Intro

[306 S16]

G'day everybody,

My name's Matt & I live in Dunners. I have a '94 306 S16 that I have had for a few years. It's a fabulous drivers car but it has a few probs that are keeping it off the road at the moment. I've just started my mechanic apprenticeship at Otago Polytechnic so I should have it sorted in the next few months. Anyway I should have a few questions along the way so any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

[Goat]

Welcome.

Plenty of usefull knowledge on here. Dont hesitate to ask questions bout frenchies. Chances are one of us has had and fixed that issue before.
Could save plenty of hair tearing. French cars seem to be good at inducing rage. hah 

[2052NV]

welcome mate. Whats up with your car?

and post some pictures up to get us drooling a little.

[Girlwithpug]

  Hi There Matt ,
  Welcome Great stuff on the mechanic apprenticeship very cool . Im new here as well and everyone has been really helpful and nice.
Looking Forward to seeing pics of your ride

[306 S16]

I'll get some pics of the car on here in the next coupla days. A brief rundown of issues are;

- Problems selecting 3rd. Doesn't improve once warmed but also doesn't pop out. It goes in with a decent shove.
- Airbag check light and ABS check light not coming on since we jump started the car and has failed warrant on this.
- A misfire between 2000rpm & 3000rpm. We have replaced fuel filter & spark plugs but is still there.

As before any help would be great. This is my first french car and would like to keep it going for as long as poss. It has 186,000km on it so it has done well. Cheers.

[k-trips]

Prob 1: Recommend adjusting clutch and also check/replace the gearbox oil - could be the selector rods though
Prob 2: Reset the computer and try again - when you jumpstarted it you most probably put a spike in the computer has set off the fault code - a reset may fix it
Prob 3: From memory the coil packs are prone to breaking down but would need more investigation..

[306 S16]

Cool. Cheers for that. I just learned how to test the coil so i'll have a look this week. The clutch action is still quite firm and the engagement point hasn't really changed but I will look into that. I don't know when the box oil was last changed so that probably needs done. Is there a reset button on the ECU or does it need special equipment? Cheers for your help so far.

[Puglet]

Nice, I'm also in dunners, I drive a blue 309 GTI  .

[306 S16]

Yeah I seen that around. Very nice. You don't see many 309's at all let alone GTi's. I was persuaded to buy the S16 after fanging my mates 306 XRDT down the harbour roads. Mean torquey engine in that thing.

[Bennny]

Hey man welcome along.

Try unplugging battery for a few hours or so then put it back on
and see what happens with your lights (also you could check dash bulbs I've had a couple go in my 6 in the 4 months I've owned it).
3rd goes in with a shove, does it crunch at all or does it just need a shove?
If it doesn't crunch and goes in but needs shoving I would say worn linkages.

[306 S16]

Sweet as mate. Cheers for the info. No crunching on any gears just a bastard to get it in 3rd. Apart from that the gearbox is good. That makes me think the clutch is all good. I'll also charge the battery up while it's out of the car and put it back in and see what happens.

[306 S16]

Hopefully there are a couple of pics above. She's a bit rough at the moment but I'm gonna give it a thorough groom in the weekend.

Right -

1995 306 S16, Black, 186,000km, 5-sp manual, Factory half-leather sports seats, Electric sunroof, Factory alloys, Panasonic head unit & speakers

Wrong -

Driver's side spotlight broken, driver's fabric coming away from leather a bit, faint knock in one of the front suspension bushes, bad paint-fade on bonnet from central otago sun + aforementioned issues.

Apart from that it's perfect!!!

[Bennny]

Sweet ride mate.
Blasphemy though, got cob webs on it haha get yourself a cheap cover to prevent fade
etc while it's sittin round.
That faint knock is most likely arb droplink pretty common.

[306 S16]

Yeah its been outside as I had other car in garage but it'll be promoted to garage in the weekend and it'll stay there till it's fixed. It was my daily for for 2 years then started playing up so retired it before anything got worse. Now I started my apprenticeship this thing is gonna be my homework.

[Bennny]

When I bought mine it was advertised as having a knock in right rear (amongst other things),
after I inspected it I found it was actually left front drop link lols.
Was pretty happy when I found that 'cos it was cheap and easy to fix!
I have done several other things thus far and now she's pretty mint just need to take a ding out,
get a speedo sender and re-upholster drivers seat and she'll be just like a new one!