1997 Peugeot Expert D 1.9 diesel
Summary:
Very pleased with it - nice combination of plenty of space without excessive fuel consumption
Faults:
Swirl chamber fell out and engine seized at 76000.
Can only get one key to work with the immobilizer.
Leak around the windscreen - pre 66000.
General Comments:
I like this van. We bought it for conversion to a camper van, but it's also our only vehicle.
It is spacious - the sensible cab design with flat floor (dash-mounted gearstick, handbrake on right hand side) makes it easy to walk through into the back - very nice when the weather is miserable.
The 1.9D is rather underpowered. It's OK for town deliveries, but for motorway use and steep hills it's noisy and struggles. Now that it's blown up, I'm putting in the 1.9TD engine in instead, which is more appropriate for our type of use. The XUD engine used on this car is normally extremely reliable. Swirl chamber failure is very rare and most unfortunate! I obviously got a duff one.
The car is well-built and designed, although getting spare cinch crimps for extending the electrics using the native connectors, is difficult.
The alarm/immobiliser has been tiresome as we can only get one key to work at a time, and the Peugeot dealership don't seem to know what to do about it. It is also easy to accidentally set the alarm when you are in the vehicle, and then it goes off in an embarrassing fashion.
The rear suspension is a bit harsh for camper-van use: it is too stiff for sleeping in the back to be comfortable whilst traveling.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes
Review Date: 25th January, 2005
14th Dec 2010, 18:48
Update 5 years on. Vehicle now on 120,000 miles. It's been extremely reliable and has never failed to get us where we are going apart from once the fuel filter bunged up due to too much murky biodiesel - took 5 minutes to change as I had a spare. Change your fuel filter every year if using biodiesel.
The door slider locating peg recently broke, brakes have needed replacing all round, plus usual maintenance. Needed a new windscreen due to a crack. It's starting to get to an age where one gets niggly problems. The aftermarket central locking is a bit random and not all doors will lock other doors sometimes. Also the immobiliser loses synchronisation with the key from time to time (once every 6 months?) and you have to put in the key code several times to get re-synced.
The back door bottom latch tends to spring out on most trips now for no reason I can determine. And a rat ate through my fuel line last year, so it sprang a major leak!
Overall, a very reliable vehicle.
11th Feb 2005, 10:37
There is a Peter Russek mechanic's manual for this car that you can buy online from AutoBooksDirect : http://www.autobooksdirect.com.
These books are real life-savers!