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Sourced: PSA Dizzzla


pogweasel

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Right, so having been "credit crunched", pastures new are calling as sadly [yeah right] I will be without my lovely astra van. I think if I use my BMW on a daily basis I will be bankrupt in less than a quarter, so a cheap deeezel is required.

 

A nice citroen peugeot thing would do me just fine, so eyes peeled please!

 

ZX - Xsara (non-picasso) - 306 - 405 - 406(?)

 

Not too sure about plunging into the murky world of uppy-downy stuff like BXs or Xantias at this stage however!

 

Preferably a turdblowa version so I dont die of boredom, though beggers cant be choosers. No HDIs need apply though.

 

Cleanest, straightest, most well-cared-for car I can buy for £500!

Obviously nothing so leggy or abused that it will go pop imminently. Its MY job to make it leggy & abused.

 

Not remotely bothered about specs, trim levels, colours or even really body styles, in fact the more basic the better, and so long as I can fit my work gubbins in (which all the above will swallow with ease).

 

What have you got, what have you spotted, and whats the best of the bunch?

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Not too sure about plunging into the murky world of uppy-downy stuff like BXs or Xantias at this stage however!

http://bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9479&start=0OK, so its an uppy-downy thing, but its cheap and its the XUD bulletproof monk lump, and its an estate, plus the seller is keen to shift it (so a deal can be done).EDIT - TBH the uppy down-y bits are actually quite easy to care for and shouldnt put you off - change the "shockers" sir - certainly sir, £20 a corner sir, 10 minutes sir. Job done sir....
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Pog, I could probably have my arm twisted enough to let go of my saloon for 500 sheets - it might be a bit leggy (but nothing for this engine) but it's probably the straightest, cleanest, most well-cared-for (must have getting on for £2k-worth of receipts from last 2 years - cambelt, water pump, rad, brakes, suspension, tyres, clutch, glowplugs) 405 you'll find for the money. Hell, it gets new oil, air and fuel filters every 5k, and what's more I enjoy doing it :shock: - even a new sump plug and washer!MOT to August and tax to end of March. PM me if you wanna know more.

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Pick of the 406 dizzlers is the 12v 2.1, but it's not an easy engine to work on. The 1.9TD struggles with the extra weight and the EGR (which clogs up frequently) - the one I had was like a milkfloat in comparison to the 405s. Didn't handle 'alf as good either, although it did feel more solid and rode really well, even with 230k on it. Synchro on 2nd and 3rd was AWOL, mind.That said, the law of averages suggests a £500 406 will be more likely to be a bigger dog than a £500 405, or ZX. 405s or ZXs (or even BXs) will get you something nicer for the money, if only age has thinned their ranks to leave only the semi-decent stuff still running. My 406 cost £140, but still needed £250 spending to get a ticket (tyres, servicing, tracking and the MOT itself) and that's before anything major like the cambelt.Bear in mind that the book time for a cambelt on the XUD is three and a half hours, and access ain't great. I couldn't even get the aux belt off :roll: The rad will also need changing if it's >100k/10 years old (date stamped on the top), you need to keep the cooling system on these lumps A1 if you're going to reduce the chance of HGF. They are also a bitch to bleed properly.

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This one is a little above budget and is a 1.9TD 406 - so no fireball - but plenty of history, good spec, a year's ticket and sensible miles, plus the seller has a good rep...

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PEUGEOT-406-GLX-1-9-TD-DIESEL-LOVELY-CAR-L-K_W0QQitemZ330288195012

 

Here's a left-field recommendation for you - what about a 1.6/1.8 Carina E? Yes, a petrol one - but these lean-burn wonderlumps do a good high-40s/low 50s MPGwise when cruising, the price differential between petrol and diesel at the pumps is also a factor, and £500 should find a mid-90s one that has had sympathetic prior ownership. Plus it's a Toyota...

 

This might sound odd from such a lover of the PSA 1.9TD (I reckon I've put 25k miles in the last year under the wheels of 5 different Pugs with this type of engine), but I also know that a £500 Pug will always need something spending on it regardless of how nice and (on the face of it) well looked-after it is...

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I'd have no fear of dismantling a 405 then putting it back together, but I have in my head that a 406 is not a vehicle on which to do spannering. This is based on nowt at all as I have never owned one. A nice late-model high-spec 406 2.0 petrol is an appealing machine though, a very classy looking car.

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My dad had a 406 facelift diesel as a company car and put something like 50K on it without any issues, despite it being the dreaded HDi. Was a nice car, felt well put together and looked great. The total opposite of the 407SW it was replaced with. Once they're worthless, I'm going to get myself a V6 one with leather and pretend to be some sort of French bureaucrat.Any particular reason you specifically want a PSA product, Pog? You could probably get a lovely Bluebird for £500. Or a knackered old Corolla Estate.

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406 V6s are already pretty worthless, Mein Hirst! £500 is not an inconceivable asking price for one. If you're after a car that you can be comfortable in throwing away when something major gives up, it's a lot of flash for the cash.That said, in my experience a £500 Pug diesel is not something you can buy and run over a reasonable stretch of time (say 1-3 years) without being prepared to spend up to the purchase price again on it to get everything A1. I've got two case studies on my drive - and I thought when I bought the estate I knew all the weak points from my saloon :wink: That said, once you do, it should be good for a lengthy period with minimal cost other than regular maintenance. But there are other cars where you can reduce the odds of this risk - the Bluebird is a good example, the Carina E another. But for comfy economical fun driving, a 405 with the 1.9TD does take some beating...as can your wallet if you're not careful!

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Any particular reason you specifically want a PSA product, Pog? You could probably get a lovely Bluebird for £500. Or a knackered old Corolla Estate.

Just seems the most sensible way to spend the money. These old pugs & cits seem capable of intergalactic mileages, with 50+mpg a all times, plus relatively rot-resistant compared to say anything ford or vauxhall badged (e.g. a mk3 Astra Isuzu 1.7 would be ace, but they're all rotten as pears), and better handling & comfier than well, anything really. Turning Japanese hadn't really crossed my mind, maybe it should, though a Bluebird would be too 'old' to not cause offence domestically, and a Carina E is a bit on the Rohipnol Rape side for my liking. Plus I fear I would worry for it's safety leaving it on a sidestreet in the capital overnight without getting filched for illegal-minicab-spares.
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These old pugs & cits seem capable of intergalactic mileages, with 50+mpg a all times, plus relatively rot-resistant compared to say anything ford or vauxhall badged, and better handling & comfier than well, anything really.

True. Although ZXs and 405s can start to rot underneath to the point the MOT man sucks air through his teeth, while the upper bodywork remains pristine. But in fairness, the youngest ZX is 10 years old now, and the youngest 405 twelve.Can send you a big PM of what to look/listen for on a 405 if yer want. Father Ted can give you even more gospel on the engine side too.
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Allow me at this point to suggest a "Wild Card"

Rover 218SDi or similar

You get the 1700XUD lump with Rover real fake walnut dash. Extra points awarded for the Luxo spec models with leather - you could of course look for the Touring version (in-estate) with the 1700 lump.

Timing belts every 50K (down from the specified 72K), water pumps at the same time (about £12) and make sure the coolant is changed every couple of years a they do munch head gaskets if left unloved. Look for the usual tell tale signs, mayo under the filler and bubbles / pressurisation in the headder tank.

Use decent oil (Total Quartz 7000 is ideal and cheap enough) and make sure you use a proper oil filter rather than a cheapo Mann unit (as the latter dont have the non return valve to aid crud clearing).

Grey smoke on start up which clears after a few seconds will be fuel leaking into the chambers or most likely a duff glow plug ( the one under the fuel pump is often neglected owing to its Satanic ability to skin knuckes when trying to change it). Black smog under heavy clogging of the loud pedal is just over fueling and often the result of a worn pump - Lucas Cav pumps seem to suffer worse than Bosch ones.

Buy Bosch if possible (many TD lumps have Lucas units, so look and see what it says on the pump - or if the fuel filter is on the right or the left of the engine [right & black plastic = Bosch, left and white cannister = Lucas] - often the fuel pipes are a giveaway too, gold = Bosch, silver = Lucas]. Bosch = many happy miles of running on "alternative" fuels, Lucas = knackered pump after not that many miles of trying this. (That said it took me 40K miles to knacker my last Cav pump.) :twisted:

 

Poor starting may be the result of nothing more than air getting into the fuel system through perished hoses. Cant think of anything else right now....

 

Oh yes, how about an LDV van with the 1.9TD XUD?

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Hmm, I've used Mann filters for my changes with no issues, but then again I change 'em all every 5k (using Castrol GTD - 'cos it's cheap at CostCo) so maybe that's why. I get the set (oil, air, fuel) from the Bay at something like £15 delivered, £15 for the oil, then a couple of quid for a new sump plug and washer. Cheap insurance, really.I managed to do plug no.4 last time with no hassles whatsoever - I must be blessed now! Mind you removing the intercooler and loadsahoses was a right faff.Interestingly I've seen both 36k and 72k quoted as the belt change figure; I stick with 36k the older the car gets. I do get pissed off when folk try to save a few quid and not change the waterpump at the same time - Cpt Cretin who did the head skim/new CHG/belt on the estate just before I bought it didn't do the pump, and that was groaning/spurting out coolant just 2k later.Poor cold starting when the glowplugs are known to be good can also be cold start enrichment device no longer working without a prompt - 1/2 throttle on my saloon now fires it up no matter what...although I still need to check/replace the fuel lines really. Did the leakoff pipes when I did the glowplugs and rocker cover gasket.Forgot to also say that dead heaters are not a good sign. I like the Rover 218/418 idea, but they tend to rust a lot more on the upper bodywork than the Pugs and Cits the engine normally houses...plus you could park a whole 418 Touring in the loadspace of a 405 wagon. That said, with an E30 Touring, Pog no doubt understands what it means to have an estate car that you can't carry much in :twisted:Aren't all 1769cc TDs equipped with Lucas pumps? I know that it's only the early 1905cc TDs (up to say 1995) that seem to have Bosch as the rule. My two do.

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I know I have encountered one XU7D turdblower with Bosch - but not sure if that was retrofitted or not. I think its personal preference with regards the Puraflux filters as opposed to the Mann ones, simply down to the fact the Puraflux ones have the non return valve, the Mann ones dont, the Puraflux are also OE fit and the inner is cotton not paper. But at the end of the day its personal preference I suppose with anything like that.

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I wasn't aware of all those differences to be honest - I've used Mann due to ease of availability and a better "name" (perceived!) than Halfords own-brand, say. But Purflux are definitely the best being OE, shame I can't find a cheap source (like I did Honda OE filters for t'wifes car - 7 for £30 delivered so will keep that one going for another 35k!). Mind you, the change interval I've imposed works out about every 3 months on the saloon and half-yearly on the wagon, so I'll stick with it. S'pose I could go to National Tyres and pay them £25 to change the oil, but I've got it down to about half an hour all-in now, plus new air & fuel filters way before time don't do any harm in my book :D

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Aren't all 1769cc TDs equipped with Lucas pumps?

Nope. There's a fairly equal chance of getting a bosch or a lucas pump on a 1769TD.The oil drainback valve issue on the oil filters is only really a problem if the car is left for extended periods. Anything up to a couple of days is no concern. Also it really doesn't matter about the oil. Any 15w-40 will do just fine. If you're worried, change it more often.
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Are you absolutely set on a PSA diesel? I've got an N reg Astra TD LS hatch with T&T and a towbar that I have no real use for and would be going fairly cheap, but I don't know if your experiences with your van have put you off GM products for life.

 

If you definitely want to go PSA, how about this?

 

Posted Image

 

Nice and basic, 1905cc non-turbo XUD and in my experience these tend to be a bit better put together than ZX's.

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Lad locally selling 3 door 106 diesel facelift job (1996-ish?) for 200 rips. Out of test but has done something like 12 miles since the last one. Can get more details if you like?

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