jamescarruthers

23 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

First though make sure that the solenoid on the carb is still connected (it's easy to snag the wire when working in the area).

Isn’t this just the fuel stop solenoid that cuts fuel on either the over-run or when ignition off?

12 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Sorry, no, a silver hatch. In any case I'm in Ireland. I'm just s about to start stripping it down in the next couple of hours. It's going to feel like shooting a faithful old hound.

Although someone else has owned it for the last 3½ years, we did 85000 miles in it. I've scrapped a lot of cars, but usually they've been bought for the purpose. It's the first of my everyday cars to be scrapped by me for over 30 years, since my wedge Princess in fact.

Sad times! Thanks anyway and good luck with selling all the bits to make your fortune! 

Oh God yes I forgot the cooked engine light! What a stupid idea of Citroen. 

13 hours ago, artdjones said:

Yes, I'm just about to start scrapping my old facelift C5 that I sold back in 2017. I bought it back for €100 to get the engine out of it. But the original spheres are still fine at 223000 miles.

Would it happen to be an estate in that sort of light metallic blue? I need a tailgate if possible?

I would ignore damp for now unless there is anything wrong. The outer working portion of the rams (fescalised portion!) will have  a bit of oil as when it is inside the strut it is wet, when it comes out it gets wiped. 
 

I presume you know to check the level on low as per the handbook? Overfilling in normal gets messy?

Oh, and Dark mode is one of the buttons that looks like it should reset the odometer near the speedometer but actually switches in to dark mode  try it at night with the lights on. I do t use it much but on a long later night cruise it’s great  

Hold off on the spheres! I would recommend replacing only after having them pressure tested. Originals last for nearly the life of the car compared to what you may have read about the earlier spheres. My sister’s is very likely on its original set and is 50,000 miles ahead of yours and feels pretty good. 
 

The originals from Citroen are multi membrane fantastic things and I think if you buy anything else off the shelf they will not be as good (maybe patented to Citroen but I could be wrong)... then you will be changing them every 5 years once you are on the shit ones!  The price of Genuine Citroen is huge in comparison to the aftermarket ones so don’t ditch the originals unless you really need to. 

I can’t remember exactly what it looked like but I remember asking Pleiades the same about a plig with my TU engines one and they said it was the measure RPM when plugged in to Citroen computer or tester. 

Good luck. It’s not the end of the world without it but is obviously better with it. Mine was dead for ages before I worked this out. It just means you thrash it more. These are very thrashable anyway!

That is odd, I think they all have it. Maybe your previous owner knew there was a hole in the diaphragm and has blanked off the pipe to prevent a vacuum leak to the car? 
 

I can’t remember off hand what it should be like now as it’s been so long. 
 

A quick search on BX Club has your distributor as Bosch part number 0237009618

It can be seen here: https://www.ignitioncarparts.co.uk/PartDetails.aspx?s_pc=PDD7163&s_vid=

It’s the piece on the top. 
 

Does this look similar to your car?

This will be a nice win for driveability I’m sure if it does need replaced. 

Cool.

I have only set up one carburettor and realised I had a choice between CO content, but modern fuel makes this hard to meet older targets, and a glass spark plug. For me the plug was the only choice as I didn’t have the experience to do it by ear or whatever the pros do and I had no idea how long it would take a first timer to do it right while paying for a garage to let me use their CO meter!
 

The glass spark plug was amazing! You can see the flame inside the engine and my old Renault Master ran very nicely after this once I had it set up right. 
 

Gunson Colortune https://www.gunson.co.uk/products/Colortunehttps://www.gunson.co.uk/products/Colortune

Check all your vacuum lines for leaks, the carburettor  may be set up fine but just suffering from perished stuff affecting running. Hopefully your Haynes book tells you how to set it up nicely.  

Also, blow in to the vacuum line that goes to the vacuum advance on your distributor— these can fail, there should be some resistance, if there is none the diaphragm needs replaced. It will run fine without vac. advance, you just won’t have that low down advance for around town and initial acceleration. 
 

The TU engine in a BX is a lovely little zippy thing.  Read the handbook about how to start it when hot and cold as there is a difference I think. 

If it helps to get to an MOT and then insurance for your windscreen, I (surprisingly) passed an MOT in my Volvo 480 with no windscreen a few years ago— needed goggles and the headlining wasn’t happy after the drive. 
 

I was surprised that I could have got one fitted privately for £185 although paid more for a speedier service with another company. Ringing round definitely helped more than I thought it would. 

Have you went out in the dark and found the “dark mode” button yet? It’s a lovely feature for a long drive at night. 
 

And this is a great resource if you haven’t found it already to see how damned clever your car is http://www.citroenet.org.uk/passenger-cars/psa/c5/c5-index.html

(don’t forget the “Next” button at the bottom of the pages, there is a lot more info on there than there first seems!)

Believe it or not, there is a design mistake in these Mk. 2 BXs and Citroen screwed up the circuitry so full fan speed cannot be achieved. 
 

This isn’t your case here, but when you have the heater control panel open to clean your tracks, you can do the mod to restore full fan speed as demisting is poor without it!

Details on BXClub forum.

https://bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5515

It might be quiet but lots of good stuff is archived and if you are stuck those with brains are still there and will pipe up to help. 
 

I’m usually a believer in replacing tyres on the rear first, then rotating to the front in usual circumstances to avoid the rears getting old. But in your case, I think I’d prefer the wheels doing the braking to have the grip on the wet. OMG can a non-ABS BX lock its wheels up... they have stronger brakes than anything you will have driven. By the time your brain appreciates this for the first time, you will be sliding for a few seconds on to the back of a lorry. I had a narrow escape on a recommissioned BX with exactly this and it wasn’t a high speed stop required but following in slow traffic when I got distracted for like a second and didn’t see that the lorry had brakes again. 
 

I can’t wait for you to get out there and enjoy it. It was a few years ago but I did 600 miles in a day my 1.4 BX with a funeral in the middle. No car, even my C6, was as comfortable or relaxing— maybe the XM.  
 

Rustproof and use as a daily? 

Niiiiiiiice! See you over at BXClub.co.uk, fuck Facebook. 

I would imagine it’s not a guaranteed event but every time it is done wrong the tank gets a battering and gets weaker. 

9 minutes ago, maxxo said:

yep, which is a huge concern of mine

i do hope wherever i take it come MOT or tyre time they know how to lift it correctly

They generally won’t! Although to be fair I was impressed that my last MOT tester on the C5 came out to show me the note, but he is a good old guy who has done a lot of work for me and is very clever. 

FCF have a decal you can download here https://frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=62058  but TBH unless you tell them they won’t know to be do this step or get a chance to read it.
 

I once had the C6 up on stilts, engine running, sitting outside with the cap in my pocket when handing over to a normal garage for tyres! I couldn’t even be bothered to explain to the knuckle draggers. 

2003 Mechanics handbook for your car: https://mega.nz/file/yo4jhQgY#7zIVeNg13JTjJwQ0rrFYGEd3MwCVj6CqWdKM9kKqx4A

or 2002 if it is a late reg: https://mega.nz/file/6konASbA#XQONPXpeCMtyvUlzoQ_4wjwfA2B-JMfVmiZpxuvlrzg

Fabulous book on how it all works: http://www.citroenkerho.fi/xantia/pdf/tekniikka/Tekniikkaopas.pdf

And last bit of unrequested advice, make sure it isn’t put on a ramp with all 4 wheels hanging. The LDS tank can explode when all the fluid rushes back in! There is even a special note to MOT testers to test one wheel at a time. Simple way around this is to put it on “high” mode and take the suspension fluid reservoir cap off of it is going to go on ramps. 

Interesting colour interior: blue with red. Quite likeable. 
 

I had some success with the old multiple-applications-of-pledge on the lethargic seatbelts. 
 

It might be worth popping the plastic covers off on the engine bay to have a look at your suspension top mounts. They are forever hidden from the MOT man. I have one surprise rusty one to address at some point. You could take the opportunity to check the suspension fluid level too. Follow the handbook for this... must be on “low” setting to check level and avoid overfilling. 
 

Also, how are the rear wheel bearings? When they start to get old they start clicking. They eventually end up with the wheels looking like this /—\ if left to die! 
 

Glad you are enjoying the suspension.   Nothing compares to a hydraulic Citroen! Sadly everything will feel shit after. It’s LDS in this remember, not LHM.  Saucer spheres last forever now, unlike the old green globe spheres. 
 

Very pleased for you. 
 

Does it have the load cover? If not, I have a one which has gone all floppy you can have. Hopefully it just needs a spring replaced or retentioned.

I wasn’t phased in the slightest by owning one bit then I’ve had a C6 before and quite a few LHM Citroens. 

If you need expert help, may I recommend French Car Forum https://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/viewforum.php?f=3

I’m not sure where you are in the country but I can thoroughly recommend these guys if you need expert hands on work done:

Pleiades, Sawtry

Chevronics, Hitchin

BL Autos, Welwyn Garden City

Looking forward to seeing how you get on with it.  Any issues?

That is very handsome. Estate form is way prettier that’s saloon I think. The red suits it particularly well. 
 

As I’m sure you know your 2.0 is the more reliable engine than the 2.2 (which is brilliant but did just bite my wallet severely when the Eolys system broke).

Good purchase!  
 

Is the sun in your passenger’s eyes or are they as ashamed to be seen it?

C5! Mk 1 or 2?

I look after my sister’s and it’s a great car. So comfortable!

1 hour ago, horriblemercedes said:

Unlikely; the Taurus hasn't been built or offered since 2019

Haha that answers that then!

Is it possible they will just sell the Ford Taurus in a European compliant version to still keep selling this size of car? I have no idea where the Taurus is built but when I drove a hybrid hire car one of these in December last year, I did think “this is just a Mondeo isn’t it?”. Maybe one factory can keep up with this sized car’s worldwide customer demand now?

By the way, the hybrid Taurus was just an unlovable, white-goods type of car car which droned on with its awful little awful little engine trying to keep the batteries charged and the boot space was pathetic as it was full of hybrid shite. I only hired it as I had a load of stuff with me and ended up with some of it on the back seat. 

12 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

Hmm.  Early 80s Citroen seat fabrics letting the side down.  That seems familiar.

Still trying to decide what to do about these myself.  Seats here are deeply sculpted enough that seat covers never sit right so look awful, at least those on the Visa are a more conventional shape.

Covers can make a big positive difference though, really helped out in my last Skoda Estelle which had the usual disintegrating cloth issue.  Kicked myself for taking a year and a half to decide to fit them.

There is a set of free later seats on BX Club. They are GTi and dark so not the best colour match.
 

I put later TRS (tweedy wool) in my BX Mk. 1 and as they were a light colour they matched the light grey interior very nicely. 

4 hours ago, New POD said:

So mother in law's funeral yesterday. 

Where's the grin? 

She woke up in the middle of Saturday night saying her mum had been to see her and told her she was happy now and that she would be back again to make sure my wife was okay

 Daughter. Son and his Fiancee, came Sunday.  And we had a lovely evening. 

Funeral was short but perfect, came back and had a buffet of mother in law's favourite food. 

Then we all went to the beach. 

This warms my heart, thank you for sharing.