Buying advice plse 1.5D Saxo/AX/106

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Mark W
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Buying advice plse 1.5D Saxo/AX/106

Post by Mark W »

Moving house shortly which will give me the option of driving to work.
My journey will be about 58 miles a day on the busy A13 to London, a real crosss section of steady cruising and stop go motoring.
To make it viable I need a super economical car with low running costs ie cheap road fund tax and mega good fuel economy by normal standards.
Settled on the above selection as the super budget choice. In the perfect world I would travel up in a Golf TDI 150HP with air con but oviously purchase price has a major bearing!
Being a regular member of this forum i believe the smaller diesel brings it's own set of reliability/regular servicing issues compared to the 1.9TD engine I have in my main car a Xantia.
Could you suggest what to look for, recollect coolent and head gasket issues are a consideration on this engine and it's earlier slightly smaller brother (1400cc?)
Noticed on ebay there's some with 150K plus mileages so capable if maintained correctly.
Does the 106 offer much over and above the Saxo, and would a late AX be ok. Ironically I run a 1100 AX as my station car so it's charms are not lost on me. It's got 110K on the clock and think it's too old and possibly neglected to bring up to standard fit for this sort of journey! Other than fragile build and I guess safety issues compared to the more recent designs think a AX could work.
All advice welcome
James.UK
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Post by James.UK »

I don't think you can beat a ZX K or L reg 1.9D for reliability comfort and economy. :-)
Jon

Post by Jon »

The 15D isn't a bad engine, but it does suffer with head gasket problems, and warping, cracking heads. There is a modified head gasket available,as even when the AX 15D came out they were suffering premature h/gasket failure. I'd avoid the 14D, they use an alloy block with cast liners, and when they overheat the entire engine can be trashed.
The Saxo 15D is a pretty good car fuelwise and is OK once up to crusing speed.
The other problem is of course that at 1527cc the engine is too big to qualify for cheaper road tax.[V]
DLM
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Post by DLM »

Sorry to be the smartass Jon, but 1527 DOES qualify for the cheaper tax - as I know from taxing my father's old 1995/6 Pug 106 1.5D Escapade (I think the cutoff is 1550cc). "Car mechanics" magazine did a standard service feature on the 106 (1.4D) a few months back and this was pretty useful for showing the neglect that can occur on one of these cars. As they do such fantastic mpg (ive seen 60ish) the temptation is to let them just tick on and on until something goes wrong.
I'd say from my (brief)experience of running this 106 (before getting back into BX and when it was briefly off the road):
(1) Change coolant (often gets left in longer than 2 yrs) and brake fluid ASAP afer buying, usual cambelt considerations. Be prepared to be startled by how much brake pressure is needed after a hydro-Cit.
(2) Oil changes and amount to use on fillup - from memory see www.honestjohn.co.uk (and possibly this forum) for a discussion. There is school of thought that says camshaft cover oil leaks are the result of filling to prescribed volume - and I've seen this happen on an exclusively pug-serviced 106.
(3) AX should be even more economical on weight grounds - though it seems hard to believe it's possible to get even more mpg.
(4) Be prepared for changing front tyres reasonably often if clocking up extensive mileages.
(5) Cit/Peug mechanic kept on telling me about valve seat recession problems on the 1.4D (softer alloy head?).
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davek-uk
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Post by davek-uk »

Up until recently I have been driving my 1.4D 'F'-reg AX 70 mile a day to/from work and doing just under 30k miles pa. As you can see it is over 180k miles now and still starts first time and runs quieter than the Xantia. I have averaged just under 60 mpg but I drive it pretty hard.
I don't know of another small car that would take this punishment (in earlier years I have seen off two 'C'-reg Mazda 626's and an 'E'-reg SAAB 9000 in half the time I have run the AX). With the removable rear seats it has been loaded up something terrible in the back and the poor thing even has to tow a trailer (ex trailer tent) nearly its size on occasion!
I have done all the servicing myself (it’s so easy) on a shoestring. Unfortunately it throws head gaskets every 50k miles but then again I haven’t had it skimmed. I had a long spell of fighting off boiling due to a series of hose failures around 150k-ish (only one is unchanged) but it always ran – boil over, refill the system and continue...
The engine inside is clean and pretty good and I have changed the water pump once and the back brake cylinders! Damned impressive. And with part worn tyres at £10 each it is really, REALLY CHEAP.
I'd hesitate at recommending an AX due to the poor crash protection, but is a Saxo or a 106 going to be any better than a new style AX? I doubt it. But the AX'd be cheaper to buy and probably cheaper to insure.
Really surprised to hear of the 1.5D having head problems too, I’d always assumed it would be much better.
All in all, I’d say it’s difficult to beat an AX – 1.5 for the extra couple of bhp.
Mark W
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Post by Mark W »

Thanks all the advice so far,looks like the bigger of the 2 small engines creeps in to the cheapest road tax catorgory. Still think they are a mighty economical package whichever version you go for.
Just worried that I could be buying into all sorts of coolent/over heating problems. Especially if I pick up a high milege car to start with. Take the point a ZX 1.9D would come in just as cheap to buy, more out there and being bigger, safer in theory whilst offering 45mpg plus.(+ more of a known quantity reliability wise) If I went for a more recent Saxo/106 with average miles would a full Citroen/Pug service history would that enable me to avoid most of the above potential reliability concerns? Thanks for all your help so far. I am about to post a thread titled Train or Car for those interested in the decision I will be shortly making.
Thanks
Mark W
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