406 3.0L Estate - New Car, New Problems

[e36er]

Hiya chaps,

I picked up my new car a few days ago - a 1998 406 3.0L V6 estate. I bought it extremely cheaply so I can't grumble about the few problems it has, however I thought I'd post them here to see if any of you guys in the know could help. There's a kind of grating noise coming from the rear, I think this could be that handbrake sticking. I've come to this conclusion as I put it in D without taking off the handbrake (accidentally) and the handbrake had very little effect. Is this something that can be sorted easily? It could be the bearings I guess so I'll check them when I get time. Another problem, which is slightly more alarming, is there is a bit of a noise coming from the engine. It's a high pitch, tinny, ticking sound - the same sound you hear when you come to the end of a long journey and switch off the engine. The engine runs and sounds fine and pulls very well though. Thirdly, a few of the buttons under the main screen (to increase/decrease temp etc) aren't lit. How hard is it to remove and replace the bulb? Yet another problem is that when the car's stationary the water temp will stay at 90 or just over, but when on the motorway it drops to around 75. Could this be the thermostat sticking open a little? The car was seriously overfilled with oil, the oil level on the dipstick is about 5 cm above the max! Another small problem is the keyfob. I've read, on here possibly, that I can't just buy a keyfob from eBay and program it to the car, but I've also read that it's a very easy process to program it! And lastly, after applying full throttle for a few seconds the coolant level warning light comes on, but goes away as soon as I ease off. Faulty connection maybe?

Other than that, the car's suprisingly good! It cost me a grand total of £343 from eBay. The engine sounds great and pulls really well, and on it's last it MOT it only needed a new windscreen wiper! For those interested, here's the ad - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWNX:IT

[EvilTwin]

Bargain, hope you like your new motor, and welcome to the Forum.

As for your problems, cant help you with many of them, but....

Rear noise could be handbrake, The rear disks are also a drum for a separate pair of handbrake shoes. If you've gone metal to metal, you'll need to get this looked at sooner rather than later. Have a look in the how-to section on pulling them apart. You'll be able to check the rear bearings at the same time.

Not sure if the V6's had the infamous peugeot crank pulley fitted, but have a root round the forum, its quite a common thing for engine noise on the 406's, which could be the source of the engine noise you describe.

Motorway temps dropping, could be the thermostat, but remember that you get some proper airflow through the rad on the motorway, so the coolant temps should drop a bit, but a whole 15 degrees sounds a bit much.

[HimBigChief]

The engine noises could be down to the overfilling of the oil. Get the oil to the right level then have another run and see if the noise is still there.

[e36er]

Thanks for the replies.

EvilTwin, I'm pretty familier with the metal on metal sound and I don't think it's that. Would I be right in thinking an easy way to check if that's the case would be to leave the handbrake on a bit and drive? I'm going to adjust the handbrake on Wednesday, while I'm down there will I be able to see if the shoes are worn without removing the disc? As for the crank pulley, changing that sounds like it'd be a bigger job than I'm capable of. If that were the problem, would I do further damage by leaving it and putting up with the noise?

HimBigChief, I'm not driving the car until Wednesday when I drain the oil and fill to the correct level. The oil level guage goes beyond max when I start the engine then quickly drops to 0, could the oil level be the problem?

[steve_earwig]

Grating at the rear - rusty bent backplates, they aint cheap and you'll probably need bearings Have a squint before you panic though. It's not so much of a job to get the disks off to check the shoes, they do break up. If you have a Haynes ignore how it tells you to adjust the handbrake, adjust the adjusters until the shoes are rubbing the drums, then adjust the cable so there's no slack and you can't turn the disks on about three clicks. All 406s with rear disks have rubbish handbrakes, this seems to be the only way to get some use out of them (I could do handbrake turns if I wasn't an old fart). Crank bearings do go loose on these, I'm not sure if it'll take the cambelt out if it goes like HDis do (looky). The oil gauge only works when you first turn the engine on, that's why it drops to zero. Oil level could be a problem if it's high enough for the big ends to be slapping into it. Umm, bulbs, I think the panel just prizes out, new bulbs from Halfrauds. Plip stuff. Splash out on a new thermostat.

Oh yeah, I hate you

[EvilTwin]

Check the oils first, if there is still no joy, then have a look at the crank pulley (its bolted on the end of the crank, and drives the aux belt, so its just bolt off, bolt on to replace), there will be metal flecks round it. If it is the crank pulley, and it does go, then the pulley will break up or more likely fly off, it may damage other things when it does come off. For example on the HDi engines the timing belt is in the same vicinity as the Aux belt, I seem to recall someone had their pulley come off, and damage the timing belt, so if it is suspect, get it done sooner, rather than later.

[mjb]

Check out the knowledge base section of the forum - I've done howtos with pictures for the rear brakes and changing the V6 (the engine model is ES9J4) aux belt/tensioner/crankshaft pulley

The thermostat on the V6 is well hidden. Take off the air filter box and the big rubber hose to the throttle body (be careful for the little attachment to the engine), and you'll see on the side of the engine is a section roughly 18" long, 2" wide which can be unbolted. The thermostat lives inside that. Drain the coolant first though

[e36er]

Just a quick update.

Well the noise from the rear has disappeared, which is nice! I think it may have just been the brakes as there was a fair bit of surface rust on them. The strange tinny, pinging noise is still there after draining the oil and filling to the correct level, I'll have to investigate this further but I don't think it's anything major. The problem with the coolant light coming on has been sorted, strangely enough by adding some coolant.

Before today I'd not really driven the car much, maybe 30 miles. I put about 70 miles on the clock today and I'm loving the car more and more, it's turning out to be the best £300 I've ever spent. Everything works, more or less, and there are no strange, worrying noises, erm, more or less. I've sussed the automatic 'box now and know a bit better how to get the most out of it, second gear is brilliant - pulling hard from 30mph to about 80mph, I'm pretty sure I suprised a few people this evening!

Unfortunately the radio decided it didn't want to hook up with the CD changer anymore, it was working one minute and not the next. There's power going to the changer but when pressing the 'source' button, it does nothing. I've done a search and couldn't find any similar topics, anyone had the same issue and managed to get it resolved?