Peugeot 205 XR

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mercedeslimos

1,656 posts

168 months

Monday 22nd February 2021
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When I do a thermostat that looks a bit suspect (many aftermarket o-rings are utter ste!) I use my go-to sealant: Elring Dirko. I usually install a smidge on the engine side of the o-ring to hold it in place, and a smidgen on the other side of it. Then around the outside of the housing, I use a continuous bead. I then tighten it down slowly alternating the bolts, so that it starts to ooze out of the edges. Once it's tightened, I run my finger around the bead to flatten it. Then I let it go off for a minimum of 2 hours (12 hours is ideal) before filling it with coolant or starting it. Dirko has done some amazing jobs for me, repairing a hole in the top radiator hose (and the one under 3bar pressure) of a buddy's LHD Octavia as the dealer couldn't get me the correct part. 2 years later it's still holding perfectly. That would be my plan if I was you PrinceRupert. HTH, Sam.

carinaman

21,214 posts

171 months

Monday 22nd February 2021
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I am very good at making cars and motorcycles worse when trying to mend them or do maintenance on them.

PrinceRupert

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Monday 22nd February 2021
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mercedeslimos said:
When I do a thermostat that looks a bit suspect (many aftermarket o-rings are utter ste!) I use my go-to sealant: Elring Dirko. I usually install a smidge on the engine side of the o-ring to hold it in place, and a smidgen on the other side of it. Then around the outside of the housing, I use a continuous bead. I then tighten it down slowly alternating the bolts, so that it starts to ooze out of the edges. Once it's tightened, I run my finger around the bead to flatten it. Then I let it go off for a minimum of 2 hours (12 hours is ideal) before filling it with coolant or starting it. Dirko has done some amazing jobs for me, repairing a hole in the top radiator hose (and the one under 3bar pressure) of a buddy's LHD Octavia as the dealer couldn't get me the correct part. 2 years later it's still holding perfectly. That would be my plan if I was you PrinceRupert. HTH, Sam.
I've had it suggested that using both the rubber o-ring and the cardboard gasket was an error - that it should be one or the other. It sounds like a sealant is the right way forward - so thank you for the tip! Hopefully I can get the thermostat housing off and back on again without removing the radiator again ...

carinaman said:
I am very good at making cars and motorcycles worse when trying to mend them or do maintenance on them.
It is definitely easier to take cars apart than it is to put them together!

carinaman

21,214 posts

171 months

Monday 22nd February 2021
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PrinceRupert said:
It is definitely easier to take cars apart than it is to put them together!
Stripping cars for parts can be fun but I suspect that's how I may have lost my Halfords Impact Driver set that I bought years earlier to remove a windscreen wiper motor from a car on top of another in a scrapyard. So I did once manage to replace a windscreen wiper motor without making it better.

Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Wednesday 5th May 2021
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It's been a while since I updated this thread (oh and I changed my PH username). Some progress has been made.

- Thermostat: I was using the wrong rubber seal. It was a wrap around style single rubber seal I needed (which seems to have changed after my car was produced ... perhaps there has been an engine change at some point?). Got the right seal, installed it, didn't leak!

- Driver seat: installed using my bolt through technique, was a bit of a pain, but seems to have worked fine. Woohoo. There did seem to be a number of random washers and things that came off that haven't been reinstalled, not sure why ...

- Ignition parts: replaced ignition coil, dizzy cap (ordered three in the end, first two didn't fit ...), rotor arm (ordered two of these, first didn't fit ...) and ht leads. Seems to be running more smoothly now.

Problems that continue to exist / have been identified:

- I have a fairly serious exhaust leak at one of the joins between two sections just at the back of the engine. Plan is to unbolt it, apply some exhaust paste, bolt it back up. Sound sensible?

- I have a definite gearbox leak. It seems to be coming from the bottom of the gearbox, but not clear if it is dripping from somewhere or is coming out of the gearbox itself. Apparently driveshaft leaks are common, and I have replacement driveshafts / seals - something I can do myself. However anything that involves box out is probably beyond me. Can I just make sure the levels are fine and drive it topping up occasionally? I just want it on the road now ... I also read that it might have fouled the clutch, is this possible?

- Driveshafts as mentioned, non-urgent.

- Fast road engine mounts, honestly lost the will to fit these. Might just sell them.

- Bodywork. Not urgent, but there is a dodgy patch of rust that looks like it has been repaired poorly in the past above the passenger door. To be sorted. Also want to get the alloys refurbed. Considered doing it myself but frankly, seems too much like hard work.

So fix the exhaust leak, and I may be able to take it out for its maiden voyage ...



Edited by Cascade360 on Wednesday 5th May 12:34

xstian

1,966 posts

145 months

Wednesday 5th May 2021
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Cascade360 said:
It's been a while since I updated this thread (oh and I changed my PH username). Some progress has been made.

- Thermostat: I was using the wrong rubber seal. It was a wrap around style single rubber seal I needed (which seems to have changed after my car was produced ... perhaps there has been an engine change at some point?). Got the right seal, installed it, didn't leak!

- Driver seat: installed using my bolt through technique, was a bit of a pain, but seems to have worked fine. Woohoo. There did seem to be a number of random washers and things that came off that haven't been reinstalled, not sure why ...

- Ignition parts: replaced ignition coil, dizzy cap (ordered three in the end, first two didn't fit ...), rotor arm (ordered two of these, first didn't fit ...) and ht leads. Seems to be running more smoothly now.

Problems that continue to exist / have been identified:

- I have a fairly serious exhaust leak at one of the joins between two sections just at the back of the engine. Plan is to unbolt it, apply some exhaust paste, bolt it back up. Sound sensible?

- I have a definite gearbox leak. It seems to be coming from the bottom of the gearbox, but not clear if it is dripping from somewhere or is coming out of the gearbox itself. Apparently driveshaft leaks are common, and I have replacement driveshafts / seals - something I can do myself. However anything that involves box out is probably beyond me. Can I just make sure the levels are fine and drive it topping up occasionally? I just want it on the road now ... I also read that it might have fouled the clutch, is this possible?

- Driveshafts as mentioned, non-urgent.

- Fast road engine mounts, honestly lost the will to fit these. Might just sell them.

- Bodywork. Not urgent, but there is a dodgy patch of rust that looks like it has been repaired poorly in the past above the passenger door. To be sorted. Also want to get the alloys refurbed. Considered doing it myself but frankly, seems too much like hard work.

So fix the exhaust leak, and I may be able to take it out for its maiden voyage ...



Edited by Cascade360 on Wednesday 5th May 12:34
Ah welcome to the world of Peugeot. Why have one part when you can have 10 different parts to do the same job but with no interchangeability. There is no indexing of year, model, spec or engine, just what ever part they could get cheap that week. Good luck with the PSA tombola.

Gearbox sound like the driveshaft seal, would need to remove offending driveshaft to fix. There is a drain plug on the side which can also leak, which can be viewed from the passenger wheel arch, not to be confused with the filler/level plug just above it. Easy fix, with new copper washer. It could also leak from the input shaft, which could damage the clutch. This is a gearbox out job to fix. Still pretty straight forward, the whole car is simple mechanics. If you are going to remove gearbox you would be wise to replace clutch regardless of oil damage or not.

Take the exhaust joint apart and have a look. It will almost certainly have some sort of gasket, which will probably need replacing. Worst case the exhaust need replacing.

I wouldn't bother with the fast road engine mounts. The car doesn't need anything else to make it rattle more. If the mounts are shot, just replace with OE mounts. The mount on the drivers side has shims which slide down to locate the mount in the middle, these are often missing and I'm not sure if these are still available, but they are easy to make with some very large washers.




Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Saturday 8th May 2021
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Slightly odd finding today. These bolts on the gearbox were loose.



Nipped them tight and let's see if it still leaks...

Exhaust is next on the to do. Noticed the anti roll bar bushes and track rod bushes (correct terminology?) are goosed so they will need replaced.

Edited by Cascade360 on Sunday 9th May 18:20

Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
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Still leaking, so spent a bit more time cleaning it up. Concluded it is the o/s driveshaft seal. Which is good as I intended to replace the driveshafts anyway.

Ordered some front wishbones, so cheap it didn't make sense trying to change bushes alone. Also some track rod ends.

TEKNOPUG

18,843 posts

204 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
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I'm impressed that you can even still get parts.

Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Sunday 9th May 2021
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TEKNOPUG said:
I'm impressed that you can even still get parts.
They're actually dirt cheap. 30 quid a side for wishbones. 12 quid a side for track rod ends. 65 quid for a pair of Brembo discs and pads. Ignition coil / dizzy cap / rotor arm / ht leafs was like 60 quid. The trick is buying the right parts first time...

Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Thursday 27th May 2021
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Progress. After admitting defeat with getting the hub nut manually, I cheated and bought myself a power tool. n/s suspension is now apart. Amazing how easy the impact wrench makes it ... bolts that haven't been undone in over a decade at least and with minimal fuss it just spins them off. Can imagine I would have had a painful fight to do by hand. Can't slot it back together yet though as I realised my new driveshafts didn't come with replacement oil seals. So perhaps one for the weekend.




mercedeslimos

1,656 posts

168 months

Friday 28th May 2021
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Good call on the impact. I bought a cheap 50 quid Lidl 20 volt one and got the bigger 4 amp batteries (they also fit my chainsaw and work lamp etc). Been using to do my sister-in-law's recently-purchased-yet-decrepit MK5 Golf, the impact definitely speeds up jobs by 50% I reckon. I tend to be able to get anything the impact won't immediately open with the breaker bar then spin it with the impact. You'll start the long slippery slo[pe of tools yet, I reckon I've enough tools now to rival most garages!

ReverendCounter

6,087 posts

175 months

Friday 28th May 2021
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When you put the seals in and push the driveshafts back in, it's easy to damage them again - I struggled a bit with one of the shafts and pushed it home a bit too hard, causing the damage - I didn't find out until everything was back together again.

Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Sunday 6th June 2021
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So the impact did a superb job of taking the suspension apart but I made a very rookie error and used it to put on wheel nuts without hand threading first... and stripped one of the threads. I'm really hoping its only the first few threads that are damaged and I can get it on or alternatively I can tap it without needing to replace the hub ... lesson learned!

Got the passenger side suspension back together last weekend. Realised my torque wrench doesn't go to a high enough number for the hub nut ... planning to just do it up as tight as I can with a breaker bar. Should be fine ... Also, was amazed at how low the tightening torque figure was for the arb and ball joint nuts. Will need to put it in for an alignment anyway so might ask the mechanics to have a quick look over the suspension to make sure it all looks correct.

Got the driver side driveshaft out and replaced today, was a bit more difficult as it was pretty seized into both the hub and the intermediary bearing, but got it out eventually. Got VERY messy in doing so - clearly the driveshaft oil seal has been leaking for some time, it was everywhere. I was reasonably careful with the seals but did have to hammer them home with my rubber mallet. I'll be rather dejected if they leak after all this ...

Also replaced the exhaust gasket where I had a leak. Hopefully does the job.

So, just passenger side wishbone and track rod end to fit, fill gearbox up with oil and then can either take it for its maiden journey or cry when something is not done properly ....


1602Mark

16,205 posts

172 months

Monday 7th June 2021
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Good luck! Fingers crossed for you after all your hard work.

Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Sunday 13th June 2021
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It is alive and off my drive! It's also running okay, but with a few issues:

1) I managed to cross-thread a stupid wheel nut and it's now spinning in its hole. Ugh. I need to put it in for tracking and might see if it is something they can sort.
2) Think the exhaust is still leaking a bit, despite me changing the gasket. Another one I might see if the garage can sort.
3) It will run quite well with the choke out but even after ten minutes or so of running it will still stall if I put the choke in. Any ideas? Just need to get it warmer? Carb need adjusted?
4) There is a loud click coming from the n/s rear. Doesn't really sound like a suspension knock (could the rear beam even knock) as it isn't consistent with speed bumps etc. Possibly the rear drum is seized?

TEKNOPUG

18,843 posts

204 months

Sunday 13th June 2021
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Cascade360 said:


It is alive and off my drive! It's also running okay, but with a few issues:

1) I managed to cross-thread a stupid wheel nut and it's now spinning in its hole. Ugh. I need to put it in for tracking and might see if it is something they can sort.
2) Think the exhaust is still leaking a bit, despite me changing the gasket. Another one I might see if the garage can sort.
3) It will run quite well with the choke out but even after ten minutes or so of running it will still stall if I put the choke in. Any ideas? Just need to get it warmer? Carb need adjusted?
4) There is a loud click coming from the n/s rear. Doesn't really sound like a suspension knock (could the rear beam even knock) as it isn't consistent with speed bumps etc. Possibly the rear drum is seized?
1. Probably need a new wheel hub flange. Doubt it can easily be drilled and tapped.

3. Start with the idle control screw. That controls the amount of air entering at idle. Once the engine is up to temp, you should be able to set the desired idle via the screw. I had a 1.1 205 and I used to set the idle low to save fuel but then there wasn't enough power going to the alternator and the lights would all dim.....lol. Would undoubtedly benefit from a rebuild.

4. Is the clicking continuous and speed related? Probably wheel bearing.

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Sunday 13th June 11:52

Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Sunday 13th June 2021
quotequote all
TEKNOPUG said:
1. Probably need a new wheel hub flange. Doubt it can easily be drilled and tapped.

3. Start with the idle control screw. That controls the amount of air entering at idle. Once the engine is up to temp, you should be able to set the desired idle via the screw. I had a 1.1 205 and I used to set the idle low to save fuel but then there wasn't enough power going to the alternator and the lights would all dim.....lol. Would undoubtedly benefit from a rebuild.

4. Is the clicking continuous and speed related? Probably wheel bearing.

Edited by TEKNOPUG on Sunday 13th June 11:52
1. Drat. I really don't want to take the suspension apart again.

3. Thanks will give that a bash.

4. Not really, its quite loud but only every now and again. It isnt constant. It seemed to happen most when at very low speed.

TEKNOPUG

18,843 posts

204 months

Sunday 13th June 2021
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Cascade360 said:
1. Drat. I really don't want to take the suspension apart again.
You might be able to convert the hub to studs and nuts, rather than bolts. The garage may be able to weld the stud in the goosed hole. Pretty common on GTis (stud conversion rather than the welding),as it makes it easier to mount the wheels.

Cascade360

Original Poster:

11,574 posts

84 months

Sunday 13th June 2021
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Just got under the back of the car and i can swing the backbox into the side of the car pretty easily. The knock might as mundane as that...