Thunderbird 2

[DSdriver]

Thunderbird 2 is what we call the XM estate because it is a big green intergalactic load carrier.

It has been a constant source of wallet lightening since being purchased last winter so that I wouldn't have to use the Safari on salted roads when it turned cold. Fortunately it never did. 

The latest round of problems were a distinct lack of power and two LHM leaks, a minor one at the rear and a slightly more serious one from under the bonnet. It swallowed two litres of LHM just getting it to the garage.

In case you don't know about Citroen hydraulic systems, everything runs off the same bucket of green fluid so that if you get a catastrophic leak it takes the pressure from the suspension and the steering before abandoning the brakes which means with two bottles of fluid you can get it about twenty miles to a garage of your choice and you will still be able to stop when you get there - although the ride quality will be about the same as a modern car and the steering will need strong arm tactics.

Anyway I left the car with the workshop and buggered off to Frenchland for the weekend. The leak at the rear was a failed ram.(whatever that is). No new ones available this side of Switzerland so they stripped it down and bodged it back together with some sealant. Has anyone got a breaker that they can take one off? It needs to be an estate as they are much bigger than the saloon ones.

The big leak at the front was in part of the octopus, a wonderful Citroen concoction of eight interconnected hydraulic pipes which are apparently made of unobtanium. So they bodged that with parts of mine and parts of one from a saloon they are breaking.

Once they had got the haemorrhaging hydraulic fluid under control they were able to start on the power loss. First a new sensor was tried on the turbo which improved things slightly but the main fault was eventually found to be an internally collapsed silencer which had shat all its fibreglass stuffing and blocked the exhaust pipe. In excellent Autoshite manner, and because the car has two other silencers anyway, they just lobbed the offending article in a skip and replaced it with a length of plain pipe. The car sound slightly more sporty now.

I am just off to Gatwick in it to pick up son so wish me luck.

[mercrocker]

Yeah, I hope it goes well for you!    Strange how the winterbeaters we buy end up costing buckets  more than welding  up the salt damage on the good stuff....At least you have a decent workshop willing to sort stuff like that out, when I had  my GSA (still a current model) I tried to get a local  garage to get me going when the battery died.  "Nah mate we don't do Citroens..." came the grunt down the phone...Right, because they have funny batteries too?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Sounds like you've got a good garage there DS, resourceful!!!

[Micrashed]

Octopuses can be bought from placed like Pleiades though for real resourcefulness you can manufacture one yourself using a combination of 8mm  and 15mm copper heating pipe to create a manifold to attach the rubber pipes to.

 

Pipe diagram:

 

This is a "push fit" one made for a Xantia

 

I prefer copper fittings myself.

[dugong]

TERROR

[DSdriver]

Octopuses can be bought from placed like Pleiades though for real resourcefulness you can manufacture one yourself using a combination of 8mm  and 15mm copper heating pipe to create a manifold to attach the rubber pipes to...

(pictures deleted to reduce Dugong's stress)

 

...I prefer copper fittings myself.

That's brilliant, thanks for the info. Is the plastic Xantia stuff a kit or just a raid on the local plumbers merchant?

[Asimo]

^^^ Looks like standard industrial stuff for pneumatics etc. Search for SMC pneumatics. Widely available.  see WWW.rswww.com for instance or chat up an industrial maintenance guy for local supplier.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Wow that DIY octopus is sweet. Nice jorb!!!

[brickwall]

Respect!

[Micrashed]

The Xantia one pictured is indeed hydraulic fittings made by someone on AussieFrogs. I'll see if I can find a photo of the copper one made for my Xantia - you need to push the rubber pipes onto the 8mm copper pipe and secure with jubilee clips.

 

A more permanent fix would be to have something like this made up as a custom job:

 

The ram you refer to will likely be one of the steering rams. Whether its a boot thats gone or one of teh rubber ring seals I wouldnt like to say, though I would hazard the boot has failed. Its a right cnut of a job to replace as the rack has to come out to get a new boot on.

[DSdriver]

@Micrashed: Ram is on the o/s rear strut if that makes any sense.

@|Sorn me: I have an account with RS so that's handy for next time it goes pop.

 

Apart from a worrying stutter on the way home from the airport it has behaved itself. Perhaps it was just trying to tell me that that was the furthest it has ever been without breaking down