406oc.co.uk

Hi everyone,

My name is Rob and this last weekend I became the proud owner of a 406 2.0 HDI (2002 model). Woo!?! Well not so much. Seems that my first post on here is going to be one of woe I'm afraid :-( I have had a look about on the t'interweb and can't find anything particularly definitive to help with my issues, so any help would be appreciated.

Now, the car was only bought as a stop gap until June when I start my new job with a company car. So, I only paid peanuts for the car and thought that as it had a full 12 month MOT it would be just right to last a few months without any major troubles... Looks like I was wrong.

Now, I got the car on Saturday and it was running perfectly fine, nice and smooth to drive. Clutch pedal is a bit high, but as its only a stop gap didn't mind that so much. Car has been to the moon and back mileage wise, but looked pretty well loved with all electrics working and immaculate bodywork. Clean and tidy underneath, etc... The only indication that there may be something at all wrong was a coolant sensor light on the dashboard that the previous owner pointed out was intermittent and due to a dodgy sensor on top of the engine coolant bottle. I know very little about cars, but checked for leaks and puddles, as one does and took the car on a drive, getting it up to temperature and nothing broke or dropped off, so all seemed well.

Took the car out on Sunday morning and all was tickety boo. Even got stuck in a traffic jam for the best part of 45 minutes and the car behaved perfectly. Temperature was fine. The sensor light on the dash came on a couple of times and went off again, but nothing bad occurred.

Have used the car a few times since on shortish journeys, again with no major issues, except once when an antipollution message appeared on the dash and the revs were limited. Pulled up, turned off and on again and all was fine.

Finally, this afternoon I went about 7 miles down the road to the pub for lunch and all was well until I got in it to come back home. As I was driving back the power just went from under my foot completely and the rev counter struggled to get up to 2000rpm. Pulled up and turned the car off, and when I turned it back on I had power back for a few hundred yards, but it gave up again. So, I stopped and let the engine cool for about 20 minutes. This allowed the car to run fine again for a couple of miles before dying a death. This happened all the way home, making for rather a long trip. Each time the power goes a cloud of whiteish smoke comes out of the exhaust pipe, but goes away completely when its running fine. Also, if I stop the car when it is like this and rev it hard in neutral it revs way over 2000rom easily and gives a reassuring puff of black diesel dust out the exhaust. Additionally, the temperature gauges didn't go over 90 degrees for either oil or water when it was doing this and as far as I remember that's the normal sort of running temp for a diesel?

I've checked the oil and water levels and they seem to be as they were previously, so doesn't look like they are being used up. The water in the cooling system does look a rusty brown, so may be lacking in anti-freeze, but I'm not sure this would affect the car in this way?

As stated, I didn't pay a lot for the car, so am not expecting it to be completely fault free and I only need it for a few months. That said, rather than pay a fortune to have it plugged into a computer I thought there may be someone out there that would have some ideas on where to start looking with this sort of issue?

Obviously, I understand that without error codes there may be nothing that can be done, so helpful advice is greatly received.

Cheers,

Rob S.

Just to add to the tale.... Went out in it just now after engine has had chance to completely cool down and it started fine and drove about 500 yards just fine. Then power cut out again and struggled to get more than 1500 revs in first gear with lots of smoke out the exhaust. Turned engine off, left it twenty seconds and restarted. Then drove perfectly fine for anoth 500 yards or so and same problem. So, doesn't look like its anything to do with overheating, but does seem pretty terminal :-(

Woo. have a computer coming tomorrow to read any error codes on the engine... watch this space.

is it a 90 or the 110 hdi? it sound like it could be the egr or air flap

normal temp is 80c

where are you as i have pp2000 and there are others that have one and are willing to help out

Hi Rob & welcome aboard.

As mmm says, post your location someone nearby maybe can help.

'White smoke' could be either unburned diesel or steam - any signs of liquid on the tailpipe when it does this?

Hope it's not too serious, most people that pick a 406 up cheap are pleasantly surprised.

Cheers guys. I'm near Walkden, Greater Manchester. It turns out my brother-in-law has a diagnostic thingy to plug into the car (wish he'd told me earlier lol), so am borrowing that tomorrow. Hopefully, that will show some error codes to shed some light on the issue... Don't know how good it is, so we wait with baited breath.

Its the 90 HDI. Is there any way I can test/inspect the egr and air flap? As stated, I don't really know engines very well, although am capable of using a spanner and a screwdriver if I'm pointed in the right direction lol.

I don't think its a temperature issue as it doesn't seem to overheat at all, the temperatures get to about 90 (ish) and don't go any higher at all.

To be honest, I never thought to look at the tail pipe when it happened, I'll have a try with it tomorrow and look.

I really hope it is something reasonably simple to sort out.

Sounds like it could be an engine management coolant sensor fault.

If your diagnostic check doesn't find anything I could fix up my pp2000 to it and do a proper check.
I'm not too far away from you.

Thanks for that jasper. Fingers crossed we find something tomorrow, otherwise I'll have to limp over to see you lol.

wob wrote:Clutch pedal is a bit high, but as its only a stop gap didn't mind that so much.

406s have high bite points... It's normal

Have just tried plugging a reader in to the car and as sods law would have it there is a communication error between the car and the reader.

On further inspection it seems that the 406 diesel isn't odb2 compliant? Is this the case?

If so, I could really do with someone friendly who has a reader that will work to just see what's up with the car?

wob wrote:On further inspection it seems that the 406 diesel isn't odb2 compliant? Is this the case?

Fraid so. jasper's probably your best bet.

I'm running out of time to look at this as I'm away from saturday night for just over a week.
I won't have time to get over to Walkden until I get back.

If you can't manage this there is a member who doesn't post much who has pp2000 in Greater Manchester, his username is Delvey.

Well, just been over to see jasper and he very kindly plugged his computer into my car only to receive the error message of "pp2000 unknown reference ecu being referenced"

It did find a fault on the ABS and a few faults on the BSI which mainly seemed to be dodgy cable faults and were cleared. The computer did see that there was faults on the ECU, but as it couldn't read them it couldn't clear them either. When trying to read them it said something along the lines of incorrect ECU for engine, system, etc.

That said, the car coughed and spluttered in limp mode to jasper until about halfway there when I let it freewheel down a big hill in neutral for the best part of half a mile and suddenly it all woke up and has driven 40 miles since without any sign of a problem. Whether this is a coincidence, whether the errors in the BSI were at fault, or whether there is still some nasty lurking in the ECU, I just don't know, but its working for the moment.

If anyone has any suggestions for further investiagion they will be gratefully received.

In the meantime, I would like to say a big thnak you to jasper for taking time out of his day to fettle with my car. What a thoroughly nice bloke

You are most welcome I always try my best to help.

There's something weird about that ECU or my version of planet is not compatible to the ECU?

I'm glad it seems alright for the moment, fingers crossed it stays like that!!

All the best

Same happend to my mates 2.0 (90) global test read all except ecu - with message ecu beeing referenced ...? engine is smooth but turbo doesnt kick in at all

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