V6 406

[FarmerPug]

Ive been pondering the thought of purchasing a v6 406 in either an estate or coupe but i have a few questions about this engine,
how much is the tax for these cars?
is the v6 a good engine, does it give any trouble, what are they like to service, would it be worth getting it converted to LPG?

Im starting a new job in a few weeks time and its only 5 miles away from home, all country roads no traffic so the extra thirst at the moment isn't putting me off the idea.

[Bailes1992]

I loved mine for all of the one month I had it!
Timing belts are a pig of a job on these. I bought one that the timing belt has already been replaced on but they didn't do the tensioner and it failed.
I had the Auto which I wouldn't recommend. It was very slow changing gears an there was huge gaps between them too!
Oil changes are easy. Spark plugs are a bit harder as I think the intake manifold needs to be removed but it's no big job.
Mine was doing about 22-27mpg but that was town and fast A road driving.

If you want to convert to LPG I recommend you go do your research over at the LPG forum. Then buy the kit from TinleyTech and fit it yourself! Then get it checked over and signed off by a reputable installer. That was if it goes wrong you know the install inside out and you'll save yourself a fortune!
If you do go down the LPG route then fit a flashlube system to lubricate the valve seats as LPG is a drier fuel!

[dirtydirtydiesel]

Are you on the same system as over here (Britain) if so it's £225 if it's registered Before March 2001, up to X reg.
(I think, it may have gone up since I wrote off my Audi )
If it's registered after March 2001, Y reg onwards it's £285
Bit diferent to £140 a year for my 110 hdi , it's one of the reasons I bought it. To keep the cost down

[pug406nz]

Make sure you get a ES9J4S Manual if you were to get one.

[FarmerPug]

Is the ES9J4S the old or new one?

I see a nice coupe on gumtree its not far from where i live:
http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-moto ... to-content

Its got an ABS light and needs a bumper, but it is a manual, and doesn't look atrocious.

[dirtydirtydiesel]

I beleive that's the later 210 bhp one

Sorry not the car you linked but the J4S one.

[markw]

Timing belts aren't so bad, but they do take a lot of time. If you can't tackle it yourself, be prepared for quite a large bill from a garage...it's the labour that pushes the price of this job up. The kit alone can come in at around £250...and that's without the water pump.

All V6's get through the top 'doughnut' engine mount too, but they're easy and quick to replace.

On the later J4S engine, the modified, white resin topped pencil coils are the ones to get as the originals do tend to fail regularly. They used to be made by Delphi, but I gather that they are now marketed under the 'Bougicord' brand.

Also, the dreaded 'pre cat ageing' fault is becoming more prevalent on the J4S now. Fitting spacers to both downstream O2 sensors on the pre-cats seems to alleviate the problem, but a permanent solution is to write the downstream O2 data out of the ecu program. This was going ahead for Coupes but seems to have stalled of late.....

I don't have any experience of LPG but I would guess the payback period would be quite long.

I can tell you though that a J4S with modified intake, K&N filter, de catted with a straight through stainless exhaust is a very nice thing indeed!

[FarmerPug]

The timing belt sounds like its a bit of work but other than taking plenty of parts off is there anything tricky about it, can it be tensioned by hand ok, i know the 110 is supposed to have its timing belt set with the SEEM machine but i did it by hand, can the V6s belt be tensioned this way?

As for the cat when you say pre cat, does that mean it has more than one, if it did have a decat system what way would it stand with regards emissions and the MOT

[V6Exec]

Is the ES9J4S the old or new one?

The J4S is the later version - very easy to recognise under the bonnet -> http://www.406coupeclub.org/Coupe_Engines.asp

I see a nice coupe on gumtree its not far from where i live:
http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-moto ... to-content

Its got an ABS light and needs a bumper, but it is a manual, and doesn't look atrocious.

Good find that is a transitional car, it is semi-mux. D9 interior with D8 (skinny) stalks. Could be either the J4 or the J4S under the bonnet

[markw]

The timing belt sounds like its a bit of work but other than taking plenty of parts off is there anything tricky about it, can it be tensioned by hand ok, i know the 110 is supposed to have its timing belt set with the SEEM machine but i did it by hand, can the V6s belt be tensioned this way?

As for the cat when you say pre cat, does that mean it has more than one, if it did have a decat system what way would it stand with regards emissions and the MOT

The timing belt tensioner has been modified to allow for tensioning to be achieved without the need for the SEEM unit. The old, cumbersome tensioner is no longer available anyway...and that's no bad thing...it's horrible. If changing the kit on the older V6 (ES9J4) you'll be given the new tensioner....you have to then buy a modded pump from Peugeot, OR, just get an original style pump and remove the offending flange with a hacksaw. The old pump had a hole cast into it that the old tensioner pivoted in. This is not needed and has to be removed on this type of pump when the new tensioner is used (the new tensioner has a slightly larger footprint, so fouls on the original pivot hole)

Re the cats.
There are four!
One on each bank at the manifold end (the 'pre cats', monitored by upstream and downstream O2 sensors)) and a pair further down (which aren't monitored in any way)...the 'post cats'.. The post cats are the ones which some J4S owners remove to release a little more oomph! Mine just passed it's first MOT since my rear cat removal and my emissions this year were actually better than last year when they were in!

Obviously, any interference with anti pollution equipment should be an instant fail. However, I have not heard of one J4S failing because of post cat removal as most MOT inspectors just aren't aware that these cars came out of the factory with 4! As long as they see the pre cats and their associated O2 monitoring in place and it passes the emissions tests, they seem happy.

[pug406nz]

Its a 1999, so it could be either engine but my money is on the older engine.

[FarmerPug]

Ive never drove or sat in a coupe, is there much difference between them and the saloon, are they lower?
Does the coupes come with arm rests, i don't see in any of the pictures coupes having them

[highlander]

No arm rests as standard on any Coupe. You can buy a centre console arm rest; Peugeot did one themselves as an accessory, as did several other companies - but they're not very common and are probably fairly scarce now. I don't have one on mine, but I didn't have arm rests on my saloon either, so I'm not missing them.

The Coupe does sit lower down - it's even mentioned in the Coupe's owner manual that the car is low to the ground and to take care on ramps / speed bumps, etc.

The two things I noticed most during the period where I had both my old (battered ) saloon and my Coupe at the same time, were:

1) The windscreen on the Coupe is at a markedly lower angle relative to the dash than it is on the saloon (i.e. the A-pillars are more upright on the saloon)
2) The Coupe seating position has your legs out a bit further

I also found the clutch on the Coupe (2.2 petrol) to be much, much lighter than the clutch on the saloon (1.8 petrol), but then, the EW12J4 engine is much newer than the lump I had in my old saloon.

[FarmerPug]

The armrests in the saloon are something I've got very used to, driving a car without them now feels a bit weird. But there still seems to be a few on ebay.

I don't know weather to go for the 2.2 HDi and get it remapped, or the 3.0 v6.
The V6 will obviously sound much better and be that bit livelier and has the option to be converted to LPG
but the 2.2 has the fuel economy, is there any other advantage, would the v6 be more reliable in that it does not have a turbo and all the plumbing.

insurance is expensive on both but not a joke either, tax doesn't seem to be too bad. Ideally id like to get something with under 80,000 miles.

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/ ... ?logcode=p

[jonsowman]

There is so much knowledge around the HDis that they can be turned into extremely reliable machines with a bit of work (almost always de-FAP, plus maybe EGR blankking and some removal of vacuum system and boost plumbing). I don't think anyone can realistically claim the the DW12 is an unreliable engine.

Finding 2.2 HDis under 100k is getting difficult, particularly so with the Coupes. I've seen maybe 6 come up for sale in the last year (one of which is now mine ).

I think Al (finchy on the Coupe Club) is wanting to get rid of his. It's a fantastic example and meticulously maintained, as well as always having all the fettling done. But as a result, he wants £2750: http://www.406coupeclub.org/PHPBB3/view ... 87&t=46238