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Published on 12/16/2024 at 4:50 p.m. Written by Léa Houël
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After the PureTech engines, it is the turn of the 1.5 BlueHDi from Stellantis to be at the heart of the turmoil. A distribution chain that is too short would be the cause of many malfunctions. While the manufacturer does not seem willing to reimburse the victims, the latter are organizing themselves online. We’ll explain it to you.
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It is obviously not only the PureTech motors who sin at Stellantis. A year ago, a Facebook group emerged pointing to a new failure, but for the 1.5 BlueHDi engines this time. Today, nearly 8,300 people have joined the group for a very specific problem: a break in the camshaft drive chain and engine failure.
Stellantis’ PureTech 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine, launched in 2012, has experienced issues with excess oil consumption and premature timing belt deterioration. Stellantis is facing rising discontent in Europe, despite a belt design change in July 2022 and conditional support for replacement. Here, a mechanic works on one of these engines in a Peugeot brand garage • © LIONEL VADAM / MAXPPP
In less scholarly language, understand here a defect in the chain which connects two parts of the engine. Undersized, it breaks even at low mileage, putting the engine out of service.
On this group, messages detailing clear breakdowns on the road appear every day. At the heart of the claims, the responsibility for repairs by Stellantis which turns out to be less obvious than expected. “What motivated me to create the group was Stellantis’ policy. They do not take responsibility for their mistakes,” judges Smaël Sebille, heavy goods vehicle driver in the Var.
If there are already more than 8,000 in the group, Smaël Sebille estimates that millions of vehicle owners could be victims of this manufacturing defect across France.
Assembled by the automobile group between 2017 and 2023, these engines are present in many vehicles. “In 2020 alone, 1 million 1.5 BlueHDi engines left the factory,” adds the truck driver. 36 models of Citroën, Peugeot, and even Opel are affected. A collaborative map created less than two weeks ago already lists around a hundred victims.
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1.5 BlueHDi engine from Stellantis, mounted on a Peugeot vehicle. • © PENNANT FRANCK / MAXPPP
Originally from Cassel (North), Laura Watelle is the owner of a Peugeot 308. She agreed to testify.
“Before my current car, I had another 308, equipped with a PureTech engine.” Laura Watelle definitely has no luck with her vehicles. With the latter, she remembers having “broken down in the middle of the highway”.
To resolve the problem, she decides to go to her mechanic, she is told that the fault is known on the PureTech engines. After her fright on the road, she decides to change vehicles. Faithful to the Peugeot brand, it therefore falls back on a 308, but this time equipped with a 1.5 BlueHDi diesel engine. “I was told I wouldn’t have any more problems with this one. I bought it in 2021, it was built in 2019.”
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The Peugeot 308 equipped with Laura Watelle’s 1.5 BlueHDi engine. • © Laura Wattelle
► Read also: Defective Puretech engines: a motorist from the North leads a collective rebellion against Stellantis
“Everything was going well, until one day in September 2024, when my car did not restart. I called towing, I arrived at my usual garage, I was told that it was a known problem with Peugeot…and do it again!” Laura Watelle therefore finds herself with a second defective Peugeot vehicle on her hands, barely five years old and less than 100,000 kilometers.
She therefore tries to have her vehicle repaired, but at the garage, she is told that Peugeot will not be able to cover the costs. “As I had barely driven in 2023, I had not done a service. So they told me that they would not cover anything”, and that the bill would amount to 3,500 euros. A sum as substantial as it was unexpected for this mother looking for a job.
Neither one nor two, so she gets information on social networks. “When we heard about the problems with the PureTech engine on the news and on the internet, we said to ourselves that there might also be something wrong with the BlueHDi engine,” she says. This is how she joined Smaël Sebille’s Facebook group. “This group guided me on the steps to take to report the problem on Consumption Signal [site to report a problem to fraud repression, Editor’s note]”.
Through the testimonies posted on the Facebook page, she realizes that she is far from being alone in having difficulties with her 1.5 BlueHDi engine, and that the coverage of repair costs varies depending on the dealership and the person who requests it. While Stellantis does not agree to pay for its repairs, some report assistance amounting to 55% of the final bill, others 100%, when victims are still going back and forth to their mechanic to find a solution, sometimes in vain. In short, no clear protocol from Stellantis.
I want to file a civil suit.
Laura Wattelle
Owner of a 308 1.5 BlueHDi in Cassel (North)
In need of a car for her daily trips, Laura Watelle made the decision to pay the 3,500 euros for repairs out of her own pocket. But she is reluctant to call her legal assistant. “I want to become a civil party. If there is a collective action, I would like to be part of it. I’ve been cheated twice and even repaired, my car will cost a lot,” she gets annoyed. , even though she paid 24,000 euros for her vehicle.
From now on, as soon as she hits the road, Laura Watelle must deal with her anxieties. “I no longer have confidence in my car. The engine was opened, is it properly reassembled? I still drive 250km per week.”
The media coverage of this problem would have already caused movement at Stellantis. Smaël Sebille reports that the manufacturer “made a half recall, but still does not take 100% on the repairs.” Also, to address the failures, “the chain went from 7 mm to 8 mm, and the engine oil from 0w30 to 0w20, and now the new oil is 5w30 RCP”. Difficult to follow for vehicle owners, therefore.
For UFC what to choose, Stellantis confirms that “malfunctions or warnings, such as mechanical noises, may occur, indicating a potential failure of the timing chain system, which may increase the risk of engine failure”, resulting in numerous damages and costs repair cost of several thousand euros. The columns of the newspaper specializing in consumer issues specify that since February 1, 2023, all engines would be equipped with the wider chain… by a small millimeter.
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Stellantis is a French-Italian-American multinational automobile group. • © imagebroker/imageBROKER/Schoening/Newscom/MaxPPP
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To our colleagues atNews Lille, Stellantis adds that special coverage has been put in place for owners of vehicles with faulty engines, built between 2017 and 2023. But it is on condition of having driven less than 150 km that the vehicle has less than 5 years, as well as having scrupulously followed the “manufacturer’s maintenance plan, in particular maintenance in our network. (…) The manufacturer is obliged to set rules and adhere to them hold.”
The manufacturer is obliged to set rules and stick to them.
Stellantis
In News Lille
However, Smaël Sebille explains that he “started the process with his legal protection because [his] chain has not yet broken, but it was necessary to modernize.” In his case, Stellantis would refuse to cover this repair as his vehicle is maintained in an “off-grid” garage. “When support is granted to victims, they present it as a simple commercial gesture.”
Owner of a 5008 1.5 BlueHDI, the creator of the Facebook page explains that he is creating a group “to make himself heard” and “to take legal action”. To do this, a form is accessible to all those who feel harmed by the Stellantis engine and who would like to contribute to collective action.
Contacted by France 3 Hauts-de-France, Stellantis did not respond to our requests.