405 diesel estate warning light/crap heater?

Yup, low coolant.

Cheers

Peter

As Peter has said, the lamp is low coolant levelwarning. When refilling, the cooling system must be bled otherwise airlocks could easily stop the heater working. Mine is a 1.8i petrol model and has a tyre valve type cap on the thermostat housing to let the worst of the air out as you refil. Dont try and vent here when the system is hot and under pressure as you could get a burn. I don't know if the diesel is similar.

HTH

Bob

Guess so. My old Xantia had a red warning lamp with a black symbol of what looks like a casserole. No mention of it in the handbook, but it turned out to be 'water in fuel filter' warning. Maybe the Peugeot has similar. Just thought I'd mention, so it won't frighten you if it flashes occasionally. There's no cure, (apart from cutting the cable) draining the filter housing doesn't stop it. DaveK

Thank you everyone for your replies, much appreciated. I will check out the coolant system ASAP

Many thanks Dave

So there must be a leak somewhere? If you'r lucky just a small one, get the engine good and hot and have a look around. Don't ignore it and just top up. that way stand to be looking at water pissing from a big hole in the middle of nowhere

Erm ... I side with the poster who thinks this is the water in diesel filter warning light (if it is just to the right of centre at top of the instrument panel and looks also a bit like a mobile phone ... my wife's take).

IF SO ... the sensor is at the bottom of the fuel filter bowl on the right next to the battery as you look in the engine compartment.

If it is doing it's job you need to bleed the water out of the bottom of the fuel filter (see manual) and that's that.

If it is faulty then it's 60squid from Peugeot and the connector has changed since the early models, so you need an electrial connector block to rejoin wires. OR it might just be a bad connection -- wiggle around a bit.

OR you can just clear the water every few thousand miles and disconnect the sensor to stop the blinking thing err blinking.

If coolant level was low you'd see by taking the rad cap off or feeling the top hose, or opening the bleed screw, or not having any heating ... but I could be wrong.

If it is the water in diesel filter and you do nothing the car will stop ... eventually.

Hi,

Yes, it is.

Nothing in the way of downloads available from Peugeot UK - I just checked :o(

Same here - I've played with it unsuccessfully for 3 winters now, and I'm well hacked off with it. (I live in Shetland, where car heaters are NOT thought to be a luxury item.)

I may have got lucky - saw another thread today (dated 20-12-2004), that relates to a 306 with the same problem (probably for the same reason). A couple of guys responded by saying that the radiator has to be filled under pressure using a header vessel, in order to allow enough of a head of coolant to flush out an air-pocket in the system. Apparently, the top of the radiator is lower than the top of heater matrix (due to a low bonnet-line) which means that it can't be filled 'conventionally' (i.e. by simply whipping the filler cap off and topping up the coolant) in order to get rid of the air-pocket. Outrageous, eh? But the explanation I read makes perfect sense, so I'll be trying it (yet again) soon - but in a much more determined manner than previously.

Here's the whole transcript of the thread:

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I have a 306 (N). But the heaters don't seem to be working properly. The de-mister doesn't blow hot air at all, only cold and the blowers into the car only blow slightly warm. I have changed the thermostat as it was stuck open and completeley flushed out the entire system, refilled and bled. Any ideas what the problem could be? Any thoughts would be greatly recieved.

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Garages have a pressure vessel which they attach to the reservoir filler neck and force coolant right through the system. The secret is to have a supply of coolant at a higher level than the highest point in the system. A big plastic bottle held up high and supplying coolant via a piece of hosepipe tightly fitted into the top hose of the system can do the job. My old Renault 21 had little hand operated valves in the top hose and heater hose which ensured all the air was out. In a troublesome case you might try removing the pressure cap and allowing the engine to run till it's so hot the fans cut in and the coolant boils out of the reservoir.Might bring the air bubble out with it.

Daft innit,- in the search for efficiency bonnet heights get lower and lower and you can't have a big tall radiator anymore, which didn't create these problems. DaveK.

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I believe the correct procedure is to get an old empty coke bottle and cut the bottom off it, then stick it upside down (filler neck first) into the coolant vessel and fill the coke bottle up, this gives enough of a header to fill the system completely. I read about this problem and fix in car mechanics magazine several years ago, cant remember if they used anything the seal the bottle though.

You could write to them though?

Andy

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In message , Nik&Andy writes

It is in the HBOL too!

They make a good enough fit as is.

The it is just a matter of loosening the bleed screw(s) till coolant flows, closing them, running the engine up to temp, massaging the fat hoses & repeating ad nauseam (well until no more air from bleeds)

What could be easier :-^)

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Good luck with that. If it works, you'll resolve both problems together at no cost - as long as there's no coolant leak.

Regards,

Philip

Of course if you've got a 106 both the inlet and outlet pipes to the heater perform an upward U ensuring you can get air locks in both. The cunning bit is that there's only a bleed valve in one of the pipes which ensures you can't get the fscking thing bled properly.