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The Citroen BX is 30...


dollywobbler

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Just to please Messerschmitt Owners, let's celebrate an incredibly angular Citroen! This thread is largely summarised from the excellent http://www.Citroenet.org.uk run by Julian Marsh.

 

First thoughts of a GS replacement were very odd.

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While they were working out what it would look like, GSs were hacked about to test the running gear. Unlike the G, the BX would use MacPherson front struts (still hydropneumatic) rather than double-wishbones. It would also use transverse engines from the Peugeot stable.

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By 1978, Citroen were achieving nothing but upsetting Peugeot, who were starting to frown heavily at quirky.

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So, Bertone was called in to help out, with Marcello Gandini having a very large influence. Yes, he of Lambo Miura and Countach fame. The designs looked very close to the final car.

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Oddly, the BX design had already seen light of day in 1979 as the Volvo Tundra concept car.

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Even more oddly, design elements could clearly be seen in the stillborn Reliant TW11.

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The interior could have been more wacky than it actually was. Check out the steering wheel!

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Right. Enough of the tiny Citroenet pics.

 

The BX was launched in 1982, arriving on UK shores the following year. From 1984, there was a diesel option, with an estate following the year after before a facelift in 1986. Aside from a few styling tweaks (front indicators and later, the rear lights) very little changed in styling terms. In fact, during the 12 year production run, there were very few major changes, just minor amendments.

 

The Mk1 BX used a classic Citroen dashboard with oddball revolving speedometer and curious switchgear.

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I must confess, the switchgear isn't Citroen's best effort. I much prefer the CX. The speedometer is brilliant, but was not used on the GT performance model. That used regular dials. Well, apart from the BX Digit, which used this fabulous display!

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The Mk2 used an entirely new dashboard with some quirks but a much more conventional look to it.

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Incidentally, some markets got a BX11 with the 1124cc engine. Feeble or what? Apparently they did also try to market a BX10 with the 954cc engine! It could be seen off by a 2CV. Contrast this with the fearsome 160bhp 16v. Quite a range with 4x4, turbo diesel and (for Ireland) van options.

 

My own BX history began in 1998, when I foolishly purchased a 145,000 mile example for £1600. A ridiculous amount, even then when it was six years old. It drove beautifully and having only owned 2CVs before, one friend commented that it was nice that I had a car that actually accelerated. This despite it only being a 1.9 diesel. I only kept it for six months. I was an idiot to get rid it and an even bigger idiot to have traded it in for a Daewoo Matiz...

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Roll on through the years and it's 2005 and time I got another one. Liking extremes, I got myself a 16v this time. It looked crap but went like stink! It clocked up 4000 miles in eight weeks.

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Then, four years later, I bought this.

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Back to a more sensible 71bhp and another 1.9 diesel – this time in attractive estate form. too sensible in fact, so it soon looked like this.

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I foolishly sold it last year, and got given it back in a broken state back in May. It's brilliant.

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I had a BX GTi 4x4 which was a rusty shitbox, and the worst of all worlds: fuck all power and a shite 4x4 system.

 

An insult to the letters G, T and i...

 

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Citroen BX GTi 4x4 by Ross.K, on Flickr

 

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Citroen BX GTi 4x4 by Ross.K, on Flickr

 

I will have another BX someday, but I fear it'll be a trip to France and a week trawling leboncoin to find a half decent one...

 

 

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The BX Police by Ross.K, on Flickr

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When I was a kid my dad had a job with a company car and an F reg BX14RE replaced a C reg escort 1.3LX. I thought it was brilliant, a good bit bigger than the Escort and not noticably slower as you would expect. The suspension facinated me but I never thought I'd own one.

 

Fast forward 21 years and our Peugeot 205 was feeling a bit cramped with 3 kids, it was also knackered and wasn't going to pass it's iminent MOT without a large injection of cash. I was looking for a 405 estate but a chance freecycle listing for a BX estate caught our eye. I convinced Ms C that it was almost like a 'sports lightweight' 405 estate so we ended up with Chumley the white BX seen here at Chormondley with Billy.

 

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Unfortunately he was a rather rusty BX so when the engine went pop earlier this year I scrapped him. BX's are hard to get away from though so within a month I became the owner of this ex RobT, ex Skatted, blue 19RD

 

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This was my first, Vera the Tizzy Dee. Took an awful lot of work to get it through the MOT, bought off eBay from an "enthusiast" who claimed it to be in good condition :?

 

Next up came the Pornster a 1.9 TXD...

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Which got sold to a bloke who said he was an enthusiast and had a few, its no longer on the road now :?

 

Then came the incredibly slow and basic 1.7 TGD with square port engine.

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And finally the all singing, all dancing air conditioned 1.7 TZD Turbo

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Which I really really didnt get on with at all. It was just too fussy a car for me with ABS faults, tickover faults, rust breaking out in the rear door shuts and so on, I just didnt get on with this one and sold it on where it promptly broke its camshaft into two.

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Some random ones from over the years, starting with a miniature meet in Birmingham at a motorbike museum. Got my shit glasses on so can't see the pic's too well, think mine was the white one far left of bottom two pictures.

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Don't think I had this very long, a GTi (8V) but I never really took to it. I either got it off or sold it to PiLsY (where is he now?) of BXP fame.

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Cavcraft, the company formerly known as BXCRAFT

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I think this is from when Vanny and the legendary Doc C kindly came round to convert my BX estate to 1.9TD power. What a laugh that car was afterwards, would pull from 35mph right through to (an indicated) 125+ in top gear and gave many fancy modern petrol cars a shock.

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16V, brief joint ownership affair between Vanny and myself. This (I think) came from near Derby somewhere, picked it up on my recovery truck and the lad who owned it also had a mega rare BX van.

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BXCRAFT again

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You might LOL but this was SRSLY quick

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First Chodmonley show I organised a stand at.

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This would have been a 1.7TD I think, pretty sure it's the one I got from Manchester that I discovered had a slipping clutch when I drove it home.

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Possibly some more to come but sadly I think my favourite one was 'pre digital camera' time. It was the first one I had, a 1.7 n/a diesel that actually went quite well despite their rep. Had an epic holiday to Norfolk in it and used it everyday in my ownership until I changed the fuel filter and manage to knacker an LHM pipe and the filter housing up in the process. Vanny bought it for a mate of his (iirc).

 

Must have had another ten (at least) besides any above pictured that I owned, one was a £1.60 eBay car that we drove back, another was a £41.00 1.7TD that I drove back from London. I was amazed by the poke of the thing, it ran out of steam quite quickly in 1st and 2nd gear but really started motoring after that.

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I've only owned one BX, a D plate 1.9 8v GTi.

 

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I quite liked it, ok on fuel, reasonably nippy, great on the motorway. I got a bit peeved when it blew a suspension pipe and lost suspension and power steering on me, but I got it fixed and moved it on quickly enough. Actually swapped it for a Mk2 RS2000 Escort. That wouldn't happen nowadays.

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Oh, here's another. A sort of eBay find that Vanny had initially rescued from scrap and we collected for a lad from Northen Ireland. One of the high pressure pipes had split so LHM pissed out quicker than a Nigerian oil pipe line.

 

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It was a 4x4GTi, I expect the box has self grenaded by now, probably the moment it hit the deck across the water. As gearboxes go they were pretty rubbish to a point of Laguna automaticness, I think it was the transfer box shaft 'things' that used to go on the splines that killed them. Someone (anyone) on here who knows BXs will know for sure.

Also the exhausts are made of pure unobtanium and are absolutely mental money, if you could ever find one that is. This was another reason these got weighed off so quickly I believe and there can't be many left at all. I was told Keith Davis (Citroen specialist near Chester) still has a couple of 4x4 estate kicking about, one of which was his courtesy car, but I've never been up there to find out. Assuming they are still there and are in working order they must be a right quirky buy for someone very brave.

 

Reckon that's it on the photograph front now unless I have any ANALOGUE holiday snaps.

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Oh aye. The 4x4 was a bloody disaster really. Transfer box made of cheese but with the added delights of a custom exhaust and custom rear suspension arms made of absolute unobtanium. Shame as in theory, a BX 4x4 should be an exceedingly useful machine. A TD 4x4 would be great.

 

Wonder if it's possible to use the 405 Mi16 4x4 transmission? IIRC it was entirely different to the BX set-up.

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I think that was mooted on BXP but cannot be done. One of the lads on there was trying to knock up replacement shafts, don't know how he got on but it'd be magic if ge can find something decent to make them out if.

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A TD 4x4 would be great.

 

I think it was planned but the shitty transfer box couldn't handle the torque, or some such...

 

Wonder if it's possible to use the 405 Mi16 4x4 transmission? IIRC it was entirely different to the BX set-up.

 

One of the previous owners of my 4x4 had apparently paid £1500 to have the transfer box/splines rebuilt using 405 parts, as supposedly they weren't made of chocolate... But 405 4x4 parts don't exactly grow on trees either, do they?

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One of the previous owners of my 4x4 had apparently paid £1500 to have the transfer box/splines rebuilt using 405 parts, as supposedly they weren't made of chocolate... But 405 4x4 parts don't exactly grow on trees either, do they?

 

They don't.

 

I know of a massive stash of Mi16x4 parts - but their location is a secret.

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Learnt to drive in F321 DKJ a white 1.4 Preview, then my Ma got a pseudo GTi K*** ***? All Gti but a 1.6 lump.

I swear there were people who drove about with the suspenders fully up! Why? It was bloody scary.

 

Thinking about it she's had A880 KKL a 2CV, the Preview, the (not a) GTi, a N358 WKN a Xantia, another Xantia, two Xsaras and now a C3. Pattern emerging yet?

 

Almost forgot the BX I was given, bloke spent hundreds and this was 15 yrs ago! on a new 'spider' and spheres but not the cam belt - I need not state the rest!

Anyway got given it. was taxed and tested for 10 months!!

Stripped head, went to motor factors and gave all numbers etc and to cut to chase they supplied wrong inlets, wrong by 0.5 mm as on change over year.

Worked it out eventually when back together and had no compression........Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

Costs pennies to do and sold on to a mate who still talks of the ride and feather touch brakes.

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Sod it, lets jump in;

 

The UK's first BX 1.9TD. On permanent loan from my dad, it started as a 1.9na Diesel (19rd) and ended up with a 1.9TD Xanita engine and full GTi interior, not to mention a brief spell with intercooler water cooling!

 

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It even gained alloys towards the end. Keen viewers will spot the tow rope out the back, dragging a poorly 309 into the French Car Show!

 

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I did rather love this car but it tried to kill me, so became baked beans!

 

Now i have this;

 

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Had her 11 years now! 7 engines in total (long story, more my fault than the cars!), she's not work shy either;

 

main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3701&g2_serialNumber=2

 

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I could go on, but you get the general picture!

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My first was a 17RD D328 PUS, bought in 1990 with 43000 on the clock, sold 93 with 186000 or so on the clock - had suffered catastrophic hydraulic failure in my ownership, and sported a lack of 1/4 of the front wing and no inner wing when it left me after a spectacular blow out on the M74, which saw the 'failed' puncture repair by kwikfit give way and take 1/3 of the tread with it. Was still on clutch one despite some mega towing all over the UK and Europe.

 

Second was a BX19RD F390 OSP, bought with about 40k on the clock in 1993 to replace the Zit!, sold 1996, again with upwards of 180k on the clock. Then I had an automatic diesel, which was the slowest car I have ever owned. Fantastic once wound up, but until then, terrible, K plate bought 97, sold 98 to my mum and dad, who used it till it was written off by a truck on the A9.

 

Next was an F BX19GTi - bought as a distress purchase over Christmas 2000 - was a bag of nails and met its maker a year later, requiring a clutch and exhaust.

 

Last was G818XPO - a 16TGS Auto with 47000 miles on the clock - despite it's low miles it was giffer dinged and after a year and a bot of ownership she went when an XM estate replaced her.

 

I'd always recommend one as a fun, practical and reliable runabout.

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Wow, I would love one of those XUD9TE conversions. Has anyone shoehorned a 2.1TD into a BX?

 

There is a chap trying to do it in eastern Europe somewhere I think. Not sure what the point is really. You can get a fair bit of oomph out of a 1.9 conversion. Mind you, a 2.1 Turbo with auto conversion would be nice...

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Wow, I would love one of those XUD9TE conversions. Has anyone shoehorned a 2.1TD into a BX?

 

 

I'm pretty sure it's been looked into it and said it could be done, but would require a lot of effort. The 1.9TD was wonderfully quick, even at traffic light Grand Prix it was a riot and pulled so effortlessly you could lob in top pretty early and let the engine do the same. The real fun was knocking on the back door of 'sporty' cars on the motorway and when they started nailing it they were less than amused to find you still looming large in the rear view mirror.

I'd imagine if you can tweak a 2.1 a bit it'd be massive, massive fun in a BX.

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Wow, I would love one of those XUD9TE conversions. Has anyone shoehorned a 2.1TD into a BX?

 

There is a chap trying to do it in eastern Europe somewhere I think. Not sure what the point is really. You can get a fair bit of oomph out of a 1.9 conversion. Mind you, a 2.1 Turbo with auto conversion would be nice...

 

The 2.1 offers 20bhp and 30lb/ft more before you've even played with the pump. Agree that a 1.9TD would be quick enough though. Argh, I want one!

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