Intermittant loss of power

[eddieno1else]

I have a problem with my Peugeot 306, I posted in Honest John and was redirected here by Peter.N.
After having a look at this site I still cannot see an answer to my problem so here is it and I hope someone can help.

I was driving on Saturday and my car lost power for about 2-5 seconds, it was like i'd lifted off the accelerator (the first time it happened I thought I did), this happened 2 or 3 more times on the way to my destination (10 miles away) then it happened a few times on the way back. I did think it was rather odd. On the way to work this morning it happened again.

I can't seem to reproduce it, its completely random. I've had it happen when pulling away in 1st and all the way through to 4th at varying speeds although the RPM is always around 2500-3000.

Anyone have an idea what is up?

On an unrelated note, is there any reason why my brake pedal would have dropped, its constantly activating the light switch, to turn it off i have to lift the pedal - this is not activating the brakes though.



I feel my car is just about to die and I'm going to have to get a new one soon

Thanks

[smoker]

Hi,
Folks will be in a much better position to advise if you posted more vehicle details - fuel type, engine size, year, milage etc.

Cheers

[eddieno1else]

Damn I thought I had included it.
It's a 306 Meridian HDi estate, 2.0, 2001 (Y reg), 170000 miles on the clock, serviced every 12000 miles.
The fuel filter was changed on the last service, about 6000 miles ago.

Thanks

[Peter.N.]

I'm sure someone here will sort you out, you could try posting in the Citroen section as that is busier, same engine though.

Peter

[TopDonkey]

Your loss of power is caused by the brake light fault, if the car detects that the brake and accelerator pedal are both pressed at the same time for more than 5 seconds, it cuts the engine power like you describe

I do have my lexia somewhere but I've just moved to lyme regis in dorset and can't remember which box its in! !

[eddieno1else]

Thanks TopDonkey.

If that's the problem then I can sort that myself, i'll get a new switch and report back.

No worries about the Lexia, the forum said you were in warminster, seeing as i'm in westbury it would have been easy to pop over.

Thanks for the reply

[Peter.N.]

Your loss of power is caused by the brake light fault, if the car detects that the brake and accelerator pedal are both pressed at the same time for more than 5 seconds, it cuts the engine power like you describe

I do have my lexia somewhere but I've just moved to lyme regis in dorset and can't remember which box its in! !

That's useful to know, I'm about three miles away

Peter

[spider]

You may have fun fitting the switch, I'm not sure I've never done one.

In theory you need to take the dash and column out to do it as its inside the box section, its not very nice apparently according to the BOL. 306's were built starting with the brake light switch surround and the matrix, then they put the rest of the car around those items.

Andy suspects you may be able to do it either from below or from above via some fiddling through the instrument panel hole but I'm not sure.

[CitroJim]

306's were built starting with the brake light switch surround and the matrix, then they put the rest of the car around those items.

Ahh, just like a Xantia then except in their case it was the heater matrix and the clutch cable

Why didn't Pug take the excellent idea from Hydraulic Citroens and put the brake switch actually in the pad of the pedal?

[spider]

Jim, I **think** its the only model where its inaccessible completely, I could be wrong and not sure why they hid it like that either compared to other models. I suspect a LHD one would be the same too as the column is probably the same.

Not done a Xantia clutch cable, although I did do a lot of 405 clutch pedal clips, first one was a good hour maybe an hour and a half while I worked out "how to" (no one would give any clues as usual) but I did that many of them (they always came to me) in the end it was down to about 20 minutes.

Regarding switch locations it could be worse, there's a few non PSA cars with the switch in the master cylinder, in theory that's good but in practise if you are not quick / careful changing it you end up having a master cylinder with air in necessitating a full brake bleed. VeeDub Beetles (the air cooled one) are a good example of this actually but that's off topic.

I do think the reply regarding the switch is correct though, the ECU will recognise the brake light switch operated and react accordingly. I suppose a test would be to temporarily disconnect it (the switch that is, not the ECU ) but in that case you'd have to be very careful due to no working brake lights, probably something for a quiet / deserted country lane or suchlike, I thought about a car park but you would not be able to get sensible speed up there.