What Have You Done To Your 205 Today?

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

Rallee, good to hear. Aye they can’t half take off. Only negative I can see just now is quite a bit of road noise, but I think I can live with it., and i think it’s a guzzler.

 

Do you have the sat nav activated on yours?

[205Rallee 59]

6 hours ago, dobboy said:

Rallee, good to hear. Aye they can’t half take off. Only negative I can see just now is quite a bit of road noise, but I think I can live with it., and i think it’s a guzzler.

 

Do you have the sat nav activated on yours?

Yes it's got sat nav which is a bit old tech,blue tooth, the voice controlly thing, front and rear sensors. The noise level increased when the front tyres were worn, bug a new set of Continental 3s on the front quitened it down a lot. Fuel consumption wise it will do 40 on a run and the demo one I drove showed 50 mpg on the screen averaged over a 20 mile drive, never seen that on ours.

 

[205Rallee 59]

My Gti celebrated its 30th birthday this weekend, so as a treat I took Friday off work to reset the rear ride height, it was set a bit too low when it was rebuilt. Unfortunately one of the rear wheels stuck on due to fresh powder coating, the torsion bar Torx screws had rounded and then one of the 13mm nuts wouldn't loosen off the end of the passenger side torsion bar. And the top shock absorber bolts had been put in from the outside, before the beam went on the car, so I had to lower the whole beam to get them out.The Torx screws came off eventually by dremelling a groove in them so they could be knocked loose with a screw driver and hammer then they spun out easily. The adjuster screw...I just unscrewed it whilst extracting the torsion bar and it went back in and screwed up as the bar was gradually inserted. I had no dummy dampers so just used the original jack to hold the hub at the right height to get 325mm between the shock bolts. 

 

A job that I thought would take 2 hours tops, as everything was new or greased, took me 8 hours in the end and that was outside on the drive in zero degrees although I only realised how cold I'd got when I went back in the house at 7pm. Am I alone in just cracking on without stopping for lunch etc when doing jobs like this? Stupid I know and boy did I have a dehydration headache at the end. But it was worth it as the ride height is spot on as original and perfectly level.

 

Next job is to fit the new central locking motors, maybe one for Xmas day when Dr Who is on!

 

[Simes 248 2 Cars]

Drove it to the shops, the ignition cut out and then it started again weird.

washed and now sleeping until the spring.

[jeremy 68]

Fixed it yeah... now time to terrorise the tarmac!

[iPlod999 143 1 Cars]

26 years old this year.

 

Passed MOT today with no advisories!

 

Only 100 or so miles covered in the past year.

 

I have too many other toys to play with.

 

Decisions decisions. 

[AlexRS2782 136 1 Cars]

Made inroads, inbetween the rain, to try and get mine running again.  Although i had to spend a good 15 minutes drying off windows and mopping up the rainwater that got in  

 

New 063 battery being bought tomorrow after I spent today going over some wiring under the dash / tacho relay, etc.

 

Also dug out the set of non opening rear windows and seals I bought a few years ago with the view to getting them tinted (to get as close as possible to the look of the o.e opening windows) and eventually fitted.  Thought I might as well start down that road seeing as the recent cold weather has shown that the opening seals have blown completely and i'm not overly fussed about keeping the car o.e looking.

 

If I do get it running tomorrow, the intention is to see what else needs doing (other than all the bloody weather seals) mechanically, grade it by importance and then try to get things sorted over the coming weeks / months.

Edited January 24, 2018 by AlexRS2782
road not toad

[Leslie green 80]

Took the engine out to change the cracked block .

[AlexRS2782 136 1 Cars]

Got it running again.  Turned out a new 063 combined with sorting out a bit of wiring under the dash into the ignition and also recrimping a wire to the Tacho relay seems to have done the trick.  Although I reckon i'll be getting Miles to sort the wiring into the ignition / dash next time the car is with him as otherwise I can see the wiring in that area being an ongoing issue.

 

Took it for a run and stopped off for fuel - quickly realised how much Super has gone up in price, since I bought any last year, vs regular unleaded - about 8p more than regular per litre now.

 

Will spend tomorrow getting the list of jobs / work required drawn up and then divide it into importance.

 

Then I get to spend the weekend doing the same list of jobs for my Focus RS as i'm determined to get that back up and running this year too - although that is going to be WAY more expensive to sort than the GTI.

[AlexRS2782 136 1 Cars]

Compiled the list of work as per the previous post over the weekend - realised it wasn't as big / bad as it could have been - especially when the one for the FRS was far longer & far worse.  However, went to use it this morning and although it starts it's now refusing to idle for more than 30 seconds before stalling   I guess I could still use it but I don't fancy having to sit in traffic with my foot on the accelerator holding 1.5k revs to stop it from cutting out - especially with the OMP exhaust.

 

Funnily enough this is similar to what happened around the same time last year and was solved back then with a new dizzy cap setup & leads but I guess it's now worth moving onto looking into the workings of the SAD, and all remaining wiring / connectors as I'm sure the earthing / wiring for the SAD runs off the same wiring as the ignition which I think is another one of the intermittent issues the car has been suffering from the past couple of years.

 

Time to give Miles a call methinks and get the car booked in for it to be giving another look over and get some of the other jobs sorted at the same time.

[MrStock 5]

Bought him a brother 

[woodymi16 24 2 Cars]

Stripped my steering rack and ordered a Quaife replacement rack and pinion, then finished fitting an EPAS system, not a pleasant experience with a roll cage and seat still fitted.

[dobboy 231 2 Cars]

On 1/29/2018 at 8:58 PM, MrStock said:

Bought him a brother 

 

 

What colour is your GTI?

[Alan77 78 1 Cars]

Insurance renewal with FJ, got a decent amount off just for making a call to them quoting a comparable quote from Lancaster. Mileage reduced to 2000 as i'm not using it so much now, and agreed value upped to 6k.

[MrStock 5]

On ‎31‎.‎01‎.‎2018 at 4:50 PM, dobboy said:

 

 

What colour is your GTI?

The red one is a Chrysler Color, and the black i hope OEM black.

[AlexRS2782 136 1 Cars]

Confirmed that my 205 appears to be pretty much dead and has a pretty serious issue - started it this morning, it ran for about 10 minutes and drove round the block fine during that time, then it started the stalling / non idle / refuse to start / then randomly start before stalling again issue 

 

To make matters worse the cold snap has also killed the battery in my mums MG ZR, so she wanted me to get that fixed too - of course typical Rover build quality means the cheap metal battery clamp / nut & bolt setup are nicely rusted and pretty well stuck in place meaning no easy extracting of the battery.  Thankfully the battery is the same 063 type fitted to the 205 so at least I can use that one as it was only new in January and seeing as the 205 isn't being driven or going anywhere - well unless it's on the back of a trailer.

[Leon 24]

Put a battery on it and fired it into life for the first time in months.

Started in less than half a second. Waterpump is drooling, I have another one so that will need doing.

The (badly) plated sunroof appears not to leak.

 

 

 

Took the plastics off to give them a clean (they were painted some years ago, the red inserts are actually aluminium strips)

 

 

Now I need to decide what on earth to do with it. I've been saying this for years!

 

[steve@cornwall 100]

 MOT'd for another year. Apart from fitting a pair of bargain front tyres (matching continental unused from spare tyres at scrappy for a tenner each) and fixing the horn , I hadn't had much chance to check it over first so was somewhat unsure! First time ever it flew through first time. I worry every year that the beam, untouched in almost 30 years will let it down. Has been by far the best car I've ever owned.

[pugdamo 111 2 Cars]

Is this the red one Steve? I should be getting mine MOT'd in a couple of weeks. I was hoping to plan some sort of meet up when the warmer weather is here if your interested. 

[steve@cornwall 100]

Yes mate the good old red one. Ive not quite finished the cti yet as i keep getting distracted although it does start, run, stop and drive now. Just the exhaust and idling issues to sort (and has been for at least 12 months!) 

meet up would be good theres a couple of local 20t enthusiasts now, one who bought ugly diesel and one who is looking for a 205 project. 

[dawning 11]

Put the rear beam up one spline per side, so much better now. Thanks to the great guide written by a member on here. Little bit disheartened to see rust showing after I prepped primed and painted the whole rear beam just last year obviously I didn't do a very good job. Just a note for others with an xs ( not sure if this applies to other models ) but the rear arms where in there lowest available position without hitting the chassis on one side, or the tortion bar hitting the hole in the arm it goes through, found this out by trying to raise the car two splines at first. Car looks so much better now, it looked ridiculous before! 

[barneys66 120 1 Cars]

Cured my pre-hibernation non-starting issue easily by bridging the tachometric relay.  Fuel pump has been on a switch for a while (as the relay used to stick), so this was the natural conclusion.

 

Changed the oil, made into a pig of a job as the filter refused to budge, so off came the oil / water heat exchanger and into the vice.  Don't remember doing it up that tight..

 

And another job I've been putting off has also been done - replaced the upper hinge (door side only) as the original was very worn.  Took a while to line it back up again, but door shuts very nicely now.  Installed a new roll pin the the retaining strap whilst I was at it, and going back tomorrow to fit a new window regulator (courtesty of jackherer).

 

 

 

 

[barneys66 120 1 Cars]

Oh, and replaced my goosed starter motor (courtesy of TAG) - knew there was something else I'd done, and it was only when I looked at the impressive bruise on the back of my hand this morning I remembered..

[AlexRS2782 136 1 Cars]

New set of tyres ordered on Sunday night.  Delivered today.  One item ticked off the ever growing list of things to do / required.  Still quite a few more to go however.

[205Rallee 59]

Clearing out the loft today I found all the invoices for my GTI from day one and all but one of the MOT certificates, been trying to find this for ages, so that was a result. Can't believe how organised my Dad was in filing them in chronological order. So many bills, I thought about adding them up then thought maybe not!

 

Used the Rallye for two trips to the local tip to get rid of the cr.p from the loft and as usual attracted the old fellas reminiscing about when they had a gti, Cosworth, Manta 400 (yes really), Lotus Sunbeam etc etc.