Just About Ready For Torching This Car!

[quagmire 0]

What the hell is it with these cars? Whenever I fix one problem something else immediatly goes wrong after.

 

I replace a knackered battery - The alternator fails

I replace the alternator - The rad starts leaking

I replace the rad - The auxilary belt snaps

 

Piece of french s*it!

 

Rant over

[jimistdt 1]

Plenty of Petrol on the back seat and some form of molotov cocktail you can throw from a safe distance would do it, be careful of your eyebrows they can take a while to grow back.

[craig_007 1]

No petrol needed.

 

Set fire to the seat belt and watch it go !!

[Alan77 78 1 Cars]

Get the cambelt changed - heater matrix fails...

Replace heater matrix - door seals leak...

Replace door seals - clutch goes...

 

Money pit

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

What the hell is it with these cars? Whenever I fix one problem something else immediatly goes wrong after.

 

I replace a knackered battery - The alternator fails

I replace the alternator - The rad starts leaking

I replace the rad - The auxilary belt snaps

 

Piece of french s*it!

 

Rant over

 

 

get over it, even the youngest 205's are over 15 years old , what do you expect?

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

get over it, even the youngest 205's are over 15 years old , what do you expect?

 

Someone had a cr@p night...

[BERTMAN 40 1 Cars]

...its all part of the fun

[Jrod 7]

Turn up to buy the car, won't start due to fauly crank sensor.

2 weeks later cambelt tensioner comes undone bending 8 valves.

2 weeks after being fixed piston partially siezes and wrecks most of the engine.

 

7 months later its still not fixed and I've done 500 odd miles in a £2500 205 that cost me £1k to insure.

 

I think you've got it easy.

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Reminds me of My 106 gti.

 

Bought the car from Peugeot when it was under 3 years old with platinum warranty. 4 months later the Clutch exploded taking the bellhousing with it and locking it in gear, Had it recovered by Peugeot and had it stripped to see the fault, was told by them that it wasn't covered by warranty and that it was due to being driven too hard so I had to pay them £700 for labour and recovering it. I fitted a second hand gearbox and flywheel and new clutch, this started to slip about 1000 miles later. I then fitted a Helix uprated clutch and covered 400 miles before the flywheel bolts heads sheered off allowing the flywheel and new clutch to smash through the bellhousing and send the TDC sensor through my radiator all of which needed renewing again

 

 

To top it all off a couple of years later I became friends with one of the mechanics from Peugeot and he told me that the reason the warranty people didn't pay out was because the car had uprated brakes and exhaust so they assumed it had been thrashed!

The f***ing car had all these bits fitted when I bought it from Peugeot!!!!

[quagmire 0]

Just a bit of an update

 

I put a new auxilary belt on today and now the suspension top mounts are fubard!

 

JOY!

[gixxerash 0]

Turn up to buy the car, won't start due to fauly crank sensor.

2 weeks later cambelt tensioner comes undone bending 8 valves.

2 weeks after being fixed piston partially siezes and wrecks most of the engine.

 

7 months later its still not fixed and I've done 500 odd miles in a £2500 205 that cost me £1k to insure.

 

I think you've got it easy.

 

ithought i had it bad that takes the biscuit that one i think i would have lost my hair an got an asbo through swearing and shouting at it.

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

Someone had a cr@p night...

 

 

it was fine until i read this thread

 

they can be a nightmare yes, but to call them pieces of french crap is a bit harsh. for the cars to be this old and still used by many as an economically viable daily driver must be testiment to how good they are, not how crap.

 

i must admit though, i guess this forum has a lot to do with keeping them going!!

 

 

Al

[Henry Yorke 269 3 Cars]

MOT guy said to me at the weekend that 205's are great as they don't rot like all the others from that era, yet we still moan about inner wings! It could be worse, you could have an XR2i which all dissolve out from the petrol filler cap!

[zebedy101 0]

I know how you feel, I am close to burning mine again ATM. It seems to have been all money no fun lately, I finally decided I was really getting it how I wanted it and now the headgasket looks to be on it's way out... I may throw in the towel soon and store it for a while.

[engine killer 6]

it was fine until i read this thread

 

they can be a nightmare yes, but to call them pieces of french crap is a bit harsh. for the cars to be this old and still used by many as an economically viable daily driver must be testiment to how good they are, not how crap.

 

i must admit though, i guess this forum has a lot to do with keeping them going!!

 

 

Al

 

 

forgive my saying, maybe a brand new car will give him an much easier life for a few years.

 

by the way, will anyone expect their grandly to run marathon?

Edited May 26, 2010 by engine killer

[Anthony 1,003]

Threads like this annoy me.

 

The average 205 GTi is now what, 20 years old and has done 120k+ miles, and chances are that most have not been subject to regular dealer/specialist servicing and inspection for atleast half that time frame. Most have led a hard life and been thrashed, receiving little more than a periodic oil change and some substandard repairs to replace bits that have broken or failed an MOT, usually doing the bare minimum needed. Frankly, it's a miracle that there are so many still in regular service and as reliable as they are!

 

205's are fundamentally pretty simple and reliable cars so long as they're cared for and maintained properly. The key as far as I'm concerned is to be PROACTIVE when it comes to maintenance, inspecting and replacing parts that are on their way out before they fail and leave you at the roadside, rather than REACTIVE in fixing bits when they break, usually at an inconvenient time.

 

After all, look at the service schedule for a 205 or pretty much any other car - note how the vast majority of the items are either inspection or preventative items, and then think how few of these are done when (if) the car is "serviced" by the average owner. There is far more to a service than just changing the oil and filter! The number of MOT failures that would have been prevented with the most basic of glance over the car is shocking - there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to fail an MOT on basics like bulbs, wipers and tires, ever!

 

Not only that, but the number of people that don't take the opportunity to do preventative jobs as part of another job they're doing bemuses me, when that will save them time and grief further down the lines for minimum effort and expenditure now. As an example - if you've had to remove the gearbox for any reason, it would be foolish not to inspect - and if in any doubt whatsoever replace - the clutch. When the driveshafts are out, replace the diff oil seals as a matter of course. Changing the cambelt? Do the waterpump and tensioners at the same time. Changing the alternator? Replace the alternator belt as a matter of course. Coolant drained? Inspect the radiator, metal pipe and all the coolant hoses and replace if not A1.

 

I've lost track of the number of people that claim that I'm "lucky" with my 205's and how I seem to have the reliable ones when they have the ones that breakdown and don't work properly, but really there's little in the way of luck. Whenever I buy a 205, it gets a full service as a matter of course including cambelt, coolant and brake fluid flush, as well as the usual oil and filters. I fully inspect them, and spend alot of time and money replacing all the parts that are worn out and coming to the end of their life. I spend time finding all the bodged repairs and making them good. And you know what, at the end of it, you more often than not end up with a pretty decent reliable car that I then keep in good order and it rewards me with enjoyable, reliable ownership. It's not rocket science.

 

I agree that there is a degree of luck that some people like Jrod above are clearly missing - he did everything right, buying a car with a good history and that had all the work carried out, and it failed spectacularly on him shortly after. However, judging by the majority of cars that I see, it's little surprise that they break down and need constant repairs, not because of the cars themselves or our garlic eating cousins who designed them, but because of the current and previous owners being too tight to spend the money to maintain the cars properly, and in many cases, trying to do work that is well beyond their abilities rather than just paying a professional to do it.

 

205's are now classic cars, and need treating and maintaining as such. Neglect them and try running them on a shoestring doing ham-fisted repairs yourself, and it's a recipe for unhappiness.

[Baz 421]

Well said that man, IMO the majority these days need a fairly thorough strip & rebuild, at least mechanically.

[engine killer 6]

very well said.

 

my cambelt snaped last month gave me a good lesson. expecting to change it at 40,000-50,000 miles but it lasted only 30,000. forgot the "TIME" factor and have to pay a price for it.

 

i didn't/don't blame the car but myself.

[jackherer 543]

I strongly agree with everything Anthony said with the one exception of bulbs. I have lost count of the number of times I have checked the bulbs on French cars prior to MOTs and had one fail by the time I get to the test. Usually its a bad connection rather than a blown bulb and I'm not just talking about 205s, Peugeots and Citroens I've had up to about '98 are just as bad, I have an '02 Citroen at the moment that does seem to be a bit better but time will tell. My current MOT tester is a mate so it is even more embarrassing.

[P_Monty 2]

Agree totally with Anthony - mine's just gone in for a cambelt change - its around 4 years since it was last done but - I'm aiming to get a lot more than the current 187000 miles out of it. Maybe I could have done the work myself - but I can be a bit of a bodger and something like that needs to be done right so its time to swallow the pride and take it to a garage - its cheeper than replacing bent valves later on.

[KRISKARRERA 2 1 Cars]

My car's been fairly reliable really, ok it's not a 205 but it's same period and made of the same crap, albeit slightly elongated. I've just done some maths and worked out that in the 7 years I've had it, it's had the oil changed an average of every 1500 miles!

[blessed6383 0]

great to know im not the only one who has thought this more than once lol

[feb 47]

Well said Anthony, how is the 1.9S restoration going along?

I feel bad for not finding the time to do the few things that needed doing but I am also happy in the thought that everything will be fixed now

Edited May 27, 2010 by feb

[Paul_13 212 1 Cars]

I agree with the 'but because of the current and previous owners being too tight to spend the money to maintain the cars properly' bit.

 

Previous owner rushed the engine conversion and manage to do it in a night, didn't inspect f*ck all.

 

Man, the amount of things f*cked/bodged was unbelievable.

[Tom Fenton 1,548]

A 205 is as reliable as you make it.

 

My car was overhauled when I first got it and ran it as a standard car including a trip to France in it, and then most things replaced when I converted it to turbo.