1985 TD Sedan

[tulaweb]

My car had been out of daily driving duty for about 5 years. Around Jan 2012 I started working on it again and now have it back in regular use. I still have a lot of projects, but it's generally in working order now. I've been taking pictures from time to time as I worked on it. I'll start by posting the most current and get back to the older ones as time permits, and I'll then try to update as I progress into the future.

[tulaweb]

This weekend I replaced the brake booster. My wife was amused by my position as I tried to get at the nuts holding it in place, and took this photo.

[tulaweb]

Just a little background. My mother bought this car new in 1985 to replace her 1978(?) 504. I bought it from her, in about 1992 when she bought a 405. I drove it regularly until about 5 years ago, and now drive it regularly again. So although I'm technically the second owner, I've known this car since it was new.

[tulaweb]

When I bought the car from my mother there was some kind of damage to the right front fender. I had it repaired, but I don't remember if they replaced the fender with one from a junk yard or repaired the original. When I recently got back to the car, the only place with any serious rust was that fender. You couldn't quite get your fist through it but certainly several fingers. There are lots of scratches dings and minor rust spots, but this was the only one that was rusted right through. I forgot to take a picture before I started so the first one is after I cut it out. My repair is not exactly perfect but it's a lot better that it was, and it will hold me over till I either replace the fender or get someone with more capability than me to do a better repair.

[tulaweb]

New suspension parts.

[anj]

A mom that had a 504,505 and 405........Definition - Cool Mom

Arun

[tulaweb]

A mom that had a 504,505 and 405........Definition - Cool Mom

Arun

She is 88 years old now, and still plays tennis 3 times a week. She drives a Subaru now but only because a teenager T-boned her 405. Totaled the car and nearly killed my mom. She says her tennis serve has never been the same, but in general she's doing as well as could be expected without a Peugeot. Note all were 5 speeds, just to add to mom's coolness.

[andrethx]

nice, your fender repair looks pretty good! a few questions:

1) how does the front end feel after the new bushings, etc.?

2) did you do the suspension work yourself, or bring it to a shop? if you did it yourself, i have more questions....

3) what are some upcoming projects on your list?

andré

[tulaweb]

nice, your fender repair looks pretty good! a few questions:

1) how does the front end feel after the new bushings, etc.?

2) did you do the suspension work yourself, or bring it to a shop? if you did it yourself, i have more questions....

3) what are some upcoming projects on your list?

andré

1) The front end feels like it used to. Prior to the new parts it was kind of sloppy.

2) I got the parts and took them to someone who could put the car on a lift to put them in. I guess I could have done it in the driveway but it would have been so much harder. He did it in about 2 hours.

3) I need to replace the front calipers, and the power steering hoses. Eventually the whole car needs paint but for the time being I'll just be touching up here and there. The heater/AC blower doesn't work, so I have to figure out if it's on the control end or the blower itself. I need to repair the headliner around the sunroof and I need to do something about the plastic trim to the sides of the back deck. Most of the upholstery is in OK condition, but the top of the rear seats has deteriorated from the sun. I'm not sure what I'll do about that, or when, but it bothers my wife, so it might move up the list faster than it otherwise would. The right rear side window doesn't go up or down. The right front door lock locks with the rest of them, but doesn't unlock except manually.

[tulaweb]

This weekend I replaced the brake booster. My wife was amused by my position as I tried to get at the nuts holding it in place, and took this photo.

While I was upside down working on the brake booster I fixed the cruise control without even realizing it. The cruise control hasn't worked in years. I hadn't given it much thought but today I was driving down the Garden State Parkway. Just for the hell of it I tried the cruise control, and I'll be dammed it works. When I put the panel back under the dash this morning I sprayed all the electrical connectors with contact cleaner, which is part of my routine when I take things apart on this car. Since that included the controller for the cruise control, at first I thought that was what fixed it, but then I remembered that when I opened the panel a corroded spring fell out. I didn't know where it came from but after inspection decided that it was pulling back the clutch pedal. It pulled the pedal back about 1/4 inch more than it would naturally go, causing it to engage a switch. Without the spring, the clutch worked otherwise normally but never engaged that switch. I got a new spring and put it where I think it went, but I really didn't give much thought to what the switch was for. I now realize that the switch is what disengages the cruise control when you touch the clutch. Without the spring the switch would never engage and the cruise control would not work.

[bryancohnracing]

Possibly the coolest Mom on the planet, next to mine!

You might look into having the tops of the rear seat and shelf re-dyed to match the interior color. Won't be perfect but a good shop can get damn close. Should be inexpensive and done in under a day by a decent shop that does upholstery work.

[andrethx]

good to know about the cruise control fix...

wrt the other items you're working on, here is a link to the dutch peugeot owners' forum, it's one of my favorite build threads; he covers some of the issues you mentioned, including the headliner repair. you can run it through a translator but the pictures speak for themselves.

when you talk about "the plastic trim to the sides of the back deck," you're talking about the rear quarter panel lining (inside the car between the rear windscreen and the rear edge of the back-door window), correct? the little vent ribs on mine dried out and turned to dust...i ended up getting replacement pieces from a guy who was parting out his 505...you can probably get replacement pieces from brian holm or ukit....

andré

[tulaweb]

you're talking about the rear quarter panel lining (inside the car between the rear windscreen and the rear edge of the back-door window), correct? the little vent ribs on mine dried out and turned to dust

Mine haven't quite turned to dust but they are crumbling.

[tulaweb]

3) I need to replace the front calipers, and the power steering hoses. Eventually the whole car needs paint but for the time being I'll just be touching up here and there. The heater/AC blower doesn't work, so I have to figure out if it's on the control end or the blower itself. I need to repair the headliner around the sunroof and I need to do something about the plastic trim to the sides of the back deck. Most of the upholstery is in OK condition, but the top of the rear seats has deteriorated from the sun. I'm not sure what I'll do about that, or when, but it bothers my wife, so it might move up the list faster than it otherwise would. The right rear side window doesn't go up or down. The right front door lock locks with the rest of them, but doesn't unlock except manually.

Oh and I got a piece of leather to make a new shift boot out of. I'm not sure when I'll get to that, but one of these days.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003AP4CME/

[tulaweb]

A few weeks ago I put a WheelSkins cover on the steering wheel. Here are before and after pictures.

[tulaweb]

A few months ago I had a local shop replace my clutch. While he was at it, with the transmission out, I gave him the speedometer cable I had been planning to replace and asked him to put that in. He used to own a 505 and seemed to know his way around it. His price for the clutch was better than I got from anyone else and that went fine. I guess he must not have ever removed the instrument cluster before, because it came back with a crack in the bezel and several of the instrument lights out. I used a little epoxy to fix the bezel, replaced the bulbs, and cleaned all the connectors out. All is well now.

[tulaweb]

I took the car in for an alignment today after replacing the tie rod ends, ball joints, and anti roll bar links. I also asked him to check for a slight noise when changing lanes or going around gentle cures to the left. I'm guessing it might be a wheel bearing, or might be tire noise from being significantly out of alignment after the front end work. If I need something else in the front suspension, I want to identify that before getting an alignment and then having to redo it next week. They said they will get to it this afternoon.

[tulaweb]

Alignment done. Bearings seem OK. On first short drive it sounds like the noise may be gone. I'll have to go out on the highway to be sure.

[tulaweb]

Today I was driving along and hit a little bump at about 40 mph. The engine cut out for a few seconds. It ran fine before and after. Coming home tonight, I was on the highway doing a bit less than 70 mph and without any bump it suddenly cut out again. The battery idiot light came on simultaneously with the loss of engine power. After a few seconds I depressed the clutch so I could coast better as I changed lanes to get to the side of the road. The rest of the warning lights came on as they would normally with the ignition switch on and the engine not running. When I got to a position to pull over I let out the clutch and the engine started, the warning lights went out and it ran without further hesitation. After getting off the highway and near home, the brake warning light came on. As I was looking for a place to pull over and investigate, the engine suddenly quit again. I coasted into a parking lot. All the warning lights were out and nothing happened when I turned the key. I jiggled the battery cables and all the wires on the grounding blocks at the 4 corners of the car. I started to jiggle the connectors on the left side near the brake master cylinder. As I did so, I heard a relay clicking. I identified the connector that I could touch and get the clicking. It was a red 6 pin connector tucked in above the brake booster. I sprayed it with contact cleaner and tried unsuccessfully to position it in an on rather than off position. Further investigation led me to a cream or yellow wire, which was the heaviest of the 6 wires in that connector (pin 2). The wire was corroded inside the connector. With little pressure it came out of the connector with the powdery remains of the contact. The other side of that connection was in similar condition. I cut off the ends and connected them outside the red connector and the car came back to life. I only had about another mile and a half to go, which I made without further incident. In looking at the electrical manual, I haven’t quite figured out what that was but I’ll have a look at it in the morning.

[tulaweb]

Last week I noticed that my left front headlight was dim. From past experience with everything electrical on this car I assumed a bad ground, but on further inspection I found the bulb had a stone chip in it and had quite a bit of moisture inside the "sealed" bulb. I picked up the bulb and then got sick and spent the last 4 days in bed. Today I felt well enough to tackle that job. From looking at the condition of the assembly I have to think about replacing it in the not too distant future. I wonder about the Euro headlights that I think most would agree are better looking. Does anyone know the functional difference? Are they brighter, less bright, aimed differently, or anything else that would cause an inspection problem. In my state I am only required to do a self inspection on this car so as long as they don't function obviously different no one is looking over my shoulder, and if they function the same I can't imagine that any inspector would know the difference anyway. I would prefer not to do anything that will cause an inspection issue in other states.

[andrethx]

most 505 owners think that the euro-style headlights look better on the car, although that is not a unanimous opinion. a big reason why they give off more light is because they use a separate bulb, which is typically more powerful than the crappy sealed-beam headlight.

for many years in the US, car manufacturers were required to use sealed beam headlights because that was the best technology when the law was passed (many, many years ago). additionally, manufacturers had to choose between two different headlight configurations: two large round headlights (7") or four small round headlights (5.75")...in the 70s they added the option of rectangular headlights: two large (8"x5.5") or four small (4"x6"). some cars sold in europe used these sizes as well, but they didn't require sealed beams so over there one could buy the lamps (sometimes called the envelope) and a separate bulb element; the bulb element was available in a variety of wattage levels.

as an aside, in the US you couldn't mix sizes of lamps, which is why 70s jaguar xj6s sold here look funny and you couldn't legally import morette headlights for 505s into the US.

back then, if you wanted to put brighter headlights on your car, you could switch to the european-style separate setup. this was technically illegal, but very difficult to detect unless you examined the car closely or the owner put really powerful bulbs in. motorcycles could use the separate-type setup, but headlights for motorcycles had to have a little metal finger on the back so that the lamp wouldn't fit into a car's headlamp socket...i remember sawing these off with a hacksaw! these headlights were often known as e-codes, and are still sometimes referred to that way.

around the late 80s or so, US manufacturers decided that they wanted european-style headlights on their cars so they lobbied congress and the law was changed (ford did this, IIRC). so cars after this time have european-style headlights across the board along with the separate bulb setup necessitated by this.

now, having said all that, you now know more about headlights than 95% of the people in this country, cops and safety inspectors included. as far as i know the changes in the law were only effective for cars manufactured for the US market after the law was passed, so changing your 505 to the european headlights is technically illegal. since hardly anybody that doesn't read this forum knows what an original 505 looks like, i can't imagine that you'd ever have a problem with this.

if you are really risk-averse, or if you just like your car the way it is, you could always just switch to 4x6 e-codes with good h4 bulbs and you'd get vastly better lighting, nearly as good as the larger european-style headlights. while this is still technically illegal, it wouldn't be discovered unless someone was looking for it, even if they know what a US 505 looks like.

andré

[tulaweb]

most 505 owners think that the euro-style headlights look better on the car, although that is not a unanimous opinion. a big reason why they give off more light is because they use a separate bulb, which is typically more powerful than the crappy sealed-beam headlight.

....

if you are really risk-averse, or if you just like your car the way it is, you could always just switch to 4x6 e-codes with good h4 bulbs and you'd get vastly better lighting, nearly as good as the larger european-style headlights. while this is still technically illegal, it wouldn't be discovered unless someone was looking for it, even if they know what a US 505 looks like.

I'm not at all worried that any inspector would ever look at the euro headlights and know that they weren't original. My concern would be if there was anything about their output that would make the beam not meet US regulations. In NJ, before they stopped doing it altogether, the headlight inspection involved measuring the brightness and location where the beam was focused for high and low beam. Now that the state doesn't do it, I'm legally responsible for seeing that it meets the specs. If a cop observes that it's not right, I can get a ticket, but otherwise there is no inspection of that, so unless it is obviously much brighter than anything that would be legal on other cars, or the beam is in some other way abnormal, I'm not in any real jeopardy. I can't imagine failing inspection in any state simply because they are brighter than the originals, unless they are much brighter than anything that would be legal on a newer car. I'm not going to change them just because of esthetics, or even to get the brighter lamps, but if the old ones require replacing, I'm thinking that I like the Euro-spec ones and if they aren't already, I guess they might become easier to get, since more cars world wide had them than the US version.

[Bean]

From a light output aspect you won't raise any flags at all from the law since the stock bulbs are 55/60W H4 bulbs. I run 90/100W H4 bulbs and the crisp beam cut off's and properly aimed lights mean they don't even raise an eyebrow as you simply can't tell unless you bend down and look into the light. New HID lights are also many times brighter and much more annoying so I doubt anyone would notice.

As for output - the size of the reflector is directly related to how far the light can be projected. Bigger the reflector the farther the light can be distributed. The euro headlight is one of the biggest headlights I've seen - and they are by far some of the best headlights you'll ever use. I actually prefer my euro's with 90/100W bulbs as the halogen colour temp is much more pleasant on my eyes. I'd love to try a set of 3000K HID's in proper HID headlights to see if they'd change my mind.

If you're on a budget - the AutoPal 5x7 lights on E-bay are great bang for the buck. The equivalent Bosch/Hella/??? 5x7 e-code replacement will be a damn fine upgrade if you want to keep the look stock - but I still feel they're inferior to the proper euro lights. I've run both - and the euros KILL my Bosch 5x7 I used to have. Either of them obliterate the sealed beam units.

Rabin

[tulaweb]

This week I am as far away from home with the 505 as it has been in many years. Monday I drove up

from New Jersey to New Hampshire, a distance of about 350 miles, to visit my 88 year old mother. The trip went smoothly. It sure was nice sitting in those Peugeot seats rather than the Honda in which I usually make the trip. It made it on one tank of fuel with plenty to spare. I thought of Nick as I drove past Ascutney. My mother was worried about me taking the car on a long drive, but she enjoyed taking a ride in her old car yesterday, and I think was impressed that it was working well. I’ll probably be driving back tomorrow.

[tulaweb]

750 trouble free miles and I'm home again.