Broken earth strap

[Alex LS]

From the newsgroup. May be relevant to the 206cc although I don't think anyone's reported it yet.

I have a 1999 Peugeot 206 GTi. On driving to work a couple of weeks
ago the car suddenly stopped without any warning whatsoever on a busy
main road. I tried to restart the car for about 10 seconds without
success and then I began to smell burning. I had the car towed to a
Peugeot dealership and the service personnel immediately (without even
looking at the car!) diagnosed the problem as a broken earth strap (an
£8 component). However, I was informed that this problem could lead
to a short that could affect the instrument panel, and if this was the
case then the repair costs would be considerable.

The next day I received a telephone call from the dealership telling
me that the instrument panel had indeed been damaged due to the broken
earth strap. I was very unhappy to hear that the repair cost would be
in the region of £470. On collecting my car after repair, I asked the
service personnel how they knew immediately what the problem was. I
was told that they had seen several 206's with the same problem; but
fortunately for these owners their cars were still under warranty.

I have subsequently written to the MD of Peugeot but his response is
'we have not actually received a great deal of adverse criticisms
relating to this particular fault'. I post this message to warn other
Peugeot owners about the expensive damage a broken earth strap can
cause.