A few issues - altitude related?

[hughseh]

So I'm the last week I've had 3 separate issues that I've never had before and wondered if they're related to altitude.

We're driving through France and in the last week have done Auvergne and then the Alps, so 1,000m plus altitude.

Firstly, the brakes are really juddering after more than a few seconds use, start to smell really bad and vibrate through the steering wheel. Coming down the Alps roads, not nice. Has to keep stopping to cool.

2nd -P0171 and 0174, twice,separated by a few hundred miles. Kills fuel consumption, the error code is apparently running too lean. Deleted both times and now hasn't returned for 100 miles.

3rd - low oil warning on the dash. Turned engine off and back on and the light had gone. Checked level whilst car still warm and was on min on the dipstick, but to be expected on a warm engine.

All issues need more investigation, but wondering if air altitude / pressure has caused these 

 

[Notamech]

3 hours ago, hughseh said:

So I'm the last week I've had 3 separate issues that I've never had before and wondered if they're related to altitude.

We're driving through France and in the last week have done Auvergne and then the Alps, so 1,000m plus altitude.

Firstly, the brakes are really juddering after more than a few seconds use, start to smell really bad and vibrate through the steering wheel. Coming down the Alps roads, not nice. Has to keep stopping to cool.

2nd -P0171 and 0174, twice,separated by a few hundred miles. Kills fuel consumption, the error code is apparently running too lean. Deleted both times and now hasn't returned for 100 miles.

3rd - low oil warning on the dash. Turned engine off and back on and the light had gone. Checked level whilst car still warm and was on min on the dipstick, but to be expected on a warm engine.

All issues need more investigation, but wondering if air altitude / pressure has caused these 

 

Other than the code for running lean none of the other issues sound like theyre altitude related. Juddering of the brakes is probably a bad rotor. Could have warped from overheating.

Also oil at min is not normal even for a warm engine. The level should be between min and max even on a warm engine. When cold and no oil circulating it should be at max.

[hughseh]

16 hours ago, Notamech said:

Other than the code for running lean none of the other issues sound like theyre altitude related. Juddering of the brakes is probably a bad rotor. Could have warped from overheating.

Also oil at min is not normal even for a warm engine. The level should be between min and max even on a warm engine. When cold and no oil circulating it should be at max.

Fair point. I'm stuck abroad with no tools on extended holiday with a lot of travelling so not able to do the investigation I'd like in the normal way. 

Checked the oil this morning when cold and drained back into the sump, showing as about 1/5th of the way up the gauge between min and max. Have since topped up and will monitor but if that was the case, don't think it will have caused any issues. A little surprised as I didn't think the 400h used oil and as I've had the car 18 months and changed the oil 11 months ago, this was the first time I'd had chance to notice any obvious oil use

[hughseh]

Worth adding, I used 0w20 Petronas fully synthetic at the last service, if this has any bearing on oil use 

[welland]

On my 400h, I occasionally had a low oil warning on steep hills.  When I checked the oil level when cold, it was not particularly low.   However, after topping up a little bit, the problem went away.  

[Notamech]

Honestly theres not much you can do anyway. Im sure the owners manual also states a certain amount of oil consumption is normal. As long as it is within that limit it should be fine. Also it is not unusual for engines to consume oil when pushed e.g driving uphill or frequent driving at full throttle. So top it up and keep checking. 

[ColinBarber]

22 hours ago, hughseh said:

Coming down the Alps roads, not nice. Has to keep stopping to cool.

Where you in B gear?

[hughseh]

57 minutes ago, ColinBarber said:

Where you in B gear?

Yea, was doing that quite a lot to save the load on the brakes. Would this have affected anything?

[ColinBarber]

10 hours ago, hughseh said:

Yea, was doing that quite a lot to save the load on the brakes. Would this have affected anything?

If you weren't using it then you may have overheated the brakes that caused the discs to warp.

[hughseh]

To update on the engine codes, I'm pretty sure this has been narrowed down to a leak in the air intake post MAF, with lots of splits in the rubber hose (part 17882-20140). New part on order and will tape up the existing hose as best I can in the meantime.

 

However, whilst looking over the engine generally, I notice the coolant was below minimum. This is annoying, as the radiator was only replaced 6 months ago due to an old, failing radiator. 

Any ideas on possible causes, aside from the radiator (I will double check the new one hasn't failed to, but no obvious signs)