can someone please point me in the direction of a buying guide for the 306? ive done a search and cant find anything thanks in advance....

Dannyrem's posts:

306 GTi6s in general have several weaknesses and need to be looked after well with regular services so make sure;

1) Cambelt has been changed with the last 4 years or 40,000miles. Tensioners can fail prematurely at that sort of mileage causing valvegear and head problems. Need to listen for valve train noise (tappeting) from the top of the engine. Start the engine from cold and the light tappety valvetrain noise should disappear after 3-5seconds. If it continues it has suffered a cambelt/tensioner failure which has not been rectified.

2) Check to see it has been regularly serviced. Signs of neglect mean that the car has probably been badly looked after, which will seriously affect its long term reliability. Check quality of oil.

3) Heavy on front brakes, tyres, shock absorbers. Check to make sure there's still life on these.

4) Crash damage. Really fun to drive so cheack for crash damage on all panels.

5) Gearbox can be delicate so synchromesh problems and quality of gearchange.

6) Test drive. The 306GTi6 is a very feelsome car so be certain to feel how the car handles and steers. It should feel all of one peice. Very heavy on suspension and steering components (track control rod ends, ball joints, bushes etc) so feel for wobbles and looseness.

7) Aircon. Make sure this works properly. Costly to fix.

8) Find an overpriced nice example and test drive it to make sure what you know a nice example should feel like. You can then compare your lovely bargain against it.


Deslynam's and Blake_Rallye's posts:

Common faults are [in no particular order]:

1) Cambelt goes early, as you've discovered. You're right to think that a knackered cambelt/tensioner/pulley type situation is bad, so most people change all the bits you mentioned every 35-40,000 miles.

2) Air-con pipes corrode as you've also realised (I believe this costs more than £70 to fix, though, and actually getting hold of the pipes is proving
to be a pain for most people). mine are on the way out, but will probably hold out through next Summer. just apply lots of grease to the pipes around the brackets, when you get one.

3) Electric window switches operate incorrectly (obviously only affects GTI-6's as Rallye's don't have eleccy anything!). Often due to the wiring
loom in the tubing from inside the car to the passenger side door. OR the switch itself being duff. Also due to window regulator/motor being dodgy. A crap little clip inside the door can break and this causes the glass to drop down.

4) Top engine mount goes 'soggy'. Just needs a plate welding in to fix, easy & cheap to repair. Door mounts can fail with no warning (not that rare though).

5) Prone to the radiator leaking. Mine's leaked previously but in 6 months (I've had it that long) it hasn't got any worse.

6) Exhaust starts to wear badly, particularly around the cat. Often as a result of increased wear & tear due to the engine mount going, allowing the exhaust system to flex. The exhaust mounts themselves often go. Many people
upgrade to 'Powerflex' ones when they do. When driving through water which goes over the exhaust heatshield, it can make a rattly sort of noise, no-one seems to know why but it seems it's the water getting trapped...

7) It seems to be a mini-nightmare for many people to get the wheels balanced properly!

8) Random running problems showing themself in a number of ways. Many of these are cured by resetting the ECU, and never come back afterwards...

9) Suspension bushes are prone to going. Easy enough to fix, though.

10) Clutches - cable is routed near to the exhaust and dries out. This makes it even stiffer to operate than it already is, and also makes it jerky. If the cable isn't seen to early enough (replaced and/or re-lubed), then you'll wear the clutch itself prematurely.

Don't forget that the Rallye version is a somewhat more no-frills car, and doesn't have an alarm as standard, either. Personally I'm very fond of the black leather & alcantra in the 6, there's no way I'd swap for a rallye, not for the sake of the 50kg saved!

Don't worry if the engine sounds rough - whilst some are nice & quiet, most sound almost agricultural!

The exhaust note is great, as long as it's not had a cheap & rubbish replacement exhaust). In fact, MG copied the 6's exhaust-note when they made
the MG-ZR!

They show knocks & bumps easily (eg from someone opening their door onto your car in a car park) the panels aren't that resilient.

I've put a Group N Ramair replacement air-filter in, to replace the caged paper one that was in there, and noticed a definite improvement in
responsiveness of the engine. K&N (type) induction kits aren't recommended for power gains, however. I've recently reset the ECU as well, as I'm now only filling up on Optimax and combined with the upgraded air filter, this
has given many beneficial results as the engine's remapped itself to the colder air at this time of year, the increasedd air flow through the filter
& the better quality fuel...

Currently, I'm trying to fix a windscreen leak, although I appear to be the only person to have suffered from this...

My driver's-side rear lamp cluster needed replacing as the unit never sealed itself against the bodywork so whenever it rained, it filled with a bit of water & this corroded the circuit board. I don't believe this is a general problem, but you never know...

If you've not driven one before, it'll feel a little sluggish off the line, compared to your 205gti. However, when you go out in a test drive & give it some then you look at the speedo, you'll realise you're doing at least 20mph more than you thought you were!

The 306s don't really rattle much to be honest, the dashboard can, but not really that noticeable, so that'll be a nice change! There are a lot that
are up for sale at the moment (see https://www.psooc.com as well as https://www.306gti6.com), you should be able to get a good bargain.

Obviously don't be afraid to give it a good thrashing once the engine's warm but equally don't take any chances - also, the engine can be given a good thrashing and not show too many signs so give them a good looking over whilst cold, start up from cold, etc, rev, lift off, and all that sort of thing...

Handling wise - fantastic. Can be a bit lively when going through tight twisties & going over bumps at the same time, but they stick to the road
amazingly (unless they've got crap tyres). There's certainly the pre-requisite amount of lift-off oversteer available, when pushing hard!

And, yes, playing with 3-series on the motorway is as much fun as everyone says!

Essentially, the more recent the car you can get, the better. There appears to have been a policy at Pug of putting whatever they had to hand, into the GTI6s, as many people have different interiors, seats, consoles etc, but none of that detracts. The 3rd version of the 306 has (should have) some nicer touches, though.
Peugeot garages are often a complete waste of time, the only good one I've found so far is near Manchester!

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always in stock, just PM me to order

No probs

Also make sure you get a HPI check done. Only £35 and can save you a lot of hassle down the line

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always in stock, just PM me to order