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Hello all, It's been a while since I posted here and sadly since my 205 was last on the road. I haven't lost touch though and I've been keeping up with a few threads, especially since the East Midlands meet disbanded. Having sat in the garage for a number of years I have decided, with a lot of inspiration from Michael's thread and Paul's thread that this is the year I need to crack on and get the car back on the road so this is my refurb' thread. These are the last couple of decent photos I have going back to 2011 and 2013. I'm not going for a full restoration or respray as the car is basically sound and I want to keep some of the original character but I need to clean her up and do her justice. My mantra is "the devil's in the detail" and no square centimetre will be left untouched by way of being cleaned, treated and protected :-) I've had a few Saturday afternoons and evenings on her so far and today she looks like this. As is visible, there's rust bubbling through at the front of both rear wheel arches, underneath the cover there's a substantial amount of blooming on the roof and bonnet and the trim has faded. There's also a fair amount of surface corrosion in the usual places around the engine bay such as under the headlights and around the battery tray so I'm prioritising getting the engine and gearbox out so I can assess the damage properly. The radiator core is shot it and there's a crack in the exhaust manifold but I'm yet to see how bad this is. Internally all of the seats have holes in the cloth, the foams are pretty crappy and the bracket that holds the driver's seat outer bolster in place has snapped. It's a real shame I've let her get into this condition :-( Good news is that the last time she was on the road I did some work on the interior by way of replacing dashboard bulbs, fitting a Toad Ai606, fixing the standard retro-fitted central locking and I know the carpet is in good nick. All the glass is fine and the sunroof is in good working order (tested when I backed her onto the drive last month) and the only advisory on her last MOT was that the front coil springs have surface corrosion. So, for a DIYer I don't think there's anything that will stop me getting the car back on the road and MOT'd but I want to do a good job of refurbishing her fully so I'm going beyond the minimum required - planned list of jobs as follows: Remove the bonnet. Get on all the stuck fixings and finish clearing the engine bay ready for engine removal. I'm currently struggling with; a destroyed screw head holding the washer bottle into the inner wing, not being able to get onto the rearmost battery tray bolt head, four round nuts on the exhaust manifold, and figuring out if I can detach the exhaust manifold from the down-pipe and lift it out with the engine for splitting later. Remove front bumper and valance. Remove engine and gearbox and put to one side for a bit. Remove brake servo and anything else I can from the firewall. Remove front sub frame and put to one side for a bit. I am not planning to fully remove the wiring looms but I will be cleaning every single connector and doing as much testing as I can while I have the engine out and everything unplugged. De-grease, pressure wash and rub down the entire engine bay and front end and assess just how far the corrosion may have gone. Treat any corrosion, prime and respray any bits that need it. I'm not going to respray the whole engine bay as I want to keep the original stickers and I don't want to have to mask these off etc. so I'll be feathering what painting I need to do into the original paint. By the looks of it, I'll only be painting in areas that won't be visible once I've re-assembled anyway. The entire engine bay will then get a fresh coat of lacquer and protection (whatever that may be) and I am planning to do some nice bits such as polish the VIN plate and I think I'll lacquer over the stickers to help preserve them further. The front sub frame will be next - checking of all the usual parts and of course replacing the springs along with anything that looks like it needs to be replaced. I'll also be painting/treating (with Waxoyl, Hammerite or similar) everything that can be so it all looks really smart and is protected. The same will happen to the engine and gearbox. I don't want to take the head off as I'm not that that confident and the head gasket has never leaked. The engine also runs really well with a good idle and it's really spritley (it still kicks my wife's 206 115 HDI FAP's ass and our new 2008 115 e-HDi!) so if it ain't broke I'm not gonna fix it. However, I will replace the obvious bits (timing belt, water pump, tensioner) and no doubt I'll uncover some stuff I'll need help with that may lead to me taking the head off but we'll see. I also have a new alternator ready to fit as the previous one is really old and from a 306 DTurbo so it's over-rated and I want to go standard as I won't be re-fitting the boy-racer ICE I once had in the boot. I'll get the crack welded up in the exhaust manifold and all external surfaces on the engine, gearbox and exhaust manifold will be prepped and painted with whatever's suitable/tasteful before being put back in along with the sub-frame. It will then be a case of repeat at the rear. While I've got the wheels off I'll also be rubbing them down and freshening up the lacquer, refurbing brakes etc. and just getting her really clean and well protected. I am planning to go off piste a bit and fit a nice set of silicone hoses and I'm thinking about stiffer suspension bushes, just to liven her up a bit but I won't be lowering or messing with the standard geometry. I'm also going to to investigate radiators as I need one anyway so I might go for a smarter looking ally one but haven't decided yet. It's likely I'll need a professional to refurb the seats and deal with the rear wheel arch rust - these will be the finishing touches. I believe I'll be able to correct the blooming by rubbing back the lacquer which will release the trapped moisture and I will be able to re-lacquer the roof and bonnet and cut the fresh lacquer to blend it in with the old. A good clean up and treatment will see the trims right along with some new finishers from the classic spares list. I've already purchased some new front indicators and yellow Denji driving lamps. They won't get fitted for about a year but they look lovely in the boxes! So plenty to do - this weekend I'll be getting her up on stands (I needed them last weekend when doing my wife's brakes ahead of MOT on Saturday morning) and I'll be removing the driveshafts from the gearbox and getting on those stubborn fixings so I can hoist the engine and gearbox out over the next Bank Holiday. One mistake I have made, that I don't mind sharing, is parking the car in gear and subsequently removing all the gear linkages meaning I can't roll her around on the drive now until I've removed the driveshafts from the gearbox so it will be a tight squeeze this weekend but I should be able to manage :-) Plenty of updates and more mistakes to come. Wish me luck. Ian.

Hi Everybody. I'm Sebastián from Colombia. I have a ´93 Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 Stock. it has 210.000 kms on it, but it runs ok. The oil pressure gauge reads at 2 bar when starting the engine at cold. When it runs on idle it drops to the first white line, but running even at full throttle, just goes up to 2 bar or a little more. I use 25W60 mineral oil because of high mileage and because the engine always has been running on mineral oil. The engine runs fine, but i'm a little concerned about this. I have read that the gauge will read different on other tipe of oils but i want to check with you guys. The other thing, is the oil temperture gauge. It idles back and fort and does not give an accurate reading. ¿Where is this sensor located in the engine? i have read many forums but i don't understand some words you use to describe parts and places of the engine. If anyone could enlighten me with a picture or something to know it's accurate place, and to be able to check it, i would be very gratefull. Cheers and thanks!! PS: Attached a foto of my ride.

Hi all, Long time lurker and first time poster here. I'm having problems with a 1989 205 GTI 1.6 with ~80,000 on the clock (no history to prove). The car has a BE1 box (reverse over first incase I'm wrong). The problems are (always a good start) that the clutch pedal feel really stiff compared to other GTI's, the box itself seems to crunch in all gears and the bite point is to the floor. The box can also be very tight trying to get it back out gear a lot. Say you're in fourth, you can have to push back the lever toward the handbrake and then move into another gear. When we bought the car we decided we were going to do a few things to try and remedy the problem but it hasn't done anything yet. We've replaced the clutch kit and the clutch cable with a genuine Peugeot one. We have put two cables in the car now as the first cable got stripped. I'm wondering have we not fitted the clutch properly (alignment issue), is it possible all sychros in the box are just f***ed cause it to crunch into every gear or is there a problem with the clutch fork mechanism (the pin between the clutch fork and the cable sometimes won't stay in)? It seems improbable (with my small amount of knowledge) that the syncros would be f***ed and crunching in all gears. Any help or insight would be great as we're at our wits end! Thanks, Andy.

Hi guys I've got an Mi16 on my bench which has spun the 2nd cylinder big end bearing. This is my first engine rebuild and first Peugeot so some advice is needed if possible. The crank pin of the second big end is ovalised, with the least worn area being 50.00mm (std) and the most worn at 49.56mm (most worn where piston is at peak and trough of stroke). The crank pin minimum limit for oversized Mi16 shells, after regrind, is 49.684mm, which would mean my crank pin is worn beyond service. I've seen T16 bearings come in +0.50mm and +0.80mm. Can these be used/ has anyone used these when their Mi's have gone through a chunk of crank? The area that is worn to less than the 49.684 limit is pretty small, probably about 15mm long, between the webs. It just seems a bit bodgy to have the crank ground to 49.68mm and have a section that is undersized still. I've also considered fitting an 8v crank as 16v ones seem hard to come by, does the lack of double-counterweights have a severe effect on anything? Any other advice? I think i'm going to replace the con rods anyway as the No2 rod is worn to almost 0.50mm bigger than the others. Any recommendations where to get these/ all other parts for reasonable prices? Student budgets make things tougher haha. Thanks in advance, Matthew.

Hi all, Long time lurker and second time poster here. I'm having problems with a 1989 205 GTI 1.6 with ~80,000 on the clock (no history to prove). I am having problems with my brakes and suspension. Suspension first. The car need some parts refreshed according to the NCT (Irish MOT). We have replaced the lower control arms in the car as well as tie rod ends. The ball joined were blown so we decided to replaced with the whole arms. Since doing so the car has developed a knocking sound when it goes over a bump. If I'm going down a bumpy road downhill and as the car rises and falls over the bumps, there's a noise as if I'm driving over close together cats eyes. This sound is also there when going along the motorway at ~60mph and I turn the car left. It's the same sound and can be felt through the steering wheel. We bought QH control arms and tie rod ends from a supplier here if that helps. The brakes issue is that the car seems to be pulling to the left under moderate to heavy braking. We have replaced all pads with new Mintex pads, new brake fluid and rear shoes and cylinders in the drums. the front discs are pretty much new. There are currently no fixing screws in the front discs as the PO decided he didn't need them for whatever reason. Is it likely that a caliper is going to need a rebuild or is it something else? If anyone could shed any light on these topics, it would be great. We're dying to get the car out once it's safe! Andy.

Hi everyone. I decided that i want to post a topic of my cars restoration project. I bought the car in 2010 10 march. It was in very bad condition. The engine was completely taken apart and was in the trunk of the car. The car had big rust problems. And had front springs cut down half way and the rear beam was completely dead and the car was sitting almost on the ground. The previous owner had done loads of bad things to the car. The original seats and wheels where gone as well. So I decided to buy the car and wanted to restore it to it`s orogonal condition. That's how it looked like when i started to work on it. First i decided i need to start with the engine. So i bought a complete 1,9l engine. And after short time i first installed it in the car. As you can see the front end of the car is nothing but rust. Shortly after the engine was started for the first time i understood that the engine had oil problems. So the engine went straight back to it`s seller. And working on the car i understood that i need to weld new front end. So i stripped all the car and found more and more rust Taht was just the rust at the front end. The rust was also at the side skirts and rear of the car. After long period of welding. The car needed to be primed and painted. The car from factory had electric windows and central locking. Before me someone had changed the doors and had cut the wires. Since then the car had manual windows, but i knew that i will put the electric windows back in. I toed the car to the painters garage. And he did a complete respray. Except for the engine bay. The car had two colors. but i didn`t like that. I wanted it to be just red. I didn`t like the red paint that it had. It seemed to me that is too light and looked a bit pink or orange. So i found the red tone that i liked. It was the paint from volkswagen. Tornado red. In the time when the car was painted i started to work on the engine. I send the engine to my friend who is a big 205 gti fan and also a good engine builder. He helped me with the engine rebuild. The engine is standard 1,6 with a head with big valves. I had problems with the electrics in the engine compartment. I didn`t know which wires go where. And the engine didn`t run when i hooked up the wires. And there where some empty wires as well. So i got an electric to help me. He had to work pretty hard to fix some bad wires and get the car working. Sometimes i thought that this project will never end cause i always could find something broken, or something i had to redo. It was 2 years already since i started working on the car and finaly it started to look like one All this time my car had no exhaust. So i had to custom build a new one. Starting from the downpipe all the way back we welded a stainless steel exhaust 60mm in diameter with the back box from magnaflow. My plan is to finish the car till summer. Get the original recaro seats, and drive as much as i can. Sorry for my english. I hope it was interesting for you guys to read John