Diesel leak???

jjandrj6679 · Post by **jjandrj6679** » 05 Apr 2005, 04:38

Hi all again
I am thinking about purchacing this car to replace my petrol 406.
W reg 07/2000 LX 90 1997 cc HDi Estate. 260,000 miles (My last 405 Diesel lasted till nearly 600K and i bought it with 300K on the clock)
Upon entering I found the interior absolutly flawless except for one thing, the Engine Management light was on. So I took it out for a drive and found it had no throttle as such.
I adjusted the cable and it was better but still very underpowered. Seemed like it was on "Limp Home Mode"??
I do not remember the turbo kicking in. Is there one on this model? I hope so as the guy said it was but there was nout on the reg docs about it.
I did notice that head was covered in pools of clean diesel, I have no idea how old it was but it seemed new to me. The return pipes seemed ok?
So i started to wonder if the Engine Management light was on because of the diesel spill?
Any ideas as I have no experience of HDi so all the help would be greatful.
Yours
Josh the Cabbie

Homer · Post by **Homer** » 05 Apr 2005, 08:14

As far as I am aware all HDi engines have a turbo.
A 90 will (I guess) be the same as fitted to the Xsara Picasso, i.e. turbo but no intercooler.
As for the fuel leak / engine management light I have no idea. I don't know if they could be connected but it's probably best to assume not. And if they are selling it in this state it doesn't say much about how they've looked after it does it?

rossd · Post by **rossd** » 05 Apr 2005, 14:52

Even on my healthy HDi 306, you dont feel the turbo as you would in an XUD engine, its a very smooth linear power delivery.

jjandrj6679 · Post by **jjandrj6679** » 05 Apr 2005, 14:58

Thanks for that info.
That means I can fit the intercooler from another one (Hopefully) ??
Tha guy I am buying it from hasnt a clue about cars although he runs a fleet of them for School runs, I bought my petrol one from him.
He changes the cars every 5 years, this is 5 years old so its for sale for £3000, weekly payments, which doesnt seem bad if you include some interest??
Thanks again
Josh

fastandfurryous · Post by **fastandfurryous** » 05 Apr 2005, 17:44

For a car in that condition, with that mileage, that is overpriced! Take a look on Ebay and see what similar cars are going for.
If the engine management lamp is on, then there is a good chance that this car is indeed in limp home mode. Without knowing what the problem is, it could cost anything between £20 and £2000 to fix, so be very careful before buying.
You could indeed fit the intercooler from another car, but you would have to change all sorts of other things too to make the engine management make use of the additional hardware. If you want better performance, it would be wise to look for an HDi 110 in the first place.

jjandrj6679 · Post by **jjandrj6679** » 06 Apr 2005, 05:40

Thanks again for the advice
I have since spoken to him as he says he will put it in Peugeot to see what the problem is.
I have the reg no so I can check to see if he has been fibbing or not, this is the taxi trade here, not just the motor trade..lol
Ill let you know the outcome.
oh and Ebay dont do weekly payments either
Josh

fastandfurryous · Post by **fastandfurryous** » 08 Apr 2005, 16:20

Ebay don't do weekly payments, but I'm sure even getting a loan out to buy a car would be cheaper than getting this one, which sounds somewhat like a lemon to me. If you are running this car on a limited budget (who isn't!) then I would recommend avoiding the HDI, and getting a late 406 1.9TD. Ok, the fuel consumtion isn't quite as good, but when (not if, but when) you have problems with the car it will be significantly cheaper to fix. Plus you can get a really good condition (NOT an ex-taxi) low mileage 406 TD estate for about £1500 nowadays. The advent of the HDi engine has meant that the older XUD engined cars are now very very cheap, and represent fabulous value for money.