Le bus oignon - Xantia of many Autoshiters - GYPSY CURSE

[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.

[320touring]

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.

Just say no, kids. just say no.

 

were smoked lights not avialable on ay model of xantia estate?

[vulgalour]

only half-smokes like I've got on at the moment.  I might think differently about the red lenses when I've got a WHOPPING GREAT SLAB OF YELLOW on the back.

[Hendry]

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.

That is not sad at all, I'd do exactly the same, only I'd go 1 further and find a way to remove all the now redudang double sided tape, I hate unnecessary stuff stuck on cars even if its not visible. Spraying some tar and glue remover on, leaving to soak for half an hour then the tape should just fall off then you just clean off the residue with a rag.

 

PS a clay bar would have the roof looking pristine again in next to no time

[angle]

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.

 

Does the fuel gauge drop to the absolute minimum? If so, I've got the same problem - consensus on the FCF was that there's a circuit board buried in the dash clocks that converts the signal from the fuel tank sender to the level on the dash which has a habit of dying. The experience of trying to get the dash off my old ZX to do the bulbs has put me off investigating any further, yet (it ended in abject failure due to a lack of double jointedness). 

 

Anyhow, its looking very, very good and you've inspired me to waste several hours off my life thinking about hubcaps. I want some XM moons, or if I'm feeling astonishingly flash I might see if I can find a set of these on leboncoin:

 

[vulgalour]

**hubcap porn klaxon**

 

Fuel gauge appears to have fixed itself so I'm calling Because Citroen on that particular issue.

[Micrashed]

**hubcap porn klaxon**

 

Fuel gauge appears to have fixed itself so I'm calling Because Citroen on that particular issue.

You do know this is just to lull you into a false sense of security before it craps out totally, dont you?

[vulgalour]

Of course I do, it's a Citroen!  Happy little new thing to tag on here is that my brother snaffled me some clear side repeaters when getting parts for his Saxo.  One step closer to perfection.

[The Moog]

I will bet you a sherbet dib dab that it will pass MOT first time

[Partridge]

Is it me or does it look more weird and quirky in that colour, with those wheel trims?

[vulgalour]

MoT will be interesting, that's for sure.  I always expect my cars to fail, regardless of how good I think they are.  Not because I don't try and look after them, but because I'm an eternal pessimist about these things.

 

Exhaust - my brother reckons there's a tiny blow on it somewhere but I can't find it.

Corrosion - there isn't any now, I've actually dealt with that.

Brakes - appear to be working better, the rears seem to have benefitted from lugging white goods and car parts around and whichever one was squeaking isn't anymore

Suspension/Steering - there is a knock occasionally on the front driver's side corner at parking speeds.  This is probably the bush or balljoint that ruffgeezer mentioned and which was an advisory on a previous MoT.  I'll be getting it up on the ramps to check.

Emissions - no reason to believe these will be a fail, I'm not kicking out smoke except for one puff on the first start of the day and if I have to really give it the beans to get out of someone's way, the latter I consider perfectly normal for an elderly diesel.

 

Tyres are good, tracking is good, there's no cracks or massive chips on the windscreen, no warning lights on the dash, all the lights that should come on do...

 

Anything in particular I should be hunting for do we think?  MoT doesn't expire until the 25th of November, so I've got a couple of months to check everything is as it should be.

[Micrashed]

Just make sure all the HP pipes are sound as they form part of the braking system as well, so even a crappy pipe to a sphere will fail a HP Citroen as any failiure of the HP will make the brakes fail.

 

Ive been in a Citroen when the HP failed ( and it sicked up all its LHM) the steering went first, then the suspension, then the brakes but all went very very quickly as the system is at a phenominal pressure.

[The Moog]

When I had it MOtd last year mechanic came out especially to say how nice it was to see one of these about and how clean it was.

 

That was before you waved your magic over it.

 

Only issue you might have is washer jets. The pipe runs up side of bonnet which causes it to get pinched. Took him about four goes to get it into a place where it would work

[beko1987]

I feel your fuel needle woes. Anything under half a tank and my needle flops down to the stop and puts the light on. Takes a mile of straight road to sort itself out.

 

Was on the red most of the way to work until it suddenly decided there was just under a quarter in there. Makes working out how many miles it does tricky, I just fill up when the lights been on for 10 miles...

 

I darednt fix it, doubt whatever pattern white spare is available will be any better!

[vulgalour]

Noted on the brakes, I'll have a look at those when it's up on the ramps.  Not having any issue with the washer jets, I use them quite regularly and they squirt adequately well where they need to.

 

Fuel needle works well above half tank, so it sounds like this is definitely a Because Citroen thing and since the Xant does MEGAMILES to the gallon I never really worry about the OMGMPG because even I don't have to.

[beko1987]

Mines spot on above 1/4, and like you, by the time I'm down to 1/4 from 1/2 I've done 300 miles, so don't really care!

 

The XM broke a leakoff pipe from the front strut when I was raising it up for the mot test, I just pulled the little bit off the pipe it attaches too and pushed the pipe back on again, voila, fail avoided!

[vulgalour]

Today, gave the Xantia it's first proper clean since moving up here.  After being sat around getting covered in workshop dust,  tree pollen and other detritus it was looking pretty rubbish.  The quick wash it had made it look cleaner, but not clean enough so I spent 2 hours getting as much of the ingrained muck as I could off, it's now everyday-clean, but needs more work to be as clean as I want it.

 

I've got to get some touch up paint and rectify a lot of the minor paint issues on the car.  A full respray is pointless because the paint is overall in very good condition, just needs some careful touching in.  things like the stonechips on the leading edge of the bonnet.

 

This scratch on the front wing has been touched in before, but not as well as I'd like.  Pretty glaring this one, and one that people point out to me more often than I'd like.

 

Fido Dido!  Properly 90s wagon now.

 

You can just make out the wibble in this rear quarter.  This is one of those bits of damage that keeps needing going over a few more times, the white makes it difficult to see the damage until the light hits it just so and then it jumps out very badly.

 

There's some dents on this front door too, but everytime I try and find them they disappear.  I always seem to see them just as I walk past the car and they jump out badly.  There's a similar dent on the rear door on the same side.  Nuisance to repair, I may see if one of those dent-be-gone places can do it so I don't have to worry about the painting side of things.  You can't even see the dents in this picture anyway, but you can see how well the paint comes up.

 

The roof panel is finally uniformly shiny.  Needs more work yet to be as good as it ought to be, you can feel it's not quite as glossy as it could be, but at least bugs and dust just slide off now so it shouldn't attract tree pollen.

 

Lovely and clean, two hours later.  Glass is one of the things that really makes or breaks a clean car, I like it so clean you can't see it or the sun shines off it blindingly.  This glass is perfect now.

 

 

Rear number plate looks horrible, I absolutely must sort that out.

[Tayne]

What do you use to clean your glass?

[vulgalour]

Regular household window cleaner (£1 or so from the supermarket/discount shop) followed by Autoglym Glass Polish.  Be sure to use a microfibre cloth (3 for a £1 or so from Wilkinsons) to remove the Glass Polish and you don't get any fluff or detritus on the glass.  Stays clean for AGES when you do it this way too.

[vulgalour]

Today the Xantia made an unpleasant grabby manoeuvre in the clutch department, this is a job I've been putting off for the better part of 2000 miles so I've done well to last as long as I have.  Rather than chance it further I forked out as much as I could on a replacement kit and when it arrives I have the joy* of performing what I'm told is a six hour job that involves a lot of swearing.  I'll do the LHM at the same time, six litres of that arrived recently so I could clean the system through and hopefully resolve the brakes and occasional suspension hardness.

 

The MoT is due near the end of November so it'll be nice to get these jobs done ahead of that and it should drive even nicer than it does now.  Amazingly, I've never done a clutch change before either, so I might as well get in at the deep end.

[Micrashed]

Do you know about lubing the front struts via the return pipes?

[vulgalour]

DW said something about this with the BX but I can't remember what that something was.  It was probably really important too.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Vulgalour really is the king of clean. Puts my car to shame!

[vulgalour]

I'm basically Kim Woodburn in a two piece suit and more costume jewellery.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I'm basically Kim Woodburn in a two piece suit and more costume jewellery.

You should film a series on YouTube called "how clean is your shite"

[vulgalour]

Have to wait until Mikeknight and I have finished filming our garage documentary.  We're calling it For Fuck's Sake and it covers what actually happens when you do any job on a car that's 20+ years old.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Yo Vulg, you can borrow my engine support beam if you want, might help with the clutch? you'd have to collect from Derby though. Let me know if you're interested and I'll fetch it from the garage this weekend or whenever.

 

[ruffgeezer]

I also have an engine support beam that I've never used. 

 

Also if you are doing the clutch, change the front arm bushes or front arms whilst you are there, the bushes must be properly fubar by now.

[vulgalour]

I'm not 100% sure, but we might actually have one.  Clutch kit doesn't arrive until at least Tuesday next week.  If it's needed I will definitely give you a shout.

 

The clutch being close to dead did show me how Mike and I drive differently.  He's more leaden of right foot than I am, uses brakes rather than gears to slow down and will sit at every red light or traffic with the car revving at biting point where I'd knock it into neutral and use the handbrake.  Mike also gets less mpg than I do.  I go around corners a lot faster than Mike will in the Xantia, but that I think is more down to being used to what the Xantia can do and I have been caught out in a more normally suspended car going into a corner a bit hotter than I really should have.  Just idle observations really.

[vulgalour]

I'd forgotten about the bushes, well, not forgotten, more put them to the back of my mind.  It's definitely worse on the driver's side, there's an occasional knock when parking on full lock which there wasn't when I picked it up from yourself.  It will likely have to wait though, money is tight as I've earned next to nothing since I moved up here and had cash going out where I didn't want it to, like the clutch which I had hoped would last me another month.  It probably will last another month, but just in case I keep my AA card in the car because I have so little faith in it now.