dr_mat

Took it for a good 30 minutes drive, no visible air in the system now. It was running fine. We will see how it is in the morning!! You're right, I doubt it's worth putting injector cleaner through, but that was just a suggestion when I thought it might have picked up gack from the fuel tank.. Now we know it was air..

No, naturally aspirated...

Presumably this will result in diesel coming out of the bleed valve? Once the air has come out, that is..

The engine runs ok, it just splutters every so often. We'll check that out. Thanks. You wouldn't happen to know where the fuel filter *is*, would you?

We hope so. We did do 75 miles in it the other night, but it probably needs a load more to shift the remaining air bubbles...

We think it's just because it sat for so long without being used. Inevitably the fuel system seeped air as it depressurised, and now that's all got to get blown through the system. Perhaps we should drop some ammonia into the fuel..? :)

Not peugeot warranty, no..

Hi guys, OT I know, but a quick question. A mate just bought a Peugeot 206 1.9 D. Absolutely pristine example with only 19k miles on it. Now we had no trouble with it at all driving it back down here from Cranfield (to Reading, about 75 miles). But this morning in the freezing cold it was spluttering a bit, and it died once or twice. It's fairly low on fuel, but there should be plenty in the tank. Looking under the bonnet it seems there's a bit of air bubbles in the fuel line (there's a clear fuel line that runs to the injectors). I know this is a bad sign, but how bad.. Surely it'll clear up after a short while, and is probably just because the fuel pump got starved at some point. (I can't imagine there's a leak anywhere, cos we'd smell it or at least see it on the ground). Any pointers/ideas? We're gonna top up with fuel, and I'm going to get him to put some diesel injector cleaner through it. Might be worth swapping the fuel filter too, I guess. He's more clueless than me, by the way... Cheers, Matt.

Ahem. Welcome to VW ownership... Don't expect things to change too much, will ya? ;)

Ok, PhatVR6 was very unlucky. The concensus here and over on the 12vVR6 forum is that the tensioner and chains very rarely snap or slip teeth. Many people have put up with the noises for some significant amounts of time without big problems. Basically if it slips *a* tooth you'd like damn well know about it, but you won't do any damage. If it slips a second time it's quite possible for bending of expensive things, but as said this is VERY UNLIKELY. That said - if you know they're going it can only make sense that you think about getting them done - start saving. Estimates are for around 5 hours labour and about £200 in parts to do it properly.

Do you know where the noise is coming from? It could be the alternator, the PS pump, or the water pump too. It might even be the belt tensioner. Depends on the exact type of noise and whereabouts it's coming from. If it's the right hand side of the car (as you look at the car from in front of it), then it's likely to be the chains or the clutch (or gearbox input shaft). If it's the left it's most likely something on the aux belt.

Clutch might judder cos it's not quite perfectly centred, there might be uneven wear on the plates (cause by a previous judder due to poor engine mounts that was never corrected), it might judder because of oil or moisture on the clutch plates, or because the clutch shafts aren't straight (dodgy shaft bearings?). Many reasons, none particularly cheap to "fix".. There may be more, I'm no expert..

IMHO, though I can see that shortening the ratios will make the car slightly quicker, I think if I was going as far as 3.9 from 3.3 I'd *really* want a sixth gear..

Take it back on a hot day and you won't be getting your 194bhp again... Though as you point out the gearchange might be nicer..

Good point.. Maths failed me there..

So just to prevent me going nuts, how do you get from the above ratio and final drive figures to an approximate mph/1000rpm figure.. Rolling circumference of a standard VR6 wheel is about 76cm.. 1000 rpm at engine, divide by 0.868:1 ratio gives 1152 revs of output shaft, divide by 3.39:1 final drive gives 339 revs/min at exit from g/b, which is 20,390 revs/hr, which is 15.496km/hr ... Nope, that doesn't sound right... Is there another gearing I'm not taking into account here? The diff? I'd estimate that's out by about 2.8:1 somewhere, but I don't know where... If we knew the X-factor then we'd be able to tell the final drive just by knowing the mph at say 2000rpm in 5th..

I've never noticed what mine came with.. Where's the code stamped? I might be able to tell ya..

Ok, so my original point was that the subaru wouldn't lose MUCH more than that. So if it's losing 70bhp at the wheels due to the extra drivetrain weight, it's still putting similar bhp to the wheels as a VR6. Ok, so I got the figures wrong, but the ratio was approximately correct.. :)

Vrev6, I'd say "fix what breaks". There's plenty of expensive things that will start to need to be repaired, but that's totally dependant on how the car has been driven more than anything else. Unless there's something you specifically want to improve, I'd say save your pennies for when the exhaust or the shocks or the timing chains need doing..

As I understand it the primary purpose of gas pressure shocks is to prevent the oil from foaming, rather than to increase the damping. The damping is pretty much entirely governed by the valving in the shock body. That said I couldn't tell you if the VR had tighter damping by default. VR6 rears are £30 + VAT each, and VR6 fronts are £35 + VAT - all from GSF. Though some people have had "bad" experiences with Boge gas shocks from GSF, they are (I am assured by the company themselves) IDENTICAL to the OE Sachs shocks in every way. As for will the fronts fit - that's another matter altogether. The VR6 uses a different suspension layout (slightly). Other people here may be able to give you more info on that than I can. HTH.

You'll notice it doesn't hiss when you start from cold...? That's the mysterious ISV in action! :)

I doubt that the 4x4 transmission loses as much as 70bhp. More likely 30-40. That puts it within punching range of the VR6 (which will lose about 10-20), but the extra grip and wider torque curve will make it a winner every time, I'd say.. Plus the fact that the Imprezza is made of tin foil, and isn't as heavy as you might expect, given it's size, I'd say it's not really much of a competition... (My mate's A3 1.8T quatro, however, is easy meat once the VR really gets spinning.. :D ) My 2p. :)

There's about 6 Cs in the Reading area, from recollection. But there's like NONE around near my parent's place in the west mids (mind you, I never spend much time there, so I'd hardly be as likely to spot them).

From what I've heard, it's possible to wind the mileage forwards (for cases Like Henny's), but it's rather harder to wind it backwards.. Of course, I'm sure it's not impossible..

Ok, so the question then is: VW or GSF (or wherever!)..?