1999 Peugeot 406 LX from UK and Ireland - Comments

Drivers seat frame broke off dangerously while driving (approx 30,000miles). Peugeot refused to replace the frame (I had a 5 year extended warranty) as the last service (the 6,000mile oil change) had not been carried out by an authorized Peugeot dealer. I got into a long legal dispute with Peugeot over how the seat frame could have been damaged by an oil change and in the end gave up and got a local welder to do a fantastic repair job for only £20. Peugeot wanted £130+fitting.

Air conditioning failed at 54,000 miles. Repaired at great cost.

Air conditioning failed again at 62,000 miles. Not bothering repairing again due to cost and unreliability.

Rear suspension arms failed on the second MOT (Approx 78,000 miles) due to excessive play in the joints.

The drivers side rear suspension arm failed again 100 miles after it was replaced resulting in the car violently juddering to halt.

The Engine blew its oil cap and chucked all the oil out at 82,000miles. Mechanics could not find what caused it.

Handbrake sensor failure causes the dash to bleep and display 'Brake Fluid low' every few minutes.

Bad wiring contacts in drivers seat causes the Airbag fault light to always flash.

Clutch needed replacing at 60,000 miles (my last 406 had the same clutch at 128,000miles)

Front brake disc's have been replaced twice already and are due for another replacement due to warping already.

Handbrake cable snapped at approx 78,000miles. The cause was a hollow (yes that's right a hollow) bolt on the self adjusting mechanism. Bolt could not be replaced on its own and cable replacement was very expensive.

The car handling is great for a large car.

The HDI diesel is quick quiet and economical, shame about the build quality.

The spec was very good for the price.

Unfortunately I feel very let down by the poor dealer service. They take days to fix simple faults and charge the earth. From my experience the dealers have been very unfriendly, unhelpful and don't do anything for free (charged me £10 for a headlamp bulb only a few days after I bought the car at 6months old)

Build quality is shocking. EVERYTHING in the car rattles now at 85,000 miles and the car just feels so worn out and loose. This car has only been driven in straight lines up and down the M55 every day and yet it feels like a car that's 3 times its age and had 3 times the use.

I used to own a 1996 406 of the same spec and that one managed to provide me with approx 120,000 miles of use before it went badly wrong. This car started going wrong at half that millage.

I would not consider a Peugeot ever again mainly due to the dealers attitude towards their customers.

It's interesting to read of brake warpage, as this is caused by driving technique - not the car. When stopping, many modern drivers hold the car still with the foot brake. The disc starts to cool (and contract) but the area gripped by the pad remains hot and does not. This differential in the contraction causes warpage. Use the handbrake when the vehicle becomes stationary and you should never suffer this again.

A '99 406 diesel should have 12k oil change intervals. Only the older XUD engined models required 6k changes.

I would agree with the statement that dealers are very unhelpful and expensive. I have a 99 406 1.8 petrol. I am

basically pleased with it. Have replaced rear suspension torsion arms twice in 3 years, with peugeot parts not pattern. Have been told these arms are the first thing an mot examiner will check on a 406.very prone to wear, or just a bad design?.Basically they are good comfortable cars, but being honest I don't think I would buy another one.

I've got a R reg 406 TDGLX estate - at 80K the front disks were replaced. These lasted 3k before they had to be replaced due to warping. Over the next few months the disk were replaced six times - the last time (about 40K ago) they were replaced with (if I remember right) Lockheed disks.

So it's a simple matter of the wrong quality disks being installed by Peugeot. I wrote to Peugeot head office in Paris, but didm't get anywhere.

It's still a great car to drive - but poor dealer skills and customer car would stop me buying another Peugeot.

I've recently acquired a 1996 Peugeot 406 GLXi, (Thanks Dad!) and it is a lovely car to drive. However, I understand what you are saying about the rear suspension, I believe it's gone at least once, that I know of. The car has been in the family since the original purchase and is still working okay. MOT is due soon so I may be effing and blinding in the next few weeks...

I broke the handbrake this morning. I'm not sure to the extent of the damage yet. I did nothing different to that of the normality. I guess these things just happen???

I will not be taking my Peugeout to it's recommended dealer in Cambridgeshire. Marshalls are the biggest rip-offs that I know of. I took my 1992 Mitsubishi Colt there and they quoted me just under a £ 1000 GBP to replace the exhaust system claiming I may need a new catalyst as the threads had gone. If (very unlikely) I did not need it replacing there would still be a 15% handling fee for ordering the part. I had the whole (3 parts,) exhaust replaced by a local garage for just over £ 300 GBP.

My 406 is over 120,000 miles now and seems to guzzle petrol. I appreciate (or not!) that fuel is more expensive these days, but I would like to get at least 10 miles to the pound. I stuck a tenner in it the other day and the light came back on at 45 miles. Come on Mr Brown, surely some tax relief is needed where petrol is concerned!

On the whole I think it is a very luxurious car to drive for the cost of it.

My front right break disc/pad appears to be going. I would not put it down to my driving errors however. Very interesting point though, I'll keep that in mind. Would be alright if I had a working handbrake!!!

Yes, why a 406...?

My experiences almost exactly mirror the other person asking why above:

Rattles - feels cheap

Airconditioning - given up trying to keep it pressurized

Airbag light - now got some black tape covering it up

Rear suspension bushes - replaced twice now

Alarm - unreliable: given up using it to re-establish credibility with my neighbours

Drivers window - started to go up when button was pressed down and eventually stopped altogether

Black paint with white undercoat - scratches with nothing and scratches show badly

Brake discs - could go on forever about these, and I do brake very gently (maybe it's the wife...)

This was bought after a fantastic 405 GTX turbo diesel which was solid, reliable, nice to drive and is still going strong with a friend at 250,000+miles.

But it will be my last Peugeot for a while. A Japanese next, I think.

I have just been given a 2000 406 GLX 2.0 L petrol from my dad. I was obviously very happy with it and still am as it is such a lovely car. I am only 18 and so am quite chuffed to be driving such a nice car for my age!

The main problems I have had is insurance, I have now been quoted around £4000 by many of the leading insurers. have managed to get it down to £1800 which I still think is extortionate. Within the first week I managed to scrape one of the alloys on a curb, so I got my friend who is a mechanic to have a check and he said all was fine, I just needed to get a new wheel. When I took it to Peugeot they kept phoning me back up and raising the price untill it reached £1036 pounds to replace bit that I was told were originally OK! when I asked for the broken bits I was told they had already gone!

Secondly I am also having the problem with the hand brake and the low fluid sensor packing up. after being told it cost £280 to fix I think I may leave it for a while. the annoying thing is it broke whilst under warranty and so I was told it would get replaced free of charge, but by the time the got the bit in the warranty was up and so I was told I had to pay for it and they denied all knowledge that they had ever talked to me about replacing the part.

Hi!

I am considering buying a 2000 1.8 LX with 49k on the clock - read a lot of differing comments about this car, but on the whole I think my decision to buy will be OK.

The previous post - I am 20 and currently drive a 1.5 Honda Civic VTEC ; I am insured with www.bell.co.uk and got a really good deal - cheapest that I found and I had been shopping for at least 6 months so it may be worth giving them a go... they specialise for young/inexperienced drivers who have had driving experience, but not ever had insurance int heir own name. I'm on a 10month bonus accelerator so 1yr no claim in 10months!

Just a Q about the 406 - is the petrol car servicing interval really 20000 miles or is it less than that? because I have heard different things ranging from 9000, 12000 up to 24000!

Cheers!

My 406 2000 ST 1.8 16V interval is 30000KM so in miles, it has to be something around the 20000Miles.

Good luck.

Only a fool would change their oil every 20,000 miles. This is done to appease fleet customers and leasing companies who will generally have sold the car on before the damage it does comes to light.

I had a 306 1.8 as a company car, which had had 20k servicing from new. It was a nice car, and at 75,000 miles and three years old it still drove really well. My employer did a deal with the lease company, and bought the car meaning it was to stay in service for another two years. As it got to 90,000 miles, the top end of the engine started to tick on cold. At 100,000 miles it rattled like a diesel. At 104,000 miles a big end bearing failed and stuck a rod through the block.

Classic symptoms of running too long on dirty oil. There were others on the fleet that had the "old" 9,000 mile intervals, and they all did 100,000 miles sounding sweet as anything. All the 20,000 mile interval cars sounded sick and tired.

I know someone who owns a 406, and one thing after another seems to go wrong. First, the wiring. The whole dashboard is faulty. You turn the engine of, and according to the dash, your still doing 23 M.P.H. You always seem to have more than a full tank of petrol, and you always appear to be doing 6,000 revs.

The rear suspension doesn't really work. Go to the shops, put one bag in the boot, and the whole back of the car gets weighed-down. You drive home, and every time you go over a speed-bump, you here the back of the car scraping of the ground.

Apart from that, it's great!

The 406 is great.

I had a W plate 406 LX HDi 90PS as a company car, and although it was one of the most comfortable cars I've ever driven, and rode beautifully, it was an absolute joke in terms of reliability and quality.

I got the car with delivery mileage on it, and returned it to the company with 41,000 miles (ish - read on!) on it when I moved jobs 18 months later. This is the list of faults:

Instrument panel replaced twice because it was adding miles to the odometer when the car was stationary, and the dials were going haywire.

Clutch had to be replaced at 7,000 miles after the rear crank oil seal sprung leak and soaked it in engine oil.

Occasionally the car would intermittently "gain" about another 50 bhp from the feel of it under hard acceleration (a good thing), but carry on accelerating flat out when you lifted off (not good). Half the engine was replaced before they worked out it was a simple sensor at fault.

The climate control display started losing segments at random and the system would lock up completely until the ignition was switched off and on again.

Horn would go off at random due to a "bug in the multiplex wiring module". This also sometimes affected indicator operation where the indicators would flash by themselves, or refuse to respond to the stalk.

The door rubbers started peeling off and water started finding its way into the rear footwell.

Front tyres would scrub badly within 8,000 miles. Dealer couldn't work out why.

The glovebox lid rattled and creaked badly, and sat skewed when closed.

A nice car, but so appallingly made and supported that I would never spend my own money on one. The phase 1 models were apparently much better due to much less reliance on electronics. The French haven't mastered automotive electronics to this day, so why they thought they had nearly a decade ago is anyone's guess.

I have owned a 2.0 petrol 'V' (2000) 406 Coupe for the past 4 years and it has been a joy to drive. Bought with 32k miles on the clock I have just clocked up 133k miles this month. Very few major problems, all sorted out using a one-man-band mechanic. After some severely poor customer service and what seemed to be bare faced lies, this vehicle will NEVER go to a Peugeot main dealer. Apart from standard servicing, additional replacements include front discs at 40k miles, water pump at 48k, drivers door strap 100k, drop link and exhaust clamp at 133k.

I DO experience repeated electrical faults that prove too fiddly to repair including intermittent speedo failure, constant air bag warning light flashing, brake fluid level warning when handbrake is engaged, plus the drivers' seat doesn't fold.

At 70k miles I converted to LPG and have been spending only 5 pence per mile, meaning the £2200 LPG conversion paid for itself in less than 18 months. I expect to squeeze another 50k miles from the car before having to replace it.

I own a Y reg 406 HDi 90 LX saloon I have read the many comments above and am quite shocked I have had nothing from solid reliability from my 406 it has 232k miles on it and still drives like it has about 60k on its last MOT last month the MOT inspector asked me to look underneath the car as he was shocked it was in immaculate condition. The only problems I've had is that the heater matrix went and cost £43 and now the airbag light has started flashing which is what led me here, but has now been sorted by "wiggling" the wires under the drivers seat. I easily get 50-60mpg and couldnt be more impressed with the comfort and power of the car. especially not after paying £995 for it 2 years ago with 130k on it.

I have a 1.9 td estate.160,000 miles.1998

I agree with

Bad dealer attitude.

Front disc warping mainly due to driver technique as I went through two sets before this was pointed out to me and the last set have been on without a problem for a long time.

Small annoying problems.

But my car still drives like when I got it. The air con. is fantastic and now that I'm in Germany the dealers are friendly and charge only half the price!

I have had relatively cheap comfortable motoring and I would certainly buy another Peugeot. wonder what the 407 will be like long term!