Pas de feux électriques s'il vous plaît - Further Partridge PSA rammel

[Partridge]

I've had this since June, and thought it was high time I wrote a thread for it.

After three years of compulsively checking Autotrader/eBay/Car&Classic for another SVE, I'm once again behind the wheel of one of my dream cars. A Citroen XM would be easy to find, and even though they ride 5% better I just prefer how V6 605s drive. Imagine a FWD e39 with very light and smooth steering and you're on the right track. The Pininfarina lines of the 605 do a lot more for me than the XM, and Peugeot's take on how a French exec should look doesn't have the pretentious "oooh it's a spaceship" bollocks which many French car fisters attach to the XM.

But Partridge, you say: if you loved it so much, why did you get rid of your old one? It overheated and chucked its coolant at random intervals, and had buggered electrics which resulted in it having adorable, very amusing little electrical fires. After leaving a job which drove me to the brink of a mental breakdown, it had to go. Scenes like this became far too regular.

But I loved it all the same, and vowed to one day find a nice one.

 

"One day" happened in June, when Mrs P found it on eBay. So we sent them a message which went something like:

 

LOL HELLO I BUY 605 WITHOUT SEEING LOL HA HA

 

Sadly, this is the only collection picture I have, taken on the seller's driveway.

We drove to Bournemouth from Northants, to pick up a car we'd bought unseen. Given how my last one treated me, I was feeling tense at this point. 

Tense mixed with a surreal sense of excitement. I finally, I was in a 605 again. I forgot how nice they smell, a weird mix of a leather goods shop and warm electrics and plastics - a heady combination I'm sure you'll all agree.

 

The battery was dead, needing a jump start if the car was even turned off and left for seconds. Guess which moron left the jump leads in the East Midlands?

Luckily, there was a Halfords nearby, so in I went to buy jump leads. Despite it already smelling ambrosial, I bought an air freshener. But it turned out to smell like a mix of sick and shower gel, so I stopped in a KFC to throw it in the bin. Sadly, no photographic evidence is available of this event.

 

On the drive back I discovered that the radio display wasn't working (a big shame as they are damn sexy LCD displays in these cars) but it did have a free Craig David CD in the changer. Bo Selecta!

 

We stayed at my parent's overnight, who were thrilled* at a Xantia AND a 605 setting up camp outside. It was such a hot day, the little hook that held the rear blind for Xantia up melted. I was annoyed at the time, but one month later it gave birth to a core plug, so I guess it didn't matter very much.

 

It made it back home without incident, where it could meet the 405. They seem to get along OK.

.

 

The battery was replaced pretty pronto, but what else was on the list?

 

Service

Solve power steering belt squeak

Solve misfire

Fix rubbish paint

 

Service was first up, and was more eventful than planned.

One of the guys in the garage was tracing an electrical fault on a Lexus RX, and had a fit because he thought the battery had melted. Nope, just the acrid stench of the thick black gunk coming out of the old fuel filter on my 605. They had never seen anything like it. The exhaust is now smelling much less fruity, and she's running a tad smoother, and the MPG is now up by about two points. I think she needed it quite badly.

 

When I get it home, it occurs to me that I've never fully gone through the parts and bit and bobs the seller had in the boot, left over from the guy before him (an enthusiast named John from Essex - ring any bells here?)  What do I find? A fucking service kit.

 

Next up, power steering squeak. The nice man from Essex had helpfully left a new belt in the boot, so off comes the old one. The old one was so corroded, dry and cracked I don't think it would have lasted very much longer. Moral of the story? If you find parts/service items in the boot, they're probably there for a reason.

 

Power steering squeak not gone though. Power steering squeak still present. Balls. A new pump will be next.

 

The misfire has been traced to a faulty coil pack, which you can actually hear ark as the car splutters. It's not a very bad misfire, but obviously it's not something I want.

 

That's about where I am with it. The last couple of months I have been using her a lot more than I would have liked, because after my Xantia blew up, the 405 went into storage for winter and my Sterling died, I don't have very much choice. Thankfully, they've not been chucking awful amounts of salt onto the roads around here, courtesy of this warm winter (thanks global warming, but did you really have to break my Xantia's sunblind?).

 

A new daily is looming thanks to a friend lending me a car, so soon she can have a rest until the Spring, when the pump and coil pack will be done, then she's off for paintwork...that's the plan anyway.

[Junkman]

 

EPIK WOOLLARD PHALE M9

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

RWK = probz Ryton on Dunsmore m8 EX PUGOET MANGEMENT CAR

[Lacquer Peel]

RWK = probz Ryton on Dunsmore m8 EX PUGOET MANGEMENT CAR

Did anyone else "buy" them?

 

I had a brief shot of SVXconglomerate's 605 diesel, they're a bit like a 406 but with pointy/wedgy styling. I like them.

 

Is this a PRV V6 then?

[Partridge]

Did anyone else "buy" them?

 

I had a brief shot of SVXconglomerate's 605 diesel, they're a bit like a 406 but with pointy/wedgy styling. I like them.

 

Is this a PRV V6 then?

Not really. By the end of production they'd all but given up selling and marketing them in the UK. A lot of fleets were refusing to have them as well, thanks to epic depreciation and a pretty woeful reputation thanks to some flaky early cars. Shame, because they'd licked a lot of the quality niggles and gremlins by the time of the late phase twos.

 

I'm yet to drive his diesel, but I'm told it's gr13.

 

This is the PRV, yeah. We never got the ES9 here, which is a shame because I think the PRV is quite a nasty thing. Nice motor spoiled by a crap engine.

[Partridge]

RWK = probz Ryton on Dunsmore m8 EX PUGOET MANGEMENT CAR

Yup. The rear number plate still has Peugeot insignia on it. I bumped into a guy at The Festival of The Unexceptional who used to work for Peugeot who confirmed our theory.

 

Or as I think of P RWK - Peugeots Running With Kseal.