Zel's Motoring Adventures...Volvo, Renault, Rover, Trabant, Invacar & A Sinclair C5 - Updated 13/11.

[Fumbler]

Ah, I see your point. Given that I'm lookiong at a dedicated store that gets parts from the IzhAvto factory that still makes 2107s and I think 2104s, and also they have a lot of OEM stock, I think Lada Power is fair play, especially for getting oddball and niche things as well as Lada recommended shocks, springs etc.

 

Good news on the coupling anywho. I'd love to see your progress getting that in.

[LightBulbFun]

theres some place still making Ladas?

 

I thought the last places wound up shop in the early 2010s?

 

how much would a new one cost hypothetically?  (I wonder how long until we start seeing people building "new ones" out of new Body shells like people do with Minis and MGs)

[Fumbler]

Egypt had production shunted there in 2014 thereabouts. Their models include a pickup and the standard 2107. For the life of me I can't remember is they still make estates. People have been rebuilding 2101s with the new parts because everything bar the drive, lights, interior and engine are more or less the same, so I guess it's the Mini and MG thing we have here after all.

[Zelandeth]

Will document getting the flexible coupling changed. I picked up the new one when I saw the original was perished, I know the bolts can be a royal pain to get out though, so the plan was always to leave it be until it started causing vibration. The Lada ones always seem to give plenty of warning when they start going rather than just spontaneously disintegrating.

 

Lada were still producing what was essentially the Riva with very slightly rounded off corners (kinda like what Daewoo did to the Vauxhall Astra when they launched the Nexia) until 2014 or thereabouts as the "Classic" I believe.

 

Parts supply from the factory (RHD and UK specific emission control gubbins excepted) is generally very, very good. The fact that there are still zillions of them in service in Russia etc means there's still a healthy market for them.

[Zelandeth]

Finally got a chance to give the Activa some attention today.

 

It has been having issues in that the aux drive belt is determinedly doing this:

 

 

You can straighten everything up again, but the moment the engine starts, it's riding off the edge of the hydraulic pump again.

 

After quite carefully checking that everything is rotating smoothly, there's no play in anything, the tensioner seems fine etc, everything is sitting square.

 

However this looks odd to me. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a shiny edge on the crankshaft pulley originally...

 

 

What I'm thinking at this point is that the rubber joint between the two parts of the pulley has failed, allowing the outer section to slide towards the inboard side of where it sits...and that's pulling the belt with it.

 

This seem a plausible explanation?

 

If so it's probably less of a pain to sort than changing the tensioner...

[Fumbler]

There's nothing wrong with investigating. To me your theory is very plausible as well.

[Andyrew]

Sounds about right. TVDs are certainly a weak point on moderns.

[cobblers]

I think you've hit the nail on the head with that

[Zelandeth]

Right, I've got a new pulley on the way. Having looked at photos of new one, that step between the inner and outer sections on mine definitely shouldn't be there.

 

For anyone else who's looking for this in future, the Citroen part no is 0515.H6.

 

Hopefully this will restore normality once fitted.

[Zelandeth]

This just arrived.

 

 

Will have a shot at getting it fitted later on.

 

Sure getting the bolt out will be fun given it's tightened to OMG-YOU-MUST-BE-KIDDING lb/f and has thread lock on from memory...at least it's not too hard to get at.

[Zelandeth]

Well that was pretty painless.

 

Tension off the belt...

 

 

Old pulley off...yep, that's stuffed...

 

 

 

 

New one installed and tightened up...

 

 

Paint marker is to allow me to keep an eye on it to be sure the bolt doesn't try to unscrew itself for a few days before I put the wheel arch liner back in.

 

Yes, I did thread lock it too...

 

 

The replacement pulley I bought was a Febi Bilstein one (part no 31102), the going rate for which is about £65 at the time of writing. There were some no-name ones for less than half that, but with how important a component this is (especially in a green blooded Citroen!) it seemed worth spending a few quid to get a brand I trust. The Gates one at North of £100 just seemed a bit excessive though.

 

This does appear to have restored normality I'm glad to report. The belt seems a little noisier than I remember, but in the same breath it's a brand new one so will need to bed in a bit, also the battery is pretty low (car's been sitting since mid July...), so the alternator will be pulling a lot of power from the belt. Will keep an eye on it.

 

Tomorrow's task is to attack the LHM tank with a box of decent hose clips. I know I've got an issue with it aerating the fluid, and one of the returns is obviously weeping given that this message is what I'm left with within a few hundred miles of cleaning the reservoir.

 

 

Hopefully a box of hose clips will resolve both of these problems.

 

Observations not having driven it for a month:

 

The clutch is so light that it doesn't feel like the pedal is connected to anything.

 

Man it's comfy.

 

Holy hell it's quick...the prerequisite grin emerged the first time full boost arrived.

 

Have I mentioned it's comfy?

 

Yep...have missed driving it.

 

Once again slapping myself on the wrist for ever considering selling it. Even if it does cost me utterly stupid amounts of money to insure.

[LightBulbFun]

you forgot to mention how you end up in the door pocket anytime you chuck it into a corner granted YOU have a steering wheel to hang onto 

 

glad to see its back up and running with the aux belt situation being fixed as for insurance is there any way to stuff it onto a classic car policy?

[Zelandeth]

The problems are twofold.

 

Most classic insurers (at least those who offer a meaningful discount it seems) require you to have one car on normal cover before they will give you a classic policy. The Activa is that car.

 

It's also an oddball high performance French hatchback that's worth pennies, so it's seen statistically as a very high risk.

 

Nevertheless, Adrian Flux are taking the piss with what they're charging me at the moment I reckon.

[LightBulbFun]

The problems are twofold.

 

Most classic insurers (at least those who offer a meaningful discount it seems) require you to have one car on normal cover before they will give you a classic policy. The Activa is that car.

 

It's also an oddball high performance French hatchback that's worth pennies, so it's seen statistically as a very high risk.

 

Nevertheless, Adrian Flux are taking the piss with what they're charging me at the moment I reckon.

 

buy a cheap 1L pice of top shite stick that on the normal policy their-for allowing you to move the Xantia onto classic?

 

tis the perfect excuse to buy more cars 

[Zelandeth]

That's one niche the 107 used to fill! Sadly I've already got one more car than I have parking spaces, so there's not really much scope for buying more stuff. ...Plus this is a relatively expensive area for insurance anyhow...so it's unlikely I'd be seeing a policy for far less than £500 a year I reckon. ...so unless it would more than half the cost of the policy on the Xantia (currently roughly £1100/year) it would wind up costing me more anyhow.

 

I will be having a detailed discussion with Hagerty (who cover both the van and Lada) when it's due for renewal though to see if they can do anything as the price I'm paying just now is frankly ludicrous. Service isn't a patch on when I first switched to them originally either. You spend just as long on hold in China when calling them as any other provider these days. ...Yet their customer service team still don't work weekends...which is a royal pain if you buy a car at the weekend!

[Zelandeth]

Holy same day update...

 

Also just fixed this. It's been on the do list since about May.

 

 

Took all of 30 seconds to sort.

[Zelandeth]

You may recall me mentioning that the belt had seemed a bit generally noisy compared to before.

 

I think I may randomly have just spotted the culprit.

 

I first draw your attention to exhibit A: the photo of the driveway covered in atomised bits of PSA wiring loom conduit.

 

 

I then draw your attention to exhibit B...

 

 

That looks suspiciously like a bit of said conduit which has managed to find it's way into the tiny gap between the pulley and the tensioner...it definitely wasn't there when I first assembled things, so must have found it's way there after the belt was tensioned and I was tidying up.

 

What do you want to get that's still sitting there making a racket?

[Fabergé Greggs]

Just thinking of your insurance woes: my scooter is my main vehicle allowing me to insure my car on a classic policy.

 

I’ve always thought that if this wasn’t the case, I’d buy an old moped for peanuts and insure it for the £80 or so that it’d cost, then voila, you have a “main vehicle”

[Zelandeth]

Just thinking of your insurance woes: my scooter is my main vehicle allowing me to insure my car on a classic policy.

 

I’ve always thought that if this wasn’t the case, I’d buy an old moped for peanuts and insure it for the £80 or so that it’d cost, then voila, you have a “main vehicle”

Now that sounds like an excuse if ever there was one...

 

Have always fancied a moped as a toy...

[Zelandeth]

So today the van has decided to start peeing fluid out of the clutch slave cylinder. Great...but at least it's dead easy to get at on the offside of the gearbox just bolted onto the bell housing. I'll get a new one ordered next week.

 

It's also started squeaking at idle. Definitely something attached to the audio belt, so will need to pull that off and see if anything is obviously worn. It's definitely one of those dry bearing type squeaks.

 

Xantia has been treated to a new set of wiper blades (rear one was rebuilt as getting new blades with the right fitting is tricky) which has vastly improved the ability to see through the windscreen.

 

I also picked up oil and fresh oil and air filters. I'll do the oil and filter tomorrow, but threw the new air filter in today. Not by any means the worst I've seen, but it definitely wanted to be done.

 

 

There was surprisingly little general crud in the air box compared to the last few I've done.

 

I've also swapped a few of the hose clips on the LHM to tank joints, will need to get some more hose clips to finish that off tomorrow.

[Zelandeth]

Filled up the Xantia...£85. Ouch. That's why I don't usually let the fuel gauge get that low...

 

Other than that she's been busily helping me clear the backlog of garden waste to the tip.

 

 

You'd have thought with five trips I'd have made a dent in it...nope, not a bit. This is going to take forever.

 

Oh...has the air filter change made any odds to performance? Hell yes it has. Lordy that car can shift.

[Fumbler]

Looks a beauty. I passed a very sorry looking Xantia yesterday. It's been parked on that pavement for ages given all the moss and stuff. Inside is dry as a bone however so all good there...

[Zelandeth]

Looks a beauty. I passed a very sorry looking Xantia yesterday. It's been parked on that pavement for ages given all the moss and stuff. Inside is dry as a bone however so all good there...

Luckily you almost can't see the rampant clear coat peel from that photo. She desperately needs a full respray. Sadly it would cost at least a couple of grand to have it done to the standard I'd be looking for (deep, saturated Ferrari red is my first choice, though that slightly orangeish yellow they did the Saxo in is also on the list).

 

Shame there's another one there in a poor state. Quite a lot have fallen on hard times these days given they're right at the bottom of the depreciation curve and tend to scare a lot of mechanics off.

[Fumbler]

You think your laquer peel is bad. On the same trip I passed an Astra with literally no laquer on it. Did you get your rotoflex coupler done or is it on the back burner for now?

[Zelandeth]

It's just sitting on the to do list for now. The Lada will be coming off the road shortly till spring anyway so it will probably just get rolled into the service done then. I've got a full set of engine and gearbox mounts for it as well, so probably do those at the same time.

[Noel Tidybeard]

oh look someone's got a spare set of invacar lights on his traileur

[Broadsword]

So pleasing to see you keep on top of the Xantia’s maintenance, it must be quite special to drive. I’m genuinely shocked about your insurance premium for it though, surely there must be a way to get it down?

[Zelandeth]

Maintenance isn't too bad really, just the same as any 90s car really so long as you're not afraid of the hydraulics - and they're not too terrible once you've got your head around the system. Even if the Activa gubbins do a pretty good job of getting in the way of things and mean there are a few bits and pieces that are hard to find these days.

 

I'll definitely be having a good dig around come renewal time for a better deal on insurance. Last couple of years I've not had much time so my current insurer reckons they can get away with it. Service isn't close to what they used to offer either, so time for a change.

[Zelandeth]

Spent pretty much the whole day today waiting for a package to arrive...which it did, just after 1600.

 

However I did get something useful done, albeit minor.

 

The Lada has always had a tendency to clog the windscreen washers up because of gunk in the washer bottle. The pump was also dangling by the hose because the cap had cracked (they all do that).

 

So got it out, gave it a thorough clean, wrapped a cable tie around the cap to stop it splitting any further, and bolted the pump down properly again.

 

 

Back in place...

 

 

 

The grime in the bottle was very visible before and really drew your eye to it...will annoy my OCD far less now. Also hopefully actually let me use the washers more than twice between blockages now too.

 

Though looking at the last photo a new question springs to mind: um...where has most of my coolant gone? Okay, guess that's next on the list when we get back from Livingston then...

[Fumbler]

Indeed. It never ceases to amaze me at how clean that bay is. What a happy car.