The story of my 405!

[baldrickthecunning]

Having been on the lookout for a hardy old diesel to run as a second car for a while, and also being a French car enthusiast I saw a slightly poorly worded advert in the local Friday-Ad.

 

Something along the lines of 'Peugeot 405, no MOT, No Tax, heated seats, diesel'. I rang up and spoke to the woman who owned it, a young mum who couldn't afford to rectify the MOT failures, and re-tax it. She didn't know much about the mechanics, or even the mileage (I just about managed to confirm that it was the 'Executive' model) so I arranged to go and see it.

 

When I arrived, It was obvious that the car hadn't moved anywhere since failing its MOT 6 weeks previously and her dad had the battery on charge in the garage. I could see that it wasn't immaculate, with no lacquer on the roof, 2 bald tyres but seemed to look good where it mattered, and had a fairly tidy mileage of 118450. We connected the battery up and was immediately greeted by all manner of warning lights! 'AIR BAG', 'ABS', low coolant (not actually low) and a scrambled centre display...but the glowplug light came on, and the car effortlessly fired into life from cold and didn't bellow smoke. The rev meter wasn't working and the coolant temperature gauge wasn't registering anything.

 

Despite all these problems, the gearbox and clutch felt fine, engine looked clean and eventually i cracked the handbrake free which was well and truly stuck on! They had lost the MOT failure sheet but assured me that the main failures were the tyres and the ABS light.

 

I agreed to buy it, taking a slight gamble but safe in the knowledge that if it was a heap I could get most of my money back in scrap. I got it to a friends house where I set to work on fixing the obvious things.

 

Photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First of all, the scrambled centre display was fixed by setting the time. Second fix was the airbag light and temperature gauge which was a blown fuse, temperature was running at a re-assuring 80°C. Next I decided to remove the front offside wheel to get a tyre fitted to the rim, oh balls....locking wheel bolts and no removal tool....only one thing for it, bash a socket over the top and work it loose - and when it lost grip, just bang a smaller socket on! Got there eventually and got the local breakers to fit and balance a very fresh pair of firestones onto the rims.

 

 

I couldn't suss the ABS fault out, so booked it in for an MOT regardless and came back to the following failures:

 

ABS light

Front O/S lower suspension balljoint has excessive play

N/S rear brake light

O/S rear brake light

Rear N/S tyre perished on side wall.

 

Not bad in all, but the ABS was bugging me slightly.....my mechanic and I set about fixing the other faults but I left it with him over a weekend and the battery went dead - and when it was charged up the immobiliser was stuck on....

 

Tools downed 'til the following Monday when I came in with a spare battery, and managed to disarm the immobiliser but the ABS fault code would not scan on the diagnostics interface. I set about fixing the brake lights which seemed to have a bad earth on them, gradually getting one side working and eventually the other side.

 

I turned the ignition on to move the car out of the garage and in a weird-French-electrics style twist, the ABS light came on and then went out. Result! Must have been shorting out where the brake lights weren't working, but either way I was happy - the rest of the work was carried out and Voila, a years ticket at a cost (including the test and previous tyres) of about £130!

 

Only hurdles now were a) getting rid of the previous second car (MK3 Golf 1.4 sold for £425) and Getting the thing taxed, the DVLA website refused to allow me to apply for a tax disc online as i'd SORN'd it just a couple of weeks before .

 

Registration document, Check! MOT certificate, Check! Insurance document, D'oh!.....It arrived through the door and I was at the post office 20 minutes later!

 

Some hassle, £550 and a month after responding to the ad, I had a 1996 Peugeot 405 1.9 Turbo D Executive, with a years MOT and a years Tax with an awesome black leather interior, all the whistles and bells including the original 6 speaker stereo with steering wheel controls and a CD changer in the boot, 4 new tyres, and ride quality that is more positive than most modern cars. Love it to bits and wanted to tell the tale to some possible enthusiasts.

 

The predictable twist in the tale, is that this beast is now running 60% used (filtered) vegetable oil and 40% pump diesel. No drawbacks yet, apart from a slightly leaky fuel return pipe and a very slightly lumpy idle when starting from cold.

 

 

 

Sorry for the huge essay, but I don't often take on projects like this and it has been quite exciting - if frustrating at times.

[Rocket88]

Excellent work, young sir......

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

Excellent write-up, I am supremely jealous of your vegetarian Executive.

[Shep Shepherd]

Nice motor! I hope that it continues to serve you well

[dollywobbler]

Nice buy and nice write up! Looks a very nice spec indeed.

[RoadworkUK]

The Executives were really quite embarassingly plush.

 

We took an utterly mint 406 2.0 Exec in on scrappage last year. It was utterly, utterly heartbreaking. 63k on the clock.

[carlo]

Nice story, wonderful cars. Keep it for more than a year and you'll never want anything else. I've got lots of 405 bits and pieces if you ever need anything.

[Lord Sterling]

Great story Baldrick, love hearing stuff like this. It does look utterly plush and comfortable in there. Great work, hope the car continues to see you in good steed.

[ProgRocker]

Excellent write up.

 

The car looks the biz in that spec and colour.

 

We took an utterly mint 406 2.0 Exec in on scrappage last year. It was utterly, utterly heartbreaking. 63k on the clock.

 

[garethj]

That's a good score for mingebag executive motoring.

 

My other half had a 406 diesel as a company car when it was new, it was always back at the dealers. The 405 is a much better prospect I think

[boobydoo]

A very interesting and concise write-up, cleanly presented with appropriate, well thought out pictures!

 

Good Work!!

 

Can you tell I used to be a teacher!!

[baldrickthecunning]

Thankyou all for your positive feedback, I have just arrived home from work in this shed! It still needs a few bits sorting out, but mostly either cosmetic, niggling electrical issues or suspension noises.

 

RoadworkUK - I bet you saw some real wastage during the scrappage scheme. The 406 sounds like it should still be allowed on the road

 

Carlo - I may well be asking about a few bits and bobs, thanks for the offer.

[scooters]

result old fruit!

 

lurerley frog exec cruiser

 

are the ABS sesors the same as the Citroen XM - i'm guessing they probably are and if so might benefit from a good scrub with some electrical contact cleanser. The XM I had used to light up like an xmas tree every couple of weeks - a decent scrub sorted it out though and the brakes worked fine - saved my life on the M6

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

The ABS fault was down to a bad earth in the brake lights.

[Timewaster]

Great story.

 

Got to love a 405. I used to work in a Peugeot dealer - albeit breifly - around 1990 and these things were everywhere.

 

I had an Mi16 as a nice car for a few years, and a Glx TD estate as a mingebag motor, both were great in their own ways.

 

There is a Haynes book of lies online here: http://www.elmotor.net/manuales/Peugeot ... Haynes.pdf

[r.welfare]

A great save! I've had 4 405TD's, great cars. I went to a 50/50 mix of veg to DERV on my last one in the summer months, it tended to idle a bit high and roughly when cold but there seemed to be no lasting ill effects.

 

118k is barely run in (mine ranged in mileage from 128k to 247k), although I'd flush the coolant to be on the safe side and check out the date stamped on the top of the rad' - the TD can be prone to head gasket failure if the cooling system isn't looked after.

 

You did well with your cheap ABS fix - the pump on mine got a bit incontinent with old age and the main relay stuck on after a very rainy drive down the M1. Ended up having to get a spare pump from a scrap car and swap them over.

 

Does it say "Reading Garage" on the numberplates? XAN is a Reading registration...

[oldford]

Has it got one of those annoying keypad immobilisers?, where the factory default code was 0001. Nice to see one saved.

 

Has the display above got a bulb out?

[Richard]

There's a very easy way to lose these stupid keypads, on the diesel at least. All you do is pull the plug out while the engine is running.

 

Looks like a really good deal, it's good to see they are still out there.

[baldrickthecunning]

Great story.

 

Got to love a 405. I used to work in a Peugeot dealer - albeit breifly - around 1990 and these things were everywhere.

 

I had an Mi16 as a nice car for a few years, and a Glx TD estate as a mingebag motor, both were great in their own ways.

 

There is a Haynes book of lies online here: http://www.elmotor.net/manuales/Peugeot ... Haynes.pdf

 

I bet the Mi16 was a wolf in sheeps clothing. Cheers for the haynes manual link, i can print another one off when it gets oily and greasy

 

r. welfare, thanks for all the 405 tips - luckily the antifreeze looks like quite a strong mix and smeels quite fresh.

 

Oldford, luckily it HASN'T got an annoying keypad immobiliser. I'd have ripped it out by now if it had! No point in losing a cubby hole. Yup there is a bulb out, but a lot of grief to change it.

 

Scooters, cheers for the feedback - luckily the ABS seems to be behaving at the moment.

[Gompo]

..So that's what you meant by 'double post'..

 

Good work, glad to see some recognition..

[Timewaster]

Great story.

 

Got to love a 405.

I had an Mi16 as a nice car for a few years, and a Glx TD estate as a mingebag motor, both were great in their own ways.

 

There is a Haynes book of lies online here: http://www.elmotor.net/manuales/Peugeot ... Haynes.pdf

 

I bet the Mi16 was a wolf in sheeps clothing. Cheers for the haynes manual link, i can print another one off when it gets oily and greasy

 

 

It was a nice, quick car but not awesomely fast. You had to rev the nuts off it before it would really get going.

Mind you , it replaced a 16v Golf and got replaced by a Sapphire Cosworth - so perhaps I was spoilt!

[Guest Leonard Hatred]

GTX and Executive models have keyfob operated immobilisers, unfortunately the remotes are infrared and mega unreliable.

[baldrickthecunning]

Couple of niggling jobs sorted out today. The steering column stalks were very loose, and when you used them, the whole assembly would rotate. Probably why the airbag slip ring was so loose and kept blowing a fuse.

 

 

And since running veg oil, a bleed off pipe started leaking - so i replaced that today. Intercooler had to come off!

 

[coalnotdole]

It was good to see you and the car last sunday! great to see the photos of how you brought it back.

 

Joe

[baldrickthecunning]

Cheers Joe, good to see you on this forum - hope the Scimitar is well on the road to recovery.

 

I think last weekends trip was very good, just a shame the 'getaway' car was a Toyota.