Stevesbluewrx

iTrader: (4)

Guys,

Can someone help me out. I'm looking for a run around for both myself and my better half and was thinking of getting the Pug 306 D Turbo.

Is there anything I should be looking out for or avoids etc? I know Pugs in general have got shocking stories of Electric issues (I posted on on here of my sisters 307 XSI) but I thought the Diesel engines were really good. Parts for a car say 8-9 years old will not cost to much?

Please help as we are looking to get soon with House move and baby on the way.

Cheers
Steve

GrahamG

Spot on if you want low maintance. I have a 96 P reg D Turbo. 1.9. if boot it i get around 550 and if i drive like a nun i can get 700! it's about £55 - £60 to fill up. I run it low all the time.

Insurance is £260 a year for me. 24.

The engine is really noisy... Mine is in A1 condition and is so loud...

The only problem i have had was starting. The problem was the glow plug relay. Apart from that it's great. They do silly high millage. Just make sure you do the Cambelt as soon as you get it regardles of miles. unless it has a full service history. I did the water pump at the same time for £150 all in.

G.

ScoobyDoo555

Can't comment about the D Turbo, but got the wife a gti6 (P plate) - so far it's been great

low insurance (£250 for both of us - 32 & 33)
Pretty good mpg considering it's 167bhp 2.0L

Had a few little niggles with the electrics, but that was down to age rather than reliability.

Go for it - have a look at a DTurbo S, as it's got a smaller turbo, but is better. Can also get them chipped to circa 200 bhp for not much money

Dan

Andy M3

I don't think you can chip mechanical diesel engines . In addition, with the best will in the world, you would struggle to get over 100hp with a 'tweaked' diesel pump and a load of boost. They are geared well though, 120mph on the governer in 5th, but nippy in between

stevem2k

My DTurbo used to eat front brakes , but I think that was more a reflection of my driving technique than anything else

Never missed a beat in 2 years...

GrahamG

Yeah, correct. Think you can get about 120 out of them. But its mods.


The later HDI engines are a lot easier to tune.

Think i might give mine a tweek!

Fuzz

You can tune them fairly well.
I had my N plate D-Turbo done at Van Aken developments, raised boost, Camshafts and timing adjusted.
About 50bhp improvement and a bootful of torque.

Bought it to "slow down" as I had been banned because of driving my 106 rallye like an arsehole.
Whilst I was banned I convinced my old dear she had to drive it to Van Aken to get the tuning done.
Then, just before I bought the scoob I got caught flat out on the M69 coming back from a dive trip in Leciester..
Banned again!!

Andy

Andy M3

That will be 120 then

I am suprised at your 50hp hyke. Even though you turn up the boost, adjusted the timing and the cams it seems a lot of power for little work.

Derv doctor makes interesting reading.


160hp:
Front mounted intercooler with polished stainless pipework,
Derv Doctor Twin Piston dump valve system,
Piper Fast Road Cam kit,
Helix Autosport organic uprated clutch kit.
Turbo Dynamics T2-25 hybrid Turbo with modified exhaust manifold,
Modified 406 1.9 DT inlet manifold,
Modified high flow Bosch injectors and modifed Bosch fuel pump,
One off induction pipework,
De-Cat down pipe and Magnex system with 6"x4" Oval tail pipe,
Derv Doctor / Nitrous Oxide Systems 35 bhp nitrous system with dual stage fuelling
ERL Aquamist 1s water/methanol injection system.

hades

The main point to my mind is that with a few very cheap mods, they'll give perhaps 115bhp and plenty of torque. This from just adjuting the fuelling and wastegate - not much over £100 to get a pro to do it for you. Spending shed loads, you lose the point of a cheap run-around.

Anyway, the 1.9 has very little electrical in the engine (glow plugs and relay, fuel pump is about it), and given suitable oil changing will go on for almost ever. I found normal service took me under 30 minutes for under £30 for the bits. The only electrical problem I had on my 95N (well past 100k miles when I sold it) was it lost digits in the clock on the centre console - and they almost all do that nowadays! Clocked up over 20k miles in 6 months with 45+ mpg whilst driving fairly briskly, did me very nicely.

In summary: Excellent chassis, very cheap to insure, cheap parts, decent economy (but worse than a VAG TDi or later Peugeot HDi), fast enough, almost bulletproof engine, electrics no worse than other 10 year old cars, not a spot of rust anywhere. Did me a fine job.

DannyBoy007

iTrader: (7)

I had one before the scoob. I used to do about 80 motorway miles a day, used to get over 600 miles out of a tank. it has got a big tank though!!!! Used to cost me about £60 to fill it

Agree with the brake pads thing though, It used to eat them, every service would have new pads and every couple of services was new discs. I'm sure in the three years I had it had a couple of rear shoes etc as well.

great little car though, but AC was crap!!! it was better to put the window down

Stevesbluewrx

iTrader: (4)

Thanks for the info guys.

We are not really looking to get the car remapped or any mods at the moment. We just want one that goes for at least a couple of months etc before we think about what we do next.

Was calling a guy yesterday off of the Autotrader but sadly he isn't answering his phone so it could suggest that it has been sold already.

Is there anything that I should be looking for to start off with though. That are common issues with them? I don't have the time or funds to buy a car and get bits replaced straight away. If it's tyres and oil etc then its not a problem but anything else will have to wait.

Do they have a panel to punch in the code in the middle console?

Steve

GrahamG

I do know that Peugeot had to decrease the power when these engines were first devloped due to producing more power then the xsi, just slightly over 120. Im not sure what would be needed to get power back. I would like mine to be quicker! but don't want to lose the good miles it gets.

DannyBoy007

iTrader: (7)

I had a 97/R plate, this didn't have the keypad just a transpoder in the key, A friend has an earlier one and this does have the crapy keypad, which the numbers rub off and you can see which numbers are used for the code

ScoobyDoo555

my mistake about the modding! was told that 3rd-hand - oh well

The keypad immobiliser was discontinued on the whole range after the Phase 1 (circa late 97)
The Phase 2 had a transponder key, as did the Phase 3.
For reference, I had major arguements with the insurance company about the status of the immobiliser.
They said it wasn't Cat2, but Thatcham say otherwise, and I've got the PDF from their site to prove it

Insurance company weren't interested, so went with another company who were

Dan

Stevesbluewrx

iTrader: (4)

Cheers for that. How the hell would you cover up the panel in the console if it did have the buttons warn out? Even if you cover it up some little dipstick would cotton on and hey presto?

We are looking at 97> really. The guy off autotrader is still not answering his mobile. So looks like I can write that little number off. Shame as it looked a treat.

Steve

MJW

I too had one from new before I bought my WRX. I agree with the above comments about it eating brakes, but mine also had a failed power steering pump, and a failed head gasket ! Then again I did give it a very hard life

orbix

I had a 96 N reg and it's the worst car i've had yet. I admit it was probably a one off though.

I bought it from a volvo main dealer and luckily it came with a decent warranty I had for a year which was also the length of the warranty and I spent more time driving a volve courtesy car then the 306.

As I think about it more it also had a problem with the electrics in that the LH indicator would stay on no matter what you did with the indicator stork or hazard lights.

ScoobyDoo555

yeh, the indicator stalks are a known issue (they work or don't! ) - something to do with dodgy contacts in the stalk.

The keypad is a cheap item to replace - plenty about too

Dan

jowl

I had a V-reg HDI - probably the best/most reliable car I've had. Diesel engine was fantastic...with very little 'cabin' noise.

Only slight problem was needed a new Cat - a mate had the same car and our he also need one at a similar time.

Got easily 550 miles from town use - 700 achieveable with motorway driving.

Plenty of power in any gear....50-70+ is great. Mine didn;t like more than 100....but you'd never get to those speeds as it's illegal on the roads

RLE

iTrader: (2)

The HDi appears to hold its money very well these days and must be very popular. I've had my eyes out for a decent one but they seem to get snapped up almost immediately!

TonyBurns

iTrader: (3)

Steve,

Here is the info you want

306 Diesels suffer from the following problems:-

Head gasket (common over 100k miles)

Bad starting (lots of smoke etc) usually just requires a set of glow plugs also normally over 100k miles (they are under the intercooler).

Rear beam. Also mainly mileage related, if the car has had a good life then they can last 140-150k, if not then anything from 70k upwards, approx rebuild cost is 2-300 quid.

Clutch. good for 140k normally, if not a bit more depending on what the car has been doing driving wise (m/way etc).

Rear drums... can get some leaks from these, not cheap (more expensive than the front brakes!)

Radiators. Peugeot build quality and naff rads normally mean overheating (hence you get a lot of headgaskets going on 306's) they just rot, id replace with a nice alloy one from Untitled Document

Central locking. Problems occure when the loom going into the door gets worn (goes brittle and you get a broken wire) cheap part to buy, pain in the *** to fit. Normally you see the drivers door suffer from this, locks on the key but not on the remote.

Door seal. Common on 3 door cars (have it on my S16) where the door seal goes and water ends up in your rear footwell, part is supposedly about 20 quid

Heater matrix. Oh hope you have one thats got a good matrix, costs about 70 quid for the part, about 300 quid to fit due to taking all of the dash out.

Tony

RLE

iTrader: (2)

Good useful info Tony.

hades

Plenty more here Log In if you want to browse.

By the time I got rid of mine, it did need a bit several seconds to start - would have been solved by new glow plugs (per tony's warning), about £40 from Halfords for Bosch ones and an easy DIY.

Mine also got hot if you thrashed it too long in warm temps, which corresponds to his radiator comment - but the simple work-round for me was not to thrash it too long in hot weather!

Heater Matrix is a renowned failure. Puddles in the passenger footwell either means that or a naff door seal - which they're also prone to

RLE

iTrader: (2)

Thanks for the site Hades. With a bit of luck I might find one for a second car on here..................

GrahamG

A lot of people think change the glow plugs. be sure to check the Glow plug relay. This was my problem. Car starts like a dream now.

Duck_Pond

Not quite got the same handling, but usually cheaper to buy and has the same engine... the Citroen ZX TD. I had one years ago - was the 1.9TD Avantage. Still seems to be a fair few of them on the roads, and unlike some of the other Citroens, it's got normal spring suspension. The Volcane is quite sporty looking too.

Stevesbluewrx

iTrader: (4)

Guys,

Sorry I need some info on spec on a Pug 306 D-Turbo S (98 spec).

I thought on Parkers it gave you what the car came with from new etc but cannot seem to find it.

IE
AC
CD changer
ABS etc

We have at last found one that hasn't been used as a rubbish tip car or jazzed up.

Cheers
Steve

ScoobyDoo555

IIRC, pretty much only available as a Phase 2 98 car. Air con as standard. 3dr only. ABS, CD etc standard (clarion stereo)

Main difference is a smaller compression turbo (again, IIRC) very nice car actually - my mate's wife has one

DAn