pdg's microbudget estate

[pdg]

My 306 estate...

Doing some stuff to it, done a couple of little bits, it's having a cambelt today.

I've some plans for little mods here and there, but would it count as project worthy?

[pdg]

Actually, I'm going to call it a project and if it means I end up talking to myself so be it. :p

[Eeyore]

any car can be a project. many of the members on here just like having their own place to document the cars history and modifications and the ability for others to comment and give advice! Well worth having a project thread! Update the title to your name and car and then post about it!

[reese]

Yes, as above, get some pictures up!

[bashbarnard]

yeah get some pictures up. imo its the best way to get information as people can comment and point you in the right direction if need be

[Mattcheese31]

let me tell you, owning a 20 year old car is ALWAYS a project! . . . . as above mate, pop some pics up, it's a really good way of seeing how far you've come with a car

[pdg]

Ok then, let's start at the beginning and have a story.

Back in May we had a holiday booked - too much stuff (including the kids) to get in the wife's 106 and I'd gutted my discovery to get work stuff in. Needed a 'sensible' family car.

Enter the 306 estate!

   

It came with a leaky exhaust, only one numberplate light and a whole 2 days MOT... Still, for 130 quid, 'salright.

Took it for test, failed as expected on exhaust, bulb and slight imbalance on rear brakes. £5 at the sscrappy for some random bits of exhaust, a bulb from the toolbox and a clean out of the drums with sandpaper and it sailed the restest.

After that, the first thing was to start sorting out what woefully tried passing as a 'stereo'. Head unit was simple to sort, as were the front door speakers

   

   

Tailgate speakers were a shade more complicated and required some choppage to get some 6x9s in

   

Old vs. new

   

The original speakers didn't go entirely to waste though, they gleefully gave their lives to make some plug adaptors

   

   

To be continued in a minute...

[JTaylor2005]

Looking decent. It's always amazing how cheaply you can often fix faults on older cars as for the speakers I had never even given two thoughts as to where the rear ones are in an estate and that has surprised me.

[pdg]

Yeah, pug bits are cheap enough and I have a selection of 'fixing hammers' so no probs.

When I remember I'll whang up some pics of the exhaust 'repair'. Apparently mine's an odd one (late 1.6 with manifold mounted cat) and a replacement cat-back was going to be over £200+vat. That's just silly and I have a welder...

So, on with the story.

My discovery needed about 18 months worth of welding so it met ebay - estate needed to step up for work which meant a towbar, which needs wiring.

Most of the recommendations seem to suggest running the trailer wiring under the boot carpet and through a grommet/drain plug - I don't particularly like that idea so I had a dig about and found the wires for the bumper mounted fogs go through the body directly below the rear cluster. It's a bugger to get in there, but it's just doable. I can get a pic of that later if anyone wants.

The other thing I don't like (actually, I detest them) is scotchloks for wiring. I'm not particularly keen on crimps either so all the trailer wiring was soldered and heatshrunk.

   
   

Also about the speakers, with those 6x9s I can get the rear view mirror to vibrate, but that's not really enough bass.

See in that pic above the recess for the boot cubby flap things? A 12" speaker fits in there, and there's one on each side - that's a 'coming soon'

That's dragging work crap sorted - onwards!

---

Just a little 'took the car somewhere' - took the car and my son to our club's taekwon-do and kickboxing summer camp in August.

Nothing that interesting to show, except the back window next to our tent...

   

[pdg]

Nearly up to date now, so...

T'other week my engine light came on (there is another thread about that, but hey).

Had a peek in the handbook:

   

Actually, no. I will not contact a Peugeot dealer. What I'll do is spend £3.69 on ebay

   

Epic wasted panda quality software bundle

   

Checked what was up, turned the light off, all good. (2001 petrol car so OBD2 compliant).

Now, that's actually leading into an upcoming mod - a digital dashboard. More to come on that as I work on it, but...

I'm sure most people know the OBD port is under the fusebox cover below the steering column

   

Only issue being, the Bluetooth OBD dongle makes the fusebox cover not fit

   

Little bit of unclipping

   
   

Brilliant.

[reese]

I miss my estate! Have you tried any smart phone apps with the OBD dongle?

What else have you got planned for it?

[pdg]

Okie dokey, we're up to yesterday.

Since I bought the car there's been a little bit of a rattle from the top end and it's got progressively worse over the last 4,000 miles. To me, it sounded 'tappets' so I thought it was time to feel my gauges and give it a coat of looking at.

While it may not be very 'racecar' the fact the TU has screw'n'nut rockers and 'only' 8 valves means it's a quick and simple job.

   

Easy, no more rattle. Oh, 2 of the spark plugs weren't done up properly either 

While I was in there with the hammers I thought it would be sensible to pop the cambelt top cover off just for a lookie

   

Bugger, it's not supposed to be like that (yeah, I took the picture later).

Oh well, let's see what 85 quid buys me

   
   

Bring it into my luxury garage with a very high ceiling and have at it

   

Seeing as I'm in there, it's silly not to do the waterpump so I needed new coolant. Mixed some up in an old bottle (french car, gots to use a french bottle)

   

This did not go as smoothly as I hoped though. The waterpump was stamped 01 so it looks like it's been on since the car was new. Let's say it was a little 'reluctant' to let go...

   

A 5lb lump hammer and a slightly blunted wood chisel (and over an hour) finally persuaded it to GET THE HELL OUT FFS!!!

Oh well, shiny and new slots in nicely

   

And got the rest back together. No pics as it looks absolutely no different than before I started   but it runs, and it should keep running for longer with a new belt...

In the morning I've got to give it a bit of a run to make sure it doesn't piss all the new coolant out (had it almost up to temp already, but other stuff meant I just had to quit and pack up for the evening).

So we're current now - soon I'll start some more playing. Now that the engine is seeming to be a goodun I've decided it's a keeper (for the foreseeable at least).

---

I miss my estate! Have you tried any smart phone apps with the OBD dongle?

What else have you got planned for it?

Tried a few apps, favourite so far is Torque - I like the functionality and the look.

Plans... Well, there's the digi dash thing - I want to get a tablet running the live OBD stuff and build it into the dash somewhere. The idea is that I can use it for that, but also for music and nav. When I do that I'll probably sack off the normal head unit and run different amps - I'd like to see if I can cobble an interface to use the twiddle stick standard stereo remote for it too.

Also, speakers, more of them. I need the boot space for work things (this is a daily, so it's got to be usable, it's also a 'family' so y'know, the wife says it's got to stay that way) but the cubbies don't get used and 12"ers fit there. There's loads of space in the doors too with modified cards - anyone got any spare door cards in any condition so I don't have to mash the decent ones fitted?

Oh yeah, the windows are awfully see-through as well. Tints ahoy 

[MY95]

Really enjoy reading project fix ups like this! Keep it coming, not many people get photos up and detail of maintainance, just mods these days which is a shame!
Car looks good also

[Pingaz]

I'm allways happy to see a 306 to get fixed. Keep the pictures rolling, and good luck for the project ! That OBD is anything good, for the price ?

[pdg]

Cheers guys.

Modification threads are good, I find it interesting to see what people are doing and how.

There will be a few mods going on with mine, but thought I might as well just bung it all up for 'interest'...

As for that little OBD dongle, certainly can't complain about it - it allowed me to see why that light was up and it reads the live data fine. Whether it'll work on an older one (or a diesel) I don't know. I don't think it's as functional as a 'real' one, so things like key programming, access to abs ecu and all that is probably out - maybe with different software?

[pdg]

Well, this afternoon I thought I'd clean up under the wheelarches (riveting stuff eh?)

Guess where the underseal was failing and letting rust make a start?

So, there's another upcoming job to be done - it's not bad at the mo (pitting and surface rust, can't push my fingers through it) but it's started so I might as well hack it out and fix it properly before it actually fails. Only a matter of time if I don't...

[Eeyore]

£130! what a bargain!

[Poodle]

Great project thread, glad you decided to put one up, makes for a very entertaining read. Recently did similar to a 1.6 estate for my mother-in-law, mine was only £50, but then i had to spend about £400 just on parts to get it tip top. We are relatively local and have a ramp if ever you want to have a good look around it at your leisure.

That obd thing will work on hdis and newer petrols, not sure what the change-over date was for petrol engines.

[pdg]

Apparently, petrol cars legally had to be OBD compliant by 2001 - as to what degree I don't know, and 'some' were ready well before... Works on mine though, which in honesty is all that's important to me right now.

Bit of an update following the valve/cambelt service - I was getting about 32 ish mpg out of it before (mixed driving, but mainly local with trailer) and after doing it I've got almost 39mpg with the same driving profile - get some decent tyres and I might crack 40 

Also, because I'm a big kid I spent what I think is the funniest 15 quid I've spent in a while

   

It's kinda temporary - I'm planning on putting a pair of 12"ers in place of the pretty pointless flappy cubby things in the boot, but that's apparently not an urgent job (so says the wife) so it has to wait a bit...

[pdg]

 We are relatively local and have a ramp if ever you want to have a good look around it at your leisure.

That's a kind offer, if I'm down your way anytime soon I may well take you up on that 


So, other things.

I mentioned in an earlier post about a digital dash. That idea expanded somewhat after thinking and looking around so I'm heading toward using an android tablet to have live obd data displays and also music, plus possibly cameras. Oh, and satnav usage, and probably other stuff I haven't thought of yet.

As it stands I'm happy with the stock dash for speedo/warning lights etc. but that might change depending on 'stuff' later.

I hate the look of clunky mounts for this sort of thing, so it's got to be an integrated install, including ditching the 'normal' head unit.

I know you've all seen a 306 console before, but just in case you've forgotten what it looks like...

   

So, one plan is to relocate the heater controls - maybe pull them down into the pocket above the ashtray, or just drop them a couple of inches and move the clock/temp up to by the rear view mirror / interior light area - which would give space for tablet about like:

   

Another alternative would be to do away with the central air vents and have it roughly:

   

I don't know yet. Whatever I end up with I'm going to need to make a new console fascia - just bludgeoning a hole into the original will look shit, as will a flat sheet with a screen cutout so shaping will be the order of the day. Either aluminium or fibreglass will get in.

So, as I stole my son's tablet to use for pics I need to find a cheap tablet for this - doesn't need massive spec (bluetooth, gps and usbotg are pretty much the only essentials) so if anyone knows of one laying about doing nothing and possibly going epic cheap, well...