Hi - I wonder if 1998 was a bad year for 106 GTIs as mine has all of the problems you state and more besides. I'm onto my second head gasket: £680 worth of repairs (head skim, new radiator too) from a Pug dealer, thankfully under warranty. Not sure it's entirely fixed to be honest. Time will tell. However for some reason this is still the best car I've owned!

I think I have had the worst luck of all with my 1998 GTI. I bought the car from Peak Performance motors in Hounslow, London without a warranty... Silly me. Two days after I bought it the Head Gasket went, then the radiator... a nice hefty £650.00 bill for me. Since then the water pump has broken, its had 2 new tyres, 2 catalytic converters, the injectors have thought to have been faulty, and the oxygen sensor... It won't start properly, runs lumpy... its actually got a full service history and is up to date with all services. I want to sell the car, I have advertised it, but no luck! Can anyone at all help me, I don't know what else to do! Gemmaandgreg@ntlworld.com.

The R's and S reg GTi's suffer a lot from head gasket problems. Received an uprated metal gasket in newer models which helped a lot with the strength of the engine. My gasket had just gone (oil in water) I'm not a mechanic, but am patient and am confident I can repair this myself - save yourself a few bob. Make sire you buy the uprated gasket and it's made by peugeot or a reliable performance make.

With regards to the idling problems, get a Peugeot dealer to check your oxygen sensor (attached to the exhaust manifold). Mine was faulty a few months ago and was causing me terrible idling and acceleration problems. During a regular service Peugeot told me it was faulty and offered to replace it for £90 + VAT! But I picked one up from a scrapyard for £25 all in; it was from a Peugeot 306.