catalytic converter and pollution issues.

[Dazzagtir]

Hi,
I am absolutely, positively, spankers new to this forum.
I bought my very first 206cc 2.0l LE two days ago. (Mrs loves them)
It is a 2002, 110,000 miles, full service, 1 lady owner from new, 6 months T&T, payed £1250.

Car has driven absolutely fine, bought the car on a wet rainy day, no leaks from the roof etc.
I joined on here today just to have a look at the problems and faults of these cars and to look at a few other examples and see if I can steal any ideas for mine.

About 20minutes after joining here I decided to go for a drive into town for my dinner, got in the car and immediately wouldn't start, took about 20seconds of cranking the engine for it to finally start up (spluttering and running lumpy) engine then ran for a few minutes on idle before dieing again. Started again fine but still run lumpy.
I decided to take the car down the road and give it some welly for a few seconds and the car ran absolutely fine, lumpy ness went away but I realised the centre dash displays a few messages, firstly a catalytic converter message and then a pollution message, initially the engine management light was flashing but after stopping the car and starting it again the light is now on solid but runs fine.

I'm guessing that when I go out tomorrow morning the car will not start again properly but fingers crossed it will.
Does anyone have any ideas as of the fault with the car.? Is it a common fault.?

Many thanks for any replies.
Darrell.

[GrandadMonkey]

The cat and the pollution message will have been the result of unburnt fuel hitting the lambda sensor when it took a while to start and effectively flooded.

The hard run will have hopefully burnt off the excess fuel and unburnt hydrocarbons and the messages should extinguish.

Hopefully the problem will not reappear. When was the car last serviced properly? What fuel are you using in it?

The 2.0 does suffer from hydraulic tappet issues sometimes. This can show up as poor running from a cold start. Hopefully it is not that though. Regular use without too many short runs should do the car good.

Welcome to the forum. Keep us posted.

[Dazzagtir]

Hi GrandadMonkey

Thanks for the reply.

I have only had the vehicle a few days and so I couldn't really say what life the vehicle has had in regards to what it has been used for, commuting or short trips to the shops 100 metres down the road.

Because of the fact I didn't know how she had been used previously I went straight to the garage and filled the tank with tesco fuel and put in some redex fuel cleaner to hopefully clear out the injectors and system. (I was beginning to wonder if the redex was the issue)
The vehicle done about 200 miles with that fuel until the incident occurred.

The service book is full of service stamps, up until the last couple of years it was peugeot every time.
I believe the last service was May of last year so probably worth me getting done.
It has covered 9000 miles since the last service. (So must have been used fairly regularly)

Again, thanks for the reply.
Darrell.

[Dazzagtir]

I went out to my car today and it ticked over first time without a problem, engine management light was still on but that was as expected.
I left the car to warm up for about 5 minutes just ticking over on the drive and then switched it off.
Come back out about 10 minutes to go out and the car ticked over spot on and also the warning light had turned off.
Done a 50mile round trip and all was absolutely spot in.

[GrandadMonkey]

Well done, glad it has sorted itself out. I never use supermarket fuel in our cars since I had a bad experience with it years ago. In our 206cc I tend to fill up with only Shell V-Power or BP Ultimate. With those fuels they contain all the cleansing additives that your engine should need, thus rendering the use of Redex and the like unnecessary.

If it was serviced properly last May then it shouldn't need another service until at least May this year (I believe in one every 12m or 10,000 miles - but I'm "old school"). I hope your cambelt has been renewed together with pulleys, water pump and coolant - if not it is well overdue.

Another thing overlooked is hydraulic fluid - should be renewed every 3 years at least - but people forget.

[Dazzagtir]

Sorry for the incredible late reply,
I have been away from home for about a week.

The car since has had absolutely no problems what so ever, I have only done about 150 since it happened so I've not had the chance to let the tank go down enough to re-fill with some v-power for good measure.
The Cambelt was done at 55,000 miles so I'm guessing it probably around about due now.
I'm going to take the car to my local garage soon and get them to give it a quick health check and get it on the ramp to inspect the underside of her.
Again thanks for your reply and time.
Darrell.