Catsinthewelders first 4x4 foray (DW's old Disco)

[catsinthewelder]

Today I found myself driving the Citroen for the last time to meet DW.

 

 

We exchanged cars at a petrol station in darkest Wales about half way between our respective homes

 

First impressions of the Disco are good,  it drives well if you treat the gearbox with caution, ride and handling are good enough for me.  After a few miles I let Ms C drive for a bit and she likes it too,  there were noticably less noises from the gearbox while she was driving.  Once back on English soil we swapped back.

 

 

As I had an unexpected day off work we had a leisurely drive back then after a rather late lunch I fetched the kids back from school in it.  They really like it and are very chuffed with the fold down seats in the boot.  They wanted to explore it once we got back but set the alarm off opening the side windows after a few minutes so I chucked them out and got on with fixing the catch on the back door.  It now seems fine but I'm not sure what I did to it which is never reassureing with repairs like this.  As it now opens from the inside I activated the child lock so that it doesn't and crossing my fingers, put it all back together.

 

I'm considering disconnecting the mechanical link to the central locking from each lock so the car thinks that it's always unlocked therefore doesn't set the alarm.  Is this a bad idea?

 

I'm not very fussed about central locking either way but I can't cope with cars that make any noise other than the engine, horn and radio.

[HMC]

Nice to see its staying on the forum! I was tempted myself when DW offered it for sale as these old 3 doors are a rare sight nowadays, Especially with the natty graphics still intact and actual proper welding repairs to the shell that it was treated to by DW.

[catsinthewelder]

His chap made a very nice job of the O/S sill (at his insistance) and I'll do what I can to keep the graphics on the N/S as well.  May well keep it factory with the repairs but it will depend on panels turning up at a good price.  I generally go for strong over pretty for chassis and floor work.

[dollywobbler]

That door is infuriating. It failed last week (not for the first time) so I pulled most of the mechanism out (not quite as bad a job as a BX window winder, but not much in it), refitted it all and it worked. Sorted! It would seem not.

 

It did occur to me on my final drive this morning, that it handles bloody well for something so heavy, with such a high centre of gravity, sitting on beam axles front and rear. Have just remembered that my specialist chap diagnosed a bit of play in both front wheel bearings. The nearside has been replaced, so just needs adjusting up a bit. Not sure about the offside.

[barmatt]

The locks on the rear doors are always temperamental. If it sticks again just pop the LR badge off the handle and spray a load of WD in there and it will work fine for a month or so then repeat ad infinitum.

 

What is the problem with the alarm? If you disconnect the cl from the motors it will still set the alarm when you lock it with the key.

[catsinthewelder]

The locks on the rear doors are always temperamental. If it sticks again just pop the LR badge off the handle and spray a load of WD in there and it will work fine for a month or so then repeat ad infinitum.

 

Would grease work as a longer term solution?  I try to only use WD40 to unstick something before lubricating it properly with something else.

 

 

 

What is the problem with the alarm? If you disconnect the cl from the motors it will still set the alarm when you lock it with the key.

 

If I mechanically disconnect the lock from the electronic servo won't the car think it's unlocked all the time so never set the alarm?  It probably wouldn't be an issue but the CL doesn't really work so unless you remember to unlock the drivers door before the other doors then you set it off. 

[dollywobbler]

AFAIK, that IS the central locking working as it should. Sirion is also driver's door only to operate CL, but fortunately doesn't have an alarm. I absolutely hate alarms but must admit, I only set the Disco's off once. Quickly learnt not to do that again.

[catsinthewelder]

I'll leave it for a couple of weeks and see how it goes.  I'm just a bit too used to old pov spec stuff and these modern things scare me. 

 

It's nice to see the LDV clock has another home

[Ghosty]

Driver's door only for CL is normal - Mum's Polo has it, Dad's old 190E had it.

[barmatt]

Yeah you're right cl is only on drivers door so you need to open that to disengage the alarm. What's wrong with the cl? if it's a motor that's fubared I've got a couple in the shed somewhere.

 

I never bothered trying to grease the locks as a long term solution as with all the offroading I do the grease would just be a magnet for all the crap that gets kicked up in there. Maybe try a thin spray oil?

[catsinthewelder]

If DW thinks that it was fine this morning then it's probably fine,  I've been arseing round with the lock on the back door which was broken when we exchanged cars but is fixed now and probably confused myself.

 

The alarm went off when the kids opened the window 5 minutes after I let them in through the passenger door.  The noise was embarrassing so my inner luddite came out and I wanted to stop it happening again.

 

If I lock and unlock it with the drivers door and the alarm stays quiet I'll leave it alone.

 

Thankyou for the offer of parts but any bother from the CL and I'll have some spare motors to get rid of