206 1.1 stalling and binging

[spaceface]

Yesterday my 1.1 petrol 206 stated binging, the warning bing from the dashboard, and almost stalled a few times when dropping to tickover. This was towards the end of a short 6 mile inner city journey, stopped halfway to shop. there were only about four separate single bings but no warning lights on, temperature was halfway. At home I held the revs at about 1800 then let go of the throttle, the revs dropped briefly to 500rpm then returned to about 800rpm. I'm guessing at it being a failing crank sensor, is this the likely reason? If it was this would there have been a warning light? I'm buying a cheap code reader from ebay which will take a few days to arrive. Without warning lights warning of a fault will the reader see the fault?

[GiveMeABreak]

Faults should be recorded in the BSI - so best to put them up along with your VIN if you want help as at this stage it can be anything.

[PaulC5]

If your cheap code reader does live data see what the various sensors are showing and if a fault code has been stored what freeze frame data is saved when the fault occurred.
I would have thought a failing crank sensor would stop the engine rather than affect the rpm. You could check the air filter is clean and also the throttle plate/body is clean since a build up of carbon can affect the tickover - when I had petrol cars I would clean the plate/body with carb cleaner at the annual service.

[spaceface]

I'm struggling to find the right code reader. Do I need OBD 2 ? Cheap ones on ebay suggest Peugeot from 2006, my car is 2004.
I wondered about the throttle body or more specifically the idle control valve which needed cleaning on a previous Volvo due to very low tickover but the warning bings made me question if the fault was electrical.

[PaulC5]

If the engine management light has not been on then there will not be a stored fault code for a reader to check so there is no point in getting a cheap reader. If you really want to buy one for future use then something like this from Gendan might be useful but it is limited in what it can do and without any codes to read you would need a proper diagnostic check using something more expensive or pay a dealer to do it. https://www.gendan.co.uk/product_FXNT200.html Before buying anything I would contact the seller for them to confirm it will work on your car.

For now though do the cleaning since it will not cost anything apart from your time.
I do not know what the warning bings might be, have look in the handbook since it might list a few things. We had a 2003 C3 that sometimes gave warning bings and it was a low voltage on the battery on starting.

[GiveMeABreak]

Just for information, it is perfectly normal for fault codes to appear logged in the engine ECU / BSI without triggering the Engine Management Light on the dash. That light is only triggered for some faults. You just have to look at many if not most of the fault descriptors I have put up all over the Forum (the ones in tables) to see that they don't trigger the EML for most faults.

[ozvtr]

I'm struggling to find the right code reader. Do I need OBD 2 ? Cheap ones on ebay suggest Peugeot from 2006, my car is 2004.

I absolutely recommend buying a "cheap" (within reason) OBDII reader!!
BUT...be warned, this is for engine applications ONLY!! IT WILL NOT READ ANY OTHER ECU's IN THE CAR.
Most of these are based on the same hardware and software so they are virtually identical.
Your car will be E-OBD compliant, meaning some of the features (of the scanner) will not work. Most (of the scanners) are for the American OBDII standard and set up as a tool to help pass emission tests in the US. So things like the "emission monitors" wont make any sense to you or they might not work at all.
But for the cost (about 15 pound) you can get some valuable information.
IMHO the long and short term fuel trim data alone, are worth the 15 pound! If you can get a scanner that will graph some of this information (like the oxy sensors), that's even better. But they will be more expensive.
I did a blurb on a cheap one over here;

https://citroenc3owners.com/tools-share ... t5981.html

You need to copy and past into the search bar, they don't allow linking.

[spaceface]

Cheap reader arrived but found no fault codes. I checked connectors around the inlet system and the crank sensor and looked for loose or damaged pipework. I cleaned the butterfly valve but didn't remove the idle control valve as needed a torx bit and a stubby driver. Air filter looked surprisingly clean but was fitted in 2016 so I'll replace it. Checked the manual to find a reason for the binging which suggests its telling you to check for warning lights. Only done a short journey since without a problem. Repeating the inner city journey next week. Poor timing for this as I'd planned on two holidays in the next few weeks, one to mid Wales and one to south Wales. I'm wondering if it was just a glitch which has gone away or a sign of a problem.

Scanner bought was a Kingbolen YA 101 for about £12. Same model available under different branding. It found no codes but did search for them. It wouldn't give the vehicle VIN, not available. It did a voltage check both static and running plus a few other things I didn't really understand. Hard to compare to others as its the only one I've tried.

[spaceface]

Problem hasn't reappeared but the tickover seems to be hunting a bit so I'm planning on removing and cleaning the stepper motor and hole in the throttle body. I remember reading the stepper motor might need recalibrating after cleaning or replacing which from memory involved switching the ignition on and waiting 30 seconds then repeating this five times. Is this correct?

[wheeler]

Yes thats correct, on for 30 seconds off for 30 seconds, repeat 5 or 6 times.
Make sure the housing the stepper motor slides in & out is properly clean too & do not try to pull the plunger in & out on the stepper.