Rank Taxi Replacement- 306 follows on from Octavia

Rank Taxi Replacement- 306 follows on from Octavia

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320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
My erstwhile shedder of distinction , the Rank Taxi Octavia http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... has gone to meet it's maker.

To whit, I needed a new car pronto.

Up early this morning, on the trail of my quarry!

We piled into my Dad's e60 520i and set off for the southlands.



The roads were clear, if wet, and we made good progress. As I sat in the passenger seat it occurred to me that the M74 can be quite picturesque..




All too soon, we reached sunny Chester, where we were greeted by this little beauty!



Its a 1998 Peugeot 306 1.9 Dt, fitted with the legendary XUD lump!

All mechanical and simple to fettle, the only real issue is the Lucas fuel pump. I may swap it out for a Bosch one to enable the XUD to run on 90% WVO, much like the Octavia did.

Once my eyes had recovered from the interior:


(thankfully they are much easier on the erse than they are on the eye!)

I took it for a test drive.
I'd forgotten how good these things were! Despite 155k on the clocks, the suspension as taught yet compliant, the engine willing and the road holding excellent.

It does most things very well, and succeeds at being a Jack of all trades, blending the best bits of other fleet members thusly:

1/2 Clio 172 power + 2/3 CX comfort + 3/4 E30 handling = 306

We got it fuelled up and had an uneventful trip back up the road. SWMBO approves - this may last longer than the Octavia!



Home. 240 odd miles in an 18yr old French car, without incident.



No doubt another update will be along soon enough - wish me lucksmile

Edited by 320touring on Monday 4th January 00:30

dhutch

14,198 posts

196 months

Monday 4th January 2016
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Love it, it wasnt quite such epic sheding but I had two petrol 306's (an 1.6 merdian spec, followed by a 1.8 merdian spec) and they where cracking motors, ran and ran, handled well, huge huge boot space and look cock on.


Daniel

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
dhutch said:
Love it, it wasnt quite such epic sheding but I had two petrol 306's (an 1.6 merdian spec, followed by a 1.8 merdian spec) and they where cracking motors, ran and ran, handled well, huge huge boot space and look cock on.


Daniel
Cheers! Initial impressions are very positive, hopefully thats the way it continuessmile

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Monday 4th January 2016
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How did two people get shot in those seats without putting holes in them?

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
mybrainhurts said:
How did two people get shot in those seats without putting holes in them?
Their bullet proof vests were on back to front;)

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
320touring said:
mybrainhurts said:
How did two people get shot in those seats without putting holes in them?
Their bullet proof vests were on back to front;)
Cunning ploy...hehe

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
Hoping to get a bit more of a swatch at this today - should have an update later onsmile

5potTurbo

12,482 posts

167 months

Monday 4th January 2016
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Since your OCty was so cheap, may I ask how much you paid for this?

Seats aside (my eyes!) it looks to be clean overall.

AyBee

10,522 posts

201 months

Monday 4th January 2016
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Love how comfy those seats are, even if they do look horrendous biggrin

gregs656

10,818 posts

180 months

Monday 4th January 2016
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I sort of miss my old D-Turbo. The seats are dead comfy and it was a decent amount of fun to drive.

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
5potTurbo said:
Since your OCty was so cheap, may I ask how much you paid for this?

Seats aside (my eyes!) it looks to be clean overall.
This was 1.25 Octavias (£250) and worth every penny!

It does seem clean having nosed about it now. Hundreds of lacquer peel though but that aint the end of the world..

AyBee said:
Love how comfy those seats are, even if they do look horrendous biggrin
They are a bit of a revelation - better even than e30 sports seats


gregs656 said:
I sort of miss my old D-Turbo. The seats are dead comfy and it was a decent amount of fun to drive.
Despite not being a road rocket, the suspension allows for a decent amount of hustle, that's for sure!

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
I arose from my seat at the crack of 13.40, and set to having a swatch at this Gallus Gallic Go Getter!

First up was sorting the sore paw:

I took the 4th alloy to a local tyre place, who diagnosed a faulty valve centre as being the cause of the flat tyre - they replaced it free of charge! One of the staff even took time out to tell me about how you can turn up the pump to make it fastersmile





then it was time for a general tidy up - so out came the hoover and the interior cleaning stuff








The steering wheel was surprisingly clean - certainly compared to other cars I have bought!



Next up, the very important job of getting some tunes set up!




then it was onto the engine bay and time for a check over of all the general engine accouterments..

Coolant first:

Obviously it had previously been sick over itself to a large degree - The water in the header tank is hoachin!

luckily no signs of oil/mayo in the coolant or water in the oil, so I reckon a coolant flush should sort things out




Next up was the oil:



Bang on the minimum with no mayo showing. A quick top up sorted that out.

Lastly, I had a quick clean of the bay to make it a touch more presentable


ChrisR99

452 posts

110 months

Monday 4th January 2016
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Awesome, I love these! Please don't scrap this one!

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Monday 4th January 2016
quotequote all
ChrisR99 said:
Awesome, I love these! Please don't scrap this one!
I'll do my best not to - It is in significantly better condition than the Octavia though-so much more likely to stick around

snoopy25

1,858 posts

119 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
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This is looking cracking already! loved reading up on the Skoda and cant wait to see this in action down the drag strip biggrin

colinevan

164 posts

102 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
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I had me an earlier 3 door model on an n plate a few years back whilst I kept an M3.

Fabulous car but alas I put 25k on her and she needed too much work to pass the mot

I ran mine std and did around 50 miles a day, I was told that the fuel pump tuning was simply turn it till it goes faster lol. Back it off until the black smoke becomes bareable

I experimented with new veg oil for a while e literally not thinned down or mixed with derv nothing.

I noticed the black smoke disappeared, better running but noted the engine temp did run hotter and warmed up quicker. In the colder mornings it just took a little longer to start. Used to make a nice plod plod noise until it fired up ha ha.

Only incident I had which was completely my fault was too much oil added. Basically I was rushing as had arranged to collect some hifi equipment 80 miles away and seller was in a rush to go out. As it was a bargain I literally jumped in my car, remembered it was low on oil and did my usual trick of adding 1l. Experience with other cars used to tell me low to full on the dipstick is around 1l. Think I put in 1l and had a bit left in the bottle probably more nearer 2. I just emptied the lot in and jumped on the motorway.

All was fine until I slowed down to join another motorway, once the slip road opened up to join I floored it in 5th from about 60mph to pass a truck. I passed it in about an eighth of a second and the car had more pull than my M3 lol. It had that much pull I took my foot of the accelerator and it jumped upto 3 figures instantly. As I'd obliterated everything on the road it was safe to pull over on the hard shoulder whereby I had to force the car to a standstill with it trying to bounce off the limiter. I realiased what had happened , let the car cool down and re started her. Same thing!! rev counter bouncing off the limiter and even pulling the key out the ignition left her running. Popped her in first and purposely stalled her and rang for breakdown .

Ironically , when they turned up I had burned all the surplus oil and was fine to carry on my journey lol.

Oil had settled at its max and was happy lol.

Ace car.

Edited by colinevan on Tuesday 5th January 01:40

eltax91

9,842 posts

205 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
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I had an HDi one of these years ago. A set of half leathers was only £100 way back then, so should be able to swap those seats out on the cheap. If i remember correctly the back seats are half a dozen bolts tops and the fronts were easy, only the airbag fittings to swap over on mine. Half a day and it was all sorted.

gregs656

10,818 posts

180 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
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If you change the seats you can also get a spilt rear seat unit which is handy.

RemyMartin

6,759 posts

204 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
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Those seats are amazing, they deserve to be in a museum or something.

320touring

Original Poster:

1,428 posts

198 months

Tuesday 5th January 2016
quotequote all
snoopy25 said:
This is looking cracking already! loved reading up on the Skoda and cant wait to see this in action down the drag strip biggrin
Cheers!will hopefully have it on the strip for a baseline run soon-just waiting on dates..