New member - new owner

[Egg]

Morning all,

My name's Stevie aka Egg and we (well, my wife) has just become the owner of a 406 GLX HDi "Ocean Blue" saloon, V reg, 90186 miles on the clock with the timing belt changed at 75000. Inside & out it's in cosmetically immaculate condition and bought from a trustworthy workmate (2nd owner from new - 1st owner was an "old guy that developed Alzheimer's") for the princely sum of £150. To me that's a bargain, however time will tell.

The only issues he's advised me of are the air bag light flashing (from what I've Googled this seems to be a common fault caused by overzealous adjustment of the driver's seat knocking the wire underneath the seat) and a power-steering pipe needing replaced (or the pump's faulty).

From owner reviews the 406 seems to be a pleasurable drive and a reliable, solid motor. That said, are there any other things to keep an eye out for?

[Welly]

Hello Egg!

You should tell us if it's a 90 or 110bhp? the 90 is more simple and more reliable but a bit lethargic.

The 406 is usually pretty easy to own and normally flies through MOT's easily too.

Some things to watch for:

Air Conditioning Condenser
Rear lower engine mount (allows engine to rock about and can tear through the exhaust flexi pipe)
Occasional Faults from the Throttle Position Sensor (brings engine light on)
Electrical load on the radiator cooling fan can cause trouble (replace fan unit)
Dual Mass Flywheel wear (makes a chirpy/squeaky noise on start up or when loading the clutch) you don't have to fix this though.
EGR valve leakage (makes a smell at idle and a bit more smoke out the back)
In-tank fuel pumps often fail at around 120K miles
Poor coolant quality can affect the head gasket so it is wise to have the coolant flushed out, new thermostat and new coolant.

On the plus side:

The turbo's never fail
Rust is not really an issue
They don't use any oil or water
Very comfy and pretty easy to live with
At £150.00 you almost need reporting for aggravated theft

[Egg]

Cheers for the welcome Welly ;)

It's a 110bhp model. The workmate I'm buying it from has done a good bit of maintenance on it to keep it rolling sweet - he bought the car to use while he was doing some major work on his Jag XJS and couldn't justify keeping the 406 once the Jag was back on the road so, Dick Turpin mask donned, I relieved him of the 406.

Top to bottom for your suggested "watch out's" - what ballpark figure are we talking in order to take care of (in your opinion) the most important points?

[rwb]

Hi & welcome,

£150? Wow. You did good there! I thought the going rate for weighing them in was £200?

If the power steering pump is leaking then it will be dripping into the alternator. If so then get it sorted before you need a new alternator too

[Egg]

The leaks root cause is moot at the moment - my mate reckons it's just one of the pipes as opposed to the pump being FUBAR so he's going to wheel himself under the car for a closer look prior to us collecting it tomorrow, however I'll be booking the car in for a full service at our local garage (nice bloke there - never been ripped off yet). I'd do it myself but I know absolutely sod-all about cars (air rifles, shotguns and PC's are my forte).

Lets put it this way - I've just scrapped a Micra K11, a Kalos and got £300 for the 2 (both FUBAR'd - the Kalos in particular as the timing belt went and the cylinders are shot) so I/we have £150 to play with in order to cover anything that crops up during the service plus we have some slush-fund cash lying about that can - hopefully - cover anything a bit more beefy if it comes to light.

Like you say though - £150 for a cracker of a car - I might actually get my head around doing half the easy stuff myself. Nothing like getting your hands grubby, what what?

[Welly]

air rifles, shotguns are my forte)

Might explain the bargain price you got

I would only really check the engine mount first, stand and look at the engine running and blip the throttle (you can reach the throttle cable going to a sensor unit on the right hand side) - if the engine lurches forward like it wants to throw itself on your lap then the mount is shot. An engine with a new mount will only 'lurch' by about 15mm or so.

If you leave the broken mount it will tear through the flexi down-pipe and put a hole in the Intercooler hose up front (I have got the T-Shirts) trouble is you'll need a new CAT unless you know someone very handy to swap the flexi bit and it gets expensive. To be fair though even changing the (£20.00) engine mount will cost more than you paid for the car so it's up to you? it's quite a tasty job as it goes.

The rest of the stuff isn't worth doing until (or if) it happens.

One thing I didn't mention (you might wanna check with your mate) is that the bottom pulley can fail on these (drives the auxillary belt) when it goes it makes a huge racket like you wouldn't believe but again can cost about £160.00 to change at a garage.

If this guy's been looking after it like you say then you should have yourself a nice motor.

I'd take it away, use it, and pop on here if you want to know anything - you'll always get an answer from one of us.

[Egg]

Well, 406 went through it's MOT yesterday - failed on some minor (to me, car n00b) points:

1. Rear exhaust silencer major leak - had this replaced (£69)

2. Nearside front suspension arm excessive play in ball joint - had this replaced (£65)

3. Front registration plate deteriorated - replaced (£12)

Bloke at the garage advised offside front tyre was barely legal as was nearside - so, after mentioning guns were my forte and not cars, I got x 2 Continental tyres, balanced with tracking done for £100.

£281 all in including the cost of MOT.

Advisories as follows:

1. Nearside rear direction indicator slightly discoloured.

2. Offside front anti-roll bar linkage has slight play in a ball joint.

3. Nearside rear Tie bar/rod has slight play in a ball joint.

4. Offside rear Tie bar/rod has slight play in a ball joint.

5. Offside front Road wheel with a slightly distorted bead rim.

7. Oil leak.

Out of those, number 5 seems the eaisest to understand (for me) - I'm reading that as being a "slight buckle to the wheel"?

Number 7, "Oil leak" - god knows what/where that is.

Out of the 7 advisories which would you say need looking at as a priority?

[jonsowman]

You've not done too badly there on the whole, seeing as the car cost you £150!

1. It's clear glass and a coloured bulb, so perhaps replacing the bulb will sort this one? Otherwise you can get a replacement cluster for a few quid from a scrappy.
3/4. Not sure if these are toplinks or droplinks - either way about £15 for a pair and easy enough to replace, have a search on here.
7. Interesting, does the section guide give any further info? It'll usually say "Oil leak [a.b.c.d]" and you can look up that section of the MOT test to find out more. It can't be a serious leak so just keep an eye on the oil level until you've hunted it down.

Out of interest, which Contis did you go for? Considering a pair of CPC5s for the front of mine...

[Egg]

Yeah, on the whole pretty chuffed with the end result there jonsowman.

No specification (a, b, c or d) re the oil leak so as you say hopefully not something to get too freaked out about at this stage. One of the few things I'm good at with cars is checking and maintaining oil levels so I'll keep on top of this until we can pin the location down.

One thing I forgot to mention that was not an MOT showstopper but was pointed out - and I gather this is a common issue with 406's - is the rear engine stabiliser mount needs replaced. Garage has quoted me £120 parts & labour on this so that'll be getting done fairly sharpish. Seem a fair price?

[jonsowman]

The best I can suggest is to have a good look around and see if you can find the leak yourself, I gather it's not leaking enough to be dripping oil overnight etc?

Yes, the bottom mount is a very common problem. The part is about £25 if I remember correctly, but it's an absolute nightmare of a job since the driveshaft needs to come out to do it properly. There is a thread on here somewhere with photos but I can't find it at the moment.

Here's the droplink guide: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=17207

[Egg]

The best I can suggest is to have a good look around and see if you can find the leak yourself, I gather it's not leaking enough to be dripping oil overnight etc?

I'll have a look at the area where the car's parked overnight tomorrow morning (SWMBO has the car at work just now) and see if there's any obvious residue on the ground but there doesn't seem to be anything there just now - this stuff's all black magic to me, wish I'd been more interested in cars as a youngster instead of being fascinated by things that go bang

As to the bottom mount, yeah - defo garage job along with the droplink work: that's not something I'm even going to contemplate looking at as a DIY job so I may as well help keep some poor sod in a job and get the work done at the same time as the mount.

Out of the advisories do you reckon the droplink work's the most pressing issue?

[jonsowman]

I'm not certain whether it's the top links (track arms) or the drop links, best to find out (by wiggling them if nothing else), the garage will be able to check either way. Maybe someone else knows what "tie bar/rod" means in MOT language? Or perhaps it's just referring to one of the links in the rear suspension. Who knows

The ARB and links might cause a few clunks but are unlikely to be hugely serious. Personally I think the oil leak has the most potential to be a serious problem, so perhaps ask the garage to hunt it down for you.

[steve_earwig]

If they're anti-roll bar drop links then they can clonk on for a while before they cause any issues (if ever...) If the rears are the top links then the geometry will start to drift and it'll eat tyres.

Number 13 in this:


The mount could damage your exhaust flexy so maybe more important than it first appears.

The tyre might just be fitted badly (you can't get thicker than a...)

They either leak oil or they don't, but it never seems to be anything serious - my turbocharger seems to be weeping, not enough to need topping up the oil between services and to stop it it'd need rebuilding and I see no point in that as it works fine.

[Egg]

Should really say cheers for the input - longstanding forum member elsewhere and forgetting my manners, shocking!

Aye, the engine stabiliser is first on the list, I'll ask them if they can source the leak at the same time.

[jonsowman]

Aye, the engine stabiliser is first on the list, I'll ask them if they can source the leak at the same time.

They're going to be underneath it for a while doing the mount, so if you let them know about the leak beforehand they can keep an eye out.

Steve is right though, oil leaks don't tend to be anything serious on 406s. My boost seals have bit a bit leaky for a long time, perhaps I'll treat it in the summer and have them done. I make sure to stick to 6k oil changes, and it never loses even a noticeable amount, so it's not really a problem.

Certainly all the advisories are worth fixing, but none of them are dangerous or of immediate serious detriment to the car's health, so I still maintain you got a bargain Once everything's up to scratch, you'll have a reliable, economic and comfortable car that should last for several more years.