Littleted

So My close friend MR B is a qualified MOT guy, and spends most of his time floating about Yorkshire between all garage vendors working a month at a time, i went for a beer with him the other night and he was telling me horror stories.

So Lets start with Peugeot
New cars returning with timing belt issues, what he told me is some of the new cars are now fitted with WET timing belts, Belts are soaked in possible liquid, i was told its to make the cars quiet, but as he said the wet stance is making the belts fail, some cars are having belts swapped at 2k miles... Surely thats not right ??

JLR, so where i am theirs a main hub with 27 Car lifts for JLR and at one point 19 on them were occupied with the 2.0D engine cars, common fault Push Rods, full engine strip down, and then putting back in new Rods but same old style, no improved Rods, thats pants dont you think...cars coming back at 5 to 10k with all the same issue. Also on the I-Pace big issue here with wiring looms, on acceleration and braking the loom breaks, thus the whole assembly needs swapping...

Anybody experienced any of these, seems poor that JLR are still seeing major issues with their 2.0 block, on a positive note the 3.0 is better. And why wet timing belts, is it purely for sound ?

hedgecutter

iTrader: (5)

I thought wet belts are simply internal, so sit in the engine oil? And therefore they last much longer in theory. My lad's little Fiesta has one and it's an 8hr job to change!!!

fpan

iTrader: (11)

Do you know what model year JLR vehicles he was talking about?
A couple of friends of mine own an I-pace and do a lot of accelerating and haven't had any issues. I guess this must have been a problem with early cars.

NOSSY_89

The range rover sport had engines built by peugeot and citron where they use so much plastic on parts that really shouldn't be or at least a better plastic. A budget engine for a premium car. Now heres the thing they have a cambelt that needs doing but there physically isn't enough space to take the front or back covers off. So what do you do, its a body off job, main dealer will charge about £7,000 to do it. Can you imagine the amount of second hand range rovers that are changing hands for £20,000, do you think any of them will have had the cambelt done.

Littleted

ill Ask him, it seems to be whatever's at the front some big connector, then the wires traverse to the rear...

fpan

iTrader: (11)

Range Rovers haven't had engines built by PSA.
Regarding the cambelt, if you have in mind the old Discovery, things could have been designed better with maintenance in mind.
The design and quality have improved dramatically every since though.

NOSSY_89

It was a V6 diesel, I was working on one a few weeks ago with a mate. It was stamped up pugeot and citron all over. I think it was 2012 plate, might have been newer.

I'd disagree with the build quality being better, the vogue and stuff yes but some of their other models are just shocking. There physically isn't enough space to change front and back cam belts, like I said body off job.

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/info/td4-tdv6-tdv8

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

The PSA wet belts is well known for quite some time now; It first started about fourteen years back when Ford started fitting them in their old 1.8 Lynx (80's engine modernised with VNT and common rail) where they changed the lower chain (that lasted forever) for a belt cartridge; These sometimes failed prematurely and there was no way of knowing which engine had a belt or chain as they swapped mid production (it's an **** to change too). Now with PSA the same issues are arising; Degraded/aged oil (fuel or moisture) and excessive temperatures; The 3cylinder engines do run hot as they have to shift quite a heavy car. This attacks the rubber which in turn causes breakage and/or oil pickup blockages. Stick to 5years/50k miles on these, it's a pure gamble to get over 100k miles from them.

JLR Ingenium 4cylinder diesel engines on some JLRs (mainly Disco sports) suffer leaky DPFs which means the engine doesn't comply with EU6 particulate limits (but still passes MOT emissions as MOT limit/test methods are still too relaxed...emissions law suit anyone? Landygate? ). It clogs the high pressure EGR cooler which contains a mesh filter. Tailpipes on any Eu5/6 diesel should be spotless, even with 100,000miles bar a little white dust (ash)...if they are black and sooty...DPF is knackered. Seen Disco sports with just 25,000miles with this issue, dealership fobbed off customers with lies/excuses. The Adblu tank level sensors are also a bit temperamental and difficult to work on due to their stupid location (bulkhead), if it thinks the tank is empty (when it's not), it will not allow the engine to start.

PSA v6 diesel (no longer made) on older Range Rover sports/Disco 3/4 can snap their crankshafts. Lots of theories, but the bottom line is it's a very short crank with a thin overlap area between No.2 main and no.2 big end bearing journals (short design was to allow tranverse installation when used in PSA vehicles that were FWD). This combined with it being a high output/high torque engine for its size running a lot of front end ancillaries geared to give high power at low engine speeds, a heavy chassis (with a huge towing rating), and a gearbox that lugs it at low rpms with a locked up torque converter means it has a lot torsional stress and vibration to deal with (especially if one or two injectors are slightly out of kilter), poor little crank!

Meanwhile over at Vauxhall, before they were consumed by PSA they replaced their tried and tested Fiat FPT and Isuzu diesels with their own diesel. They brilliantly copied BMW/Merc and put the timing chain on the gearbox end...and also followed early BMW N47s by making them prone to failure. Parts to repair (valves, cam carriers etc) are on back order and take ages to come into stock. Vauxhall would rather you buy a new engine...if they had any in stock!

Littleted

Wonderful reply ALi.....
It does amaze me when you hear these things, that us the punters have no idea really, we look at a car and go ooo yeah want that 1 LOL

On a JLR note, best friends Boss bought a Merc G63 and the also the Proper Range Rover SVR thing it was 165k or something, anyway in the first 6 months it broke down 4 times ... Mainly it was to do with when he filled it up ( which would have been a lot ) hed pull into Gas station fill up then the car wouldn't start... Think in the end he rejected it and gave it back....
Ali in your own opinion what would you class as your favourite brand. Mr B who i first spoke about, loves the Jap stuff, says when hes servicing them you can see the difference in quality.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Hmm, I'm getting to a stage where I find a lot of manufacturers seem to either copy each other or part share; And despite the plethora of SUV/crossovers offered, they aren't as practical as they should be. So many seem to have disappointing rear seats with poor ergonomics (designed for kids I suppose) and a small boot for cars that are ever increasing in exterior size. The NVH on so many is awful...you don't realise how bad road noise is until you drive a ply-lined Transit Custom that has far less road noise than most cars (both family and executive)...UK's course road surfaces don't help, it's a non-issue on a French toll motorway. That's ignoring quality issues.

There's good reason why all my cars are over ten years old, and it not because I can't afford newer; Except for gadgets anything newer is no better.

I was a BMW man, but they've lost their way with the current range so I'm more into Mercedes..until the Renault bits started appearing on the smaller models (GLA, A-class etc). Still, they seem to strike a balance between comfort, handling and not too bad to work on. But just about everyone that buys them seems to spec them badly with basic spec and in bland/monochrome colours inside and out which makes them depressing, unless it's a AMG in glow-stick green Still, most models have rubbish boot and poor rear seats (unless it's a fully specced S-class/GLS).

Jap stuff remains fairly solid; With exception to Nissan (due to the Renault bits with added Nissan tax). We'll ignore Subarus shall we ( ). The only issue is I find them a bit clinical to drive...even Lexus or Infinity, then I jump into a high specced Kia and struggle to notice the difference. The current range of Mazdas are probably my favourite; They've unveiled a new straight 6 engine which is an eye opener in a age where everyone has gone towards 3 and 4 pots.