406 erratic idle

406taxi · Post by **406taxi** » 03 Sep 2004, 00:58

Hi peepel, been running a 406 1.8, 1998(S), as a taxi for a year now without any major problems but in the last week or so i have had a problem with the idling on the car[V] At first i thought it was a sticky throttle cable but alas no! most of the time it behaves perfectly well but a couple of times a day it will stick at high revs or keep cutting out when coming to road junctions. Also note that my car is lpg converted but i ran for 100 miles on petrol and the problem appeared again albeit it does not rev as high when stuck as it does on gas!(if the car runs perfectly on petrol but not on gas, its a gas problem not a car problem and vice versa)
Sounds like an ecu problem but i have not had any warning form the dash light(although this may not be working) Anyone any ideas?

Mosser · Post by **Mosser** » 03 Sep 2004, 04:02

from what i have heard on here since i have been here, it sounds like the idle control stepper motor is starting to fail, i believe they are about £130 from the stealers, although i'm sure they are less from GSF!,
Also, i'm very interested in your LPG conversion as i am contemplating an LPG coversion on my Xantia 1.8i 16v, what system did you go for?, how many MPG do you get on gas?, any problems you can see with the system?, any hints or tips on fitting or running it or just using it on a daily basis ??
Cheers

406taxi · Post by **406taxi** » 03 Sep 2004, 04:39

Hi Mosser, thanx for your reply, do you know how to get to this part(where do i find it) as i can easily swap it with my mates taxi for trial and error.I cant remember the name of the lpg system in my car as it was fitted when i bought the car, i do know it is a very early system, although i have never had any problems with it. I get roughly 25mpg running on gas, but bear in mind that it is a taxi and i dont drive it all the time myself and my mileage is 95% town driving and stop/start moving up a taxi rank. I would recommennd fitting gas as long as you do the big mileage to compensate the initial fitting cost(which someone payed for me[:D]). I have the donut tank fitted to my car in the spare wheel well and this covers roughly 220 miles between fills. Costs up here are about 1300 pounds fitted but a gov grant of about 600 is availible if your car is under 6 years old.

Mosser · Post by **Mosser** » 03 Sep 2004, 05:38

Yup!, you will fond it on the front right of the engine near the throttle barrel, it is a small (black?) 1.5 inch square box that is screwed to the aluminium throttle body, it has an electrical connector going to it, (it basically looks like a typical stepper motor if you are familiar with them!!)
Hope this helps, if not, it might be worth you buying a haynes manual as it has a picture in there

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 03 Sep 2004, 16:42

If you need to buy a new one try
www.autoteknik.co.uk
Very cheap. The stepper for a Xsara 1.6 was only £56 but main dealer £138.
Give em a go.

406taxi · Post by **406taxi** » 04 Sep 2004, 18:01

mmm....not a gsf near me and *** quoted 72quid plus vat, would anyone know if i got the ecu read would it tell me the problem even though i dont have the management light on? the light does seem to work ok when i start the car?

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 05 Sep 2004, 00:57

My experience with a simalar problem was that there were no fault codes in the ECU memeory for this. Reason is as the car is running OK all the computer systems will work to sort the problem out. So unless the problem stalls the engine it won't have a fault code. It'll only store one if you dissconect it for example.

bikeboyz · Post by **bikeboyz** » 06 Sep 2004, 04:40

http://www.lpga.co.uk
http://www.transportenergy.org.uk/grant ... owershift/

406taxi · Post by **406taxi** » 10 Sep 2004, 15:38

Just a wee note to say that the problem is now cured, it being a faulty idle control thingy. Was replaced when eventually the correct control valve was supplied to me(kept giving me one for an 8v engine)and car is now behaving itself. Big thanx to everybody on here who took the time to offer advice, Cheers John.