91 405 Mi16 build thread

[Peugeottogo]

Andre', finally caught up with your new thread on your MI16!

Of course I was expecting no less than your previous project thread of the effort of detail you put into your updates.

Always a pleasure to read!

Thanks

[andrethx]

i recently got some parts in. one item that deserves special mention is the repro factory service manual that i got from western hemispheres...my first (but not my last) manual for this car:

also, i got some stainless screws for the bottom of the upper grill -- you can see them here along with the original screws. no photo of the installed screws since they're not really visible:

i also endeavored to search for some new bolts for the front bumper. the front bumper is held by four nuts at the front (that attach to the bumper shock absorbers, two to a side), a bolt on each side (by the side marker light just in front of the wheel well) and by three bolts on the bottom (one on each side and one in the middle). as it turns out, the two bolts screws and the three bottom bolts have the same size & threading (8m x 1.25) as well as the same length (30mm). i initially thought about replacing them all, but even though i am missing some of the bottom bolts i have the two side bolts so i made up my mind to use the good parts that i have instead of over-restoring everything. i did this on my 505, and it ended up being not drivable for a long time because i was always looking for parts. so even though i purchased some replacement bolts, i cleaned up the original side bolts with some brake part cleaner and installed them which got the bumper properly lined up:

i *do* need to replace the bottom bolts; they have a large-diameter tork head so they'll be a bit tricky to source. i also need to clean up the front fender liners and re-install them. i tried to clean some of the overspray off them but it wasn't happening so i just cleaned off the road tar. i'll probably paint them with bed liner paint so they look okay; i'm also going to have to patch the passengers' side liner since some of its mounting tabs have broken off. the fender liners are held in with a combination of screws and clips; many of the clips broke when i took the liners out so i ordered replacements from western hemispheres (they also available from europe). the old clips were much bigger than the replacements so maybe they are not original to the car...i also got some aftermarket clips from my local auto parts store just in case the OE clips are not available in the future:

i starter cleaning the side marker lights to remove the white and black overspray; i used a combination of brake fluid (easy on plastic, tough on paint) and a very sharp utility knife to get them clean. here's the before and after:

after i took these photos, i managed to take these lenses apart so that i could clean the dirt from inside them (see the lower lens in the photo immediately above). i'll be gluing them back together shortly and i'll post finished pics so you can see how they came out.

i had intended to do a bit of engine cleaning and to install the new hood-stay bracket that i got, but i got sidetracked removing overspray from the exterior of the car. it's going well but i can see that it will take a while...

also -- i've driven the car around a bit and the fuel gauge is down to about 3/4 full, and the gasoline smell is gone so it looks like savo was right about the upper gas tank seal needing replacement (since, if it was a cracked lower fuel filler hose, the car would smell of gasoline no matter how much fuel was in the tank). i am expecting a new seal on monday or tuesday along with a couple of other things. i had also ordered a new lower hose since those always go out anyway, but i'll save it until it's needed.

more to come...

andré

[andrethx]

lots more cleaning today -- i continued to remove the white overspray on the body moldings, it's going well -- about halfway done. i'll try to take a few photos of this next time so that you can see what i'm talking about.

i cleaned the interior fusebox, i wiped it down and cleaned up the electrical contacts. i replaced the fuses with "smart" fuses -- they're the ones that light up when they blow -- and i did a quick inventory of relays so i can get some spares. i ran out of 5 amp smart fuses, need to get some more so i'll have spare fuses as well.

i also cleaned out the underhood fuse/relay box (in front of the passengers' side shock tower), inventoried the relays and replaced the two 10 amp fuses with smart fuses after this photo was taken; the photo shows the fuses & relays taken off the plastic mounting frame that fits inside the box. very dirty and dusty inside before i cleaned:

i also cleaned out the box where the motronic ecu and its relay live. interesting, the ecu was not mounted to anything, it was just flopping around inside of its box. need to look into this:

i got the clip for the hood prop but it doesn't snap in securely enough for my liking so i'll have to figure out a secure way of mounting it so it doesn't fall off and get lost. maybe that's what happened to the original one...

i have some new foglights and frames coming from france, still quite a few items to source. as always, more to come.

andré

[my3AWDgst]

It looks like a push pin is missing on your hood prop clip.

Motronic what's that? ;-)

[andrethx]

motronic is an ecu that you don't have to program.

with regards to the hood prop bracket -- it seems like something is missing, but whatever it is, it's not shown on servicebox. here's a different angle on the bracket, it seems like that "button" would push in to help lock the clip in place, but is doesn't. not sure about this one...

the o-ring gasket for the top of the fuel tank came in today, so i installed it. i'm already smelling less fumes so i think that was the problem. the old o-ring was loose and came out very easily, while the new one required a bit of effort to install properly so i'm optimistic that my problem has been addressed. here's the rear of the interior with the back seat bottom removed:

opened the access port, you can see the fuel line, fuel return and the connection for the fuel level sender. unlike the 505, which uses two openings -- one for the pump and one for the fuel level sender -- the 405 uses one opening and a combination pump/sender unit.

here's the new o-ring:

screwing down the lock ring, putting everything back together after replacing the o-ring:

everything buttoned up:

i was going to vacuum under the rear seat bottom and maybe run some speaker wire for the rear deck speakers, but it was getting late and i had to change the oil in the jetta so that will have to wait for another day.

andré

[my3AWDgst]

André I'm surprised that you did not replaced in tank pump. Looking at factory clamp it looks like it was never replaced.

I'm Not sure if it's camera angle but arrow on sending unit is not facing correct way.

[andrethx]

you're right, savo, the sending unit was not aligned properly. i fixed it:

as for why i didn't replace the pump/sending unit -- it's working perfectly fine right now, is why i didn't replace it. i have ordered a new one so i have a spare when this one inevitably goes out...

i started running new speaker wire for the rear speakers, but it started raining yesterday so i will have to pick that task up later.

andré

andré

[andrethx]

busy with work; ordered a new driver's side taillight, need to get some plastic polish to clean it up (along with the other taillight and the center reflective panel). i also order two new front bumper side marker lights; i realized that the old ones will probably fill with water when it rains now that i've separated them, even after they've been glued back together....

andré

[andrethx]

my new left tail light came in; the seller on eBay from whom i ordered the front side marker lights cancelled my order and refunded the money, saying the lights were out of stock. i got some plastic polish and cleaned up both tail lights and the center reflector panel.

yesterday i put the tail lights back together. here are a couple of shots of the old left tail light, you can see the cracks:

i removed both of the tail lights (the right one and the old cracked left one) and cleaned everything up. the old tail lights had been installed with a bead of silicon, i cleaned it (and the dirt that had collected around it) off with a combination of isopropyl alcohol and mineral spirits.

i added a bead of clear rtv silicon to the lights and re-installed them (the good right one and the new left one):

here's an interesting "easter egg" on the car under the reflector panel:

the center reflector panel is held on at the bottom by three clips and at the top by three rivets. removing the panel damaged one of the "fingers" (i.e., attachment points) on it where the panel snaps onto the clips, and the clips themselves got damaged as well. fortunately, i was able to find the clips as NOS. i also repaired the center panel "finger" with jb weld, it looked as if all three "fingers" had been repaired in the past:

this next picture gives you a closer shot of one of the "fingers" at the bottom of the panel, along with the old jb weld repair:

and here are the clips themselves:

and here are the final results, after the panel was snapped in and the rivets applied:

andré

[andrethx]

got my front side marker lights together today. i found LED lights at my local auto parts store for US$12.99 for a pack of two:

here are the lights in the car:

and here they are turned on. this is on a sunny day, so they're very bright. they only use 1 watt, whereas the old incandescent bulbs used 3 watts:

i also got some new parts in, including a front license plate frame (same one the US 505 uses, as it turns out) and the lower fuel filler line hose. both of these items will go into the vault, as i don't need them now but probably will in the future. i also got a new mount for the transmission, the first of a complete set of new mounts:

i also started working on the locking system. i guess i've been spoiled over the years with keyless entry systems so it's kind of inconvenient to have to use the door keyhole every time i want to lock or unlock the car. my car has a transceiver but didn't come with the remote fobs. more about this later. i also need to mount the microphone for my new stereo's bluetooth function, and the plafonnier (roof console) seems like a good place:

i ran out of speaker wire and time so the rear seat is still out, and it looks kind of ghetto. i'll be finishing that up this weekend. with the rear seat out, i hear a faint roaring noise from the rear axle area of the car. this could be the bearings on the way out, or it could be the shitty no-name tires on the car. or it could be my imagination.

also, we had a foggy morning recently and i drove the car. the rear window was fogged up and i turned on the defroster and the button lit up, but nothing happened to the window. i suppose this is better than the window partially defrosting...i'll have to investigate this.

andré

[andrethx]

finally got some more LED bulbs for the front turn signals so i'll be changing those shortly and polishing the lenses to remove overspray. also, in addition to the rear window defrost not working, i've discovered that the cigarette lighter doesn't work. so i'm going to take my own advice from the facebook group and clean the grounds to start with.

also, the windshield wipers are very slow -- low and high speed are the same slow speed. the rear windows are very slow going up and down as well, so i'll need to clean and lubricate the window guides, rails, etc. i did a bit of research and the a number of japanese car owners on the internet say that this silicone lubricant works great & is very durable -- it's the stuff that they sell at the honda dealerships...so i'm going to order some and check it out.

more to come.

andré

[Bean]

First fuses, then connections, then grounds is my usual routine.

Roar - uneven wear on the tires can be felt with your hand, if the tread has cupped you'll feel it. If it's bearings the center of your wheel will start to get warm - bad bearings generate lots of heat.

Love all the details you tend to - and curious about both the LED bulbs and how the silicone grease works.

Rabin

[andrethx]

i will check those things out, rabin, merci!

in the meantime, i got a bunch of factory service manuals from a friend on this forum (gracias, amigo!), including the 91 405 electrical manual. with what i already had, the only ones i really need at this point are the xu9j4 rebuild manual and the body manual:

i also got some other parts that i'll be posting in the coming days.

also on the plus side, i was almost out of gas so i did a complete fill-up last night, and no gas smell. so savo was correct, it was the tank seal. i added some techron (polyetheramine)-based injector cleaner while i was at it, i figured might help the engine run a little better.

andré

[my3AWDgst]

Glad I could help. Keep up the good work and long live MI16's :-)

[andrethx]

i thought i'd clean the engine today. i plan to tune the car up shortly (i'm accumulating the necessary parts) so it seemed like a good idea. i wanted to do a bit more touch up work on the bumpers this weekend, but it's been raining here (!?!) and there is a possibility that it could rain this weekend so i put that off.

about five years ago, my wife got it into her head that all household cleaning products were poison, so she did a lot of internet research and we bought a steam cleaner. the one we got is called "reliable," despite the anglo name it's an italian product sold by a canadian company. after reading so many threads on the detailers' forums, i finally realized that i had one of their favorite tools gathering dust in my house so i decided to use the steam cleaner on my engine compartment. it looks like this:

the engine was filthy, it looked like it's never been cleaned at all.

so i got busy with the steam cleaner. using this nozzle it has a pinpoint stream of steam that works really well at removing grease and dirt. it's easy to control and avoid electrical connections with this nozzle:

for the stubborn bits that wouldn't come off, i used some all-purpose cleaner (APC) and brushes:

it came out pretty well, i had enough steam for about an hour of cleaning. i got most of the intake manifold done, the runners came out okay. i still need to finish this area, though.

engine ID plaque under the fuel rail:

i also spent some time on the power steering reservoir. but i ran out of steam (literally) before i could finish:

i'm going to try to spend some time on this tomorrow. btw, here's my paint code (blanc meije, or alpine white) from the left-side shock tower:

andré

[andrethx]

some updates -- haven't been able to finish the engine cleaning, maybe one day soon...

anyhow, after i had finished re-painting the black portion of my front bumper (see up-thread), i noticed that there was still white overspray showing around the front turn signals -- even though i had masked them off when i painted. so i pulled the front turn signal lights out (thanks cameron for your instructions on the facebook group! ). as it turns out, the left (gauche) light was missing a tab but it was pretty difficult to get out so i decided not to replace it and to just use it as-is. both lights were very dirty and had both white and black overspray on them.

i cleaned the turn signal housings with APC then i started working on them with with some meguir's plastx plastic polish. here's a 50/50 with the two lights:

and here's the finished products:

as with the side marker lights, i replaced the incandescent bulbs with led units. this is where it gets interesting, because the old bulbs here used 27 watts each while the new ones use 3 watts apiece. so i am now using 52 watts less with the lights on (2x2 watts savings for the side markers + 2x24 watts savings for the front turn signals). once all of the lights are swapped out the stress on the electrical system should be significantly less. i'm sure i'll use some of that savings on brighter headlights, but the net usage should be substantially lower.

i cleaned the front bumpers around the turn-signal light recesses with some APC and hit them with a red scotch guard pad; then i wiped everything down with IPA and masked it off with some newspaper:

some adhesion promoter and a few coats of bumper paint later, and this was the result:

here's the finished product with the lights back in.

on an unrelated topic, i've been thinking about what i want to to about the suspension on my car. now, i'm not a fan of extreme lowering like randy or savo, but there's no doubt that cars with sporting aspirations are lower now than they were in 1991. put it another way, by today's standards, my 405 is up pretty high. i'd like to lower it to about the height of some of the current sportier BMWs so i go out the yardstick and took some measurements; i'm guessing that i want to go about 2.25 inches (60 mm) lower. savo, am i correct that i'd need coilovers to go this much lower? i took a look under the car and discovered that my buzzy exhaust system was not original -- the front muffler had been replaced at some point and the installers did a crappy job of fitting the exhaust tubing into the insulated channel on the underside of the car that was provided for that purpose. instead, they took the shortest route and the exhaust tubing hangs low under the car.

it's kind of hard to see in this picture, but the portion of the exhaust tubing in front of the rear wheel should not be hanging down so low. so if i lower the car now, my exhaust will probably get damaged. so i need to fix/change out the exhaust before i think about lowering the car.

andré

[my3AWDgst]

Results after cleaning never gets old :-)

I would recommend new struts possible Bilsteins with Eibach or equivalent springs and you will be happy.

We can further discus in about two weeks when I see it in person.

[andrethx]

Results after cleaning never gets old :-)

I would recommend new struts possible Bilsteins with Eibach or equivalent springs and you will be happy.

We can further discus in about two weeks when I see it in person.

i look forward it....

[my3AWDgst]

I've seen it and drove it in person :-) great MI16,just needs little love.

[Bean]

The meet you guys had looked awesome! I really would love to attend one of these in my own car once they're tidy enough to warrant #rabinspec tags...

Rabin

[andrethx]

i haven't posted too much lately; i was very busy with work for a couple of weeks, then i got sick with the flu and was feeling sorry for myself all of last week. this week i'm feeling better -- still not 100% but better -- but i'm playing catch-up with work for last week. the car time i've had available recently has been spent on sourcing parts for upcoming projects (more on that later).

aside from meeting savo for the first time, and seeing thomas and marc again, one of the best things about the mini-meetup we had was that i got savo's opinion on my car -- i felt very lucky to have my car looked at by an experienced mechanic who is familiar with 405s. he spotted a couple of issues:

1) there is an issue with wide-open throttle on my car -- the throttle wire was binding and savo fixed that, but the throttle mechanism itself is gummed up and needs to be cleaned and lubricated. the whole situation was also complicated by the idle setting, which was off. as it turns out, the hose in my engine compartment that's taped up is the hose between the idle compensator and the air meter, so we discussed how that hose might be leaking and screwing up the idle settings. i already have a NOS replacement hose for that, so i'm going to replace it shortly when my order of norma stainless hose clamps comes in; when i'm (finally) finished cleaning the engine i'll be addressing the throttle mechanism.

2) the water temperature gauge on my dash is not working correctly (probably needs another sensor); at the same time, i will make sure that the thermostat installed is a proper 88C/190F unit by installing a new one. my oil temp gauge is out -- i knew that -- but savo explained that the most common problem with this sensor is the wiring being damaged by being so close to the exhaust manifold. i had thought that i had needed a new sensor (tricky but not impossible to find) but i may be able to just run new insulated wiring to get this gauge working.

3) the problem with the 1>2 shift may not be worn second-gear synchos, as i had feared; but might be old dirty transmission fluid and worn mounts/shift levers. i'll be addressing all of those things in the coming days, but in the meantime, marc suggested double-clutching on the 1>2 shift, and that eliminates the problem so i'll be doing that for the time being.

gotta hop now, will write more soon.

andré

[andrethx]

i am still cleaning the engine, so i'll probably be outside with the steam cleaner this weekend; i just got some bendable brushes this week so i hope to get the top of the engine compartment done in one or two more sessions. then i'll start to work on the underside of the engine.

i've got three projects coming up on for the car, so i've been accumulating the parts i'll need. first project is the brakes, i have new rotors for the front and brake pads but i don't have the rear rotors yet. i also want to replace the soft lines so i'll need to get those. i will be flushing the system at the same time.

the next project will be a tune-up. i've got spark plugs and filters for oil & air, and i'm waiting on a new distributor cap. still need new spark plug wires, a new distributor rotor, a fuel filter and some other odds & ends.

another project will be the roof. just like savo, i'm going to remove the headliner and have it recovered at an upholstery shop. while it's out, i'm going to get the sunroof working. for 405s, that usually means replacing the cables. i've got a NOS set of cables and i need to get a sunroof seal.

i'm also working on assembling a full set of motor mounts and new components for the shifter, more on that later.

andré

[andrethx]

also, i recently obtained a pair of covers for the front shock towers. as far as i know, these were not put on the US/Canadian cars; they look like this:

/\ from an australian turbo diesel, but you get the idea

i got these from leboncoin.fr, a friend in france got them for me. this is a fairly new friend from facebook, he is a powerboat enthusiast and i've helped him buy volvo-penta stuff from the US (it's about half of the cost here as compared to france). he's really a nice guy, he sent me a bottle of french wine with these covers!

andré

[andrethx]

i spent about an hour today working on my car; my stainless norma hose clamps came in today so i was able to replace the hose with the red tape on it:

old and new:

i took a few minutes to remove the tape from the old hose; sure enough, it was bad. it's hard to see in the picture but the hose was pierced all the way through.

i also spent a bit of time cleaning the tops of the shock towers and i took the opportunity to remove the bit of white paint overspray from the plastic cover that protects the relays on the driver's side fender behind the headlight...you know, to keep the relays dry in case some idiot takes a steam cleaner to the engine compartment. it came out pretty nice, i was able to remove all of the white paint with a gentle plastic polish (meguiar's plastx).

before:

after:

i also got a new distributor cap in over the weekend:

andré

[my3AWDgst]

André I wish you have asked me about brakes before ordering those parts. 306 GTI6 front brakes are cheap now days.