Citroen bx 17rd for sale. Sale on hold as its done a Citroen the little bastard!

[beko1987]

If not aren't you on first name terms with the pipe maker whose name eludes me? Especially after the xantia and Princess...

[dean36014]

As for using it as a daily car, I did! Being a base model with no power steering means access is so much easier to the pipe work underneath on the front subframe. The only problems I had with were a weird battery drain which would take a few days to flatten the battery. I'm pretty certain this was due to a faulty alternator that I replaced. Other than that it was a reliable, fun, daily car with a blast furnace heater. Up until it burst the first pipe last year it had been great.

This is completely my fault as I should have replaced all the front to rear pipes. One had already been done, I did a second and decided as I'd run out of pipy the other two were just surface rust. I obviously was wrong. It's annoying that the pipes are perfect throughout their length bar a section one inch long where the go over the rear subframe. I'm just thankful it happened on me and not Angyl. I genuinely love this car but I've decided this and the burgundy Xm need to go leaving me my TD bx, shonky, the Xm estate, the st Tropez as a project and the c2 daily. If I can move tomorrow I'm going to investigate the leak. I need to put some blocks in the rear suspension anyway so it can get moved to the front drive.

[Ghosty]

 

 

FTFY.

[dean36014]

The suspension is great! It's just the pipes are 30 years old!

[forddeliveryboy]

FTFY.

 

It's as daft an idea as those quirky modern* brakes which involve connecting your foot to a piston and cylinder, moving fluid down a pipe and then duplicating with another piston and cylinder to move the pads or shoes.

 

Ffs, what was wrong with cable brakes, or preferably a wooden chock jammed up against a wheel? Far less to go wrong.

 

 

PS it's a fairly straight forwards job to replace a f>r pipe on a BX, the pipe should cost a tenner or so. None of that removing of fuel tank carry on as with some quality Germans.

[Ben_O]

This reminds me of my old one although that was 1.4 pez.

 

I'd have another!

 

Well done Mr Vulgalour

[Ghosty]

You're overreading my pun a bit, but you have a bit of a point. LHM does ride well, though, cant' be denied. Too much wizardry for me though.

[forddeliveryboy]

You're overreading my pun a bit, but you have a bit of a point. LHM does ride well, though, cant' be denied. Too much wizardry for me though.

Yeah, I was aware if that but casually derogatory comments on Cit suspension, even when tongue in cheek, still irritate me!

 

The system was only ever vaguely unreliable back in the 1950s when brought to market a year or two too soon when there were still flaws in production. Once fully sorted in the 60s, it was as or more reliable than any other component over 200-300k miles.

[Pieman]

Good to see it's been bought, I love seeing an old Citroen on the road.  Looking forward to the collection thread already!

[SierraMikeHotel]

 

 

Yeah, I was aware if that but casually derogatory comments on Cit suspension, even when tongue in cheek, still irritate me!

I was about to say roughly that. The issue Dean has is that the hoses are now well beyond their design life. The only issue I've ever had with Citroën hydraulic suspension has been split hoses (plus worn out spheres, but they're a service item).

 

Plus you can deflate it and work on it in safety - I'd never be brave enough to use a spring compressor.

[dean36014]

Blocked rear suspension, to get it to a reasonable ride height. Can't see anyway to do the front but to be fair I couldn't bend down for much longer. End result is it's out the front but nose down. Hopefully it will go up the ramps ok backwards.
Half the grass from the hump in the entry is now stuck to the front subframe, luckily it's just soil and no rubble.


Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk

[SierraMikeHotel]

Impressive skidmarks!

[dean36014]

I had to tow it with my poor little c2 as it got totally stuck!

Anyway it's out the front now and had a quick wash. I'm going to miss this little car

 

Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk

[dean36014]

It's as daft an idea as those quirky modern* brakes which involve connecting your foot to a piston and cylinder, moving fluid down a pipe and then duplicating with another piston and cylinder to move the pads or shoes.

 

Ffs, what was wrong with cable brakes, or preferably a wooden chock jammed up against a wheel? Far less to go wrong.

 

 

PS it's a fairly straight forwards job to replace a f>r pipe on a BX, the pipe should cost a tenner or so. None of that removing of fuel tank carry on as with some quality Germans.

If i knew where to get the pipes for a tenner I'd replace the lot! I bought the correct tool to do the flaring, £170! Plus a roll the correct pipe is about £25, that will do two front to rears, there's 4. The job is pretty easy to do though, just a case of doing one pipe at at a time and following them through. Its far easier job with made up pipes than original steel pipes as you can feed them through.

[forddeliveryboy]

I was about to say roughly that. The issue Dean has is that the hoses are now well beyond their design life. The only issue I've ever had with Citroën hydraulic suspension has been split hoses (plus worn out spheres, but they're a service item).

 

Plus you can deflate it and work on it in safety - I'd never be brave enough to use a spring compressor.

Routing them just forwards of a rear wheel was either cynical, stupid or a Peugeot request - I bet 320touring's GSa front to rears are all nearly 40 years old, they're routed down the centre out of the worst spray, where the exhaust heat can keep them dry.

 

 

If i knew where to get the pipes for a tenner I'd replace the lot! I bought the correct tool to do the flaring, £170! Plus a roll the correct pipe is about £25, that will do two front to rears, there's 4. The job is pretty easy to do though, just a case of doing one pipe at at a time and following them through. Its far easier job with made up pipes than original steel pipes as you can feed them through.

I did write 'pipe' and wasn't suggesting they could all be made up for a tenner! I knew the flarers were pricey, mine was a hundred twenty years ago, I'm surprised one of the guys who makes the range of special tools hasn't turned his lathe to making them.

[vulgalour]

Thank you for giving it a clean, you didn't have to!  Does look pretty spiffy.

[beko1987]

One of my regrets about the Xantia was not getting all refurby on the suspension. There's how to guides for it all, I've probably still got the how to for the rear height corrector, to remove it from the car and componentise it and clean. But I never got it done, which sucks. It's a very easy system to work with, removing and testing all the spheres on the XM took maybe 40 minutes all in, including jacking up the rear, then moving it all to jack the front up.

[forddeliveryboy]

All they used to need was the filters blown through and fresh Total LHM every 5 years, plus spheres recharged or replaced every 3-5y. I've worked on all cars, and would infinitely prefer doing this to wrestling with coil or leaf springs, dampers inside MacPh struts and so on.

 

I've seen more than one otherwise competent garage man have a genuine psychological phobia surrounding these cars, one guy I knew would virtually break out in a sweat just MoT testing them! The DIRAVI was noticed to have no normal mechanical link by one guy, who asked if I'd had it apart and forgotten to replace a bit. When he found out it was the hydraulic equivalent of steer-by-wire he went into orbit with an anti-Citroen rant, whereupon an elderly customer wondered out loud how our aircraft had ever succeeded in the war or any farm ever managed to keep its tractors working.

[beko1987]

Yep, I got called over a few times during a test when they've jacked a hydro up on normal and it's swallowed their jack...

 

"no, I need to get in to raise it, I either climb up your ramp or you need to let it down..."

[Sheefag]

Impressive skidmarks!

 

That's my Native American name.

[myglaren]

Routing them just forwards of a rear wheel was either cynical, stupid or a Peugeot request - I bet 320touring's GSa front to rears are all nearly 40 years old, they're routed down the centre out of the worst spray, where the exhaust heat can keep them dry.

 

 

 

I did write 'pipe' and wasn't suggesting they could all be made up for a tenner! I knew the flarers were pricey, mine was a hundred twenty years ago, I'm surprised one of the guys who makes the range of special tools hasn't turned his lathe to making them.

I had to replace every damned pipe on the GS, minimum of £17* each, impressively sealed in plastic bags with caps over the pipe ends.

Most of the 'K' connectors too.

Took ages as some had to come from France.

 

1983, car bought with redundancy cash, pipes cost as much as I paid for the car, queue a very unhappy wife.

Brilliant car once is was done though.

[forddeliveryboy]

I had to replace every damned pipe on the GS, minimum of £17* each, impressively sealed in plastic bags with caps over the pipe ends.

Most of the 'K' connectors too.

Took ages as some had to come from France.

 

1983, car bought with redundancy cash, pipes cost as much as I paid for the car, queue a very unhappy wife.

Brilliant car once is was done though.

Had it lived near the sea or been hauling dinghys up and down slipways, I wonder? I think I've invoked the Junkman reaction by daring suggest hydropneumatique or anything related to it is intrinsically reliable. I did once replace a rear brake pipe on one, a gf's ratty old GSa - otherwise I always found them near-pristine, in stark contrast with their often rusty shells.

[myglaren]

Bought it in Newcastle, took it home in a snowstorm, hadn't fathomed the heater.

Had belonged to a doctor but no other clues as to it's history.

 

The BX was never touched other than a sun gear exploded and punched a hole in the gearbox.

Drove it to Sunderland and had a new box fitted - £60 all in

[Tadhg Tiogar]

All they used to need was the filters blown through and fresh Total LHM every 5 years, plus spheres recharged or replaced every 3-5y. I've worked on all cars, and would infinitely prefer doing this to wrestling with coil or leaf springs, dampers inside MacPh struts and so on.

I've seen more than one otherwise competent garage man have a genuine psychological phobia surrounding these cars, one guy I knew would virtually break out in a sweat just MoT testing them! The DIRAVI was noticed to have no normal mechanical link by one guy, who asked if I'd had it apart and forgotten to replace a bit. When he found out it was the hydraulic equivalent of steer-by-wire he went into orbit with an anti-Citroen rant, whereupon an elderly customer wondered out loud how our aircraft had ever succeeded in the war or any farm ever managed to keep its tractors working.

I took the CX to the MoT tester who did my oul 635CSi for several years, as he likes testing classics. Even so, it took him a while to remember that Citroën handbrakes act on the front.....

[forddeliveryboy]

The great thing about BXs is that general mechanic didn't fear them in the same way as the cars designed before everything (apart from the core elements of the suspension) became Peugeot, from the engines to the back axle. They aren't VAG or Volvo straightforwards, but there was nothing much than front handbrakes he wouldn't have seen on a Sierra or Carlton - I think this simple fact went a long way to helping them become such a mass seller in the UK.

 

I've driven a 17RD before and it was ace, a sweeter engine than the 1.9 and an economy/comfort package which the owner couldn't stop enthusing about. This white one looks a properly good buy.

[320touring]

Routing them just forwards of a rear wheel was either cynical, stupid or a Peugeot request - I bet 320touring's GSa front to rears are all nearly 40 years old, they're routed down the centre out of the worst spray, where the exhaust heat can keep them dry

I'm Gunna hold you to that when I do the sphere change;)

 

Think being in the South of France til2015 helped too

[forddeliveryboy]

If the rear brake pipes (talking 320's GS now) are corrosion free at the wheel end, chances are the rest of them will be ok. None is so awkward to replace, apart from the rear brake pipes from axle to wheel, where they vanish inside the axle and out of sight coil many times around the arb. Most simplify as on CXs and reroute them externally.

 

Watch out for laurel resting when a car has been brought from a warm, dry part of Europe - the anti corrosion protections will have deteriorated through age and use and could very well be little barrier to Scottish roads.

[320touring]

If the rear brake pipes (talking 320's GS now) are corrosion free at the wheel end, chances are the rest of them will be ok. None is so awkward to replace, apart from the rear brake pipes from axle to wheel, where they vanish inside the axle and out of sight coil many times around the arb. Most simplify as on CXs and reroute them externally.

 

Watch out for laurel resting when a car has been brought from a warm, dry part of Europe - the anti corrosion protections will have deteriorated through age and use and could very well be little barrier to Scottish roads.

I intend to underseal it whilst tackling other repairs:)

[dean36014]

It's a great little car, with some welding to the front end it should go on for years yet. With Angyl's bodywork skills it should be looking great soon. I've offered to flare up the pipes on it if Angyl can order me some pipe and fittings. I can post them up to him. Happy to do this for any Citroen owner on here who needs pipes flaring.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

...Happy to do this for any Citroen owner on here who needs pipes flaring.

 

Might be floating a path to your door in years to come.....