Hi I have a Peugeot 207 2009 1.6 Diesel that's done about 128,000 miles. It just passed its MoT today with normal results for emissions. After about 20 miles (30-70 mph) it lost power and the message "anti pollution fault" flashed on the display. I was forced to stop, waited a bit, then restarted. The ECU warning light is on but performance seems normal. I drove another 10 miles without issue (except the warning light is still on).
I've Googled the problem and the fault can be caused by a variety of issues, but I'd like to know if the MoT was just a coincidence or is there something done in this test that could've caused damage? Ramming a sensor up the exhaust for example.
I have a Pug 308 1.6 HDi, so the same engine. I've had it give Anti Pollution Fault a couple of times. One time it was because a "pouch" of "additive" (possibly something akin to AdBlue used by buses and HGVs) had ruptured and so the engine wasn't receiving the additive. That was a couple of hundred quid to be fixed. The other time was the diesel particulate filter that had stopped working properly. I did all the normal things, like running for a while in a lower gear than normal to get the engine revving fast, in the hope that this would trigger the burning-off of soot which happens routinely. But this was to no avail, so I had to have a new DPF and a new cat - the latter because when they removed the DPF, the nut on the new DPF stripped the thread on the cat as it was being tightened (in fairness, the cat was of an age where it should have been replaced anyway). That little lot cost a grand :-(
The same thing happened to be last week: Anti Pollution Fault message and severe loss of power - it was a struggle to get the car above 40 and that dropped to about 20 on a long gradual hill. I booked the car into the local Pug garage, and then something made me look under the bonnet. And I found... the outlet hose from the turbo to the inlet manifold had come off! It was about two minutes' work (one of which was finding a screwdriver) to loosen the jubilee clip, refit the hose and tighten the clip securely. I knew within about a hundred yards of driving that normal service had been resumed. I wonder whether the garage may not have properly re-tightened the hose when they were doing work on the car (a fuel-starvation problem which needed new glowplugs and a new fuel-pressure sensor) a couple of months earlier...
The moral of this last tale is that even after you rectify the fault that is causing the error, it takes several cycles of start-run-stop before the warning and engine management light go out spontaneously. So you *might* find that the fault goes away of its own accord - maybe something they did during the test triggered the fault and it's taking its time to clear. Or you may need to get it looked at. I'd suggest using a non-Pug garage first of all, because they usually charge less for using their diagnostic tool that plugs into the engine management unit, whereas the Pug garage wanted to charge me £120 even to diagnose, before they even started to fix. I wonder whether they would have done that if I'd taken the car in with the hose detached - it would have been an interesting "gotcha" test for a TV programme or motoring magazine article to rig a car like this and sort out the honest from the unscrupulous ;-)
That's an interesting series of events. Thanks for sharing. Do they actually take anything apart when doing an MoT, to insert emission test probes etc?
They don't take anything apart. However there is a warning displayed that they rev the engine and that sometimes they break (if they haven't been serviced properly?). I expect that to be mechanical bits not the sensors though.
Well maybe you need to go back and get the thing tested as although coincidences occur, there are often cause and effect issues involved. Of course it could be that a plug or sensor is doing daft things. I do not know what they remove in such tests these days. Brian
It might be worth buying your own fault code reader. I would suggest asking around on the Pug forums to find the best one, but if the main dealer charges £120 just to read the codes this gives you a budget target to break even on first use.
I am assuming the message is equivalent to the "engine warning light" which can be triggered by any number of things from a failed sensor to abnormal readings from a sensor. Gives you a "heads up" on what the engine thinks is wrong.
I bought an expensive one for my VW and it also highlights things which don't trigger the warning light, such as aircon sensor failures and GPS aerial issues. VCDS is over £200 but IMHO worth every penny.
Apparently they didn't remove anything for the test. As dennis said, all they do is shove a pipe up its bottom to measure emissions, and rev it a lot.
My local garage has read the codes and there are no sensor faults logged. They did find the original fault "anti pollution fault" and another to do with the glow plug relay. They also said that the turbo hose was so clogged it would have a serious impact. Also, the oil and fuel filters need changing as the car has not had a service for about 35,000 miles (just oil top ups).
Thanks David. I think I will get a code reader - for next time. Do these devices allow real-time viewing of engine parameters?
That sounds scary. What is the hose clogged with? I can't imagine anything large like leaves getting through the turbo, and the air filter should block dust/dirt, because you really don't want that contaminating the oil film on the inside of the cylinders. If the output from the turbo to the engine comes off (as mine did - see earlier in the thread) all manner of crud can get in. I'm not sure what sequence the turbo and air filter are in relation to engine - probably air filter - turbo - inlet manifold, to keep crud out of the turbo as well as the engine, so if the turbo-to-manifold hose comes off, that's after the filter...
Hmm. The hose in question is a very short flexible rubber air intake hose. It doesn't look like what a new one does. I was told by the mechanic that it sounded like the engine was "struggling to breathe". I now have to consider whether: a) he was talking truthfully in his opinion, or b) maybe changing that hose and a full service would make things better.
Ta. I've been looking at these devices now. Some units state that they work with Peugeot/Citroen for example, and they support more functions than straight ODB2 - that's how I read it anyway. They will also work on any ODB2 system, but apparently have features specific to that car manufacturer that normal ODB2 tools don't support. Would car manufacturers have their own specific protocol that standard ODB2 units wouldn't be compatible with?
E.g. I have been looking at an iCarsoft i820 and i970. The i820 is a standard ODB2 unit, whereas the i970 can do ODB2 but also seems to be for Pug/Cit.
I've seen those really cheap bluetooth units. Even one at £2.99! Can they really be as good as a unit costing £60-100?
I have a bog standard BlueTooth ODB II reader. It could read most things on my 2001 Fiat Ducato. It could read very little on my 1996/7 Volvo 850. You needed Volvo specific software.
When I read the fora on the Touareg it was pretty obvious that VW have their own set of fault codes, and there are quite a large number of "intelligent" devices on the CAN bus which are vehicle or manufacturer specific.
So usually best to get one which has software designed for your specific vehicle.
If you are trying to save £120 per visit then spending a bit more is often justified.
Also beware of cloned hardware and software. Some software manufacturers check that the hardware is theirs before allowing it to work, and also before accepting any software updates. £2.99 suggests that not a lot of investment was made in the production and even less in support.
The OP is not trying to upgrade software just read the codes and any real time output from the ECU
Torque works with [Quote] Works on vehicles made by Ford, VW, GM/Vauxhall/Opel, Chrysler, Mercedes, Volkswagen, Audi, Jaguar, Citroen, Peugoet, Skoda, Kia, Mazda, Lexus, Subaru, Renault, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, BMW, Toyota, Seat, Dodge, Jeep, Pontiac and many more vehicle makes, European, US, Far East, etc. Some vehicle ECUs may support more/less features than others [/Quote]
Try Torque for free and see what you get. The free (lite) version does all the basic stuff and has over 5 million downloads. Add plugins by the same author such as Torquescan.
In use when you get a fault code you also get a link into the WWW that can give you clues to what may be going wrong.
At one time a lot of OBD II information was freely available on the Net but the car manufactures cracked down on the "illegal" publication of their data and many of the sites disappeared. This is probably the reason that main dealers can still charge £100+ for plugging in their diagnostic equipment to read fault codes.
Not necessarily OBD software, but some of the better software packages available are actually free to download and use. You can make a contribution if you wish but it's not compulsory.
If you own a Ford/Mazda then for real time monitoring I recommend ForScan - again free.
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