1987 Phase 1 205 Gti 1.6 Original! New Toy!

[artois7 20]

Bought me a new toy! Wanted a 205 for years and years, finally bit the bullet as the insurance is at a point I can almost afford now.

 

She's a 1987 Phase 1 with 114K on the clock. All original, minus the stereo. Pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here she is, after a 100 mile drive home, tucked up in the garage:

 

 

 

 

Paid £870 with a fairly comprehensive stack of paperwork, including all MOT's to verify the mileage. Engine bay is quite clean:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boot is pretty much rust free:

 

 

 

 

Overall, the whole car is in incredible condition for a 26 year old. No rust anywhere, other than a tiny bit of surface rust. No suspension noises or anything like that. Of course it has come with a huge heap of problems, not sure if I want to keep it or sell it on at the moment. It's non cat, non PAS, no central locking and no electric windows. No thrills whatsoever! The steering is incredibly heavier, far heavier than anything I could've imagined (I drive a Fiesta at the moment.)

 

The two main issues which I need help with now are as follows:

 

1) The drivers door won't open. The MOT was a week ago and it was fine then, but 3-4 days ago the door stopped opening. It feels like a rod isn't connected. Can you remove the door card without opening the door?

 

2)The car WILL NOT idle. As soon as you stop revving, it died. Gets worse as the car warms up. I understand these have idle issues, but not this bad. Where do I start with this? HT leads, sparks, rotor arm, distributor? Not sure!

 

3)Severe play in the gearbox. Each gear can be selected, but there's a good 5CM wiggle room in each gear! It's also all very close together. The clutch is extremely stiff as well, but I'll probably get used to this when I get her on the road. I don't know how the gear box is meant to be on these, but I assume not like this!

 

Happy to answer any questions, and any advice for a 20 year old first time 205 owner would be greatly appreciated!!

Edited November 10, 2013 by artois7

[Pugleyrich 37 1 Cars]

Looks nice and you managed to haggle an extra £50 off the price? I can't help with the issues but I can't imagine them costing much to sort. Good luck!

[hoban81 7]

I had The door problem. I lifted the door handle and if you look there are two holes get the wD40 in and give it a good squirt has not happend since.

 

You can then at least get the door card off and investigate properly, wont be expensive.

 

The idle like you say is a known issue. I would say that it's probably the Air flow meter, you can get a secondhand replacement for £30-£40. I would then check air hoses and oil breather hoses as this could be contributing to the problem. I would be replacing leads, rotor and rotor cap anyway as these items are probably past it anyway.

 

Gear problems Just a guess I'm afraid. But could be a buggered box or just need the gear linkages replaced. A good second hand box can be had for £100 and gear linkages are cheap enough.

 

I'm not 100% sure on these issues, but thought I would give you my opinion, as it may lead to solving them.

Edited November 10, 2013 by hoban81

[artois7 20]

Looks nice and you managed to haggle an extra £50 off the price? I can't help with the issues but I can't imagine them costing much to sort. Good luck!

 

You were following the auction then?

 

When I got there and found all the problems like the idle and drivers door, he offered to knock £50 off.

 

I went back to the garage to have a play (can't help myself!) and found one of the HT leads & cap has been replaced with a nasty generic one, and was really loose. Reseated that and the idle came up well, although overfuelling. Not going to say it's cured but it's already a huge improvement over how it was!

 

Also found lots of bits damaged, such as window seals. There's a crack in the windscreen too, although not an MOT failiure, hoping that can be fixed by Autoglass or a similar company. First thing on the to do list is a major service & a new rocker gasket.

Edited November 11, 2013 by artois7

[Alan77 78 1 Cars]

Definitely get a new coolant tempertature sensor, this improves the idle so much if the AFM is decent enough. I can't remember the part numbers off the top of my head but a Pug one is about £25 and other ones from factors are around a tenner.

 

Sloppy gear stick is common on these cars. Tighten up the linkage bolt on the subframe and get a set of linkage rods from Miles on here or from BakerBM. They imrove the feel (and slop) a lot.

 

Good luck with it!...

[artois7 20]

Easy to fit the gear linkages? Only have access to axle stands.

[shalmaneser 26]

Easy to fit the gear linkages? Only have access to axle stands.

 

Yep very easy, although have to spend a bit of time under the car.

 

For the idle: remove the idle screw on the throttle body and give it a good clean with brasso and reset the idle, helped a lot for me. (back in the old 8V days!). Infact might be worth removing the whole throttle assembly and giving it a clean.

 

EDIT: wack on a new clutch cable while you're doing the gear linkages, might well help.

Edited November 11, 2013 by shalmaneser

[artois7 20]

Hadn't thought of clutch cable, will add that to the list, as the clutch is bloody heavy.

 

Any points to check on the steering assembly? It's awfully heavy, not sure if there could be something wrong or seizing!

[2-Pugs 57]

Nice buy there Artois. Regarding the steering, I had a similiar problem a few years back on a GTi whereby the lower uni joint had gone very stiff. I took it out and soaked it in WD40 for a couple of days. That freed it up and it never gave me a problem again.

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

non pas steering is very heavy when stood still but usable when driving. completely normal, i hated having to arm wrestle with mine when doing 3 point turns so pas was a definate must have.

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

Seen this on Ebay a few times and the original description made me laugh, Wrong seats, Front Driving lights, Aftermarket sunroof & K&N Kit

 

Not sure if its the pic or my eye's, the hose above the stat housing should go back to the expansion bottle and not be blanked off.

 

reg date must be around May/June 1987

 

Cable tie around the AFM hose won;t help either, Needs to be totally sealed there

 

Linkages as said can be the ball joint on the sub frame or it needs replacing which most do now, I now have a complete kit which does everything.

 

But a nice base to work from

[artois7 20]

Seen this on Ebay a few times and the original description made me laugh, Wrong seats, Front Driving lights, Aftermarket sunroof & K&N Kit

 

Not sure if its the pic or my eye's, the hose above the stat housing should go back to the expansion bottle and not be blanked off.

 

reg date must be around May/June 1987

 

Cable tie around the AFM hose won;t help either, Needs to be totally sealed there

 

Linkages as said can be the ball joint on the sub frame or it needs replacing which most do now, I now have a complete kit which does everything.

 

But a nice base to work from

 

 

I posted the 'original' bit before I had taken any time to properly check her over, I was exhausted when I got back with her. You're right; after market sunroof, lights have been replaced, and the K&N kit. Wrong seats though?

 

You noticed the cable tie from the picture - bloody good eye you have there. Spotted that myself this evening. Will be sorted this weekend.

 

May be interested in a kit - can you PM me some details?

[Rjuhar 52]

Wrong seats as in Ph 1.5 seats in a Ph1 car...

 

OT: Miles, can you make me an offer on a set of linkage rods please...

[artois7 20]

Well I did not know that! That said, I don't mind at all. The seats are extremely comfortable (to me at least, some people have hated them.)

 

I feel a bit better that it's not all original to be honest - bit more free to add my own touches on it now.

 

Euro don't seem to recognise the number plate to get service parts, where do you source your's from?

[Miles 331 1 Cars]

seats are in this topic, http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=138553

 

It's just the covers the basic shape are good

 

Parts wise any 1.6 Gti from 1986 to 1990 are all the same which is a easy search, Parts wise it's knowing where to get the bext bit from, GSF, ECP, Motaquip etc as there are allot of cheap parts that don;t last 5 minutes

 

linakges, Please see the link for my ebay shop or the website is being updated as we speak

[artois7 20]

Had another look today. Stripped out the air inlet, AFM, and throttle body. The TPS seems good and clicks when a light throttle is applied, but the resistance reading I took was all over the place. Does anyone know what these should read?

 

The pipe to the rear of the oil fill has completely ripped in half. I don't suppose this would cause idle issues?

 

The throttle body was pretty gunked up, all seemed functional though. I've done quite a bit of searching but still can't work out where the SAD is - can anyone provide a picture (with location) of both the SAD and the coolant temperature sensor that was suggested to be replaced?

 

Last question for today, is the speedo cable difficult to change?

 

On a positive note, the driver's door now opens beautifully. The arm attached to the handle had completely seized up!

Edited November 17, 2013 by artois7

[shalmaneser 26]

Speedo cable's not too hard, although you'll have to get under the car and it's fiddly as hell threading it all through.

 

SAD is a disc shaped thingy on the right hand side of the engine quite near the back above the gearbox. Follow the pipes from the throttle body and you can't miss it.

[artois7 20]

Found the SAD, although it doesn't appear to be mounted in the correct position (along with just about everything else in the engine bay..)

 

So far we've stripped the AFM and throttle body, cleaned it up, but she still won't idle well. I can only see one pipe coming off of the SAD, haven't found the one you're supposed to pinch to test it yet.

 

Not sure where to go from here!

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Feel down the front of the inlet manifold, there should be a pipe that goes from the very bottom to the sad.

 

This is the one you give the pinch test

[artois7 20]

I've been reading that these run best right around 1.5% CO?

 

Well my (slightly/incredibly dubious) latest MOT says my CO is at 0.02% (max 3.5%), and the HC (max 1200ppm) is at 6 ppm. Is this going to cause me issues?! It smells like it's overfuelling!

Edited November 19, 2013 by artois7

[artois7 20]

So, if the engine is left to idle at around 1500RPM, it will drive and not stall. I took it out earlier and although the idle was high, it didn't cut out when holding down the clutch or slowing down. Any lower than 1500 and it will hunt and eventually die.

 

I noticed after letting it idle for around 10 minutes, the oil pressure was right under the first line, and the oil temperature (I think, top right?) barely moves at all. After being run for 20-30 mins, it had barely moved from the stationary position. I didn't notice the oil pressure when cold but I'm pretty sure it was between 1 to 2 bars. Should I be worried about this? 'Cause I am!

 

That being said, the pipe underneath the oil filler tube is severed through underneath, has a big rip in it. I haven't got a replacement hose at the moment, but could this cause low oil pressure? Or could it contribute to idle issues?

Edited November 20, 2013 by artois7

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

More than likely air leaks, amongst quite a few other problems with these engines, air leaks are one of the main causes for high idle and stalling at junctions/lights. And the main culprit is that bolt on the inlet that holds the oil filler neck on as the bolt hole goes all the way through so loose bolt means sucking extra air in, and the pipe between the inlet and the SAD perishing.

Edited November 21, 2013 by Slo

[artois7 20]

Well the oil filler bolt is only done half way up on mine because the mount for the filler pot has snapped, so we just put it in to not lose the bolt. I should do it up the whole way?

 

Will the oil filler hose (connected to the bottom) contribute to an air leak? The hose is ripped in two, but as it's only to fill the oil I'm not sure if this is something that needs my attention ASAP. Would this also explain the oil pressure, or should I not be paying attention to the guages?

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Bolt only halfway in almost certainly causing your high idle and cutting out or hugely contributing to it anyway.

 

That oil filler pipe wont have any effect on your oil pressure, as for the gauges get a second opinion ie another gauge to find out for sure

[artois7 20]

So... The lead going to the coil and the dizzy cap is sparking horrendously. We found it today. That's being replaced.

 

Other news: Insurance bought and paid for. This is becoming my daily!