1997 850 T5

Hi, ive been offered a 97 850 T5 estate with full leather interior with 104000mls for £1200, the paint work is a little faded and the inside needs a bloody good clean. The car belongs to a friend who has owned the car for 6mths, there is very little history with the car, one concern i have is that the lambda warning light is on although my friend told me the light goes out after awhile, now you lads know more about these cars than me (peugeot owner 5yrs!) should i take a chance or walk away? the car drove very well and took off like a scalded cat when required, one last thing are they easy to work on? (i prefer to carry out my own servicing)
Many thanks. Duggie

[warthog]

Hi Duggie,

the Lambda light is showing that a service is due. This can be due to several things:
1. A service is indeed due (measured in both mileage and time lapsed).
2. The car has been garage serviced but they didn't have the kit or couldn't be bothered to reset the service light.
3. The car's been owner serviced and the light not reset. The '97 MY 850's required specialist kit to reset the service light and read any error codes AFAIK

If the inside is filthy, what does it say about how the car was looked after? When was the timing belt changed? If you cannot be sure then this is absolutely the first thing to do. Has it got climate control or air con? Evaporators are a common weak point. If you're not bothered about a/c then a non funtioning a/c shouldn't be a concern, but if the evap. has failed, if you're handy with spanners it's not a difficult job to do, just time consuming as the whole dash has to come out to change.

For £1200 you're not going to get a good '97 T5 estate. This was the last year of the 850's and I would expect to pay around £3500 for one.

[DLM48]

seems rather cheap but could be a can of worms or the buy of the century (give me his address and phone number :-) ) where is the car? what T5 is it? what colour? and what interior colour? what are the wheels tyres brakes and suspension like???? is it burning any oil? making any strange noises? is it straight? and not been in a shunt? is it white and ex mr plod? re DIY maint some things are easy some ok most things are fun and need some head scratching but here you have a great resource to help you out of the problems.

IF you walk away i could be seriously interested in having a look see anyway :-) if it is not in lands end ;-)

[DLM48]

oh i forgot TIMING BELT and A/C problems replace the belt as soon as you buy it UNLESS your friend can tell you when it was changed and you have a receipt for that work and the A/C seems to have loads of problems and is a swine to fix dash out and all of that sort of nonsense rear shocks are expensive if they are the self leveling ones.....brain fade now :-) he he did i mention brake wear and fade if you drive it hard discs dont last and the pads tend to glaze up too and the turbos can also give a few wee problems too... all of that sounds bad but it is a great car really

[DLM48]

Oh and the front tyres too dont last long if you have a heavy right foot. You either wear them bald or wear the outside edges off of them when you throw it round the bends and roundabouts. Not having a T 850 just a N/A 20V 2.5 i wear the outside edges off long before the tyres are illegal tread wise - saves the brake discs and pads not slowing down :-)

[sholtby]

Seems like a good price as long as its half decent. Maybe you could get the fault codes read before buying to see what the problem is.
My '95 car has a seperate service and engine (lambda) warning light are '97 cars different?
Do some searching on this site for common problems etc.

Simon

Yeah my car has seperate lights too, although somone seems to have removed the bulb from the servie light.

Is your freind a freind?

I Paid £1350 for my l8 94 car last year. And in hindsight perhaps I should have spent twice that as I have spent another £1700 on it since. But my car came with 189K on it so for a 97 with just 100k I would be very interested.

Let it idle for 15 Minutes and see if it starts to smoke as that wil show a worn turbo.


A buff up at a local body refinishers and a vallet won't set you back more than £100.

TT

What sort of mpg do you get out of your 850 T5s? many thanks.
Duggie

[warthog]

Anywhere between 21 and 30mpg depending upon my driving style - more right foot=less mpg. I average 24mpg in mixed driving. If it's all m'way round the speed limit then it's closer to 30mpg.

This topic along with tyre choice has to be the most debated question on this forum. Have a search and you'll find that nearly everyone who posts has had their input.

[DLM48]

there is a T5 est on ebay at the mo looks very very clean a 95 model with 130k miles lovely colour with all the goodies apart from leather and sitting at £1,100 so i suppose your one is not that much of a bargain really

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...MEWA%3AIT&rd=1