Peugeot 206 Roland Garros.

Didge3 said:

Ok I agree with you, from a young age I always had a soft spot for a 205 GTi but trying to find an unmolested one is impossible.

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There's an immaculate-looking black GTi (1.6, I think) a couple of villages along. Not done many miles, either; and it's owned by someone my age....

Had a chat to him, once; and he's had it for years, and wouldn't part for it for anything. Gets driven a couple of times a week, too. Apart from an original Clio Williams, about the only French car I covet....

Oh no! The members motors thread for my prize Pug is going off topic, whatever shall I do
Feels almost like a Panda thread now, keep it up chaps
Had a 405 1.9 petrol carb once too, used nearly as much petrol as this one!! Progress eh

firstcar-Y10 said:

Feels almost like a Panda thread now, keep it up chaps

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Well, in that case: I've loved both Clios I've owned -- both from 1994. The first was a brand-new company car. 1.9 diesel. Used to get serviced every five to six weeks because of the miles I put on it. Never ever let me down. Its only fault was that the windscreen scratched very easily, and had to be replaced. And I stupidly spec'd really expensive alloys that took longer to clean than the rest of the car. Beautiful mid-blue metallic.

Second one was bought in 2005; white 1.4 petrol automatic. Bought for peanuts, as a stopgap -- but kept it seven years, near enough. Heater matrix died during its last winter; and then the MOT revealed some serious rust: so it was weighed in. Ran wonderfully, though, even with a lot of miles on it.

I honestly think, therefore, that French cars are only as unreliable as any other country's (apart from Japan, maybe...). Discuss. :devil:

homeward said:

I honestly think, therefore, that French cars are only as unreliable as any other country's (apart from Japan, maybe...). Discuss. :devil:

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I don't really think French cars are any more unreliable than anything else really, I entirely agree. I just think when they break its always more of a faff to get them right again. To be fair my Renault Twingo does nothing but motorway miles and does about 1100 a month, it hasn't broken or not started since I bought it in January (ok well it didn't start once ) but despite it being the GT, and having the 'fun' tiny turbocharged petrol unit its not engaging to drive. This is where my problem steps in, its not unreliable but neither is it especially reliable, but its also no fun... My Panda is just as reliable and bags more fun so why should I suffer the French rubbish

What was this thread about :devil:

end of the day, as much as all car lovers jibe other cars nearly all cars are reliable if looked after properly - even ones that are meant to be rubbish tend to be fine if been put together with care rather than a disgruntled 1980's factory worker or something. Yes some have their weak points but on the whole cars are amazingly reliable - i still find it hard to believe engines even work let alone do 100s of 1000s of miles. Fiat are the on the receiving end of alot of undeserved jokes to do with reliability but i'm yet to see a Fiat broken down on the side of a motorway :shrug:

OK blu73 let me tax your BCU (body control unit, see what I did there) Been playing with it today (still no code reader) and pinned down what's happening. The 'misfire' is caused by the idle air control stepper. When we took it off it appeared to be caked in black deposits and seized mostly shut. Cleaned it up and refitted it and tried again, moves more freely now and having run it and waited for the misfire to occur I can hear that what happens is the icv is closing itself right up while the car is idling, causing the revs to die right off, then pulling itself open again revving the engine before settling back to a neutral position again. So question is, fault with the icv itself, or if not, what other sensors would be most likely to mis- regulate that valve? Any thoughts?

well I would expect its probably the icv itself in that case - it is responding to the ecu is telling it to do.. Any of the moving valve type bits are just doing what the ecu tells them they are not moving because of other sensors as such - clearly if a sensor gives an erroneous signal to the ecu if could result in one of these things not doing as its meant to. But dirt is a quick fire way to stop these moving parts working so i suspect it just needs that cleaning or replacing myself.

I would also look at taking the EGR off (i assume it has one here) and checking that moves freely and clean it out - and the throttle body in general, particularly if the egr was stuck at all - if thats been stick open everything will be black and sooty generally and need cleaning - it covers everything that stuff. Hopefully on that engine it doesn't have coolant going through it and you can just unbolt it. I would even consider blanking the egr off but this may result in a permanent EML.

If you are lucky just cleaning these things will sort them out.

Just for the record, egr valves are the most stupid thing ever fitted to cars!!!
Here is a little video of a friends corsa i used to look after, it has a stuck egr and every so often this would happen and all i had to do was clean out the throttle body and it would be fine again for a couple of months, its since had the egr blanked and it runs fine now and even goes a little better as its burning clean air and not dirty exhaust gases


so yeah, make sure the egr is not stuck or everything will get dirty and clogged again pretty quickly. Your EML could be stuck egr even lol the corsa still has permenant light on due to it being stuck lol.

Thanks for the thoughts, icv ordered up anyway as it's the obvious smoking gun and no, no egr fitted so one less suspect. only source of oily gunk in the air intake is the cam cover breather.

yep they are silly too although really if engine is good design and everything is running as it should there shouldn't be much coming out the breather - not something fiat fire engines suffer thats for sure if they are serviced

Sigh, so not the icv then...:bang:

blu73 said:

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I may just have solved the issue......going to look at a Sei tomorrow. Anyone want to buy a slightly iffy but plush 206?

firstcar-Y10 said:

I may just have solved the issue......going to look at a Sei tomorrow. Anyone want to buy a slightly iffy but plush 206?

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You'd probably get a fair bit for that: there's only 3000 of them on the road. Not as rare as my Grande Punto Eleganza 8v though: only 1800 of those in this country! That's quite a shame really.

puntofan01 said:

You'd probably get a fair bit for that: there's only 3000 of them on the road. Not as rare as my Grande Punto Eleganza 8v though: only 1800 of those in this country! That's quite a shame really.

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What is this 'only' 3000 Grumbleweed's one of 8 Panda Sergio Tacchinis left on the road, I've gone back to the car park after work before and tried to work out why my remote wasn't unlocking the Pug, then realised there was a 'clunk' noise coming from the other side of a van when I pressed the button. I was standing next to an identical car 2 spaces away from where I'd left mine Never had that bother with the Panda (no remote for a start:idea
Seriously though, electrical gremlins won't do the car any favours value wise, 206s are notoriously difficult to cure when they start to go, plus the mileage on the car is a complete guess, since it's on it's second speedo, and that one hasn't worked right half the time it's been on either.

firstcar-Y10 said:

What is this 'only' 3000 Grumbleweed's one of 8 Panda Sergio Tacchinis left on the road, I've gone back to the car park after work before and tried to work out why my remote wasn't unlocking the Pug, then realised there was a 'clunk' noise coming from the other side of a van when I pressed the button. I was standing next to an identical car 2 spaces away from where I'd left mine Never had that bother with the Panda (no remote for a start:idea
Seriously though, electrical gremlins won't do the car any favours value wise, 206s are notoriously difficult to cure when they start to go, plus the mileage on the car is a complete guess, since it's on it's second speedo, and that one hasn't worked right half the time it's been on either.

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Fair enough, lol!!

puntofan01 said:

Fair enough, lol!!

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Sorry, didn't mean to diss your Punto and all Lovely car, but 'rare' looks different in the Panda section.

...anyway, as I was saying, anyone fancy a Pug? (relatively) Rare model too

firstcar-Y10 said:

Sorry, didn't mean to diss your Punto and all Lovely car, but 'rare' looks different in the Panda section.

...anyway, as I was saying, anyone fancy a Pug? (relatively) Rare model too

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Don't worry, I knew what you meant, lol! The Eleganza is rare for a modern, mainstream car, lol!