fittings for the schrader valve on the fuel rail. The fuel injector on cylinder 3 that was replaced last autumn makes very loud and sharp clicking compared to the others. Of course injector always make some noise but that´s loud. I took a look at the plugs of cylinder 3 and 2 and they are all right and identical. Very light sooth around the base and got somewhat white sprong or whatever the elector ground is called but not too crazy. I would say little lean but not too bad. All the relevat data through Torque app seems well in tolerances without weird anomalies. Long term fuel trim is -3 to -8 and idle is -10 to -15 it depends. Nothing too obvious.

I was thinking about getting a used throttle body from scrap yard as few folks got this fault sorted out that way and since they were so cheap but still decided to snoop around the engine would there be something I had missed. And there was. I took the new PCV-hose off and just to be sure I blew and sucked through all openings. No obstructions. See my original PCV-hose was cracked in half, very oily and I had also cut of the slim vacuum line to the throttle body of it to use the connector to connect the vacuum meter to throttlebody as the hose was broken anyway. Taped the hose all back together and replaced the missing part with stiff fuel hose with proper clamps and blew and suck through all the openings. As it turnes out the OEM hose has a check valve in the three way fitting that unite the lines from throttlebody-PCV-airfilter. The new hose does not have check valve at all or it´s broken. Put that hose in and engine became angry with jumping idle. Plugged the PCV-end of hose and didn´t do anything. I don´t believe in small vacuums causing big problems with this engine since I have driven with huge leak through injector o-rings in the past and only symptom I got was high fuel consumption. I wiggled everything in the engine while it ran and sprayed stuff around to find a leak. And I found one and I have to say I felt like an ARSE When I changed intake manifold gaskets in last December, outside and in bad weather in a hurry so as I connected EGR-pipe from intake to engine I noticed the the EGR-neck on the engine was wiggling slightly. Didn´t wanna mess with it since didn´t know in detail how it worked and hadn´t caused known problems before so I left it alone and forgot about it. Now this time it was even looser than before like it was hand tight in and it sucked the brake cleaner in through it´s threads. Took it out, cleaned it well and was so pissed-off by the whole thing I screwed it in tight with very overkill amount of appropriate silicone. Engine jumped the idle, I reseted the fault codes and engine ran good. There was weird dip when letting go of accelerator and constant P1660 code though. Today I reseted and calibrated all auto-adaptive system with PP2000 and car ran good. No codes or limp mode. Have to say it feels much weaker in 1000-2500rpm than before though. It was snappier even when there was all the faults, but no codes now and idle is better than ever. Maybe it get´s better when it learnes the ropes again I don´t know. I´m getting a new PCV-hose to replace the bad one and the old messed up one. If the fuel consumption returns to normal now I´m not gonna mess with anything no more. Though I think the fuel pressure could be worth to check sometime in the future. Other than that I don´t know. New air filter was also put in last summer and checked that and looked brand new and was dry.

[Blinderfluidenjoyer]

Hi, I just registered to tell you that I have exactly the same problem with my 206CC 2.0 RFN.

I have seen countless videos and "literature" about it because it is driving me crazy.

There is certainly an air leak, but one of the "safest ways to check", according to a Portuguese guy, is to simply block all air inlet in the intake throttle with the palm of your hand (and fingertip). The car should die instantly.

If the car continues to run, it means that air may be entering through the injector seals, or the intake orings. In my case the car dies but I still have the P1160 problem, so this false air must be somewhere else.

Having said that, I have also read that the timing belt may be one tooth out of position, or the EGR is letting in too much air. I have even read about damaged cylinder head gaskets, but I don't see any symptoms of that, such as water consumption, combustion gases in the water or water in the oil or vice versa

One of the symptoms I also have is that the car is very abrupt when decelerating, especially in low gears, as if the engine mounts were broken, and you can also hear small gargles coming from the exhaust, when you go at approximately 30kmh... or rather when you approach a corner, it is very easy to hear.

There is air there, I'm 101% sure the problem is where!!!! Do you think the belt could be loose? Then the valves are not closing when they should, ergo causing "false air" .... it could be, I just can't think of any other causes.

Sorry about slow response, I have been really busy. I think I solved my case! You can read about it in my previous message. I would imagine timing belt being off even with one tooth that the car would overall feel really bad. What things have you already checked with your vehicle?