1989, 205 XS, Back to the Road

[Hiceadha 0]

How are we? Just 10 years after I owned a 1.1 L 205 as my first vehicle purchase, I've come across my first XS, and bought it.

The car has not been on the road in a good few years, although it starts but runs poorly. It struggles to idle.

The body is superb, considering its a 1989. The only rust which has "penetrated" is one small hole on the inside of the bonnet frame, and the noisy hole the size of a penny on the bottom of the back box. Anyway I'm starting this thread to showcase the path back to the road for this XS and to pick the brains of the more knowledgeable here. My plan as it stands is to do the obvious like changing the timing belt, replace the carbs gaskets and try get a proper air filter setup, replace any torn CV booths etc.

I have noticed something that may become an issue though, the speedometer dosen't work, though the cable appear to be shoved into the gearbox correctly and also the odometer seems to be stuck too. The man I bought it off (who only stored it, never really drove it) claims the clutch was changed just prior to him buying it. So I'm wondering did something go wrong here while the gearbox was off. If I'm to ask questions actually is it ok to do it here with progress pictures or should I make a separate thread outside the projects area?

Here's some pictures below anyway:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

Looks very nice, you'll have some fun with this one. 

[Hiceadha 0]

On 6/17/2020 at 10:58 PM, pugdamo said:

Looks very nice, you'll have some fun with this one. 

Should do, cars really not in bad shape. Changed the fuel filter, oil filter, oil and plugs todays, its ticking over a bit better, however running very rich by the sounds of it.

I've a carb kit ordered for it and a timing belt, and I'm trying to source the original filter housing. Pulling off a bit of the dash revealed that the speedo cable wasn't connected, and the grommet was missing. After some hardship I'm still having difficulty getting the speedo cable to stay in the gearbox (the tip is sliding back into the tube) when I have it connected to the dash, just going to go ahead and order a new cable now and hopefully that rectifies the speedometer issue .

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

Nice. I loved my old xs and would love to have one now. I made arrangements to go see a grey xs last year but the guy sold it before I got there. I was going to fit some 1.6 gti alloys and maybe lower it, other than that I think they are spot on. Good luck with it!

[Fallowsnz 3]

Looks like a good one. when i picked my xs up about 3 years ago it a whole ecosystem living in side of it, spiders cockroaches and even a gecko.. my six years old reckoned it was a piece of junk. quite few hours work later and a fair few parts and it's now my favourite 205 i've ever owned. In fact i'm selling my gti soon but keeping my xs...

[Hiceadha 0]

On 6/20/2020 at 8:17 AM, Gsxrmick1984 said:

Nice. I loved my old xs and would love to have one now. I made arrangements to go see a grey xs last year but the guy sold it before I got there. I was going to fit some 1.6 gti alloys and maybe lower it, other than that I think they are spot on. Good luck with it!

For now I'm just gonna try get it back to standard, then see how its running. After that then I'll make some changes but at least I'll have a reference on wheter im improving the car, including lowering 40mm or so. Ill keep the 13" steel though, I think they look well and I'm only going to slow it putting on bigger wheels I'd imagine.

 

6 hours ago, Fallowsnz said:

Looks like a good one. when i picked my xs up about 3 years ago it a whole ecosystem living in side of it, spiders cockroaches and even a gecko.. my six years old reckoned it was a piece of junk. quite few hours work later and a fair few parts and it's now my favourite 205 i've ever owned. In fact i'm selling my gti soon but keeping my xs...

Thanks, its solid anyway. Owning two 205s though, you must never have a weekend free 

[Gsxrmick1984 10]

55 minutes ago, Hiceadha said:

For now I'm just gonna try get it back to standard, then see how its running. After that then I'll make some changes but at least I'll have a reference on wheter im improving the car, including lowering 40mm or so. Ill keep the 13" steel though, I think they look well and I'm only going to slow it putting on bigger wheels I'd imagine.

 

Thanks, its solid anyway. Owning two 205s though, you must never have a weekend free 

Yeah I'd keep with the original wheels. The one I was hoping to buy had what looked like 14" wheels and 206 wheel trims. This was it