Le bus oignon - Xantia of many Autoshiters - GYPSY CURSE

[vulgalour]

It's thicker than the metal on the BX, but not by much.

[vulgalour]

Xantia has been off the road since just after I moved up here because of the craziness of insurance. It's due for new tax and insurance on the 1st of October and while I've been ferreting away at jobs that needed doing, like welding the rear arch, it seems a shame not to treat her to *something* in preparation for many miles of winter service.

 

I've already priced up brakes, clutch, glow plugs, &c. and that's a lot of money. It'll all get done, of course, but I wanted to find something a bit better than all that boring everyday stuff so I hopped on eBay and what should I find but something I've been after since I first got the car...

 

 

 

 

Mk1 GRILLE! I'm super excited about this and really hope it arrives safely, I've only *just* bought it. Yes it's the wrong colour, but it looks in good order and it's an easy swap to make. That gives me the debadged nose end I've been after to match the debadged rear. I need to get some paint to tidy up the repaired arch anyway so I can do them both together.

 

If anyone out there has a pair of clear side repeaters they'd like to swap for some orange ones, do shout. Saxo, 106 and Xantia all have the same side repeater lens so finding a pair isn't difficult, or particularly expensive, but I used some of my glowplug budget for that grille.

 

Other thing she'll be getting are the Fido Dido stickers I got before moving house, I just haven't figured out where exactly I'm putting those yet.

[The Moog]

Good buy.

 

I changed the glowplugs in January apart from the one behind the injector pump (which in the freezing cold I cba to do). They were off ebay (after being quoted £12 each from local place) so if not working well that might be the reason.

[vulgalour]

Yeah, I'm having to do the old double-warm trick I had to do with the BX on the first start of the day.  After that it starts perfectly fine.  The one behind the injector pump was bad enough on the BX, I can only imagine it'll be worse with this one being a turbo, I try not to think about it.

[ruffgeezer]

More than one duff plug will make it a slag to start, but we don't recommend using anything other than NGK, they just don't last as well.

[vulgalour]

I can get a full set for something like £35-40, not sure which brand but not cheapy-cheapy ones.  Useful having a trade account at times.

[r.welfare]

I thought Beru ones were ok? The last one behind the pump is indeed a bugger to get to, I found ratchet spanners and a long thin 10mm bent like a banana also helped. Don't lose the 8mm nuts that hold the wire to the plugs!

[twosmoke300]

Ngk ones come with new nuts . I did an engine rebuild on an Xud years ago and found 3 of those nuts behind the inj pump bracket 😃

[vulgalour]

I should've kept the brand new glowplugs from the BX...

[mat_the_cat]

They aren't the same, you're right. The Xantia relay keeps them on for a short while after starting for better emissions control, so the plugs are designed to cope with being on with the engine running. Annoyingly, the Xantia ones used to be cheaper when I had a BX engine in the BX - now I have a Xantia engine in it's the other way round! Beru plugs have lasted 80k so far in this sample of 1.

 

Ratchet spanner is a good tip, as is cutting a slot in the ring connectors so you can thread the 8 mm nuts on with the plugs out (and not have to remove them at all on any future changes).

[vulgalour]

In celebration of getting the Xantia insured for a mere £450 I was very excited to head to the unit today... got delayed but that turned out to be a good thing as my Mk1 grille arrived and it was in tip-top condition, though obviously the wrong colour.

Up until now I've had no problems with the alarm in the car, so imagine my annoyance that every time I opened or closed any door the alarm went off. It couldn't be turned off with the key in ignition and push button method, and indeed the alarm won't disarm at all. I thought I'd try and reset the alarm as per the manual which means removing the scuttle, a job I thought would be easy. I thought wrong and quickly gave up, it's something I'll do another day, like when the windscreen gets replaced which it will likely need in another couple of years given the stone chips it's collected.

Instead, I cheated and did what everyone else does and just pulled a fuse. That has also meant the radio won't turn on, I thought they were on separate fuses going by the list in the manual, but maybe not. I also went a bit OCD and put all the fuses in the boxes so the numbers all sit the same way around. I think the problem is the remote plipper which has completely given up any notion of working since the car was taken off the road, I'll have to see about getting a new plipper and reinstating the fuse as I don't like not having a fully functional alarm even though the immobiliser does the trick.

NEVER MIND.

So instead I made some effort with that unfinished rear arch. Some tiny rust spots had come through but thankfully it was just where the hastily applied Hammerite hadn't covered the bare metal fully so was easy to clean back. I got as far as a coat of primer, discovered there's still a bit more filling work to do and then it rained a lot. No space in the unit at present so I had to call it quits... it was getting dark anyway.




Certainly a much better line. While I was waiting for bits to dry on the arch I'd done some rough and ready prep on the grille and given it a splash of primer, white and lacquer.


I was going to get the grille fitted tonight, but it looks like I have to take the entire front of the car apart to do it so I'll do it tomorrow instead. The car is also filthy inside and out from being stood for so long so I need to get on with giving it a decent clean.

Shall be back on the road on the 1st of October, I want to make use of the Direct Debit payment method rather than sticking 6 months on it now, in part because it'll offer me quite a decent short-term cash saving which is very much needed. BUT I CAN'T because DVLA are incapable of making a change easy.

[dollywobbler]

The bad news is that, as we discovered on this very forum last week, direct debit is only available for cars taxed from 1st November for reasons of annoyance.

[vulgalour]

Unless you do it online, I thought.

 

NEVER MIND... you're quite right on this one.  Of course DVLA weren't going to make the change sensibly.

 

So much for saving cash short term then.

[The Moog]

Alarm is overcome by holding the alarm button to the right of the steering wheel.

 

Get in, keys to ignition lights on and push and hold siren button and that should fix it.

 

Or the plipper does work when you sit in drivers seat. The IR isn't strong enough outside but when inside the car it will work

[vulgalour]

That's just it, the alarm problem *was* overcome by doing that but now that does nothing.  The plipper stopped working inside or outside the car shortly after I moved up here.

 

I did have a decent workaround by only locking/unlocking on the passenger door and resetting the alarm via the button before the car was parked up at the unit, but now if I put the fuse back in you can't unset the alarm.  The only thing I've done that might have caused the problem was disconnecting the battery when I did the welding, but I'm not sure how that would do it.  It's like the alarm needs resetting but I have no idea how to do it.

 

I also found the spring inside the plipper is properly broken, it's missing the folded back section that holds the batteries down, so that's something that will likely need replacing.

 

For now I'll put up with a lack of alarm and radio and rely on the security of the immobiliser and the fact that not even the scrapmen have asked if the car can be taken to the bridge.  Talk about perceived non-value!

[The Moog]

Sounds a right palaver.

[vulgalour]

Got some options for the alarm problem that I shall try another day.  For now, here's an update on the old bus.

 

Did a bit more work on that rear wing.  It's still not right, I need to ideally flat the entire wing back and repaint it but I seriously CBA with that.  Also did a bit more filling on the arch this side to eliminate the last of the old scrape damage.  Again, it needs a bit more work to make perfect but it looks about a gajillion times better than it did.

 

Other side had a bit more filling work today, again still not perfect but better than it was.  I almost had enough paint to finish things off... almost.

 

 

Made a template for the new rear oversized number plate I'm going to order if I can find someone to make it for me.  The existing plate might get highlighted as an issue at MoT in November so I want to deal with this before then.

 

But the best bit was getting the newly repainted grille on.  Turned out to be a fairly simple job to fit in the end and looks superb, I'm really happy with this.

 

 

Once it turns midnight I can get tax on and then drive the Xantia home so I can unload washing machine #4 (an Indesit Moon, modern washer shite that) and all the Princess spares currently living in the back.

[Hendry]

That looks superb, top work. Shame the front number plate can't permanently be left off, they really spoil the clean lines of most cars.

 

I really like the look of Xantias, really smart looking, well designed cars.

 

Did they do colour coded door handles on higher spec models? If so, these and colour coded door mirrors would really finish it off, leaving the black strips on the doors and bumpers to break up and contrast the white.

[vulgalour]

They did do colour coded mirrors and I was tempted but having seen them, the black mirrors blend into the side windows much better, so they're staying as-is.  I don't know about door handles, I think they were all black, but I am planning to paint mine white at some point but leave the side strips and bumpers black to give the illusion of greater width and length as well as breaking up the white a bit.

[ruffgeezer]

I might be able to source a plipper and IR unit if you get stuck, this seems a good cause

[purplebargeken]

That is a really nice looking car you have there. Lovely styling TBH. Like it lots. 

[vulgalour]

I've been meaning to have a word with you!  You won second prize in my Tombola and didn't tell me what you wanted creating.  PM me so we can sort you out with some arts.

[Ghosty]

Love it, it's so clean. A tentative yes to white handles, they'll work well. So will the big plate - pre-01 font is a must, it's just a shame you can't have white on the rear, because that would be even better.

If I didn't know, from that front photo I'd have probably said that that was some kind of Seat or Fiat, it doesn't look that Citroen-y.

[Micrashed]

Looking fab that Angyl.

[vulgalour]

Some new niggles to report, the first being a blown bulb in the dash and the second being a fuel gauge that can't decide whether I have quarter of a tank or reserve only.  I'll deal with it later.  In the meantime I've decided to sort out the front number plate so I stay legal, I had this idea of using Velcro screwed to the front bumper like so.

 

 

Then apply to the number plate, couldn't remove the sticky tape as it was too well stuck.

 

et voila!  Best of all it stays on and I can remove it to clean behind it.  Yes, I am that sad.

 

Hunt for a custom oversized rear plate was fruitless as the plate needs to be very large.  It's not the height but the width that's the issue, it's bigger than a Range Rover Sport rear plate!  It did give me a superb accidental photo opportunity when looking for a parking space near Motorcool though.

 

Got back to the unit and gave her a much needed wash after applying my new Fido Dido stickers.  The roof was grey with dirt.

 

 

The big annoyance is that I have tree pollen stuck to the paint again so I'm going to have to spend a while with the polishing compounds again to get this sorted.  Most of it came off, but where the paint had only been polished a little bit the pollen has stuck like the proverbial to a bed covering.

 

Happy times otherwise though.  Really pleased with how the car is looking and driving, you wouldn't know it had been laid up any more than overnight.

[purplebargeken]

I've been meaning to have a word with you!  You won second prize in my Tombola and didn't tell me what you wanted creating.  PM me so we can sort you out with some arts.

 

Is that me or Ruffgeezer? It's very cool either way

[vulgalour]

you.

[purplebargeken]

Me! Oh wow!!!!

 

Superb news indeed! Makes up totally for the fact that I just broke my partial denture eating a piece of chicken. Wow.

 

Thanks hugely :)

[purplebargeken]

I iz winnah!!!! Sorry, just wanted to say that.

[vulgalour]

I am bothered by the red rear lights.  I'm considering some of this stuff http://www.flyeyeskit.co.uk/ which seems to do the trick better than tinting spray or tights and isn't hideously expensive.