The factory timing chain is 7 millimetres wide, and that is too little for this engine: the chain wears and stretches prematurely. The repair replaces it with an 8 millimetre chain. In a bad case the chain skips teeth or snaps, and then the valves and the cylinder head are seriously damaged. The early sign is a metallic knocking or rattling noise at idle when cold, together with power that slowly fades. In the fault memory, codes pointing to the relative position of the crankshaft and the camshaft appear: P0011, P0012, P0016, P0017 and P0018. The wear starts from 70,000 km. The maker issued a recall and a retroactive goodwill programme for it. The range is the engines built between October 2017 and January 2023, across five brands: Opel, Citroen, Peugeot, DS and Fiat. In Germany 141,700 cars were called in, and the workshops judge the condition of the chain by the noise of the engine. The warranty was extended to 10 years or 240,000 km, provided the servicing was done to the factory specification by a specialist workshop. Anyone who paid for the chain replacement themselves between January 2023 and June 2025 can claim the cost back, material and labour together. For used cars there is also a separate certificate confirming that the benefit passes to the next owner. The chain replacement on its own is between 1,200 and 2,000 euro. The specified oil is not a formality here: the engines covered by the recall need the lubricant to the FPW9.55535/03 specification, because its anti-wear additives slow the wear of the chain.

The SCR system running on AdBlue is the most common reason for a workshop visit on this engine. The fault can start in several places. The NOx sensor works with a heated measuring cell and ages, and the sensor after the catalytic converter is the most affected, because it sees the most moisture and temperature change. The injector of the dosing module is clogged by crystallised urea, and because of that the dosed amount deviates from what is needed. Crystals are left in the lines as well: on short trips and during long idling the water evaporates out of the solution, and the crystals left behind obstruct the dosing. The electronics of the pump inside the tank can corrode from contact with the urea. The symptoms are the warning light, a jump in AdBlue consumption, a wrong reading from the level sensor and finally limp mode. If the SCR control unit locks up, the car will not even start until it is repaired. The repair is between 400 and 1,200 euro, and it is made more expensive by the pump sitting inside the tank. A component cannot be deduced from a warning message: the diagnosis needs several values looked at together. The fault can start from 60,000 km.

Soot builds up on the EGR valve and in the intake, and the valve starts to bind or sticks. The build-up grows faster on short, urban trips, because the engine does not warm through properly. This is among the five most common faults of this engine. The symptoms are the engine warning light, rough running, a lack of power and black smoke. A stuck valve also loads the particulate filter, because more soot reaches the exhaust, and a blocked filter is a separate, more expensive repair. Cleaning or replacing the EGR and the intake is between 150 and 900 euro. The fault starts from 100,000 km.