Xs Issue Driving Me Mad!

[mallone 1]

I turn to the almighty fountain of knowledge that is 205gtidrivers.com in an attempt to fix my slightly ill 205.

 

The trouble started last week, was driving back to university and whilst cruising along at 75 or so on the motor way could feel the engine hesitating slightly, almost like a misfire. It seemed quite reluctant to rev freely and generally felt down on power. When on a steady throttle the issue didn't really occur but any sort of load would cause this behaviour.

 

I made it back but the behavior became more pronounced, and after pulling of the motor way it really struggled to rev, feeling very lethargic and with various flat spots throughout the range. In addition when lifting off the throttle for a second or two and then reapplying throttle the car would die momentarily before the revs would flare back up.

 

I read some of the previous topics on here and spent some time stripping and cleaning the carb, everything seemed fine but the problem remained. I went to the local peugeot dealer and had a chat with the workshop guy, he suggested that due to the nature of the problem that it was probably ignition based. I have replaced the plugs and leads, rotor arm and distributor cap as well as the ignition coil. I am aware of the ignition module being a weak spot too but this was replaced about 9 months ago. Can they fail that quickly?

 

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Widget 0]

I'd start with the exhaust first. I've seen a few different types of car (admittedly not 205s) suffer the same symptoms and it simply be a blocked back box. It's worth spending 5 minutes taking it off and going for a loud trip round the block.

[stu_woac 1]

is the engine reving high or hunting on idle???

[mallone 1]

is the engine reving high or hunting on idle???

 

No, idle is steady at about 800rpm when warm with no high revs. I am starting to think it might be fuelling related now, the problems are worst at low revs, between idle and about 2000rpm.

[djinuk 2]

fuel filter i would always start at , for the sake f £3 its not going to harm changing it anyway. Also do a quick search on here at clearing the jets in the carb.

[Rippthrough 98]

Could be carb icing - take it for a short spin then come back, leave it running and watch the throttle plate - is there frost building up on the edges (if your hearing's good you can hear it crackle as it breaks off with the bonnet open)

[Teacher 0]

I'd second the carb icing, my old xs used to drive me mad with that in this weather. Everything is ok then it would splutter and hunt for revs like it was possessed! I fitted the warm air ducting and manifold plate back on during the winter months and all was well again (£0 from local breakers )

[mallone 1]

As a quick update, changed the fuel and air filters yesterday. No change in behavior. Had the carb off and stripped it down, using the guide on here, couldn't find any obvious problems but cleaned it all up and made sure the jets were clear. Didn't help.

 

I then started having a look at the inlet manifold, thinking perhaps an air leak or something similar may be causing a problem. What i did find was that the vacuum pipe that runs from the front of the inlet manifold to the airbox was cracked, it had split underneath and was leaking air pressure big time. Very hard to spot (or hear) til you were very close. The actual fitting in the manifold was loose as well. A little spannering and some new hose has pretty much fixed the problems. Now revs much more cleanly, seems sorted. Still occasionally seems to hesitate at low revs but I think i can put this down to carb icing for now. The hot air feed has rusted off on my exhaust manifold so could easily be that. Either way the problem is 90% sorted, just got to hope that with some warmer weather that the last 10% sorts itself out!

[Guest rtsbasic]

Had a similar problem, the vacuum line off the inlet was split around the base. Just put a worm-clip around it, job done. I ended up blocking that pipe off completely though, as I don't have the standard airbox anymore. Hope this isn't going to cause issues?

 

If there's a vacuum leak, that can cause nasty problems with the distributor I'm told, as it uses a vacuum advance. Could be why you had such a big problem.