£200 pug 306, worth it? air bag light?

[rb5230]

hi, i was offered a pug 306 1.6 for £200 with tax and m.o.t till October, its a 1998 so the facelift but obviously for that amount it has a couple of issues. as far as i can see these issues are :

rocker cover gasket leaking,
cracked windscreen,
air bag light is on
wing mirror plastic cracked.

the guy got the car as a non runner and he got it running by reconnecting an earth cable that had come off, could this have set off the air bag light?

basically i would get 12 months m.o.t on the car and keep it as a daily for a year if it lasted that long or perhaps just sell it on.

now i know cracked windscreen is an insurance thing, the wing mirror is obviously a cheap fix but the main things i am unsure of are the air bag light and rocker cover which is surrounded by oil, does anyone know what would be required to get these 2 things sorted? thanks in advance guys.

[MrLou]

rb5230 said:

the main things i am unsure of are the air bag light and rocker cover which is surrounded by oil, does anyone know what would be required to get these 2 things sorted?

Money?

Seriously though the airbag light could be caused by any number of things, you'd need to get it checked out by someone who know's what they're doing.

You really don't want to have an accident and the 'bag not deploy.

Edited by MrLou on Wednesday 14th July 20:47

[rallycross]

£200 car?

Well, the 306 airbag warning light on is a very common problem, dont worry about it lots of them have it and its not worth the cost of fixing it.

oil weeping on an old car is no big deal, its normal, only be worried if its fresh wet oil and drips on the ground eg if left over night

[rb5230]

MrLou said:

You really don't want to have an accident and the 'bag not deploy.

to be honest that is the least of my worries, i am happy to drive a car with no airbag at all like many older cars and stripped out cars/lotus`s etc at my own risk, but the airbag light will stop the car going through an m.o.t, i was wondering if it is likely to have just come on because of the faulty earth wire or something else simple and could maybe just be a case of resetting the ecu or similar, or if it was going to be a problem that would cost hundreds to remedy.

thanks

[rb5230]

rallycross said:

£200 car?

Well, the 306 airbag warning light on is a very common problem, dont worry about it lots of them have it and its not worth the cost of fixing it.

oil weeping on an old car is no big deal, its normal, only be worried if its fresh wet oil and drips on the ground eg if left over night

it is fresh wet oil around the rocker cover although im not sure it drips as far as the floor but it has covered a lot of the block, the only reason both these things are things i would want to do are m.o.t or daily driver related.

[john_p]

Airbag - might be a simple fix but needs a computer to reset the light?
failing that, take the bulb out of the dash

edit; actually AFAIK airbag isn't a MOT fail is it?

Rocker cover gasket should be an easy DIY fix although it shouldn't fail the MOT on it

Edited by john_p on Wednesday 14th July 20:59

[creasede]

take the airbag bulb out? or tape over it if thats to much bother

[MrLou]

rb5230 said:

MrLou said:

You really don't want to have an accident and the 'bag not deploy.

to be honest that is the least of my worries, i am happy to drive a car with no airbag at all like many older cars and stripped out cars/lotus`s etc at my own risk, but the airbag light will stop the car going through an m.o.t, i was wondering if it is likely to have just come on because of the faulty earth wire or something else simple and could maybe just be a case of resetting the ecu or similar, or if it was going to be a problem that would cost hundreds to remedy.

thanks

Fair enough.

Don't worry about the 'bag light for MOT, airbags not part of the test.

[creasede]

im sure one of my car failed on it before? so had to take the bulb out

[Jazoli]

creasede said:

im sure one of my car failed on it before? so had to take the bulb out

Nope, abs light=fail, airbag light is not tested

[rb5230]

i have had a car fail before for an airbag light before, pretty sure any warning lights on the dash are a problem, or perhaps its just the m.o.t testers ariund my area as i asked afew and they said an airbag light would be a fail.

[PHmember]

I had a car go through 3 mot's with the airbag light on, it's not an issue. You can also get through an mot with the speedo not working, now that to me just seems like madness.

[Top pup]

The air bag light is probably just a bad connection on the wires under the seats, pull them apart, squirt of WD40 reconnect and it should go out. The light won't need to be reset on a 306 it will simply go out if you fix the fault.

[zollburgers]

Top pup said:

The air bag light is probably just a bad connection on the wires under the seats, pull them apart, squirt of WD40 reconnect and it should go out. The light won't need to be reset on a 306 it will simply go out if you fix the fault.

Disconnect the battery before pulling the wires apart! If squiring WD40 doesn't work then cut the conectors off and fix the wires together..

[eltax91]

Airbag light is not a fail. My Octavia has been through 3 MOT's with it illuminated.

[MrLou]

zollburgers said:

Top pup said:

The air bag light is probably just a bad connection on the wires under the seats, pull them apart, squirt of WD40 reconnect and it should go out. The light won't need to be reset on a 306 it will simply go out if you fix the fault.

Disconnect the battery before pulling the wires apart!

Yes, whilst accepting the risk of driving without an airbag is reasonable, getting hurt by airbag pyrotechnics while trying to fix it just makes you look daft

[Rusty Arches]

MrLou said:

You really don't want to have an accident and the 'bag not deploy.

I've never owned a car with an air bag. . . . . he'll be fine.

[maniac0796]

Airbag light will be fine.

If it's the petrol engines, I think the rocker covers are held on by feck all bolts, and a rocker cover gasket will only be a few squid + VAT, so it might be worth it if it's munching through enough oil that you have to top it up. Or it might be a deeper problem.

[rb5230]

thanks guys, very helpful, i will have a think.

[DaveH23]

I used to have a 1997 (P) pug 306 1.6 8V and heard from a number of people who had owned them and mechanics that the airbag light was a dodgy connection on alot of old pugs.

A little bit of black electricians tape covered it up nicely and passed 2 MOT's like that, I found out the hard way if the air bag worked or not and luckily it did.

Not a light you want to risk to find out if it is faulty so will be worth getting it looked at but it is a known fault of the car.