Peugeot 306 - uneconomical to repair?

I took my Peugeot 306 GLX (1998) to a car electrical specialist after a
local garage told me they thought the ecu was faulty - but couldn't be
sure, after they had replaced the throttle cable following an
intermittent starting/stalling problem. It does need a new ecu which
would have to be from Peugeot as it is not available from other
sources, and the cost including new coils, plus brake work needed for
the MOT would be £1400. The 2nd garage (plus a friend in the trade)
suggested this would be too much to spend on the car. However, there
appear to be no further problems on the horizon, and I would need to
spend at least that much on another car. Apart from the dent in my
bank account, I can't see why I shouldn't get the car repaired (as it
will be unlikely I could sell it). Any suggestions?

 

I took my Peugeot 306 GLX (1998) to a car electrical specialist after a
local garage told me they thought the ecu was faulty - but couldn't be
sure, after they had replaced the throttle cable following an
intermittent starting/stalling problem. It does need a new ecu which
would have to be from Peugeot as it is not available from other
sources, and the cost including new coils, plus brake work needed for
the MOT would be £1400. The 2nd garage (plus a friend in the trade)
suggested this would be too much to spend on the car. However, there
appear to be no further problems on the horizon, and I would need to
spend at least that much on another car. Apart from the dent in my
bank account, I can't see why I shouldn't get the car repaired (as it
will be unlikely I could sell it). Any suggestions?

I'd suggest either a second-hand or rebuilt ECU. There's plenty of companies
listed in Google under "ECU repair". My opinion is £1400 IS too much to
spend. It's just not recoverable, trading yours in against a car worth £1400
more would seem a better option.

 

Hi, although it is possible for the ECU to be faulty it is quite rare,
and there’s no easy way to be sure only by changing it. The coils are
a much more likely to be the problem, you should be able to pick them
ip from a Peugeot specialist breaker for about £40. The ECU is fairlt
modern and I doubt if anyone can repair it, however if you can find
an ECU you will have to get Peugeot to re-program it into your car,
that might not be easy.
I suggest get a s/h coil pack, clean idle control valve and then make
your decision on any extra work or px the car............. but its
only my opinion.
TonyH

 

So, the intermittent stalling problem hasn't cured after the throttle
change I'm presuming?
I'd make absolutely sure the ECU is faulty as already said it is rare
for them to fail. Get a second opinion at least. There is one car
electrical specialist which is pretty big in London and do some major
advertising. I took a starter motor to them once just to check it. They
took it into the backroom and came back telling me that it was faulty
but they could repair it for £80. I asked for the starter motor back
and took it elsewhere where they tested it in front of me and found it
be 100%. The fault, I later discovered, was elsewhere in the car.

 

Hi,
Several points of comment,

(1) It is known that the ignition coil pack can break down and damage the
ECU so if the ECU is duff then most likely you will need to replace the coil
pack as well and i think they have changed the spec on this (check) .

(2) The ECU should be repairable (check) and could cost about £200.00,
otherwise a replacement from Peugeot is around £500 plus reprogram cost etc.

(3) If your ECU is repairable then it only needs to have fault code cleared
on diagnostics.

If you take out the ECU it will have a name and model like SAGEM SL96 and
you could do a search on the web.

Hope this helps,
Graham....