306 D Turbo problems

[pugmug]

Hi All,

I'm new on the site, bought my first Pug a week ago, a 306 D Turbo, 98 S reg, and apart from the engine i'm very happy!

the problem is that when i bought the car, the previous owner had obviously warmed it up first. so when i took it for a spin, it was fine. but when i got it home and started it the following morning, it took about 10 seconds and a fair bit of throttle stabbing to get it to tick over. There was a lot of smoke coming out the back and it didn't sound right. I have later established this is because it's running on 3 cylinders. however, once i've done a coulpe of miles, it's fine. no smoke, no hiccupping.

took it to a garage and they said that it could be a £2000 repair job, which would involve basically, an engine rebuild or transplant. they think it's probably a piston problem, but can't be sure until they start taking things apart.

would i be right in thinking they are being lazy and just not bothering to do any diagnoses?

does anyone have any clues? any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

cheers,

Matt

by the way it's done 83k miles

[504gld]

Well the first thing to check is the cold start, assuming this is the XUD9 engine of 1905cc you need to locate the glow plugs. There are 4, each screwed in to the cylinder head just under each injector. You may have to remove the intercooler off the top off the engine to get at them, but I cant recall the setup. Use a multimeter to check there is current flowing to the plugs when the glow plug light is operating on the dash. If so, then try a new set of glow plugs about £20 in Halfords and such places. If there is no power, then you need to investigate further to the pre-heat relay box which the chunky wire from the end glow plug goes to.

Did the garage actually do a compression test then? Its simple on a diesel and you can just remove a glow plug and screw in the kit.

If you have a HDi engine, then it should start, glow plug or not without too much bother. It will be electronically controlled by an ECU rather than the mechanical pump of the XUD engine. If it is HDi then you need to get it hooked up to a computer and have the fault codes read.

Try a new set of glow plugs first, these things normally happen once we get cold weather as diesel engines need to get cylinder heat up before they ignite their fuel, with ambient temperatures being cold in winter it shows up problems much quicker.

[Admin]

You don't say where you are in the country but if you can't track down the problems as per 504GLD above then try calling Derv Doctor

www.thedervdoctor.co.uk

they know the 306 DTurbo like the back of their hands whereas most diesel specialist have a more general knowledge of diesel engines.

[pugmug]

Hi all, i took the car to a Citroen Peugeot specialist near to me and he instantly diagnosed it as the glow plugs and quoted me £100 for parts and labour.

work done, and the car starts first time every time, with no misfiring and no smoke.

I'm really angry at the first garage who were too lazy to even look under the bonnet, they just quoted me a price straight off for the biggest job they could think of. I'll be writing to them and trading standards.

this is a pic of the glow plugs after they were removed.

[Admin]

Yup, they'll be broken!

Glad to hear your Pug's all fixed up. The old 306 DTurbo has a bit of a cult following doesn't it!

[504gld]

£100 wasnt too bad, since if you take in to account £20s worth of plugs and the labour, I'd say spot on. Please post the "good" specialist so others can use them if you dont mind. (I think I'm in the wrong job!!!)

Thanks.

[pugmug]

Yeah will do, it's a company called

Louis Barbour
Citroen Peugeot Specialist
Rignal Garage
Rignal Road
Great Missenden
Bucks

01494 864112

www.2cv4x4.com

very quick, very friendly and even a courtesy car if you need one.

[205GRD]

Just checked that guys site out, They are total nutters, custom 4x4 conversions of 2CV's