406 clicking noise

My wife's 406 T-reg estate has just started making a loud intermittent
clicking noise from around the glove compartment area of the dashboard.

The dealer says that it's either a relay or it's from the air
recirculating fan. Either way, they say that it's not something to worry
about.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Raymond

 

The dealer is wrong. It is the motor that opens/closes the recirculation
flap. It has stripped its gears. You can get to it by removing the glove
box (remove the hinge pin either side underneath) and then removing the
black plate behind it. The motor is to the right and is held in by two
phillips type screws on opposite corners (it is also out of sight so you
work by feel, laying on your back on the floor - or if you are lucky like me
your son-in-law does). New ones are quite pricey so I have simply left the
motor off with the flap open. I only ever used it when a smelly exhaust was
in front. There have been many other posts on this subject, search in
Google Groups under recirculation motor.

Keith

 

The dealer is not correct (Again) - this clicking noise is almost certainly
the air recirculation flap servo.
You can test this by removing the pollen filter from behind the firewall
under the bonnet and looking down, if the servo is ok then you should see a
flap moving as somebody presses the recirc button.

I had the same problem on my 'r' reg 406 and have chosen to remove the whole
servo as replacement was around 80quid.

Andy

 

I think we are talking about the same thing, I called it a motor and you
call it a servo. We both took the same course of action. As a point of
interest there are two versions of the motor and the earlier one is more
like £120. There is also a difference between the motor on the standard
air conditioning, which mine is, and the automatic air conditioning (climate
control) so there are probably four different motors in total.

Keith

 

Keith, WOW - what a complicated scenario just for a little servo motor...
Well done again Peugeot.
I call it a servo, because... well, it is really; It is a motor with gearing
and load sensor.
It's not the motor that has gone on mine, it's the big white plastic gear
inside the servo housing, the motor has completely stripped it of teeth.
When I bench tested the little blighter it took a heck of a strong load on
the motor before cutting out, I suspect this is the reason the gears strip
so readily - too much torque.

Andy

 

Thanks for all of the replies. Given the cost and complexity of a
repair, is there a SIMPLE way of disconnecting the motor/servo as I
think that we can live without it.

Raymond

 

There is a plug a little further back, feel along the wire from the motor
and you will come to it. It has to be unplugged anyway if you want to
remove the motor. It is not easy to get out because it has a mounting that
also has to be slid out of the bracket, but my son-in-law managed it by
using brute force and ignorance. The cable is about 7 inches long.
Further to Andy's reply. There is a small electronic device in the motor
housing and I wondered whether it was designed to sense the increased load
when the flap reaches the end of its travel and cut the power. If that is
true, and it fails, the motor would just carry on going with the result that
we have both seen.

I said that there were two types of motor. I took pictures of my original
and a replacement that I had to return (wrong one), you can see the pics
here:

http://uk.geocities.com//Recircpics.html

Keith

 

Keith, Mine looks like your original one, I notice the electrical connector
is different as well.

Andy

 

The connector is different and so are the wire colours so I could not even
try the replacement out. It came by post from a breakers in Norfolk, they
were very good and gave me a complete refund, even postage. I was actually
quoted £120 by a Pug agent just to buy it. Did you notice the verbose
Haynes name for it?If Raymond is still following this a search on Google
Groups on "recirculation motor" should bring up the original posts in which
Nigel gave very clear instructions on handling this.

Keith