Had it a month and I thought it was spot on... but...
New HT leads.
Draught from both doors (windows seal badly).
Short cooling hose from the thermostat burst (watch this one, the steam fills the dizzy cap and the water can empty in minutes from the system) pain to get at!
Lead corroded off the starter (which makes a strange worn out noise still), nuisance having to take the inlet manifold off!
Revs too high when bought, minor adjustment.
Drop links on anti roll bar clunk (can't be bothered to fix yet) about £40 each!!
Gunk build up in the oil filler pipe (common problem) cap is a nightmare to get open!
Small oil leak (pint every month or so) will get someone else to sort.
Padded out the boot to cut exhaust noise (I'm getting old!).
New wipers (old ones did a similar job to an old piece of stick).
Besides this the car is mint and original and seems OK.
Watch out for.
Boy raced models.
Collapsing rear suspension bushes (cause rubbing on the inner arch).
Heater matrix leaks.
Boy raced models.
Clunking from the front end.
Collapsed driver seats.
Boy raced models.
Leaking s/roofs and bad door/window seals.
Crash damage (obvious).
Do not buy one from a teenager.
I got mine from a 30ish gent who had it for 5 years and it still had niggles, revs too high was an obvious one. Mine sits happily at 800 rpm with no dipping, whether hot or cold.
The car is everything they say it is and more, get one today!
I'd like to know how this guy got the revs down in his car. Mine surges a little and the idling revs are about 1100 RPM, his are about 800 RPM.
I'm the proud owner of a white 1.6 E reg GTI 205, and have been since november last year, since owned, I too have had to replace the HT leads aswell as the distributor cap and rotor arm, thermo switch, cambelt, engine mounts, water hoses, fan, fan housing and window wipers (very difficult!), all minor things. However, in the past two months first my clutch decides it has had enough, and then my head gasket blows giving me a rather noticeable thick cloud of white smoke from my exhaust, highly embarassing, when it happens when your going through your home town and also highly expensive, as that and the clutch has cost me close to a thousand pounds to fix. However, I love my car to pieces and the way I see it, as soon as something is fixed its just one less thing that will go wrong.
My car has 1.9 GTI alloys, Limo black tinted windows, a full 3 inch exhaust, lockwood white dials, K and N air filter and about 700 pounds worth of sound system inside, so to me, driving it is certainly a lot of fun. Oh, and no, as much as it may sound like I am, I'm not a boy racer, I've loved cars all my life and take pride in owning a hot hatch since I was 18, which I may also had has been entirely paid for by my own hard work. Boy racers are 17 year olds in 1.3 Sr Novas thinkin they know how to drive a car and think putting tacky LED washer jets, seat belt pads and a sunstrip on their car is a serious modification.
My reason for writing was to answer the question about the idle, I too have had problems with my idle, where it sits too high. What you need to locate is your idle valve, it sits at the front of your engine, next to the air filter, and basically looks like a small circular, chunky screw. Either by finger or with a flat head screw driver, this needs to be twisted either clockwise or anti clockwise to get the desired idle. It takes 5 seconds and is something that has no excuse not to be sorted.
Oh and another thing to the chap having a pop at young drivers, all credit to 205 GTI's, but id like to think when I'm getting old like him, id be looking at getting something a bit quicker than a 205, there quick, but there not that quick, and you can pick up a pretty decent one these days for under a grand. When I'm in my 30's i'll be drivin big boys cars like EVO's.
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