Peugeot 308 SW 1.6 HDi FAP Access + Steam/Smoke from engine

fartingspartan · 21 Oct 2015 at 15:32

Hi,

My old mans car has almost died on him and I want to get him a new one as a surprise.

He likes Diesel's and has had a few Peugeot's so this my natural choice (but open to ideas)

I found a 308 1.6 SW at a local garage, about to be 5 years old, 23,000 miles on clock.

Went and seen it today and its very tidy.
Started it up and popped bonnet - for the first few mins there was a weird light smoke/vapour/steam coming out of the area I have put red square around in picture below.

Could it just be water that has got in from rain/when I opened bonnet and started engine? Within a couple of mins it stopped/went away - Car may also have been sat there for awhile so not sure if that has anything to do with it?

Appreciate any advice.

Secondly - I dont think he does the mileage to justify a diesel, but that is what he likes/has always had so I am not going to argue/get him petrol when I know his preference - but I see most of the cars I am looking at have "FAP" in their title which looking up seems to be a french DPF.

All I have ever heard about DPF is bad things ie if you are not doing decent mileage then it causes nothing but problems as it cant burn off/regenerate.

What do you all think?

My experience was from Mazda 6 Forum - I was doing 35K/year at the time so I never had an issue but lots of other people on the forum were having to take it into dealer weekly to have things cleaned/reset.

Given he is retired now and the car will be out of dealer warranty want to make sure I am not give him problems like this.

Never bought a car that is out of warranty before so any guidance is appreciated.

acemastr · 21 Oct 2015 at 15:37

I'll be honest... I chuckled at 'FAP Access'

Firestar_3x · 21 Oct 2015 at 15:40

I'd take this as a warning sign and avoid buying a world of problems (any 308).

OhEsEcks · 21 Oct 2015 at 15:43

That's the turbo. Did it continue to smoke? Was it leaking oil? If yes to both those, it's a blown seal, or a seal that's getting ready to let go.

Uncle_Gravy · 21 Oct 2015 at 15:48

acemastr said:
I'll be honest... I chuckled at 'FAP Access'

I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

Armageus · 21 Oct 2015 at 15:50

As far as I know, Peugeot DPFs use an additive (eolys?) that needs refilling as part of the normal service intervals. I believe this then gets dosed into the fuel when you fill up.

Main issue seems to be that as a result of DPF regeneration, fuel can end up in the engine oil diluting it - not an issue if changed regularly.

fartingspartan · 21 Oct 2015 at 16:57

Firestar_3x said:
I'd take this as a warning sign and avoid buying a world of problems (any 308).

Hi, thanks for taking time to reply - What specific reasons? I have done lots of reading and couldn't really find anything specific/mainstream that would suggest they are bad cars?

fartingspartan · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:01

OhEsEcks said:
That's the turbo. Did it continue to smoke? Was it leaking oil? If yes to both those, it's a blown seal, or a seal that's getting ready to let go.

Hi, Thanks for replying - no within 1 min max it was away/had stopped - it was raining heavily so couldn't really check if any oil etc was present. Cant really explain but it wasn't smoke, I would liken it to when you blow a candle out but "thinner" and seemed to be coming from both sides - but within a min had stopped/was gone. it was slightly thicker than steam but far thinner than smoke...if that makes sense.

I thought it looked like water vapor coming out of what ever it was after a cold startup/long period sat there.

Engine bay was immaculate - but I suppose a steam clean can do that.

Would it be likely a turbo within only 24K on the clock?

-Mike- · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:17

Did you open a wet bonnet and perhaps the water ran off the bonnet into the engine bay? Looks like the front of the car is wet ?

OhEsEcks · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:19

fartingspartan said:
Hi, Thanks for replying - no within 1 min max it was away/had stopped - it was raining heavily so couldn't really check if any oil etc was present. Cant really explain but it wasn't smoke, I would liken it to when you blow a candle out but "thinner" and seemed to be coming from both sides - but within a min had stopped/was gone. it was slightly thicker than steam but far thinner than smoke...if that makes sense.

I thought it looked like water vapor coming out of what ever it was after a cold startup/long period sat there.

Engine bay was immaculate - but I suppose a steam clean can do that.

Would it be likely a turbo within only 24K on the clock?

The turbos are known to be problematic. The engines were a joint development between Ford UK and PSA (Peugeot / Citroen).

The 1.6 Ford DLD (which is the same as the 1.6 HDI in the Pug) is renowned for turbos failing. I actually have the 1.8 TDCi in my own C-Max, which doesn't have the same problems as the DLD units as it's unrelated, but still gets lumped in as a DLD because Ford just decided to throw it in there.

-Mike- · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:25

OhEsEcks said:
The turbos are known to be problematic. The engines were a joint development between Ford UK and PSA (Peugeot / Citroen).

The 1.6 Ford DLD (which is the same as the 1.6 HDI in the Pug) is renowned for turbos failing. I actually have the 1.8 TDCi in my own C-Max, which doesn't have the same problems as the DLD units as it's unrelated, but still gets lumped in as a DLD because Ford just decided to throw it in there.

The turbos are problematic due to poor servicing. It's pretty essential these engines are serviced bang on time to prevent the oilways getting sludged up and starving the turbo of oil.

OhEsEcks · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:31

-Mike- said:
The turbos are problematic due to poor servicing. It's pretty essential these engines are serviced bang on time to prevent the oilways getting sludged up and starving the turbo of oil.

They coke up badly too. Unlike my unit. I have never had anything off the engine to clean out during my ownership and beat on the thing like it's a red headed step child. Doesn't miss a beat. But the DV6 blocks are renowned for problems whether they're in Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Volvo or Mazdas.

-Mike- · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:32

OhEsEcks said:
They coke up badly too. Unlike my unit. I have never had anything off the engine to clean out during my ownership and beat on the thing like it's a red headed step child. Doesn't miss a beat. But the DV6 blocks are renowned for problems whether they're in Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Volvo or Mazdas.

We've got one in a works van (90hp variant) and its nearly at 100k now - turbo is still fine.

My car has had a replacement turbo, you say you drive yours hard - its needed to keep the vnt stuff clear on these modern ones! Mine was replaced as previous owner only did a few k a year and it sooted up pretty badly.

OhEsEcks · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:47

-Mike- said:
We've got one in a works van (90hp variant) and its nearly at 100k now - turbo is still fine.

My car has had a replacement turbo, you say you drive yours hard - its needed to keep the vnt stuff clear on these modern ones! Mine was replaced as previous owner only did a few k a year and it sooted up pretty badly.

What year is your works van? I've heard of DV6 units on their third or fourth turbo with less than 80k, though those were very early units. I guess it's down to the manufacturer and what changes they made (different sumps, different egrs) to basic spec for revised units as to how much longer they'll last. But the basic design still means there's a risk of them sludging up / coking up and they do need that regular maintenance. But even that's not a guarantee they won't throw a hissy fit at some point. Particularly the French units.

And yes I do drive mine like I stole it

And it is an entirely different design to the DLD units. It has to go for a service next week and it's just ticking over 110k something miles. Not sure, don't bother checking or remembering. My idea of washing the thing is looking at the weather forecast to see if it's going to rain.

-Mike- · 21 Oct 2015 at 17:50

OhEsEcks said:
My idea of washing the thing is looking at the weather forecast to see if it's going to rain.

Genuine lol at the above

The van is on a 59 plate iirc, I don't use it all that much just see the bills come in and go out for it! Its on its second clutch, think the driver likes the traffic light gp!

Jono8 · 21 Oct 2015 at 18:31

Uncle_Gravy said:
I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

zooankski · 21 Oct 2015 at 19:22

Water can sit under the turbo and heat shield area and they do collect some oil residue and muck in the same area around the air doser ( black valve assy with hoses attached in your picture) . Servicing must be carried out on time. Always did mine around the 10000 mark. Reasons for this is that the turbo oil feed pipe is known to be narrow and as oil collects contaminants it can get blocked, hence people moaning about turbo issues. Regarding DPF's, the pug uses DPX176 fluid. Eloys 42 was the older type which would not apply to this car. The reservoir should hold about 75k miles worth. It is injected in to the tank in measured intervals and uses the filler cap proximity as the signal to inject fluid, so it is worth only filling the tank to full rather than a fiver here or there. The fluid reduces the burn off temp required for soot in the DPF. Another good point to note is to put a little drop of oil or wd40 around he glow plugs at the rear of the engine. This will make them a bit easier to remove down the line ( I speak from experience! ). Main use for these is not cold starting though. They come in to operation during the re gen cycle and increase the exhaust gas temp so if one is duff then you will never get a re gen and get a fault light. As with all diesels, they benefit from a good run or 2 each week to blow the crap out.Mine never missed a beat and served very well.

Colbaker · 22 Oct 2015 at 14:54

I had a 308 2 litre hdi 110 and loved the drive but the electrics were appalling. It would blow bulbs a lot, and for some reason it randomly put the full beams on when indicating. Also had many issue's with the DPF as I didn't do enough high speed miles.

If you dad doesn't do many high speed miles I would suggest not getting a diesel due to the DPF as he will have issues.