rear beam from an Si on a GTi...how can i tell?

J

jr20516v

Well-known member
1000+ Posts
Fellow Frogger
Joined
Aug 27, 2001
Messages
3,025
Location
brisbane
Thinking of purchasing this 205 GTi [yes, i know that will make 4 LOL ] and a little birdie tells me that this particular car has a rear beam from an standard 205 Si on it.

Is there any way i can tell just by looking at it?
 
For starters the GTI beam has go fast yellow paint on the main tube and the Si is black.
I think the main tube is a different diameter, someone else may chime in or I can measure them I have both beams here. (My Si beam in little silver also has Si written on the main tube, a dead giveaway!)
The torsion bars should be different but they could have been swapped over.
 
jr20516v said:
Ironically all 3 of my GTi's are all black beams.
Click to expand...

They could have been painted black on rebuild or I could be off track with all GTI beams being yellow (being a young player on these).
I'll see if I can get a few minutes to measure them tonight.
 
My 87 S1 has a yellow-painted beam. Looks like it's never been off so pretty sure it's original - has black ARBs. Also have one here from a 306 XSi. That's yellow, too, but with red ARBs.
Looks like they weren't short of tins of paint back in the day...


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
I think over time these yellow ones are painted [usually black ] to spruce them up. Every time i get a new 205 one of the first things i do is remove the spare wheel....scrub like mad that area from the beam backwards....when dry i usually paint the area with a spray can of underbody paint.
Maybe somebody else had the same fetish with my 3 babes.
 
Possibly I suppose you'd be able to eyeball it to see if it's been widely sprayed with black or painted when out being rebuilt.

I measured the diameter of my beam main tubes in the widest middle section (approx only as its dark and under the car)
The yellow S1 GTI beams are 64mm
The Si beam is 59-60mm
 
Good to know.... i will get a measuring ! Thx for the heads up.
 
Curious to hear what the results are. Measure the torsion bars while you're under there.
 
My old copy of the French RTA manual says this Screenshot-2.jpg
 
Cheers Seasink. I guess the French call our GTi a GT.........and by that it says the torsion bars are only .4 of a difference from the cooking model.....am i on the wrong track here ?
 
Hi Seasink,

A bit off topic, but those old French RTA manuals have a lot of useful info in them and way more detail than Haynes will ever provide... Do you happen to have a RTA Peugeot 306 manual? I'm looking for more detail on the suspension specs for my 306 2.0 XT vs XSI vs GTI 6 - so I can hunt for some XSI/GTI 6 stock torsion bars/ARBs front springs to perk mine up a bit... Otherwise will look on fleabay for an RTA manual...

Cheers, Chris.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top