406oc.co.uk

Hi all,

Been meaning to get a thread posted for a while but thought I'd wait until I had something substantial to post!

I got the car from my uncle back in April as a workhorse car (the MR2 doesnt fare well on 80 mile a day commutes!).

As soon as I got it, I got to work doing all the servicing that it should have already had, but had been neglected a little, so it got:

• Oil + filter change
• Fuel filter
• Air filter
• Pollen filter (I've never seen one so disgusting! - http://i.imgur.com/gWl3l.jpg )

I then got round to installing some left over in car audio (I somehow seemed to have a spare headunit and iPod adaptor:



I have a spare amp and sub too which I plan to install when I get a free weekend!

It was when I saw the car hit 140,000 that I started worrying about other periodic maintenance, namely the timing belt. So I started scrabbling around the service history looking for proof of changes. To my chagrin, I found out the last time the belt was changed was at 50,000 miles! This made even the most conservative estimate show that a new belt was 18k overdue!!

So after looking around into the ins and outs of the cambelt and discovering it was a mare, I decided to get a quote from a guy who did an engine swap in my friend's 405 Turbo D, namely KrisB - a Peugeot/Citroen specialist. I asked him how much to do a cambelt change and got a very good quote, but he then suggested something else - why not do a Bosch pump swap at the same time?

Having heard many horror stories about the Lucas "EPIC" pump, plus the current price of pump diesel, I took the plunge and got Kris to supply and fit a Bosch VE pump at the same time as the cambelt. I must say I'm glad I did, as the car now feels much better after tuning the pump up a bit, and advancing it too so I can run it on vegetable oil!


I've now discovered first hand what happens when you run a newer ECU on a Bosch pump though, you get the check engine light and no tacho above 3000rpm! So I thought I'd take the plunge and buy an earlier ECU from the bay, and will update you on that.
My ECU:

I'll type out the part numbers too in case Google reads this:
DCU R 04010028 B
80768B
SERIAL No 2178 JPG
96 304 669 80
XUDLC01

Numbers from the earlier ECU:
DCU R 04010019 A
80708A
SERIAL No 91243 GOG
96 274 538 80
XUDLC01
(I think the important numbers in these are the B and the A, someone on vegetableoildiesel.co.uk I was speaking to who cured the same problem said he thinks the one that fixed it ended in A, but I'll keep you guys up to date!)

So that's where I'm up to so far!



I've only got a picture of the back at the moment, but as I do more things (considering new alloys) I'll keep this thread updated!

Hopefully I didn't ramble too much there!

James

Thanks for the mention James.

For anyone who may need a Bosch conversion then feel free to checkout my website. http://www.krisb.co.uk/latest-news/peug ... onversion/

Kris

KrisB wrote:Thanks for the mention James.

For anyone who may need a Bosch conversion then feel free to checkout my website. http://www.krisb.co.uk/latest-news/peug ... onversion/

Kris

so are you useing the standard injectores

From what I remember they're Bosch injectors from a 1.9

A couple of small updates, it's now running on 100% SVO and seems totally fine with it, a little lumpy for the first minute in the morning but other than that fine!

I also managed to pick up a set of 406 Coupe 16" wheels, I needed 3 new tyres on my old set anyway so it was the perfect time to get them. Does feel much better to drive too with the wider tyres!


Oh, and I couldn't resist one of these stickers:

My 406 had silly thin tyres. I think they were 175/65 R15 from what I remember? I think it's the reason my 406 felt abit wobbly

How is it all working now with the new ECU?

Bailes1992 wrote:My 406 had silly thin tyres. I think they were 175/65 R15 from what I remember? I think it's the reason my 406 felt abit wobbly

How is it all working now with the new ECU?

My old ones were 195/65/15 so a bit thicker but it still felt wobbly! With these (205/55/16) they feel much better, and Hankook tyres all round instead of some mismatched brands!

The new ECU has given me back my tachometer but not fixed the check engine light, so I'll just have to take the bulb out!

Part of me is tempted by these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-RACELAND- ... 20b8d55a6b

But I know being that cheap they arent decent coilovers!

CalamityJames wrote:

Bailes1992 wrote:My 406 had silly thin tyres. I think they were 175/65 R15 from what I remember? I think it's the reason my 406 felt abit wobbly

How is it all working now with the new ECU?

My old ones were 195/65/15 so a bit thicker but it still felt wobbly! With these (205/55/16) they feel much better, and Hankook tyres all round instead of some mismatched brands!

The new ECU has given me back my tachometer but not fixed the check engine light, so I'll just have to take the bulb out!

Part of me is tempted by these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-RACELAND- ... 20b8d55a6b

But I know being that cheap they arent decent coilovers!

Check engine is nothing, by the time I got rid of my D8 it was missing the airbag, engine management, low coolant and oil pressure light
You know you want to drop it :p But I do wonder what quality those coil overs are? You don't want them colapsing at 80mph
Think i'm going to play it safe when I get my next 406 and just get some Eibach springs on new shocks, not sure if I trust cheap coilovers. Although 406's do need to be pretty low to look tidy
My Focus is 195/60 R15 and it feels much more stable than my 406, but it goes round corners no faster

Quick update, it failed the MOT at the weekend, which was nice:

Reason(s) for refusal to issue Certificate
Nearside Front position lamp(s) not working (1.1.A.2b)
Nearside Headlamp aim too high (1.8 )
Offside Stop lamp not working (1.2.1b )
Front Exhaust has part of the system excessively deteriorated (7.1.1a)
Exhaust emits an excessive level of metered smoke for a turbo charged engine (7.4.B.2b)
Front Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2a)
Rear Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2a)
Parking brake efficiency below requirements (3.7.A.10)
Advisory Notice issued
Nearside Rear Brake pad(s) wearing thin (3.5.1f)
Windscreen has damage to an area less than a 10mm circle within zone 'A' (8.3.1a)
Nearside Inner Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Offside Inner Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Offside Front Anti-roll bar linkage has slight play in a ball joint (2.4.G.3)
Nearside Front constant velocity joint gaiter deteriorated (2.5.C.1a)
Rear Exhaust has part of the system slightly deteriorated (7.1.1a)

Currently looking at about £230 to buy a full exhaust system, which sucks but considering I got the car for nothing, I owe it that much, it just doesn't help that insurance is up on the MR2 this month too!

CalamityJames wrote:Quick update, it failed the MOT at the weekend, which was nice:

Reason(s) for refusal to issue Certificate
Nearside Front position lamp(s) not working (1.1.A.2b)
Nearside Headlamp aim too high (1.8 )
Offside Stop lamp not working (1.2.1b )
Front Exhaust has part of the system excessively deteriorated (7.1.1a)
Exhaust emits an excessive level of metered smoke for a turbo charged engine (7.4.B.2b)
Front Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2a)
Rear Exhaust has a major leak of exhaust gases (7.1.2a)
Parking brake efficiency below requirements (3.7.A.10)
Advisory Notice issued
Nearside Rear Brake pad(s) wearing thin (3.5.1f)
Windscreen has damage to an area less than a 10mm circle within zone 'A' (8.3.1a)
Nearside Inner Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Offside Inner Rear Tyre worn close to the legal limit (4.1.E.1)
Offside Front Anti-roll bar linkage has slight play in a ball joint (2.4.G.3)
Nearside Front constant velocity joint gaiter deteriorated (2.5.C.1a)
Rear Exhaust has part of the system slightly deteriorated (7.1.1a)

Currently looking at about £230 to buy a full exhaust system, which sucks but considering I got the car for nothing, I owe it that much, it just doesn't help that insurance is up on the MR2 this month too!

Does look a bit depressing until you realise all it actually needs to pass is an exhaust, 2 bulbs & the headlamp ligned up. Advises might cost a few quid to get done though.

Managed to get the backbox off, needless to say it definitely needed replacing, it had at least 2 holes in it, and one of the mounts was clean off (it turned out the previous owner mounted it with some stiff wire!)

I'll order a new one tomorrow so at least that saves me a few £££ however I tried taking the front pipe off but had no joy, those sprung bolts are a nightmare, plus the turbo downpipe is so far up its nigh on impossible to get the grip round a spanner on top of the bolt! Might have to resign that one to a professional!

It passed!

Managed to fiddle the emissions though, set the governor to 3.5k and turned the fuelling screw right down to get a a reading of 0.65 on the smoke test! Had a play getting the pump set up properly afterwards and it's smoking much less in general now

Well done.

Did your adjusstments have much effect on performance?

dogslife wrote:Well done.

Did your adjusstments have much effect on performance?

With the governor at 3.5k the car hardly got on boost on the way to the test centre, it felt awful, but now i've had a bit of a tweak it feels a bit more back to normal, however I need to fix a leak in the inlet manifold seals and get the pump tuned properly as it doesn't feel like it's reaching its full potential.

The problem is there's no definitive guide to tuning the VE pump, a lot of it seems to be trial and error, and for a daily driver, errors could be baaaad news!