I'll get round to it at some point - 205 problems but my Pug ain’t one; an MOT pass

[Rust Collector]

A quick update on the Alfa is due;

I’ve held off making a video as I want to fix the fuel lines before then so it remains coherent. I did get the lines removed though, what a fucking bollocks of a job.

This is what came out:

One end is fitted into the nylon line, the other goes into this on the feed:

It looks like nylon line with rubber hose over the top. It has a quick connect on the other end.

The evap line ends with a quick connect flare.

When I get paid this month, I’ll buy the cheap Chinese copy of the tool that makes these flares. I’ll then be in a position to make the lines up out of 8mm copper line.

Until then she sits on stands, waiting. I don’t want to do the welding whilst the fuel lines are cut in half…

In exciting* Mercedes news, the DVLA vehicle checker shows that they’ve issued a new logbook for the E320. When that lands, I’ll SORN it and then drive it in for an MOT.

That brings an end to the content that is solely car related. The following is more car tangential.

At present we are trying to change a lot of the furniture in the house, to try and make the most of the small space we have, we don’t have a huge budget for this though. The opportunity to obtain a bunk bed suitable for our y toddlers came up, with one catch; even dismantled it was fucking massive.

I contemplated taking the car trailer, but was worried that it might be wet out and that the bed would get knackered. Instead, I borrowed my mum’s horse box, which is almost like a box trailer but with more shit on the floor. I forgot that I re-wired it for a 13 pin connector, and couldn’t find my 13 pin adapter, so I ended up swapping my disco 3 for her disco 3.

Mission complete:

Clearing up the garden came next. I had loads of my crap spread over the patio, I also had loads of the branches I had pruned earlier in the year stacked in the corner. I tidied my crap up, then bought this thing:

I love it, I don’t know why I haven’t bought one before. It absolutely pissed through what I had to shred, and so I set about hacking more down.

 I’ve got loads more to do, but now I can shed the waste rather than do a tip run, my enthusiasm is much improved.

 Next in the garden clear up is my goal to move all my car parts to some sort of shed in my storage yard. I want to downsize the shed I have in the garden, it’s 10’ x 8’ on a 12’ x 10’ pad. Haunting image below:

I want to use half the pad as a patio dining area, and only have gardening tools in the replacement shed. My garage will be for car tools and work benches.

The Land Rover is wank on fuel, so I want to move everything with the Clio. The Clio is small inside, so obviously the solution is a trailer… I do have a gardening trailer, but it has been on long term loan to my dad and it is feeling a little sad as a result:

Im pretty sure the wood is going soft, so obviously the solution is to replace the wood get more fucked trailers.

First up was this one, which came home in an unconventional manner.

It’s 4’ x 3’ and can apparently carry 200kg. I jumped up and down in it and didn’t go through the floor, so it’s not rotten. I think the indespension units have seen better days, and one bearing is rough. It needs re-wiring too. Looks like it’ll do ok behind the Clio though:

This was a freebie and wasn’t actually what I was after, I wanted something a bit bigger. So today I went and picked up something that was bigger than I was after.

Unbelievably, the brake system has the potential to work - I’ve never managed to buy a trailer with anything approaching working brakes. The handbrake actuates the brakes happily, so I will look at servicing the hitch. Otherwise it’s pretty sturdy (ignore my structural ratchet strap). It was apparently built to move bails originally, and has leaf spring suspension and 5 bolt hubs. I haven’t looked in detail, but I reckon it’s probably a 1.2t-ish axle. I’m unlikely to load it anywhere near that. It needs some proper lighting, I need to make a break away system, and I’ll have a better look over the chassis, but I’m quite pleased with this one.

It absolutely dwarfs the smaller one:

I haven’t hitched it to the Clio yet, but I imagine it’ll look bloody silly. It may only get used on the Land Rover, which defeats the point of the operation. I may have to get another trailer.

Looping back to sorting the house out, today I went and picked up a secondhand corner sofa that was free to a good home. This one necessitated the biggest trailer in the fleet.

Meanwhile the Land Rover was stuffed full of pillows.

I got home without losing the sofas, and my family were pretty happy with the outcome:

I am on the lookout for a corner fish tank, so I can get rid of the current one and move the sofa to another wall. I’m sure that’s a trailer adventure for another day though.

That pretty much brings us up to date; I will hopefully be moving some cars off the driveway soon, but other than that there probably isn’t going to be much car stuff happening until later in the month.

[High Jetter]

Shredder? What's wrong with a pyramid of wood and a few matches? 🤣

[Rust Collector]

This weekend I spent a bit of time on the trailers, as I’ll be needing to do a few tip runs and so having the trailers in a useable condition will be a big help. Plus, we all know what happens when I bring in a project and then don’t get straight on with it.

First up was the small trailer. From my quick glance over it when I got it, the points that needed sorting were:

• Sort out the wiring for the lights.
• Service the bearings.
• Pump up the tyres.
• Fit a safety chain.

I set about the wiring first, as this is normally the most tedious job. My first impression was that the plug had been cut off the wiring, but when I was unable to pull the wiring out the draw bar it was revealed that the plug was lodged inside. I had to get a bit creative to pull it out.

What then took place was a complete faff of bad earths, bad connectors, and me mistakenly assuming that the trailer plug on the Clio worked correctly.

After realising the car was throwing an unknown variable into the mix, I made this fire hazard and did a bit more diagnostickery.

I bodged in a waterproof connector temporarily* too.

This dicking around, plus some contact cleaner, resulted in a full compliment of lights. I took the trailer for a run around the neighbourhood just to see how it towed.

Verdict: I can probably ignore the bearings until I want to do longer journeys (the tip is about 5 roads from my house). Fuck me do small trailers take off when they hit potholes though, I definitely need to get a cargo net for it otherwise it will be vomiting my junk out along the way.

Big trailer next then. It had a trailer board that was made for it, so I took off the caravan board I had on it and fitted the wooden one that it came with.

It looks a bit derpy, but the width matches the wheel arches and the height has presumably been determined to avoid smashing the lights when the tailgate comes down. Wiring next then:

To my amazement, when I tested the wiring I found only one bulb wasn’t functioning. A splash of contact cleaner later, and I had all the lights working.

Again, I fitted a waterproof connector.

When I can be bothered to find my heat gun, I’ll shrink that heat shrink.

I had a length of 7 core cable with a plug on it in the garage, so I ran that under the chassis of the trailer and cable tied it on.

I followed up by throwing on the other end of the waterproof connector.

Job jobbed!

I’ve tested them from the plug, and they’re all working correctly at present.

I need to clean and grease the bearings on this, as they’re missing their caps… I will replace them (the bearings and dust caps) prior to any long runs, but again tip runs shouldn’t be an issue.

Longer term, I need to replace a bit of woodwork, sort out the floppy wheel arch, and fit a safety chain, but otherwise we now having working brakes and lights which is a bonus.

Speaking of brakes, I did free up the handbrake on a lunch break earlier in the week.

I’m struggling to ID the brake drums, but I have a feeling they take 10” shoes from a series Land Rover.

If anyone can ID them from those pics then go straight to the top of the class.

Meanwhile, I’ve thrown some crap in the trailer and then chucked a tarp over it to make it slightly less of an eyesore. Another storm is blowing in here, so place your bets now as to whether I still have a tarp in the morning or not.

[N Dentressangle]

The big one is a real farmer's job IMO. Those wheels aren't LR Series so maybe something else of the era? Will probably manage a ton if you're brave enough. Usually to be found with a 2" ball hitch IME.

The little ones bounce around like a mad thing, aye. Still not had one roll itself, mind 🤣

[Rust Collector]

2 hours ago, N Dentressangle said:

The big one is a real farmer's job IMO. Those wheels aren't LR Series so maybe something else of the era? Will probably manage a ton if you're brave enough. Usually to be found with a 2" ball hitch IME.

The little ones bounce around like a mad thing, aye. Still not had one roll itself, mind 🤣

That was my first impression too, but having been under it the chassis and bed were built with more thought than any of the home builds I've seen so far. I checked the coupler before towing it - it's a Bradley and it's got 50mm cast into it. It's on cross plies rated for about 800 and something kg on the axle - I think I'll keep it under that though!

Yeah, I never managed to roll my other small trailer, but I did think it was coming through my back window once when I forgot it was there and took a speed bump enthusiastically 🤣

[Rust Collector]

It’s finally judgement day for this old bus.

Wish me luck…

[Matty]

Thoughts and prayers bud...

[High Jetter]

Good luck, hope your efforts have paid off.

[Rust Collector]

Thanks chaps. I’ve treated it to a bath, complete with mood lighting.

I’m now wandering around Lewes to pass the time. Shame I can’t stop for a pint of Harvey’s!

[Rust Collector]

Close!

But not quite there yet.

I noticed the headlights were pointing at the floor on the drive there - I suspect seized linkages. Otherwise I just need to order and fit some suspension parts and we will have a useable E320 again.

Considering it’s not the biggest engine in the world, it moves itself along pretty quickly - I was definitely enjoying the drive home, and look forward to this one being roadworthy again.

[Rust Collector]

Some parts arrived (emphasis on the ‘some’, as the ball joint didn’t turn up whilst I was working today), so I decided to crack on.

I got a pair of shocks from Germany for £notmuch, so these are now fitted to the car.

The old ones were fucked, they were properly crusty and had oil pissing out the tops.

I noticed that the car sat a bit low on one side afterwards, and so had a look through some video footage I took (this job will also get posted up once I edit it, sorry folks 😅). Lo and behold, the offside rear spring has snapped. Not sure if this happened after the test or before, but is presumably a problem if it goes back for a retest and the man from the ministry sees.

Finding the right springs for this Mercedes is agonising, they are all coded by the weight of the car and options, plus if they’re lowered or not. I’ll have to figure that out sharpish.

Also, I noticed that the rear lower control arms aren’t great. I definitely wouldn’t be happy to sell the car with them as they are, so will need to replace those too. I can’t really afford to do both in one hit though, so it may just get a pair of springs then get launched in the yard whilst I sulk.

[Rust Collector]

Fuck me, I don’t ever want to change one of these ball joints again.

The amount of leverage needed to press it in was a bit silly.

I had previously resigned myself to removing the whole knuckle and putting it in the press at home, but the larger ball joint on the front arm had other ideas. RIP my biggest ball joint splitter.

We got there in the end though.

I also investigated the problems with the headlight levelling system. The connector was feeling a bit sorry for itself. I’ve managed a bodge that’s fixed it, but it kind of works.

I then cleared the code in the headlight unit, adjusted the lights and I think it’s good* enough. Possibly.

Thats much better than before.

[Rust Collector]

Good news everyone!

The Mercedes now has a ticket.

I will replace the rear springs and lower control arms before using it in anger though.

Once I’m happy that it will run reliably without the imminent risk of shitting its pants then it’ll be ready for a new home.

[Rust Collector]

It’s the first of the month, so I wanted to start using the merc.

I thought it best to replace the obviously broken spring first.

The best* tool that could be bought for next to no money was employed.

I’d have preferred a Chinese copy of the proper* tool, but that will have to wait for another day. I will point out that whilst this tool was about a quarter of the cost, it was probably 8 times the effort to use, so I probably should’ve just spent the cash. The tool I’ve got would’ve been absolutely no use without the metal tube spacer I made from a lawn chair. Next time I’ll use an old jack handle or something as the force of the spring was rolling the thin wall tube over.

The old one was worse than I thought:

Broken in 3 pieces but still in place on the car has to be pretty good going.

Fitting the new one was an absolute bollocks, again I should’ve just spent more on a better tool and then I’m sure it would’ve been easy.

The lower control arms are properly crusty, and definitely need doing sooner rather than later.

At any rate, the immediate problem is fixed.

Before:

After:

I can’t say I noticed any difference in how it drove afterwards, and I’m not sure if that says more about me or the car.

It’s a nice place to be though. Part of me can’t believe it’s back on the road and useable, as it felt like it would be a back-burner project forever.

I’m looking forward to taking my son to nursery in it tomorrow, he’s been excited that we’re getting ‘grandad’s car’.

[Rust Collector]

We had three working cars. It was incredible. I can only imagine that standing on the summit of Everest can come close to the feeling of achievement taken from making three shit cars to live on against their will.

Sadly though, we needed to go from Seaford to Stansted Airport just over a week ago. That could only mean one thing of course: three cars which were not up to the task.

In fairness to the Mercedes, it works and I have been using it locally without any drama whatsoever. The rear control arms are fucked though and so I didn’t fancy 100 miles split across the back lanes of Kent and the M25 - I had visions of a snapped arm and intense excitement*. The family visit meant I’ve been putting off replacing them, due to time constraints.

We instead took the Clio. This worked well for about an hour, and then without warning it decided to make sad noises and shake violently on the approach to Dartford - not an inappropriate response for a sentient being, but this is a machine with only the slight malevolent sentience that French electricals allow.

The noises were only on over run, and I limped it to a service station, possibly invoking the wrath of ULEZ. A check of the suspension (in the rain and cold) revealed that everything which should be attached looked to be attached.

A check of the engine and gearbox oil revealed that there wasn’t any. I’m led to believe that cars need some of this to function, so I bought some oil for the engine and found 2 of the most expensive litres I’ve ever bought in my life got us back on the dip stick. Yelp.

Incredibly, no garage seems to sell gearbox oil. It’s like they don’t expect you to be servicing your neglected gearbox on their forecourt at 10pm. What has modern society become.

At any rate, I limped the car to the airport and back without further event, and made a mental note to get the Land Rover for the return visit, so as not to punish the Clio further - again, the family visit plus work meant time for fucking around with the gear bag was not available. At least, not when you have a working Land Rover!

So yeah, about that…

The night before the return airport run to send family home, I went and picked up the Land Rover. All it had to do was make it the 3 miles home. Could it make it?

Of course it fucking couldn’t. All the lights come on the dash as I enter my hometown (by road in the car, not personally, one by one), the air suspension slams to the deck, and I merrily bounce my way home whilst considering some of my life choices.

Some rushed diagnostics reveal that the corrosion on the connectors to the transfer case control module has gotten worse, and a pin has broken off. That won’t work, and I can’t get a replacement TCCM before the journey to Stansted. Fuck.

‘Mum, can I borrow your Land Rover?’

Sorry love, I wasn’t going to disturb you whilst you had visitors, but it’s broken. Can you look at it this weekend?

Err…

‘Dad, can I borrow your Mercedes? All my cars are totally fucking fucked M9, big time’

Result. It was lovely to drive, but did start misbehaving in the queue for Dartford. It was shuddering and get like it would stall when moving away, and getting quite hot. Luckily we got through the traffic without that turning into more fun*, and the rest of the journey was uneventful.

Where are we now then?

I’m sat on my arse, here.

No, I’ve not given up and resigned myself to drinking Harvey’s dry first thing in the morning.

I’m waiting for the Clio to go through the very last minute MOT I booked this morning. I had hoped to get her in earlier, and to have a chance of giving her a once over beforehand, but life gets in the way as ever.

Hopefully she passes, or has an easy to resolve fail.

If she’s good, I might even fill up the gearbox oil.

[Rust Collector]

Ho-lee shit.

[Dave_Q]

"oil leak, but mostly dry now as there's none left inside"

[rob88h]

Some public appreciation for @Rust Collector’s work:

On the way home today his Horcrux the XM clicked over 10,000 miles since he MOT’d it. 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

39 minutes ago, rob88h said:

XM clicked over 10,000 miles since he MOT’d it. 

That's a great photo - I've never noticed that the front and rear quarterlight/window runners have a reflectional symmetry (or as near as dammit) on the XM?

[Rust Collector]

I’m a bit behind on this thread…

I’ll catch up soon, got to visit the man from the ministry first though!

[Rust Collector]

Close!

That was my least worst scenario for a fail - emissions and brakes.

Hopefully shouldn’t take too long to sort.

It’s a cracking little thing to drive though!

[Rust Collector]

Adjusted the parking brake this eve, and that has also improved the mildly terrifying brakes.

it’s pretty easy to get to the compensator, and I’m wondering if I should nip it up a bit more just to be safe - the guidance in the manual is really vague.

After that I got on with sorting the steering rack boot.

I am in love with how easy to work on this car is.

The old boot was split at the top:

I had looked before the test, but hadn’t noticed that.

The hardest part of fitting the new one was getting the small end of the boot over the inner track rod end.

The clips were a bit fiddly, but it was nice that they’re re-usable.

Ive fitted a new track rod end as the car came with a pair. There wasn’t any real play in the old one, just a tiny bit of play in the rack.

I’ve adjusted the carb again as well. I can’t remember which shiter gave me the Orbit tester in the pic below, but it’s something I’ve found useful!

I’ve set it by the Haynes guidance for working without a CO tester. It’ll be interesting to see how close that gets it when I do put it on a CO tester - that’ll be the last step before I get it back in for a test. I’m a bit worried that the brake imbalance isn’t purely the handbrake, but we will see I guess.

I still can’t quite get over what a marvellous little thing this car is though. 11/10 would recommend a 205.

[Weird Car]

On 17/05/2026 at 22:22, Rust Collector said:

still can’t quite get over what a marvellous little thing this car is though. 11/10 would recommend a 205.

They’re definitely brilliant little cars 

I’ve had a 1.9 CTI convertible on my want list for a while now 

[Rust Collector]

The exhaust gas tester which @95 quid Peugeot kindly posted to me arrived today, and so all the high-tech equipment was brought out this afternoon.

After letting both the car and tester warm up, I calibrated the tester and took a reading.

That’s a bit high!

The book said to get it to 1.5% +/- 0.5% @ 700rpm. The adjustments needed were tiny, and I didn’t have to adjust the throttle screw, so the method for setting it without a tester hadn’t been too far off at least… This is where I got it to in the end.

Now we just have to wait for the re-test to find out if it’s accurate!

[RoverFolkUs]

On 17/05/2026 at 22:22, Rust Collector said:

it’s pretty easy to get to the compensator, and I’m wondering if I should nip it up a bit more just to be safe - the guidance in the manual is really vague.

Without wanting to teach you to suck eggs, I'm assuming you've adjusted the shoes correctly to the drums with the cable fully slack? The cable adjustment is supposed to be done afterwards, otherwise the constant tension on the cable will affect the braking performance. By adjusting the cable only, you're effectively just holding the handbrake on "ajar" all the time

[Rust Collector]

4 minutes ago, RoverFolkUs said:

Without wanting to teach you to suck eggs, I'm assuming you've adjusted the shoes correctly to the drums with the cable fully slack? The cable adjustment is supposed to be done afterwards, otherwise the constant tension on the cable will affect the braking performance. By adjusting the cable only, you're effectively just holding the handbrake on "ajar" all the time

Not teaching me to suck eggs at all - you’ve made me stop and think about two assumptions I’ve made, which is really helpful! I understood the shoes had been replaced recently, so didn’t think to check them, plus there’s some automatic adjustment in them so assumed it would take up any slack.

I literally had an adjuster in my hand from another car with the same setup last night, and despite staring at the star wheel and winding it in and out I didn’t make the connection that it needs manually adjusting first, despite every other drum I’ve encountered needing this.

I’ll slacken the handbrake cable off, and check/adjust the shoes properly.

[barrett]

Yes! glad to see this getting some love and I'm happy it's not fighting you (so far).

[Rust Collector]

I went in for the retest today. No photo I’m afraid as they took the 205 straight in and I’m too shy to ask if I can photograph whilst they’re testing.

However:

We will take that!

Check out the emissions:

The book figure is 1.5% +/- 0.5% for this car, so that’s bang on the money. Big thanks to @95 quid Peugeot and @Christine for supplying surprisingly accurate emissions testing kit!

I will post about the saga of the rear brakes at some point, but adjusting them made me lose the will to live so that’s a job for another day.

For now, I need to briefly enjoy the car before it gets listed for sale.

[Christine]

Great stuff!