mat_the_cat

Trying to check for further water leaks proved the boot lid isn't the only one! It's definitely coming through the rear quarter window seals, although between the metal and glass rather than between glass and seal. I thought best to check for rust where the panel meets the sill, as it's common for the sealant to crack and rust to get a hold. Looks pretty good to me! Checking the other side was not quite as good news, as it's obviously had the panel replaced. But it's actually a sign the car has been looked after I reckon. It's obviously not a recent repair given all the dust on it, and looking at the panel date, it must have been fitted in the early 2000s. The sill below it is original and undistorted, so for someone to have replaced the entire panel with a genuine OE one, when the car is near the bottom of its depreciation curve, shows it wasn't viewed as a banger. I think most cars of that age would have been filled with wob, if they were repaired at all for what must have been a fairly minor dent. They look to have done a proper job too, with cavity wax sprayed in the seams. I wiped off the grime and all looks good underneath. Thought it best to spray some more wax in on both sides to keep it looking good.

Looks like better weather than here, it's chucking it down at the moment! I got 70 miles into the journey last night when I was alerted by a slight burning rubber smell. Pulled into a Pizza Hut car park and smoke was coming from the alternator belt, and sparks coming from the AC compressor clutch bearing. Ordered a pizza (well, might as well seeing as I'm there!), wandered into the nearby Sainsburys to get some spray oil to stop it seizing, and limped back home keeping the revs down.

The solution has done its job, time to flip over.

Already replaced, but I didn't intend to post up the 'before' picture seeing as I'd forgotten to take one afterwards!

There's a few issues to address, such as a binding handbrake cable, worn front ball joint and track rod end - so naturally today's job was to make a start on sorting out the air filter housing. Looks like the filter is just about due for a change also. There's a bracket which screws to the exhaust manifold, and in turn is bolted to the air filter housing. Someone has committed the cardinal sin of using two unmatched nuts, so I replaced them with a pair of rivnuts (which will make it less fiddly to remove in the future). More importantly though, the bracket was just resting in place on the manifold, with a single M6 screw sitting loosely in the M7 hole. The threads were a little rusty so I cleaned them up with a tap. Then after a fair old rummage managed to find two suitable screws. I've wire brushed the housing and left it to soak in Deox C. There's not quite enough to completely immerse it as I also have a Land Rover wheel in there, but it's interesting to see the removal process in action. I reckon by morning that'll be shiny, including in the seams, so I'll flip it over in due course.

I've just gone through some old photos of all the 205s @Puglet has had... First one (and newest!) was this XE, photo from 1998 I reckon, on holiday in Kent. Next was the XS, here seen on holiday I think near Avebury with a youthful looking me in around 2000. Note the new tent, which Shitefest visitors may recognise! A photo proving that it's not just me who does the spannering! Next was an XLD owned briefly, but I can't find any of this. The XS was sold in 2003, but soon a 1.6 GTi joined the fleet a year or so later. This was sometimes used for production car trials, which was a lot of fun. We fitted the Mi16 engine to it in 2005, but unfortunately only have this one photo of the installation, with which I was quite pleased how it looked (and performed!)

After a little while longer it's all gone. TBH, I was using it at the minimum strength of 1 kg to 20 water, so have ordered a bit more so I can do them faster. Still, it's not a bad result for little effort; all I did with the wire brush was to remove any flaking rust and paint. I've now put a coat of galvanising primer on, and moved onto the next wheel.

I could have sworn they'd gone last time I looked, but clearly mistaken. I hoped they'd been moved to work on them, as they must have been there at least 10 years. Yes, underlay is hanging up drying out in the house, as it's hard to dry in the car. Carpet has been lifted up and a fan heater directed underneath it so all is dry now. It's been outside for a couple of weeks before she bought it, and when we first saw it I could have sworn they were dry. The back seat bases were soaking though, and we left them up - so what I figured was happening is they were no longer able to act as a sponge to soak up the water from the boot leak. It's still possible there is another leak from the front mind, and we just didn't notice it before.

One of those jobs, albeit minor, was to tidy up the wiring. I don't know who did this, or why (but I will look for you, I *will* find you, and I will kill you ) Although in reality I'll just use a particular set of skills to do a neater job. First soldered the wires together, then insulated them with glue-lined heat shink. Then another piece of heat shrink over the whole lot, and job done.

Hey, I'm hopefully bringing 'my bird' (@Puglet) who's now joined up here. I suspect she'll be in a minority though

Tyres removed, and prior to wire brushing. Rust has crept into the seam, so unable to mechanically remove. My plan is to dunk in Bilt Hamber Deox C, and allow to remove the rust over a day or two. It works much faster when warm, but after 12 hours still has more to do. But looking a helluva lot better already!

That was a good summer weekend by Welsh standards!

Time to get into my transport for the 2 mile trip into the nearest town. The weather was being predictably Welsh, but at least passing scenery such as the local sewage works. Poo count: yes. Also passing more mundane sights such as mountains... ...rivers... ...and forests... Nothing much else to see on the journey, apart from this pair of 2CVs. I'll let @Puglet continue the collection, seeing as it is her car!

How well do the tapers match? I wonder if it wasn't seating as well as it ought. I've come across a vehicle where the nut had bottomed out on the thread before seating the taper - which in this case manifested itself as a clonk rather than working loose however. I've heard of nylocks working loose, but only from those selling an alternative solution, and never a real-life situation!

Well, the first installment of the 205 purchase is here - thanks to @eifion we now have a jack! The plan is for her to collect the car tomorrow, after an epically long journey...

There's a couple of common failure modes - a common one is losing the motor earth from the control panel (pin 3). You can link it to the lighting earth, although I can't remember which that is off hand. The other is corrosion between the transistor in the blower housing, and its contacts, as it earths through the case. I wrote a guide some years back on the BXC forum.

By rheostat do you mean the control dial on the dashboard, or the transistor module (often incorrectly referred to on the BX as heater resistor) in the blower housing? Both can give trouble. I wonder whether to offer a service for reconditioning the latter, as I've done a few now.

If you were dissatisfied with the performance you could always make a tasteful upgrade?

Well, it's too late for advice now seeing as @Puglet has phoned up the seller and agreed to buy! It does mean though, that it'd be possible to recreate a similar photo to this one from 2001:

I'd disagree with lasting forever - I'm having to redo the ones I changed on the Stellar just 20 short years ago! The other point is that they soften more at higher temperatures, so be cautious if using close to an exhaust manifold.

We dropped off a vehicle at my local garage recently, and my wife happened to spot this awaiting work in their yard... I enquired about it, and turns out it's in for a few jobs before sale. Started out life in Cyprus, and has had long periods of dry storage over here so the shell is very good - better than the ones she had when they were 10 years old. It's also had a documented engine rebuild from a specialist, who she's been in touch with to confirm. The garage put it up on their ramp so we could check it over today, and although not perfect, it only seems to be minor stuff. One trackrod end and lower ball joint CV joint Fuel hoses Temperature gauge inoperative and high idle when warm (I think seperate sensors so possibly not linked) Sticking handbrake cables Low alternator output Coolant level sensor telling lies Missing jack Missing door pocket but otherwise great condition interior. I know most will just say get it bought, but any sober voices of reason out there to say why not? £7.5k which although is a lot, now seems towards the cheaper end of the range. And I'd rather be changing suspension and brakes than welding a rotten shell!

Never one to rush into anything, I've finally got round to buying these! I'd been pretty sure that I wanted to stick with the 7.50R16 size, partly for looks but mainly to avoid buying new wheels. But that limited my choices to mostly either mud terrains, or copies of orginally fitted tyres. I did like the look of some of those, but plenty of comments about poor wet traction - and for a vehicle which is actually used it seems best to take advantages of improvements in tyre technology. These seem to be the only all terrain tyre with the 3PSMF marking available in that size. As usual though, there's a bit of mossion creep. The wheels are looking shabby, but I was quoted £375 to refurbish them, or in other words more than buying brand new wheels! So I'm going to attempt it myself, but doing a longer lasting job than the iLoad wheels...

I'm unsure whether the peak current output or the capacity (at a low current draw) decline at the same sort of rate, so may well be suited to that task for a while. Think they require a slightly higher float voltage to charge *fully*, but like you say for a freebie, worth making use of.

I hope know you've kept the old one to weigh in! You're right about the stop/start functionality - Lana's Honda lost that without us really noticing (given the lack of scenarios locally that trigger it) before the battery failed after an hour of ignition on and engine off. It's still been able to crank over my XUD BX for the last 5 months though!

For the next 20 years!