vectra, octavia hatch, superb? legroom/ boot space

[Peter.N.]

What you say about the injectors is true John, but not of the early 8 valve engine, they are not inside the rocker cover like the later ones and are not usually difficult to get out, but then its unlikely they will have to. My two 8 valve engines have done nearly 435,000 miles between them and as far as I know they are still on the original injectors, head gaskets, DMF's and clutches.

They used these engines from about '98 to 04 in most Citroens and Peugeots, mine are in a 406 estate and a C5 estate, both the cars are dirt cheap to buy but have the best ever common rail engines. Its only the 2.0. that's 8 valve and its brilliant on fuel and cheap to tax, the 2.2 is a 16 valve and has DPF and its fuel consumption is very poor compared with the 2.0.L

I paid £950 for my 406 about 5 years ago, I have done getting on for 50k in it and its never gone wrong - until today when the auxiliary drive belt came off for no apparent reason, so I am taking the opportunity to change the cam belt, I have a kit on order. God job it happened or I would probably never have got round to it.

rabu

There are a lot of 406's on ebay for under £500, they are the ones I usually buy, nothing has gone wrong with my car yet that I haven't been able to repair, that goes for the C5 as well. You only get tyre pressure sensors on top of the range cars, I never buy those unless they are very cheap, the less equipment the better as far as I'm concerned, less to go wrong.

Peter

 

[rabu]

thats good then, to me tyre pressure monitoring is just a expensive item to go wrong, agree with you about less toys= less to go wrong. What are the 407's like on comfort then? for me i can be doing 4-6 hour drives every other day so comfort is a big thing, used to have a 2007 astra estate that was comfy enough then this vectra iv got is no where near as comfy so weather vauxhall altered the foam or something i dont know but not as good.

 

[Avocet]

On most cars, tyre pressure monitoring is just software. The ABS sensors are already there and the software just checks to see if, over a period of time, one wheel is turning a bit faster than the other three. If it is, that's the one with the soft tyre.

 

[Avocet]

I like the durability of the octavias and the boot seems very good, what are the bolt on bits like for lasting? even if the engine does 300,000 miles, willl the altenator, turbo, power steering all fall to bits around 150,000? or do thease tend to last as long? Thanks.

No, they're pretty good if serviced regularly and correctly. Our mechanics reported a few that needed steering racks between 150 and 200,000, but that's about it.

 

[Avocet]

...if you aren't burning the juice, you aren't polluting either......that's got lost somewhere today.
John

That's true of CO2 emissions, but you would never hop on an old 2-stroke moped and claim there wasn't much pollution coming out of it!

 

[Burnerman]

Very true.....even chainsaws are coming with fuel injection and catalytic converters. Some even have a four stroke engine with total loss lubrication, using the same 50:1 mix as their two stroke cousins. Apart from using slightly less fuel, I don't really understand that one.....maybe it's because there isn't any raw fuel lost into the exhaust as per the original two stroke - I don't know.
John

 

[Peter.N.]

I got mine just in time then. Iv'e got two, they both run on a 50/1 mix, the seem fine outside but its not very pleasant to have them running in the garage.

Peter

 

[rabu]

Had another look online today, would a volvo v50 2.0D be better than the 407? some people have put great reviews on for them but others had nothing but trouble. Also dont know about internaly but the 407 is larger outside.

 

[Peter.N.]

Never driven one so I can't say, the only thing I can say is that I know of a number of people with 406 and none have had any serious problems. The early common rail 8 valve Hdi engine must be the most reliable one ever made, they went downhill after 04 though.

Peter

 

[Avocet]

Very true.....even chainsaws are coming with fuel injection and catalytic converters. Some even have a four stroke engine with total loss lubrication, using the same 50:1 mix as their two stroke cousins. Apart from using slightly less fuel, I don't really understand that one.....maybe it's because there isn't any raw fuel lost into the exhaust as per the original two stroke - I don't know.
John

2-strokes are notorious for unburned hydrocarbon emissions. That leads to acid rain and a few other atmospheric nasties that I can't remember just now!