Another 205 XS !

[Tesseractoid 3 1 Cars]

Hi all

 

I rescued a G reg XS a while back,  it's my first Pug!  though I always loved them back in the day.    

 

I had an AX GT late 90s, unbelievable car to have back then at 18 years old,
my mate had the XS and we'd stick to each other like glue on the backroads!

 

Long story short I've been nursing an XS back to health after being sat for 10 years, 

as you can imagine the to-do list is seemingly endless, but thankfully rust isn't a big part of it.

 

Just recently did enough to get it through the MOT,   and it's starting to take shape into a pretty lively thing, 

taking it easy for now as suspension needs work,    but it want's to live!  and the TU3s / solex twin choke is still a total hoot to play with, even 20+ years later! 

 

I thought I'd start a thread here in the hopes I can get some help ID-ing various issues, a few concerning noises coming from underneath at the moment..

if anyone fancies helping me spend some money I'd appreciate your input sourcing the right bits etc..

 

Cheers!

Joel

 

 

 

 

[Tesseractoid 3 1 Cars]

As it's been stood 10 years - Here's what I've done over the last few months,

as part of a rolling restoration kinda thing.

• endless cleaning
• dash lights
• fitted front spots
• new horn
• new fusebox because new horn didn't work
• fixed headlight adjusters
• new sunroof handle
• replaced missing rear view mirror
• tyres
• tie rod ends
• front control arms
• top mount bearings
• major service, oil, belts, filters, plugs, leads
• all engine mounts
• front callipers and rear drums
• master cylinder
• set idle mix and timing with strobe
• lots of carb cleaning
• lots of electrical terminal cleaning/replacing sorting bad earths and various connections
• removed faulty central locking units
• fixed wind up windows as the brackets had rusted away
• fixed door lock mechanism

 

Next batch of clunk related jobs 

Front end:

• drive shafts (suspect passenger side ball joint is making quite a racket, especially in reverse ) 
• anti roll bar bushes ( hopefully will sort the mysterious clunk i hear right beneath my feet) 
• gear shift rods (if they ever arrive!)  
• front shock absorbers - any suggestions for XS? 

Rear end:

Not looked at it yet.. just sorted the brakes,   tbh there's so much noise coming from the front that I can't really tell what the rear needs.

 

If anyone has any info or suggestions for the XS I'd really appreciate it as so far it's just been me and the haynes manual! 

Does anyone know if the XS just had stock suspension, same as a 1litre base model, obvs it's not got the GTI kit but maybe some of it was beefed up a bit? 

 

cheers!

 

[Tom Fenton 1,541]

Bilstein B4 are a good replacement damper that are pretty close to what the originals would have been when new. Not overly expensive either, and nice on a road car.

[Tesseractoid 3 1 Cars]

Cheers Tom,

Struggling a little to find the right ones but B4s seem to be the way to go, 

 

I've seen them sold as a kit for the GTI,  but I think those versions have side mounts on them, possibly for the GTI droplinks - is it? 

https://www.retroraceandrally.co.uk/product-page/peugeot-205-309-gti-front-bilstein-b4-shock-absorber

 

My XS's front anti roll bar attaches directly to the control arms, so I'm thinking I probably want these ones - without those tabs on the strut.

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/bilstein/634411#shock-absorber

 

 

 

[Fallowsnz 3]

Great to see an xs being saved, and enjoyed. I daily drove my xs for 5 years until I had a head crash about 6 months ago. Such fun cars to drive. One upgrade I was looking to do on mine was changing the front end over to a gti set up. Even with a refreshed front end I still felt flex under hard braking. 

 

[greenclaws1975 4 1 Cars]

On 7/10/2024 at 10:32 AM, Tesseractoid said:

As it's been stood 10 years - Here's what I've done over the last few months,

as part of a rolling restoration kinda thing.

• endless cleaning
• dash lights
• fitted front spots
• new horn
• new fusebox because new horn didn't work
• fixed headlight adjusters
• new sunroof handle
• replaced missing rear view mirror
• tyres
• tie rod ends
• front control arms
• top mount bearings
• major service, oil, belts, filters, plugs, leads
• all engine mounts
• front callipers and rear drums
• master cylinder
• set idle mix and timing with strobe
• lots of carb cleaning
• lots of electrical terminal cleaning/replacing sorting bad earths and various connections
• removed faulty central locking units
• fixed wind up windows as the brackets had rusted away
• fixed door lock mechanism

 

Next batch of clunk related jobs 

Front end:

• drive shafts (suspect passenger side ball joint is making quite a racket, especially in reverse ) 
• anti roll bar bushes ( hopefully will sort the mysterious clunk i hear right beneath my feet) 
• gear shift rods (if they ever arrive!)  
• front shock absorbers - any suggestions for XS? 

Rear end:

Not looked at it yet.. just sorted the brakes,   tbh there's so much noise coming from the front that I can't really tell what the rear needs.

 

If anyone has any info or suggestions for the XS I'd really appreciate it as so far it's just been me and the haynes manual! 

Does anyone know if the XS just had stock suspension, same as a 1litre base model, obvs it's not got the GTI kit but maybe some of it was beefed up a bit? 

 

cheers!

 

 

 

XS has shorter stiffer springs than base model .. 361mm . Rear beam is also lower. Only have figures for XS's with the suitcase engine but TU cars seem to be the same..

The later Haynes manuals are dumbed down  so get an earlier version on ebay if you can

Imo Peugeot dampers are very good..mine seemed fine so just blasted and painted them.

I'd seriously recommend removing the fuel tank and applying a thin wax like Dinitrol ML there and under the boot floor and inner wings and bottom of B post .... inside the sills.. The mastic hides rot very well!

I got all the suspension and brake parts from Autodoc in Germany.  Reasonably priced and good choice but delivery times 10 days or so..

Look for arb bushes by Sasic on there but measure the diameter first as there are many sizes..

Lucky if your axle isn't seized after 10 yrs standing. Likely bearings will be dried out and axle shafts scored so budget on a rebuild if its at all creaky..

Make sure vac advance on the distributor is working or it will be thirsty on petrol without it

My 1/2p worth!

 

 

[Tesseractoid 3 1 Cars]

19 hours ago, Fallowsnz said:

Great to see an xs being saved, and enjoyed. I daily drove my xs for 5 years until I had a head crash about 6 months ago. Such fun cars to drive. One upgrade I was looking to do on mine was changing the front end over to a gti set up. Even with a refreshed front end I still felt flex under hard braking. 

 

sorry for your loss there, that's a real shame : ( 

[Tesseractoid 3 1 Cars]

cheers for that info @greenclaws1975.  very helpful!   

I think the vac advance is fine, seemed to work when i was setting the idle and tested it.

will try to get the  driveshaft on there over the next few days, hoping that will sort the front end out.

could you possibly zap me a link to the bushes you got?   i do have some  eBay bushes ready to go on but haven't checked fitment yet.

 

[Tesseractoid 3 1 Cars]

Reckon the old roll bar bushes were past their best!