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PUGGAGE DIARY !
Saturday
14th June
Sunday
15th June So surprisingly
i'm dead chuffed with the car.. it really is as much fun as anything
else i've ever driven in its own sort of Pug way ... and 60mph is
all you need to do. Its entertaining at slow speeds and bumbles along
nicely constantly telling you things and re-settling itself over the
lumps and bumps. Great stuff. Thursday
26th June Most places were 500 quid+ fully comp. Elephant came in at 350 third party but "Liverpool and Victoria" were 360 fully comp and no alarm required. thats 33 y-old, living in Hampton, 3 yrs NCB (2nd car), kept on driveway, x1 5pt. SP30 in 1999 costs:
£530 Thursday 26th June The water temp reading has been playing up. Its been unusually high most of the time but has also flickered and jumped around quite a lot so i suspect the sensor or sender ? But today 5 mins form work the low water light came on then literally 30 seconds from where i park the stop light came on and i noticed that the hot air was no longer hot. Anyway, parked up and it turns out there's zero water in the system. So i refill and run the engine with heat on full blast and on the front nearside a huge lake is forming. Turns out its a hose that runs down to the oil filter from the main Rad exit hose thats been rubbing on the bottom edge of the rad and has now got a large gash through it as a result. I call a peugot dealer.. the part cannot be sepratated from the main rad exit hose and this plastic tube that acts as a splitter for the 2 offshoot oil cooler hoses so its all one part and is 50 quid new ! A quick call to wimbledon pug parts and he has one right in front of him for 20 quid. So ill get that on saturday. Later on in the day i got some carpet tape form the hardware store (5 quid) and got a rigger (i work at a film studios) with a huge toolkit to help me get the offending hose off the oil cooler so i can wrap tons of tape round it. Turns out he was an HGV technician for years so he has the pipe off in a jiffy and soon its all taped up with a rag taped around it as well with the jubilee clips back on. I make it home in one piece but the rag is slightly damp. Dont think ill drive it again till saturday when the proper new hose is on. Thermostats are only about 6 quid as well so i'll fit a new one of those as well and see if the temp guagae fixes itself. costs:
£5 Sunday
29th June
Getting the hose out though i noticed another problem. One piece of it that was the exit for the oil filter had its jubilee clip digging into the fins of the rad.... this had actually damaged the fins and the rad was leaking ever so slightly from this area. Now i suspect that it was my fault whan i wedged a screwdriver between the clip and the rad in order to loosen it but there was no other way to get the thing off in any case ... the twit who fitted that pipe before should never have left the screw head like that facing into the rad. Anyway, i flushed the system and refilled with SpeedFlush, ran the car for 30 miles then drained and refilled with Radseal which has now cured the leak at the fins.
Problem is the temp needle is still all over the place so obviously this original problem is totally unconnected with the split hose. Sometimes ithough the needle stays happy and gets nowhere near the red so i dont suspect a faulty cooling system anymore .. just a dodgy sender which i will replace soon. Whilst at wimbledon Peugeot Parts I also got some new front fogs as the old ones were rusting a bit and also some new front indicators as one was cracked and a new clock as the old one had gone a bit mental. 55 for the fogs, 20 for the indicators and 10 quid for the clock. The parts are so damm cheap for this car that i reckon i could get it looking good as new for about 500 quid ! Think i'll definitely get some new bumpers as they're slightly scuffed on mine and are only 25 quid each.
The only essential stuff though was the clock and the plastic pipe and jubilee clips so 15 quid added to expenses. costs:
£15 (£80) Saturday
5th July New bumpers front and rear, set of 205 green carpets, new thermostat (7 quid), new temp sensor (3 quid). Fitted my new indicators at the w/e but with the new fogs the problem now is the main headlights in contrast look really old and smoked so guess i'll get some new ones of these as well. Made a start on the rear bumper but a lot of these bolts are so rusted that they're impossible to get off and i ended up shearing one of the bumper fixing bolts. I'll have to get a bumper fixing kit now.... Most pressing thing though is to sort out the front wheel balancing and then maybe get new front bearings if there still shake at 70mph+. Also, need to fit that temp sensor and see if the wavering water needle rights itself. Other than that, the car is still a joy on my daily commute and still dead pleased. costs:
£10 (£80) Saturday 12th July Degreased the engine as best as i could and gave the whole car a good clean including the interior and leather etc.. Noticed that the passenger door is a replacement and doesn't shine that well so sticks out after you've waxed the car... i wonder if there's anything that can be done about that.
Saturday 19th July Haven't had time to fix it yet but the temp guage has been behaving itself of late. The needle often doesnt go beyond halfway on my daily commute so basically i'm not worried about the temeperature - its obviously a faulty reading. I'm certainly not losing any water as well. There is another issue though. Sometimes i get absolutely no joy from the starter motor. Its happened around 3 times now -power gets through to it and it makes some sort of weak noise but is nowhere near to turning over properly and starting the car. Each time i've ended up quickly bump starting which thankfully is very veary easy to do. Now this could well be the connections at the starter motor. I've been looking on the forums and it seems that many people experience this and every so often the thing just wont fire up. Its common knowledge that the connections go regularly and the number of starter motors that must have been replaced on 205's over th years when they just needed a clean must run well into the thousands. I also bought some front headlights (£20 each) in the week and also some bumper bolts in case i shear any more (£3). I fitted the two new front headlights today. They really do sort the front of the car out with all the other new lights i've already got. Also did some general maintenance on a few small spots of rust inside the engine bay, tightened the passenger seat up and wd40'd/cleaned some of the bumper bolts in preparation for when i replace them.
In the week I also got the wheels balanced. They actually had no weights on them at all so they obviously omitted this after the alloys were machined. Now there's no steering shake ... all gone. But what I do notice now is a vibration ofanother kind; at around 70/80mph there is a sort of deep heavy vibration that feels like its a loose engine. It doesn't really come from the wheel so much so i dont suspect axle or bearings, its more of a heavy mechanical resonance and seems to be much more noticeable on smooth roads. Im going to get someone to investigate soon but once its sorted everything will be spot on. (£45) Sunday 20th July Theres a real good 1.9 engine for sale on the pug forums for around 150 quid ! You can probably get even cheaper but its nice to know that should the inevitable happen you won't be spending more on it than the equivalent of a couple of night out on the piss ! Took her out for a good run yesterday evening at sunset when the roads were clear. Had an absolute ball. I went on some of my favourite roads around dorking/guildford/horsley/woking etc.. and once you trust the car a bit, let it do some of the driving and relax into small inputs its simply fantastic. Round roundabouts theres much tyre-screeching fun to be had, and i had the thing tucking in nicely when lifting off. Ive been exploring this infamous part of the car a bit lately when space permits but i must say that so far it hasn't been as snappy as i thought. I did read somewhere that the PAS 1.9's are less prone to violent lift-off and nowhere near as bad as the 1.6's so maybe theres some truth in this. I probably need to go harder then try it to actually get a held sideways moment but i don't really want to be learning this on the public road so i'll wait for a trackday or take the car out in the middle of the night some time. In the wet though its a different story. Obviously the tyres i've got can't be up to much in the wet but whatever, the car in its current state is completely mental when it rains - good fun though ! It didn't help that we hadn't had much rain for ages so it was no doubt a lot more slippery than usual. Anyway, huge M25 roundabout, I wasn't that hard around it but the car was all over the shop with the back coming loose before any understeer. Also, on this great downhill fast left-hander on my commute I lifted off on purpose midway and the thing really did swing out but to be honest it wasn't really that quick and easily corrected .... not as sudden as say my old 340r in the wet. No doubt about it, these 205's are just so alive. Saturday 9th August I suspected the starter motor initially but turns out the battery was gone. At the end of work the car was starting fine but in the morning after a long period stood still i was usually resorting to bump starting. Although the lights seemed pretty strong when trying to start i gave the jump leads a go one morning and the car instatly started. So new battery from halfords (£39). Car is now sorted. Whilst the battery was out i had a poke round for the place where the temp sensor goes into the engine below the distributor but couldn't for the life of me locate it. Will have to get get this done when ive got more time, ditto the new bumpers. I also checked the engine and noticed the oil level has crept toward the lower dipstcik mark since i bought the car. It was serviced before i bought it and had perfectly clean oil but can't remember if it was dead on the top dipstick mark so i'll keep an eye on this oil consumption. Mileage is now 67500 and i added almost 1 litre of Castrol magnatec 10W40. (£10)
So the only really thing that is now having a slight negative effect on the car is the slight vibration bewteen 70-80mph on a steady throttle. I quite fancy just taking it into a peugeot specialist for this .... the bearings definitely do feel lose so maybe thats the answer. Certainly haven't got any time right now to try and investigate and attempt to take things apart myself. Also, i'd like the get the engine tuned up on a rolling road cos i reckon the engine could definitely be sweeter but not having much joy locating a suitable company to do this in the SW. costs:
£49 Sunday 20th July Theres a real good 1.9 engine for sale on the pug forums for around 150 quid ! You can probably get even cheaper but its nice to know that should the inevitable happen you won't be spending more on it than the equivalent of a couple of night out on the piss ! Took her out for a good run yesterday evening at sunset when the roads were clear. Had an absolute ball. I went on some of my favourite roads around dorking/guildford/horsley/woking etc.. and once you trust the car a bit, let it do some of the driving and relax into small inputs its simply fantastic. Round roundabouts theres much tyre-screeching fun to be had, and i had the thing tucking in nicely when lifting off. Ive been exploring this infamous part of the car a bit lately when space permits but i must say that so far it hasn't been as snappy as i thought. I did read somewhere that the PAS 1.9's are less prone to violent lift-off and nowhere near as bad as the 1.6's so maybe theres some truth in this. I probably need to go harder then try it to actually get a held sideways moment but i don't really want to be learning this on the public road so i'll wait for a trackday or take the car out in the middle of the night some time. In the wet though its a different story. Obviously the tyres i've got can't be up to much in the wet but whatever, the car in its current state is completely mental when it rains - good fun though ! It didn't help that we hadn't had much rain for ages so it was no doubt a lot more slippery than usual. Anyway, huge M25 roundabout, I wasn't that hard around it but the car was all over the shop with the back coming loose before any understeer. Also, on this great downhill fast left-hander on my commute I lifted off on purpose midway and the thing really did swing out but to be honest it wasn't really that quick and easily corrected .... not as sudden as say my old 340r in the wet. No doubt about it, these 205's are just so alive. Saturday 9th August Harv kindly helped me fix my new rear bumper on. Well he did nearly all of it actually. Good job i didn't attempt it cos in the end we needed an electric hacksaw, lots of new bolts, and impact hammer and the compressotr and air tools came in handy as well.
We didn't have time to fit the other bumper or swap the temp sensor so hopefully get round to this next time.
Sunday 19th October Well not much diary activity but september and october have actually been very busy months. First off, the car developed more starting problems a few weeks after I got the new battery. Basically, I hada poke aroudn near the solenoid and noticed that the main lead going into it was quite loose. By wiggling it around a bit i found that I could start the car. For 2 weeks or so I basically had to wedge a spanner onto this lead and against the vacuum hose and then run round and start the car. When i got the time to sort the thing out and take a proper look it appeared that the wire didnt have any bolts onto it and did in fact go straight into the solenoid meaning that it was likely damaged actually internally and that simply cleaning or tightening wouldn't be possible. So I decided to get a Nationwide Autocentre to fix it ... this they did under warranty and i only paid for 0.8 labour as it took longer due to some real old recalcitrant bolts (warranty company would only pay for standard labour time as given by manufacturer). Otherwise, the job would have been around 80 for the starter then 2 hours labour on top. On another occasion, 5 minutes from work one morning my brakes went ! The pedal lost all pressure and just went mushy and travelled straight to the floor when pressed. I checked all brakes lines, looked under the car and the brake fluid was at max so obviously none had been lost... immediate suspect was dodgy master cylinder and its seals. This was best as another warranty job so Nationwide autocentres in slough fixed it with a new master cylinder. Cost would probably be around 30 quid plus 2 hours labour. Now the final thing that happened was when i got the car back from Nationwide Autocentre it drove terribly. It felt like it was firing on 3 cylinders, was spluttering, kangerooing, sounded like a harley davidson and was shaking quite violently around the engine bay and exhaust. I refitted the HT leads but that didnt do the job so saw a chap where I work who works on cars in his spare time and he pulled out the 1st HT lead and noticed that the engine character didn't change so obviously this cylinder wasn't firing in any case. We checked the saprk which was fine do then we changed the plug in any case and the thing then was fine back to 4 cylinders ?? Strange, maybe spark plugs can be sparking but still damaged in some other way ? One thing I did notice was that the old plug from this cylinder was a little blackened indicating richness. So, 110 quid in parts and around 4 hours labour - at least 300 quid at a non main peugeot dealer - but all saved by the warranty. costs: £50 (labour not warranty covered for starter motor) Sunday 26th October Car is working well now. Great to be back in it. Drove it the day after taking my new 220bhp Caterham into work and it was just as much a joy and the experience was not overshadowed in any way. Thats pretty high praise given that its a 15 year old 130bhp design versus pretty much the fastest and most intimate 4 road-legal wheeled experience money will currently buy ! I still simply love the Pug gti ..... just fantastic to drive.
Today I fitted 4 new spark plugs and also tightened the alternator belt and gave the alternator hub a drop of oil becuase it was squeaking a bit. Car could do with a good clean and I must steam the engine bay at some point. The old plugs from 2-4 look good, clean, no oil deposits or overheating.
Monday 29th December No real news. The pug has retired for 2 weeks over the Xmas period. All is well and teh only thing to do really is give her a good clean for teh new year. I have some front bearings which I will fit soon and that front bumper and although the next official Peugeot service is a few thousand miles off I'll do an oil and filter change whilst I have the free time. 20th March 2004 The car is up for sale in stealth mode ! i.e. its only advertised on pistonheads. If i don't sell it I'm not that bothered and i'm only inteested if the price is right. Looking through the Autotrader, JUST Gti's are selling cars with bigger mileage and no service history for 3.5k + .... ludicrous ! As for private cars well there's not a hope in hell of finding a decent 1.9 that has 100% service history and under 70-80k miles. Mate at work has a mint 55k mile miami blue special edition 2 owner car in storage.... but despite my nagging he just won't sell it to me ! Anyway, the car is still taking me to work and all is well and a part of me wants to hodl onto it. I guess the only thing making me consider selling is teh idea of a nice 306 rallye to try something different. It will need new tyres soon and the service needs to be done. I've had a good check over it recently and I noticed one of the rear handbrake pipes had come unclipped and part of it was rubbing against theinside of the nearside rear rim. Luckily this was along a length of the pipe that was also sheathed with a protective cover so no damage done at all. I fixed it back to the bracket so its out of harms way now.
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