205 GTi rear beam reco.

S

S Chung

Member
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Nov 10, 2003
Messages
107
Location
Melbourne
Hi Guys
I have discovered rather disconcertingly that my drivers side rear wheel is sitting at a huge camber compared to the passengers side. I jacked the car up and I can move the trailing arm around probably almost 5mm - not cool.

Anyone know off the top of their head how much it would cost for a rear beam to be reconditioned (I guess it needs new bearings etc)?

Also how hard is it to do? other than re-setting the torsion bars I guess it shouldn't be too difficult - anyone done it?

Cheers,
Sean
 
Sean I've taken down the suspension cleaned & re-grased the suspension on my 205... i personally think it's a pain in the ass trying to get the geometry right when u're putting it back together. I'm not sure u can "re-condition" the torsion bar brow if it's warped (coz u hit a bump) then u're gonna need a new one.

Get it checked out and fixed asap coz it could affect the safety/integridy of the car.
 
Yeah the torsion bars aren't bent it seems like just the outer bearing has collapsed.

Jim T has emailed me a detailed set of notes on how he did the rebuild (sounds like he's done a few recently!) and the parts are around $100 so this should see me through it (Thanks a million Jim)
 
Sean,

If u get it done... get it done properly cos if you do it and it's not 100% then it might affect the integrity of the car.

contact me if u need a hand brow.
 
rear suspension

When you get 5 mm of movement on a 205/405 trailing arm, not only is the bearing rusted away, but the pivot axis of the crossmember (which the trailing arm bearings bear on) is likely deeply scored.

I did this job on my 405 3 years ago, and like you, I waited far too long to do it. My crossmember was scored but as the replacement part cost $1600 and was a week away, I put mine back together with new bearings and caller 'er good. I still have about 1 mm play on the worst of the 2 sides but the car is driveable.

The best thing that can be done to these cars is to tap a grease nipple into each trailing arm between the bearings, and pump the space full of grease (it'll take a lot) and replenish it every year. That will keep the water and salt out and should make the new bearings last indefinitely, if your crossmember is not badly damaged.

This suspension design is generally great, especially cool is the off-centre torsion bars that not only twist but flex too, allowing an even wheelbase left and right (unlike the Renault 4, 16 and 5).

The only caveat is that the rear suspension engineers did not consider the inevitable ingress of water, dirt and salt into the pivot point (there is a red plastic "seal" that is next to useless). Grease nipples are not de rigeur these days on new cars, hence this expensive problem exists for long-term 205 and 405 owners (perhaps 306 too).

Good luck with the repair.
 
Thanks alot to everyone for your advice - yep felix I checked the site - almost identical directions to Jim's!

I know I kind of put it off because i have sourced a disc brake rear end which I will be importing from UK soon. But I thought I'd better do it anyway in the meantime but I thought it would cost a fortune. I ordered all the parts required today ($98) and should have them by friday so I will do it next weekend.

I will let everyone know how it goes and maybe even take some pics to post as a How-To guide (unless you have some already Jim- since you are obviously better qualified than me!!)

Cheers guys
Sean
 
Sean just incase u didn't know... disc brakes don't make u're car go faster.
 
Reco 205 rear beam

The rear on my Gti is a bit squeaky, but not too bad. I just lowered the front suspension with some autofive springs, and I've had a quote from Alpine Affair in Melb. to rebuild the rear beam (he replaces the bearings with bushes - any one heard of this. any good?) and sets it back up to match the new front ride height. A rough verbal quote was ~$700. I will take a look at the instruction link above as I usually/like to, do my own work, but this sounded a bit daunting..
 
Hey Luca,

Yes I am well aware that disk brakes don't make your car go faster and yes I have read all the threads regarding drums vs disks. It OK I'm not some schmuck that has no idea what I'm doing or buying - the only reason I'm getting the rear end is because it is cheap and will cost me less (even by the time I get it over here) than a decent drum brake rear end would. And the guy in UK is happy to organise the shipping side of things for me.
 
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