Q: i just bought a peugeot 306 2001 1.8 16 valve car and was wondering if anyone had had any trouble with the engine stalling while driving or any other faults with their 2001 306s? mines also a GLX petrol.
A: The 1.8 16 valve was fairly reliable, though like any engine certain problems were more common than others. The 2 most common (although still not too common) faults were stalling when coming up to junctions and parking, and difficulty starting. The starting problem usually occurs on older cars that get infrequent use and is due to sticky valves. The stalling problem can sometimes be rectified by a quick visit to your local dealership for them to update the engine ECU software. Other times it is due to a slow reaction by the engine ecu to control the idle speed. What happens is that when you lift off the throttle the throttle butterfly snaps shut restricting the air to the engine. The idle regulation stepper motor controls the shut postion of the throttle butterfly to ensure it doesn't quite close completely and starve the engine of air causing it to stall. If the idle regulation motor allows the butterfly to close fully, even for a short period of time, then you will stall. On some cars it seemed to be impossible to eradicate this fault, even after changing many components. Eventually i tried this solution and have achieved 100% success with it: Remove the air duct from the throttle body. Near to the centre of the butterfly, but off centre enough to avoid its spindle, drill a small hole (about 1.5 mm) This hole is so small that it makes no difference to the air flow when driving so the computer doesn't get confusing airflow readings. However, at idle this hole ensures the engine can always get a little bit of air, preventing it from stalling if the idle regulation motor gets things wrong.