Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i, GTi180 plus XUD9TE 206!!

Tell us your ongoing tales and experiences with your French car here. Post pictures of your car here as well.
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Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi and now, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i...

Unread post by Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur »

van ordinaire wrote: 06 Jan 2020, 21:19 small matter of the C15 stuck lifeless out in the street, I've not the slightest idea what to do about it - but it can only stay there 'til the end of Feb.
I got half an idea I read somewhere that its snapped its Cam Belt... but I can't find it now. Can put you onto a source of a Lump, cheap, if that's appropriate

or maybe coz they're now so rare its worth considering selling it as is.

Good luck with the GTi180 ekjdm, not heard of one of them, off to look it up.
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ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi and now, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i...

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

Ouch that's not good if it has. Probably be worth fixing though being one of the last of the breed? Engine swap probably the better option than head/cam replacement if my experience with bottom-end tragedy is anything to go by, though I do feel there was more to Black's engine than met the eye.

The 180 is (arguably) the 1.9GTi of it's era, the standard GTi being the equivalent of the 1.6. Having said that, they're far more scarce than the 205 variants despite being more than a decade younger and further so being derived from Peugeot's best seller of all time! It's an itch that's needed scratching for a while and glad we've got on the boat before the price-hikes set sail too, as I'm sure they will (mint examples already changing hands for 3k+... For a 17yr old hot-hatch...).

So far things are looking good on that front, non-functioning cooling fan traced to corroded wiring in the relay loom (sound familiar to any other French car owners??? :D ) and temporarily sorted till I have time to transplant the better loom from the parts car, thankfully looks the same as it's an AC car. Antipollution fault narrowed down to vacuum leak/sticky throttle body/sticky EGR (throttle body did look filthy so fingers crossed that helps, also a hose from the original airbox was just dangling loose with the addition of the "cold" air intake kit fitted. Axle is something I've managed before and it's a pig but cheap enough to make it worthwhile over a recon item with who-knows how little grease in the bearings. (I slathered them and packed out half the swingarms too on the Grey car)

Goes like the proverbial off a shiny waxed Teflon shovel though so that's nice & very comfy compared to the Grey HDi on it's coilovers at roughly similar height. Methinks those coilovers might make way for GTi struts sometime in the future as they are quite crashy over our beautifully surfaced finest quality tarmac [/sarcasm] roads here, whereas the 180 is firm but well damped & not crashy...
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi and now, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i...

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

Haha these Frenchies know when we're talking about them, I swear! So after all the praise, we got limp mode this afternoon on the school run & on my cheap Launch OBD2 tool I have P1160, P1161, P1163 which as far as I can glean relate to throttle body electrical issues. Only one returning consistently at startup is P1160.

Removed and gave it a thorough clean earlier but issue is still there. Maybe worthy of note is the zip-tie securing the multiplug, despite the clip being intact on inspection? Quite possible a bad connection there or the extension loom connector for the RHD BSI, under the glovebox. Hoping not to have to replace the throttle body though, that'd be a pain!

My intuition tells me it's electrical & feedback/position sensor related since it starts and idles fine for 5 seconds then throws the code and goes into limp mode (undriveable on a petrol, by the way. Quite literally a default to allow you to limp to safety at 5mph!!!) but if you start it and then hold it just off idle it'll stay out of limp mode & only show the 1160 as pending until you allow the revs to drop for too long. Too dark to play with connectors now, but may drag a lamp out there later and do some wire wiggling if I get bored.
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, & a GTi180 too

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

And back from The Grave today?..... My Diagbox VCI! :D viewtopic.php?f=51&t=64353

Very pleased with that result, now I can get on with some of the little things that've been bugging me for ages like the knackered stereo in the Grey 206. Will swap that with the head unit & multichanger from the parts car, one more shot at getting the front fogs working with the aid of the underbonnet fuse box from same parts car. Can also sort the ABS issue on the '06 car which I suspect is the OSR wiring broken, oh, and then when it's light I'll reassemble the 180's throttle wiring harness (rebuilding the plug end as it's crusty and hard) and then see what it has to say on the limp-home fault, that only rears it's ugly head when the engine is warm and the idle speed is allowed to drop below about 900rpm for a few seconds. If cold or you keep it slightly off idle it'll run fine all day just setting pending codes, they only become active triggering limp mode when it's allowed to idle. Definitely suspecting TB position sensor coherence but just glad to have the proper tool working again before I spend any time or money on guesswork!
Last edited by ekjdm14 on 12 Jan 2020, 22:13, edited 1 time in total.
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, & a GTi180 too

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

OK after much to-do (original Win7 based Diagbox laptop decided to have a software corruption so after messing about and giving up on that as a bad job I remembered I had an old XP machine that I'd installed 7.02 on during VCI diagnosis, thankfully that struck up and worked fine!) we now have a 206 GTi180 that will sit and idle happily even when warm.

The issue seems to have been that after cleaning the throttle body (it was filthy!!!) the ECU's adaptive learning threw a wobbly because everything it'd learned over 17 years/91k miles had just gone out the window and it had a clean throttle again. That must have made it think the throttle was sticking high at low idle due to the increase in airflow, and going through the adaptive reset procedure seems to have helped (supposed to idle until the fan kicks in, which it currently cannot do due to wiring issues so I let it get up to about 95c then shut off. Need to complete the relearn by using engine braking in gear 3/4/5 to adapt injector cut which will do shortly).

Fingers crossed, as I really worried I'd crocked the TB cleaning the damn thing! Hopefully may see a few more MPG as well, though that's not the point of this car!
Last edited by ekjdm14 on 12 Jan 2020, 22:14, edited 1 time in total.
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, and a GTi180 t

Unread post by Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur »

ekjdm14 wrote: 10 Jan 2020, 15:29 The 180 is (arguably) the 1.9GTi of it's era… glad we've got on the boat before the price-hikes set sail, mint examples already changing hands for 3k+... For a 17yr old hot-hatch...).
That is nuts isn’t it !! and sounds like you’ve done well, good on yer ! :-D
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ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, & a GTi180 too

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

It is a little crazy, I think the higher prices for the really nice ones are likely down to "speculative investors" snapping up something they feel will bring a good return in a few years time since perfectly decent ones do show up for under a grand now and again & obviously the odd real bargain when someone doesn't know what they've got (or thinks they have something they don't, like a failed HG lol). Wouldn't catch me paying top dollar for a car though haha!

Just got back from a short test drive & filled up with some super unleaded too which, surprisingly, seems to have made a perceivable improvement to the way the car runs too. Time will tell if the throttle body issue is behind us now but I'm hopeful, neglected to mention that while I was faffing with Diagbox I also took the opportunity to remake the connections to the throttle body multiplug with nice crimped/soldered joints and some heatshrink. Definitely making good contact there now!

Got a few more bits to pilfer from the parts car before scrap man comes for it, I want the steering wheel, gear lever/knob (it's been cut on the 180 to fit a nasty Momo carbon item that feels weird), handbrake lever (for the '06 as it has a snazzy silver button!) and rear speakers for the 180 as they've been blown properly by the Clubland CD from owners past (which was in the changer as the mechanism had stuck, not sure it's a good freebie or not lol).
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
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Zelandeth
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, and a GTi180 t

Unread post by Zelandeth »

Have to admit that part of me does regret not buying one of the Saxo VTRs before their prices went silly for good ones. Remember bringing one back from Inverness on the back roads once over towards Aberdeen and it was an absolute hoot. Not wearing like some older cars with a similar character though on a longer run though. Imagine your latest acquisition is basically the equivalent but another generation or two on.
Current fleet:
07 Volvo V70 SE D5, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, and a GTi180 t

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

Would have loved a nice VTR or even VTS in that similar blue colour (Aegean Blue on the 206, perhaps a little darker on the Saxos?) they were cool little motors and about as likable as any boy-racer type car could be. Probably the VTRs were closer to the 205GTi in weight/power than the 206 but pretty much the same ethos. Very comfortable seats too, one complaint I've levelled at many smaller PSA seats is the lack of lower thigh and lumbar support offered but the GTi 180 seats are a world apart and 3 hours back home was easy (the CC leathers in the grey car are good, too, for that matter although the 180 still has the edge for long journeys).

Only major issue I'm having at the moment is being able to relax and get to sleep at night, due to the excitement of getting up and doing the school run in it!
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, and a GTi180 t

Unread post by Zelandeth »

Yep...the new fun car syndrome.

Likewise I've been inventing all manner of reasons for going out places where I really strictly don't need to purely as an excuse to drive the Jag.

What I really should be doing is being sensible, giving it a thorough service and concentrate on getting the admittedly small list of known issues. However driving it is far too much fun...and comfy.
Current fleet:
07 Volvo V70 SE D5, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, and a GTi180 t

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

Quite rightly too, don't forget the old chestnut that they get better economy on a run than short journeys ;) That's a useful excuse for taking the "long way home" that's really just a random A & B road drive! The V12 Jagwah's an itch I'd quite like to scratch one day too, having owned an XJ40 L6 some years ago and finding it supremely comfortable and smelled lovely but felt sadly lacking in oomph and a little "Germanic" sounding being a 6 cylinder too...

The XJ-S is a handsome car indeed and with the big engine, probably the last "proper" Jag, in my humble opinion.
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, and a GTi180 t

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

Spent most of today stripping the remainder of worthwhile parts from the spares car & it's just gone off on the scrap man's wagon. Took a moment to hook up to DB and delete the VIN number from the stereo and BSI etc before stripping the electronics out although couldn't do much else as didn't have the PIN for the ECU, did save the lock cylinders too so we have a complete "lost key kit" for a 1.4HDi now albeit only one key itself.

Good bit of interior stuff like alloy interior door handles, SP vents & handbrake lever, reading light, COM2000 with auto lights and wipers+ windscreen sensor for that, Clarion CD changer and stereo, digital climate unit instrument binnacle, BSM, BSI and other little bits like an uncut gear lever for the 180 so I can get rid of that awful "carbon" MOMO atrocity that's currently on there, and a quieter check strap for the passenger door. Most of the bits are spoken for by way of upgrades/repairs to the 3 resident 206s but anything potentially useful left over I may chuck for sale on here before either binning or adding them to the clutter of useful stuff already in the garage!

Better get washed up now, always feel more dirty when I've stripped a car than when I've fixed one, even if I'm not covered in oil!
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, & a GTi180

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

Not a huge amount to report this last week, had a small upset with the 180 when it dropped a couple of cylinders round the corner from home. Given how suddenly it lost 2 cylinders & didn't go into limp mode I suspected coil pack or wiring, it was indeed just a loose connection to the coil pack. Also fixed the rear wiper which again turned out to be a dodgy connection.

Did a bit of playing round with the grey car too, replaced the BSM for the one from the parts car as that had the front fogs option so they now work finally. Also corrected some scabby wiring to the radio & fitted the CD player, cleaned the laser and tweaked the mechanism on the Clarion 5-disc changer and ran out of light. As the car sits it has working radio & CD changer albeit the changer isn't installed in the glove box yet & I have to remove the heater controls again as 2 out of the 3 little "pingfuckits" that hold the cables in place lived up to their name! Have ordered a bunch of 3528 surface-mount LED's to change the instrument lighting colour to pink on this one, and blue on the 180 too.
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
ekjdm14
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, & a GTi180

Unread post by ekjdm14 »

This afternoon's little project was replacing the dull orange LED's in the 206 instrument lighting with some nicer, more up-to-date colours. The 180 got the blue treatment to match the paintwork & Emma's Grey HDi received hot pink, I also reversed the polarising filter on the HDi's odometer too so the display is negative compared to normal. :D

This didn't take too long once I got into the swing of things, about 45mins per cluster, and the photos really don't do justice to the colour. It's much more vibrant in person & adds a neat twist to the OEM instrumentation. Now the next on the list is to convert the MFD to LED's as well and make the change to the radio and climate/heater/button lighting. Also have some purple SMD's for the '06 car. Speaking of which, yesterday was it's turn for some attention as the weather stayed dry enough to begin reassembly. So far have the inner arch and lamp recess welded back on & enough of the original quarter panel removed so that I've been able to hang the replacement panel loosely in place to keep the weather out. Hopefully one or two more good days on that will see it ready for action once more, can't keep a good car down & all that...
Dans.jpg
Bee.jpg
'95 Xantia LX 1.9D-auto, Black, 118k
'97 306 XS 1.6i, Blaze Yellow, 24k
'96 ZX SX 1.9TD rolling shell, White, 81k
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Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur
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Re: Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i... Oh, & a GTi180

Unread post by Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur »

Am liking the blue LED's especially there, and will be curious to see pix of the welding if you get a chance. Any partic 'challenges' with it as yet? There's usually summat
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