Relays

[van ordinaire]

Down-front electrical connections can have a rough time - weather, road spray, engine bay heat, etc.
Use some contact cleaner (or WD40 if that's all available) and a bit of repeated re-plugging (as you did) to clean the contacts up. Glad the French Horn section is working again!

Too right, almost by definition, the commonly used spade terminals are unsuitable for such a hostile environment although, in fairness, the otherwise bog standard horn on the C15 has flying leads & a multi(well, 2)-pin connector.

[Peter.N.]

I had a weird fault on the indicators of a 406, they were flashing at about twice normal speed although all the lamps were working, looked at the circuit, everything fed straight from the ECU so nothing you could get at. One day it suddenly started OK, was still OK when I sold it.

Peter

[van ordinaire]

& there was me thinking the 406 was a dear old fashioned thing - 0h well, that's another one off the list.

Just as well yours wasn't due for its MoT before it righted itself.

[Peter.N.]

I think they are probably the best car Peugeot made, not the easiest to work on but we had three and they very rarely went wrong. The last one developed a leaky brake servo and that is not easy as the linkage from the pedal goes along behind the engine so at 212k we called it a day but we ran them for about 10 years and never had a serious failure.

The C5 I replaced it with needs a new thermostat, shouldn't be difficult I thought ....... they started with the stat and built the car round it, after an hour I haven't even got it off yet. Poor light stopped play, I will have another go tomorrow - if it doesn't rain.

Peter

[van ordinaire]

Good to know my instincts were right - but, I now know, a 406 is too modern for me. Saw a 504 with the bonnet open at a show; brought back happy memories of BMC Farinas - with more space around the engine! Of course they're far too expensive now.

As for the C5, consider yourself lucky it's a "simple" mechanical fault you have to deal with.

[Peter.N.]

The thing about 406's is - they don't go rusty.

Peter