)
and is still going strong 
Does the sweet handling and frugal fuel consumption make up for the French fragility and unnatural willingness to surrender to mechanical failure?
[Edited on 9/4/09 by alistairolsen]
Not all french vehicles surrender to mechanical failures, our kangoo has been burning oil for four years now (clouds of smoke on a cold morning )
and is still going strong
mate had a td 306 and it never broke down
[Edited on 9/4/09 by omega0684]
pretty tough old buses, mate runs one, some have fuel pump leak problems, they have two makes fitted (bosch and lucas??? ) and one of them is prone to
leaks (prob the bosch iirc?? )
but they are nowt from the breakers so yea, very good cheap runabout. mate paid £300 for his and put 100K on it breakdown free.
Are you looking at the earlier XUD engined car, or the later HDi?
The XUD can rack up huge mileages (provided you didn't own one of the DHY engine codes from 97/98 that suffered from con rod failure), and are
pretty reliable as long as belts and filters etc are changed when they should be.
The common rail HDi are more refined but have much more scope for wallet emptying problems.
Check for wear in the rear beams, common MOT failure.
Heater matrix can leak which is a dash out job , cv joints/drive shafts can knock but no worse than a lot of other cars as can suspension bushes. Rear brake drums can wear on high mileage cars and can cause problems getting them off. I tend to clean off the wear ridge when inspecting brakes if the drums are within wear limits. Have only had a couple with broken timing belts but they were well over replacement mileage . Worth replaceing the water pump and fit a timing belt kit when replacing timing belt. Cam covers can leak if rubber gaskets are old but easy to sort. Have had a couple with power steering rams leaking , again not too bad. Beam axles can be a problem but someone on here had one reconditioned and recommended the place that done the job . Bodies don't tend to rust badly although there is always the exception
Biggest bucket of c**p i ever had the misfortune to own. Was my fourth diesel Pug and after the 306DT I vowed never to buy another Pug or infact any French car again.
Good cars them. as said though get an earlier engined one. I had a DHY and it through a conrod. I put the earlier D8A engine it it as a replacement.
Straight swap.
quote:
provided you didn't own one of the DHY engine codes from 97/98 that suffered from con rod failure),
just bought one ,ace little car especially as ive done stage 1 tune he he ,great little motor
I've had a 99V 2L DTurbo (HDi) 3-door from new, now done around 120K. It's been pretty good, but has needed or suffered:
Clutch cable
Crank pulley
A/c failed a long time ago
Front P bushes (wishbones) failed MoT last year
HP fuel rail sensor failed recently
Diff oil seal
and it's on the third set of disks all round. Current ones look OK, but Peugeot disks are cr*p.
Oil + filter has been done every 6K and it still drives 'like new'
Kills front tyres in no time, about 12K
the lucas pumped non turbo is an automotive cockroach i see a few that come in year after year for test and they just keep on going ,the same goes for
the early 4 speed citroen ax 
Had a 306 XRdT for a few of years and it was great - good performance, good mpg. Had the rain channel from the sunroof block up and had to clean off the contacts on the starter motor solenoid but otherwise very good.
ive had a HDi from new for 9 years now done 200k+miles, only had a bottom pully, fuel pump and £100 wiring fault, 12k service intervals. know i shoud look at getting a new car soon, but keep telling myself why, the end of the line X/Y HDi have electric everything and 90bhp
We're currently runing two 306's with the family.
- Having had a petrol 1.6 and runing that up to 145k before breaking it for parts after a frontend bump we replaced it with a 1.8 petrol which i now
my runabout/tintop. And then when we needed a new car for mum that my sister could learn in we plumped for a HDi diesal.
To recall i dont think any of them have had any wallet emptying issues.
- All have been late w/v reg medrian specs, which means you get a modern looking car, half leathers (worth £200 alone on ebay) auto rainsensing
wipers and aircon.
- The petrols returned around 32mph while i was driving them, but thats being fairly unfrugal, and includes a fair bit of towing and dragging the
kitcar and box trailer around.
- I also have a housemate who has a slightly older (phase2) 1.9 deisal whic he claims to get around 50mpg out of driving like a grandad.
Ultimatly any car can get expensive, but considering you can pick a tidy one up for very little as long as you can minor bits yourself you should be
able to keep it going, i thrash mine and its still good to drive and reliable.
Things to watch out for
- As said, the rear beams do rust although can be changed.
- Bodywork is galv, so should, if it is investigate.
- If the radio key doesnt work, its proberbly not going to be cost effective to get it working again, ditto aircon if it has it
- Make sure the cambelt is indate, or budget for a new one £220 for a petrol and an arse of a job to do yourself.
- Urrm, normal checks then really. Look out for boyracer chariots.
Daniel
quote:
Originally posted by dhutch
- breaking it for parts after a frontend bump
Daniel
will have one for sale soon but we had problems with a glow plug having been put in too tight by a monkey. partly stripped on the way out. new one is back in there and all is well but would not want to change it again. don't know if it is worth pulling apart?? it low milage otherwise 83k!
quote:
Originally posted by andylancaster3000
I can't help but say that's a slight understatement dan!
quote:
Originally posted by dhutch
quote:
Originally posted by andylancaster3000
I can't help but say that's a slight understatement dan!
It was a front end bump.... Photos in archive.
Avoid any Pug that has been used for carrying loads in the rear, as has already been pointed out very expensive rear suspension wear problems are common.
quote:
Originally posted by britishtrident
Avoid any Pug that has been used for carrying loads in the rear, as has already been pointed out very expensive rear suspension wear problems are common.
First Car
OUCH!!!
Nasty splinter ?