1997 Citroen ZX Estate Derv Disco - the £99.93 Car

[dugong]

Curse the low price of scrap.

 

Linked on these very pages, I was the only bidder on the car, a 160k, Lucas-pumped Citroen ZX estate. It was listed as spares and repairs on eBay; the seller was happy it went for £100 as the local frag offered him £40.

 

 

There was a bit of work to do when I collected it - a tyre had blown and it was running on a mixture of 15 and 14 inch wheels. I had a set of Berlingo alloys anyway for use on the knob van(and its fussy offset). A matched pair of 14s was better than driving 130 miles home lob sided. The local scrapyards were useless at turning up alloy nuts - I ended up having to bite the bullet and spend £18 on a set from the nearest Citroen agent.

 

 

DE RIGEUR PETROL STATION SHOT. It needed a bulb on the way home. Other than the hashed brakes, whiffy interior and Ripspeed disco enhancements, it was fine, cruising at 80 mph all the way back.

 

 

 

Incidentally, here's what the audio extras look like, taking up about half of the load bay. They cut out about half an hour from the seller's house; if they still work they're getting hoiked out and eBayed. DERV DISCO. You get a sense of the ming from here - it was used as a work's hack and feels like it. Having filled Captain Slow's vac to the point of explosion, I went off an knackered a vac at the local Tesco for good measure. Scrubbing and interior removal will be the next port of call when I finally decide what to do with it.

 

I found 7p while vacumming and wiping everything down with 64p baby wipes. Anyone in Cambs got a steam vac? Of course, I knocked that off the purchase price, bringing me down to £99.93 for a car that sat in the outside lane of the M25 without complaint and did 45mpg loaded to the brim with wheels and tyres. Had it not been quite so gopping inside, I'd have put it to work straight away as a camera tracking car. In the end, I used work's Note.

 

 

It came with some appropriate limited edition decals as well. This fella survived the trip back to Cambridgeshire.

 

 

Pinstriping is probably the most unusual thing about the car, the gear knob resolutely plastic. It's painted on and will probably be scrubbed off, as it's the least suitable recipient for this sort of artwork. The seller was a interesting bloke, with a garden full of 'Fifties Vauxhalls. Had I had the time, I would have stayed and got pictures of his hoard.

 

 

KEYPAD_GATE occurred yesterday evening. Captain Slow came by in his own Citroen to discuss. His car is being an utter pain in the arse at the moment, which is about normal for a decently equipped XM. After resetting the 'pad, a few people suggested the starter might be sticking. CS brought the requisite toffee hammer; twatting the starter and tweaking the spade connector fired her straight up again.

 

 

Lucas pump, toffee hammer absent. APOLOGIES PLEASE.

 

It has a Morris Minor propshaft for an exhaust and big cone air filter. On boost it sounds like the truck from Duel. I suspect with a decent set of front tyres it would corner pretty well.

 

The MoT is short and there's a large hole in the outer sill. I'm going to practice my welding regardless of whether or not the fail sheet is huge. Depending on the list, it may get fixed up, or it may end up as a TD engine donor for the knob van, on secondment till January. I'd make use of the large Picasso steel wheels, sell the rest of the stereo kit off and go from there. It certainly doesn't owe me much.

 

I'm leaving the doors shuts well alone, whatever happens - especially with my sensitive pianist hands.

 

It's great to have a XUDT-engined car again.

[320touring]

White estates are for winnahs!

[dugong]

White estates are for winnahs!

Fuck! I need to sell it, then. I R MASSIVE l0SER.

[outlaw118]

 

 

I R MASSIVE l0SER

negative, there's a difference between loser and knobhead 

[Christine]

Bloke across the road got only £30 for his mums mint 35k golf 1600SE auto ,52 plate . went down a pothole and holed the sump and kept driving and it seized ..    I had the radio  out before it went yesterday ,

[dugong]

negative, there's a difference between loser and knobhead 

Entitled knobhead?

[beko1987]

Nice ZX M8!

[Jim Bell]

That's £100 very well spent. Fucking amazing what that amount of money can buy you these days.

 

Am I right in thinking that the keypad immobilisor is easy to remove? If so, WOOD!

 

You'd probably want a set of 5 1.6 205 gti alloy wheels and bolts for that.

[Bren]

A good workhorse IMHO if you do the work yourself.

 

A bit of rot on these is not unusual.

[dugong]

That's £100 very well spent. Fucking amazing what that amount of money can buy you these days.

 

Am I right in thinking that the keypad immobilisor is easy to remove? If so, WOOD!

 

You'd probably want a set of 5 1.6 205 gti alloy wheels and bolts for that.

I'd be interested in those Gutmanns you probably flogged on for a vast profit.

[Jim Bell]

I flogged them on, for an abysmally small margin. Think I made about a tenner and spent about the same on bubble wrap and packing tape.

 

I think they may have been haunted.

[dugong]

I flogged them on, for an abysmally small margin. Think I made about a tenner and spent about the same on bubble wrap and packing tape.

BALLS. I remember delivering those to you in person because I had nowt better to do at the time.

[rantingYoof]

On boost it sounds like the truck from Duel. I suspect with a decent set of front tyres it would corner pretty well.

 

Excellent. Just a few more tweaks and you'll have it sounding like the

.

 

[Cavcraft]

SICK OF HEARING ABOUT XUD ENGINED CARS AND CORSAS. THIS PLACE ISN'T WHAT IT WAS.

[wuvvum]

I very almost had a bid on this - then I won a shit Vectra so didn't.  Glad it's joined the fold.

[dugong]

SICK OF HEARING ABOUT XUD ENGINED CARS AND CORSAS. THIS PLACE ISN'T WHAT IT WAS.

 

STEP AWAY FROM THE IVECO KID

[warren t claim]

Can't you bypass the immobiliser by entering the code and then disconnecting the keypad?

[HMC]

Top buyage! Stunning value, mismatched wheels or not. Brilliant all rounders.

[Pillock]

 

 

THE IVECO KID

Worst. Superhero. Ever.

[dugong]

Top buyage! Stunning value, mismatched wheels or not. Brilliant all rounders.

I have a full set of 15" wheels and two (bald) 14" spares which came with it. It'll look quite smart* with the Picasso wheels on each corner.

 

SICK OF HEARING ABOUT XUD ENGINED CARS AND CORSAS. THIS PLACE ISN'T WHAT IT WAS.

There are too many, you're right.

[MrDuke]

Can't you bypass the immobiliser by entering the code and then disconnecting the keypad?

 

Yes.

 

Do NOT throw the keypad away though - if you disconnect/flatten the battery, you'll need to temporarily reconnect the keypad to get it started. It's paired with the immobiliser, which iirc can only be fully disabled by stripping and rebuilding the fuel pump.

[Lacquer Peel]

I removed the guarding and immobiliser on my Golf 1.9D with a chisel and a hammer. HTH. No stripping or rebuilding required.

[MrDuke]

Damn, if I'd known it was that easy     I used to see "immobiliser de-armoured" in for-sale ads and assumed it was rather a big deal.

[dugong]

I removed the guarding and immobiliser on my Golf 1.9D with a chisel and a hammer. HTH. No stripping or rebuilding required.

I imagined you feeding it into a tree shredder when your car 'failed to proceed'.

[garbaldy]

It doesn't realy nead a pump Bosch though as the Lucas pump goes pretty well anyway, they do decent mpg and can still be tuned.

 

Forgot to say good buy at that price.

[dugong]

You can chuck a Bosch pump on this, just grab a pump, injectors and lines from an older xud motor. You can then throw away the keypad ... Mine was d/c by my bro and mike but I have no clue how they did it as not an issue when battery is off and back on

Priorities, yo. Let me get the bugger welded and re-tyred, first.

[dugong]

I have an EXCITING weekend of motoring planned for this.......thing, including a half arsed SCRAPYARD SEARCH, purchasing NEW DEALER NUMBERPLATES, getting QUOTES ON NEW TYRES and WELDING.

[320touring]

I have an EXCITING weekend of motoring planned for this.......thing, including a half arsed SCRAPYARD SEARCH, purchasing NEW DEALER NUMBERPLATES, getting QUOTES ON NEW TYRES and WELDING.

I love how focused you are - welding and tyres ftw, nae time for pumpectomy but DMGDEELURPLATEZ!

 

too right:)

[trigger]

I need me a set of those DMB dealer plates for the Sierra but I'm struggling to find some Westwood & Clarks images to go by.

[dugong]

I love how focused you are - welding and tyres ftw, nae time for pumpectomy but DMGDEELURPLATEZ!

 

too right:)

Pump's fine. It pumps. Starter may be kippered, though.

 

I have an upper limit of how much I'm prepared to shovel into it - most of that's going to be on welding I suspect.

 

What's a reasonably tidy one worth on the open market?