Wiltshire newbie with a pair of V6s

[MartinV6]

Hi all,

Just found the forum, and I thought I'd say hello first. We've got two early V6s, great cars - particularly the Coupe - and I've just had the pleasure of doing the second cambelt/water pump/tensioners over the Xmas break. It's done 170k and still purrs nicely with almost everything electrical still working fine.

French cars and unreliable, pah

I took a load of photos, and hosted a V6 cambelt how-to guide up on my website. Is that likely to be any use to anyone - will post a link if so.

Martin.

[teamster1975]

Welcome Martin, glad to have you!
By all means post a link to your guide, there are several guys here with that engine that would be very interested!

[Welly]

Hello fella!

That's a lot of miles on the coupe

PLEASE DO post up the how-to (I know one or two on here would kill for that info).

Welly

[MartinV6]

Thanks for the welcome, seems a friendly bunch here. Now off to use the Search facility to try and get the cruise working on the Coupe.

How-to guide for the V6 cambelt, water-pump and tensioners - http://www.trackandrace.com/Workshop/ . Hope that it helps someone else.

Martin.

[teamster1975]

That's a superb walkthrough Martin, thanks for sharing it!

[steve_earwig]

Hi there Martin, I've just been having a look at the old how-to too - you make it look easy! I bet it isn't though and if it was a job I needed to do I think after reading that I'd be willing to have a go (if I could buy a V6 here )

[MartinV6]

I've just been having a look at the old how-to too - you make it look easy!

Thank you. Whilst I would not say it was easy, it is not rocket science. I am a manager in an office, not a mechanic, but I enjoy tinkering with things. I figure if you consider an engine to be a giant, metal lego set, then nothing should be that hard. You need a good socket set, and for the V6 at least, you need a trolley jack as the engine needs to be supported whilst removing an engine mount.

What you do need however is time. I think if you tried to do the cambelt over a weekend, and you relied on the car to get you to work on a Monday, there is a very strong possibility that your boss will be upset

What did surprise me though was how good condition the engine was in after 170k miles. All the tensioners were still moving freely, the water pump was fine, even the belt itself looked as new. I still replaced the lot though, to be on the safe side. The tensioner and waterpump had both been superceeded with new designs, so there must be a reason why Peugeot bothered doing that.

if I could buy a V6 here

Are V6s hard to find where you are?

Martin.

[steve_earwig]

Yep, plenty of time, the right tools and 10" fingers that can bend steel bars... I'll have a go myself and have always done all my car maintenance and repairs myself, although to be honest it's because back in Blighty garage labour charges are nuts. Here it's the opposite, labour's cheap so it doesn't make much sense to do absolutely everything myself, it's just a shame I can't produce car parts from out of my bottom.

I've only ever done a few cam belts (most of the car's I've had didn't have them), the last one I did was on a 2.5 transit and it was a piece of cake - remove front panel, remove radiator et voila! When I look at the available space down the side of my 2.1 it makes me want to run away screaming.

The majority of 406s here are imported and the importers only import cars they know they'll sell, which tend to be smaller capacity and more often than not diesels. The only evidence I've seen of anything above 2 litres was an ad for a V6 saloon in the national Blue Advertiser a couple of years ago. I know there are a few coupe's around because I can see crashed ones for sale now and then but I don't suppose there's enough to fill a library car park, I've only seen one in the 5 years I've been here and that was parked up behind the Pug dealer's in Zagreb.

[rob100]

WELCOME,
Nice how to guide on cambelt, not bought one yet
but going to veiw a coupe V6Auto sat,
so if its any good

[mjb]

Thanks for the welcome, seems a friendly bunch here. Now off to use the Search facility to try and get the cruise working on the Coupe.

Your section on that shows you've taken off the footwell plastic to get at the pedal switches. You don't need to do that I'm at work so only skim-read it, but you should put a warning there (ideally as an image!) that you MUST check your brakelights work correctly after fiddling with the switches. As I found out, there's very little in it between not coming on, working fine, and permanently on

How-to guide for the V6 cambelt, water-pump and tensioners - http://www.trackandrace.com/Workshop/ . Hope that it helps someone else.

Looks good! I'll have a better look at home, but it looks like you've got more room in the coupe than I have in the saloon. You're also missing something from the ECU box that I have. No idea what that is, and if I can at all avoid it, I'm not lifting my bonnet in this weather Remind me in a few weeks/months

Also you should replace the pear-shaped rubber bit of the engine mount that goes into the body behind the ECU box, those things seem to need replacing quite a bit on V6s

[MartinV6]

You're also missing something from the ECU box that I have. No idea what that is, and if I can at all avoid it, I'm not lifting my bonnet in this weather Remind me in a few weeks/months

I'd always assumed the autobox ECU went in there, but I was puzzled that Peugeot would just leave bare sockets fluttering about in there. If you are ever under the bonnet again, please do check and report back. I can see me chasing the cruise fault for weeks, then you telling me the cruise ECU lives next to the main one

Martin.

[mjb]

The cc ecu lives somewhere behind the glove box and operates a vacuum pump and valve on an inaccessible bracket at the bottom of the engine bay to the rear. There's a hose coming from that to the actuator that's attached to the same wheel on the throttle body as the throttle cable