406oc.co.uk

Hi All,

I have a 1.8 406 saloon which has lost a bit of power. It has covered 122,000 miles and all belts have been done. It starts first time everyday but when I accelerate it feels like I'm fighting with the throttle to get a response. The car seems to 'chug' on tick over so was wondering if plugs? I'm no mechanic by any means but did have coil pack checked to no avail. I have no warning lights on dash of any kind so hoping it's something simple?

Many thanks in advance of any help!

Si

"Chugging" on idle, and a lack of power, would suggest a misfire. This would be accompanied by a lot of extra vibration.

At a guess, I'd say you may have a fuel injector problem - but not to worry; they're not expensive for the petrol engines.

If your 1.8 petrol is a facelift model with the COM2000 steering column stalks (i.e. from around 2001 onwards) then you should have an ODB2 port covered over by a small plastic panel to the right of the steering wheel, beside the height adjuster for the headlamps. If you have (or can borrow) a generic ODB2 code reader, you can prize off the plastic cover (using a coin) and plug the ODB2 reader on to it. Code readers can be used to read any engine monitoring fault codes so you can work out what's wrong. Some of them will also allow you to read live statistics from the engine control unit (ECU) - this is great because you can see things like the fuel flow, air flow, RPM, etc.

The proper code reader to use on PSA vehicles is Peugeot Planet 2000 (PP2000) or the later DiagBox program - but on later 406s, any ODB2-compliant handheld code reader should provide some basic functionality. They're also generally cheaper, easier to use, and mostly don't also require a laptop.

Hi and thanks!,

I better book it in for a diagnostic it would seem. I take it the car is ok to drive over Christmas as have work commitments to deal with? I would have also thought my eml light would be on as well though?

Again many thanks for advice

Si