Mike T

Really nice work!

Once bad geometry is evident in driving behaviour, it's too late, the rear beam will have been scored and will need replacement. It's an absolute must to do this job pre-emptively. The "seals" on the inside of the trailing arm where it meets the beam do absolutely nothing to keep dirt, water and salt out of the bearings and I guarantee they will be rusting right now. Maybe not quite turning to powder. Even rusty roller bearings damages the beam. If not, one day you will be making a low speed turn and the car will suddenly oversteer at an impossibly low speed. Or if you're unlucky, on a freeway cloverleaf....eventually the trailing arms will set up a regular oscillation that shakes the car like hell. Slide hammer may not be powerful enough to dislodge the arms so be prepared to use an air chisel with sacrificial bolts threaded into the torsion bar ends, to be replaced over and over while you get the rusted splines to move one more mm. It's a hell of a job on a car that''s seen winter, but it MUST be done.

Have you inspected the trailing arm bearings? The undercarriage looks very rusty (surface). With the bodyshell rusted out like that, I've no doubt that those are suffering, if not gone completely. I'd recommend a preventative re&re and then installing grease nipples and packing the (large) void with grease. This is - next to the atrocious electrics - the worst thing about the 405. My 405 had no rust perforation at all when it was scrapped, despite living in HARD winter//salted areas for many winters. And despite this, the trailing arm bearings were totally shot at 200,000 km, to the point of no camber, toe or other geometry being stable.

Should be Vallelunga Red P3K8.

Always a fun stage.

I don't have any 604 parts - I've never owned one although I do like them. Took photos of some in North Vancouver when they were new. Send me a private message with your email address so I can send the scans to you. There are about 15 emails with attachments.....or I could post them here maybe...

I don't have any vacuum system info in the bulletins. But I'll scan what I do have anyway.

OK let me grab the bulletins and take them to the office tomorrow for scanning. I will look for any vacuum system info. I can't seem to find the microfiche right now but I will look some more. There is some chance that I may have sold it on eBay 15 years ago but I don't think so.

A bit off topic, but could you let me know the serial number and add a photo, I could add this 604 to the 3820-strong Canadian VIN register. And any other Peugeots that you may have, or have records of. I'd share the database with you. For your other question about a workshop manual for the 604 in PDF, I don't have one of those but I do have some technical resources that I could scan to PDF for you. 604 Service Bulletins and a bit of other 604 and V6 stuff. Let me know and I can do it later this week. L'Aventure Peugeot used to have a PDF of all their parts manuals online but I'll be darned if I can find it right now. Will look for my microfiche....

Just if you're curious, here it is in the background, as I do a long overdue maintenance on the road bike.

Bit of a delay due to gall bladder issues...hope to have them sorted by summer's end (surgery/recovery) at which point we're headed to Europe for 6 weeks. So once again the car will be delayed....

You won't find any 207 owners here - Peugeot has not sold a new car over here since 1991.

Davos: Tourist sticker I think. I bought one from Kitzbühel for a friend once and it was similar.

And it arrived.....and the cap fits the reservoir perfectly.

Master is out, was OK other than some minor surface corrosion on the area of the second seal in its resting place. So I doubt that was the issue. Will reassemble soon with my rebuild kit. I've ordered a pressure bleeder which should arrive soon, and with that blowing through the reservoir cap it should get all the air out. If not, well.....there should be a massive leak somewhere. While waiting, yesterday I had a request from a 404 Injection owner in Tanzania who I know remotely thanks to the Internet to buy three Kugelfischer injectors. Since I have 14 spares, I will sell him three. They're used and tested - good pressure setting, good spray and insignificant dripping, so I offered them at 200 Euros each. New old stock injectors are worth 450 Euros - I have 6 of those, 4 of which will be on the car once it's done. I'll be keeping at least 6 in reserve for this car. I got lucky some years ago when I traded my scrapped 405's stainless steel cat-back exhaust and some other 405 parts plus paid $100 to Robert Bruce in Winnipeg for the 6 NOS injectors! That was a long time ago - 2009 - and I didn't actually know if they were any good until they were tested after I got them.

Small mercies

Man that is some nasty rust! Are a lot of them around you that bad? I remember in 2004, being in Québec City and seeing a red MI16 with MASSIVE portions of both rocker panels missing. That was the only time until now that I have seen a 405 rusted that badly. Seen below: I recall being on a Peugeot factory tour at Sochaux just as the the 405 was about to be introduced. The tour guide said that the 505 and the "model that will soon be introduced" have/will have significant panels made of galvanised sheet steel, but that was highlighting a new problem: the only places where there is not a sacrificial anode is at the spot welds. Which is of course at key stress points, where you don't want corrosion at all. They were working on weldable primers that would seal the spot welds at the time. None of those coatings last for long anyways. Good luck with the rebuild.

Oh man that's a bummer. Good luck with the further work!

Top tip: Put some thick 3M Stoneguard on the fog lights. Also, the housings seem to be made out of bubble gum (I know they're LDPE) - mine were shredded when I scrapped the car, due to small micro hits by gravel. I sold them despite that after I scrapped the car. The optical units with their Stoneguard were perfect, like new.

Most of these classics are going to a single new owner in California. The red 204C is going to a new owner in Chicago.

The auctions ended today and the results were a bit above actual market value in most cases. A couple of the cars were very rough indeed, notably the 403 Cabriolet and 404 Cabriolet. A mint 403 Cabriolet would be worth nearly $100K USD but this one was probably worth 25K and that's roughly what it sold for. Similarly, the 404 Cabriolet Injection would be worth close to $70,000 USD if mint but it sold for less than the 404 Coupé Injection, which was in better condition. I took screenshots of the closing bids of the older classics plus the 406C:

Engine bay - terrible photo

Yep

Sounds good. No A/C! Going for max speed, eh? A guy I know in the Interior of BC put Premier PRV 3.0L in a stock looking 504 sedan. They're even lighter than the 505!

If I could keep it, it is likely the one I would order.