Rank Taxi Replacement- 306 follows on from Octavia

[320touring]

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 luck

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

[320touring]

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 continues

[320touring]

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;)

[320touring]

Hoping to get a bit more of a swatch at this today - should have an update later on

[320touring]

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

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]

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 faster





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

[320touring]

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

[320touring]

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

Cheers!will hopefully have it on the strip for a baseline run soon-just waiting on dates..

[320touring]

eltax91 said:

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.

Cheers for the info but the seats are in good condition so they can stay

gregs656 said:

If you change the seats you can also get a spilt rear seat unit which is handy.

Good idea, mind you the 320touring justifies its existence as the handy estate with split rear seats..

RemyMartin said:

Those seats are amazing, they deserve to be in a museum or something.

Aye, its not a car you to with a hangover, thats for sure..

[320touring]

Funkycoldribena said:

I'm not reading this because I liked the Octavia.

heh!The octavia was fun but wearing -ride was crap and handling poor.

If another one pops up at reasonable cost, I'd do it again

this is a much better 'drivers car' out of the box.

[320touring]

ChrisR99 said:

That's great to hear! I have a strange hankering for one of these...one in that red and those wheels (phase two is also my favourite) but probably a petrol.

Don't ask me why.

I can imagine a gti-6 would be a bit of a hoot-possibly a touch less ghty than the Clio 172 we have, but almost as quick

bitwrx said:

But there is literally* nothing that doesn't fit in the back of a 306 with the seats folded down. In actual fact you could definitely fit the whole BMW in there.

• Can it all you pedants.

having bmw as the practical car means it gets to stay "on fleet" if you see what I mean;)

the lies we tell ourselves (and SWMBO)!

[320touring]

J4CKO said:

I loved the 309 I had and these are so much better looking, getting rare, so pretty.

I dunno about that A Talbot 309 gti goodwood could be a very nice thing!

[320touring]

SouthernBoy said:

I loved my 306 Dturbo. I ran it as a shed for 18 months. It never once failed, was very easy to DIY, economical with decent amount of poke and tough as an old boot. The seats were comfy too - although not quite as garish as yours, OP!

Ooh, thats a nice series 1! your paint is much better than mine is!

[320touring]

helix402 said:

It's rather high spec, with a turbo, special seats and everything. I had a 1.9D a few years back. It was a super car, my record was 616m from one tank of diesel. Best mpg 53. Sure you'll beat that. I bought it at 130k and sold it at 160k. It went over 100mph on the gps when overseas.
The turbos are more prone to head gasket failure and occasional rod failure but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Its an oďd spec re the seats vs the lack of any posh cabin gubbins..

I'll report re the economy likely early next week-about 320 into the tank so far

[320touring]

Took it out to visit my brother.

Turned out he learned to drive in one

He thought it most competent, and worthy of a good go at the shedding!

have a gratuitous pic of it sidelights on waiting for its prey (mainly lardy repmobiles)

[320touring]

Struck whilst the iron was hot and ordered up service parts..

Hedged my bets re the thermostat and ordered both versions-hardly breaking the bank and no doubt someone with an XUD will be able to use whatever one is left over.

got to love a service for sub £30 inc delivery!

I've left glow plugs off the list at the moment, as I'll need to see what the job looks like. Moreover, not ordering any brake parts til I get a look at the car this weekend.

[320touring]

jb2410 said:

Cracking cars. I had two, one dturbo and one hdi. If I needed a shed for a daily it'd be one of the first things I looked for.

Looking at the photo of the engine bay your intercooler looks a little oily, there is a D shaped seal underneath which swells and won't seal properly if not replaced after the ic has been removed. Only a few quid from memory and something like three bolts to replace so may be worth doing with the rest of the service.

As i understand it the intercooler is best removed to do the glowplugs, so I may make that all the 1 operation- cheers for the info

Piginapoke said:

I had a Citroen ZX TurboD back in the 90s. My 1st new car, totally trashed it 6 months later

Good engine though

Aye the XUD seems proper old style td- a wee while to get wound up thsn a good dlop of shove!

[320touring]

I think I may need to call DEFRA in..



likely sunroof drains or somesuch.

Another thing to add to the list!

[320touring]

PhillipM said:

Could be, also could be rust under the seals where the sunroof is welded in. If so it's a cut the entire thing out job....

Looking at the picture closely, I can see a damp patch on the door seal directly below the edge of the dash..

some folks have suggested that it'll be leaking in there, and there is a fix you can do.

will update when I find out more

[320touring]

Good to know-thanks both!

my brother was his usual supportive self, sending me this..