ZX 1.9td - Farewell faithfull steed!

[beko1987]

Parts collectioning happening tomorrow!

[oldcars]

wow thats a good price for the paint! will that be enough for the wing?

Not sure. I have a can that has been used for a few bits not as big as a wing. The rattle can king AKA trigger should know i would guess.

[beko1987]

Just got back from the white breaker ZX. The chap bought it for the engine, he has a Citroen Relay that cracked it's head. Only 3 miles away as well!

 

I spent £35 on:

 

Wing

Rear passenger light cluster (he chucked everything in, not just the lens)

Rear wiper motor with arm and retaining nut

Accelerator cable

fusebox (he had to remove it to get the accelerator cable out, which is a bit worrying as I need to fit the bloody cable now...)

spare wheel, as it doesn't look like it's been under the sea like mine, and has a tyre from this millenium on it

Both parts of the arch liner with lots of clips

 

Was sorely tempted to ask for the exhaust as it was a TD, but the engine end of it looked rusty as fook, and I don't want it to fail in 6 months and put me back to the start, so will still buy a new one. Wheel hubs were thought of too, but I presume I would need to get new bearings fitted, and after we went into detail about that earlier, I CBA with that! He says he's gonna keep it for a few more weeks then cube it, so I have a bit of time to think of anything else I could need. The interior is different, so no point asking about any of that, there's no engine, front and rear bumper is missing etc. Apparently people have asked for parts, but want them posted, which he called a ballache. He seemed quite clad that I turned up on time, loaded the car, handed over folding and shook his hand afterwards!

 

He only had 3 of 4 wheel trims though, I did ask but I want a full set, and one was broken anyway.

 

One step forward!

[Lord Sterling]

Just got back from the white breaker ZX. The chap bought it for the engine, he has a Citroen Relay that cracked it's head. Only 3 miles away as well!

 

I spent £35 on:

 

Wing

Rear passenger light cluster (he chucked everything in, not just the lens)

Rear wiper motor with arm and retaining nut

Accelerator cable

fusebox (he had to remove it to get the accelerator cable out, which is a bit worrying as I need to fit the bloody cable now...)

spare wheel, as it doesn't look like it's been under the sea like mine, and has a tyre from this millenium on it

Both parts of the arch liner with lots of clips

Bargain, trust me, one you get the ZX tidied up you'll love it even more! That's how I felt after I tidied up the KV6 Sterling when I first got it.

[beko1987]

Your words inspired me on Sunday Mo! Add the luck of finding a breaker within spitting distance and it must be a sign!

 

I think that's the problem, it's been rattly, dirty and dented for ages now, I only ever drive it to work and back and I was getting a bit disheartened with it all really.

 

Once the exhaust is fixed so the cabin doesn't drone and rattle so much it'll be much better! I'm hoping the accelerator cable will make things a bit nicer too, there's so much slop in the current cable there's only just over 1/4 of the pedal travel left!

 

Might even tip some more veg in it tonight!

[Lord Sterling]

Your words inspired me on Sunday Mo! Add the luck of finding a breaker within spitting distance and it must be a sign!

 

I think that's the problem, it's been rattly, dirty and dented for ages now, I only ever drive it to work and back and I was getting a bit disheartened with it all really.

I know exactly where you are coming from. I felt like that at times with some of the Sterlings I've had, but you persevere. As someone said; better the devil you know, I could out and buy a very tidy KV6 Sterling only for it to blow a head gasket or snap a cam belt rendering the thing as scrap whereas my current KV6 is a bit untidy in places but I know what it needs and what can wait for a bit. Plus it's been a faithful old tub rarely ever failing and even featured in Classic Car Weekly. I won't just scrap it because it's old and rusty.

[beko1987]

Well there's still a chance the rear beam could crap itself, or the engine eat itself, or the suspension dies, but I've put so many parts on the thing already that I may as well carry on, then if it does terminally break just buy a tired, down on it's luck ZX 1.9td, book a few days off work and have a major parts swapping session!

 

In for a penny etc

 

Plus I want it to see 300k! 15,343 miles to go (or something, it'll tick over to 285k by next week!)

[oldcars]

I think come June/July this will be the cleanest looking zx about.

[beko1987]

Hopefully! Not going near it with 2 buckets until it's had some spannering though. Not treating it the same way I did the Puma, with paintwork you could eat your dinner off, but hanging in every other possible way!

 

Plus I'm quite liking running it about filthy, it's winter after all! I do clean the lights every so often though...

[conkerman]

Droning noise.

 

Is it louder when cornering one way or the other?? If so, the outer bearing is your suspect.

 

Other contender is tyres, feel across the treads for any odd wear, Odd tyre wear can cause a noise JUST like a failing bearing, especially if the tyre has been around for a while!

[beko1987]

Nope, no change in noise with the steering. With the clutch depressed at speed the noise is still there.

 

The tyres are all under 8 months old, although the fronts are just starting to wear unevenly (inside edge on the passenger side, not sure about the drivers side as I haven't had that off in a while, looks ok when on the car though), I need to get the tracking done.

 

It's a thought though, I'll get the tracking done on payday and swap the rears (no wear at all, which must be a good sign for the rear beam) onto the front and see if it helps at all. It sounds like it's coming from the passenger side, but I'm crap at figuring out where noises are coming from. When the drop links were fucked and it clonked its arse off I was convinced it was coming from the rear. Re-bushed the axle and everything, and it went the day I changed the drop links, lower bearings and track rod ends on the front (all were loose and fucked, so was worth doing anyway, but the drop links especially so).

 

Plan of action so far is to fix the arch liner and get it secure incase it's being moved at speed and causing the air to whip round/catch and vibrate slightly on something, then the exhaust incase it's changed the way it vibrates on the transmission tunnel and causing the noise.

 

If those 2 things don't fix it, I'll have another ponder.

[conkerman]

^{Good plan.}

 

^{Get the tyre fitters to check them for cupping. Root cause of this is often shagged dampers. You just feel around the tyre and look for lumpiness and the general shape of the edge of the tread blocks.}

 

^{Have a look here and lots of info on google.}

^{http://www.halfordsautocentres.com/advice/tyres-advice/abnormal-tyre-wear}

^{http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/how-to/g810/10-things-your-tires-can-tell-you-about-your-car/}

 

^{If the noise is unrelated to cornering I reckon the tyres are the culprit.}

[Arthur Foxhake]

I think I have some hubs here, without grumble noises.

You know where I am and are welcome to them for a couple of cans of amber nectar.

[beko1987]

oooh thanks Danny, may take you up on that! Can they be fitted without special yools etc?

 

Even if its not the bearings, itll be worth it to have non cross threaded wheel bolt holes!

[D Spares & Tyres]

Sorry still haven't looked for the parts you asked for!

 

I'm quite busy at the moment and all the ZX bits are in a barn 10 miles away. But in the opposite direction to where I work so keep forgetting to go there.

 

Quick way to test wheel bearing, jack up each wheen and rotate. You will soon notice which is at fault, it will be noiser and feel rougher than the rest

[beko1987]

No worries Tom, I have enough to keep me busy for now!

 

I want to get her jacked up to check all the bushes and joints, so will play with the wheel rotation.

 

I went to Benson after work, which involved a and b roads that I know very well, so could put my foot down a bit. Mainly Marlow to Henley, which I used to do stupid speeds in in the 206 and Puma. Under 40, no noise. 40 to 50, slight noise, 50+, noise, which got louder until cough90cough when the little bit of dual carriageway by nettlebed ended, which increases and decreases with speed. I hope its just the exhaust or something similar, if it gets no worse Ill leave it until the exhaust is changed. The steering is also odd. left is ok, right feels harder/stiffer, its weird. Sometimes left and right was stiff, but usually just right...

 

I will try to get it up on stands, take the wheels off and fire her up and lock to lock and see if the stiffness is still there.

 

I checked the tyre pressures on sunday morning, and they were all differenr (it has been months since I last checked though). Now all even, and 3psi higher than the sticker in the door shut says, which has helped a tad with sidewall softness.

 

Its very strange! Its not the power steering pump about to shit itself is it?

[robinmasters]

I then took the glovebox out, which enabled me to cable tie the massive nest of wires up out of the way so they dont keep falling into the footwell

 

IMAG0782.jpg

They all do that Sir.

[Arthur Foxhake]

 

oooh thanks Danny, may take you up on that! Can they be fitted without special yools etc?

 

Yeah, a few spanners and a gert big hammer usually.

[beko1987]

I grabbed 15 minutes before leaving for work this morning to fit the rear wiper motor and light lens. That job went well, I spluzzed some plusgas into the wiper spindle and it's so much faster than the old motor was, which is good! The lens is cracked though sadly (in the same place I broke the old one) but it hasn't got a hole in so meh, it's better.

 

It rewarded me for this however, I shut the rear drivers side door (to test the boot lock after putting it all back together) and now it won't open. It locks and unlocks, and the handle doesn't feel floppy but no open comprende. Had to remove my toolbox (that was open and I was using from the rear seat) via the other door. K THX DOOR.

 

It was also a full on twat to start at -3 (I did put 20l of veg in the other day). Full on lumpy idle, died twice immediately after starting. Moving the accelerator cable out 1 notch and keeping the revs high for a minute sorted it, and I left it chugging away for 15 mins whilst I did the windows and got Eva ready for school and it settled down. It is much worse to start now though, before the 'issues' it fired up 2nd turn of the starter, now it takes a good 15-20 seconds of churning before it catches

 

But I can SEE OUT OF THE REAR WINDOW which is gr43 for reverse parking with the sun behind me!

[conkerman]

I would reduce/cut the veg until the weather gets a bit warmer The ZX fuel system may feel the cold quite badly and life's too short

[beko1987]

Well, the sun came out this morning, so I popped out to have a look at the wing and arch liner.

 

Old one came off easily, and after a bit of hammering to the mount for the wing which got a bit bent it seems, the new one went on a treat

 

 

Panel gaps that would make a new car proud

 

 

The trim almost lines up...

 

 

Looks a bit pikey, but sod it, it fits!

 

The new arch liner went back in much better too, now it can be held in with the wing as it should

 

 

 

Only had to use one cable tie too to bring the bottom of the front bumper in to meet the arch liner, the clip that sits down there is broken and missing, I removed the remains of it whilst there.

 

Even better, I fitted the bolt that's been missing since I got it, which brings the front of the wing vaguely in line with the indicator

 

 

We shall see tomorrow if that helps.

 

Other stuff I did that I didnt take any pictures of include:

 

Noticing that with one hub straight, the other side isn't... must get the tracking done on payday, this might be part of the drone I have, and why the inner of the tyres are wearing faster than the rest

 

One of the aux pulleys is greasy! With the wheels off and the car up on stands, the steering is light as anything. I sprayed some carb cleaner on the pulley to try and get rid of the grease, and did some more with the car running and the brief drive up the road I did does indicate lighter steering. May pop a new aux belt on soon, and clean all the pulleys up with it off. I'm hoping I just dribbled some power steering fluid down there by accident, rather than something leaking onto the pulley, but I can keep an eye on that.

 

The front passenger brake disk is warped I think. Spinning the wheel by hand, it just slightly chafes on something every revolution. Again, could explain the drone at speed. New front discs and pads may/should dial that out hopefully.

 

Rear and front footwell are wet again, wet vac fitted in the boot, will do that at mums one lunchtime in the week, CBA with that now!

 

All in all, a productive day!

[beko1987]

I would reduce/cut the veg until the weather gets a bit warmer The ZX fuel system may feel the cold quite badly and life's too short

I think I need to, it is a pig to start, and runs very lumpily for a bit without some revs for a while. Ok once warm though.

 

I'll need some fuel in the week, Ill put derv in

[beko1987]

Well, this morning was the morning I went to get some deisel! Meant to over the weekend but forgot, so at 6.15am, at -3, I attempted to start her! After mucho cranking, she settled down into al umpy idle, so I made the neighbors jelous by holding her at 1500rpm whilst I made a rolly. She died halfwy to asda, luckily just by a bus stop so I stopped there, then did the very tricky over 3k revs drive to the fuel station, apologies to the bus I cut up...

 

Only tool 30l of derv so there must have been more veg in there than it says, bloody french bastard. Gave it a spanking down the m40 and she seems much better! Will run this down and brim her on payday and run that through. the 60l of veg I have left can wait until the spring!

 

TL:DR - Too cold for high veg content! Whoops!

[The Moog]

I turned my idle up at Mr Cabbages suggestion yesterday and it made huge difference to starting. Plus got 10% pez in there at moment

[beko1987]

I need to reset my idle when I've fitted the new accelerator cable. Might bring some tools to sf and see if anyone can tune her whilst I feed them beer...

[320touring]

that should be a rate laugh;)

[beko1987]

MOAR BOOST *drink drink drink*... MOOOOAR BOOST *drink drink drink*

[oldcars]

Nice work on the wing. Reliant was a nightmare today with cutting out, wonder if i put veg in by mistake 

[Lacquer Peel]

Beko, I take it you're aware of these links for tuning a Bosch-pumped XUD.

 

Our Peugeot Diesel - Part 1 - The Exhaust

Our Peugeot Diesel - Part 2 - The Intake

Our Peugeot Diesel - Part 3 - Fuelling Adjustment

Our Peugeot Diesel - Part 4 - Boost and the Injection System

Our Peugeot Diesel - Part 5 - Final Tuning of the Injection System

 

The turbo is an arse to get to, but the bits you can do with the injection pump are easy and make the car nicer to drive.

 

Also, it's never too cold for vegetable oil - I ran my 405 TD estate on a veg/petrol mix in the winter of 2009/2010 where temperatures were below -20C.

[forddeliveryboy]

I've seen diesel starting to wax up when veg oil hasn't - albeit a bit slow to pour. That's why you add petrol, even better if you're in Norway it's legal to add paraffin which adds power rather than subtracts.