406 LX HDI Cuts out after a while

[Rumbl3r]

Hi all

I hope someone can assist with some advice that can help me get my 406 repaired as it's driving me nuts! I shall give you all the info I have and hopefully someone can point me or a garage in the right direction as it's intermittent but getting worse.

It's a 406 LX HDi, registered Jan 2002, Saloon, Diesel.

I work away from home in the week and I use it to get to work everyday which is about 15 miles each way with a couple of dual carriageways along the way where I can do 70mph no problem and it revs fine regardless of speed or idle. At the weekends I can use it all weekend in all conditions and all is perfect!

However, whenever I go to and from home on Friday evenings and Monday mornings (120 miles), I can guarantee it will cut out after at least 45 minutes of use and regardless of road types, so I'm guessing that something is overheating? On Monday my journey is via A roads for about an hour which is normally fine and then after 20 minutes on the motorway it will cut out. When it cuts out, the speedo and rev counter both go to zero and the engine management light comes on. If I pull over and stop it will probably restart and go for another while before doing it again.

I have noticed recently that when I pull over, if you turn the ignition off and then on again, sometimes the temperature gauge does not come back to it's true temp, it just sits at just above rest. In this state, the engine will not start again and I get errors like, 'airbag fault', 'imobiliser error' etc., and I've also had 'insufficent oil pressure' but I'm guessing that because it's not running. Switching on /off a few times and eventually the gauge will show properly and it will start again. Sometimes you can pull away, and sometimes it will die and after you wait a bit, off you go again. Sometimes when driving, you can feel it 'cough' and the the gauges die, but if you immediately lift your foot from the throttle it will fire up again and sometimes not.

I have had the situation that when it cut's out I can pull over and turn the ignition off. When I turn it on again, the temp gauge is low but if left on, it will come back on it's own and also I hear a noise from the back of the car like something moving, which is the same noise you get when you 1st switch it on cold or hot. This suggests to me that something cooling off has started working again?

It's now getting worse in that when it does go wrong, it used to be that you could restart and go for another hour and it won't do it again, but recently once it goes, it's impossible to go for more than a few minutes before it does it again.

Has anyone had this or can tell me what needs to be don to fix it? Because it won't do it quickly, the garage can't trace the problem unless they go off down the motorway for an hour I guess! Thoughts?

[davidireland]

Have you had a diagnostic check done?

[Rumbl3r]

No haven't had any checks done as such. Local garage did put the computer on and he said it showed no errors, but that was a while ago and it's got worse since then. What would you suggest I have checked?

[Rumbl3r]

Anyone have any thoughts?

[danthevan]

I would say if there are no codes showing, then you need to get it to someone who can read the live data after a good run and hopefully find out what is playing up.
Could be something like the coolant temp sender, but not sure of the setup on peugeots yet so don't know how / if this affects the fuelling.