Project Meg the Visa.

[HillmanImp]

Kudos for cycling up Hollins Hill though... not pleasant.

 

Cycling up there is as good as a wank first thing in the morning to kickstart your heart, I can tell thee.

 

Went to set off to work this morning and one of the brake lights was not working. GRUMP.

 

As I was already late I just jumped in the Shaguar and drove that and replaced the bulb in the Visa when I got home. Been for a spin in it and it seems fine but will need to see if that was a coincidence or if there is something going by keeping on checking. 

[plasticvandan]

I see a tatty silver visa occasionally in the village where I work,keep meaning to snap it,very much enjoying reading about this one

[HillmanImp]

I set off to work yesterday morning and got about 5ft before I heard a massive BANG and a horrible grinding noise from the rear. I got out and had a quick look and the car was SLAMMED YO!



So I noisily parked it up and drove the Shaguar to work playing a game of timing chain roulette. 

Expecting a broken spring I jacked the Visa up and saw this:



The springs fine, it was the mounting on the absorber that was fooked. Another image:



I have removed the shock absorber and thought if they are cheap enough I may as well simply replace both the rear shocks. I have found these on Ebay:



They are only up the road from me. Problem is that they seem to be for every type of Visa apart from the 10e. 

CITROËN VISA

0.6 (24 kW ; 07/1982 - 03/1991)
0.6 (25 kW ; 09/1978 - 06/1988)
11 E (35 kW ; 09/1978 - 06/1988)
11 E (37 kW ; 07/1982 - 03/1991)
11 E (42 kW ; 09/1978 - 03/1991)
14 (44 kW ; 07/1984 - 03/1991)
17 D (44 kW ; 04/1984 - 03/1991)

I mean these look fine to me. I checked on the Visa forum to see and one of the mods (NOT, skinny suit, crew cut) replied and said they could see no reason why they would be different. 

 

So I messaged the seller on Ebay who according to the advert would get back to me within 24 hours. This was over 2 days ago and I have still not heard from the chump. It may be a genuine reason but I really need to get the parts and if not from him, I need to order them from elsewhere as my car is jacked up in front of someone's garage. Okay, they don't drive and I did ask them if I could leave it there whilst I repaired it but I don't want to seem rude. 

[AlabamaShrimp]

I would just get them as I don't see how they can be that much difference. I know for the fiesta that they are all the same no matter the engine size apart from Xr2

 

BTW if you want help or someone to shout at while trying get to fit them you know where I am

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Just buy em, if they are wrong i will paypal you £3 to buy a pint with, by way of consolation. I'm quite sure theyr'll be fine and I wont have to pay owt.

[HillmanImp]

Oh aye, I want to buy the fuckers, he just seems to be ignoring me. They are only a couple of miles away from me in Otley so I emailed to say can I come and pick them up but no reply. 

 

The reason I thought that was ideal is that I would not have to wait for postage as the car is sat on the road. These were £10 more than others I have seen but I was happy paying that bit extra for the convenience. 

 

I have just ordered one of the cheaper ones now over 2 days later than I would have done. He will just have to sell them to one of the many other people who will no doubt be bashing his door down trying to get hold of a Visa/106 shock absorber just before Christmas.

[HillmanImp]

Dammit, he just replied apologising for the delay. He has a single listing and a double listing so will pop over tomorrow and get another as I only ordered one from the other place (as they only had one) I was just about to order another from another listing when I saw a message come through.  I can replace the one that is knacked and do the other one when it arrives. 

 

BTW if you want help or someone to shout at while trying get to fit them you know where I am

 

This is a dead easy job even for me* (assuming my mate Jack gives me back my spring clamps I leant him a year and a half ago). Feel free to pop round during the festive period if you are about if you want a gander at the cars though. 

 

*famous last words

[Volksy]

You can use my clamps if you need them, I've just used them for Wifeys* 306 so they are to hand. I'm off work from now until the 19th of Jan btw so we need to consume beer at some point too.

[HillmanImp]

Just buy em, if they are wrong i will paypal you £3 to buy a pint with, by way of consolation. I'm quite sure theyr'll be fine and I wont have to pay owt.

 

I have picked them up and was about to give you my paypal address:

 

 

Look, its about 2 inches shorter!

 

However upon looking at it in more detail, I think the difference in length is due to the old one having had a different bottom spring mounting:

 

 

That actually looks okay if you imagine where the spring will have been sat before it rotted out. The absorber will have a bit more travel in it though. Not sure how that will affect anything, if at all? 

 

Spoken to Volksy and he is bringing me his spring clamps over as my mate Jack has gone stony silent so I assume he has fucked/lost/sold/eaten my ones. 

 

The lad I got them from was sound actually. Quite young which will suggest to me why he was having trouble responding on a weekend. 

 

They also do classic exhausts etc so may be worth knowing. 

[Volksy]

That looks ok to me. The very left hand part (looks like a cup/bowl) should unbolt from your old one and transfer across. However it looks very rotten and possibly about to fail as well 

[vulgalour]

It does look good sat on broken suspension, flat-top arches always look good when they sit lower on a wheel.  BUT I'd far rather you put not-broken suspension on than had a car that had cool looking rear arches.

[trigger]

I'll just leave this here.

 

[HillmanImp]

it looks very rotten and possibly about to fail as well 

 

I am going to sand that down tomorrow, most of it looks okay but I am suspect of another bit. Might not be too bad.

 

I was going to take it off before I took the photo but then realised I had not brought the garage keys out with me so couldn't. About 30 seconds later I remembered the garage keys were attached to the house keys and I also couldn't get in the house either.

 

It does look good sat on broken suspension, flat-top arches always look good when they sit lower on a wheel.  BUT I'd far rather you put not-broken suspension on than had a car that had cool looking rear arches.

 

 

The ride in this car is sooooooo comfortable I would not want to do anything that would change that. I agree it does look good though, as shown in Triggers photo(shop). Think someone did that for the REG Visa on RR didn't they. The lad ended up selling it though.

[Volksy]

You'll need a pretty deep ring spanner to get that bit off, as you need to hold the top of the shocker (normally an allen key) in the middle of the nut to be able to undo it. I seem to remember you had a set last time I was there. Worth checking in the morning as I expect most motorfactors will be closing at lunchtime. I know I don't have one as getting wifey's* off was a right bitch. 

[320touring]

I'll just leave this here.

 

That has given me TEH HORN!

[Jimblob]

That is something else..

[HillmanImp]

Right, forced myself out in the cold to sort this mofo out. Really do not feel well which is either because I felt like I was coming down with the flu yesterday and it may have progressed into full on illness, or because I tackled the onslaught of the disease with half a bottle of single malt last night. Either way I felt pretty shit but needed to crack on with it. 

 

Did not take any photos as did not get a good nights sleep and really was not feeling jovial enough to bother, I just wanted to get back into the warmth of the house.

 

As Volksy said, the top mount looked a little rough. I cleaned it off and it was pretty much okay except in one spot where it looks like it has gone in exactly the same place and the same shape as this one on the left side and in the same shape:

 

 

Don't worry, that's not my one its a photo I found online to illustrate where mine had gone. This one has gone everywhere else too. 

 

Anyhow, I don't have another one of these and thinking that this may well be playing on my mind, I decided to weld a strip of reasonably thick metal over it just to be sure until such a time that I can replace it.  I had already ground it back where I could and scraped off any surface rust and then I painted it so it actually looks okay. The welding I did was pretty heavy but its there for strength not to look good so will be fine. 

 

I ended up having to buy some more spring compressors as my mate Jack must have fucked them as he is just ignoring my calls. I got 2 for £22 from Motosave just down the road so not problemo. 

 

Chucked it all back together and took it for a spin. All good so far. I even remembered to do up the wheel before I drove it off which is a first for me. 

 

Came back and decided to swap it over with the Shaguar on the drive. Get in the Shag and its dead Jim, dead Jim. dead Jim, dead. Seems at some point I had got in the Shaguar for some reason and put the key in the ignition and the lights had come on (and probably the blower as I always have it on at this time of year). Still not sure why I had put the keys in, I am still racking my brains but I had and it had been sat there for an hour and a half and  the battery was nearly flat. It was slowly turning over but there was not enough power to make it start and we all know that you canna break the laws of physics, the laws of physics, the laws of physics. 

 

I got my battery charger out and switched it onto boost. Sadly this didn't work. There was life Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it. Apparently the Shaguar battery was a little too much for the shitty little booster and it would work for a second or so but then trip out maaaan and then nothing, nada. So I had to go and get the Visa and jump the Jag with that. It really did not like it either as the Shag battery is about the same size as the Visas engine but its a soldier and managed to get the big bastard going. Took the jag for a mile mile jaunt up to shitty Guiseley and back and it was starting okay.  

 

And then, at last, I was able to come back into the house. 

 

Job for tomorrow is to clean up the spare wheels I picked up the other week and paint them and get the winter tyres wanged on. Does anyone have any recommendations on what paint should I use? Just some silver Hammerite? 

[M'coli]

Good write-up, Scotty.  Silver hammerite will be just fine.

[500tops]

Anything but HAMMERSHITE.

[r.welfare]

I used some wheel silver aerosol from Poundland on mine, looks ok.

[twosmoke300]

Warm salt water is better at preventing rust than hammerite.

[HillmanImp]

The wheels will be covered by the mega cool Citroen 80s trims so its more of a minor tidying up/rust prevention exercise as someone who has had them before me has made a bit of a hash of them and the paint has reacted and they look a bit gash. Just need to tart them up before I put the new tyres on. 

 

On another note some fucker has robbed the Citroen dust caps. WTF. Not happy about that. Have ordered some more, they were only £3.85 inc delivery so its not the end of the world but its still a bit annoying. 

[John F]

HillmanImp, on 28 Dec 2014 - 4:52 PM, said:

I ended up having to buy some more spring compressors as my mate Jack must have fucked them as he is just ignoring my calls. I got 2 for £22 from Motosave just down the road so not problemo. 

 

Next time feel free to give me a shout if you need stuff like that... I've got half a dozen of the things lying around.

[HillmanImp]

Next time feel free to give me a shout if you need stuff like that... I've got half a dozen of the things lying around.

 

Ta, thats good to know. TBH, its probably just as well I got some of these though as will need them again. Quite soon in fact as I will be doing the other side when the other shock absorber arrives.

[myglaren]

Not sure how applicable this would be to a Visa but there is a company in Lithuania that does a superb job of refurbishing Xantia & XM strut tops and actually improves them - they fit a safety ring to prevent the strut mangling the bonnet if/when it goes.

 

 

 

You don't have to wait any more for disaster when your strut mount will eventually fail!

Our company renovates Citroen XM strut mounts with polyurethane. Original shape, geometry and hardness retained. Improved inside construction now preventing from splitting strut mount into two parts in case of elastomer failure (though its very unlikely with our polyurethane material). Corrosion resistant coating applied. We can renew strut mounts even with corrosion hardly damaged lower plate and also remake drivers side to passengers side and vice versa. Two years warranty is applicable for our renewed strut mount!
Image

We are constantly enhancing quality of our products. In the attached photos strut mounts with metal shields and natural black color.
Image
Image

As metal cone plates deteriorate unequally so we have to repair them by welding also individually. We will add welding or additional metal where needed. Besides no rust problem will arise any more after our special, durable multilayer anticorrosive coating.

The price of XM strut head refurbishment is 60 EUR + VAT (21%). No price added for remaking drivers side to passengers or vice versa.

For Xantia strut top refurbishment price should be 50 EUR + VAT (21%)

We don't have in our stock already repaired strut heads for sale, so at the moment we can only repair your strut heads.
The shipping costs would be about £15 to one side and £15 backwards (The parcels are transported in a van once in 2 weeks): http://www.ritoma.co.uk/indexen-4.html
You can also order faster and a bit more expensive shipping.

Besides we renovate elastomer Dual-Mass Flywheels and almost any other metal-elastomer automotive part.

We are located in Eastern Europe, Lithuania, Kaunas.

Find us on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/elastomer ... 6053327802
website: http://elastomer.eu/en/strut-mounts.html
email: info@elastomer.eu
or by phone: +370 699 69591

Sincerely,
Irmantas Galinis
http://www.elastomer.eu

Several of the French Car Forum members have had theirs done and been delighted with the result.

Not cheap but less than new ones and as said, improved.

[HillmanImp]

Didn't see that post Myglaren. I translated the we page and was amused to see that under the Services Industry options 'Velenu Gumavinas' was translated by google into 'Shaft Rubberising'. Whilst I do agree that the act of shaft rubberising is a right pain and does kill the mood somewhat, I suspect that a Lithuanian suddenly appearing out of nowhere and doing the job for you might upset your ladyfriend. However it might not, it will depend on the girl I suppose.

 

Anyhow, I will have to look into the possibility of using them as you will see from the following:

 

As you may have read in the grump old man thread, I stupidly drove the Visa to work the other day as it had been snowing despite the fact I had not changed the shock absorber on the other side to the one that failed before Christmas and it predictably all went tits up.

 

As it happened at work I decided to repair it there instead of wait for the RAC to drag it home to mend it here, so this morning I dragged my unusually sober body out of bed and drove over to Leeds with a car full of tools to find Meg looking sad in the car park on her own.

 

 

Jacking up the car it was clear that it was the same problem as before. 

 

 

 

Yeah, that should not be there, although I was impressed to see the spring had not fallen down too.

 

So I set about doing the rather simple job of replacing the rear shock absorber. Except it wasn't simple as I was miles away from home and only had limited tools so it decided to be an absolute pig.

 

One of the bolts would not undo AT ALL.I was trying for ages. It felt like it was glued in as it had some give and would then spring back. I assumed it must have been some old underseal jamming it somewhere so cleaned off as much as I could and tried again. Still the same. I therefore assumed that it had got on the inside of the thread so decided to warm it up.

 

 

After about 5 minutes of this I realised that using a lighter to do this was futile so I whizzed off to Homobase and a short "HOW MUCH!" later I was doing this instead:

 

 

A few minutes of that bad boy did the trick and thankfully I managed not to blow up the petrol tank right above my head. 

 

So I finally got the fucker off, and there was much rejoicing, so much so that some angels started crying some really cold icy tears. 

 

 

This mount was worst than on the other side though, PLUS I obviously didn't have my welder with me to repair it so its going back on for the time being.

 

 

I quickly wanged the new shock absorber on and bobs yer uncle.......

 

 

Or so I thought. It seems that the issue with the bolt that had been so stubborn wasn't that it was stuck in with underseal it had become totally stuck in the metal sleeve in the bottom of the old shock. When I had been feeling a springy resistance earlier it had been the rubber surrounding the sleeve that had some give and by using the blowtorch all I had done was melt the rubber and remove the bolt with the sleeve still stuck on. 

 

 

Bunch of fucking arse mate. You can see on the new shock absorber below where the sleeve is sticking out. Obviously this one will not go in when there is one already there.

 

Try as I might, I could not remove the fucker. I was not sure whether warming it up would help as it might simply warm up the inside too making it fit even more snugly but I was running out of options here with limited time or patience so gave it a shot.

 

 

10 minutes of hammering later and voila! 

 

 

You can see in the picture below that is a big scrape on the spring on the first loop from the bottom. Fuck knows what cause this, maybe it was the 20ft I drove to park up the car at work. This meant I was less impressed than I was earlier that the fucking spring had not fallen down. Anyhow, it now means I need a new spring too as well as the top mount. Arsebiscuits. 

 

 

However, it 'should' be good enough to get me home.....

 

And finally Meg was level again and I was soaking wet, cold and filthy. 

 

 

Obviously as I packed up and no longer needed to lie on the floor the sun came out.

 

 

Fuck you mother nature, fuck you all day long. 

 

Meg is now parked up at work and I will pick her up either tomorrow or get a lift into work one day next week. I now need to get online and sort out the perished parts. 

 

 

 

 

 

[vulgalour]

1589/10 for perseverance!

[Six-cylinder]

Well done, good to see a Visa being keep on the road in spite of the discomfort! 

[AlabamaShrimp]

And there's me not wanting to go out and take a wing mirror off....

 

Really all I can say is you are by far better than me in all ways. One day I'll stop being unsocial grumpy git and actually come and see it/help for real

[Lankytim]

I want a Visa now. The van version is much fun!