Le bus oignon - Xantia of many Autoshiters - GYPSY CURSE

[MikeKnight]

I can probably get them working once the wheel is apart. I mean they're just the same as in every other model, simple click switches attached to wires (running through the column) and those wires go into corresponding inputs on the radio block.

 

Hell, as long as you have a decent wiring diagram you can even put entirely new wires running direct to the radio hidden behind the dash and bypass the loom entirely.

 

I can build LCD clocks from scratch and even add outside temp functionality. I'm doing it for the 944 as the factory clocks from Porsche last about a week as they're utter shit.

[twosmoke300]

I'm guessing that these wires pass through the airbag clock spring at some point ?

[angle]

 

Yesterday the blower fan started being intermittent.  Today it has stopped working completely.  I'll get the relevant bits of dash apart to investigate further.  The fan bearing could occasionally be very noisy so it's very likely it's conked out and needs replacing.  No demist is just what you need in the middle of winter, thankfully it's quite mild up here at the moment.

 

 

Check the heated rear window. If that's stopped working at the same time, it'll be the ignition switch and can be sorted for cheap by wiring in a relay. Luckily mine went in the summer so I've managed to get it working for the cold weather...

[The Moog]

My attempt at steering wheel controls was to check they were plugged I. At the back of the radio. They weren't. Didn't fix it, so applied a liberal coating of ignore.

[vulgalour]

@angle:  this has been suggested on two other forums and a how to provided, seems really likely as the cause.  Can't check if the rear demist works because it's been far too mild to use it, but I'm going to assume it's failed and get Mike to help me install a relay.

[Pillock]

Check it by turning it on and running your tongue over the elements.

 

Caution: I have no idea what might happen if you did this.

[Hendry]

Although you can do without steering wheel controls no bother, if you get a car with them fitted and working they can be very useful, you'll be surprised just how much you actually use them. I use the ones in my car all the time, to the point they are a must have like central locking and power steering.

 

By the time you're done with this Xantia it'll be the most sorted most concourse and mint Xantia in existence. Top work.

[beko1987]

I got so used to the wheel controls in the xm it was the main reason for keeping the original cassette!

[vulgalour]

Because I'm too utterly fubarred to go with Mike this weekend on the 800 mile round to collect a car - work stuff, not interesting here - with the Xantia he determined to sort out the radio.  I knew the theory of disabling the alarm module which I passed on and Mike found quite a lot of water surrounding it under the carpet where nobody had realised it was sitting.  Alarm bypassed, radio given a fresh fuse and tunes back, which is a pleasant novelty after having several months of just diesel car noise for company.

 

Seems likely that it's something to do with the fan heater letting water in from outside and pouring into the passenger footwell of the Xantia, another text book issue that we'll resolve... later.  For now the passenger seat has been removed and the carpet will come out in the next few days to get everything dried out properly before tackling whatever the problem is.

 

Water ingress into the boot was also found to be a missing bung which appears to have fallen out.  Fresh one installed today again by Mike to hopefully resolve that issue.

[KruJoe]

More encouraging Xantia updates Angyl.

The news that a tow bar has arrived for it has increased the chances that Le Bus Oignon might come to live with me should you ever feel the need to get rid.

[ruffgeezer]

OK Angyl,

 

You wanted Xantia advisory why you not come to me?

 

The alarm requires the remote to deactivate it, you can get a remote and the receiver from any mk1 xantia, it is above the trim panel near the rear view mirror.

 

The steering wheel controls are due to the clock spring being knackered, as that part also does the airbag, I left it alone.

 

I can only assume your tester checked the suspension with the pressure on, those bushes were shagged when I last saw the car.

 

Please check the heater fan doesn't work on speed 4 either if it does its the resistor pack if not take the fan out and test it across

A battery.

[vulgalour]

I forget who to ask for what most of the time, it's nothing personal!  to resolve the remote thing I've got to get a new key fob really, the spring for the battery is broken so I have no remote functionality.  I still don't know what a clock spring is, I'll find out.

 

I was confused at the lack of bush mention at test, he did the test with the car on various settings and was familiar enough with all the controls that he certainly gave the impression of knowing what he was doing.  They are on the list and will get done, I just haven't got around to it yet.

 

The fan speed settings are intermittent.  You can get full power, but the other settings aren't always reliable.

 

TBH, Mike has sort of taken over care of the Xantia, I've been so busy with work that Mike's the one that's been using the car most so he's been finding and resolving problems where he can and then passing the info on to me so I can get it posted online.

[ruffgeezer]

You will need a keyfob & it's matching receiver as I said before, if you are really lucky, you might find a pair.

 

With the heater fan, have a go at wiggling the ignition to see if it starts working when you do that, if so it's an ignition switch fault.

 

The clock spring is the device that allows the electrical bits on the steering wheel to work whilst the car is being steered, there is a long ribbon cable coiled round inside it that turns with the wheel.

 

If memory serves, you ribbon cable is broken behind the airbag, but on the end that is part of the clock spring. Wait sorry, that's bollocks, that is the wrong Xantia estate. It's probably still the clock spring though.

[vulgalour]

The key fob works, or at least it did, the fault is with the little metal spring that presses on the batteries having snapped.  Once I replace that spring I'll have a working remote again.  Pretty sure the ignition switch is on the way out, we're planning on doing the relay upgrade as mentioned on the French Car Forum again when we have the opportunity to do it.  Funnily enough, wiggling the ignition makes no difference to functionality and I wonder if it could be related to water ingress in the cabin, when the car dries out inside everything seems to work normally but when you notice water anywhere inside electrical things start playing up.

 

Anything that's text-book breakage on a Xantia will affect this car.  So far every problem I've had has been a standard Xantia issue, which is annoying but as a result the fixes have been fairly easy to research and find which is good.

[ruffgeezer]

I might have an old key fob here, let me have a dig.

[HillmanImp]

I miss my Xantia. I REALLY regret getting shot of it.

[vulgalour]

But you don't have a BX you're trying to get rid of, so I can't help you.

[vulgalour]

Well, had my first drive of the Xantia since Mike completed his towing mission and for the first time since I've own it the car feels interesting to drive in a good way.  Brakes are no longer being weird and respond as they should, it feels much more planted and solid as a car too. I'm wondering if part of this is down to the tow bar stiffening the rear end up a bit.  Better yet, the engine feels to breathe better so the run with the trailer may have helped clear things out a bit.

 

The fact there's no front passenger seat or boot carpet and damp carpets on the passenger side is neither here nor there.  In the near future we're going to be pulling all the seats and carpets out to get it dried out properly and the carpet is only going back in once the water ingress problem is resolved.

[beko1987]

When the battery died in the zx fob I was surprised* when some folded bits of cardboard fell out when I opened it up.

 

Didn't replace them, and it didn't work. Fished them out of the bin, refitted and it works again. Maybe its a cheap fix? I'm certainly leaving them there!

 

 

 

*I wasn't really surprised at all tbh...

[vulgalour]

When I got the Xant the fob didn't work, that was down to the wrong batteries being fitted.  Put new batteries in and it worked a treat.  Then the spring broke and it's not worked since.  I'll try some special clearly-only-works-with-Citroens electrically conductive cardboard and see if that helps.  The amount of water the alarm module has been swimming in probably hasn't helped matters.

[beko1987]

No water possibly doesn't help! The cardboards not condutive, just squeezes the battery down enough to make contact I think!

[vulgalour]

It's a Citroen, I'm sure that if you put cardboard in where a conductive material should be it would work in the electrics.  In fact, cheese instead of soldering and wine instead of diesel probably helps too.  Other stereotypes available by mail order.

[Noel Tidybeard]

When the battery died in the zx fob I was surprised* when some folded bits of cardboard fell out when I opened it up.

 

Didn't replace them, and it didn't work. Fished them out of the bin, refitted and it works again. Maybe its a cheap fix? I'm certainly leaving them there!

 

 

 

*I wasn't really surprised at all tbh...

the shitters way to replace a 2032- use a 2016/2025 with cardboard to help make contact

[vulgalour]

Thought I'd have a stab at mopping out the 'bit of water' sitting under the carpets in the Xantia.

 

 

After mopping out 2 pints of water...

 

...I sacked it off as a job to be done at the unit, not at home.  I've now got to pull the seats, the centre console and the carpet to get the car dried out fully and then leave the carpets out until I've found the proper cause of the water ingress, there's a few culprits to investigate more fully.

 

In happier news, the boot area appears to be staying dry since removing the carpet.

[vulgalour]

Checked the front brakes on the Corsa and there's plenty of meat on the discs and pads so I've no worries there. I begin to think there's nothing actually wrong with the brakes, I'm just used to the Xantia's discs all round. I also got about a third of the Corsa clayed before the weather put paid to those efforts.

Before the Corsa fettling I was doing the onerous task of removing the sodden carpets in the Xantia. I'd already mopped out two pints of water at home and today after spending a few hours removing seats and trim I eventually got the carpets out. Driver's side was lovely and bone dry, passenger side had a further 6 pints hiding in the carpet foam and sat in the foot well!



I've got both front and rear waterlogged carpets draining into a bucket, it looks like there's another 2 pints still to come out. It would seem the problem is the scuttle trim on the passenger side of the windscreen which was loose. That's now been siliconed back in place and the carpets left out of the car until I know everything is dry and the leak is cured.




I'll get the carpets fully cleaned before they go back in. I found 2p in the centre console, a mango-and-orange lip balm from THE PAST and a lot of dust and dog hair so at least I'll be able to tidy all that up. The only real annoyance is that now I've unplugged and replugged the seat airbag sensors the airbag light itself won't go out. I'm guessing if I disconnect and reconnect the battery it will and if it hadn't taken me about 5 hours to strip and refit and de-water the interior I probably would have bothered to do that today.

Looks like I'm back to running two jobs again, which is always absolutely knackering, but it'll be worth it in the end and it's only going to be for a few weeks.

[vulgalour]

May have found where the water is getting into the boot of the Xantia.  Spotted this bit of water sat on the parcel shelf.

 

Which is coming in through a missing trim screw in the tailgate surround.

 

I'll get that plugged up and see if it helps.  The footwells are staying dry, even though the car has been driven through rain, parked in rain and generally got very wet so once the soundproofing has fully dried out I can consider getting the carpets back in, probably at the same time I get the Peugeot seats from shiter Moog so I'm not having to take the seats in and out too much.

 

My only real gripe aside from the seats hurting my back is that the rear arch I repaired has come through rusty already so I need to find out what's going on there when the weather is better.  It may just be a couple of tiny stone chips that have made massive rust stains because the car is white or it might be a repair that needs redoing.  Either way, not thrilled about that prospect.

[Pillock]

2032 battery means 20mm across, 3.2mm high. 2016 is thinner by half, so cardboard is a way to get it to push down on the contact. Most fobs touch the + on the bottom but the - on the side so you can usually cover the top with card or tape and it still has its two points of contact.

 

That water must be getting inside the trim, you've plugged the screw hole but that'll trap the water inside the trim panel won't it? And it'll leak elsewhere....

[vulgalour]

I've not plugged the screw hole.  I've got to get the weird tool out for undoing special Citroen screws and investigate.  The tailgate window seal does look a bit perished and I wonder if that might be the cause.  I've done what I can with the seal to refresh it but I think it's passed its best.

[vulgalour]

For the first time in too long the Xantia got a wash by me, not a full clay and polish as I didn't have enough time for that but it is at least looking better.  I was worried about the repaired arch going rusty but when all the rust came off with cutting compound and left no trace behind I was very confused.  I was going to spend today at the unit so I attacked things with sandpaper and found that the paint was flaking off in really localised patches.  This is the same thing I was faced with before I did the repair, as though the paint just doesn't want to stick to the metal which is itself in really good shape.  Gave it a fresh coat of primer and paint after cleaning it all up and lacquered it to keep the water out.  It needs going back to at a future date because the finish is pretty poor but it is at least weatherproof and looks nicer than orangey stains.

 

 

Soundproof in the passenger footwell has nearly completely dried out now, no new water is coming in (or at least it wasn't when I washed it or drove it 100 miles through the rain and sleet) so I think we've cured the water leak up front.  That means I can get the carpets back in soon, I don't like having no rugs in there, looks nasty.

[vulgalour]

Today marks the first day in a while that I've properly had off with the bonus of it being rather a pleasant spring-like day outside so I felt I could risk giving the Xantia it's first proper wash and first polish of 2015.

 

I'm still struggling to bond with this car. When I got in the Princess and heard the engine run again it was like meeting an old friend, I've always had that sort of a feeling towards that car. The Xantia doesn't feel like that, it feels like a reliably supportive but distant relative, the sort that always sends you money at Christmas and just wants to know you're okay but isn't fussed about visits and gifts and spending time together. It's a strange relationship. Despite that, after many months of ownership it is growing on me very much as a head car, something I'm notoriously bad at acquiring as I do have a habit of buying with my heart.

 

Last year I removed the roof bars as I didn't need to use them and earlier this year a tow bar was fitted (and has been used in anger, as it were). Clear side repeaters tidy the front wings up and the monochrome vibe is getting there. This is the car's bad side and it still doesn't look that bad in photos or in person, I'm just picky.

 

The roof, finally, takes and holds a shine. I remember when my brother first got the car and this was like chalk.

 

Car goes up, car goes down, and looks pretty darned cool.

 

Sometimes, just sometimes, this car gets me excited down to its good looks. You can't see it in this picture but after not refitting the undertray when we did the clutch there is no longer any unpleasant motorway speed lift from the front end. I recall my Dad's old Xantia hatchback was similarly improved, that one had the habit of trying to lift the nose off the road if you had undertray fitted, sunroof and windows all open on the motorway... not fun!