NEW 406 OWNER WITH LOTS OF QUESTIONS!

[shane1984]

Hello fellow 406 owners!

In Jan 2009 I part x'd my 03 ford focus for... my P reg 406 1,9TD and you know what? Apart from the £2800 cash (I done it because I was very skint!), it was the best deal I have ever done because I have fallen in love with my 406, talk about blessings in disguise! I do have a few questions though, and if anyine can point me in the right direction, I'd be forever grateful.

1: There is a rattle when the engine is at idle but when the hood is up and I move that little arm which keeps the throttle in position either loose or tighter, the rattle disseperas! Any help anyone?

2: There is black smoke coming from the back of the car when revving, this the second car I have ever owned and my first diesel so I have no basis for comparison whether this is normal or not, but I can tell you that I cannot see it in my rear view mirror but it has pointed out to me twice by people I have picked up. My question is; would an oil change for castrol 5w/40w help or would a diesel engine additive cleaner help or would a new exhaust help (do diesels have exhausts with catalytic converters???)

3: If I am travelling above 50 mph and I brake (I do a lot of motorway driving) the steering wheel vibrates quite violently and I can feel a vibration in the brakes foot pedal. Any suggestions?

4: There is no service history and my car done 106000 miles, should I change the timing/cam belt and the pulleys? I have the manual and am an engineer (electrical) and I like to be adventurous and I own lots of tools so I would like to have a bash if it was deemed neccessary. I wouldn't send it to a garage as they would charge me more then what the car would be worth for everythin.

Apart from the above small problems which haven't caused me too much hassle, I like to think of my green 406 as big, ugly, loud, old and green so I christened it 'Shrek'... because its got charater, its reliable, its friendly and if treate with the respect it deserves it will serve me well, I have no doubts! I kid you not, I have totally fallen in love with it!

Thank you for your time.

[eoin27]

1: There is a rattle when the engine is at idle but when the hood is up and I move that little arm which keeps the throttle in position either loose or tighter, the rattle disseperas! Any help anyone?

Where is the rattle coming from? Something is loose i'd say

2: There is black smoke coming from the back of the car when revving, this the second car I have ever owned and my first diesel so I have no basis for comparison whether this is normal or not, but I can tell you that I cannot see it in my rear view mirror but it has pointed out to me twice by people I have picked up. My question is; would an oil change for castrol 5w/40w help or would a diesel engine additive cleaner help or would a new exhaust help (do diesels have exhausts with catalytic converters???)

If its just a small bit if smoke then thats ok, its meant to do that when the turbo kicks in. If its lots of smoke, then the EGR valve is clogged. Type EGR into the search box to find out more.

3: If I am travelling above 50 mph and I brake (I do a lot of motorway driving) the steering wheel vibrates quite violently and I can feel a vibration in the brakes foot pedal. Any suggestions?

I think i've seen here before that something in the suspension is loose if the car vibrates under braking. Again, put a search in.

4: There is no service history and my car done 106000 miles, should I change the timing/cam belt and the pulleys? I have the manual and am an engineer (electrical) and I like to be adventurous and I own lots of tools so I would like to have a bash if it was deemed neccessary. I wouldn't send it to a garage as they would charge me more then what the car would be worth for everythin.

YES. The timing belt is due for change at 90-95k

my green 406 as big, ugly, loud, old and green

Ugly??? Careful!!!

[Doggy]

Hello Shane and welcome

[DaiRees]

Welcome to the club fella

Your braking vibration could also be warped discs.

[jasper5]

Hello Shane, welcome

First thing to do about the black smoke is to replace the air and diesel filters, If you change the diesel filter, fill the chamber with injection cleaner before you bleed it, bleeding is easy on that model, take off the pipe going to the injection pump (at the filter end) and pump the hand pump on the side of the engine until diesel comes out.

I agree with Dai, most likely cause of the vibration through the steering on braking is front brake discs warped.

Always best to change the cambelt, guide pully and tensioner, not forgetting water pump, if you don't know the history.Alternator belt too if it shows cracks.

Replacing the cambelt on the 1.9td is not too bad a job, I find the casings a bit awkward to remove and replace, but the timing is easy to set before you strip it down, also the tensioner is spring loaded, on the ones I've ever done, so you can't get the tension wrong.

[teamster1975]

Welcome Shane!

[swiss]

Hi Shane, fellow 1.9 enthusiast here. I'm an engineer by trade but an enthusiastic amateur as far as cars are concerned. That said I've encountered some of the problems you describe, and many more. Here's my two eurocents:

1: Rattling at idle.

Well, I've discovered that many things in my cabin and engine bay rattle. The sunroof, the overhead console, the steering wheel (now fix0red, thankfully). As I rev the engine through its range, it hits the various frequencies required the make the aforementioned components vibrate, so I can tell how fast I'm going by listening for what's vibrating. Bonus!

To answer your question with a degree of seriousness, I have come to suspect shot engine mounts. The 1.9 (maybe the whole range, I dunno TBH) has three - one right, by the fuel pump, one left by the transmission and one underneath. According to my research, as the speed picks up the engine begins to lift off its mounts due to torque (this may be total BS, Jasper please correct me here) thus reducing the vibration transmitted to the car's chassis and the driver's arse.

Solution - new mounts. First step (in fact first step to owning a 406) is to buy a Haynes Book of Lies. This legendary grimoire provides obscure, mysterious and frequently downright nonsensical directions on things like renewing mounts. You may need entire new bracket sets, or more typically it's enough to replace the rubber bushes. Personally I have not tried this yet as I'm broke, not in possession of a trolley jack and I'm also completely broke.

Question for you - at what speed does your engine idle? My cold idle controller is kaput and jammed in place. I tried to lower the fast idle speed down to the recommended 800 or so, but below 1000 the engine began jumping about and vibrating so fast it blurred.

2: Black smoke.

Exhaust smoke will be either white, grey, black or blue depending on its cause. Black smoke may point to incomplete combustion in the cylinders, or to soot and gunk being blown through the engine/from the exhaust. Swap out your fuel and air filters (for good quality replacements) and wallop a load of injector cleaner (suitable for diesel turbos!) in to the tank. Then get your car on an empty stretch of motorway and thrash the hell out of it for half an hour (70mph in 3rd? Mmm, revvy...). This, apparently, blasts your exhaust through and got me past my last MOT. And then, yes, do a nice oil change as well. Haynes recommends something between 5W/40 and 10W/40. Diesel specialist Diesel Bob suggests 5W is too thin for turbocharger seals, and that 10 or 15, being thicker, is better.

Finally, your car is gonna smoke if you floor it. The turbo maxes out at 3000 rpm so if you ramp the engine up to its maximum the turbo's not going to provide enough air to burn the lot cleanly. Smoking through your normal driving range (i.e. 2-3k or so), however, is not normal.

3: Juddering brakes.

Mine too. Not had a chance/equipment to look at this but have read many instances of Peugeot OEM discs having a higher warp factor than the Enterprise with its arse on fire. If you're bored one day, whip a front wheel off and slap a DTI on the disc to gauge its knackeredness. Curse the French and replace your discs (and prolly everything else while you're in there, save yourself trouble later on).

4: Should I change the belts?

I would, if you're able. Better safe than sorry and reportedly easy to do. Afterwards please lend me your entire tool set

I like to think of my green 406 as big, ugly, loud, old and green...

OK, did you actually steal my car? 'Cos you've described it down to a T - see me sig for its wiki page. It's old, it's tired, but unlike the French themselves it refuses to surrender. Do you live anywhere near Sfampton? We could pop them next to each other with the engines running and see if the news reports an earthquake.

Welcome to the forum. Mine's got 160k and counting so hey, you've got a lifetime of keeping your bucket in one piece to look forward to ^^

[Welly]

Great thread and some timely and well thought out answers too

I can add no more accept to say "welcome" chap

[eoin27]

Seconded. I might give Swiss a D9 HDi just to get more help with fixing them myself

[bangernom1cs]

HI,

HI,
On my old 1.9 (still going at 450k) there is a small solenoid which controls vacuum for EGR and fast idle system and is located just below the sevo which gives out very quickly and raises the idle speed to around 1100 rpm.
This coincides with the idler rattle and drove me mad.
MY motor Factors do this spring now which is MUCH cheaper than Peugeot. (Pearl products PVB001)

So;
It smoked a lot for a bit so in one fell swoop.....we
Disconnected the vacuum supply to the solenoid and re-routed the vacumm back up to the idle diaphragm.
At the same time blocking off the vacuum to the EGR solenoid which made the car....
Idle correctly as peugeot intended,
Stopped all the smokiness and improved breathability.
Still kept a 'reserve' as required for the servo itself .
Stopped the silly 'fast idle' setting when cold which is useless in our climate.
The Montego perkins diesel had a similar arrangement but luckily for me the vibrations in the engine fatiguied
all the bracketing thereby disconnecting the offending solenoid on its own for me.

Alas as a footnote I just bought a 2002 hdi 110 executive estate which is nice but doesn't go as well as the 1.9 !
I've just been welcomed into the mystical world of false electronic messaging (and thats just the satnav) which likes to
tell me all about abs faults, high engine temps, anti pollution faults which actually dont exist on it at all.
It also has a hiss which seems to coincide with part throttle loads.....and seems to coincide with the EGR operation RPM levels. When I get a bit more familiar with a Hdi engine I'm sure we can sort out.
Hopefully it will breath easier also.
On the MONDEO forum they block off the EGR vacuum supply with a small ball bearing on the vacuum supply pipe which
helps to solve the multitude of faults that they have. I mistakenly taxied one for six days before regaining sanity and reccomissioning the Pug 1.9.

Tony

[swiss]

Hmm... very interesting and useful info on the fast idle. I'd give it a go but, well, as I said if it actually idled at the 'correct' speed I reckon it'd just stall or shake itself to pieces ^_^

[bangernom1cs]

HI,
This was recommended by an ex-peugeot mechanic , and taxi driver, as there were many 1.9's smoking away on the fleet for no apparent reason. If you believe in EGR don't try this.
You'll also need to make sure that the diaphragm hasn't split before doing this and that the cable which runs from it to the pump is working.It has very strong spring loading at the pump so try the dodge first before condeming the cable.
The pump is automatically set to fast idle at the factory anyway and the vacuum is always running when the engine is which lowers the idle instead of positive raising the revs when needed.
The useless small solenoid valve below the servo (which is controlled by the ECU) fails rapidly and at £25 a time was another needless expense. Dont forget to block off the pipe which controls the EGR solenoid (tucked under the inlet manifold chamber) at the same time to ensure you have complete vacuum for the servo reserve.
The car itself and others still run well 250k later with no problems, good breathing and passing every MOT smoke test ,eight in my case, with low readings.

Tony

[wiggybum]

I had the same trouble with juddering brakes. I replaced my discs and the juddering was still there.

Your brake calipers are sticking (not the pistons, the sliding pins under the little bellows). This causes the caliper to only push on one side of the disc which gives the warped feeling. You need to remove the pins, give them a bloody good clean and lightly grease. I'll wager a tenner that sorts out the brakes.

Tom