306 advice please

[Spottedlaurel]

Not really shite, sorry. Girl at working might be selling a cheap 306 diesel soon, a non-turbo model. Nothing exciting but potentially cheap to run, hence my interest. She says it needs a new back axle, seems there’s some sort of misalignment issue.In slightly more technical terms, what might be the issue there and would it be simple or costly to fix? Maybe just bushes or something?Thanks in anticipation for any advice.

[pogweasel]

What is the back end set up on these? Traditional french torsion bars or semi-trailing with coils & whatnot?I am 99% certain they do not have an 'axle' in the traditional sense, so probably nothing disasterous, unless it's previously been biffed and the mountings are misaligned or it's started rotting out various mounting points. PS. If you are after a diesel SL we are looking at selling our Focus Wagon shortly. Not cheap in the autoshite sense, but not after a huge amount either.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

They have the standard PSA rear trailing arm set-up with transverse torsion bars, the bearings in the arms must be b0rked meaning the wheels have got some unnecessary negative camber ('Boso 306 innit') and a rough ride. It can be fixed, but normally its cheaper to find a whole rear axle/spring/hub assy from a scrapper and wang that in instead, its a reasonably simple operation to change one actually, I have done one on my own before and it only took an afternoon.

[reallyloud]

Might be a possibility that the rear wheels are buckled from a slip or a slide - the 106 has a similar set up, and I experienced a wobble after I foolishly learned about understeer the hard way a few years back. The suspension set up can take quite a knocking from my experience!These are nice cars to drive, handle like a dream but like most Peugeots of the age they seem to have crappy fragile interiors. What are the miles?

[r.welfare]

Will likely be buggered bearings. As Reg_Bo11ards sez, negative camber is the giveaway.Non-turbo diesel is generally reliable, i.e. 250k is not unusual and they don't tend to blow head gaskets (or crack heads) like the turbos do, but I'd still want to see some evidence of regular coolant changes before handing over any folding. Checking of the heater output, temp gauge and naturally the colour of the coolant that's in there will give you clues. I'd also check that the steering rack gaiters (I assume it's got PAS) aren't leaking as I believe you have to dismantle and remove the whole rack to do the n/s one...Not sure how rapid a non-turbo is, my experience is limited to the TD which has a nice slug of power between 1500-3500rpm. Lovely. If the car generally checks out and your man with the spanners can do the axle then go for it - if not, there are tons of 306s around, or Pog's Focus if you want to spend more money. I've found the interiors - of the Phase 2 405s I've owned, at least - to be exceptionally hardwearing, but this may be unusual. My 406's interior is unmarked, exceptional for 230k miles.I would also caveat that even though Peugeot have an excellent rep for rust resistance, I've unearthed a couple of rusty holes on both my 405s in the last six months (around the front inner wheelarch where it meets the "chassis" leg) so that might be worth looking out for, too, as 306s started at around the same time (1993). That said, both my motors are 15yrs old with a lot of miles up, and that's the first welding they've ever had. Monds or Cavs of the same age would be much more "patchwork" I suspect.SL, it's probably too big but I'll be looking to move the 406 on relatively soon (i.e. within the next month), with a full year's ticket on it if I can get the smoke issue fixed...

[jonkw]

I actually changed the rear arm bearings on a 306 once, never again, and it was a waste of time, when I finally got the arms off the beam I found that the worn bearings had actually worn the axle tube so badly it would have been a waste of time fitting new bearings to the arms.So we ended up fitting a good s/hand rear beam. If you are going to do this, its a good idea to replace the frontmost rear subframe mounts before you put the new beam up. These are the mounts that give the element of rear steering on 306/ZX. The rearmost mounts (the square ones) are a piece of piss to change, and quite cheap too.On the 306 I did, I fitted the entire rear beam from a Cit ZX 1.4, the whole car was only £100, we had the beam out, sold some other bits then weighed it in, so the beam cost us very little!!!!Recon beams are £350 from http://www.sspengineering.co.uk/, and secondhand 306 ones (drum brakes) seem to be around £80-100, condition unknown!

[Guest greenvanman]

Not sure how rapid a non-turbo is

Not very, if my experience is anything to go by. Mrs GVM has had a 306XLD (sans turbo) for the last 7 years and loves it dearly, despite the fact that it is very slow indeed. It's just about to hit 200000 miles and just keeps clattering along with routing servicing & fresh oil every 6000 miles. There have been one or two problems along the way, the biggest was the failure of the rear subframe mountings about 3 years ago. I had to replace the wishbones and steering drop arms a couple of years ago too. Everything else has been fairly routine though, and it murders my Skoda in the fuel economy stakes. It's a mass of rattles nowadays, slowly shaking itself to bits - but I reckon there's a few more years left in it yet.

[pogweasel]

Yeah the non-turdo ones are MEGA-SLO. My mate has a Xsara with that lump. But he reckons he can get 70mpg on a run back home from Scotland.

[Milford Cubicle]

I had a Rover 218D with the non-turbo XUD9 lump, they're OK once you're up to speed. Apparently the engine was used in the Talbot Express, bet that was joyously slow.

[Spottedlaurel]

Thanks all. I think it’s an XLD, which has no PAS, EW or anything fancy. Given the above and the girl’s mechanical sympathy and attitude to maintenance (get it mended when it really goes wrong) I think I’ll steer clear. But I’ll let you know if she puts a price on it, should anyone want to take it on.I’m not too worried about outright speed, but there are a couple of junctions where I need to get out sharpish so having something reasonably peppy would be useful. That being the case, quite why I’m drawn to a B-reg Cavalier LD that I now see every day on someone’s drive I’m not entirely sure…

[reallyloud]

B reg Cavalier LD? Pictures required I think. Would this be the ultra desirable but also rust prone Wagon version? I'd quite fancy one.

[Spottedlaurel]

Pic’s taken, fear not! It’s a sage green facelift #1 5dr hatch, may even still be on the original wheeltrims. Suffolk reg’n too, which pleases me. Paint’s gone flat (camo look/banded steels/ on the deck FTW etc) but it looks like it’s in regular use, rarely parked on the drive in the same place. I’ll knock on the door and feign interest in the school of dance they also advertise if need be.

[r.welfare]

I think these early Cav dizzlers are something like 54bhp, so don't try to outdrag any milkfloats. That said, good job Norfolk is flat, as Noel Coward once remarked...Good call on avoiding the 306 methinks. The XUD doesn't tolerate a lack of maintenance very well, particularly in the coolant department. Boggo spec is the way forward though on an old'un, less to go wrong.

[Richard]

Acceleration from junctions tends to be slightly better if you don't have a turbo.I've only driven two Vauxhall Diesels, a D plate Astra and an H plate Cavalier. Both were slow to the point of being dangerous.