406oc.co.uk

Hello all.
I am new to the forum and am trying to solve a problem my good neighbour has with his 406 HDI. He is not online.

He has been to several garages who are unable to cure the problem which is intermittent and has asked me for my thoughts as my lifelong hobby has been working on cars. I claim no fame with modern cars as for the past 20 years I am involved in restoring and running pre 1970 classic Jags.

His 406 Hdi will stop immediately he selects reverse gear, allbeit not all the time although when he went to demonstrate the fault to me it did indeed stop after the first two start ups when he selected reverse. There after it did not happen until after maybe 7 or 8 selections of reverse. This is solely 'selection' of reverse, clutch pedal remains fully depressed.
This started happening approx 2 weeks ago and last week there was a further development when the car suddenly stopped when being driven. After several unsuccessful attempts to start the car he engaged reverse with clutch depressed and it started immediately with no further problems on his way home.
Apart from the above problem the car runs very well with no other issues at all. No dash warning lights etc.

My only suggestion was there may be a poor earth which is common to the reverse wires from his manual gearbox to some other part of the wiring harness which may be linked to another function causing this problem.

I may be way of the mark but is the only rational suggestion I have. Has anyone any experience of this happening ?

Apologies for not having more details on the car but I shall get any further info on it if it is required and post it.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
Eugene.

Hi there Umm, any idea what year the car is?

Let me get this straight, sometimes selecting reverse kills the engine yet once the engine died while it wasn't in reverse and the only way it started was by selecting reverse?

Imight be millions of miles out here .

im thinking wiring fault, ive seen this happen when a clutch as been changed on someones car - and the wiring as been caught /chaffed,
id check the wiring to the reverse switch, or perhaps just unplug the switch for a test to rule that out,

I was thinking to suggest pulling the connector off the switch but then there was the stuff about only being able to start it in reverse...

(Now fully awake) I've never heard of it on a 406 before, it's probably a wiring fault as Lozz suggests - check the engine loom for damage. It didn't happen to coincide with any mechanical work did it?

I've just been looking on the diagrams, on both semi and full mux cars the wiring goes through the BSI

Also, the only other time I ever heard of this happening was on a car with worn engine mounts, when the car started moving the engine pulled on the wires and disconnected something. Probably not what's happening here but...

Ive just had alook on Google,

some of the Symptoms of this that pop up Mention Cranksensor,
altho iwouidnt have thought of that,

Hi Folks.
Many thanks for your responses, much appreciated by myself and Jim, the owner of the 406.

Some more detail.
Car in question is a ' T ' reg 1999 406 HDI LX. 110 BHP.

Symptoms of the problem are indeed as given, strange as they may be.

Having just spoken to the owner he tells me the car is giving no problems, at present.

He added that when collecting the car from the garage they had stated they could not find an answer to the problem as the computer only showed a clutch valve ?

This was removed, cleaned and replaced again. No assurances were given that the symptoms would not return

Can this have been the cause of the problem and if so where is the link to the reverse gear?

Eugene.

Forgot to add.

The car has had no recent work done though is well maintained and is in very nice condition for its years.

Eugene.