Slightly OT: peugeot 206 hdi lx - High Milers Would you?

If it's had main dealer servicing all the way then chances are things like suspension bushes+balljoints, shock absorbers, CV joints, etc., won't have been skimped on, and these should have been replaced as neccessary and in theory it should drive absolutely spot on, in terms of ride and handling. All depends on how high the miles are - if it's around 100k then it could well be due a set of shocks in the near future.

Engines should go on a long old while with servicing every 6k, and I've heard 206 gearboxes are s**te, but something like that can still last for ages given careful treatment, so a test drive is the best idea to judge how you feel.

My only gripe with modern commonrail engines is how long the high pressure fuel pumps are going to last - a while back I bought a Renault Master 2.2dCI with 187k on the clock (at a very good price), and despite the mileage it drove absolutely spot on - gearboxes are a known weak point in these but this had been replaced under warranty, and always serviced on the dot, and it showed. About a week or two after buying it the engine started cutting out, and the Renault diagnostics system said that the high pressure fuel pump needed replacing (along with a couple of other bits) - total cost around £1600!

I've also been vaguely considering a Sprinter 313CDI, and saw a 4-year-old one recently on ebay with 362k on the clock and a full main dealer history, and that had had the high pressure pump replaced under warranty in the 2nd year of warranty, so I'd guess at a similar mileage - around 200k.

First thoughts would make me blame long service intervals (14k or 18k or whatever) for these pumps failing, but I can't see how as oil wouldn't come anywhere near the pump AFAIK - I think they'd be just lubricated by the diesel itself.

So anyway, I'd personally expect no modern commonrail diesel engine to last for more than 200k without the high pressure pump needing replacing (though I wouldn't doubt that the basics of the engine would go on for far longer than this and still be fine), so would either avoid them if it was likely that I'd run them to that sort of mileage, or budget for it in what I pay for the car/van in the first place.

Cheers,

I wouldn't be worried by high miles on a new-ish car, especially if it had been serviced lots.

I am almost certain that gearboxes on 206s are pretty much the same as the ones on many Peugeot 205s, 306s, 405s, Citroen BXs, ZXs, Xaras, Xantias and partridges in pear trees. Like many things automotive, they last as long as they are not abused, I don't think they have a particular reputation for failure. Diesels don't generally respond to cog-stirring as much as petrols.

However, IIRC it was never proven that the HP fuel pump was the problem. It may have been something as simple as a blocked fuel filter, air getting into the fuel system somewhere or a dodgy relay.

May also have been a freak occurrence. I suspect dealers are quite happy fixing problems and punting a new fuel pump into the bargain, especially if they can gather £1600 for the privelige simply because the utterly infallible diagnostic computer says so.

On the other hand, I'd personally expect a fully dealer serviced commonrail diesel to go just about indefinitely with continued rigorous servicing.

(c:

Douglas

Very true - it could well have been something else triggering that fault to appear. It could have also meant that I could have spent money trying a number of things and still not fixed it!

Aye, very true - especially if it's something like a Merc main dealer just claiming off the Merc warranty. But as long as people are asking really not all that much less for vans with 200k on the clock compared to vans of the same age with 80-100k on the clock, there'll be no incentive for me to buy the higher mileage ones.

For values of "rigorous" equal to a new high pressure pump every 200k. :-)

Tom Burton ( snipped-for-privacy@nospam.net) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

How high a mileage?

Eeek I meant to say 146k

OoooOOoooOOoooOOoo

All academic now auction closed and my pockets were not deep enough to beat the reserve

Tom

I worked for a Merc dealer for 5 years and there are issues with the Bosch CDI pump. They definitly have a high failure rate. They are a non servicable part, so apart from changing fuel filter regularly it;s the luck of the draw whether you get a dud or not.

John

Out of interest, what sort of mileages do they fail at, on average - and how many replacements are done when the van's out of warranty?

I only did the electrics and diagnostics, so usually once I diagnosed that it was a pump fault and not electronics I didn't have any more to do with it. But as far as I could see there didn't seem to be any particular milage, some failed as early as 20k. Other vehicles had over 200k with no probs. Most of the failures resulted in very small metal filings, where there must have been a problem with lubrication. So maybe diesel quality had something to do with it, I'm not sure to be honest. I don't remember any of the replaced units giving any problems, so maybe it was just the first generation pumps that were dodgy, but it didn't seem to be milage related.

John