DO NOT BUY A CAR WITH THIS ENGINE - PEUGEOT PURETECH ENGINE 

** Edit - It's Suggested that the upper limit 250ml of oil being used per 1000 miles is still acceptable, this is 1Liter per 4000 miles not 10000 as mentioned in error by me. (Thanks to those who commented and pointed out) Clearly my maths are not very sharp with millilitres 😁😁 Bring back Imperial 👍👍

A green engine designed to be efficient and save the planet, but it burns lots of oil, isn’t very fuel efficient and rarely gets to 100k miles before it needs a replacement. The irony

I blame emissions regulations mostly. They have forced manufacturers to make engines fragile in the name of reduced frictional and inertial losses. Wet belts, thin timing chains, low tension piston rings, reduced engine sizes with a turbo (making the engine work harder to produce the same power as a larger one), EGR and particulate filters, plus some cost cutting to keep things affordable... Couple all of that with extended service intervals to make the car appear cheap to run and you have a recipe for disaster.

We've had two cars with this engine and both have been very reliable and durable. One car is on 85,000 miles and the other has 40,000 miles. No problems. I think the issue is as engines become more efficient and less polluting than they used to be, oil and filtration is much more critical. I suspect the wrong oil is being used. Although, I'm aware of the cambelts breaking down on early cars, there is no longer an issue. We changed our cambelt at 65,000 miles.

Ex wife has a 2018 C3 Aircross with the 1.2 Turbo Puretech, Regularly serviced and at 40K miles i checked the timing belt through the oil filler hole in the cam cover as i had discovered that the wet belts give problems, The belt was cracked across every 2mm, She booked it straight in for a Wet belt, It cost her £600 and the garage said good job i spotted it as it was about to fail and this is just at 40K miles! I told her to get shot of it but she likes it too much! 😂

you should be on tv, you are better/more knowledgable than most i have ever seen on tv

Scary stuff regarding cars fitted with this engine. My neighbour has an old 2007 Suzuki Swift which she has serviced regularly. So far it's done around 140,000 miles, never broken down, doesn't use any oil between oil changes and the engine sounds as smooth as silk. Amazing for a cheap budget car in my opinion.

I have Peugeot 205 with TU engine, great engine and very reliable.

Had it for nearly 3 years in a 2021 208. Absolutely zero issues and used no oil.

I have a Peugeot 206, 1.1, 2000 plate, it is 24 years old and still going strong. If its not broke don't fix it!

I've owned a Citroen c1 Mk2 1.2 litre puretech 82 hp for 5 years and it hardly burns any oil. I had the wet cambelt changed at 31k miles, the engine cleaned/flushed and I've had no trouble. It's a great little engine, lots of torque and the car leaps away from the lights.

1.2 Peugeot owner here on 18 plate. Cam belt done at 53000 no oil burn, fingers crossed. Dealer was well aware of issues with engine not charged for sump removal and engine internal clean. Always changed oil earlier than recommended.

2018 Vauxhall Crossland with full dealer service history, owned from new, 48,000 miles and major issues with wet belt in December 2023. Dash warnings, no oil pressure etc. Vauxhall replaced the wet belt under warranty even though the car was out of warranty. Cost of repair was listed as £2500. Now traded in and out of our hands.

I bought a 1.2 2008 Puretech in August 2023. Only after that did I find out about the internal wet belt (!) and the clogging of the oil pickup strainer. Checking the paperwork that came with the car, it has already had a new oil pump and belt fitted not long after its first owner bought it. When I get rid of this car (I'm keeping it for 2 years max) I'm going back to a 2nd hand Toyota! Oh, the cheapest "correct" oil I could find was a pound or two shy of £50, with a discount code! £500 for a cam belt change?!!!! Oh how I loved the old Ford SOHC engines.

I have worked at peugeot dealer in Sweden. Its usaly the turbo engine that have timing belt faults. My guess is that the oil runs hotter. Every service we measaure the with of the timing belt throug the oil filler cap. Even if its not cracked it can be to wide.

I dodged a bullet with a 1.2 Peugeot 108 from Arnold Clark. Can you imagine the heartache I would have had, I found out just in time. I am keeping my old 1.2 Corsa twin-port which doesn't ever burn oil and has a chain drive for the camshafts.

It's almost as if car manufacturers have forgotten how to design reliable engines.

As soon as engines started to go 3 cylinder, I thought it was a bad move. Getting more power out of less cubic inches has to come from somewhere, so compromises happen. I remember the original Top Gear trio lauding up Ford’s eco boost when it launched. Within two years the engine was known a junk.

main dealer tec here, we sell ex. motability fully serviced 3yr old cars, belts failing after less than 40k miles, done 3 this month, oil lights on... 1.2 pureshite motors

Had cambelt changed on my 3008 on 18 plate only 36000 miles .took Peugeot four months to repair car and yes serviced by Peugeot from new

Designed to fail in my opinion. Good that you’re sharing the knowledge, for others to avoid these.

Thanks for the information I was looking at a Peugeot 2008 but I'll not bother now. Cheers 👍

Cracking podcast as usual Lee another electric car fire this time in Bristol, Patchway Vauxhall dealer hell of a mess took out other cars and vans

Avoid all Stellantis group brands if you are looking for recent and reliable gasoline with after-sales service. Former owners of a 1.2L Puretech 110hp, we only had problems with: faulty segmentation, excess oil consumption from 60000 km, 1L every 1000 km, ventilation broken, belt in the oil to replace, speakers sometimes broken. We understood that keeping this Peugeot would be a financial pit. We sold it to a professional because Peugeot, well aware of the problems with their cars, does not do trade-ins. Thanks for the video

Travelled from Edinburgh to Leeds with my daughter and bought a Peugeot 208 GT LINE from a garage on the 5th December,vehicle ran ok for two weeks,in that time 1 litre of oil was added.After the 2 weeks the dash lit up with warning lights & little power.It sat at her work until finally collected (7th Jan) & after the garage checked it out,another 2 weeks,we finally were offered our money back( minus the cost for each mile we put on it) ,now purchased a Golf Diesel & garage changed belt & pump before purchase. Total nightmare........stay well away.

I have a 2016 308 with brake failure due to the cambelt breaking down , it’s on 45 k and hats off the main dealer it was all fixed under warranty even though it’s 8 yrs old ! It’s the 1.2 pure tech .

Good man 👍 just beginning to search for a new car with these size engines, thanks for the information it's appreciated.

Great video, your knowledge is invaluable!

Another big thanks from myself. Just bought an older but regularly maintained 43k 108 and will check the belt tomorrow. I will also be very careful with oil changes and keeping engine clean. A cracking car BTW. Lots of fun.

I took delivery of a new Peugeot 2008 with the 1.2 130ps engine in December. Its on lease as my main/daily car. Was aware of the reputation of the wet belt design but not worried as I won't have it long enough to care (probably not beyond 2 years old). The thing is the car looks lovely inside and out, far nicer than the likes of a VW T Cross which I also considered. The engine is lovely to use to. Smooth, punchy and decently economical. In fact its probably one of the nicest 3 pot turbos out there to drive. I'm happy with the car so far.

Very good vlog as usual Lee. I'm off to Prees next week, glad you told us this about the pureshite engines, the missus wanted a DS. 😮

Great video. Ihad a 208 turbo and improved oil consumotion by soaking piston tops with acetone to clean the rings. Once the acetone drained into the sump i changed the oil before startup. This improved the consumtion to about a third of its original rate. Now getting around 2000km before needing a top up which is still high .

I had a 2016 308 GT line about 3 years ago. I loved the car and it was fine for a year and a half but at around 50k miles the stop vehicle engine repair light started randomly appearing. Code pointed to one of the vvt solenoids so had that changed, then a few months later the other one went. In the meantime I started to learn all about the wet belt issues and blocked solenoid valves is a symptom of a disintegrating belt. As soon as I got it back from the garage I drove to another dealership and traded it in on a Mazda3 skyactiv petrol which has been flawless. I'm still on the 308 FB group and it's a regular occurrence. Many posts from people that bought into these cars without researching the associated problems. Peugeot don't give a toss and will do everything to avoid fixing the issues unless you have a spotless service record. Apparently they have now redesigned the engine to use a cam chain but I'd never go near a Stellantis car again.

Think I'll stick with my 308 2.0 hdi, never liked the idea of the small 1.2 engine in something like a 308 SW and now you cemented my opinion. 👍❤️🇬🇧

Had 14 plate DS 3 with 1.2 110 pure tech , cracking little engine . Changed oil every year with total ineo and put 40000 miles troubles free . Sold down to French dodgy electrics and faulty electric steering . Didn’t change belt in seven years of ownership , maybe I was lucky .

Great video Lee, as always. Thanks for the tip off.

Thanks for the advice, I have the Citroen diesel engine in a newish c3 and it was for that reason I avoided the puretec one 😊

I recently rented a 208 130HP with the 8 speed auto on holiday in Tenerife. It was a great little car with very good performance and amazing low down torque for such a small engine. Shame about these reliability issues but hopefully they have fixed them now.

Great practical video thanks 👍

Got a 308 with a 1.5 diesel and 8 speed gearbox superb unit.

My E208 needed a new electric motor at only 3K. Peugeot had my car for 1 and half years trying to fix it. On collection Their was also a bad repair to the door were they damaged it. Will never own a crappy stellantis product again!

I have had 5 cars in a row with these 1.2 or 1.3 engines. Never ever had any issues at all. Never failed me once. 🤷‍♂️

Another great video. Plenty useful information with a bit of entertainment thrown in !

You must use the correct SAE grade and correct ACEA spec for your engine. It is such a specific requirement nowadays. Mannol oil available on ebay is good value and should be available to your engines required spec. I prefer to do my own oil and filter change every year (around 2500 miles) to make sure its done right. A lot of MCC Smart cars engines failed because of non robust piston ring design being clogged and ruined by the incorrect spec oil.

Very informative, thanks Lee.

I've had a 2017 308 1.2 Puretech 130bhp since 2018. Only on 29,000 at the moment. None of those issues yet, touch wood. Had a Peugeot recall last year specifically about the cambelt. They checked and it was fine. I know that engine has had different types of belt in it's lifetime, some more trouble than others and I think they are now chain driven. I haven't had a dealer service for a couple of years due to lack of funds and a lot less miles travelled. I'm still under 10,000 since the dealer service but I think I'll be sorting that myself after watching this. I have an MOT in a couple of weeks. I may enquire about the cambelt too if it's around £500. It's been a cracking engine so far. Low down torque like a diesel but lot's of rev room too, although I rarely need that as it pulls well so low down.

The 1.6 Turbo PSA petrol engine from 2012 also has issues like oil burning, leaks, smokey turbo, weak engine mounts and more.

I had a Vauxhall Granland X for a work car for a few weeks with the 1.2 turbo in it and I have to say it was remarkable. I was shocked with the performance of such a small unit in a lump of a car. Great for the first few years only by the sounds of it! Great video as always Lee.

Thanks for the info , thought my 1.4 vauxhall engine was crap but these sound worse will stay well clear noted

I had heard of these problems with the purecrap and ecoboom. Sadly I didn’t look too much into the R56 mini and have a blown engine in one 😂 (compression). I’m grateful for my Audi.

Brilliant video Lee I had a 2009 Vauxhall insignia 2.0cdti the a20dth engine that also suffer with oil problems I didn’t know that at time well not until the oil pressure light came on and seized the engine the annoying part of it all I had cambelt +waterpump and clutch and dual mass all replaced the month before 😂😂

I think the most reliable 1.2 engine is the one in Suzuki swift after 2010 it gives 50 mpg all day and is 94 hp with a timing chain and also the emissions are very low so the road tax is £35 per year. I have a 2010 Swift with this engine and it has done well over 100,000 miles and doesn't burn even a drop of oil the engine still sounds and performs like brand new.

Positive post.....my wifes ds3 owned from 4000 miles to current 45000, changed oil every year 5000 miles ish, changed belt at 40000 and still like new!! Never had any problems, burns no oil , great on fuel and 110 bhp goes well , feel like we have been lucky now

If they suggest up to 250ml of oil per 1000 miles 5:47 Over 10,000 miles that's 2.5 litres of oil not 1 6:00 ? Up The Railwaymen 😆

"Pure-Crap!" My Goodness, you know your stuff. I've just crossed a few other cars off my next-car list now. Cheers Lee.

Interesting point about the wet belt timing belt. A railway engineer Oliver Bullied built a class of locomotives in the 1940s with a similar system ( they had a lot of oil leaks and fires). 15 years later British Rail spent millions redesigneing these monsters. So nothing changes

So what went wrong? We run a non turbo 2004 Citroen Berlingo with rocket ship mileage and looks like a teenager’s bedroom. Cheap to run and owes the planet nothing! Brilliant vehicle.

Well said brother!

Can't believe it! Just watched your video 21/5/24. Last Friday my 1968 Peugeot 2008 Allure Premium 1.2 started misfiring. Managed to limp back to supplier Arnold Clark. Told about the cam belt problem, minimum cost if minimum damage £1200. Did a deal on a 23reg GT Line with 4k miles on the clock, old one only done 35750. Thanks for the advice, I'll be getting the belt changed before the warranty runs out 🤞

I have a 2014 1.2vti C3 which I bought new, had the timing belt changed this year, so far I have not had any problems with the car

My God! Thanks for this. I was looking at Peugeot 2008 or the Ford focus eco boost. In fact I was going upto Manchester to buy a Ford focus eco boost this weekend. Thanks honestly, I'm not going anywhere near it now.

Great informative video, thanks. Between this and the Ford Ecoboost fiasco this takes a huge number of cars out of the running if looking to buy a small, economical petrol car for around £4-5k from the pre '17 low road tax era. I work in the Ford environment, the going price for an ecoboost (3cyl 1 litre) wet belt replacement is around £1800!

From 2022 on, Puretechs are chain driven. The 1.6 I believe has had a chain before that. Anyway it's Dayco (the belt manufacturer's ) they issued a recall, so you can't single out Stellantis for it. The recall is affecting Ford, VW and many others. With the Puretech if you follow the servicing to the letter and use the exact same oil in the changes everytime you shouldn't have a problem but they still recommended replacing the belt. All this info is out there online.

thank god for you!!! People always say how bad the ecoboost engine is and never talk about the Puretech engine which is wayyyyyyy worse! At least ford fixed their problem and fitted a time chain now!!! The Puretech has soooooooo many problems it is unbelievable it made it into cars!!!

It always amazes me how these vehicle makers with years of experience can make these mistakes

In the drive for lower emissions via increased fuel economy, piston rings with lower tension are being used to reduce engine drag. The problem is, during the compression stroke the ring can be forced closed (compressed) on one side opening a gap between the ring & piston on the opposite side. Over time it gums up the ring in the gap & the ring wears away at the cylinder sleeve in that particular spot allowing an ever-increasing amount of oil to pass the ring & begin to be consumed during combustion. Toyota 2AR-FE engine had the oil consumption problem from low friction piston rings

Thanks for the heads up Lee…We’ll add it to the list….Prinz puretech and eco post….Keep it coming good bud ….😉

Have a 17 plate Citroen C3, with 1.2 PureTech, 25,00 miles. Excellent car, have never had to top up oil between regular services. Moved away from Citroen dealer as it was a rip off

My son bought 2018 peugeot 3008 with this engine and it had wet belt problem after having it just over a year .he got in touch with a peugeot dealer who inturn got in touch with peugeot and because he had full service history they fixed it for free new belt oil pump ext .even though car was well out of warranty. So its worth speaking to your dealer you may just get it fixed for free

I'm disabled so I'm on the mobility scheme. I've order and in the first week of June it will be delivered a Peugeot 408 GT fastback 1.2 petrol engine.im glad I watched this to the end as it's put my mind at rest from the title of this :)

Cracking, helpful information. Thanks for alerting us to this horror and giving such a clear explanation of the situation. I hope that Stellantis is taking on board the fact that people are seeing this video and not choosing to buy their cars. I most certainly would not. I have had several French cars in the distant past, but never again, same with Ford. Thank you for this, now subscribed.

Agree, I had a Vauxhall Grandadland on. 20 Plate, can't to me on 38k from a daily rental fleet through a leasing company. It liked a drink of oil. A bit of a misfire sometimes and then at a nays under 60k it started throwing 'oil pressure failure messages' when cold. I googled it and found 'Der Cambeltun Schitzunselfun' as they say down the Opel Film Club. The Belt In Oil, BIO degrades and blocks the oil pick up. Daily rental fleet wanted to change the oil and filter. I refused to drive the thucking fing 1000 miles a week because it would have been me stood on the hard shoulder when it grenaded. AA towed it off into the sunset. 5 months later, it's had a owner change (V5C issued) and it was on and off sale, taxed, SORN and now untaxed. I reckone the daily rental offloaded it, poor dealer bought it, MOT'd it and sold it only to find it went 💥 Late Nov 2023 I waved it goodbye and we are now nearly six months later and it's still untaxed

Have a 2019 308 bought when 6 months old. Been main dealer serviced and no issues. Plenty of poke and relaxing on a long drive. If you look at forums then most engines of any type have issues eg carbon build up with direct injection engines etc. Get the bus if you are not prepared to properly service your car.

I was a fan of the french cars for long time. Right now, they only offer those ridiculous downsized engines in all of their cars. My last car was a C4 GP with the 2 liter 150PS BlueHDI. Ended with headgasket issues at 145tkm. Now i'm driving an VW. Leased. But i don't think i'll ever buy a modern car anytime in the future, they are all just trash. Built to be trashed after 6-10 years because of high maintenance costs and all the exhaust management stuff dying and getting expensive to fix. It's sad to see cars moving in this direction. I keep my 3 205 GTIs and my V8 pickup in my garage, they are easy serviceable and from a better time.

Amazing Lee. Why oh Why did anyone think that wet belt system was of any use. Even the AA man told me, when they first came out, watch all the crap get sucked into the strainer and cause engines to fail. That was on a Peugeot we had at work lol :) Awesome video. At least you let people know what NOT to buy or at least be cautious :) Thank You!!

Agree totally. Bought a 68 plate pure tech 1.2. Went for 1st MOT failed emissions 55k miles. Had a service Garage said it was thick oil. When was it last service 10k. Also seemed to be continuously topping up oil every 1000miles or so bloody nightmare of a car. But for a 1.2 it was quick. High maintenance costly car.

Thanks, needed this info. Was checking out peugeot 308 estates recently!

Excellent video. You have clearly shown how its the poor old second, third or high mileage owner that ends up footing the bill for what is frankly a poor design from new. I can't think of any other industry that would get away with it.

Top notch info, cheers bro 👍

Peugeot used to make belting engine , had a 306 1.9 dt xud engine from 97 , brilliant car, what's gone wrong with car makers these days , overpriced tat in my opinion :)

I owned a 2019 1.2 turbo Citroen berlingo from new loved the car no issues but I only covered less that 10.000 miles had it serviced every year . I now own a new Ford transit custom 2 litre diesel, yes with a wet belt so out of the frying pan and into the fire 😂

I'm starting to think the same as you, I've had all sorts of problems with these engines, emissions and the catalyst not working properly I've come across a few times. Trouble is there are so many cars they are in and they sell well. The job isn't getting any easier is it!!

My grandfather bough a Peugeot 206 1.6 Petrol (2000) before he died like 15 years ago.. That car still goes strong, the engine is absolutly awasome even at 240k km.. Then I bough my first car, A sedan Peugeot 406 1.8l Petrol 16v from 1999 so first year of facelift.. Again the engine had 190k km when I bought it and it has now over 200k km.. Only thing I dont like about my 406 is the fuel consumption :D But if you dont speed you can get around 7l/100km so that a OK.. But no engine failure, it just goes strong.. Even our mechanic that does servise on our cars since we had Skoda 120 in the early 2000 look at that engine and said its mint.. In really good shape.. Sorry for my bad english I writing this after long friday night and Im czech so Im trying :D

spot on Lee, great vid..Pureshite is closer to the truth..

Apparently from 2018 and newer they used different and cheaper materials therefore the 2018 and newer cars will break more easily. At our dealership we had 3 1.2 litre engines go within a month. You will also find soft discs and pads too on the later models. Really any Stellantis car you want to avoid that now also includes Alfa Romeo, fiat and jeep. Also I think Vauxhall have put a 10 year warranty on the wet belt because of this reason so if it breaks after the warranty it should be covered

Just stopped at this video to let you know that we have run 1.2 turbo to 180km w/o major service. Just topping up oil and replacing spark plugs. Crazy performance and economy. Sold it now don't know what happened after

Ex wifes Citroen with that engine, went into Citroën when the oil pressure light came on at 2 year old. They replaced the oil pressure sensor and gave it her back. 6 months out of warranty and total engine failure due to pick-up pipe being blocked. Citroen didn't want to know.

Sounds much like the Ford EcoBoom unit, old PSA XUD TU engines were brilliant had them years ago, currently have a chain drive Ford petrol, doubt I’ll be swapping it out for any with these new exploding sewing machines.

Slight correcton Lee, 250 ml per 1k miles means 2.5 litres per 10k not 1 litre as stated. To put that in perspective, my 13 yr old, Fiat on 122k miles uses 100ml per 1k miles/ 1 litre per 10k which is think is acceptable, I wouldn't be buying a wet belt engined car, no matter who makes it.

Very interesting; I had to look up PCV valve, though.

Great information Lee, very interesting

The Hyundai I10 1.0 2014 also suffers from oil issues. It actively smokes and i believe that the oil rings have failed due to crank case pressure causing oil to be pushed into the combustion chamber caused by a failed PCV valve. Replaced the valve but the damage is done, as the 3rd owner its too late.

The belt on our 70 plate started to degrade. The sign is low oil pressure warning light. If it comes on don’t drive it. The dealer had ours for 2 months as they had loads with same issue.Peugeot initially refused to pay saying we had to supply proof ie the invoices for the servicing to prove what oil was used during servicing. Eventually we were able to get access to this information and only then Peugeot agreed to pay to have the belt changed. Sadly we were out of pocket for vehicle hire as Peugeot refused to reimburse us for this. The belt should last 10 years but Peugeot will do everything to avoid paying or admitting there’s a problem.

This is the reason why i stay with my old cars from the 80's and 90's. My 1986 Opel Kadett 1.3i uses 0 oil between oil changes. 🥰

My daughter had similar issues with the 1.2 Renault engine in her Nissan Juke. I am not mechanically minded but noticed oil on top of the engine, looked into it and yes found issues with the engine. Nissan replaced the engine under warranty... just before its expiry.. So far so good.

Great video, I've been prepping a 208 with this engine, I'm worried about selling it as is fairly noisy, it does seem to run OK tbh.

We did the wet belt on my brothers 20 plate corsa it only had 38k on it so you'd think it should be OK but turned out we caught it just in time as it was perished badly

In my country we also see almost all problems that you’ve mentioned here for 1.2 puretech. What makes things worse is the way how services aproch these issues when customers ask for repairs. We can’t speak of customer satisfaction for those brands.

The motor is good. Just the maintenance is not so easy. The PSA engine has still a chain for the oil pump.

When my engine died and I discovered it was a wet belt, I had never heard of such a thing. Many years ago when I worked in a garage, if the external timing belt was contaminated with oil, it had to be replaced. Now, I know these belts are not quite the same but as these synthetic belts are basically made from oil derived products, is it any wonder that they break down running at high temperatures and stresses in oil that becomes acidic due to blow by combustion gases etc. I can't imagine a trained engineer come up with this idea. Was the engine designed by a computer? At least a human engineer would bear in mind all that they had learned along the way and not do something so stupid. Really, how did this happen?