Virgin Pug owner!

[CaptainJapseye]

But I did have a Citroen ZX estate for a few years - amazingly reliable old bus - learned to love and respect PSA products!
So via an intervening Audi and a couple of Toyotas, I've woken up and smelled the garlic and my shoestring motoring has seen me aquire a lovely 1999 406 estate hdi 110. Needs a little bit of love here n there, but with only 110k on the clock not too much I hope

Glad to see theres still an active community cos it seems like 406's have suddenly become a slightly scarce sight on the roads after years of every other car being one!

[Xarlitos]

Welcome Captain Japseye,

Take care of your Pug and he will take care of you, neglect him and you are asking for a nightmare mixed with the Twilight Zone These excelent cars have a mind of their own and what I like to call "personality", specially when it comes to revenge for something you did/didn't do to them (even if you don't know what you did, your car will know and he'll let you pay for it )

I hope you will love this car as much as we all do or did, it will be the closest to a human relation that you'll have with a 4-wheeled motorized object, lots of love & hate along the way, lots of perfect & disastrous moments, lots of "enigmas"...you get the picture

I'm also a Newbie around here so can't help you much in case you have any trouble, but take your time to read the Posts, that's how I managed to fix 80% of the problems with my car in 2 months, even some problems that I didn't know they were actually problems and I used to blame it on the engine being old (292k miles),but hey, my car is running better today than it was when I got it

[PeterN]

Welcome to the forum

My 406 Hdi estate has now covered 240,000 miles, 50k of which I have done and nothing serious has gone wrong with it yet so yours is barely run in. A excellent car, probably the best value on the secondhand car market at present, replacing the 405.

Peter

[CaptainJapseye]

Thanks for the welcome!
Forgot to post a pic of Le Barge

[teamster1975]

CaptainJapseye, love it!
Welcome to you, lovely looking car!

[Doggy]

Welcome aboard Cap'n.

Nice looking car you have there and in a very popular colour too.

At 110k, your is not yet run in.
(Mine, at 150k is nearly run in).

You could be here for some time.

[CaptainJapseye]

I hope so!
Certainly drives like a car with a lot of years left in it, and I'm happy to spend sensible money keeping it in good order - my previous 2 cars (in fact most of my cars) have been very much "if it breaks, chuck it" - unfortunately they both did...hah!

So far I've detected a leaky egr valve (makes cabin smell smoky - can see where it's leaking) and the handbrake isn't too clever. Plus the obligitary airbag light which has a day off from time to time.
Egr banking plates ordered, gonna tackle the handbrake next month after my holiday...then if I'm feeling brave one day I might break out the soldering iron and have a go at the airbag connectors under the seats. (Airbags scare me!)

[Xarlitos]

Egr banking plates ordered, gonna tackle the handbrake next month after my holiday...then if I'm feeling brave one day I might break out the soldering iron and have a go at the airbag connectors under the seats. (Airbags scare me!)

Being a newbie around these waters myself, I'm going to take this chance and ask you: Are the EGR blanking plates easy to assemble?
I've read lots of threads around here about it and it seems the right thing to do, specially to my very used engine (don't want it swallowing contaminated air) and they are really cheap, but I've been a little "scared" to try it and screw something up, but since you're doing it...Permission to board Captain?

[CaptainJapseye]

Hi Xarlitos - From previous experience on my A4 1.9tdi they're simple enough to fit in principle...but as with most jobs on cars it's all about access. This looks a little trickier on my hdi than the old Audi, but not enough to scare me.
Once access is acheived, remove the 2 bolts, clean and liberally smear the mating surface with some exhaust jointing paste (instant gasket for hot things!) slot into place and tighten everything up again.

As always, Youtube is your friend for anything like this. I worked in the motor trade for 12 years and picked up plenty of general knowledge regarding car repairs but it's no substitute for watching someone doing the job you're about to take on in real time.

The effects on my Audi were barely noticable since it was working correctly, did it more as a preventative measure. I know they were designed to reduce nox gases in diesels so are in theory a good thing, it's just that when they don't work (which it seems a very high proportion don't) they're kicking out emissions many times worse than they're supposed to prevent. That apart from (or maybe connected to) them just being wrong in terms of my understanding of what an engine wants.

[GingerMagic]

Welcome to the club..

Its a nice car, the colour may grow on you

EGR is easy enough if you lay across the engine, I recommend using a tool kit like this but cheaper maybe - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Stanley-Bit-S ... 27f1aa5185 - and a paper gasket http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gasket-Paper- ... 25ab2de835 - for the EGR as its less messy and works just fine and is easy to replace if you need to get into the turbo for cleaning....

The handbrake is okay to do - there is guide somewhere - viewtopic.php?f=10&t=13956

[rwb]

Hi & welcome

Tubby alloys, is it an exec?

I hope so!
...the handbrake isn't too clever

it never will be

If the EGR valve is working then you can disable it by pulling and bunging the vacuum supply. Made a big difference on my HDi 90.