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Servicing a 306 Rallye/GTi-6

Its dead easy... once you know how. With these guides I hope you'll find it straightforward to service your car yourself.

What to do:

NOTE: The service intervals listed below are approximate and you should use your own judgement

1. Oil and Oil Filter (minimum once a year or 6k miles (12k miles for GENUINE fully synthetic oil))
2. Spark Plugs (every 20k miles)
3. Air Filter (cleaned/replaced every 20k miles)
4. Gearbox Oil (every 30k miles)
5. Fuel Filter (every 30k miles)
6. Brake Discs / Pads (check every few thousand miles)
7. Tyres (1.6mm minimum tread over 100% of the tyre in contact with the ground)
8. Coolant (top up as necessary and drain completely every 50k miles)

What tools you'll need:

My advice would be to buy a good toolkit as you'll need it at some stage during your relationship with your 306! Although you don't need much to do a service. Read each guide to get an idea of what you'll need.

1. A good ratchet set with every extension under the sun.
2. Some torx screwdrivers (used everywhere on pugs)
4. An adjustable spanner, or wide set of spanners
5. Some oil filter pliers (£8.99 from Halfrauds)
6. Drain plug wrench (£3.99 from Halfrauds) or 19mm spanner if you got one
7. Spark Plug socket
8. Some snot nosed pliers to remove the plugs
9. A funnel with a long neck (£1.99 from Wilkinsons)
10. Oil Filter and crushable copper washer (1109T0 £10 from Pug)
11. A crushable copper washer for the gearbox, a little bigger hole than the one for the sump.
12. Fuel Filter (156787 £10 from Pug)
13. Axle stands are advisable (£10 from Halfrauds)
14. A good torch.
15. LOTS OF KITCHEN ROLL!



Advice

Try and work in a well ventilated garage if you can. After spending all day doing this then cleaning up afterwards I felt quite sick from the smell of oil and fuel

It sounds obvious but make sure you know which way round things should turn! Anti-clockwise to Undo, and Clockwise to Do Up.

BE CAREFUL when jacking up the car. The standard 306 jack is known to fail (rarely, but still) use axle stands or at the least stick a wheel under the chassis just in case it fails.


Sensors

There are a number of sensors on the car that should be cleaned every now and then to ensure your car is running smoothly.

These include the Stepper Motor, Lambda sensor and MAP sensor. None are difficult to clean/change and there are guides for most in the FAQ. NWPhoto's FAQ clearly shows where some of them are: CLICKY

Lambda sensor - plugs into the catalytic converter. If you get hesitation when cold and/or poor fuel economy this could need cleaning/changing.

Stepper Motor - ICV (Idle Control Valve), this plugs into the inlet manifold and is a solenoid that controls the airflow on a closed throttle to keep a steady idle. If your idle isn't smooth it might be worth cleaning this.

MAP sensor - again, plugs into the inlet manifold and can sometimes be responsible for hesitation problems.


Which Oil should I buy?

For your engine Pug recommends 10w 40 semi-synthetic oil. You can pick it up quite cheap and its is recommended you change it every 6k miles to keep your engine running smooth. Keep this up and your engine will last well over 100k miles.

If you want the best though its advisable to get something better. After a little research I opted for Silkolene Pro S 10w 50 Fully Synthetic Race oil. Its a little thicker when its warm and better protects your engine if you drive hard (ie track days / enthusiastic driving) Also as its a genuine fully synthetic oil (be careful, not all fully synthetic oil is made in a lab, some is just treated semi synthetic oil) it doesn't break down as quickly and you don't need to change it until 12k miles, or a year. At £35 for 5 litres its not the cheapest but the choice is yours.



For gearbox oil I would recommend standard Pug oil. I've just changed from Silkolene Silktran Syn 5 back to standard Pug stuff and I can't believe the difference. Its silky smooth again now.

Don't bother with expensive oils with the gearbox, just stick to Pug

Which Filters should I buy?

I looked on GSF but by the time you add VAT and delivery it was the same price as Pug. Probably safest to get them from there. Some places sell non purflex filters which don't have a non return valve. These are crap but its difficult to know which they are.


Which Spark Plugs should I buy?

Standard bosch or similar spark plugs will suffice and its recommended to have a 0.9mm gap. Multi electrode spark plugs are simply a way of making the plugs last longer as they're not made of optimum materials. The spark grounds to the electrode, wearing it down. As it wears down, the gap increases and it needs a higher Potential Difference to jump the gap. It then sparks to another, closer electrode.

I bought some NGK Iridium plugs. Single electrode (as Iridium is NAILS), 0.6mm gap (lower PD required hence more efficient) and supposedly good for 60k miles. £30 or so.


Removing the Undertray

The undertray isn't really necessary. Its supposed to stop shit getting up into your engine but mine's never had one on and its fairly clean. Was working on someone else's car who always kept the undertray on and it was filthy. Go figure.

There's a few bolts at the front and rear, and a few twisty-turny clips holding it on.


Changing the Oil

The oil sump plug is on the right hand side of the engine. This is looking from behind the front-right wheel. You can either undo it with a drain plug wrench or a spanner. Jacking the car up will give you a little more room.

The oil won't explode out as soon as you turn the nut, so just loosen it first then stick a bucket underneath and undo the nut completely. Unless you're some kind of oil god you'll get covered in it, so clean yourself up while the oil drains out.

It'll take a good 15 minutes or so for the oil to drain completely. Wipe the hole and stick the plug back in (with a new washer). Hey presto, oil is drained.




Changing the Oil Filter

The oil filter is just behind the radiator, you can't miss it. This is a view from underneath the car. Its quite hard to turn but the oil filter pliers I bought made it hella easy.

When it comes off the oil left in the filter drains out, so make sure you have the bucket and kitchen roll again.

Rub a little oil on the seal of the new filter and screw it back on.




Topping up the Oil

You should need about 4.5 litres. Pour it in slowly and check the dipstick every so often.


Changing Spark Plugs

Remove the black cover from your engine. There's 6 bolts holding it on. Use some ingenuity to get the bottom left bolt out (probably some pliers holding the star bit, or an allen key)

You'll see 4 coil packs, each held down by 2 bolts. Remove these and pull out it out. Unscrew the spark plug with the socket, get some pliers in there to remove it. If you don't have any snot nose pliers, I've managed to get them out using chopsticks before Hold the new spark plug with the pliers and lower it into the hole (don't drop it) Try and lower it into the thread then you can just put in the removal tool and tighten it up. DON'T CROSS THREAD THEM WHEN TIGHTENING. Tighten them up carefully and make sure they're threading smoothly. If after a few miles your engine starts to make a 'tapping' noise, it could well be that you haven't tightened the plugs up enough. Use your common sense.




Changing the Air Filter

The air box (behind the front left wheel) has 2 clips which undo giving you access to the filter element.

Fitting a K&N isn't too hard, and if anyone has any pictures (I didn't take any) I may write a guide for that too.


Draining the Gearbox Oil

Jack the car up and remove the passenger side wheel. The drain plug looks just like the one for the engine oil but its on the gearbox. Undo it however you like (see pic!) but easiest to just use an adjustable spanner and make sure you have the bucket to catch the oil in.

Leave the oil to drain for 15 minutes or so then turn your attention to the level check bolt.



The side of the gearbox is easily accessible behind the passenger wheel. Remove the level check plug.




Topping up the Gearbox Oil

There's 2 ways of doing this, I did it the easy way. In the engine bay next to the battery is the gearbox oil breather plug. Its a black plastic nut with a hole at the top. Take this off (be careful not to break it!) then stick your funnel in there.



Lower the car making sure its perfectly level (I measured the height of the wheel arches) The gearbox should take about 2.1 litres. Top up the oil SLOWLY (otherwise it'll spill out as its only a small hole) keeping an eye on the side level hole. If no oil comes out the side (as has happened to me on some cars) top it up to about 2.5 litres, but no more. The breather nut will ensure there's no pressure build up. If anyone knows why sometimes the oil doesn't come out the side I'd be interested to know

When the oil starts dripping from the side hole wait for it to stop, clean it up and replace the plug.



Replace the oil breather nut and you're sorted.



Changing the Fuel Filter

The fuel filter is located just in front of the fuel tank, in front of the rear right wheel.



You can try and cut off the fuel flow but in my opinion its too much farting about. If you do this quick you'll lose less than a glass of fuel.

Make sure you take note of which way round the filter goes.

Get the bucket and new filter ready as this has to be done quick. Push in the ends on each fuel line and detach them from the filter. Firmly press them into the new filter. Job done. It might be quite hard to pull out the fuel lines, just persevere they will come out!

HINT: Don't get fuel in your eyes, feels a bit like getting a face full of mace




Checking the Brake Discs / Pads

You'll find a lip on the outer edge of the brake discs. The more prominent the lip, the more worn the disc. Discs don't need replacing very often (as long as they don't warp etc) and you'll only need to change the discs if there's a big lip (say 5mm or more)



The pads usually wear more quickly than the discs. Check how much material is left. The pads are usually ok even down to only 2 or 3 mm of material.



Finally... Tidy Up!



Old oil needs to be dispensed of properly (ie not down the sink!) pour it back into the empty bottles and take it to 'your local recycling place'

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