Lexia / Planet Install Help Please

[Mandrake]

Argh one of those, tell me about it.

I'm chasing an intermittent misfire on my V6 which was occurring only under load but is now occurring a bit at idle as well. Its a single coil pack with three coils mounted above the front bank of plugs, but also connects to the rear bank through plug leads with each coil firing two spark plugs at once.

As you say there's no way to swap them around, also testing the spark from the bottom outputs that go directly to the front plugs is difficult. The way I did it was to lift the whole coil pack out leaving the insulator boots in the spark plug towers, then make some extension leads to go from the coil pack to the boots, I was then able to disconnect individual plugs to test the strength of each spark, also you can do a cylinder drop test to see which cylinder is misfiring, although by the sounds of it you already know which one it is.

[UVG]

Hi

I've downloaded the software from the site mandrake listed but after ive installed it I try and update it using the files supplied but it asks for a code and I have no clue what to use am I missing something? can anyone give me a clue

Cheers

UVG

[Mikrosoft]

Hi

I've downloaded the software from the site mandrake listed but after ive installed it I try and update it using the files supplied but it asks for a code and I have no clue what to use am I missing something? can anyone give me a clue

Cheers

UVG

If its one of scarys try scary01 thats what i used on a copy last night.

[UVG]

that was the first thing I tried but the next button was still greyed out so I couldn't go any further

[spider]

Worked for me during my tests, try scary1 and scary01 (zero not letter o)

[rory_perrett]

Got the software (apparently) installed and running. Plugged it in and ............. according to the computer there are no fault codes so clearly the fact that it is running a rough as ...... is all a figment of my imagination.

So I guess I'm really no further forward. The only thing is that on the injector test it flags up a communication error after it initiates the test.

As I've been doing this as a favor I'm getting to the stage of saying "take it to a garage" (god that hurts), if it were my car I would take a best guess and start replacing bits (and I know garages take this approach as well) but the bill could stack up quite quickly when we start talking coil packs, injectors, O2 sensors etc.

[Mandrake]

Glad you've got Diagbox/Lexia working at last, but bummer that its not showing any fault codes.

I can't say I'm surprised, I've had ongoing intermittent performance problems with mine including intermittent misfiring and I've never seen a useful fault code logged that was relevant to the problem! The usefulness of fault codes when troubleshooting driveability problems like misfires is limited from what I've seen, at least on older ECU's.

You may still find the parameters measurement and actuator test sections helpful in diagnosing the problem though - for example you should be able to manually fire coils, injectors and operate other actuators in the actuator tests section, and the parameters measurement screen should show you sensor input data such as MAP sensor, coolant/air temp, TPS opening, ignition timing, coil charge times (which are worth looking at for sure) injection time and so on. Passing an eye over these may reveal something amiss that the ECU wouldn't necessarily log a fault code for.

[Gibbo_Wirral]

Got the software (apparently) installed and running. Plugged it in and ............. according to the computer there are no fault codes so clearly the fact that it is running a rough as ...... is all a figment of my imagination.

That's the problem with Planet being so readily available, people think they can just plug it in and it will tell you what's wrong, then get disappointed when it doesn't, or they throw parts at a misinterpreted fault code.

Its how you use the software and interpret the codes that matters, and that requires some level of mechanical knowledge about cars and engines.

Planet is so much more than a fault code reader, the live data and parameters checkers are helpful in diagnosing faults where there's no code. But that data is only meaningful to someone who knows what it means.

For example, a faulty coil pack on a 206 petrol won't show up on Planet. So you have to use the other tools at your disposal, or go back to some traditional mechanics checks.

I'm not having a dig at you here, its just over on another Pug forum we get so many frustrated new Planet owners who have no idea what they're doing.

[rory_perrett]

I don't take it personally. I learnt most of my mechanicing when cars had carbs and distributors. In those days it was easy and there was a set of steps you could follow which usually found the fault fairly quick. Remember getting very frustrated with the first car I worked on with and ECU (an MG Maestro) that was running rough because of a failed sensor but the ECU was trying its utmost to compensate for it, but not quite managing it. Now I’m having to move with the times and get into this plug in diagnostics.

I know that plug in diagnostics don’t always give you the answer, or worse still the wrong answer, but for a job that started as a favour for a neighbour (not one I even knew) who is a bit strapped for cash and has seen that I spend most of my weekends messing with cars, at the moment I really don’t have the time to spend on it. I was hoping for a few quick pointers.

I don’t want this to go off topic with a rant but if people has a clue what is wrong before they take it to a garage (and I’m afraid it is especially true if you are female) then they tend to get a better deal. One of my daughters friend saw a quote drop from £240 to £80 of a simple job/ common repair when she made it clear she knew the cost of part and the time it should take to change it.

Anyway rant over.

[Gibbo_Wirral]

I'd suspect the coil pack, its a very common part to fail on the 206. They were on sale at Euro Car Parts last week, or you could try Ebay for a second hand one.

[elsegoose]

Glad you've got Diagbox/Lexia working at last, but bummer that its not showing any fault codes.

I can't say I'm surprised, I've had ongoing intermittent performance problems with mine including intermittent misfiring and I've never seen a useful fault code logged that was relevant to the problem! The usefulness of fault codes when troubleshooting driveability problems like misfires is limited from what I've seen, at least on older ECU's.

You may still find the parameters measurement and actuator test sections helpful in diagnosing the problem though - for example you should be able to manually fire coils, injectors and operate other actuators in the actuator tests section, and the parameters measurement screen should show you sensor input data such as MAP sensor, coolant/air temp, TPS opening, ignition timing, coil charge times (which are worth looking at for sure) injection time and so on. Passing an eye over these may reveal something amiss that the ECU wouldn't necessarily log a fault code for.

Hi Mandrake/simon. My name is Bruce, and I live in Sydney Aust. I have been following some of the posts. I keep losing them on this forum. I have recently bought a diagbox 6.01, and tried to instal it on a laptop running XP. The disk I recieved has an autorun file on it, after running the disk nothing works until I run "DBV05" patch. I notice you helped another person and you mentioned "lexia.rar, PP2000.rar, PP diag.rar, and file patch V6. Can you please tell me where I can find these files. Thanks in advance Bruce

[Mandrake]

Hi,

See my reply to your post over in the Citroen forum:

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 64#p381864" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

You'll probably get a lot more eyes on your problem in the Citroen forum than the Peugeot one as there are not only a lot more people reading it, but Lexia ownership and use seems more prevalent there.