Estate(s) of the nation - British tourer purchased 05-12-24 - See page 34

[mat_the_cat]

It does look to be a newish battery to be fair. Just looked on the GSF website and it appears to be this one https://www.gsfcarparts.com/971na0370

 

£189! Is that really how much car batteries cost nowadays?

 

Tayna batteries are fairly close to me, but also do mail order. Their prices, even with delivery seem to be very good! Pick your brand/warranty:

 

https://www.tayna.co.uk/027-Car-Batteries-G12.html

[Heidel_Kakao]

I took petrol XM to get the new stainless cat back exhaust fitted this morning. The work was done at my local Powerflow centre in Kingswinford and cost £240 which is pretty reasonable IMO, it should outlast the rest of the car at any rate.

http://www.tyresandexhausts.com/powerflow-exhausts

Here is the old exhaust prior to removal, note how non rusty my car appears to be

It really did need changing, I am still surprised that it passed the MOT like this to be honest.

Work in progress

I got chatting to the old guy who owned this C5 estate that was in for tracking. He has owned Citroens for 40 odd years of his life so that was cool.

Shiny, Shiny

 

Initial impressions are good, it sounds a bit more burbly and rorty at idle and low down the rev range but it gets quieter at speed. I have only had it up to 60 so far but it should be fine at proper motorway speeds. Most importantly the bloody annoying rattle under load has been eliminated.

 

I tootled over to the Railway Café at Wombourne afterwards to get myself some breakfast which was yummy.

http://therailwaycafe.vpweb.co.uk/

 

Diesel XM is due to be collected this evening, the seller is picking me up at Bedford station at 19:15 and then it will be an easy two hour drive home. I will try and get a pez station shot as is required.

[Six-cylinder]

 

Diesel XM is due to be collected this evening, the seller is picking me up at Bedford station at 19:15 and then it will be an easy two hour drive home. I will try and get a pez station shot as is required.

 

OK I missed this last entry on page 6, fantastic!

[Heidel_Kakao]

OK I missed this last entry on page 6, fantastic!

It's your fault! I am tempted to start an XM collection to rival your Visa one and have all the variants. Only kidding though if I had the space to put them all somewhere it would be fun.

[Heidel_Kakao]

 

Kettering has been reached. It drives really well! Only issue so far was me foolishly opening the sunroof to find it then wouldn't close. Luckily in the boot full of spares I found a different switch and swapped them over, so it's already been made better on the collection journey.

 

It's got the factory CD changer which still has some Jeeves and Wooster audio books in so bonus!

 

Going to crack on for home so await a fuller report.

[MrDuke]

^ Was Stephen King already in the back seat when you collected it, or did he just bum a lift from Tesco?

[beko1987]

Orsum!

[hairnet]

^ Was Stephen King already in the back seat when you collected it, or did he just bum a lift from Tesco?

john major innit?

[Heidel_Kakao]

Back home now and relaxing with a pint of Mrs 6 Cylinders home made cider

I am very impressed with my new XM. It's done 226,000 miles compared to the petrol ones 141,000 but it doesn't seem to show the extra milage. The engine seems almost refined compared to what I was expecting, measured against a 300TDI Discovery which I have driven before it was way less tractory. It was sitting at 3000RPM at 90MPH and engine noise was not much worse than the petrol. Gearbox and clutch seem fine and it rides as well as my other one so the suspension and stuff seems ok too.

This warning light came on briefly but the seller had told me in advance that it sometimes did and the temp gauge stayed right in the middle so I felt comfortable ignoring it. I think it had enough fuel in it to get me home but I chucked £20 in (I remembered to feed it the correct fuel) for peace of mind and so I could take the pez station photo. My train ticket was £14 so a pretty cheap and easy collection.

Looking forward to having a proper look over it tomorrow in daylight and going through the spares it came with, also you know I have to get a shot of them both together. If this goes through another MOT without too much effort it is going to make a nice car for someone. I almost want to keep both of them for myself lol.

[RobT]

Two green XM estates. U iZ nUTZ!

 

The pez one looks reassuringly solid underneath, and that stainless system was pretty reasonable. I remember years ago when stainless cost loads.

[Heidel_Kakao]

Two green XM estates. U iZ nUTZ!

The pez one looks reassuringly solid underneath, and that stainless system was pretty reasonable. I remember years ago when stainless cost loads.

Yeah when you consider the cost of stainless against mild steel and the fact it is guaranteed for as long as I own the vehicle it seems almost a no brainer.

[CreepingJesus]

I should've gone that route for the 765s MOT last month: the mild steel system I ended up getting was £220 and took a couple of days to get up here and fitted.

Mind you, I was tempted to do what Dome did with his Merc diesel estate, and make one up out of Jetex parts. The OM606 engine sounded very nice through a straightish pipe...!

[DSdriver]

Stainless exhausts always sound a bit sportier because they are made of thinner gauge steel.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Now all you need to do is fit a stainless system to the diesel as well, to enhance that XUD growl.

[beko1987]

To save taxing and insuring your new car, couldn't you sorn it and just swap the plates over? Would be free motoring until you get rid of the petrol one...

 

Id imagine no one would ever know

[Heidel_Kakao]

To save taxing and insuring your new car, couldn't you sorn it and just swap the plates over? Would be free motoring until you get rid of the petrol one...

 

Id imagine no one would ever know

That thought did cross my mind lol. Like you say no would ever know unless you had an accident and they inspected the VIN numbers etc. If I actually did it I would probably have just incriminated myself by posting it on the interwebs

[beko1987]

Just don't crash, simples! When Richie collected the xantia I did think he could just bring the plates from his identical white estate, but his trip involved alot of m25 so thought the risk not as worth it

[Heidel_Kakao]

Don't they look nice together?

Just in case you thought the Subaru had vanished I got all three of my current estates together briefly for one shot. This closed pub has been great for dumping cars at and it's like 20 metres from my house. I hope it never re-opens!

The boot full of spares diesel XM came with. I have put most of it up in the loft and will probably never need to use any of it.

Highlight of the spares was this grille as I can now restore the shiny to Pez XM's nose. I took the Jeeves and Wooster out of the CD changer as I have read the book already before. There was also a steering wheel in better condition than Pez XM's and some other useful stuff.

Derv XM is much rustier than Pez XM

I could take the towbar off Derv XM but I think I will leave it on the car. I never tow stuff anyway.

Lots of writing in the engine bay marking when various items have been changed

Never seen someone do this before. Magnets stuck to oil filter I assume to trap metal particles.

[beko1987]

Writing in the engine bay is the best form of service history I feel. Someone even went to the trouble in the xantia of many shiters to write some of it using a soldering iron on a plastic cover!

[Heidel_Kakao]

 

I clayed a vehicle for the very first time in my life today! Pez XM got the honour of being my first. In this picture I have only done half the bonnet but I am not sure if you can tell which side. Also Pez XM has a shiny nose again

 

 

I found a couple of Autoshite stickers while tidying the garage and I feel Pez XM has earned one.

[beko1987]

Excellent! How did you find the clay? Did it all go brown very quickly after half a panel?

[DSdriver]

I've never tried using clay on a car before, I've been tempted to use claymores at times. The pezzer XM was debadged by local scrotes.

Excellent that there was a spare steering wheel with the parts you acquired. What are the front wings like on the dizzler? The offside wing was giffered when I got the car and the nearside was hit by a van while parked at Chatham Marina and then I hit a tree stump with it reversing up my sister's driveway which is long, narrow and has a dogleg for added fun.

I hope your narrow-gauge racehorses appreciate how you are working hard to enable them to travel in style.

[Heidel_Kakao]

Excellent! How did you find the clay? Did it all go brown very quickly after half a panel?

Yeah it went brown pretty quickly, I was amazed by how smooth the paint felt afterwards, I used regular clay initially as recommended by the website but I also have a soft bar to go over it again with.

 

I've never tried using clay on a car before, I've been tempted to use claymores at times. The pezzer XM was debadged by local scrotes.

Excellent that there was a spare steering wheel with the parts you acquired. What are the front wings like on the dizzler? The offside wing was giffered when I got the car and the nearside was hit by a van while parked at Chatham Marina and then I hit a tree stump with it reversing up my sister's driveway which is long, narrow and has a dogleg for added fun.

I hope your narrow-gauge racehorses appreciate how you are working hard to enable them to travel in style.

I found badges to replace the missing ones on the boot but I have gotten used to the debadged look now so may leave those off.

 

Wings on the dizzler are straighter but also rustier so probably worse overall.

 

The spare steering wheel I think is leather so it should be an upgrade, hopefully going to fit it next week. I also need to swap the wing mirrors over from Pez to Dizzler.

[beko1987]

That's good then, that's all the contaminants that you would never get off with hand polishing alone!

 

Hard clay is always recommended for the first time. When you do your post winter detail get a tub of mild (blue box) and that should do the trick! Did you clay the glass too?

[DSdriver]

 Did you clay the glass too?

 

I think the windscreen is beyond redemption. Worth seeing what your local windscreen centre can do for cash.

[Heidel_Kakao]

Did you clay the glass too?

I didn't think to do the glass but will do it now, I could even do the inside of the glass I suppose?

I think the windscreen is beyond redemption. Worth seeing what your local windscreen centre can do for cash.

I assume you mean the delamination? I'm not going to worry about that until it becomes bad enough to fail an MOT by which point it will probably be someone else's problem. It is a bit unsightly though.

[DSdriver]

I presume you haven't tried driving at night or into the evening sun yet. 

[chodweaver]

Further to our real life conversation about the shininess of your XM's green paintwork, I was forgetting that I have a DA sander I bought off Dean_numbers some time ago. If you want a second crack at the paintwork with it, you're welcome to borrow it.

[Heidel_Kakao]

Further to our real life conversation about the shininess of your XM's green paintwork, I was forgetting that I have a DA sander I bought off Dean_numbers some time ago. If you want a second crack at the paintwork with it, you're welcome to borrow it.

Thanks for the offer. Now that it is as clean as I can make it the next stage probably is some kind of polishing action to see how many scratches and swirls I can remove.

[chodweaver]

Let me know roughly when you think you will want the DA and I'll see about getting it to you.