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Found my old spotted thread!! I want to restart this. Last post in December 2011... the car park where the Cavalier was is now completely different and rearranged. It's Kingsgate in East Kilbride.

Cheers man! I think I joined up a week after AS was created - I thought it was a fake forum back in 2006 ? and it's still here!

I'd like one of the AS colour ones if poss!

Hello Shiters, Graeme from Glasgow here! Reintro - ing myself because I've been out of the loop for years... great to see it's exacty the same here ? For my sins I'm still a mega Citroenist - first car was a Panda but then solid Cits from 1998 till today in varying shades of shite. I smoke around in a 1993 Xantia 1.9 TD VSX named Auld Katy and I have a jalopy 1968 ID19B complete with swively headlights. But I love all old chuggers of any type (been developing a thing for old US motors lately that surprised me) I'd love to get my mits on a Benz W123 estate! GG

Just mind and have it fully supported before crawling underneath!

Done it about a dozen times myself - no fun in buying local

What's going on here?! I am beside myself with wonder! I didn't expect mr 'Touring to actually go out ang grab a CX himself! Graeme (the gold CX's former keeper)

That's nice, I'm jealous..

I always noticed the PAS - equipped BXs and all XMs and early Xantias also made a distinctive and quite noticeable hissing noise too. If I heard an XUD9 Diesel with an occasional hissssss-click i just knew there was a Xantia nearby. Also: starter motor sound of Peugeot 106 and AX is unmistakable. The first 'New MINI' petrol types with a really noisy (think) cold start injector. I notice some of the more recent ones still make this noise. Saab 900 Turbo - one of my favourite turbo sounds because it's so noticeable at low speeds - unmistakable!

Hi all, Mk1 BX daytime And night: rubbish pic in motion.. at rest.

Hahaha! AlbertRoss! Well, What about the use of alarms to deter monkeys from breaking into a car just to steal whatever (might) be in it? Maybe this is a better use? About 5 weeks ago I got up one Sunday morning and wandered over to the nice sunny front window. It's afirst floor flat and the Xantia was parked on the street below - I casually noticed the driver's door was simply ajar... being a shiter, the first thing I thought wasn't "some little cunt has broken into my precious shite heap" no, it was " can that happen"? i.e can something go wrong with your central locking or door lock to cause it to pop open... no was the answer I gave myself.. I went down to find it had been broken into sure enough but the hadn't smashed the glass, simply broken into via the door lock, not damaging the barrel but instead bending the handle surround enough to reveal a little gap and then got a hacksaw blade with a notch on it and used that to pull the rod up (I reckon) as I noticed that all 4 doors had conveniently opened for the intruders. They had almost legitimately opened it! I'm getting to the point. The point is that the factory alarm wasn't on because there had been an ongoing shite problem with it - it was causing an electrical fault to keep the indicators stuck on all the time even after you locked it or when started and driving. The only solution was to put off the alarm and pull out the alarm fuse. It had been like that for weeks. The central locking worked with the key but the alarm gets armed by the remote (with the fuse out the alarm goes off even if you open on the remote) so the break in didn't set off the alarm. Luckily I don't leave anything of value in there and generally scrotes don't steal old diesel shitters. Little fux did take my new (albeit 5.99) driving aviators out of H&M and oddly, stole a crappy halfords phone charger and very oddly, stole a little packet from the glove box containing the standard Xantia replacement clutch plastic clip (why?) I suppose they HAD to steal something. The key thing is I had no idea the car had been broken into until next morning - it could have happened while I was sitting near the window or sommin. Had the siren went off though I'd have been down there and casually opened the boot to get the can of black undersealant to spray in their face. So now the alarm and deadlocks are used since they seem to work OK for now. I think car alarms still have a purpose for that reason anyway. Hopefully they'll not touch it now as it's known as the shite heap with nothing in it..

These will go for mega money and probably never be seen again. Heuliez have shown all these cars for years but wonder what spurred the clear out. Check out the onaco Royal family's clear out on the same site...

Yes Ian, It's (in)visible in the overexposed bit of the second last pic. I recently got new wings and doors for it but still needs welding to the left rear 1/4 panel. 2cv is actually my sister's car and I think she is going to get it restored at a 2cv place.

Present daily: 19 year old Xantia TD and the CX 2400: Rare fleet group photo! from last year when the CX was still on the road. CX now residing in the garage... getting major make-or-break work! Nightmare inaccessible back wheelarch mega rust But she will return!!!!!!

Not sure a '63 2cv would have those front indicators either?

Pics! pics!

I know a fair bit about old digital watches and especially Casios (watch shite) and that one is late 90s/early 2000s. In 1980 the digital watch was a statement. The first LCD watches were breaking through to literally obliterate the previous LED watches away. A 'must have' Casio of 1980 would be a Casiotron like this: or the brilliantly named Casio 'Digiking' I have 17 Vintage Casios but these two are like the Cortina Crusader and Talbot Tagora of watches for me - Holy grail stuff!

I went out on my bike for spottage and got NO photos of the 5 noteworthy spots. Saw an early looking Mini in light blue with a yellowy/ off white roof. Next a black DS Pallas that I've seem many times in Glasgow. Then on a flyover on the M8 I saw a Bedford van camper, a Marcos and a VW Polo 'breadvan' but not sure if it was actually out for drive shite day or was just going to the shops or something and that's all! Hardly anything. Saw several MX5s but I feel I can't count them? Later, while driving on the M8 I saw the spot of the day that was a BROWN Mk1 Escort estate horsing it up the outside lane (other direction) Not great overall especially considering the weather was OK. Better luck later in the summer - any Sunday I think will be rife for spottage.

I've had this before - are you using a UK adaptor at all? Otherwise it might actually be the gas pump gun itself getting worn - it has a cone - shaped attachment inside that presses firmly on the car's filler while the outer cuff thing (that you turn 90 degrees) locks on the 2 pegs. If any gas leaks out due to wear on either the car's filler nozzle or the pump gun itself then it freezes the surrounding moving parts and when you release it, the one way valve at the filler itself sticks and leaks out and you'll see white vapour guzzling out while it continues to freeze everything. Check your car's filler for wear/ damage and try at a different filling station. If it still happens then the fault is on your car's filler if not then it's the gun at the station - they should replace it. As an aside, I wonder how often the service stations replace LPG gear. I saw the filler gun on the other side of the pump I was using, fal out its holder and crack off the forecourt floor nice and hard. I wondered if it might be a hazard in waiting after that so just mentioned it to the guy in the kiosk and he said it would be checked (whether it was or not I dunno) - just wondering really.

Me too! but ironically I might be way down south at the time!

Haha, made me near clean my pants. It's still running and sounds OK (for a deezell) so hoping it's alive

Some REAL Vauxhalls there! Nice. The dashboard on the P5 is splendid All I spotted today was a Bedford camper van, a Marcos and (top spot) a brown Mk1 Escort Estate - all while driving so no pix Looked a grand day out there.

Just had a heart-stopper there. I floored it in the diesel and held a steady throttle to pass a cluster of slow hazardous drivers and all was well until the engine hit what on a carburetor you might call a 'flat spot' accompanied by a massive cloud of soot out the exhaust. It didn't blow up or stop and seemed to 'clear' but it was a "..FAAAAAAAAAK..!!!" moment. So what the hell just happened? What bit of my old 1.9 XUD turdblow Diseasel just broke a bit? Oddly, it hasn't recurred. It had shown a bit of a flat spot like this before that only has ever shown up on the first rush of a journey and then the engine performs as it should thereafter. Any clues? Turbo dumping oil into the exhaust or manifold? I don't know diesel problems as well as petrol/ LPG problems

It might just have been corrosion that made the sparky stiff to turn all the way out. If it has had the threads damaged then they can be re tapped but if they're stripped then it's a heli-coil that's needed.. Just thinking: you've done so much to the ignition that I reckon it's more likely the carburetor that's at fault re the non idling. Ignition faults tend to be more ON-OFF than what you're getting with the bad idle. That is, it runs it doesn't or it runs like a bag of spanners with very clear miss fires as one or more sparks are dropped. Only other thing ignition wise not mentioned is the distributor body. I don't know if the Astra engine would suffer this but I was getting engine oil leak past the Orings up into the distributor and getting on the points. Low revs caused serious spark loss but higher revs seemed to be ok (maybe due to the points 'bouncing' harder and making contact) but it took ages to discover this was the problem. I had a similar issue with the car running fine for about 40 seconds then running shite and stinking of petrol. A bit of choke saw the revs up but smooth running. I suspected it was flooding and checked the floats and the float inlet valve - both fine. Still flooding and it turned out to be the after market fuel pump delivering too much fuel that for idle but fine with raised revs. Maybe check the carburetor floats in case it's simply flooding? Also: check any vacuum pipe connections around the carb and manifold as these cam be surprisingly troublesome to idling smoothness with a very small leak. Ditto for the mating face of the carburetor to maniflod - if there's any warping to the faces or if there's a heat sink type of spacer under the carb that has a hairline crack in it once it heats up it can draw air and run lean and crappy. Try having it idle as best as possible even if it's rough and spray WD40 at and around all the carb joints etc and watch for a temporary restoration of revs and smoothness at idle. It's a way to eliminate vacuum leaks. The number of times I've spent weeks tracing a 'big' fault with something that's turned out to be a small issue like these is staggering! Probably not this but worth a brain storm.