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Intermittant issue with starting my 406

Hi,

Got a 2002 406 2ltr Petrol (Rapier). Every 1500 miles or so I'll start the car from cold, it'll be rough as hell with messages like 'Pollution control Failure' and 'catalytic converter failure'.

If I then stop the engine, turn her over, she'll fire up with no problem and run as well as she ever has. The engine management light on the dash stays on for a four or five jouneys then goes out.

Should this be something I should worry about, i.e. spend money on taking the car to a garage or do you think it could be something I can sort out myself?

Please let me know if you need any more information.

Thanks and regards,

Rich

Reply to
Richard Setford
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The anti-pollution alarm, in particular the catalytic convertor alarm, will come on for any engine fault that causes neat petrol to go down the exhaust pipe.

The 2L engine has got hydraulic tappets which get a patina after a few years and make them sluggish in operation. Net result .... the exhaust port is still slightly open when the compression stroke comes up, so neat fuel goes down the exhaust pipe.

The two alarms that you mention result in uninformed mechanics replacing the catalytic convertor, the ignition coil pack and the injector on the faulty cylinder, but the cure is to flush the hydraulic tappets before refilling with oil.

One long term cure is to replace them with those from the 1.8 engine.

Reply to
Anonymous.

Thanks for that advice. I'll certainly investigate further.

Best regards,

Rich

Reply to
Richard Setford

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