406oc.co.uk

I've just bought a 110 HDI 406 estate. It's a 53 plate, with 95K on the clock and all the service history is present and correct.

Anyway. It's a big heavy car, and it's about as spritely as my bird's ZX diesel. What are my options for tuning? I'm not particularly looking to go into big intercooler swaps or new turbos, most likely just a decent remap. I'd like around 130 brake if that's reasonable without compromising reliability - I don't mind shortened service intervals, but I don't want breakdowns. I understand that the clutch is said to go at around 100k on these, and it does feel a tad high - I assume it's possible to produce more power whilst limiting torque to give the clutch and DMF an easier time?

In an ideal world, around 150 brake would be lovely, and give me something like a decent power to weight ratio, but this isn't a toy car and I don't think I could achieve that at a reasonable cost or retain reliability and fuel consumption at a sane level.

What are my options and what's it likely to cost me? Insurance isn't going to be a problem (I'm already with a specialist broker for my fun car). Somewhere around Nottingham, Sheffield or Derby for the remapping work would be useful.

Of course, if I'm going to make it go faster, I also want to make it stop faster. Does anyone produce grooved disks and performance pads for the car? I don't want to go doing things like swapping to V6 Brembos, as it's usually a fair amount of aggro and money, and will make the car obviously meddled with.

try reading this

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4535&start=0&st=0&s ... ilit=remap

140BHP is easy on these.

Your car has high-ish mileage BUT it's fairly new so I assume it's been up and down motorways all it's life, soooooo the clutch will not be worn at all IMO. Also we ALL HAVE high clutch pedals - that's just how they are.

Also I wouldn't bother with the brakes or anything as long as the discs and bads are in good nick the brakes are good on the 406 and you're not going to be going that fast are you.

They've got a bit of a rep for warping discs, which is something I could do without. Certainly someone I know had them warp 4 times on him, and the discs on this car are warped too despite being replaced recently. Bear in mind that sometimes I'll be driving 4 up + gear, going on holiday and mountain biking in it, etc. I think it'd be wise to do *something* about the brakes, even if it's only Brembo disks and Mintex pads. I prefer not to leave anything to chance when it comes to making a car stop...

I'm running mintex discs and pads on my tubby and the response is pretty damn good
I fitted them last september because the handbrake shoes dis-integrated and the discs were pretty lipped as well.

Honest John (again) wrote:Lots of problems with brake discs wearing rapidly or warping, so check these carefully before you buy. The reason for repeated problems is hubs not being cleaned properly when discs are replaced.

Both of mine came with warped rear disks, I changed them on the D8 and they were fine for a couple of years and they went on the D9 when I bought it. Then, I tend to drive fairly carefully these days (they're nuts here). If you're thinking of giving it some stick then I reckon it'd be worth putting something a little less, erm, French on