[misc_work] '88 205 1.6 Automatic (5 Door)

[fairway1 5]

Hi everyone, my name is Ashley & I'd like to introduce you all to my 1988 205 1.6 petrol 5 door Automatic.

 

I'm a class 1 HGV driver & a couple of months ago I was using Hull's Queen Elizabeth Dock on a daily basis & I noticed this 205 parked in a car park next to the main road at one of the container terminals. It was obvious it had been there a good while but there wasn't a speck of rust on it & it seemed in such good condition (but very dirty/dusty). I began to ask around the staff at the terminal who the car actually belonged to & after a fair bit of leg work I traced a crane operator who allegedly owned the car. I asked someone to pass my phone number on to him one day & he kindly got back to me a few days later.

 

The story he told me about the 205 is actually very sad. It was bought 4 years ago by him for his wife who had just passed her driving test. She took one look at the car & said 'I don't want that old thing' and went a got herself a brand new car. The car had a few months tax & MOT left on it so he took it to work one afternoon & parked it in the car park there on the dock.

 

He was made an offer for the car by another guy he worked with, but before he had chance to pay this guy got done for drink driving & driving whilst disqualified & went to prison for a few months.

 

All the while the Peugeot is still sat in his works car park on the docks.

 

As the months passed by the chap who owns it decided to try & sell it again because the tyres where begining to take root in the car park & his manager told him to get it shifted. He had it MOT'd - a full new set of new tyres & a complete new exhaust fitted.

 

But, what happened next is a bit unclear but for some strange reason he took it back & parked it up at work where it sat unmoved for over 3 years, untill I came along.

 

I was going to make him an offer of £100, but was willing to go upto £150, but when I told him I was very interested in the 205 & that I could organise having it trailered away myself he told me he was 'Fed up of the f****ing thing!' 'You can take it away for me kid!' I basically got the car for £25!

 

The only condition was that he wanted to see a new log book in my name (so theres no come backs on him, which is fare enough) but unfortunately he'd lost the old one. I organised a new V5 / log book in my name (hence the £25) from the DVLA & organised a mate of mine to collect the 205 on his Tranny car transporter.

 

 

 

[fairway1 5]

So the 205 was now MINE! It has exactly 54,134 miles on the clock!!!!!

 

 

There was another slight problem.......er.......there was no key (however the car was unlocked). The chap I bought the 205 off had long since lost it. Never the less I had the car moved into the corner of a friends yard which is large & secure.

 

Initially, I was going to try & source a full replacement lock set from a breakers yard or something, but the only complete lock set I found was for sale for a rediculously expensive amount so I didn't bother.

 

A friend then recommended going into Peugeot with the chassis number & they may be able to have one made to order. Initially they said they could.....but then called me the next day to say sorry, but actually they can't.

 

I was a bit annoyed at that & was begining to run out of ideas when I happened to come accross a local locksmith online who said he could make a key if you had lost it. I gave him a call & explained my situation. He told me to remove either door lock & fetch it to him (no call out charge so saved me some £££'s).

 

He was a mobile (self employed) locksmith & I actually met him at his house, where his van was parked on the drive. The next bit was very clever, he took the (passengers side) door lock off me & inserted a small plastic probe, about the size of a toothpick. The probe was connected to his lap top by a cable. The probe scans the inside of the lock & sends the lock configurations to the lap top. The lap top is also connected to the key cutting machine so when its finished scanning all the guy has to do is insert a blank key & it cuts it & there you go, one car key. He charges £30 for this service (for 1 key) and £15 for each extra key. I had 2 keys made & was very happy with this.

He does do call outs, say, if the car was locked & you'd lost the key. Its an extra £80.

Edited January 1, 2012 by fairway1

[Anthony 1,002]

That looks amazingly clean for a car that's sat outside for three years! I assume that is pretty much as you've found it - not washed or anything?

 

Good luck with getting it back on the road - I did much the same last year with a GTi that had been left to rot (and looked FAR worse than that car!)

[fairway1 5]

 

 

[fairway1 5]

That looks amazingly clean for a car that's sat outside for three years! I assume that is pretty much as you've found it - not washed or anything?

 

Good luck with getting it back on the road - I did much the same last year with a GTi that had been left to rot (and looked FAR worse than that car!)

 

Hi Anthony, the car is vertually rust free. Apparently its never been welded & the sills & inner wheel arches look like a 3 year old car.

 

The thing is, if you can see behing where it parked, there is a massive coal terminal & you can just imagine how much dust gets blown around when its windy & the 205 was covered inside & out, under the bonnet being the worst. Nothing some hot soapy water won't cure. More pics to follow very soon..........

[fairway1 5]

My 205s new home untill I start work on it after New Year

 

 

 

 

[fairway1 5]

Now that I had a key for the 205, I decided to try & start it one sunny afternoon.

 

I borrowed the battery off my 309 (rolling restoration / daily driver, owned since 2008) & fetched a gallon of unleaded. Once the fuel had got round the system the 205 fired up straight away! Sounded great, took it for a drive around the yard (only steady at 15-20mph) and the gears engaged smoothly. The brakes however where almost non existant / siezed & the tick over was too high then too low when it had warmed up. I'm not bothered about that because I'm going to give it a full service (leads, spark plugs, oil & filter etc etc etc). I'm lucky in respect that I have some very good mechanic friends (who have done work on my 309) & charge me very modest prices for work. I've never rebuilt brakes before so I will get my 205 to one of them to sort the brakes out.

 

[fairway1 5]

Two jobs I've yet to do;

 

Bonnet hinge pin broke at passengers side

 

 

 

 

As mentioned earlier, engine bay covered in coal dust so am going to get that steam cleaned / presure washed off as a top priority.

 

 

 

 

 

Engine oil (and the gear box + power steering oils) all seem very clean. The car has obviously been well looked after during its life

 

Edited January 1, 2012 by fairway1

[fairway1 5]

Alas! My 205 meets my 309!

 

 

If anyone is interested in my 309 & its long & sad history, your welcome to read my thread on the 309 owners forum & classics monthly forum -

 

http://309ownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php/6275-Another-old-newbie.....

 

http://309ownersclub.com/forums/showthread.php/6303-1.3-309-Style-retoration

 

http://www.classicsmonthly.com/cm-forum/showthread.php?t=278

 

 

 

 

 

But thats enough of my 309 now..

Edited January 1, 2012 by fairway1

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

That car's gone a way up North, EL is a Bournemouth reg so would have been sold by Hartwells at the time which has now been bought by the Westover Group

[fairway1 5]

That car's gone a way up North, EL is a Bournemouth reg so would have been sold by Hartwells at the time which has now been bought by the Westover Group

 

Thanks for that snippet of info, I knew 'EL' was a Bournemouth registration, but I was very suprised when I got the log book & it said theres been 9 former keepers! The car has only done 54,134 miles!

 

I can't understand how its gone through so many owners but covered so few miles & its in such good condition. I've since sent a V888 form (and a £5 postal order for the fee) to the DVLA to request they disclose details of my 205s history & previous owners details. I'm still waiting to hear back from them so it will be interesting what they will tell me. The chap who I got the car from has a memory like a gold fish so he was little help. He wasn't even certain how much he paid for the 205 in the first place!

[fairway1 5]

Thanks for that snippet of info, I knew 'EL' was a Bournemouth registration, but I was very suprised when I got the log book & it said theres been 9 former keepers! The car has only done 54,134 miles!

 

I can't understand how its gone through so many owners but covered so few miles & its in such good condition. I've since sent a V888 form (and a £5 postal order for the fee) to the DVLA to request they disclose details of my 205s history & previous owners details. I'm still waiting to hear back from them so it will be interesting what they will tell me. The chap who I got the car from has a memory like a gold fish so he was little help. He wasn't even certain how much he paid for the 205 in the first place!

 

Or perhaps the car is another 'Christine' whos owners keep dying in suspicious circumstances because they didn't give it the love & attention it deserves..........

Edited January 1, 2012 by fairway1

[johno_78 2]

The bad idle could be also to do with the carb. I believe it may be a Weber 36 TLC. Notorious for emissions failures at MOT time. A rebuild kit from your local motor factors would be a worthwhile investment.

[Richie 32]

Actually that looks really straight, nice little find. What are these old auto's like to drive? clunky and awkward? or are they smooth?

[jeremy_spoke_in 2]

Very intersesting car and a nice write up. Keep the updates coming.

[steve@cornwall 100]

Actually that looks really straight, nice little find. What are these old auto's like to drive? clunky and awkward? or are they smooth?

 

 

Nice to drive, but thirsty!! Auto choke is terrible! fitted my old one with a BX carb with manual choke, which blitzed the emissions

[fairway1 5]

Very intersesting car and a nice write up. Keep the updates coming.

 

Thanks Jeremy, will do!

[fairway1 5]

I spent (on & off) almost 3 hours trying to get the old oil filter off yesterday (12/01/12).

 

In the process I snapped 2 screwdrivers, snapped the chain on a brand new filter removal tool & broke my old cheapo filter removal (scissor type) in half.

 

Never in my life have I ever known an oil filter that has been put on as tight as that before - and it didn't help the fact whoever fitted it didn't even bother to put a smear of oil on the sealing ring before fitting so it was bone dry resulting in the old filter practically welding itself on! Whoever it was who last changed the oil I'd sure like to punch him in the face!

 

 

[fairway1 5]

Today I replaced the distributor cap, rotor arm & HT leads.

 

When I went to get a new distributor cap from my local 'Andrew Page' motor factors, they seemed very confused as to why my car has the cap it does.

 

My car is fitted with a cap which is held on by two screws either side of the cap.

 

According to their parts manual and their computer, this cap is supposedly only fitted to the GTI & their computer suggested my car should have one of three other types - none of which are screwed on - but that is obviously wrong and my car does have the cap which is held on by two screws.

 

Has anyone else out there encountered a situation like this? Is this unusual?

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 13, 2012 by fairway1

[fairway1 5]

Had a play about with some T-cut Metalic colour restorer / polish stuff this afternoon and did the entire passengers side + 1/4 of the bonnet, as well as cleaned the windows along that side aswell.

 

 

 

 

Its amazing what a little bit of time & some elbow grease can achieve, I'm looking forward to seeing the whole car look shiney like that!

[fairway1 5]

 

[fairway1 5]

Siezed brakes are the next main job to sort out.......

 

[fairway1 5]

The bad idle could be also to do with the carb. I believe it may be a Weber 36 TLC. Notorious for emissions failures at MOT time. A rebuild kit from your local motor factors would be a worthwhile investment.

 

Yes, I've identified it as a Weber 36 TLC carb.

 

I've had a brief play about with the idle adjustment screw & its not made a slightest bit of difference.

 

If I'm honest, carburettors in general baffle me.

 

I had some probs with the carb on my 309 some time ago & whatever I did I just made it worse & I couldn't work out why I was getting it so bloody wrong as I was trying to follow instructions from the Haynes manual lol

 

After I get the brakes sorted I was going to get a local mobile Auto Tuner / Krypton Tuning guy out to it to see if he can work some magic on it. I used this chap before for my 309 so I know he's pretty good.

Edited January 13, 2012 by fairway1

[DaveW 6]

Blue rinse interior mmm and those brakes look crusty as!

[Tesstuff 222]

Is that auto gear lever as bad as it looks?

 

I have a mint one you can have if you need it.