project Fumbler's Crocks- Boring Oil Change

[jamescarruthers]

I can’t say for sure for that filter on Chevronics site, but will add that the previous BX14 with the suitcase engine has to have a certain filter because it is lying in a funny position and a non-return valve is essential to avoid the filter draining— and a good NRV too from a trusted manufacturer.  This may be what they have for sale, as the suitcase (150C) engine was shared with the Visa.
 

For the later TU engine, the NRV is a nice-to-have but not essential unless that is what is specified as standard. 
 

If you stick to Purflux filters, you are basically getting what Citroen fitted as standard and I’d go with those if you can. 
 

Their online catalogue lists LS867B for your car with its peppy little TU engine.

https://www.purflux.com/en/catalogue/online-catalogue.html
 

LS867B search on eBay finds this one for £9.50 as the cheapest https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Brand-New-Purflux-Oil-Filter-LS867B-/254200652987?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249

Maybe try your Citroen or Peugeot dealer as you may be pleasantly surprised by the consumables prices. I didn’t find them outrageous at all when I went recently. 
 

It’s such a shame Autodoc and Mr Auto are now so difficult to use with customs charges now in to the UK. They were superb for French child supplies!  Still good for a cross reference look to then try to find stock in the UK  

 

[Fumbler]

Thanks for the catalogue and codes @jamescarruthers. What ECP have on offer matches the necessary dimensions as what's currently on the car. The price difference betwen the OE and Mann filter is around £1.00 so I'll snag a Purflux filter off eBay. Any ideas on what belts I should get, or should I go out with the calipers and ruler to find out their sizes? The belts certainly have stretched a bit so a smaller one will probably be best.

 

[jamescarruthers]

I don’t know much about the belts but a quick trip to the Gates online catalogue shows 6212MC driving the alternator and 6262MC driving the hydraulic pump for a 1989 KDY (TU3M) and KDZ (TU3M/Z), of which, yours must be one of these. 

https://gatesautocat.com/

These would be my trusted brand if I wasn’t ordering from Citroen who can be quite cheap.  If you make a donation to FCF, you can ask members on there to look up Citroen part numbers which you can then just walk in to a Citroen or Peugeot dealer and order the parts, if you don’t want to deal with parts counter people.

[jamescarruthers]

While we are talking French catalogues, SASIC also are good for French rubber stuff.  Their e-catalogue is not available to mere mortals but from here https://sasic.fr/en/products/ you can select different PDFs (Anti-Vibration, Suspension, Engine, Cooling,  Braking and Clutch) and look for stuff for your car.  They are especially good for obscure French hoses hoses, not sure about much else.

Here is the catalogue for their aux. belts: https://sasic.fr/wp-content/themes/batakoo-child/PDF/cat_ACC_2013.pdf

On page 121 you will see 1770122 drives your hydraulic pump but weirdly they have nothing for your alternator.

[Fumbler]

16 minutes ago, jamescarruthers said:

I don’t know much about the belts but a quick trip to the Gates online catalogue shows 6212MC driving the alternator and 6262MC driving the hydraulic pump for a 1989 KDY (TU3M) and KDZ (TU3M/Z), of which, yours must be one of these. 

https://gatesautocat.com/

These would be my trusted brand if I wasn’t ordering from Citroen who can be quite cheap.  If you make a donation to FCF, you can ask members on there to look up Citroen part numbers which you can then just walk in to a Citroen or Peugeot dealer and order the parts, if you don’t want to deal with parts counter people.

My engine is a TU3A/K, but I doubt there's a difference in the crank pulleys actoss the TU3 range. Thanks again!

[jamescarruthers]

12 minutes ago, Fumbler said:

My engine is a TU3A/K, but I doubt there's a difference in the crank pulleys actoss the TU3 range. Thanks again!

No problem

[Fumbler]

I've bought a myriad of things for automotive purposes (mainly BX):

1. Stereo which will hopefully work;
2. 15W40 oil;
3. Purflux oil filter;
4. Mysterious chain oil;
5. Wheel paint (probably wrong colour);
6. Rocker cover gasket;
7. Phone tripod.

The last one shall enable me to film my happenings and failures with both my cars on my YuTüb channel.

[Ian_Fearn]

On 6/20/2021 at 6:12 PM, jamescarruthers said:

 

It’s such a shame Autodoc and Mr Auto are now so difficult to use with customs charges now

 

I can’t comment on Mr Auto but there are no additional customs charges from Autodoc. (Unless they changed their policy in the last 3 or 4 weeks?).

Car parts are import duty free under the EU trade deal and Autodoc completes all the necessary paperwork for you at source all within the price. You just pay VAT at normal UK 20%. 

As an Autodoc customer you don’t notice any change but good grief are they slow!

[Ghosty]

44 minutes ago, Ian_Fearn said:

good grief are they slow

I bought something in January from them and didn't get a dispatch email for two weeks. I found the same part cheaper and in the UK, bought and received it, and emailed autodoc asking to cancel the order, they then said it was OK, then said 'oh wait too late we've sent it now, refuse the package when it arrives'. I duly did, and it somehow took FIVE MONTHS for them to process my refund. Judging by the tracking the package might have been in customs hell for a while though. Their customer service are beyond useless too. 

[Crackers]

20 minutes ago, Ghosty said:

I bought something in January from them and didn't get a dispatch email for two weeks. I found the same part cheaper and in the UK, bought and received it, and emailed autodoc asking to cancel the order, they then said it was OK, then said 'oh wait too late we've sent it now, refuse the package when it arrives'. I duly did, and it somehow took FIVE MONTHS for them to process my refund. Judging by the tracking the package might have been in customs hell for a while though. Their customer service are beyond useless too. 

This, with bells on. They still haven't refunded me for the parts they asked me to to refuse. 

In February. 

[Fumbler]

Ouch. Sufficed to say, I haven't yet needed and probably will never need the services of Autodoc. I've been lucky enough with eBay and EuroCrapParts so far.

[Fumbler]

 Managed to get home a week early because someone on my floor caught covid and I've finished for the year. That was lucky.

I found a radio that would work exactly how I wanted. RDS and frequency autoscan so I wouldn't have to. It's another Blaupunkt and it's 9 years younger than the BX, but it looks the part and still has that lovely amber display. The seller was kind enough to package it really well and even include the release tines. I had to buy a £9.99 code for it, but that's a drop in the ocean. Here's a quick guide on replacing your radio in 6 easy* steps!

Step The First:
Buy code and bench test radio:

Radio and cassette works! Winning already.

Step The Second:
Extract old radio. Insert pins and try to ignore the cash on view to everyone:

Withdraw radio from its metal frame:

Ah, that's not supposed to happen.

Re-insert radio into bezel and try again. Proceed to unscrew everything anyway to get the sodding thing out.

Step The Third:
Inspect and modify the new radio's harness to suit.

Try Uno:

Might have helped if I consulted the manual first. I made off the left front and rear connections by mistake 😕

Try Deux:

Actually got it configured right this time but I need to tie the speaker neutrals together and extend the right speaker wires.

Try Drei:

Third time's a charm. Even managed to burn the length of my index finger when I was shrinking the heatshrink tubing. Isn't it pretty? What a guy!

Step The Fourth:

Connect harness and radio connections. Bend out frame tabs to ensure the thing never ever ever yanks out again when not asked to. The number on the radio was added by me and is the radio's code. Steal it bitchez 😁

Step The Fifth:
Attempt to screw the bezel back onto the centre console, only to find out half an hour later the bent tabs now foul the DIN-sized hole within the console:

Hack out bits of console to make the bugger fit or else.

Even found a small pile of rolling tobacco back there. I know a couple people who would have smoked that stuff in a heartbeat if I gave it to them.

Step The Sixth:
Admire the cassette mechanism speak German stuff about fruits to you:

I configured the audio settings, station presets and all that after everything was working.

 

[Fumbler]

Vidya.

Today's efforts in fixing the most pressing issue the car has. I even nearly completely fixed it first time.

[Fumbler]

The video should be in some form of HD, hopefully it's above 1080p, otherwise my editing software didn't render correctly.

[Ghosty]

1 hour ago, Fumbler said:

hopefully it's above 1080p

1080p is the top available right now (YT might need more time to render if you did 2 or 4k?). The 1080p is more than watchable though.

ETA: needs more rendering time. 1080p gave up halfway through the video.  

[Fumbler]

9 hours ago, Ghosty said:

1080p is the top available right now (YT might need more time to render if you did 2 or 4k?). The 1080p is more than watchable though.

ETA: needs more rendering time. 1080p gave up halfway through the video.  

It's in 4K now!

[Crackers]

Excellent effort especially for a first vid.

[Fumbler]

It is unmended. I have unmended the car.

 

Details to come once I've finished whacking it with a stick.

[Crackers]

Say hello to my leetle friend!

[Fumbler]

1 hour ago, Crackers said:

Say hello to my leetle friend!

Now that would be great, but the gasket's mating face is ribbed meaning I can't use sealent 😭. What I think has happened is that I haven't driven home the stud the nut screws onto, as the stud unscrewed when I removed the rocker cover. When I managed to get the bloody thing running, I blocked off the crankcase breather and witnessed oil blowing out on that side of the rocker cover. At least I've diagnosed the oil leaks finally. I'll see if I can drive home the stud or just use an extra washer so the nut doesn't bottom out on the stud.

 

...As for the starting issue, I'm a bit stumped. I deliberately let the fuel bowl run out of fuel, stalling the engine. I hooked the fuel pump back up, spun the engine over and, within a few cranks, it was purring away. I did the same thing and let the engine cool down for an hour and it started up as if it never had an issue. Two things are at play here: Residual fuel and residual heat in the block. My brother and I smashed our brains together and have come up with a couple of possible factors causing it to not start. The first is that I'm getting a lot of false results from not letting the engine cool down enough. The second is that the only issue with the engine running is getting it to start from cold. Any, and I mean any, fuel/air mixture I set won't get it to fire unless I hold the accelerator open and crank the engine for a good 30 seconds - 1 minute. That's with the choke on, with the mixture screw wound fully in, out, in the missle and anything in between. Nothing affects that behaviour. I am almost certain that the jet sizes have changed meaning the AFR and fuel delivery rates have changed. This, coupled with the fact fuel backfires through the carb even when it's set to very rich running, suggests ignition timing is at fault here. It's literally the only thing I haven't checked or interfered with on the ignition and fuel system. If the timing isn't set correctly the engine will have a hard time starting and when running it could also knock. I'm not experiencing knock so the timing isn't over-advanced; I'm wondering if it isn't advanced enough for the new carburettor that's been installed.

[Fumbler]

It's been suggested to me that swapping all the jets from the old carb to the new might fix it. Is it better that I do this instead of tweak the ignition timing?

[GingerNuttz]

Do the timing then if it's still the same swap the jets, better to eliminate things one by one. 

[Fumbler]

OK, so far I have:

• Nearly completely rectified the rocker cover issue. I had to make spacers out of copper pipe to replace the destroyed plastic ones.
• Swapped over the jets and emulsion tube from the old carburettor to the new one.
• Refitted the carburettor with this done, primed, run and tuned it according to the manual.
• Modified the intake U piece:

So what I've done is attempt to make a rubber gasket which'll make a friction fit around the neck of the carb. This is basically a last ditch effort before I make my own. I've also blanked off this little pipe union. All it ever did was connect to a T-piece which connected to a hole in the intake manifold. It's been the source of a vacuum leak for ages. The diameter of the T-piece was miniscule, something like 0.5mm and sampled a reeeeeealy tiny amount of crankcase fumes and injected it straight into the manifold. Instead, now all 100% (instead of 99.5) fumes are being directed into the intake. Perfect, right? Not really, as the filter inside this intake thing is very sludged up. I sluiced it through with white spirit which has helped somewhat, but it's certainly not factory fresh. If all else with the intake fails, I'm drilling a hole in the airbox and rerouting the gases there. The air filter design for this car means quite a bit of it won't be used at all so it might as well filter the soot and fumes that gets spat out of crankcase.

[Fumbler]

@Remspoor

Quote

You write new carb. Is that as in brand - brand new or new to the car and second hand?

Are the jets the same between the original carb? is there a small diaphragm inside the carbs.

Is it an auto choke? If so was that changed?

Have you checked the position of the throttle? Doe one sit at the same location as the other?

Why did you change carbs?

 

I really know nothing about these lovely looking cars. So I have to ask what may be silly questions.

 

If you have not got a thread about this maybe star one or this will end up fill up grumpy thread. That may make members grump!

1. New carb as in brand new universal copy. This was because I didn't fancy paying €230.00 for a Solex-made one in France. It is esentially the exact same in capacity and design as the Solex that was on there, only that it was made to be a universal replacement for any TU manifold that accepted a 34mm bore carburettor.

2. The jets were swapped from the old to the new as the jets in the new carb were for a smaller engine.

3. Manual choke which has been correctly tensioned and configured to the same as the old carb.

4. Throttle position is correct- HBOL showed how to set it when tuning the carburettor.

5. I changed it over as the old carburettor was plugged and silted up and rendered the car undrivable. I got it mobile by inducing a vacuum leak through partially unscrewing the idle jet on the side. This got the car going, but it had to be adjusted every 100 miles and gave me a fair few brown trouser moments when it fell out of adjustment (at the lights on the A303 and on a hill going into college, to name a couple of events).

I had no access to any type of cleaning facility for the carburettor. Knowing what I know now, a bath in an ultrasonic cleaner and a rebuild would have worked, but I wasn't in the position to leave the car immobilised for long periods of time, so I nursed the car 180 miles back home and replaced it over a weekend. It now idled and drove perfectly, but wouldn't start. Something occurred during install that meant the car wouldn't start. It wasn't electrical, the float bowl valve and needle were swapped over and starting improved. I replaced the ignition module as the car frequently cut out, but the issue starting persisted. It still wasn't anything electrical, so today I started looking for vacuum leaks and found 3, all of which have been rectified. Starting has immensly improved, but I quickly discovered while diagnosing other faults that the car started better when the engine was warm (either by the sun or through running for a while), so I had to be wary of this and take every good start with a pinch of salt.

That leaves us at right now, where I hope to cold start the car tomorrow to see if I've fixed it.

[Fumbler]

Did a cold start and... no issues at all. Perhaps it was a vacuum leak from the beginning.

I also attempted to replace the starter motor, only to discover that the end piece on the new one doesn't fit at all, like, it's probably for the Suitcase engine instead. Weirdly enough, the core and brush holder is the same, so, when I do get a proper replacemrnt (Citroen C3), I'll smash the two together to hopefully make a Frankenstein's Monster Motor.

[Remspoor]

In the vid the starter did not sound as it it was lacking power or the bendix was sticking.

To check for leaks on the carb and inlet spray some carb cleaner around the joints.  At a low idle the revs will certainly increase when the cleaner mixes with the inlet air indicating where the air leak is. WD40 is an alternative but the results are not so "obvious".

Seeing as you have changed the carb and this changed how the engine works then it certainly looks like the carb is the problem. However, maybe you have disturbed something whilst changing the carb.  That can be either electrical or some sort of vacuum connection from the inlet manifold.

 

 

[Fumbler]

38 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

In the vid the starter did not sound as it it was lacking power or the bendix was sticking.

To check for leaks on the carb and inlet spray some carb cleaner around the joints.  At a low idle the revs will certainly increase when the cleaner mixes with the inlet air indicating where the air leak is. WD40 is an alternative but the results are not so "obvious".

Seeing as you have changed the carb and this changed how the engine works then it certainly looks like the carb is the problem. However, maybe you have disturbed something whilst changing the carb.  That can be either electrical or some sort of vacuum connection from the inlet manifold.

 

 

There was a vacuum leak at the rear of the carb as I didn't tighten it down to the manifold very well. There was also a leak on the emissions system which I also rectified. It looks as if these were the problems. Not calling that area "fixed" just yet, but it's looking promising.

I was wanting to replace the starter because it's rather tired and isn't doing the best. The front bearing has worn very thin and there's brass dust from it spread everywhere inside. I've also had the solenoid contacts weld themselves together sometimes but that hasn't happened in ages.

[Fumbler]

Took a bit of a gamble and took the car to work. Not only did the car drive and stop, it started too. Happy car, happy day.

Also bought the correct starter motor for it because the current one sounds very unhappy.

[Fumbler]

Okayyyyy, it's actually 99.001K but it's close enough. For some reason the car doesn't measure tenths of a mile which is a shame. I've clocked up a good 4000 fun* filled and exhilerating miles in this car so far and I'll bring it to 100,000 fairly soon.

The rocker cover gasket fix has worked incredibly well, so well in fact that no more oil has fallen out of the engine since I topped it up after making the new spacers. I checked it after arriving home and the oil level is still at the full line. Granted, at least a third of that oil is mower grade 10W40, but that's all the 10W40 I had to hand. Gr8 success.

[Fumbler]

Oh look another oil change. Suspension set to high.

Then I worked really quickly because I didn't put any axle stands under it. DON'T FOLLOW MY EXAMPLE! I VERY BAD PERSON.

The oil was suspiciously black and the filter was definitely older than 6 month-old oil. I doubt any new oil was put in it after the sump was pulled and cleaned, as in, the old oil was drained and dumped straight back in when all was said and done. The (incredibly tight) filter was also much larger than what's supposed to be on there, alas I didn't take any pictures of it. The new one fitted much better.

This is the new oil. Citroen recommends only two weights: 10W-40 or 15W-40 for all-year use, so I went with the latter. Bunged 3.2L in, let engine build pressure, drove it about, came back, topped up until full. Job jobbed. No suspicious leaks or anything left on the floor after the car was driven out. Excellent.

Now, what to do with all this oil?

We separated it into the different grades:

And then decanted the separate grades into the containers with the least oil in them. Through doing this I don't need to buy any extra oil for the Micra! Winning already. The only odd one out we had was this 5W-40 semi synth oil which we couldn't combine with anything, so instead I'll use it with the bar and chain oil I bought to undercoat the BX.