ZX 1.9td - Farewell faithfull steed!

[oldcars]

Looks like you have the first electric ZX

[Rusty_Rocket]

Good work Bek, I only say to check the sills as on the 106/ 306 I've had trouble with them filling up with water, and subsequently flooding the footwells on one side!  I've never managed to find a drain hole; there's supposed to be slits on the sill seam but I've never found them!

The cure is to drill a hole at the lowest point

[beko1987]

Will investigate with some drilling then! I found a bung that seemed to go into the sill and it seemed dry, could not be the sill at all though!

 

Dehumidifier stayed bone dry after 4 hours so sacked that off and bought it in. If I'm home early again tomorrow I may get the pressure washer out and give it a good soaking to see what happens!

[mat_the_cat]

With the door rubbers, if they are to blame it may not just be between the seal and door - I've known water to enter the U section of the seal (which fits over the metal lip) at the top, tracking round internally and exiting above the sill at the bottom.

[beko1987]

Cheers for the tip. I feel the pressure washer will come out tomorrow, hopefully it wont flood the road and freeze up...

 

It's amazing how useless a car without an interior becomes I've noticed! No cubby holes, cant put stuff on the seats, or the floor as it'll roll around everywhere! Much colder too!

[twosmoke300]

Another thing to check is to put a hose over it while you sit inside and check for water .

leaking door membranes and door speakers can cause problems with water in the cabin

[beko1987]

Well, I tried the hose yesterday, but no luck as it was full of frozen water. So I tried 2 more watering cans of water and still nothing.

 

So tonight I started putting it back together!

 

 

Emptied it out and grabbed crap henry to vac the shell out

 

 

Noticed the underside of the foam stuff under the rear bench was wet too, so whipped it out

 

 

Hung it on the line for now, will pop it in the airing cupboard later. Maybe I just suffer srom severe condensation?

 

 

Dry underlay refitted

 

 

 

The bit of sopping wet bulkhead stuff went back in that I cut out

 

 

 

The box of electrics seemed to have avoided the water

 

This plug has been wet but everything seems to work, so left it alone

 

 

Carpet went back in, and I put the various seatbelts and bits of trim back together

 

 

 

 

The carpet got a thorough hoover. I started putting the centre console bits back in, then it got too dark to carry on. Not at work until Monday now, so will carry on tomorrow! Had a major panic when I couldn't find 2 of the passenger seat bolts, until I found them still in the seat runners.

 

Fuck it, if it fills with water again it can bastard well stay wet. Will have a good poke about when its up on the ramp for the mot, see if I can spot a hole or missing bung or something.

[twosmoke300]

I have had a zx in a similar state of stripped out but because I had a 5l can of waste oil in the boot which the lid came off when it fell over . what a mess

[twosmoke300]

Also with it being wet under the rear seat I reckon the rear doors could be the culprit. Was the spare wheel well wet ?

[beko1987]

It has no spare wheel well, it's underslung. The rest of the boot isnt wet though, but tomorrow I'll take the hatch seal off, give it a wipe down and re-fit it. I did this to all the door seals too btw, incase it helped!

 

5l of oil, fuck me I bet that's fun to clear up...

[twosmoke300]

I should have known that the spare was underneath seeing as I had one for 3 years . mind you it is a memory I tried to blot out.

The oil was a nightmare . it went down into the floor and made it into the front footwells and was running out of the sills. I removed all the carpets , threw away the sound deadening and replaced with old underlay. The carpet I kept hot jetwashing with degreaser in my lunch times , took weeks .

[twosmoke300]

Also sometimes water will leak in through the door membrane and run over the sill covers .

[beko1987]

Door membranes are a good shout, they have been fucked about with before, it had 2 new doors after a smash years ago apparently, and the seals don't touch the glass, as it doesn't clear any condensation when I lower them.

 

I hate taking door cards off though! Would mean I can grease the passenger window up though I suppose. Really shouldn't be getting distracted with the interior though, when the front suspension needs work and the rear tyres and brakes need replacing...

[twosmoke300]

Check the speakers too , some cars have a flap of plastic on the back of the speaker to divert water . if these are missing or damaged it leaks in through the speaker. And check the drains in the doors are clear

[beko1987]

We haz MOT pass!

 

Squeaked through the emissions, was told there may be a hole or something in a turbo pipe, need to look at that, any ideas? Doesn't seem too down on power although it's not being as economical lately

 

Rear tyres are old and crap - fair enough

 

Front drivers side bottom ball joint has play - may explain the knocking, will change both sides

 

and that was it! Having a good look underneath whilst it was up in the air reveals no rust, no massive dents or battle scars either.

 

So, the plan is to get the 2 remaining new wheels shod and fitted

bottom ball joints replaced (and have a good look around and see what else needs doing)

get the tracking done

find this leaky pipe

good oil and filter change

maybe chuck a bottle of engine cleaner through and give it a good spank to clean everything out

New rear discs and pads (already have the discs) and service the calipers, the brake test revealed slight drag from the rear passenger side, although it free span fine up on the lift.

 

There's a tiny hole in the rear box joint too, which is fine, however the rear box is welded (messily) onto the centre section, so when the weather warms up a bit I'll put a new centre and backbox on

 

Then, once all that is done I may get a new wing...

 

Still, a pass is a pass, not bad since I've done nothing bar fix the damage and drive it since buying it!

[320touring]

Congratulations!

[Bren]

Good news.

[Grundig]

A MOT pass is always a good morale booster & should be celebrated - well done 

[beko1987]

It is nice. Was putting off minor fettling until this, so now its passed I can crack on. The bastard meriva has seen too much time and money last year, its my cars turn now!

 

Saw this in the mot place too!

 

 

 

Anyone know about this potential pipe issue, or should I just take the radiator thing off the top and check each hose? Would it be blatent?

[UltraWomble]

We haz MOT pass!

 

Front drivers side bottom ball joint has play - may explain the knocking, will change both sides

 

 

Ball joints and drop links are almost service items these days, the quality of aftermarket ones is dire compared with the OE ones ( as are driveshafts) the good news is they are easy peasy to change. Sometimes.

[beko1987]

I thought about that on the way home, I'm not going to find any OE ones now, what make do people trust?

 

Was also thinking if I should buy anything else to replace whilst down there, but again don't know what there is tbh, do I get new track rod ends too since they will be half off etc?

[oldcars]

Mot pass day, my reliant did too

Still runs like shite tho 

[beko1987]

Congrats to you too!

 

Mine felt a bit better afterwards, although I imagine it was just the placebo effect, and that I was rushing to get to KFC for a celebratory lunch then back to the office, where I took great delight in announcing to all that my "old crap car" flew through its MOT with only 3 advisories, and asked Steffi (who took the piss out of me a few months ago, then had to shell out I think £600 on her Suzuki Swift) how much dod she spend again???

 

Anyway, ball joints.

 

There's no NOS stuff on ebay (obv), so do I go for:

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281131123293?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I'm worried that all the magic smoke will escape though

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271225366064?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

These Moog Approved ones?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/191409478726?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Comline?

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/130610946563?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

or a step into the unknown?

 

Any of them better or worse than the others?

 

Also, whilst its apart, anything else I should pro-actively replace? 

[twosmoke300]

Febi stuff seems pretty good and is the same company that makes bilstein shocks

[UltraWomble]

I have a GSF sourced wishbone & lower ball joint on the van - its done 30K miles so far which is twice what the OE one did before going "clonk" a lot

 

http://www.gsfcarparts.com/424pc0100

 

wankered one I removed.

 

That said the OS one is original still and has no play. Go figure.

Edited January 15, 2015 by UltraWomble

[320touring]

I'm just gonna drop this here..

http://www.gumtree.com/p/cars-vans-motorbikes/citroen-zx-advantage/1096868479

[UltraWomble]

Thats bloody lovely, middle of the range being the Avantage, and a superb colour.

But its in naffing Scotlandshire.

 

No PAS though = heavy to park

[320touring]

Thats bloody lovely, middle of the range being the Avantage, and a superb colour.

But its in naffing Scotlandshire.

320TOURING DELIVERY AVAILABLE

[beko1987]

After breaking the bulb holder behind the clock, I bought a clock/temp guage/volt meter thing from ebay about a month ago. It arrived today!

 

Popepd out for a rolly earlier and lashed it up on the dashboard quickly

 

 

Runs off the fag lighter for now, will fit it properly and hard wire it to either the feed for the old car kit (if i can find it) or off the switched live from the head unit

 

 

Outside sensor dropped behind the wing for now with the cable trapped in the door rubber, will run it out to somewhere either in the engine bay or just keep it behind the wing at some point

 

 

Goes orange too, but that doesnt match the rest of the interior lights!

 

 

I'm chuffed so far with my £7 toy! Beats trying to find a new bulb holder for the crap clock anyway! Cant remove the clock though as about 76 wires go into it, think it holds part of the immobiliser/alarm which has no chance of me fucking about with it!

[beko1987]

Well the new clock has been satu in the cubbyhole as it falls off the dash if I even thought about going round a corner, so I nipped out just now and fitted it properly!

 

Radio out

 

 

Thanks to Pillock and Dave, I used my new found multimeterz skills to find the switched live, chopped the fag lighter plug off the end of the cable, trapped the wires inbetween the bullet connectors and gave it a test

 

7

 

This worked very well, the clock has a battery in it anyway so it keeps the time when off, and I didnt want it permantly connected and lit up. I almost re-crimped soem connectors onto the wiring to include the clock cable, but the wires were so thin on the cable, that they slid nicely inbetween the connectors, so I elected to leave them as that, and taped the connectors up just to be sure

 

 

Then I popped the now broken clock out of the dash, and fed the power wire up through it. Once done, I took off the drivers side a pillar trim and fed the outside temp sensor wire through under the dash and out of the hole too. Gave the dash a wipe over with a babywipe and stuck the clock to it using the sticky pad provided. Neatly pushed the broken clock back in, and made it look tidy

 

 

Doen in the engine bay, I cleared a path through the years of underseal and other rust protection/dirt so the temp sensor would stick properly

 

 

fed the cable under the door seal, around under the wing, tucked it behind the power steering fluid tank. Did think about finding a proper way into the engine bay but tbh couldn't be bothered, the cable's so small and floppy it would get caught up in the bulkhead

 

 

Job jobbed! On and off with the ignition. Infiantly cheaper and more cool than just getting a new bulb holder for the original clock!

 

 

I then had a look at the intermittant washer jets, and after fitting another new pair I got from ebay, deduced that it's the pump that's knackered, not the jets. It works, but one has to pump the stalk to spray, it wont work if I just pull it. Elected to leave it alone for now, as I think it's been killed by me trying to use it when it's iced up, which I'm sure will happen again. Will replace it in the summer. Does the rear washer work off a seperate pump? as it work fine. I could swap the feeds over to the motors so the rear one does the front but by the time I've got the wing off to get access I may as well bloody replace the whole thing and be done with it!