Pug 406 HDi MOT fail advice please

Mike P gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

It's just the usual PSA trailing arm bearings.

Probably just needs a good clean and copaslip.

Probably. One owner from new, probably elderly? Sounds like a pootler. But HDi = common rail... It won't have a partic filter - too early to be a 2.2. Even so, lots of potential complication...

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:37:18 +0000, Adrian boggled us with:

Not sure it is. I'm guessing it's the rear stabiliser arm , item 6 here..

That's what I thought.

Colombian woman, 40 last week

Oh yes, I can walk quicker than she drives. One of those ultra PC types who never exceeds a speed limit because it kills children and trees.

That's what I fear. I'm going to ask Ray Williams tomorrow, but I'll be surprised if it's anything like what the owner was quoted. Not counting the rear brakes, I got it to £40+vat for the parts from GSF.

I *could* do it myself. It's raining and bloody cold though.

Mike P gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Oh, bloody hell. I'd forgotten 406s were all _complicated_...

You're buying it off your missus?

On Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:12:26 +0000, Adrian boggled us with:

Whole arm with balljoint and bush is only £21, it doesn't look that hard to do - take wheel off, put on stand, jack hub up to take weight off. Change arm.

I'll tell her you said she was 40. She's only 39! It's actually one of the South American womens mafia of Twyford and Wokingham. There's loads of them! We've got Argentinians, quite a few Colombians, some Mexicans and Bolivians around here. They all look like us though so.... S*it, wrong group..

Mike P gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Yebbut they probably talk funny.

Probably, but no guarantees. If you can't fix the smoke then don't piss = =

around with the rest of it.

I have often found that different testers use diferent methods of pressing the pedal down, which gives widely varying results on diesel smoke. The tester I use has a very sympathetic way of testing which 99 times out of a hundred gives a pass figure for smoke.

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:41:17 +0100, Mrcheerful boggled us with:

I have a feeling that the garage are taking the piss. The owner and her husband have no mechanical knowledge at all.

Why do I think this? Well, it was tested at the same place for the last 3 years. Oh, and they turn up in a brand new Merc to collect it, and aren't short of money.

Each MOT for the last few has advisories on it. None of which were ever fixed, and none of which appear as advisories or failure on the next MOT. Is that odd, or just my perception?

I spoke to my friendly Pug/Cit specialist this morning. He reckoned on less than £200 to fix it all bar the smoke - simply asked me to bring it in so he could have a look at it and see what is causing the smoke. He apparently has some sort of evil spray that can be sprayed down the inlet which often drops smoke dramatically. We shall see.

1. You can get a gaitor kit that you cut down to size and glue on. My escort needed one. =A312 or thereabouts.

McK

Is it still on and in one piece?

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:09:31 +0100, Mrcheerful boggled us with:

If it's one of those ones with a split in that you don't need to dismantle the hub etc to fit, then I'd be surprised seeing as he's actually driven the car... ;-p

Mike P gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

I've heard of them working well enough long-term, but only if you're so utterly anal about cleanliness that it'd probably be quicker and easier to do it properly.

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:23:31 +0000, Adrian boggled us with:

Which is why the 406 is presently over at that place on Slough Trading estate that you told me about..

These are not a good proposition, the job has to be spotless so you get the glue to stick, if not they come apart. Still difficult to fit.

On Thu, 28 Oct 2010 09:27:35 +0000, Mike P boggled us with:

Well, they couldn't even get it to make smoke at all when they put it on the MOT station tester round the corner, so that's a good thing.

Unfortunately, the rad burst on my way to them this morning...