New 406 owner in Newcastle

[d0pefish]

Thanks for the hints Lozz, I'll have a look and see if I can find any history on it.

The exhaust replacement was a big success - she's much quieter and there's no fumes coming into the cabin now!

It was a surprisingly easy job - only one clamp attached the remains of the original exhaust to the car, and after a quick tap to release it from the turbo, it came free and slid out of the mounts.

The new exhaust came from eBay of all places

Here's the turbo outlet after the old system was removed. I cleaned it with a scourer to prepare it for exhaust paste.
Looks like I have a power steering leak at the rack, my next job ;)


The old system had been previously patched up (badly). It was blowing at the flexi, before, and after the cat:


After applying Fire Putty:


New flexi-end clamped on:


Here's how the the front end near the cat sits in the mount. The mount's a little worn but decent enough - it's not going anywhere. I may renew it later


After hanging the rear end of the pipe and clamping the two halves together. I used paste in the joint to seal it:


Even though the new cat is a round barrel shape compared to the original flat one, there's plenty clearance and it fits fine. The sticker instructed me to run the engine on a fast idle for 10 minutes to help break-in the new cat, which I did.
The new cat also has the EU type approval stamped onto it, and it came with a certificate to prove conformity, which is nice.


There's a slight difference with this new system in that on the rear half of the pipe, there are two hangers, where on the old one there is just a hanger on the nearside. I think some years of 406 must have the hanger on the other side, so this system can be used on both variations. I was ready to hacksaw the unneeded hanger off, but it doesn't foul anything once in place, so I didn't bother.

After all this, I was able to attach my new backbox, but I forgot to get a picture. I'll get one tomorrow as I have to adjust it slightly anyway

It looks great now!

[steve_earwig]

Very nicely done sir It's a long time since I replaced a pipe myself, the joys of wiggling around an axle without enough ground clearance and having to keep adjusting it as it vibrated on everything going....

I see from your cat that yours has Siemens injection, all the other HDis have a round cat. In fact I've never seen anything other than round cats which is why idiot here originally assumed that it couldn't be a cat

The hanger did indeed change sides in about 2002 I think. Making the pipe with hooks both sides very neatly sidesteps the issue.

[midsmike]

Looks good but where's the can and middle box on that exhaust

[midsmike]

Oops didn't see page 2

[d0pefish]

Thanks Steve,

It was a little bit tricky without a second pair of hands, I nearly knocked myself out when the old cat let go and fell down!

The only part that vibrated at first was the backbox, which is quite close to the corner of the towbar, but this was easily overcome by loosening the middle connection and pushing the two halves closer together.
Now it all sits nicely and doesn't touch anything it shouldn't

Quite impressed by the kit, especially as it was a relatively cheap set from eBay.

I was a bit confused about the various types of exhaust too - Service Box shows round cats for cars up to a certain RPO and some cars have a middle silencer there (petrol?).
In the end I decided to just buy something as long as it said "up to 2004" and try it.

[d0pefish]

I've just been out to replace the clamp holding the backbox on, as I had the wrong type and it wasn't the best fit.
Initially I had a 69mm clamp, which held the silencer on, but didn't tighten up enough to seal the joint and keep the two parts rigidly held together, so there was a bit of a rattle too.

So I've just attached a 66mm clamp which is also a different style; two halves instead of a circular clamp with one bolt.
This one is much, much better - and I think Service Box confirms 66mm is the proper size anyway


Plenty of travel up the bolts so it tightens up as much as you need:


Here's how it hangs on the rubber mounts:


The end result - well chuffed:


Put my hand over the end of it with the engine running, and there's loads of pressure, so it looks like everything's sealed up nicely.

Next job: steering rack!
Thinking of buying a second hand unit the same as my current one, and sending it away to be reconditioned by a specialist. There's a few racks on eBay for not much money. That way I don't have to take the car off the road while I wait for it to be renewed. I've done a bit of research and found there's a lot of different models of rack, so I'll need to check to make sure whatever I buy is a match.

Does that sound like a decent enough plan?

Cheers!

[steve_earwig]

I suspect the trick will be to decide if the rack's a match by looking at a fuzzy picture on ebay

[d0pefish]

It's been a busy week

Last week I called Kelly Bray Steering in Cornwall, who were very helpful and offered me one of their off-the-shelf steering racks they'd already reconditioned for the same price as what they charge for reconditioning your own.

They knew exactly which racks would fit my 2003 car - all they needed to know is whether it was variable or non-variable - basically whether it had an electronic sensor on the side of the housing, which mine did not.

The next day, this arrived:


Absolutely spot on. Can't recommend these guys enough. Just need to get my old rack sent off to them so they have one ready for someone else.

My friend helped get the old rack off, and we then saw just how badly it was leaking. It was leaking out of the top *and* the boots, the whole thing was caked in fluid and dirt.

The rack comes out of the passenger side of the car (assuming right hand drive), and you must undo some bolts that keep the pipework in place so that the rack can be moved out. There's no need to drop the subframe - it just takes a bit of patience and care to get it swivelled past all the obstacles.

We also found the lower universal joint on the steering column was the source of a massive amount of play in the steering, it was extremely loose and probably wouldn't pass an honest MOT. After nearly having heart failure from hearing the Peugeot price for a new one (about £130) we went straight down to the scrap yard and found another one - luckily there was a low mileage estate with a universal joint in perfect condition.

Despite the car being underneath another, we managed to cut out the rubber boot in the footwell to get good access to it and remove it. Half an hour and £25 later, we have a nice replacement in perfect nick with zero play!

While I was there, I picked up this little gem:


Used Planet Peugeot to enable it, and now I have a working CD changer for the boot!

We noticed play in the track rod ends, so those were also replaced. Then we filled up the fluid, started the engine and turned the wheel lock to lock about 20 times or so to get all the air out of the system.

We gave it a rough tracking alignment, using a tape measure to get the distance between the front wheels at the front and back of the rims about equal. It's booked into a garage with a Hunter machine to get a proper digital alignment and some new tyres on Friday.

Now the car has absolutely brilliant steering. No play whatsoever, steering is smooth and easy lock-to-lock. Here's hoping that on Friday I can get everything aligned and balanced, and that'll be it sorted.

[steve_earwig]

Oops, I missed this one Sounds like you had some good results there. Also it's nice to know you can get the rack out the passenger side without dropping the subframe, I have a feeling lots of people will find that rather useful...