406 mysteries

C

Chuggo

Member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Mar 23, 2019
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Location
newcastle
Hello everyone! First time poster here from NSW. Last week I picked up a 1998 V6 406 in unbelievably good condition for an extremely cheap price.

I'm not normally a big wheeler dealer but I have some form in restoration so I jumped on it. Only driven Holdens most of my life, so it's a whole new world!

Anyway, the 406 is going very well indeed, amazing car and I'll probably have the rego back on it this week.

There's a few mystery parts on it though, just wondering if you experts could explain what some of these things do.....

1. Small gauge underneath the tacho, could be oil pressure/temperature? It goes up to max and then off again when the power goes on, but does absolutely nothing while driving.
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2. Dark glass pyramid dome near the map lights, some kind of sensor maybe?
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3. Small stalk underneath the blinker stalk.... cruise control? I can't work out how to make it do anything
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4. Button near the driver's door, arrow pointing left with a car in it? Passenger ejector seat?
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Thanks for any help....
 
1 oil level
2 infrared remote sensor
3 cruise stalk
4 cruise one or off


Garage C5 X7 3008 XTE
Gone but not forgotten 206 GTI 180 306 XR SED 405 MI16 x2 xzara VTS 406 SV 206 XT Berlingo 2011 (best car ever) 306 HDI 307 XSE HDI touring
Fix it right the first time
 

Well that's sorted that out! Many thanks, I'll try the cruise control on the road. I think the oil level gauge must be not working.
 
Chuggo said:
Well that's sorted that out! Many thanks, I'll try the cruise control on the road. I think the oil level gauge must be not working.
Click to expand...

Oil level gauge operates for less than a minute. I assume it deactivated as when the engine is running there is no way for it to accurately read the level


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Pugfan306HDI said:
Oil level gauge operates for less than a minute. I assume it deactivated as when the engine is running there is no way for it to accurately read the level
Click to expand...

Yep you're right... I tried it out and went up to nearly full, then off once the car started. Never seen that before, great idea! Also got the cruise control sorted and I know where to point the remote key, it just gets better and better, thanks all
 
How many KM on the clock? D8 V6s are fantastic cars, but the transmission is a weak spot. Do you have any history on the car?
 
Pugfan306HDI said:
Oil level gauge operates for less than a minute. I assume it deactivated as when the engine is running there is no way for it to accurately read the level

I have a 1998 D8 SV manual and it has a different instrument cluster to the automatic that you have described.
The fuel gauge is located where the automatic selector indicator is and in place of the fuel gauge it has a combined oil level and oil temperature gauge.
When ignition is turned on the gauge reads oil level for about 15 seconds and then switches to read oil temperature. The oil temperature lags the water temperature, but eventually reads approximately the same which you would expect. I don't know why a separate reading for oil temperature is required , but a nice gimmick.
I agree that it is a great car. I have had mine since new and it only has 96K kilometres so relatively young mechanically. The manual gear ratios are well matched to the engine and it is a very responsive car; still surprises others in much newer cars.
Click to expand...
 
Don’t know that a oil temp is a gimmick


Garage C5 X7 3008 XTE
Gone but not forgotten 206 GTI 180 306 XR SED 405 MI16 x2 xzara VTS 406 SV 206 XT Berlingo 2011 (best car ever) 306 HDI 307 XSE HDI touring
Fix it right the first time
 
sfrawley said:
Agreed. It shows the temperature of the engine, not just the coolant. On my 406 the coolant temp barely moves while the oil temp varies with the load on the engine.
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Agree with your agreement. I've had cooling issues a few times (split radiator header & jammed thermostat) and the oil temp becomes very important if limping home from nearby.
 
I agree with your agreement on his agreement on my comment [emoji23]


Garage C5 X7 3008 XTE
Gone but not forgotten 206 GTI 180 306 XR SED 405 MI16 x2 xzara VTS 406 SV 206 XT Berlingo 2011 (best car ever) 306 HDI 307 XSE HDI touring
Fix it right the first time
 
Demannu said:
How many KM on the clock? D8 V6s are fantastic cars, but the transmission is a weak spot. Do you have any history on the car?
Click to expand...

Hey there, sorry for the late reply, I missed the post. There's only 150k on the clock and I have no idea on the history.... I bought it unregistered, unused and pretty much on its way to the wreckers. But it's a beautiful car and runs really well, I did a few repairs and got it registered and am greatly enjoying using it as a runabout. Uses about 2 cups of coolant over a week so I think I can live with that! I know there's things that will have to be looked at (timing belt etc) but I bought it for less than the rego cost, so it's just for fun right now. Admittedly the transmission is a little "quirky", occasionally changes a bit rough or at higher revs but nothing too strange yet.

It's got cruise control, climate control, seat warmers, etc etc.... were all these things standard at the time or is it a higher model?

SdFLwfZ.jpg
 
Chuggo said:
It's got cruise control, climate control, seat warmers, etc etc.... were all these things standard at the time or is it a higher model?
Click to expand...
Cruise and climate control became standard in Australia on the facelifted D9 model, but the heated seats were only on the top spec bundled with the V6.
 
Chuggo said:
Uses about 2 cups of coolant over a week so I think I can live with that!

It's got cruise control, climate control, seat warmers, etc etc.... were all these things standard at the time or is it a higher model?
Click to expand...

May be able to help you out here. I had a 1998 V6 manual, effing Q-car it was. I too had a slow coolant leak, could not trace it, even under pressure.

Subject to some good advice I received, I removed the coolant expansion bottle, from memory the PS pump hangs off it so you have to suspend that out of the way (may be getting that confused with something else, I dunno) , the rest was simple, maybe a couple of 10mm.

Underneath was a hairline crack, it left a small trace on the metal, similar to skid marks that you find in your undies, which never went outside the size of the bottle, so you would never see it otherwise. Trouble was, the escaping water usually evaporated so you never see it run anywhere if you were looking. So check that first as it is the easiest.

As for the trim, from my own observations of my early 1998 model (built dec 97 iirc) to ones that were built 6 months later, it was in that time period when all those niceties were introduced. I suspect, and again I could be wrong, that they were standard in the auto model, maybe optional in the manual, save for the "Monaco" ones, which I think were an initiative of the dealer network.

I have a local brochure, will load it some time.
 
Given the initial “what does this do?” questions, do the 406 service/owner manuals live in a tray under the passenger seat like it does on a 306? This has me going until I found out where the books were stashed...


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blahblah said:
Given the initial “what does this do?” questions, do the 406 service/owner manuals live in a tray under the passenger seat like it does on a 306?
Click to expand...

Ah thanks but no good, I had a look but there's only electronics under there!

Just as a general question to all, I've been looking up Peugeot history and there seems to be this idea that the company "went bad" after the mid 2000s and started making cars that weren't as good.... is this a thing, or just Top Gear hype?
 
Just tg bs the 307 was a pretty good car not dynamically like a 306 but it did what it says on the tin


Garage C5 X7 3008 XTE
Gone but not forgotten 206 GTI 180 306 XR SED 405 MI16 x2 xzara VTS 406 SV 206 XT Berlingo 2011 (best car ever) 306 HDI 307 XSE HDI touring
Fix it right the first time
 
In 2008 the Citroen C5 X7 came along. PSA was still making outstanding models.
 
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