Peugeot 206 buying advice

[ecohouse1]

Hi folks. I am often on the citroen part of FCF but new to Peugeot! I am looking at 206s for my daughters first car. Looked at 2 today. First was a pretty thrashed 1.4 quicksilver. Left that well alone. Just looked at a 5 door 1.4s 2004. 89k miles. Generally looked nice bar a bit of cosmetic rust on the rear wheel arch. Main concerns were that there was no or little power steering fluid in the reservoir. As in none visible at all. The aircon compressor was also missed of the drive belt. As in out of the system. 2 baldy front tyres and s non working o/s electric mirror. She was asking £1200 which I thought was steep. My question is, is the steering rack a weak point and the reason the fluid was low? Looked a bit damp around the pinion. But might have been oil spraying g back from the sump
Gasket that had a slignt leak. Any advice welcome as to what to look for.

Cheers

Alan

[citronut]

not sure on the power steering, but the oil you say is around the sump joint will almost certainly be from the head gasket, and run down the front left corner
( when looking from under the bonnet ) as this is the usual/very common week spot on the TU engine,

saying that it is a very easy head gasket to replace

[Peter.N.]

Can't help with petrol ones I'm afraid, haven't run a petrol car for about 30 years but the 2.0. Hdi engine used in the early ones is almost bombproof, I have two, one in a 406 and another in a C5 and they have done 234k and 200k respectively and are still mostly original including the DMF and clutch. much less stressed in a 206. 60mpg driven carefully.

Peter

[spider]

I too am not aware of any specific PAS issues on these models, I don't recall many steering issues although the track rod (not the track rod end sadly) can wear on some models, last one I just put a new pattern rack on at the owners request rather than "mess about"

Check for rust inside front wings around headlight areas. I do not think they are as well rust proofed as some of the 205 models they replaced by a long shot. The metalwork is quite thin too, dents in doors common. Talking of doors check they shut OK as 3door models seem to drop sometimes, not a big issue but annoying.

Oil leak is likely HG as Malcolm has said, pretty common TU issue really, not difficult to fix. Check its not a loose rocker cover though or perished rocker cover gasket. Remove oil filler cap, some emulsion is normal on these on short journeys but look at the baffle plate (the metal you see immediately inside) it should not appear too burned or anything, staining is fine. If it looks bad it indicates lack of oil changes, not helped by the petrol 2year or 20k service intervals.

Slightly odd driving position for some people, angle of pedals I think.

[citronut]

i think some 206's have the electric power steering pump like the Saxo's

[chinkostu]

A dog for that price.

Avoid the DW8 variant, the HDI is much better. Not that the dw8 is awful but the old XUD's were far superior.

Make sure its not rotten around the cabin filter intake under the bonnet vent, as its an mot fail and a PITA to weld cleanly.

Usual torsion bar issues, avoid any with cocked wheels. Check pulleys on HDI engines as usual. Not had any major issues ith mine bar a coreplug leaking and the aux belt shredding itself. Springs are also a pain in the behind to swap as even off the floor and levering the wishbone they arent fully uncompressed.

Rear cylinders can leak, easy fix though. Wishbones bushes usually tear at the front mounting point.

[ecohouse1]

Thanks Chaps. Good advice - I had already decided to avoid those 2! Will keep looking. Now widening the search for C2/C3, saxo. Its trying to avoid the boy racer brigade that is the issue! Cheers, Alan