Picasso restoration.......a tale of idiocy and citroen fun

[maxxo]

So i had much excitement tonight on my run to tesco, parked next to an arctic steel desire! oh yes! if you look closely you can see the silver one is a 2004 due to the very slightly different front bumper design, which makes mine unusal as mine has the later bumper grille and the chrome trim on the boot handle yet it's a 2.0 HDi so quite rare in being one of the very last.

 

Yes i am that sad that i get excited about parking next to another one

[Wingz123]

What's the crack with the later 2.0 hdi's being 138bhp? As opposed to the 90/110bhp? Are they as reliable?

[maxxo]

The 16v's at 138hp, i have the old 8v as that's all the xsara picasso got.

I'd imagine they are better than the 1.6 hdi as almost anything is more reliable than that, I would very much like to try the later 2.0 hdi in a c5

[Wingz123]

+1 I found myself looking at later c5's earlier as chance would have it which prompted the question.

Dunno what the autos are like....?? Best to stay clear of a french auto? Are they made if chocolate?

[maxxo]

Just make damn sure it's a full auto, if it has park on the gear selector it's a full auto....... you'll want park because french electric handbrakes are unreliable.

I keep looking at mk1 c5's in 2.2 HDi exclusive form.....probably horrendously unreliable but that makes them excellent and exciting.

i know my uncle has a 2.0 hdi 2008? i think c5 estate and it's very nice indeed however he did have issues with the engine bay fusebox

[maxxo]

We had much excitement today involving a woman in a corsa who decided the rear of a picasso is very nice and wanted to get closer.

thankfully i have a towbar so as far as i could tell tonight there was no damage........

of course she was texting........I was watching her in my mirror

[lexi]

Towbars are great.  A guy in a new 405 ran into my Santana 5 pot. He wrote his off and I got about 700quid to fix mine which I spent on an many toys and drove my heap another 2yrs.

[maxxo]

yes! i literally can't see any damage on mine at all so i think i've got lucky

[maxxo]

Ah fuck! see if i was a normal person pablo would be dead, but because i'm not normal i refuse to let this car die.

So i left my street then BANG and it pulled to the left, very exciting! of course thought the worst, i mean it's still bad especially as it's against the tyre now and probably wrecked it.

Well done citroen for a superb design

[Jamie]

 It's not just citroens, this happens all the time on any make and model with mcpherson struts with a spring. Had one go on a dual carriage way on my old bmw was quite eventful.

 

Free lows ftw. 

[maxxo]

that sounds very exciting, sadly mine just went in a boring way and snapped at low speeds.

oh how i love spending way more than it's worth on repairs, not that i mind though

[Jamie]

Not good especially just before Christmas but fingers crossed it isn't too expensive for you! 

[maxxo]

i just feel quite lucky it happened where it did tbh, shouldn't be too bad for 2 springs, no point just doing the 1.

Stuff like this always chooses the worst time to happen

 

[stuboy]

go on put it on bags.....................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

not

[maxxo]

haha, maybe later on.........which means never.

hey the passenger side is slammed now

[maxxo]

So pablo the picasso has been recovered, should be done for tonight.

I'd love to be able to do this job myself but I'm not messing with spring compressors, it's a good thing I love this car

[maxxo]

Just been to pick it up, £120 for both sides.

mmmmmmm shiny

EPIC RIDE HEIGHT YOOO

get over anything that will

[bezzabsa]

love the wheels on that slammed one..

and the 136 Bhp engine as fitted to Cmax's is bloody fantastic, so much torque that overtaking - even in 6th is stunning, and 30-70 in lower gears is enough to frighten other car drivers..

must get some pics of mine when its clean

[FakeConcern]

Still enjoying the thread!!!

I noticed you mentioned getting an undertray a while ago & I wondered if you did or not. A few years ago soon after I got my second C4 VTS and following a lot of discussion on C4owners.org about why everyone should have one, I got and fitted one. It made absolutely no difference at all to the time it took to warm up or the fuel economy, As I was commuting to London at the time (120 mile a day round trip) I was hoping for an improvement.

Later I made myself an account on CitroenService where you can check the original specification of the car and discovered it never had one fitted from new haha!

Turns out Citroen know what they are doing.

[maxxo]

I'm going to sort out an undertray at some point, it had one but it was smashed to bits.

Seems to be driving alright at the moment, I need the suspension to settle first as it's really high at the front, then I'll sort out an alignment.

2 hours ago, bezzabsa said:

love the wheels on that slammed one..

and the 136 Bhp engine as fitted to Cmax's is bloody fantastic, so much torque that overtaking - even in 6th is stunning, and 30-70 in lower gears is enough to frighten other car drivers..

must get some pics of mine when its clean

It's an engine I would love to try, nice exclusive btw! Wish mine was an exclusive tbh 

[bezzabsa]

1 hour ago, maxxo said:

I'm going to sort out an undertray at some point, it had one but it was smashed to bits.

Seems to be driving alright at the moment, I need the suspension to settle first as it's really high at the front, then I'll sort out an alignment.

It's an engine I would love to try, nice exclusive btw! Wish mine was an exclusive tbh 

sunroof, climate control, auto lights and washers....erm thats about it different..most seem to have brown lower dash, but mine is all black, but seats are blue!!!!!

alloys are worse looking than the trims you have LOL

 

[bezzabsa]

diesel flap doesnt lock, and is in shit condition, marked to death think someone tried to tape it shut at some time!!!

still need to clean under the bonnet....and polish the whole car

[Wingz123]

Maxxo please can you explain the process involved with activating cruise control on the picasso....

Thank you sir ?

[maxxo]

23 minutes ago, Wingz123 said:

Maxxo please can you explain the process involved with activating cruise control on the picasso....

Thank you sir ?

it's in lexia, i enabled it in the injection menu and the bsi menu, cruise control is called "rvv".

 

I don't know maybe it's the new springs bedding in but something really doesn't feel right at all, there is a knocking over bumps (probs anti roll bar), vibration in acceleration in 2nd (seems to have gone now) and the ride seems rough

probably just new springs bedding in but just feels weird

[maxxo]

Righttttt something is so not right at all, i'm going to check the strut top mounts today and see if those are causing my issues

[maxxo]

yep, think i found why it doesn't feel right.

There is play in the drivers side suspension assembly

[maxxo]

Another job done today, added a superb hubnut sticker 

[Shirley Knott]

On 12/10/2019 at 4:38 PM, maxxo said:

Ah fuck! see if i was a normal person pablo would be dead, but because i'm not normal i refuse to let this car die.

So i left my street then BANG and it pulled to the left, very exciting! of course thought the worst, i mean it's still bad especially as it's against the tyre now and probably wrecked it.

Well done citroen for a superb design

@Broadsword had something pretty similar happen recently too, bad times.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

On 12/10/2019 at 4:38 PM, maxxo said:

Ah fuck! see if i was a normal person pablo would be dead, but because i'm not normal i refuse to let this car die.

It's a broken spring. 

If owners of these things usually bin them just for that, then they're every bit as awful as I'd always assumed. 

 

[maxxo]

I know for a fact this car would be scrapped now if i didn't own it.

i know someone who scrapped their car because it needed brake pads.......fair to say it didn't actually get scrapped and was sold on