Reliability

[Wag]

The Peugeot diesel has always been hailed as one of the best diesels ever, well that's what I was always led to believe, and I've had a few.

How is it some old 406's run for hundreds of thousands of miles with no major engine worries and others, like mine, do 106000 miles and need a head gasket?

Is there a common theme?

[barbaren]

The Peugeot diesel has always been hailed as one of the best diesels ever, well that's what I was always led to believe, and I've had a few.

How is it some old 406's run for hundreds of thousands of miles with no major engine worries and others, like mine, do 106000 miles and need a head gasket?

Is there a common theme?

The exception that proves the rule.

[PeterN]

I have come across a few cases of head gasket but as mentioned they are few and far between. I have only had one and have bought quite a number of 406's for myself and friends. The 'one' was that very nice one I bought earlier this year for very little money, we ran it for sometime but I had to top the water up occasionally, it wasn't until I made an effort to find out why, I discovered bubbles in the coolant. Fortunately I still managed to sell the car for more than I paid for it as the buyer decided it was good enough to spend the money on.

XUD gaskets were not so good and would usually fail at about 150k, I had two go on XM's but the replacement laminated steel gaskets seemed to cure that.

We have had a couple of 406's with well over 200k on them, the last one, my wife's failed on the servo unit, normally not a difficult job except on a 406 so sadly we wrote if off although I got 250 pounds for it as 'spares or repair' but it had done 212k and served us well. We are 406 less now after many years but I still consider them one of the best cars Peugeot ever made.

We have replaced them with the steel sprung C5's they are an absolutely brilliant car, the most comfortable ride I have had in years.

Peter

[frog]

How is it some old 406's run for hundreds of thousands of miles with no major engine worries and others, like mine, do 106000 miles and need a head gasket?

Mine has now 627 k kms (390 k miles) and has never needed a new head gasket.
Your 106 k seems really quick. It was not chip-tuned?

[Wag]

There seems no rational explanation why heads blow. Mine was spitting water from the header tank and still held pressure when cold - classic head gasket symptom. Wasn't chipped or tuned to my knowledge.

As it's pretty solid it's in the process of getting the head skimmed - sons in the trade - so it's a bit cheaper for me, if he wasn't I expect I'd have probably scrapped it due to labour costs.

I've posed the question of what to have next and yes, most point to the C5 steel sprung version. Will probably go for one in due course.

[rwb]

That does seem exceptionally unlucky.
I took my 406 HDi 90 to 205k and my 407 2.2 HDi has just rolled past 210k.

The only other variable I can thin of is how it's been treated by previous owners -- perhaps in particular when it was new?

[Welly]

From memory there's no 'low coolant' warning light on these cars?

Couple that with a Black-coloured expansion tank you're less likely to notice the coolant being too low....could overheat and knacker the gasket.

Also the quality of the coolant might pay a part in protecting (or eroding) the gasket where it makes contact with the water ways.

[Wag]

Yeah, the low coolant warning light is on the right of the dash display to the upper area. I only noticed it as it was dark outside and I saw the reflection when it came on: the icon was obscured by the steering wheel.
Fully agree re state of the coolant, I should have changed it when I got the car but as usual things like that tend to drift.

[dirtydirtydiesel]

I believe mine was finished off by the extra stress of towing,

All head gaskets will fail at some point.

Some cars are more prone than others but in the trade the Peugeot 2.0 hdi has quite a reputation
Despite what Peter thinks.

[PeterN]

I am only going on my own experience, I ran my first one to 246k with no engine problems but was written off by water getting into the electrics. Our last one had done 212k, that was sold because of a failed brake servo requiring to much work.

I have been involved with six or more 406's most of which have been running for quite a number of years and miles without failure. I must admit I have seen a couple when I have been searching for replacement cars, but compared with the number I have looked at its still a very small percentage - particularly when compared to XUD fails.

Peter