Le bus oignon - Xantia of many Autoshiters - GYPSY CURSE

[vulgalour]

There's a slim chance we can resolve the LHM issue and get it in for an MoT round the corner by Tuesday.  Not going to hold my breath though.

 

Whatever happens at MoT time, the next things to do will be a new accumulator sphere to match the other new spheres, sorting out the ride height at the front, getting the lower arm bushes fixed and possibly doing the passenger side lower ball joint which looked like it might be wearing out.  There's also need to investigate the fuel filter which may, after 3-4,000 miles of veg power, be a bit due.

 

One of the last things we did last night, at about 11:30pm, was to get my brother's diesel Peugeot out of the unit after it had been given a new lower trunnion/balljoint/duckfoot, a job that took an hour and forty five minutes.  That very clearly highlighted how much clutch wasn't left on the Xantia because I instantly stalled it.  I then stalled it again when trying to park it because it has a clutch that works.  So the Xantia is going to be fun* on the first few drives while I readjust to having an operational clutch.

[The Moog]

You can see why people scrap them rather than go through the expense/faff.

 

Good news about caliper, that's something less to pay out for. You really are going to end up with an almost perfect example of the species.

[Rusty_Rocket]

Years ago, when these things were worth more- people scrapped them when they needed a clutch as the job was so laborious.  With this done and the niggles sorted, you'll have a decent motor that will last years more- YOU'RE ON THE WINNING STRAIGHT MAN!!!!!!

[purplebargeken]

I had an old Volvo 144DL with a dire clutch. I took it to a place near Friern Barnet and they lobbed a clutch in for me. I started it up and nearly put the fucker through the garage wall as the clutch was much more effective than before. Easy error to make.

[twosmoke300]

I have a little sweepstake and giggle on how many times customers stall driving away from the workshop when I've fitted a new clutch . small pleasures in life

[Micrashed]

The sad thing is, a properly sorted HP Citroen is a lovely place to be. But by christ did they make life complicated designing some of these bits.

[beko1987]

Took me weeks to get used to the puma when it had a new clutch. Bite point was in a totally different place. The first hillstart I did was interesting...

[stuboy]

when my mum had clutch in her 306 done i said be easy as itll fly u down the road before u realise and smash it up

[vulgalour]

I think I found the missing seal, it's gone all crumbly so it's probably just as well it's fallen out and is getting replaced tomorrow.  Guessing that because it's gone all crumbly and split it dropped off the pipe unnoticed when we dismantled everything so in a way it's done me a favour as it'll definitely get replaced this way.

 

Citromatic identified the seal as belonging to the main pressure feed and warned that once we've replaced the seal others might go, so it may be a routine of pulling pipes and replacing fiddly little O-rings to get the system LHM-tight before the MoT.  We're getting new seals delivered tomorrow but I've got to leave the job to Mike as I've got to crack on with artwork as I'm already behind on that front thanks to this stupid job.

 

MoT is due tomorrow, fat chance of me getting a working car in for it by then.  Thankfully, our local trusted MoT garage shares the same building so we needn't even go on the public highway to get the Xantia to them.

[vulgalour]

Hooray, Mike has successfully bled the LHM system through after replacing the damaged seal, the car goes up and down as it ought.  Lots of black stuff came out of the rear calipers and lots of air came out of the front, the pedal is now apparently very hard compared to how it was, I need to see how that feels to assess it for myself, but it sounds like it's normal for Citroen now.

 

The rear driver's caliper seems to be sticking half on so that needs investigating and the front driver's ball joint has stripped the thread to such an extent that it can't even be re-cut, so a new ball joint is going to be got for that.  I've got the relevant castellated tool somewhere.

 

All the bleed nipples are made of brie and quite round, rather like a wheel of brie.  We will likely replace those too.

 

 

Missed the MoT deadline but that's to be expected.  At least the car can be moved out of the unit under its own power now so it's not going to be in the way.  We'll order a new ball joint, find the tool and get it booked in once that's sorted.

[beko1987]

Bet the suspension works a millionty times better now!

[vulgalour]

Right, another update for you.  I've been a busy bee working from home so Mike has been fettling in between other customer cars to get the Xantia sorted.  The suspension used to take 30 seconds to rise from low, Mike believes it's now taking about 10.  The nose end is still lazy, but instead of just being slow to rise it does so in a jerky motion... we're going to lubricate that height adjuster which should put paid to this issue.  That means that the suspension is now rising far better than it was, which bodes well, and no LHM is coming out which bodes even more well.

 

The brakes are quite responsive, I am told, though there is a squish noise at the pedal.  It's not as loud as it was and can be heard even with the engine off, it seems to be related to the pedal itself rather than the braking system now so we'll investigate that.

 

To celebrate all this good stuff, one of the gear linkages decided it didn't want to stay on the balljoint properly and has become irrepairable, so we have a replacement on order.  Oh, and we found the ball joint tool... in my brother's garage 100 miles away in Derbyshire.

 

le sigh.

[purplebargeken]

Ce est une voiture française , qu'attendez-vous? Or something like that. It's been a while. 

[vulgalour]

Pictures this time.  First of all, a picture of the clutch plate.  Changed it really as late as I could before damage happened, this is the flywheel side and while the flywheel was free of scores you can see with the single rivet that's started to go shiny that it wouldn't have taken much longer for it to start scoring.

 

On the pressure plate side the rivets were much more worn.

 

 

The brake pedal squelch described to me is much more of a spring-covered-in-oil sort of noise and barely audible, so I'm not worrying about that.  The suspension rises seemingly properly now, it's not 'jerky' but it goes rise-pause-rise-pause-rise until it gets to the correct height.  Even better, the front end sits higher now than it did without having to go past the proper setting.  Tyre pressures are a bit off and I've got some positive camber on the front which is most likely just due to the car being up in the air.  The car isn't filling with water even though it's sat outside in the rain, but it does feel a little damp.  I noticed that the skinny outer door seal that goes around where the window frame seals has deformed on the rear driver's side and on lifting it free, on lifting it off the rail it sits on I found it was absolutely full of mud and grime so I'm pulling the whole thing off, straightening it as best I can and then reseating it anew.

 

Overall, I'm much happier with how the car is now.  Even the front end comes up to the proper height, no longer having a saggy nose, as you can see in these rough pictures.

 

 

All feels like it's on the right path.  But it seems the number pad might be dying now as a couple of the numbers are pretty stubborn.  Going to have to see about replacing it I think.

[beko1987]

The xm rose like that on the front for a while after the first lhm change. I found being in low, then switch up high and lock to locking the steering wheel helped a bit. Standing on the brake worked well too, nothing moved, then I released the brake and the front shot right up, hopefully it blew a load of crap out of somewhere. Then 10 more citrobatics to make sure.

 

I probably used more fuel pissing about with the citrobatics than actually driving it...

[beko1987]

Put the code in, fire her up and unplug the pad to save it going fully when you least want it to maybe. Make sire the new pad just has the current car code on or if it needs to come with its own code maybe? Can see that being a world of pain to put right if it goes wrong...

[vulgalour]

I think the temporary fix is to disconnect it in all honesty, given this car's propensity to dish out the Having-a-Citroens at me.  I want to put a keypad with a better rubber button cover on in there anyway, I'm told the existing pad can be reprogrammed so I use the good buttons on it, it's only really two of the buttons that aren't behaving.

 

 

As an aside, we have an old Goblin cylinder vacuum up for grabs as a spares or repairs jobby if you'd be interested?  Not got a picture, but it's pale grey with red bits.  I think the motor has conked out on it, but I gather they can be rebuilt.  We don't need it as we have a Henry, we were going to chuck it on eBay and see what happens but I suspect it might be of more use to you than some total eBay random.

[beko1987]

Sounds like an early goblin rio, is it one like Ryan's here? Vintage 1988 Goblin Rio 1000:

 

I'd be happy to chuck you postage money and add it to the 'stuff that distracts me from doing anything to the zx' pile! I like the sound of the motor needing a rebuild! Any tools?

[vulgalour]

it's bigger than that one, has castors under the main body.  It's about as far around as a Henry but taller.

[beko1987]

Oooh a Multi system! If so then the motors probably not broken, they normally sound fucking loud! Go on then, I'll have it! May not be able to pony up for it until Friday the 12th though, gives you plenty of time to find a box anyway!

 

Goblin AquaVac Multisystem 3000:

[vulgalour]

That's the jobby.  I'll get a picture of it and find out what tools so we're extra sure it's the right one.  We can get it weighed and priced up in the meantime, won't take up too much space in a box.

[beko1987]

Many thanks! I can amuse* Amy by proclaiming Ive bought us a new vac for the hose, and the miele can be sold...

 

Tools will fit into the hose (if that makes sense), almost every other vacuum cleaner the hose goes into the tools apart from Goblin!

[vulgalour]

Right, well, today I made an attempt to fit the gear linkage for the Xantia and just ended up swearing, throwing hammers and freezing my hands off.  Sacked if off as being impossible in the dark and biting cold to attempt again on a warmer day.  In better news, none of the rain we've had has got into the car, it has magically fixed the leak it had.

[vulgalour]

Went for a belated MoT today, I was fully expecting a fail but to my surprise got a pass!  Not only that, advisories were really minimal:

 

1: Nearside rear brake fluctuating, but not excessivey

2: Rear registration plate deteriorated but not likely to be misread

3: Offside front Anti-roll bar linkage has slight play in a ball joint

4: Slight bind on rear brakes

 

 

There's nothing surprising there, I didn't get opportunity to sort out a new number plate and I know there's some issues with the rear brake calipers which we will look at, possibly slightly corroded pistons or similar.  The front end may well be the lower arm bushes I didn't get replaced but will so we'll continue going through all that.

 

Delightfully, just after loading the car with the fortnightly shop, the keypad decided to fail putting both lights on static.  We had meant to disconnect it before the MoT and completely forgot.  Mike and I were near the unit so we picked up tools and headed back to the car.  Disconnecting and reconnecting the battery didn't resolve the issue and after a while we were stumped so I called the AA.

 

While waiting I decided to pull the number pad panel out of the car and that, somehow, fixed it.  Quickly inserted the code and unplugged the pad and now the car starts fine every time.  Pretty satisfying day all round, but now I'm trying to figure out what to do about the keypad, I don't like just deleting it so I may just put it in and leave it disconnected for the sake of tidiness.

 

Next important jobs are to resolve the alarm so I can have the radio back and investigate those rear brakes.  I have stalled the car MANY times while trying to get used to the brand new clutch but other than that the car drives like an entirely different car, I'm very pleased.

[beko1987]

I'd leave it in but just disconnected, on my old zx there was a void behind it that looked gr9 for loosing stuff forever in!

[The Moog]

Excellent news on MOT. Means I can fix my central locking now 😊

[vulgalour]

With the keypad failing I believe that frees up two things that can be fixed on PSA vehicles.  First come first served!

[vulgalour]

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.

 

I have a list of items in the cabin I want to attend to.

- Steering wheel controls inoperable (I doubt I'll ever use these, first car I've had with them fitted)

- digital clock inoperable (bit of a nuisance, can live without it)

- immobiliser keypad inoperable (bypassed, so not an issue, but be nice to have it working)

- air conditioning weak, needs looking at (been like this since I got the car)

- blower fan inoperable

- blown dash and centre console bulbs (being a '97 car should mean I avoid the woe of solid-state cluster here and can just replace bulbs)

- lazy passenger door lock

- remote central locking inoperable (key fob issue, central locking still works fine)

- alarm won't reset (bypassed by pulling a fuse, but I'd quite like the radio back)

 

In addition, there's some mechanical bits and bobs to investigate and improve

- front tracking feels like it's toeing out ever so slightly

- front lower arm bushes to replace

- rear calipers to investigate and possibly replace

- cambelt to change (I think its' due in another 2000 or so miles, I'll double check the history folder)

 

There's also a bit of paint attention required here and there and a new rear number plate to sort.  It's all very doable over the course of the coming year.

[twosmoke300]

Watch those steering wheel controls . we had a xantia that used to go to Max volume if you so much as touched one of the buttons. Kept you on your toes that one .

[vulgalour]

These don't work at all.  Chompy had a look at them but couldn't resolve the issue.  I'm reckoning Because Citroen on this one.