206cc Allure Nightmare

[davesteele]

Hi All. Firstly let me apologise in advance for what will be a long winded post! I'm new to the forum and am coming to you guys as my last hope for my wife's 206cc which has been a headache for about 5 months now! Its a 2003 206cc Allure, 2.0L petrol. I bought it from a local dealer back in September and about 6 weeks later the engine management light started coming up and "Anti-Pollution" error message appearing on the dash. The car would be low on power and occasionally running on three cylinders. After having a lot of discussions with the dealer (I won't bore you with the details) he stated the issues were not covered by his warranty. Now I am quite lucky that my father and brother-in law are mechanics so they then took on the job of fixing this problem but to no avail and it has been getting worse to the point where the car is now not running for no more than 10-15 mins before cutting out completely and is now off the road. In the past couple of months the car has had the following work done to no avail - new plugs, injectors, coil packs, entire fuel system cleaned, new crank and camshaft sensors, lambda sensors and the ECU sent away for testing (no faults registered). When put on the diagnostics the following fault code is showing:

P0609 – VSS Output Module B (5 Volt) to sensors)

The only other thing we are still working on is changing the ECU/BSI completely in case the ECU testing was not correct and this is in fact the problem but having sourced a kit from a 206 2.0L GTI (Magnetti Marelli ECU - codes all matching) we can't seem to get it fitted without an "Immobiliser Fault" coming up - it was bought second hand off Ebay but the seller is adamant that was working fine when he removed it.

Sorry for the long winded post and thanks to anyone taking the time to read this - anyone with any thoughts or advice on what could be causing this or any ideas in relation to fitting the new ECU would be very much appreciated!!!!!

[GrandadMonkey]

Sorry to hear of your problems Dave. I'm not going to be able to help with your specific query re fitting a second hand ECU but Capncol may be able to.

Going back to your original problem, you bought the car in September and by early November when the cold weather was starting your error messages appeared. That would have rung alarm bells with me because the 2.0 litre engines have a well known issue with hydraulic tappets. The symptoms rear their head when the weather is cold. The cure is usually to replace the hydraulic tappets with those for the 1.8 engine.

Welcome to the forum.

[davesteele]

Thanks for the quick reply - have checked with my Brother in law and the tappets were one of the first things he checked and they are fine. Sorry, I didn't know this and to be honest have never even heard of this part before

[davesteele]

Further update is that the new ecu unit is now fitted but getting an Error around "Economy Mode" and the car will not start?????

[Capncol]

As well as the ECU, you need the BSI and also need the transducer out of the donor cars key before it will work. Economy mode will go once car is started, it's just a power saving mode so things like your wipers won't work.
Going back to your original problem and the P0609 code, are you getting ABS faults and erratic speedo readings?

[davesteele]

Thanks Capncol for the reply. For teh ECU, we did get the BSI and keys from teh donor car. After some hiccps, it seems to now be fitted with no immobiliser faults. For the original problem, when the management light came on and the Anti-pollution fault appeared, the car was just running sluggishly and occasionally on three cylinders. There were no ABS faults or speedo issues at all. This went on for a few weeks then eventually the car just started cutting out completely and now wont run for any more than 10-15 mins before cutting out again. Any help/guidance on this would be most appreciated as there has been a lot of hair torn out over this for the past few weeks!!!

[Capncol]

So it's running again but with the same issues?

[davesteele]

The last I heard was that there was still the economy mode error and the car would not start.

[Capncol]

As I said, don't get hung up on the economy mode. Do you know what scan tool was used to find that code, and has it got live data function? What is the mileage? Has it had a cam belt, and has it had a recent service?

If you are certain you have no probs with coil pack or injectors
I would Start by looking for air leaks around the inlet manifiold area, move the pipework around and listen for hissing. Next I would try a new MAF sensor or try and start it with the plug off.

[davesteele]

HI all. We finally got the anti-pollution error sorted, it was a pre-cat sensor that was causing the problem! I thought thtis had been checked but my mechanic was not aware that were both pre and post cat sensors on the car. We finally got the car back home on the trailer (SORN'd, not insured) and as soon as it hit the drive way the engine has started hunting when idle. No EM light, no warnings on the dash! I am not sure if during our search to find the original problem, a sensor hasn't been connected up properly but we seem to be back to square one!!! Any further help would be appreciated!

[GrandadMonkey]

As I said, hydraulic tappets.... but you've already dealt with that issue so you say. I just wonder how your brother-in-law checked them, when the usual cure is to replace them with those for the 1.8 engine.
Enough said.