Looking At A Cheap 205 Gti

[Quarryman 1]

Looking at a '91 1.6.

 

At low speed I noticed a loud enough scraping/rubbing noise up front. Hard to describe but didn't sound good.

 

Steering is way off. It weaves on the motorway when trying to keep it straight, very sloppy.

 

Power seemed to be slightly down. It didn't seem all that fast, seller mentioned timing might be off.

 

At the end of the day its a cheap 205 so there will be things to be done but i'm wondering do any of the symptoms above point towards big repair bills.

 

Do 205 GTi parts cost a bit? Are they tough to work on, am I looking at big labour costs to do the work?

 

205 newbie here so go easy on me

[j_turnell 134 3 Cars]

Does it pull when on and off the power? most common thing is wishbone bushes, but worth while checking condition of the whole lot by the sounds of it, play in the rack, TRE's, ball joints, also worth checking tyre pressures, and the biggy the rear axle. Best check the cam timing if it seems low on power, but have you driven another to compare it too? May just be in need of a good service. Worth buying a Haynes manual as things like cam timing etc are covered.

 

Regards how easy they are to work on depends what your used too, and how handy you are with a spanner really, but they are pretty straight forward tbh. If its in need of a lot of work, your best off to do things yourself as labour costs will soon mount up! Pretty much everything you need to know has been covered so use the search function if you get stuck!

 

 

James

[Quarryman 1]

Does it pull when on and off the power? most common thing is wishbone bushes, but worth while checking condition of the whole lot by the sounds of it, play in the rack, TRE's, ball joints, also worth checking tyre pressures, and the biggy the rear axle. Best check the cam timing if it seems low on power, but have you driven another to compare it too? May just be in need of a good service. Worth buying a Haynes manual as things like cam timing etc are covered.

 

Regards how easy they are to work on depends what your used too, and how handy you are with a spanner really, but they are pretty straight forward tbh. If its in need of a lot of work, your best off to do things yourself as labour costs will soon mount up! Pretty much everything you need to know has been covered so use the search function if you get stuck!

 

 

James

 

Yep it pulls on and off power. And does funny things when cruising too

 

I've heard the back axle is problematic too. Expensive fix?

 

I'm not too bad with with a spanner but don't have a lot of space or a lot of the right tools so I'd be paying to get the bigger stuff done.

[jimistdt 1]

Handling wise, it looks like you are describing a typical tired suspension set-up.

 

Yes, I would agree with James above the weaving is likely to be worn inner wishbone bushes - Remedy, either new wishbones or bushes. You can replace them yourself, only special tools needed are in 18 mm socket and or spanner, that is not is most tool kits as standard, a breaker bar of some description, a torque wrench, ans a 16 & 17mm socket/spanner. Plus a U/J and a small extension bar and larger extension bar will be a big help here. To replace the bushes requires all the above plus the means (press or hammer) to fit the new bushes.

 

Tracking will be useless as a result of the wishbones, and will need doing as a matter of course.

 

The scraping and rubbing sounds like a different issue, possibly wheel bearing or driveshaft. Again you would need a press for the wheel bearing, but it's not a massively difficult job.

 

The beam should really be done if you're not sure of it's service intervals. There are people on here would be glad to sort you out in both the building of and the supply of parts.

 

 

Doesn't sound like anything to nasty, certainly wouldn't put me off buying the car, and it all gives you plenty of haggling power.

 

Engine? Petrol? Pass.

 

Happy hunting, ad good luck if you go for it.

Edited November 1, 2009 by jimistdt