All Things V6...

[furriegurrie]

Interesting to see! I’ve got mine to do too. I’ve done the belt on an Xm with the es9 V6 engine. Would you happen to know of this is a similar job?

[DHallworth]

The belt on this one is actually simpler as it's shorter and only has 2 cams to go around. The water pump on the V6 HDi's is aux belt driven too so it's one less thing to thread it around.

There's an awful lot more to take off these to get to the belt then there is on the XM though.

David.

[furriegurrie]

But the extra’s is all pretty straight forward but time consuming I suppose?

[Stickyfinger]

But the extra’s is all pretty straight forward but time consuming I suppose?

That is what the apprentice/work experience kid is for, twice as long but still charged the full hourly rate and you get to pay for the broken bits as well

[DHallworth]

Indeed. Nothing is particularly difficult, but just time consuming.

The C6 is now finished after a marathon effort to tidy it up.

The interior pillars were filthy as the previous owner smoked. I managed to find a near identical trim from Woolies so have recovered the A,B and C pillar trims inside the car.

Before:

After:

The discs and pads on the car are brand new so before they got a chance to get scruffy and pitted I cleaned up the bell on the discs and painted them and the calipers. The wheels on it were really, really scruffy too so they've been powder coated.

Before:

After:

And whilst it was on the ramp I've also changed the timing belt, idlers, tensioner and water pump. The sludge that had come gushing out of the header tank when the gearbox oil cooler split was a mess and was everything so everything has been removed, degreased, cleaned and put back whilst I've had it in bits. I've fitted a new header tank as well as they go yellow and make seeing the coolant level pretty difficult.

The car is going in for a 3 stage paint correction and quartz coating on Thursday, once that's done, I'm happy to call it finished!

David.

[furriegurrie]

I see the cut out for the coolant sensor is already present, is this ordered on the C6 part number or perhaps an Peugeot alternative?

[DHallworth]

The coolant bottle is a generic part, early C6's had the cut out, later ones didn't.

That bottle is generic across multiple PSA cars, C5, C6, 407, etc. I bought a cheap one and the seal on the bottle isn't great so I ordered 2 from Autodoc in Germany, one for the 407 and one for the C6 and they're much better quality.

On the 2.7 HDI's there's an option in the BSI to enable the sensor and I know a few people have retrofitted them and enabled them to find they work perfectly. Unfortunately on the 3.0 HDI they have removed the option to enable it from the BSI.

David.

[furriegurrie]

Yes, read that. I did retro fit the low level sensor to my C6. Shame it can’t be done in the 3.0

[DHallworth]

Tell me about it! I've got the pinouts to wire it into the Water in Diesel sensor in the BECM but haven't tried it yet. I guess any warning light on the dash is better then nothing if you're running short of coolant.

[DHallworth]

She's out of the workshop Just awaiting a damn good clean on Thursday and then she UK plates shall be fitted.

[DHallworth]

Well, it's safe to say the C6 is finished now she's had her paint corrected.

We went away for the weekend to Stratford Upon Avon and the C6 Owners gathering at The British Motor Museum. 754 miles covered in one weekend

Time to get some miles on her and enjoy it now!

David.

[DHallworth]

Well, it was the C4 that spat it's dummy this week! Cheryl rang me whilst I was in London working saying that the engine management light had come on along with Engine Fault, Emissions Fault and Urea Fault on the message centre.

I rang Arnold Clark who said they couldn't look at it until Monday but agreed I could drop it off on Thursday afternoon in case they got a chance to look at it. On Thursday afternoon Cheryl got a health check report for it, Friday morning I got a phone call to say the fault was with the NoX sensor in the exhaust, Friday afternoon at 2pm I got a call to say it was ready. Less then 24hrs after dropping it off and less then 48hrs after it went wrong.

The best bit was the extended warranty Cheryl bought with the car paid out for the whole claim.

I really cannot fault Arnold Clark on that one. Credit where it's due, they were excellent this time around!

David.

[Hell Razor5543]

Well done Arnold Clark for doing a proper job without having to be chivvied into it.

[DHallworth]

Well, it's been a quiet couple of months. Nothing has broken and all of the cars seem to be behaving.

The 407 since the gearbox oil cooler split has been behaving itself very well compared to what I was expecting. It's not quite perfect but it's still functioning. When you put it into D in the morning there's a second or two delay before it engages the gear and tries to move. I noticed when going up a steep hill in 2nd gear at around 20mph the other day that it was tugging almost as if something in the gearbox was slipping.

Out of the blue, there was a 3.0 HDi Gearbox from a C6 advertised from a car that had covered 65k miles but was rear ended. Although I don't need it just now, I felt that I couldn't not buy it as the gearbox is unique to the 3.0 HDI engined vehicles and if I do ever need one for the 407 I'd not be able to get one. The cost of having it done on the C6 was £3000, this gearbox has cost me £465 including delivery. If I can get it fitted myself it's an easy, low cost method of keeping a car that I'm very fond of on the road.

Cheryl's C4 has been behaving perfectly since it came back from Arnold Clark after it's NoX sensor failed in the exhaust. I found a screw in the back tyre last week, the tread on that tyre isn't wonderful so instead of having the puncture repaired I'm just going to change the tyre. Thankfully, it's got sensible sized tyres so a Michelin is £55.

The C6 has been behaving perfectly recently too. It's not done an awful lot for obvious reasons and was covered in dust last night and it had been crapped on by a bird as well so I decided it needed a good wash. I've been cleaning the ATF out of the cooling system for a while now but every time I thought I'd got it done there would be a small amount of oil appear back in the header tank. The mess in the C6 was far greater then it was in the 407 but I'm finally convinced now that it's clean so I treated it to a new, clean, shiny coolant reservoir.

After that, it got a damn good clean and going over.

I cleaned the wheels on the car with a soft bristle detailing brush and then rinsed the whole car. An application of citrus degreaser was used before the car was rinsed again. After that it was coated in snow foam and left to sit for 10 minutes before being rinsed again. Some people think snowfoam is a waste of time but I find as long as it's a good concentrate that clings to the car it really does soften up anything that's stuck to the car very well.

When the car is rinsed for the third time the theory is that the paintwork is almost clean before you have to touch the car with the wash mitt. I use a lambswool wash mitt to minimise the risk of damage to the paintwork. After the paintwork has been shampoo'd I rinse the car once more and then every 4th or 5th wash will apply a coating of Gyeon Quartz Wet Coat to top up it's coating before blow drying the car.

Water Beading:


Blow Dry:


After that she had a quick run up the country lane to dry the brakes off before being parked up again.

I've also ordered Comfort Connectors for my C-Tek charger. These are handy as they've got an indicator LED built into them that shows the current state of the battery. Green means the battery is >80%, Amber means it's between >60 and <80%, and red means that it's <60% and needs charging desperately. They were only 7 quid each on Amazon. I think being able to glance at it and see the charge level will be handy as I can then just transfer the charger between cars every couple of days.

Anyway, after spending nearly 3 hours pampering the C6 last night, I'll leave it a few days before starting on the next car I think!

David.

[bxzx16v]

The C6 is lookimg very nice David , the Gyeon range of cleaning products is well regarded . The snowfoam looks to be clinging well what is it your using ?

Mark