This 205 Sceptred Bilge - fingers crossed

[M'coli]

I've been hunting for a relief motor for some time: I'd planned to buy a Rover 114GSi from some young twit but that fell through. So last Wednesday I travelled to Northallerton to see this Peugeot 106 diesel:

It's as rough as it looks, with knobs on: it was filthy, the white paint had somehow stained beige and the front bumper had been replaced but ran and drove ok enough. The boot wouldn't unlock nor open, and there was a 165r13 on one of the back wheels rather than 165/70r13 - if it had a pair that wouldn't be a problem, but it just wasn't right.

Then I went to see this little beauty* in Batley on Friday - another 106 diesel, one of the very first phase 2s. Oddly enough, it was the same colour as my wife's 106 - the opportunity for his'n'hers Harold and Hilda stylee Peugeot 106s was possible!

It too was rough, but didn't seem as bad as the other one and also drove well enough. However, it was supposed to have had 12 months MOT stuck on it since the advert had been placed but the battery clamp was lying about in the scuttle and the wipers did not "adequately clear the screen"... Added to this, there was a hint of red paint under the green of the front bumper, and the rear one wasn't body coloured so I expected it had had a bump. I went home to sleep on it.

I slept on it, and HPi'd it and knocked it back...CatC in 2008, CatD in 1998!

So I did a bit more trawling - this Peugeot 205 Sceptre TD had been advertised last weekend but the advert had been taken down because the vendor had been away working - Friday night it had reappeared so yesterday I went to look at it. Honest looking, honest vendor, it drove well and stopped well too, felt good and the paperwork was in order - it's even had some work done in the past by the garage I take my cars to for MOT, so today I bought it! It's quite nice to drive, and decently pokey - faster 30-60 than the Cavalier anyway .




It needs a parcel shelf (I could sort out a plywood one), a 6"x4" plate welding into the boot, the windscreen washers sorting out, the driver's window mechanism lubricating and a tyre fitting as it's on the limit. I'll also do a cambelt change on it too.

[Cavcraft]

Wow, that's fab. I don't think the boot floor is an MOT fail on these either (stand to be corrected though) and it'll be a blast to drive.

 

God loves an L8 TRYA

[M'coli]

Cheers! Oh, aye, it cost me just short of £400, tax end May and MOT middle of November.

[HillmanImp]

Nice. That first 106 looked amazingly shite.

 

Will keep my eye out for it.

[barmatt]

Bargaintastic doozil pug you got there

 

Got to be good for 50+mpg and iirc these don't mind drinking a bit of veg for added win.

[M'coli]

Alas, no: it has a Lucas pump, so no veggie goodness for me. The 50+ mpg will have to do .

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I would eat that between two slices of mothers pride.

 

That first 106 looks a total shitheap, I would love to see the face of the guy who decides to tray and off load that onto a member of the car-buying public

[M'coli]

Oddly enough, I'd have trusted the first 106 more than the second - the second had a burst odometer that hadn't seemed to register many miles since 2004 according to the HPi check, but the first one would have cleaned up well enough - I just didn't get the right vibe from the dealer. He knew it was cheap being a trade-in and also knew that someone would come along and not sweep it with such a critical eye* and not notice the stand-out faults (it's a 3-door car - it's not a big deal to expect the 3 doors to open, is it?) and not budge on price.

 

 

*I'm on nights, so had been awake for about 47 hours of the previous 52 or so - all I can say is:

1 - how much less observant does he want his customers to be, and

2 - that "Relentless" stuff is ok...

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I llike the idea of a 'burst mileometer'! "yeah I drove that old thing so far that the mileometer literally BURST while I was going up the M42, springs and cogs and that everywhere"

[Shep Shepherd]

A friend of mine had a 205 almost identical to yours as his first car. It fell victim to the scrappage scheme, sadly

[KruJoe]

Tidy looking Septic you've found Cameron! I can confirm these things have the ability to shift when asked, you wouldn't think it looking at one.

PM about bits now replied to.

[Cavcraft]

it's a 3-door car - it's not a big deal to expect the 3 doors to open, is it?

 

Yes.

It's a Peugeot, they all do that, sir. In fact, of the countless ones I've owned over the years, I'd be willing to bet less than 5% of them had fully functioning doors, or central locking.

My hatchback hasn't got central locking but the boot won't open and the driver's door lock is bollocksed, and the estate does have central locking but it doesn't lock the n/s/f door. Except the odd time it does lock that door, then none of the others will play ball.

[Guest]

It's a French thing. The central locking on my Murena only works if you say some very bad French words at it, and even then only sometimes.

 

In the interests of pan-European harmonisation, I add that I have just sprayed approx 497 cans of WD40 into the passenger door bits of the red Rangey, simply in order to get the buggah to open. Old cars are like old ladies, and sensibly become less keen on blokes getting into them as time goes by.

 

NB: In the (admittedly unlikely) event that any member of Autoshite actually knows an actual woman, I accept no liability to anyone who opts to use the 497 cans of WD40 technique on a lady of their acquaintance.

[M'coli]

Not been anywhere in this yet, partly because there's a tyre on the limit (the spare looks like it's the origina, it has the numbers "194" on it where you'd expect to find the datestamp) but also because I've been busy doing other stuff. I have had a look at the washer bottle, there's power going to the pump and the pump will draw electricity, but there's no pumping action. Bother.

 

Also, it's been smoked in - I'll be buying some Febreeze tomorrow!

[dieselnutjob]

None of the door handles on any of my Peugeots have been anywhere nearly unreliable as the 1996 VW Passat that I owned.

[HillmanImp]

None of the door handles on any of my Peugeots have been anywhere nearly unreliable as the 1996 VW Passat that I owned.

 

Will these be the same as the ones on the Audi 100? When I got Auschwitz LankyTim gave me a box with about 20 door handles in it as the Audi ones are apparently very unreliable. He had lifted some everytime he saw any in the scrapyard.

 

Thankfully I have only had a problem with one of them on the drivers door but there are plenty spare if Volksy has any further door handle related problems.

[Volksy]

To be honest, both rear ones are starting to fail. MOT in two days too..

[M'coli]

They won't be, I think - do they have the little lever behind the handle like this?

or does the handle pull out by about 10mm?

Both are shonky, not helped by ham-fisted cunts; example (1) - despite having a degree in engineering, a friend's brother nearly tore the first type out of my dad's B2 Passat whilst complaining that the door wouldn't open and kept yanking it harder and ignoring my shouts to use the lever or else you'll break it, and (2) the later type just get abused because the metal behind them is soft and cunts just try to open the door by ripping the handle out of the doorframe, rather than bracing their thumb against the static part of the handle and letting the door unlock before pulling it open.

 

Oddly enough, it's a 2000 Polo estate that's made me check whether the advertised number of doors operate as they should do - I've still got a repair kit for one side.

[M'coli]

Well, 4 weeks in and I'm getting used to it - I've made a parcel shelf out of cardboard in the interim, and despite tending to boot it around everywhere, I'm not displeased with 48mpg.

 

However, there is a problem on the horizon - the "tiny bubbles". Looks like the headgasket is on the way out, it's using water at the rate of about a litre a day. Where would I be able to get a manual or pdf on headgasket renewal for this engine? Any special tools or things to look out for with the turbodiesel engine? Will the valves need stripping out of the head if it needs a skim?

[catsinthewelder]

I've got an HBOL for these engines, I'll sneak it into work and have a go at photocopying the relevent bits if I get chance. PM your address over.

[M'coli]

Thanks, Cats, that's a very kind offer - I've hopefully reserved a copy of the HBOL at the libary and I'll pick it up tomorrow on my way to Plunkett's/Unipart in Harrogate.

 

Been to see my tame garage about getting the winter tyres swapped off of the Cavalier, seeing as it's back to commuting duty - they reckon about £6-700 for the job including a pressure test on the head and all new belts and that. Seeing as I'm on a zero hours contract at the moment, I reckon that taking a week off to do the job would see me better off than them doing it! Hopefully it won't take a week...

 

This brings me on to the "roadtest" element of ownership, so here goes!

 

When I first got it on the road, it was during that last really cold spell, and the first thing I noticed was how much softer the ride appeared compared to the Cavalier. Granted, the cold would have made the factory dampers behave as they should do by thickening the oil in them so it was not really objective - the Cavalier's on 185/55r15 tyres (Pug 1.9GTi OE fit, oddly enough) and Monroe Gasmatics - 20% stiffer, and as is the Autoshite way, bought from eBay when there was no demand for such things and thus a tenner a corner ) while the 205's on 165/70r13 and original dampers(judging by the corrosion on the body of the rear ones) but in the intervening weeks the 205's become a little bit "floaty".

 

The 205's power steering's ok, not too light and with good enough feel - no where near as good as the ex-dollywobbler C900 but far better than the 2000 Polo Cordoba estate that I had, it was a bit "10-johnnies", even the Zetor 7245 I drove as a student on a farm had better power-steering better than that thing...

[M'coli]

This bastard's fighting me every step of the way as I perform its heid gasket change.  More troubles later, but first, many thanks to Will (explosive-cabbage) for furnishing me with a head bolt washer last week, this allowed me to torque down the head yesterday before my operated-on knee swelled up and stopped play.

 

Today, the timing belt went back on, timed up, spun the engine over using a socket on the crank pulley - the glowplugs are out - and everything seems ok.

 

So why is the belt "walking" its way off the pulleys?  Not just a wee bit either, about 5/16" or 7mm in the space of 5 or 6 revolutions.  Sitting here, thinking about it though, I haven't re-attached the tensioner pulley's top bolt - would this cause it?

[explosive-cabbage]

Tightening theat bolt might help it. Just keep turning it over and it will bed in to a place that it feels comfortable. As long as it isn't hanging over the side of the pulley by more than a couple of mm it should be fine.

[M'coli]

Thanks - I'll tighten that bolt, but if that doesn't work I'll shim up the idler with tin foil/beer can to steer it back in.  It's the alacrity at which it appeared to walk off the pulleys that surprised me - the Cavalier's had this problem too but it wasn't bad enough to worry about but this occured in the space of about 5 revolutions.

 

As to other reasons why it's fighting me every step of the way, let's rewind to replacing the tensioner itself...

 

The Haynes "book of lies" states that there is a tool that can be used to retract the plunger that presses against the tensioner and thus allows the changing of the tensioner.  I had a quick swatch at things and realised that pushing the plunger in with a piece of wood (actually part of the old back door step of fthe house proved to be about the right length) secured on the deck would allow the old tensioner to be removed, I also realised that if this slipped off then the whole plunger would burst out and spring out into next door's garden, and if I tried this from under the car possibly taking most of my eye with it...

 

So, from the top of the car, I attempted to put the new tensioner on the engine.  No go.  New one out, old one back on, no problem.  Old one out, new one, not fitting - what's the difference?  So I looked at them side-by-side.

 

They work by pivoting around a central point, and the plunger acts on one end of the pivot.  When the original ones were made as fitted to this engine, the 4-5mm thick steel they were made of was bent up at 90 whereby the edge  formed a 4-5 mm pad that bore upon the tensioner plunger.  The new one was differently arranged, and the whole thing was bent around to form a 20-25mm pad that the plunger bears upon - but unfortunately this also covers the area that I have jammed the lump of wood under.

 

Ok, I thought, I'll resort to the HBOL tool that slots into the two boltholes that hold the engine mount onto the engine...except that one of the bolts that needs to be removed to do this is too long to be removed while the chassis rail is in the way.  Bah!

 

Well, let's look at this objectively - the original is but 5mm wide, and the new one is far wider than that - let's cut a bit off of it using a plasma disc in the angle grinder - so this is what I did.  After taking 5-6 mm off of the new one, it fitted onto the engine just fine.  However, even this was not without its hitches - the first plasma disc disintegrated (exploded, more like) before the angle grinder had even reached full speed...

Then there's the fact that I've got a scar on my thumb that will be with me for life due to the turbo oil return pipe hose clip slicing its way 1/4" inch under my skin as I loosened the turbo oil feed pipe union - soon to appear in a thread entitled "Cars and their scars".

[explosive-cabbage]

Keep going at it. It'll come true.

 

Hope it's at Chodfest...

[The Moog]

this sounds the opposite to my 306 tensioner. the old one was a large pad and the new one a thin bar. When I changed mine the pivot unscrewed as the nut was seized. So much fun trying to compress plunger whilst screwing back in pivot. In the end I got an old chisel and put a trolley jack under it then jacked it up to hold plunger in. Worked a treat

[explosive-cabbage]

Where are you located Cameron?

[M'coli]

I'm in Wetherby - and just heading out to try this belt again!

[M'coli]

Well, that's another 4 hours of my life I'll never get back due to this car.

 

Here's a picture of the head, post-skim.  "What was it - 5 thou' or so?"  "Double it, and add some - it were well out," said the guy at the machine shop.

 

 

I'd taken the water pump off to see if it had seated poorly, so that went back on.  Next, the belt had to be put back, so the tensioner plunger tool had to be deployed.

 

You can see why I've had to cut a bit off of the tensioner to allow enough room for the tool to compress the plunger (the nickel-plated round bit), but because I wasn't changing it here (yet... ...spoilers! ) I just wedged the tool onto the tensioner itself.

 

Once the belt was on, I tightened up the tensioner and spun it over - after 40 turns, the belt looked like this:-

 

 

Ok, let's try a shim under the idler bearing:- 20 revolutions later...

 

 

The shim was removed, and I decided to try the old tensioner to see if it made any difference - it didn't!  While they were off, I took a photo to illustrate the difference in their ends.

 

 

The last chance was to shim-up the tensioner itself, so a 20 thou shim was created using the lid of a mackeral tin and stuck under the pivot end of the tensioner - and success, it no longer tries to walk off the outside of the pulleys.  I realise that the crank pulley would probably manage to keep it from walking its way off completely, but that would mean only 80% of the belt would be on the top pulleys, and it might try to wear its way out of the belt covers.

 

Next: more pain and misery.

[explosive-cabbage]

Hmmm don't like the look of that head...

It should be fine but taking too much metal off only risks weakening the structure of the head.

Anyway.

Just leave the top belt covers off, they don't do much other than stop babies/ tie ends getting sucked into the cambelt. Not that that is going to happen anyway! Hope you can make ot to Shitefest!