First Drive

We picked up the car from her previous owner last night. Despite being very cold, she started first time. I noticed that the car hadn't moved at all from where I parked it when we popped by to have a look at it. The exhaust shudders a bit when she starts up, but the engine leaps into life just fine.

I followed my girlfriend home somewhat gingerly to start with while I got myself back used to driving a 306. (I've had three of these before, so it should be like riding a bike...) I also went somewhat carefully because of the freezing fog and the non-working demister fans. However, I lowered my drivers window and the window soon cleared. Once we got out onto the main road, the car was pretty hesitant to start with. I guess she'd not been driven much at all for a few months. After a couple of harder revs, she got over this. I suppose the damp was gone. We'll see whether she does the same every time.

We went via the super market, which meant a run down the motorway. I got her up to the speed limit pretty quickly. For her age, the engine seems pretty good. There is an oil leak, so I expect to keep feeding in the liquid gold into the filler cap over the coming months. She sounds fine with no knocking or other deadly noises so far.

I checked the tyre pressures at the supermarket garage. Fronts were at 27PSI, the rear nearside was 18PSI and the offside 12PSI. I filled them all to 32PSI and the car drives better immediately. There are no dust caps on the valves, so I'll get hold of a few.

The suspension may need some attention at some point. There were a few knocks when going into deeper potholes that I'd not been able to pick up in my short test drive. I suspect that the front coil springs will need looking at from the previous MOT advisories. These are pretty cheap to replace from experience, but I'll try to keep it going as long as possible without spending any money on it.

The clutch is OK, but you do need to stomp the pedal right down to get into first. It's an old gearbox and at 127,000 miles it's pretty good. I've checked and a new clutch would be £230. Not required yet by any means, but good to know.

All in all, no serious problems given the money paid out for the car so far.

According to the eBay listing, the car has the following problems:

• The bumper on the front left side has been popped out for a while but i have not fixed it but i'm sure easily repairable. 1st picture shows this.
• Small chip on drivers side windscreen
• Car blower fans not working, and due to this clock does not work either
• Cigarette lighter not working
• Fog light glass smashed but working 
• Radio has a code which is available when purchased at Peugeot. Because it is locked it is currently not working. Not due to fault.

The blowers not working is the first issue that I'm going to have to look at. I'm wondering whether this is just a fuse as the clock doesn't work either. If that is the case, it'll be a cheap and easy fix. I've already researched this issue on the Internet and it looks like the blowers can also fail due to a relay failure. I'll check this out too.

The radio code should be easy to get hold of. You can pay several sites for a code. Prices range from £5 to £15 I believe. I may just call the main dealer and see what they can do for me. The radio needs a new code because the battery has been changed. Why don't people note these down when they buy the car...?!