Car falling apart

[Captain Jack]

My 407 is on its last legs. There's lacquer peeling on the front wing, the interior blower is making a racket when at 100%, ABS fault is ever present, needs a new battery and now my air con died.

The air con issue seems to have coincided with the battery going flat and I had to jump start it.

It's been regassed just over a year ago and was blowing nice and cool until recently. Now the clutch does not engage at all but it will click on and off if I do an actuator test via PP2000. One thing I was hoping to do in PP2000 is find the gas pressure to see if that's why the clutch isn't engaging but I couldn't find it. Can that only be done with appropriate gizmos or is it buried in a menu somewhere?

If the gas did escape, am I legally allowed to replace the condenser/evaporator myself or will I need the garage to do it. Don't think I'll have a problem removing the bumper etc...

Anything else I can check?

[PeterN]

If you get one of these 'top up' cans from ebay it comes with a pressure gauge which can be subsequently useful for checking the pressure. I need to replace the condenser on my C5 and if the system is empty there is no reason why I can't, I can then take it to one of the firms that does a 'no work no pay' recharging scheme and get them to fill it. If its empty it will probably be cheaper than buying the gas yourself.

Peter

[Captain Jack]

That's not a bad strategy. Those eBay refillers with gauges on - I guess I can just use the gauges without filling it (knowing that it will likely escape anyway).

[steve_earwig]

I'm pretty sure you can work on it yourself, providing no gas escapes. My brother did some work on the a/c on his monkey gasser last year (something about the condenser being damaged/plugged?) so he had it vacuumed out some place, did the work, and had it repressurised at the same place.

[Doggy]

If there's no gas in it there's no environmental concerns - (you can easily tell by briefly depressing one of the valves).

Don't think I managed to find the gas pressure when checking my bro's 407 either. Remember establishing it didn't have 'permission' to operate the clutch, then proving it had no gas. It never got further up his to do list and now it looks like being scrapped since he's treated himself to a C class Merc.

If anyone wants a 200bhp remapped/defapped 2.2 407 GT SW wiv levver an everything for cheap.......

[trem1]

pp2k can check the pressure of aircon

[GingerMagic]

If anyone wants a 200bhp remapped/defapped 2.2 407 GT SW wiv levver an everything for cheap.......

Hmm - tell me more..

[Captain Jack]

Thanks all. More investigation required. Including where valves are and where I'd fill it up from!

pp2k can check the pressure of aircon

Do you recall the menu option? I looked in obvious places but didn't see anything that gave me pressure readings.

[Doggy]

If anyone wants a 200bhp remapped/defapped 2.2 407 GT SW wiv levver an everything for cheap.......

Hmm - tell me more..

LN07 NTM
Silver 2.2 GT SW with blue leather interior and panoramic roof / electric blind / rt4 colour infotainment with satnav
Remap / defap/de-egr by HDi tuning, 200 bhp
About 170k miles, MOT 7/10/20
Drives very nicely, quiet, smooth. Engine sounds and feels fine.
Towbar

Bad bits:
Climate doesn't work on either side - suspect the common air flap gear/motor issue(s)
A/C doesn't work
Intermittent limp mode - this one's weird - it doesn't light the EML and will clear itself on the run / doesn't log any fault codes. I think it could be poor ecu and/or sensor connections, earthing or similar.
Far less often it will light the EML - this looks very much like the transient overboost behaviour of a 2.2 406 with vacuum leaks - EML resets a few journeys later.
Using cruise seems to provoke limp mode with occasional ABS error messages
TPWS not working
Could do with a service and timing belt sooner than later.
A shame to bin it, its a brilliant mile eater, as quick or quicker than my last 406, albeit with more progressive power delivery.

Currently SORNed / resting in his garden. He bought the Merc a week or two before the lockdown started and hasn't tried to move the 407 on as yet

[GingerMagic]

Hmm
I was just coming to terms with the opportunity* of owning a 407 - but the blue leather has thrown a spanner in the works....
It would be good to see how the 200bhp diesel compares to the 200bhp petrol - my money is on the oil burner.

[Captain Jack]

I still love the power of my 407 - it's what makes me want to fix it up rather than spends thousands on another car, requiring just as much work.

Limp mode - throttle bodies are common failure points and doesn't always come up with EML. Very easy to replace. These engines also seem sensitive to fuel filter being clogged, so replacing that is a good start.

Surprised HDI Tuning now do 2.2 HDI on the 407s. When I asked about mine, he told me to politely* go away.

[trem1]

Thanks all. More investigation required. Including where valves are and where I'd fill it up from!

pp2k can check the pressure of aircon

Do you recall the menu option? I looked in obvious places but didn't see anything that gave me pressure readings.

valves are left hand side of engine bay and obvious, cant remember where it was in pp2k as we found it on my sons facelift while we were messing, people say on facelift models only diagbox works but we've managed everything on both f/l on ore f/l with my pp2k

[trem1]

Hmm
I was just coming to terms with the opportunity* of owning a 407 - but the blue leather has thrown a spanner in the works....
It would be good to see how the 200bhp diesel compares to the 200bhp petrol - my money is on the oil burner.

when your ready pop back into FB, Pauls just bought another 2.2 sw hdi for less than 3200.......yet again, BUT Paul being Paul before he could sort that he got the oppurtunity of a 2.0hdi with only 100k miles for £100,so he bought that as well and parted out the 2.2. The 2.0 is now back on the road, remapped/de......everythinged and a side exit exhaust. Couple of new members from your town as well

[trem1]

Hmm
I was just coming to terms with the opportunity* of owning a 407 - but the blue leather has thrown a spanner in the works....
It would be good to see how the 200bhp diesel compares to the 200bhp petrol - my money is on the oil burner.

never ever seen one with blue interior, can be dyed quite easily tho, Bogdan has done his on his SW

[Doggy]

Hmm
I was just coming to terms with the opportunity* of owning a 407 - but the blue leather has thrown a spanner in the works....
It would be good to see how the 200bhp diesel compares to the 200bhp petrol - my money is on the oil burner.

never ever seen one with blue interior, can be dyed quite easily tho, Bogdan has done his on his SW

Neither have I
It's actually BLACK, seems I was having a senior moment

Regarding the throttle body, we thought that too and indeed it was improved by cleaning all the breather gunk out of it & refitting. Ordered a new unit, got the wrong connector version so it wouldn't fit, returned for refund and never got round to getting the right one. So it could be that