Tuning the Peugeot 206

"Thank you for reading this Peugeot 206 tuning guide."

The Peugeot 206 was first produced in 1998 and was set to replace the popular 205.

It quickly established itself as a popular choice for the family. The 206 is well put together and a rewarding drive.

Handling/Suspension upgrades

Handling modifications are often a priority for the 206.

We found that most 206 factory suspension setups need tweaking, a few degrees of toe out -, and a little negative camber will dramatically improve your cornering and handling.

We would go to a maximum drop of 27mm - 36 mm on most models. You risk handling compromises if you go lower than this.

With some well thought out suspension modifications the 206 becomes a veritable pleasure to drive on the roads. The first step with a tuning project is ideally uprating the braking system.

You have a few choices, ranging from an expensive big brake conversion kit to fitting larger brakes from its big brother, the 306 GTI -6 (you will not need to use the master cylinder but you may need to get the calipers from the donor model.)

Power mods.

The following modified kits are usually installed by our members, decide how far you want to go before you get started.

Getting the correct grade of uprated modifications for your planned usage of the car is vital. Stage 3 motor sport parts just don't work well on the road difficult in stop start traffic.

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Stages of Tune

Stage 1 mods: Remap, Alloy wheels, Sports exhaust, Panel air filter, Lighter flywheel, Suspension upgrade (drop 30-40mm).

Stage 2 mods: Ported and polished head, fuel pump upgrades, Fast road cam, high flow fuel injector, Power/Sport clutch.

Stage 3 mods: Competition cam, Internal engine upgrades (pistons/head/valves), Engine balancing, Sports gearbox, Adding or upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

Peugeot seem intent on taking the fun out of the 206 when they designed the air intake.
The models of choice as far as tuning go are the ones with the 2.0 engine namely the GTi and GTi180. The HDi turbo diesel is also a good proposition and with a simple remap is able to deliver loads of extra power. A number of TorqueCars members have gone for the Diesel route and are continually boasting about their power to fuel economy ratio.

Sadly there is little that can be done to increase the power of the 1.4 and 1.1 models although an engine swap is probably your most cost effective upgrade.

That's not to say people don't tune the smaller engines, we just feel you could get much better results spending the money elsewhere.

We have heard of a 1.1 engine tuned for a power gain of 8bhp across the rev range (peak 4100rpm +27bhp at a cost of £1-2000's) - but on the larger engines this same outlay can give you double this throughout the rev range. Go with a 1.6 or 2.0 petrol unit for the maximum benefit and return on your tuning investment.

Induction modifications. The intake on most 206 models is fairly restrictive 60 mm with silly amounts of padding further reducing the airflow. So many owners go for an induction kit, but you should really make sure you get a cold air feed pipe to suck in cool air if you are really looking for power gains and also go with a much larger diameter intake pipe in the region of 80mm.

Just upgrading the diameter of the entire air intake should yield power gains as Peugeot seem to have designed the engines to be starved of oxygen.

Some owners have reported problems with the throttle cable preventing the inlet valve to open fully, so take off the air filter housing and get someone to press the accelerator whilst you check the butterfly valve is opening.

We have started to see some impressive 206 Turbo conversions performed by leading Peugeot tuners.

Sadly the turbo is not a bolt on unit and many other mods also need to be done to get this working rendering this a rather expensive exercise. 206 supercharger upgrades are also popular and these actually seem easier to do than a turbo conversion partly due to the near linear power delivery.

There is a more updated version of this Peugeot 206 Tuning article on TorqueCars.com.

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This article is flagged for an update, so please pass on specific tips below that I can include. All articles, and content was written by me, Waynne Smith TorqueCars founder. Some outlines are just too general so I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Peugeot. You can leave a response below or join our forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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