Depollution System Fault - My Experience And Cause

[lewiskei]

Hi Folks,

 

Just thought I would share my experiences of this fault in the hope that it may help someone. The problem started when towing my caravan in France up a long hill on the motorway. Depollution fault came on and engine went into limp home mode - not ideal going up a long hill whilst towing, but there you go. I managed to get the car home to the UK as switching off and leaving for a short while restored engine power. This then started getting progressively worse as time went by so I took it into the local (non-Citroen) garage who read the fault code which was P0002 - low fuel pressure. They checked the pump out and found it had a problem so it was replaced (£750 for the Siemens one :) , Bosch would have been about £200 cheaper).

This cured the problem but a short while later the fault appeared again but this time with different codes - P1198 and P1165, but no P0002. It only ever happened when I was accelerating hard, or towing the 'van. This got progressively worse and worse over time until it was happening almost every time I went out in the car even when solo. Then, without me doing anything to it, the problem disappeared and only very rarely happened after that. This was only a short reprieve though and it soon started getting worse again when towing. One thing I did notice though was that the only times it happened when driving solo during this period was when I had to slam the brakes on (after being cut up). When accelerating away immediately afterwards it did it again. Throughout all this the same 2 codes kept coming up.

Finally I had to bite the bullet and take it into the Citroen dealer who looked at it and in a very short time announced that it was caused by a dirty fuel system. They drained the system, cleaned it out and replaced the filter again (£148) and, touch wood, it hasn't done it for quite a while now, even after thrashing it when towing and when solo driving.

I believe that the dirt could have been partially blocking the pipe or tank outlet (probably why it happened after slamming the anchors on) which was actually restricting the flow INTO the pump, rather than it being a regulator or pump problem itself.

Anyway, I hope someone finds this useful. Maybe a “last resort” thing to try if all else has failed

 

Cheers

 

Keith

[paul.h]

I am pleased you have sorted the problem. What model, year, mileage, engine size, fuel is your car, any particular petrol stations you tend to use ?

[Johndouglas]

There was a guy on one of the Peugeot forums with similar problem. Peugeot dealer read his codes and recorded P1198 which they said was "Pump rotar control underfueling". They wanted to change his pump. He went to an indy who changed the fuel filter. No more problem. Seems that codes can be too readily believed.