I have a car that shouldn't exist...and other problems.

[sirwiggum]

Not sure if real industry is the same as the software industry, but often there is a delay between a release and an official "general availability" statement.

Helps to iron out teething issues too!

[mjb]

Well, they need to make the cars before they can sell them... They're not supercars

[plod]

I don't know whether i've stumbled on something, but whilst doing a bit of research, I found some valeo OEM parts, and some of them had 3 dates available for sourcing parts.

The first went up to oct 1998,
The second went from oct 1998 to march 1999
and the latter from march 1999 onwards

Now, the way I see this is cars built up to oct 1998 would be D8;
Cars built from march 1999 are D9;

....and cars built between oct 1998 and march 1999 technically could all be D8.5??????

I may have this wrong, but from what I can gleem off here, but the traditional view of a 8.5 is primarily seen as having the D8 front and a D9 rear.
Now my car has a D8 front AND rear, but the dashboard appears to be latter spec as in doesn't have seperate airbag part on the dashboard, it also has a D9 sunblind.
So it could well be classed as a D8.5?

So it could well be the HDi engine first appeared in cars in Oct 1998, and after a few months of running - maybe by people being offered cars cheaper on the understanding of providing valuable feedback on the cars (especially be high mileage users i.e. the fleet market) then the engine was officially announced and available to the general public from January 1999?

Like I say, I could have this completely wrong, but hey, who knows

[steve_earwig]

Where's your hazard warning light switch?

[plod]

Layout of the dashboard is D8, but from pics I've seen, most d8's seem to have a seperate insert for the passenger airbag as part of the dashboard.

This advert is from ebay of a 1998 dashboard and this has the seperate airbag insert

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/406-DASH-BOARD-DA ... 4150a800c3


My dashboard with airbag built into it

[steve_earwig]

Oh lordy, I've never even noticed my D9 doesn't have the insert And the new, improved (i.e. completely bolloxed) Service Box doesn't tell me when they stopped fitting them, it's there on the D8 diagrams but gone on the D9s

I guess you have one of the "on the cusp" cars that's a pain to get spares for.

[Nuffield]

Hi Everyone,
I have a 406 est, reg in April 98, which has an air con system which I believe was not available till 99! ! The date on the cond,is July 99. This caused some problems when I ordered the new cond, as no one would believe me! In the end, I managed to get the Valeo numbers from the old cond and the supplier cross referenced them.One other small thing, the interior light is screwed in as opposed to some form of clip stated in the haynes.
Regards,
Nuffield

[chrisfinlay]

Oh lordy, I've never even noticed my D9 doesn't have the insert And the new, improved (i.e. completely bolloxed) Service Box doesn't tell me when they stopped fitting them, it's there on the D8 diagrams but gone on the D9s

I guess you have one of the "on the cusp" cars that's a pain to get spares for.

good thing the car only cost me £375 then and I can just run it into the ground >_<