PART 3: THE UNTOLD STORY OF MY PEUGEOT 505 V6

PART 3: THE UNTOLD STORY OF MY PEUGEOT 505 V6

Sometime in May 2012, Mr Paraic sent me a mail from USA that I was highly recommended by US 505 users that I could help him sourced 505 V6 170 hp ECUs in Nigeria. He sent about $400 USD, and I ordered for the 2 ECUs from Lagos (Ignition & Injection) for him. On receiving them, I observed that the injection ECU has been opened. When I checked, the board was fried (about 3 burns on the board). It was obvious the part seller knew the ECU was damaged but sent it anyway. To avoid being labelled a scammer (considering the bad reputation some Nigerians have labelled the country with regard to scams), I quickly shipped to him my own spare 170hp injection ECU, including the good 170hp ignition ECU that came with the dead injection ECU from Lagos. I informed Mr Paraic what happened and the reason why I sent mine, rather than letting the dishonest and fraudulent part seller taint my integrity. However, I asked for feedback as soon the ECUs were received by him and mounted on his car. On 21/06/2012, he received the ECUs, which I shipped on 04/06/2012. He swapped them in and confirmed that both ECUs were working well. He added that there was a significant power increase and also a different exhaust note with the 170hp ECUs I sent to him. Even though I lost a spare ECU in the transaction, something positive came out of it. The Paraic 505 V6 car confirmed my engine ECUs and other EFI components were not the cause of the severe issues that made my 505 V6 undrivable, since i had also replaced other components and issues remained. The only part remaining to rule out was the engine wiring harness.

I began searching for a good engine wiring harness in Abuja. I saw few at Apo Abuja, but they were mercilessly butchered, probably worst than mine. A part seller at Mgbuka Obosi Anambra state claimed he had a good one. I paid and when I took delivery of it days later, the harness was not complete. Half of it was missing or butchered out. It became clear that the only option left was to fix the abused harness on the car. To do that, I would need to learn how to interpret wiring diagrams and schematics. Fortunately, I already have the materials for the study.

Earlier, a friend, Paul Strickland, a 505 V6 owner in USA, sent me few pages of wiring schematics of 505 (soft copies). Not enough, but was a good start. Mr George, also from USA, found his 1988 505 V6 owner's manual, scanned the 110 pages of the book (his son assisted in the scanning), and sent the manual as pdf via email to me. Another friend of mine in California, André Thibodeaux, found a hard copy 1987 505 Electrical Workshop Manual on ebay. He ordered it and shipped it to me as a gift. So from May to June 2012, I studied the materials and by end of June, I could recite the numbers and functions of each wire on the ZN3J Engine harnes off my head, where each wire started from and ended on, without looking at those books. The EFI phobia was completely gone in me. I was ready to stop beating about the bush and tackle the horror from the root: the harness. So on Sunday 01/07/2012 around 7.am, I disconnected and pulled out the entire engine wiring harness off the vehicle. Armed with Digital MultiMeter, I checked and found out there were no communication on about 30% of the wires from the 2 ECUs connectors to the engine sensors, switches, relays, ground supply, etc. These issues were created while modifying the V6 harness to work with the original car harness during the conversion of the car to V6. The wires from the 2 ECUs to the 3 relays for the EFI system were wrongly connected. Few sensors or electrical components also had their connectors wrongly interchanged. It was really a big mess. So I started to reverse the wires that were wrongly connected and also reconnected the majority of the wires that were left unconnected before. On the 3 relays, I modified connections to them from the car central harness to the Ignition ECU, injection ECU, the 6 injectors, 2 fuel pumps, MAF sensor, IAC solenoid, Ignition coil, oxygen sensor harness and every other EFI component those relays were meant to power, according to the 1987 ZN3J wiring schematics. I did continuity test to confirm the communications were now good and through, and gradually taped back the harness from connectors to be located in engine bay, to the 2 ECU connectors to be located inside the car cabin. I mounted back the harness. I completed the harness work by 11.30pm that day with a touch light, without remembering to eat the whole day. When I switched on the Ignition that night, I could hear my chest beating. I didn't know what was going to happen when it turns to crank position, whether the car would go into flames or something worse. I turned the key fully, engine cranked and started immediately. Never had the car started at first crank ever since I got the car 18 months earlier. As if that was not enough, the engine speed was stable, no hunting. I was overjoyed. I let it idle for about 3 minutes and decided to test the presence of another usual faulty injection symptom the car had. I accelerated to 3k rpm, and it revved smoothly with no hesitation and dropped to 750 rpm without stalling. I did it!

It was around 6.30am the next morning (couldn't sleep out of excitement and anxiety) that I jumped back into the car to continue with the tests. I cranked the engine again and it was running before I knew it. Left the car at idle and went to the car tail to observe the exhaust. There was no black smoke. I went back into the car and accelerated to 3k rpm. Still no smoke, as I looked back. Then I pushed the Throttle much harder this time, there was black smoke. I tried to console myself that it could be the old black soot in the exhaust. I left the engine idling and stood behind car observing, about 15 minutes later, steam started emitting from the exhaust pipe. Again, that had never happened on the car 18 months earlier till that moment, an indication the combustion issue has been resolved, at least at idle. There was no peppering the eyes anymore which was one of the symptoms the car had since he came. About 10 times, I would switch off engine, cranked and it would start running immediately, at every 10 to 15 minutes intervals. No more hard start both at cold and hot engine temperatures. Left for work that morning with the car. The v6 power was now fully observed. The car respond to acceleration was sweet. It took about 2 days drive before the black smoke stopped completely at higher rpm, which confirmed my suspicion that it could be the old black soot trapped in the exhaust lines before that night the issues were fixed. The car became my daily driver from then and even the long journey car, to the point that I barely drove the 605 V6 anymore. The 605 had no issue, but I couldn't help but preferred driving the 505 more. About a year later, I sold the 605 when it became obvious that I didn't need the car anymore, even though he came to replace the 505 V6.

The journey with my 505 V6 Manual was more spiritual than physical to me. The car got rid of limitations I placed upon myself. I started off afraid of EFI systems to becoming an Expert on EFI. From giving other people my EFI lion to fix, to now fixing other people's EFI lions. Other lessons about life were passed to me by the car. He is always there to remind me a light at the end of the tunnel when pressed with tough life challenges every once in a while. Always there to remind me that solutions to life problems are not always out there, externally but inward. Sometimes when you quiet your mind and listen to innerself, you find the answers you seek for. I focused so externally for solutions to the car issues and got too distracted to realise i possesed the capability to fix the car, only if I had let it guide me. Even when the V6 books were gifted to me, i was too distracted to see the true picture of what i have. Online, everyone had an opinion on the situation: Sell the car, scrap the car, convert the car to carburettor engine, why did you buy such old car, why did you even buy a Peugeot car in this era, why didn't you buy the reliable Japanese car everyone is buying, etc. Since that 01/07/2012, the only EFI part that failed on the 505 V6 was CTS (Coolant Temperature Sensor) which I replaced and no other part has failed till this moment I am typing this 06/09/2023. Even the engine I was scared of that probably was harmed while the fuel was diluting the oil back then, it still remains intact till this moment to my surprise. I still run 10w-40 oil in the engine without oil drop or increase on the dipstick for every 6 months oil change interval. By today's standard, the V6 505 can no longer be considered as a fast car. But as Scotty pointed out in 2010, the engine loved to be revved shit out of. And when you do that, he becomes aggressively very wild, especially the 170hp version. A W2 508 learnt that lesson not long ago. It comes at a cost of high fuel consumption when pushed that hard though. But not everyone cares. I know I don't. Notwithstanding, the fuel consumption is good when you drive on torque on the highway. I recalled one of the journeys I did with the car after the fix, the car consumed about 18 litres of fuel which was about 230 km drive (Abuja - Kaduna), and I maintained 100 - 110 km/h in the journey.

As for the overall driving experience of 505 V6 Manual, it's better experienced than described. The thicker and bigger V6 front crossmemebers, anti-roll bars, wishbones, etc, help the car to handle the power at higher speed much better than other 505s with carburettor engines i have driven. The body roll (leaning heavily around corners) can be scary in a way but also very fun. The front end loves to pull up and rear-end pressing down when you downshift or upshift under hard acceleration. The 5-speed manual gearbox attached makes the driving experience more fun, too. It manages the engine brake perfectly well. The drive ratio of each of the gears matches the 235 Nm engine torque. Another intoxicating part of the driving experience is the engine and exhaust notes. They become aggressively sweeter as the rpm climbs. None of the subsequent or newer V6 Peugeot engines sound this unique. In December 2020, I swapped in a new XN1A 2.0 Carburettor engine in the 505 and kept the V6 PRV engine for my GL 504 project. 8 months later, I swapped back the V6 in the 505. As interesting as 504 V6 would be, I couldn't do without that V6 on the 505 anymore. The combination of other performance mechanical components on the car with the PRV V6 engine makes the 505 so perfect to be tampered. I decided to let the GL remain the GL.

This 3 parts story could be boring to some or inspiring to others. There could be a lesson for you from it depending on which part of the story you resonate with. For me, the lessons I derived from reliving these experiences as I was preparing this wasn't even about cars, but more about the true purpose of this physical life and belief systems. I met a lot of good people and made some friends all over the world during the horror. My 505 V6 Manual is 37 years old now and has been with me for the past 12 years. As I was behind his wheel this afternoon on the road, I can honestly tell you it was all worth it. The 505 V6 remained one of the best gifts Peugeot ever gave mankind.

Lion-King Monk