Just got a 406, drives great, but various niggles

[hamlet101]

Hi,

I've just bought a 2001 Diesel Rapier, and really like how it drives (can't understand why I only paid £500 for it), but there are a list of niggles that I'd like to fix. Hoping to get advice on which ones I may be able to fix myself, and where I'll be better off taking it to a garage, and where only the main dealer can help.

1. Central locking behaves erratically - I only have a non-remote key, and sometimes the other three doors don't unlock (about 1 in 4 times). Normally just locking and unlocking again does the trick, but once it didn't after several tries and I had to have my passenger climb across the drivers seat to get in.

2. Need another key, preferably a remote one.

3. The driving seat rocks very slightly when I accelerate/brake - can't see anything particularly loose underneath.

4. Handbrake - requires very little movement to set, last MOT has advisory about it being near minimum.

5. Fuel flap - doesn't spring open when pulling lever next to drivers seat, I'm working around it by jamming the lever next to the seat open, and then prying the flap open. I can see the plastic 'bolt' moves back and forward when I operate the lever - but it seems some 'spring' is missing somewhere.

6. The multi-function display is dead (well, glows slightly orange) - I see these are readily available on ebay for less than £40.

7. Radio reception is terrible - only picks up about one station - although hard to know what's going on with the MFD not working. Aerial doesn't appear to be in great nick.

8. CD player worked the first time I tried it, but recently was just spitting out any CDs I put in after about 10 seconds.

9. The rubber strip running along bottom of drivers door frame is falling apart/coming away - not clear to me how it attaches - seems to 'disappear' into the wheel arch frame at either end.

[piglet]

Sounds like a bargain, but they are not worth much now. Only to their owners.
4. Handbrake- Mines not great, I have drum/disc on the rear and the drum handbrake is fairly conventional, strip & adjust in the normal way. You may find your back plates are in poor condition and they aint cheap. I did see some on a Polish website that were cheaper.
5. Fuel flap, Yup I've just got used to holding it up with my toe while I reach back & I'm a 5'6" shortarse.
7. Aerial?
9. Rubber door trim. You can get the liitle plastic clips off Ebay for pennies, I'm always catching mine.

[GingerMagic]

Hi mate, welcome..
Central locking sounds like it's the drivers door mechanism - does the central locking work from the passenger door?
My old 406 had to have the drivers seat welded as it was broken, yours just may need the bolts tightening?
Fuel flap is common, search on here for the clothes peg bodge.....
Do you have 2 buttons on your display? If so, you just need 3 bulbs to fix it.
Handbrake!! A terrible design and normally a bit rubbish, if yours holds then it's a bonus...
As suggested, the clips for the seal strip are available on line, but they are cheap enough from Peugeot, you can still get replacement seals new - about £30 each..!!

Not a big list really.

[trufflehunt]

These are the door clips.....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PEUGEOT-406-3 ... SwhvFZDdFi

I didn't need so many, so I just bought them from the local dealer. As said, very cheap, a few pennies as I recall.

[hamlet101]

thanks everyone, I found a youtube video on replacing MFD bulbs, will remove my MFD and have a look before shelling out for a replacement.

On one occasion I had the central locking problem, the passenger door remained locked, and couldn't be unlocked from the inside. The switch in the door handle would flip, and I could hear a noise like it was unlocking, but the door remained locked. I suspect this will be a garage job.

[Doggy]

Hi & welcome aboard

Sounds like a faulty door lock unit, these can be interchanged fairly easily, they're not coded or anything.
It's possible to unplug the connector and test a replacement unit works before swapping it over.

[hamlet101]

thanks doggy,

I've posted individual questions for the radio and locking problem in their respective forums.

On the fuel flap issue, on a closer look I can see there is a type of spring in the middle of the hinge, and it looks like there was a plastic bit that extruded from the flap which it would have pushed against. If I can shape a bit of plastic and superglue it inside in the flap I might be able to fix this.

Removed the MFD and the bulbs looked ok, but the ribbon cable connecting the circuit board to the LCD display had come unstuck and wouldn't stick to the display - I had a go heating it with a hair drier to see if it would become sticky again but that didn't work, then tried jamming the ribbon against the lcd display with strips of cardboard and tape - this resulted in 1 line of the lcd display appearing when I put it back - but doesn't seem like a viable avenue to fix this permanently - so new MFD ordered on ebay. I'm breaking my own 'bangernomics' rules here in spending money (rather than just living with a dead display -
I've been buying £500 cars for a few years now, spending no money on them other than consumables, and then scrapping when more than £500 needed to keep running or get through MOT), but so impressed by how the 406 drives and feels, and with what's under the bonnet that I'm even tempted to pay to get some parking scrapes and knocks fixed.