Weekend before last the temperature warning came on the dash saying that it had overheated. The AA recovered it back home and even after it had cooled down the pin was shooting off the scale and the fans going at full speed. We looked at replacing the temperature sensor and ended up doing the whole thermostat assembly as the sensor comes with the assembly and the price wasn't that much more.
Andrew fitted the sensor whilst I was at work but the car was still doing the same thing. I plugged Peugeot Planet into it and cleared the codes and it sorted it out. Strange that it won't self reset after changing something as simple as a temperature sensor.
That evening the car started to run really rough and it was bogging down when you tried to bring it off idle, it was popping and banging down the exhaust at the same time. I've read a lot on the internet about the timing chains on these slipping and letting the timing go and was fairly certain that's what was wrong. By this point we were all a little fed up so I didn't even bother to put Planet back on it. We'd decided that we didn't want to entertain the idea of sorting this out so we had the car recovered to Peugeot Ecosse in Bo'ness on Thursday afternoon. It arrived at 5pm and they were fully booked for the Friday which was unfortunate.
I got a phone call today, a little after midday to say that the car was fixed. It wasn't actually the timing that had slipped, the high pressure fuel pump mounted to the cylinder head had failed. They had a 2nd hand pump to hand that they'd fitted to ensure that their diagnosis was correct, thankfully it was and the car has totally transformed. In fact the car now is driving better then it has done since we've had it. They offered to order a new one at £320 + VAT or leave the 2nd hand one on it for £150 + VAT. As he needed the car back quite quickly we opted for the 2nd hand one rather then waiting for it as tomorrow we're all busy so picking it up would be difficult as they're over 50 miles away.
We'd been thinking about getting rid of it as we've spent a fortune on it recently. The electric coolant pump which cools the turbo had to be replaced a couple of months ago at £600, the bill today including labour for changing the fuel pump was £450 and it had a set of Michelins fitted to it a month or two back as well... Hopefully that'll be it for a while now as it drives very nicely. It was also quite comforting to hear the garage saying that they've driven dozens of these things and this one is one of the better ones to drive out of all of them.
It is a little disappointing that it's needed this sort of work done to it at 61k miles, however, it's a BMW engine in it, electric coolant pumps, fuel pumps and timing chains seem to be a fairly common occurrence on these engines when fitted to the Mini, DS3's (150thp and Racing) and the 207 GT & GTi. Apparently from about 2009 onwards they'd sorted the problems but as this one is a 2007 it's an early one. Another thing the garage mentioned was, that when driving these cars spiritedly they use oil. Apparently BMW have quietly said that up to 1 litre per 1000 miles is acceptable!?!?
So much for German engineering and reliability!?!? The ES9J4 V6 uses bugger all of anything other then petrol when driven hard!! Fingers crossed that's it for a while now!
In other news, after the trip to get the Peugeot, the C6 has now covered over 600 miles effortlessly this week. It's a superb car and one that I'm thoroughly glad to have back
David.
Put me right off a DS3 
