Lifespan of the 1.4 petrol engine ?

[composimmonite]

Tomorrow I'm picking up a 2002 1360cc petrol Multispace, with almost full MOT, that has done 156,000 miles.
Whilst I'm not bothered about the amount I wonder what is the lifespan of these engines ?
Cheers
Paul H, Stoke-on-Trent

[Tomcat3]

These engines are robust and go on for years with regular maintance they were used for years in an whole range of peugeot and citroen cars with various power ratings. Cam belts need doing every 48,000 or so along with water pump. Cylinder head gaskets tend to rot out and need doing after about ten years or 100,000/120,000 miles. On average they do about 40mpg oh and the valves need adjusting every 20,000 miles. Spares are cheap and they aint complicated to work on.

[Gadgetman]

They were even used in rallying...
You'd be hard pressed to find a sturdier collection of old soda cans...

I would inspect it thoroughly for oil leaks.
The gasket on the valve cover tends to harden and break up, so unless that is fresh, it will need replacing.
Breather tube from the valve cover to the air filter housing. There may be two diferent housings?
This video shows the same box as mine has:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNJSP1VUpVI
(Not certain exactly what he's been rebuilding, but it looks like injectors laying loosely over the intake manifold)
On this housing the stub the tube connects to tends to break off. It's very, very difficult to glue that back on and get it to stick...
Spillage there will sooner or later kill your clutch.

The third place it may leak is the oil seal behing the flywheel.
Moistness on the lower end of the bell-housing is 'run away, screaming like a little female sqid' - that's a reference to an online comic, but yeah, fitting.
(I'm working on this right now... )

feel free to also check the coolant for 'peanut butter'...

If the engine is warm when you get here to test drive, seriously reconsider. It may have cold-start issues.

After you've gotten it(assuming no big, red flags during inspection or test driving), do a compression test. One or more cylinder may be down on compression.
(It's a bit of a bother to do this because I bet it has the coil pack that sits over the spark plugs, and getting it back on is... a bother... )
Typically, the rubber seals on the valve stems will have perished. It may be possible to replace these without taking the head off, but I wouldn't know how.
Oil seeping down along the exhaust valve stem is bad. Because the heat there will carbonise it on the stem, which will result in wear on the bronze sleeve it runs through.
(I replaced my seals during a bigger rebuild, where I replaced two cylinder sleeves and the piston rings, also. And I took the time to lap the valve heads so that they sealed better )

It's possible to do all that with the engine in the car...

With good care that engine can live for double or triple the distance.

Tuners have managed to push these up to 138BHp... That's not 'good care' though.

[oilyrag]

I've a 2002 1.4 which has done a mere 73K (it was a disabled converted one), and over the past 5 years the engine has had a cam belt change (based on age rather than miles) and regular oil/filter changes. It has had a plug change and replacement air cleaners - last time due to a shrew making a nest inside. High mileage doesn't matter - if it's still good after all of that time, it'll live for a while yet (if only I could say the same for me!). The only thing that looks 'iffy' on mine is the sump tinwork - living in wet Ireland it has a good does of rust (if it had leaked oil I wouldn't be looking at the rust) - but cheap enough to replace if ever needed.
Don't flog it like a diesel....

[suministros57]

I have been told that they are ultra resistant

[Gryffindor]

I suppose that shrew thought it was making a shrewd investment. Little did it know...!

My 1.4i is not a lot different - 2003 with 61k on the clock (54 when I bought it last year). I only wanted an old banger to last a couple of years, but inadvertently did well. I'm the second owner; no.1 was an engineer and did all the servicing himself, so I had to take a leap of faith with its lack of paper-based service history, but now I've had it 15 months it's proving to be in such good order that I'm now investing in its future rather than planning its replacement. Maybe I can even get it eventually to its second 17th birthday!

The first owner said that he also did the cambelt, for the very same reasons as yours - but just how far can my luck run for? Think I might get it done next year. New tyres this week - they were an advisory last year for age-related cracks - just like me!