Dispatch 2.0 2010 Camper conversion Misfire

[The Old Hobbit]

I really did not want my first post to be a problem solving one, but I am running out of funds...... let me explain .

Last year my wife and I, having been caravanners all our lives decided to pour our savings into a small motor home. We search about and finally found one that suited our budget and would serve us well as we moved towards retirement. We bought a Nu Venture Nu Rio last year built on a Citroen Dispatch 2.0 chassis. All was well in the world as we bought it home and on our first ever trip out we noted a very small but infrequent cough (misfire) but nothing too much to worry about. On our way home after a week in Cornwall, the misfire became more prominent and we finally broke down on the M3, going into limp mode and no throttle over 1500 revs. To cut a very long story short, the company that sold it to us paid Charters to diagnose the issue which they said was injector No4..... £1400 later, but no cost to us they put in a new injector. We only completed a few hundred miles, trouble free after that and then put it away for the winter.

On the 15th April I took the van out for a test run just before putting it in for a full service and MOT and completed no more than 25 miles when the engine management light came on and we went back into limp mode. I managed to get home and dropped it off to Charters who were due to service it the following day. I explained what had happened and the following day they phoned me...... £90 to plug in a computer to see if they could find the fault I had no choice but to say yes.......... They came back and told me it was the turbo pressure solenoid valve and it needed replacing, quote=£620. Again I had not choice and said yes. Problem solved, full service and MOT cost me £1150

Took the van out yesterday for a test drive, 155 mile round trip and guess what, the bloody misfire is back but no problem with power or EMS. I am loosing all confidence in this van, even though it was for us to enjoy travelling this lovely country. I have emailed Charters to tell them that the misfire has come back after the work they carried out and am now waiting to see what they say. I do not want to move the van on because it is really a lovely unit, but please, can anyone make any suggestions

[admiral51]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
My first post was also because i had a problem, still here and still posting problems
Post your Vin number (it will not be visable except to admins ) will appear like this VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]**************and i am sure the great and good of this forum will be forming a queue of sorts to help you out.

Cracking looking Motor Home btw

[Hell Razor5543]

Hi, and to the forum. Do NOT worry that your first post was to ask for help; this forum was set up to mainly do that (we also have chats and take the mickey out of each other).

There are forum members who have Lexia clone equipment and are also willing to help out other forum members. While they cannot guarantee to resolve problems, they should be able to read and reset the error codes (some may then come back if there is a real problem, but those for glitches usually stay cleared). Here is a list of those members;

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=56452

[GiveMeABreak]

At present your best bet is to leave the problem with the last motley crew that diagnosed it and charged you for the work. You should not be expected to pay again for the same fault. I would want to see the fault codes they had last time (if not recorded on your last invoice) and if the same ones are recorded then that is grounds to have them sort it as you’ve already paid top dollar to have if properly diagnosed and sorted.

Don’t get anything done elsewhere yet or they could refuse to do any work and blame it on a third party.

Stick with it and be persistent and firm, and do not let them fob you off.

[white exec]

Second that advice from Marc.
Hold the repairers to the task, and don't get anyone else involved at this stage. You paid top-dollar for the repair (their diagnosis and action), and they should be delivering a repaired vehicle, not something less.
A list of the fault codes, if you can get them, will help us decipher the situation here.

The Dispatch is a vehicle with solid reputation, and your conversion looks rather fine.
Keep us posted.

[The Old Hobbit]

Thank you all so much for the very quick and friendly responses. It seems such a pity that a vehicle with only 24000 on the clock should in the past 12 months have cause to have over £2600 in repairs, still I can only suppose that being a mechanical device it can go wrong. What bugs me most is that my confidence in the vehicle has been knocked and worry every time I get in it to go off on our travels. I will post an update as soon as I hear from Charters and hope that they put this right. I will also ask for the previous fault codes if they will give me them. Thank you again for your comments.

[Hell Razor5543]

I also second Marcs' comments. Once the problem has been resolved properly you should, over time, regain your trust in her. 24,000 miles means she has not even been run in! by the standards of the HDi engine (taxi drivers love that engine, with good reason), and when they are looked after they will look after you.

[The Old Hobbit]

As a more mature driver, these modern engines confuse the hell out of me so please forgive me my ignorance. If this was an engine from my era I would stand a little more chance of chasing the problem..... failing coil, HT lead breaking down, points or distributor etc, but nowadays it up to the computer to say "yes or no". My eldest lad has suggested the following as he feels without a code it is unlikely the garage will do anything as there is no fault code showing!! Get the fuel filter changed and buy a code reader to do a manual reset if needed.

I don't hold too much hope that the garage will be cooperative, so I was wondering if worst comes to worst, is there a code reader that others may have that would allow me to reset and get me home? Maybe I am being too much of a pessimist so I will wait and see what the garage says, I might be totally surprised. Thank you again.

[admiral51]

You are correct that modern engines are more complicated, however they are engines, and work the same mechanical way
As Hell Razor said above you need a proper diagnostic machine ( Lexia/Daigbox ) to see what is going on. A generic code reader will not give you the information you need.
Just because the EML is not on does not mean an error has not been logged,so a code may well have been logged. Lexia/Diagbox will give you live data and that can be compared to expected values.
Had a quick look but only 1 member is close ( < 20 miles ) from you that has the equipment.
One option is to find a trusted mechanic ( you must know of atleast 1 ) that could point you in the direction of someone that can do a diagnostic session with the right equipment and just give you a print out, that atleast will give you some idea of what is going on and some back up in putting your point across to Charters.
Unless you chuck it in to Citroen and just ask them to do a diagnostic session and report, no other work to be carried out and then put the ball back in Charters hands.

[admiral51]

Closest indie to you i can find is citroencarcentre.com and Ash Vale

[The Old Hobbit]

I forgot about the Citroen place on Lysons Ave DOH!!!! we took my sons Saxo there many years ago to have repairs done. Thank you for the timely reminder, at least I have an alternative should I need it. SAS Guildford are a Diesel specialist who do diagnostic and remapping of all makes of diesel so they are very close to where I work. Once again, apologies for my apparent display of impatience, I'm just frustrated. Many Thanks.

[admiral51]

No need for apologies, we all own or have owned French cars so we understand your frustrations
Took me a while but Charters are the main Citroen/Pug dealers in your area, could you contact the company you bought the vehicle from again and just explain the issues you are having, whilst it may no longer be their problem they paid for the original diagnostic and repairs, they could have a claim against the dealership that is above what you can do.
Could you post your Vin number so that forum admins can post details of your engine and ancillaries, something simple may have been overlooked and without proper details we are all guessing.
Dont worry your vin will not be visiable to anyone but admins and they are blinkin good as are the rest of this Forum:)

Have a look at This Thread

People that we trust to treat our vehicles as if they were there own and have better knowledge than us............

[The Old Hobbit]

Do I post the VIN here or in another place ?

[myglaren]

Post it here - it will be masked so only forum staff can read it.

[Hell Razor5543]

You can safely post the VIN here; it will be automatically obscured by the forum software, but Moderators will be able to read it.