Back on the road in Battle Bus Xantia! Cable clip and MOT done....

[reanimation-films]

Thanks for your interest in trying to find an owner/solution for my broken Head Gasketed MK1 Mondeo, it was the string of a bunch of catastrophic bad luck events

One of which was the clutch clip snapping on my Xantia last year before 'the Cold Snap', notioriously a pig of a job and derailing. at the same time Oct/Nov it got cold while decorating and the boiler died too. bad times! Got the Cortina in outdoors resto, so the Mondy finally dying was icing on the cake and had to go anyway. It's still on eBay BTW wish us luck, already had the racers sniffing round it! :S

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261228303949?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

 

Local garage seemed up for the job.... it all took longer than expected. Looks like this poor old Citroen has been now undriven for about 8 months! Wasted a lot of insurance and tax money doing only 2800 miles in this last year. Wow!

My garage took 3 months to get round to doing the job! by which time the MOT/Insurance/Tax was all out What didn't help was the Head Gasket going on My Mondeo Si last month!      So Cycling and joyful (agressivly dangerous) public transport for us for a month!

It's back, and another half grand invested along with tax, hope and pray the clip doesn't snap again, it's a proper Citroen part, and a new cable (one I got from GSF was wrong Manual/Auto - cant remember now) feels a lot better a lot lighter, i think it was original clip and cable so understandable it went after 18 and a bit years. I just can't afford for my health sake for it to break again. Clutch itself doesnt feel too bad now (existing old clutch was thought to be a cause of snappage), not as high pedal now and not noticably slipping, so might just see how I get on...   

MOT wise, rear brakes done, surely and I hope  they didn't think handbrake was on rear surely...  
bulbs wipers and other stuff that surprised me and very dangerous ball joint, hmm strange.

So anyway back on the road after all this time. Wish me luck. 3rd day in use and so far so good, paranoid about cable. was a light click on day one but that was just the cable nipple getting comfortable I expect, seems OK...
If clutch seems to slip a lot will look at clutch replacement, any recommendations for fitters? and also might look at pipe condition and replacement of one or 2 strut return pipes and maybe fluid, any recommendations on someone to do that?

Cheers, here are the unwashed pics, enjoy!! 

[dollywobbler]

Oooh, is that a sinker? 

[hairnet]

piece of shit

 

get some miles on it

[reanimation-films]

Dollywobbler, yeah sinker, classic next year i hope...

 

Haha. Yeah it's still going strong Hairynuts! It's actually been very reliable overall. So worried my luck will end.

It's slightly more bashed now.

 

Must say though I'm missing the power of the 2.0 zetec and sporty handling. Feel like I'm back in my grandads old car but its good to have that unique sensation back with the floaty suspension and relaxed chugging engine and steering.

cortina won't be too far behind I hope as second car, getting there now with that...

[Lankytim]

Lovely, a mega early one with chevrons on the bonnet. I'm getting a similar one on Saturday. Dunno why.

[Lacquer Peel]

1.9D?

 

Xantias are ace, I would love another one. A nice 1.9 TurboD would be the ideal antidote to the unsophisticated suspension and hard seats of the VAG SHIT I'm driving now.

[Novanick1]

thats one early xantia. but its got faded rear lights.

[beko1987]

Yey uppy downey citroen! Looking good

[Shep Shepherd]

Ace! Reminds me of the French-registered ones driven by Serge Gainsbourg types I've seen in Nord-Pas-de-Calais on my European travels

[meggersdog]

I can smell the veg oil from here.

Nice cars, miss mine it was an L.reg too.

Has the lacquer gone from the bonnet aswell as the wing ?

[reanimation-films]

Hey Jon yeah still got the upholstery matching hat!

Yep it's just a 1.9d. A bit slow, but crawls traffic nicely and can get a stride on on motorway, and the greatest thing is they are so easy and relaxed to drive, amazing turning circle and stuff. A real taxi bus!

Happy to see you chaps like it. It would have been easy to write it off and buy something newer but its been a good un and put up with any nonsense including moving a bootful of bricks!!

 

Not tried veg oil yet, will have to see which pump it is... What am I looking for, Bosch or Lucas?

[Lankytim]

You need a Bosch pump, I think 99.9% of Xantias are though.

[Lacquer Peel]

I think early 1.9Ds are fitted with Lucas pumps.

 

I liked my Xantia 1.9D, it would shift along at a decent rate if no one got in your way. That was the problem though, I remember one particularly frustrating drive on the A86 where the car in front would slow right down on corners and accelerate away along the few decent overtaking stretches. The 1.9D just didn't have the guts to overtake that fud.

[stuboy]

love driving my mates xantia till the hydraulics gave up and so he scraped it

[Lacquer Peel]

The hydraulics rarely 'give up', it's usually something trivial like a leak.

[reanimation-films]

Yeah, I'd like to give it a little TLC and keep an eye on potential leaks and strut tops etc. plan is to get my long standing crustytina working v soon so I've a back up plan for service time.

 

The Xantia makes a brilliant winter car too, more rust resistance, fairly good in snow chugging on tick over and a GR9 heater.

Though needs regular oil change and treatments to fuel when is v cold.

 

Might be a Lucas pump might have to investigate.

[HillmanImp]

That is ace. Defo considering getting another soon on a classic policy. 

[Lankytim]

I'm probably selling my MK1 TD Xant soon as I have no room for it!