406 2.1 TD LX (R Reg)

[gRoberts]

Hi all,

I've been a huge fan of the 406 since watching Taxi (http://us.vdc.imdb.com/title/tt0152930/) and i've come across a mint conditioned car which is a good hours drive away from me.

When the sellers get back to me tonight, i am hoping to arrange to go and look/buy it, but I would like to know what to look for? My mum had an 1.9 Diesel Estate a while back so shes coming with me.

The car is in great condition according to the seller, 4 new tyres, full service history, recent timing belt & service. 12 month MOT and 2 months MOT and 2 keys!. Looking for around £800-1000.

I'm currently driving an Vauxhall Vectra 1.7TD, but whilst I have the money, I had to decide whether it was worth repairing a good car or getting another good car?

Now.. What do I look for other than the usual Diesel sites and sounds?

Thank you all in advance!

Gav

[steve_earwig]

The Pug should be more economical and way more powerful than your Vectra. Usual things - speedo playing about (£40 module behind the glovebox), airbag light (dodgy connection under the seat), useless handbrake (adjust the hell out of it), warped or corroded rear disks (can't remember how much new ones were but nothing too bad), leaking power steering pump (£££), mine has sagging front springs but it's done a silly amount of miles, errr low brake fluid light might be the handbrake switch.

Anyone else?

[steve_earwig]

Oh yeah - make sure everything electric works!

[mav]

fuel gauge is a very rough estimation as to whats in the tank. eg: i can do nearly 400 miles on the top half of the tank, then only do 100 miles on the lower half. but thats jst mine, not sure bout any1 else.

12 month MOT and 2 months MOT

14 month MOT, tell me where that garage is would make running a car a bit cheaper, a 7 years for the price of 6

[gRoberts]

Sorry about that !! I am not getting notification emails when I have asked for them!!

I've already got the car now! Feel free to tell me its a lemon?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=004

Cost me £800, plus a little extra for getting there, insurance etc. But its great.

There are a few problems like a ticking from the glovebox area, handbrake isn't the best, but then again, my Vectra didn't have one when I got it.

Everything seems to work well, and the car heats up great. Although, looking under the bonnet, I couldn't even find the water res, so I could check the water?!

Brakes may need doing, although the owner has a stamp for a service in Oct last year, so I will have to double check everything soon.

This is the first car i've driven thats made me smile.

How hard it is to retro fit fog lamps? I have noticed that the bumper has the space for them, but I haven't checked whether the wiring harnesses are there etc?

Thanks all!

[Captain Jack]

How hard it is to retro fit fog lamps? I have noticed that the bumper has the space for them, but I haven't checked whether the wiring harnesses are there etc?

Everything is there. You just need to fit the fog lamps (removal of front bumper advised), the relay under the dash and replace the stalk to include the front fog lamp switch. If I can do it, anyone can.

Congrats on the choice of car and engine

[gRoberts]

Its a lovely car, unfortunately there are a few things wrong with it, but with a little TLC it will be great.

My dad was amazed on how good the paint work is for a 10 year old car.

[Captain Jack]

My dad was amazed on how good the paint work is for a 10 year old car.

Yep, and they NEVER rust!

[mjb]

My dad was amazed on how good the paint work is for a 10 year old car.

Yep, and they NEVER rust!

Galvanised bodywork for the win!

[gRoberts]

I'm extremely suprised with it. I got into it and thought the accelerator was broken, as it felt as if there was no resistance. I started it up, and due to the clutch being a little high, I ended up revving the t*ts off it until I found the biting point.

It actually scared me when I went to pull out of a junction, and had to give it a bit of welly. I didn't expect it to pull away as fast as it did, and it seems to put down the power very well.

I just need to see what its like when I put a tenner in. My Vectra was between 80-100 miles depending on the cost of Diesel.

Is this forum fairly new? All the other owner clubs i'm a member of has billions of threads etc. Where as there doesn't seem to be much on here. Now I could take that as the forum is new, no one knows about it or the 406's are that good that you rarely have a problem to talk about.

[Captain Jack]

It's a about 2 years old. There are some very knowledgeable people here (jamesxldt among others) so any problem you have will normally be fixed without a visit to the local stealers. 406's are generally reliable, D8's being more so than D9 due a more simple design. My 2.1TD is knocking on 140k with no problems whatsoever. Happy motoring!

[gRoberts]

Thank you!

[mjb]

Is this forum fairly new? All the other owner clubs i'm a member of has billions of threads etc. Where as there doesn't seem to be much on here. Now I could take that as the forum is new, no one knows about it or the 406's are that good that you rarely have a problem to talk about.

It's been around a couple of years, but unfortunately it got hacked a few months ago resulting in everything getting lost

[steve_earwig]

That might explain why I couldn't find this site when I was having trouble with my air bags and speedo, 3 years ago.

[Captain Jack]

I don't think we'd want to know about your air bags... and certainly not your Speedo's