The joy of owning a 20K pile of junk, AKA the 807 » Peugeot 807 forum » Peugeot Central

Posted: Fri 18 Jul, 2008 5:27 pm

Hi, I have an 807 (54 plate), the basic diesel engine. For the last few months we have been having a problem with the steering. Sometimes when we first start it we find the steering feels extremely heavy until we get out of our drive and straighten up and then it feels normal. In addition we've noticed that the steering wheel is turned slightly to the right when the car is going straight.

We took it to the service centre and they said something in the steering was broken (apologies I don't know the term, my husband took it in and he doesn't report back very thoroughly) which they replaced. However we noticed the steering wheel was still wonky.

Since then we are having the heavy steering problem more and more often (always just when first starting thank god) and the wheel is still wonky. If I drive with the wheel straight on a straight road the car rapidly pulls over to the left. We took it in again and they said they couldn't find anything wrong in a test drive (!) so now we are stuck. We're driving out 4 kids to Wales for a holiday next week and quite frankly I'm scared for our safety.

This car has been hell from day 1. We spent our savings on it when expecting baby #4 and have no way to replace the car now so we are stuck with it. I estimate it has been in to the garage at least 15 if not 20 times over the last 4 years. We have had- new door runners, door locks, door handles (twice), 3 replacement seats (all at separate times) due to the cables snapping (one of which wasn't fitted properly and had to be replaced again, another has the red folding lever missing), windscreen washer tubing front and back keeps coming loose, wing mirrors stopped folding a few weeks after we got it (no fault found in a diagnostic therefore it's a figment of our imagination), various computer issues such as the rear doors refusing to unlock which require expensive reboots every time, radio randomly untunes itself, CDs get stuck going in etc etc etc.

In addition the car has phases where it drives unevenly, I'm sorry I don't know the proper term but like I put my foot on the accelerater and it pulls forward and then suddenly jolts back, sometimes I wonder if it's going to cut out completely (scary when going up a steep hill with someone driving up my boot!). Again they test drove it and said they couldn't find anything wrong therefore there is nothing wrong apparently!

It also eats tyres, I've never seen anything like it. We've only done 20000 miles and are on our 3rd set of front tyres. The last set one of them wore so unevenly it was totally bald on the outside edge (down to the threads) while the rest was still all fine.

I am sick of the endless visits to the garage (with us given a 207 or 307 for our famly of 6, I can't even drive the kids home from school safely as I can't fit my daughters booster seat in with the younger kids car seats). But most of all I am sick of every time I go out in the car, feeling constantly on edge because I just don't feel safe. Who knows what might go wrong next? This steering problem feels like the final straw. We splashed out on this car instead of getting a used Galaxy for a treat, and look what we've got instead- a car we call "The Beast". I could just break down and sob quite frankly!

Posted: Tue 18 Oct, 2011 3:50 pm

Just found this old post from 3 yrs ago while searching here on our lastest issue. Bloody hilarious... not!

Handbrake is getting looser and looser so it gets harder to get it on far enough for it to hold the car still on a hill (ie our drive, road outside school etc), makes loud graunching noise when you get in and out when it's held on the handbrake. Today when I was getting out the handbrake suddenly went off and I just managed to get my foot on the footbrake before it hit the car parked in front of us, ended up with one foot on the road and one on the footbrake on a steep hill, wondering what the heck to do! It's now parked on the drive with bricks in front of the wheels, garage say they can't even look at it until Friday. I now have arthritis and CFS so being without the car for several days is a big deal.

Also it keeps beeping and flashing "airbag fault" and also sometimes "unblock diesel filter". Everything else carries on as above. We've had to remove the centre seat in the middle row so the kids can climb through into the back without needing to fold seats, as now it's out of warranty we can't afford to play 250 quid every time a cable snaps. Means we can't take my mum and sister out for the day without refitting the seat, but hey ho, that's life with an 807.

Oh yes, and the front indicators stopped working and we had to replace the entire light units to fix it. Crazy. Tyres still wearing unevenly. Did I mention being enveloped in a cloud of choking fumes when we get out of the car?

I fully expect the usual "We've run a diagnostic and we can't find anything wrong" when we take it in, and then we'll be stuck with a car with a dodgy handbrake. We bought this car new for 20K, it was supposed to be a treat. Now 7 yrs later we've had a change in finances and can't afford to replace it (we originally planned to keep it 10 yrs but that was before we knew what a dud it was) so we are stuck with ongoing worry and endless trips to the garage for the forseeable. I guess I will get used to taking bricks with me everywhere I go!

Anyone had a similar handbrake issue?

Posted: Mon 24 Oct, 2011 1:28 pm

Hurrah, they found the fault this time. 125 quid to replace a caliper, but at least the car will be safe now, well handbrake-wise anyway. I'm not exactly happy we've been driving around with a faulty handbrake for the last year+, despite taking it in to be looked at once and being told there was nothing wrong (how can they say that when anyone can hear the loud noise- people down the street turn round and stare at me when I park it!), and the MOT. But at least it's getting fixed now and nothing worse happened than the scare I had last week, could have been a lot worse.