Peugeot 308 CC - Falling apart now?

[xantia_v6]

After nearly 3 months of trouble-free driving, including a nice trip up to the vineyards of Marlborough, I seem to have more issues with the 308 engine.

Firstly I have noticed over the last few weeks some spots of oil on the driveway, which at first I thought cam from the Jag (although this one is pretty much oil-tight), then when more spots appeared despite not parking the Jag at that end of the driveway, I blamed visitor's cars, but I have had to come to the conclusion that the 308 is losing oil. More on that after I have investigated properly.

A couple of days ago I checked the oil and coolant levels, and the coolant was down about 1cm in the header tank, but well above the sensor level. I topped it up to the maximum line, which is half way up the tank and looked around the engine for any sign of a leak, but saw only oil not coolant in various places.

Today we went for a run of about 100 km, and then stopped for a couple of hours at a friends house. On starting the car the low coolant waning was on. Looking at the header tank there was just a bit of coolant at the bottom. The really weird thing is that on removing the cap, there was a hiss and a splurt, and suddenly most of the coolant rushed back into the tank, it took only 200 ml of added water to bring it back up to maximum. What is going on here?

It seems unlikely to be an airlock 2000 km after the system was last drained (and these systems are pretty much self-bleeding). Maybe the vacuum breaker port on the cap jammed and the system was under vacuum expanding the air in the tank (but where was the coolant hiding?).

Answers on a postcard please?

[RichardW]

Starts in head, and ends in gasket ?

[xantia_v6]

I drove the car a few km this morning, and when I stopped, the water level was down about 25mm, but on releasing the pressure cap, it came up to nearly max again.
On a whim I bought a new pressure cap on the way home, and have driven the car a few times this afternoon, and the level has not budged. I think that the old cap must have been blocked and was grossly over-pressurising the system. Lucky that it did not blow the radiator or a hose. The small amount of coolant lost must have been forced out a joint somewhere.

Tomorrow, I will try to investigate the oil leak.

[xantia_v6]

Not sure if is still losing a little coolant. I did discover dampness at the joint between the thermostat and the bypass pipe (an o-ring joint). It could have been coolant forced out earlier.

On to the oil leak. The first obvious source of oil was the camshaft cover.

Own strife

Note that the oil appeared to be coming from a hole in the side. I washed away all the visible oil with brake cleaner and a day later it looked just the same.

Today I took the cover off and it seems to be a blind hole. Maybe there is a pinhole defect allowing oil to escape, but I could not see it. I filled the external hole with silicone and reassembled, and no sign of an oil leak there now.
I need to take off the under tray and wash the bottom end to look for any other leaks.

[DHallworth]

I must admit I really do not miss having a THP engine in the family... not one insy winsy, teeny little bit

David.

[xantia_v6]

The 308 is back out for the southern summer.

I have had to revisit some of last year's repairs. The oil weep from the top cover came back, and I decided that it was due to a compressed and slightly mis-sphaped rubber gasket around the cover. I put a bit of silicone sealant behind the rubber gasket, and that seems to have held for a week.

I also found that it was losing a bit of water somewhere at the back of the engine, only about a cupful per week, but annoying. Removing the air hoses and battery gave enough access that by pressurising the cold system I could see some drips from the bottom of the thermostat housing, but not the actual source of the leak.

Removing the thermostat housing did not initially reveal much more, but the seam between 2 parts of the housing did not look quite right, so I guessed that due to a manufacturing defect, the housing was splitting under pressure. I slightly ground out the seam with a dremel and filled it with epoxy. That repair held for a week, long enough to establish that there is no other leak.

So I have bought a new thermostat assembly, this one is yet another variation (9808647080), and apparently is the part that officially supercedes the original which I believe the be a 1336CC. This got slightly confusing, as the parts supplier also had a supposed 1336CC in stock, but when we opened the box to compare it, it was a different version again (with clamp type heater inlet hose and original type temperature sensor). I am fairly sure that the wrong part had been put in the box somewhere along the line.

The 9808647080 requires an adapter harness which seems to have the number 12517646145, which appear to be the same harness as required for [number to be filled in later].

[white exec]

Wrong part in box, Mike? Bit academic now, but most parts have a part no. moulded into them.

[xantia_v6]

The store-man looked for a part number on the part, but did not find one. We were obviously not the first to open that box.

I have to say that the proliferation of thermostats for THP engines seems like bad management, as there are I think 6 versions that I know of, only differing in the type of connection for a heater hose, the location of the temperature sensor and the type of electrical plugs fitted.

[xantia_v6]

A little update, just to say that the car has been running really well and not lost any coolant since that last thermostat replacement.

I think that it is fair to say that the engine running issues really were fixed by removing the cover from the boost valve atmospheric port filter, it has been more than a year since we had an over-boost alarm.

I took the top engine cover off a while back to seal up an oil weep with some silicone, that fixed that leak, but it is now weeping a little at the other end of the top cover. I suppose that I should invest in a new gasket.

I have been running it mostly on 100 octane fuel recently. I hope that the ECU is smart enough to adjust the boost and timing to take advantage and give a bit better cruising economy, it is hard to tell, particularly as we live at the top of a fairly steep hill which knocks the urban economy for 6 and I can only really get representative reading when we go on a trip. When running on 100 octane fuel it never seems to throw a super-knock fault, these are silent fault codes, but you can audibly hear one or 2 knocking cycles from the engine and it gives a wee shudder as the timing and boost are backed off. With 95 octane (the fuel mostly available here) we would notice a super-knock once a week or so when beginning to climb the aforementioned hill.

The RD45 head unit is still in transit, looking forward to fiddling with that in the new year.

[CitroJim]

Pleased all now seems to have settled down Mike

[xantia_v6]

I changed the engine oil today, have been meaning to for a while. The official interval is 20,000 km, The oil was changed about 12,000 km ago when the engine had a carbon clean, but the dealer didn't mark the service book or put an oil change sticker on the window, so I can't be sure without finding the invoice. I remember that we did pay for an oil change, it was expensive.

The oil that came out was surprisingly sludgy, the dregs in the filter bowl were somewhat reminiscent of thin porridge. The oil level had not dropped since the last oil change (somewhat remarkable for a THP engine), I have been recycling the oil from the vapour separator back into the engine. I think that the oil that has been burned has been replaced by carbon, keeping the level constant but not the viscosity. I certainly won't be leaving the oil change so long next time.

The car continues to behave itself, there are a couple of new rattles when going over bumps, but the roads here a still a little uneven after the earthquakes, so that is not surprising.

Just to remind myself, I also changed the brake fluid about 3 weeks ago. Current mileage 56,000 km

[pgcarter22]

[quote=xantia_v6 post_id=466084 time=1446495580 user_id=5382]
It was first registered new in NZ, and has not yet covered 35,000 km, and is generally in pristine condition.

Hi Xantia

Are you able to advise where you managed to get the spec sheet below for your 308cc please? I am trying to work out if mine has mood lighting and tilting reverse mirrors (the book says it should, the computer has an on off for ambient lighting) but the only way that Peugeot UK can tell me is if I take it to a dealer and pay for a diagnostic test! Unbelievable. I thought I saw somewhere on a forum someone offering to do it if you supply the Vin (not sure if that's the vehicle number or he's a Frenchman with a drink problem), do you think I can find the forum now??? Any help you could give would be appreciated.
Many thanks
PAUL


This is how PSA describe it:

Code: Select all

Vehicle characteristics
 
Vehicle family	308
Build code	12532 89 1 0585
Warranty Start Date	28/09/2011
BER	e2*2001/116*0362*29
General information
PRODUCT TYPE	CAR
COMMERCIAL MARQUE/COMPONENT TYPE	PEUGEOT
VEHICLE FAMILY	308
SILHOUETTE	COUPE CABRIOLET - 2 DOOR
TRIM LEVEL	HIGH HIGH
ENGINE	EP6CDT INJECTION
TRANSMISSION	6-SPEED AUTOMATIC GEARBOX
PAINT TYPE	THREE-LAYER PEARLESCENT METALLIC PAINT
BODY COLOUR	KWE - PEARLESCENT WHITE PAINT
INTERIOR TRIM TYPE	LEATHER "CLAUDIA" Q1
[/quote]

[GiveMeABreak]

Just post your VIN up here.

[xantia_v6]

As far as I could tell, dipping mirrors were only available with electric memory seats, as they share the same ECU.

[pgcarter22]

Thanks guys!

VF3**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]

Paul