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As 2020 hasn't been awful enough yet: My £750 Citroen C6!


richykitchy

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Well, at the beginning of December I made the decision to put the C6 into service, despite the fact it wasn't strictly...well, fixed. My logic was that seeing as it was already broken, I had nothing to lose!

By luck rather than judgement, this proved to be a masterstroke, taking my grand total of great ideas since 1983 (when records began) to three. I genuine believe that if I hadn't put it on the road, warts 'n all, it'd still be dumped at my workshop collecting moss. "I'll do it when I have time" says I, knowing full well he never has 'time'.
Granted, the first thing I decided to tackle was a part that wasn't actually fitted to the car anyway, as I'd left it off from the last time I had it up in the air. This was the engine undertray. On some cars this is purely a loose piece of protection (if the car in question is from the VAG stable, it's probably no longer there anyway). On other cars - cars that are a bit more cleverer - it forms part of the aerodynamics and affects the cooling efficiency of the radiator. I've gone and stuck the C6 on the road without it, which I'm sure will be fine. It's not like it has a high-capacity, twin-turbo charged diesel engine and active aero, right?
The reason it needed tackling was that it was split. It wasn't fully in two pieces, but it was well on the way, and I figured prevention is better than cure, so I beefed it up.

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Why so many rivets? Because there's some sealant in there too, and it was quicker than clamping it together!

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Meh...I'll throw some black paint over it. It'll soon get covered in shit! Main thing is that it's now strong...stronger than it was previously, I should think.

The C6 was now on the road. The handbrake issue I'd sorted, but the suspension and gearbox issues remained. However, much more pressing than either of those two minor issues was a more serious problem that required my attention. You see, the headlamps on the C6 are xenon, as you'd expect and that gives off a nice, crisp white light.
The sidelights, however...oh man! They're not white at all. Being a standard W5W (501) bulb, they're like a tinged yellow. Kinda like the doorframes of your average 1980's council house. You know, the one with an ashtray next to the telephone in the hallway.

I decided this was something I could live with no longer. I installed these:

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Kudos to Citroen on this one, because looking at those headlamps (especially with the bonnet open) you'd assume they'd be a total pig to change, but no! Open the little access panel on the side of the unit, and rotate the long white rod-ish stick thing.

50% there:

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While I was playing with the headlamps, I decided to play with the laptop. I told it to depressurise the system, to see what would happen. Resulting low-boi image below:

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When it depressurises, the fluid all returns to the reservoir, and in my case it overflowed and spilled a bit. I'm taking that as a sign it was overfilled. Incidentally, these LDS-based systems are quite different to the older LHM ones. In the case of the latter, overfilling the reservoir (as a result of a faulty level indicator, or an ignorant operator (ask me how I know...both times)) leaves you with a worst case scenario of wasting a load of money in the form of a bright green puddle on the floor. The reservoir on a BX or Xantia, for example, barely seals. It's a fully breathable setup, and, of course, with the cars sinking when they're switched off and then pumping up again when they're restarted, the level tends to fluctuate quite a bit; When the suspension is slammed, the tank is full, and when it's raised as high as it'll go, it's...well, it's not empty, but it's got less in it.
An LHM car is also pretty fully mechanical, when it comes to the pressure regulation side of things. The engine runs a mechanical pump, which whips the green blood up into a froth until it reaches about 1400psi. The regulation is done via springs and valves, and in the event you want to release the pressure completely (dropping the car to low does not achieve this), you simply turn a 12mm-headed bolt head about 180degrees, and wait for a hiss.
LDS cars are different. LDS cars are far more complicated! For a start, the pump is electric, not engine-driven. The evolution of this is pretty much as per the evolution of power-steering pumps, where, certainly in PSA's field, electro-hydraulic was flavour of the month. Lots of PSA cars (starting with the Saxo) have run electrically powered hydraulic pumps, and the cars from the C6's era even used the same LDS fluid for their steering as the C6 does for its suspension. Of course, with the LHM cars, the high-pressure circuit powered the steering and brakes too, meaning you got fully-powered brakes, as opposed to assisted brakes via a servo. C6 runs a servo, like a peasant's Kia Rio. I mean, you can kind of pretend they're the same, as they do actually share the reservoir, but the PAS pump is a standard belt-driven affair. Bum.
In terms of space and packaging, it's much neater, because you have far less in the way of pipework and hoses littering the engine bay. The pump can also act as regulator and distributor, too, but there are some quirks to this system. Firstly, for reasons I don't fully understand, the reservoir isn't breathable. When jacking a LDS-suspended Cit up, it's imperative you remove the cap from the LDS tank, because if the suspension droops as you raise the car, it can fracture the tank. Yes, really. Same with C5s, too. I assume that if you raise the suspension to its highest setting, effectively locking-out the travel, you shouldn't need to. I think...
For the same reasons, overfilling the system is bad. The level in the tank has to be bob-on, because if it's not it can cause you all manner of headaches. You actually have to connect a laptop to the car and tell it to check its own fluid level, and in doing so, it depressurises and repressurises. Mine spilt a bit out (luckily I'd removed the cap). I guess that's right; I never actually bothered to find out.

The other reason I'd slapdashedly dumped my laptop on the roof, was to see if I could enter the system and learn any reasons as to why my suspension was titting about. I'd made a bit of progress there, you see (once I'd finished doing the important jobs, like fitting tarty LEDs to the headlamps).
Earlier that day, I'd gone hunting on the forums seeing if I could find other people with my suspension issues. I was convinced it wasn't a mechanical issue, as when you first pulled away in it, the ride seemed fine. Not amazing, but not terrible. Eventually, the on-board computer screen would beep loudly at you, while proudly telling you that the car's main standout feature was, indeed, faulty. You'd already know this, however, because it had already started riding like an Audi A3 S-Line.
While traversing the forums, I (perhaps unsurprisingly) found a load of people reporting suspension issues, but despite their commonplace, I was surprisingly relaxed. The fact is that thought everybody tells me these cars are a nightmare, and are scary, I'm just not scared of it. I've got that much faith in Citroen's engineering (generally) that if the car develops a fault, I tend to assume there is a simple explanation, and that I just need to find it. It's probably going to be down to human error, too.
I stumbled upon a thread started by a chap with very similar issues to myself. The only difference for him (other than the fact he'd lived with it 18months, the masochist) was that his car had a pattern to the issue. He'd pull away from standstill, and then after 30secs of driving, he'd get the 'suspension faulty' error message, followed by a German ride quality. Mine wasn't doing that; Mine was just random.

Having read this post when I was meant to be doing something else, I popped out at lunch to grab some food, and decided to count how long my car took to have the same problem. I figured that if I kept a log, there might be a pattern to it.
I drove to the traffic lights, and stopped. I pulled away and counted; 1...2...3...(that's how counting works, you see). When I got to 30secs on the fucking nose, I get the beep. Wow! What a coincidence!
I try it again...30 secs. Madness! What are the odds.
Third time lucky...30secs. Hmmm, I can't be wrong here. It must be the car.
Fourth time...32secs. A-hah!
Fifth time...38secs.
Sixth...29secs.

And then, it hit me. It was every 30 secs after all, but it wasn't 30secs after pulling away, it was 30secs after it went over enough of a bump to make the suspension do something! Apart from the sixth time...I think I overestimated my counting ability with that one.
To test this theory, I found a very smooth road, and managed to make it last 50secs. I did the same road again, only this time wobbled the steering and hit the brakes at speed, to make the suspension compress. 30secs later...beep.
OK, this was promising stuff. I was still nonthewiser as to what the issue might be, but I firstly had an ally (unbeknown to them) with the same problem, and secondly I'd figured out that it was the movement of the suspension that was the problem. Everything else about the suspension was fine, it was just when it went over a bump that I had a problem. If it was parked up outside my house, it was fine. It was only when I wanted to drive it, and more specifcally, drive along a road that wasn't as smooth as a compact disc (remember them!?)

So, when I started pratting around with the suspension pressure, I also did some reading about setting up the suspension. When I say 'reading', what I mean is I scan-read everything people had written in about 10mins, took it all as fact without further questioning any of their logic and then compiled my own assumption about how the brain of an active-suspension system works.
People were talking about taking measurements, and inputting numbers, and so I did the same thing...only I guessed. I did actually measure one of the figures I needed, but guessed the rest and half-heartedly threw it in there to see what happened.

When I did this, the car responded by lowering itself from the height it had previously been running at, to around 10mm lower. The computer informed me that all the information I'd just entered into it had not been accepted, and told me to go away, in French.

Running late, I left the workshop and drove home. To my astonishment...the suspension fault had gone! No beeps; No Audi ride-quality...OH MY GOD! I'd fixed it! The service history is littered with receipts from other Citroen garages trying to sort this out, and boom! I'd guessed right first time, spent no money and fixed my 'massively complex' car!

Well, not quite. Yes, it wasn't going hard any more, but it was clearly riding too low. The front end was bottoming out, and though it was now much nicer to drive than it was previously, it clearly wasn't happy.


Time to start taking it seriously...
 

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So, having effected a 'repair' to the C6's poorly suspension (in other words, I lied to the computer to make it go away), I started driving the C6 about more. Rather than think something sensible, like "The suspension ain't right, and now it's riding too low and bottoms out everywhere, which can't be doing it any good", I decided to adopt a approach more akin to "Huzzah! Beeps be gone!"

In the brief period I was allowed to, I would pop out and drive it about. This wasn't actually all pure indulgence. I did genuinely want to know if there were any other issues I might need to add to my collection, but top of my priority list was to just enjoy it and get to know it. So, that's what I did.

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The first issue I noticed (first as in first since I started using it, not including the other issues) was the active spoiler. I'd cycled this quite a few times with the laptop, not for any reason other than I wanted to watch the spoiler go up and down. It doesn't get boring, you see.
What does get boring, however, is when it sticks up in the air, like that ^^. What it's supposed to do is, starting from standstill, raise at 40mph (or 45mph - I forget which) to stage one (the above is stage two). Then, at 80-85mph, it raises to stage two. When you slow back down to 60mph, it returns to stage one, and which you go below 15mph, it closes. Unless it doesn't, of course. Sometimes it goes back to stage two as you brake, and while that does give the impression of an awfully cool air-brake, the fact it stays up once you've stopped lets the side down a bit.
This is a high-priority issue, not for safety, or economic, or aerodynamics or handling, or anything like that; It's important because - and I feel the need to really stress this point - if your car has an active rear spoiler that you can watch in the rear view mirror, it absolutely has to work. No ifs, no buts. I'll be coming back to this one.

Spoiler aside, the car was running nicely, with no other new issues. Oh, except this one:

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No idea. Something brake-related. Can't be serious, right?

Anyway, some days passed and I did a bit of thinking. The logic to me, so far, suggested a sensor issue. My reasoning was that, assuming all the suspension travel sensors are potentiometers, they'll have needles and tracks, just like a fuel gauge sender or throttle positioning sensor. And, just like the latter, there is an operating window that the sensor normally sits in, causing it to wear out in a certain regular position. An example would be than with the TPS, you often sit with your foot resting on the throttle pedal, at around 10% opening. You only press harder to accelerate, and most people spend most of their time cruising. That causes the track to wear out at the position you use it most, giving you lumpy running and misfires, but quite often if you push harder on the throttle, it clears, because it's now operating on a cleaner piece of track.

Crap explaination, but I figured that might be happening with my suspension. On most cars these days (probably all cars, thinking about it - certainly all cars with Xenon headlamps) you'll have an axle sensor. It's normally a little positioning sensor mounted to the body, with an arm that is connected to the rear axle (either centrally, or via a wishbone) to detect any movement in the suspension. For the majority of cars, it's simply to allow the headlamps to auto-level, though some do venture into using it to aid the traction control & ESP systems.
The C6 (being a C6) takes this to the extreme: It uses a sensor on each wheel (via wishbone/suspension arm), so that the car can continuously monitor the perceived height of the car. C6 suspension is quite complex, as you might imagine. In fact, watching this video first might help you make better sense of my ramblings:

How C6 suspension works...simplified

Sorry, I should really have conducted that lesson over Teams, or something! Anyway, you've got a bit of background info now, so it should be a little easier to follow my wittering.

With a system that constantly needs to know how high the car is off the deck, me fudging the numbers probably wasn't the right thing to do. The good news is that in doing so, I may have discovered I have a faulty sensor, because now the car is sitting slightly lower, the sensor's 'rest' position is in a slightly different place, meaning the sensor track may be less warn there, and the resistance figures are more along the lines of what the ECU expects to see. Or something....it was my earliest guess, anyway! Gone are the days where you just adjust the clamp position on a little link rod between anti-roll bar and height corrector valve on a BX! 
So, with a view to actually giving the computer a fighting chance of controlling the suspension of a near-1900kg whale in a manner somewhat resembling the engineer's original design, I bought what looked like an Ikea kid's table in minature, and found it fitted the wheel hubs perfectly when pressed onto the wheel bolt heads.

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And, luckily, it had a pointy bit in the middle, to act as a datum point:

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That meant I was able to record the height between the centremost point of the wheel hub, and the floor. I then wrote the measurement on each wheel:

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...so, if you spy a C6 driving around with random numbers daubed all over its rims, you know what the owner has been doing. And, if the number doesn't start with a '3', you also know they're doing it wrong.

This measurement is known as r1 (if it's the nearside front wheel). If it's the offside, it's r2. And for the rear? You guessed it! r3 and r4. Those with you who've dabbled with maths will have already worked out that 'r' stands for radius.

"Why do you need to measure all the wheels? Surely the radius of each wheel is the same?!" none of you asked...

Ah...yes. The radius of each wheel would be the same, if...

* The tyres all had precisely even tread (if they did, I'd need four new tyres).
* All tyres have the same pressure (nope).
* The four corners of the car split the weight exactly 25% each, meaning a true 50/50 balance (and this car most certainly does not have this).

However, because you're measuring the radius to the ground (because that's where the road is), you'll find that, even at the correct tyre pressures, the measurements are all quite different. The fronts tend to be (on my car anyway) around 310mm, whereas the rear is somewhere around 325-330mm. Simple reason - front has more weight over it, causing the contact area of the tyre to be compressed more, moving the centre of the wheel hub closer to the road. Not by much, granted, but 2mm is a lot for the computer in this car. So, these are the first measurements you need.

The second measurement you need (and the ones I was copying from someone else's car, but having learned how these things work I realised I might have well as entered my PIN number for all the good it did) is known as 'H1M'.

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Having misread somebody's post on the C6 forum, and falsely believed the second measurement needed to come from the back of the wheel hub, somewhere on the upright (which made less than zero sense to me, and for once, I was right) I managed to make more sense out of the hooky copy of DiagBox that exists on an ancient laptop I have, which is jammed in French. Cooooooooooooool.

What 'H1M' actually is, is a measurement to the ground from a machined flat surface underneath the car. This gives a precise ride height to the computer, so it knows what r1 is, and once it knows what H1M is, it can figure out how much angle there is on the lower wishbone both at the present time, and the amount required to raise/lower the car by however much it wants. And, of course, H2M is offside front, H3M N/S/R and H4M O/S/R. Simples.

This is H1M:

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Now I'd never got past this stage before, because the computer had always told me it wasn't satisfied with my readings (which makes sense, in fairness, seeing as I was guessing them and telling it complete lies). However this time, with my special tools and precise numbers, computer says YES!

Giddy with the sweet, sweet feeling of success, I begin to imagine countryside wafts and cross-continental cruises in supreme comfort as I travel along th.....oh, there's another level to the programming, and I don't know what it means.

Bollocks. 

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  • 1 month later...

As promised, part two!

With two out of the three major issues now sorted, I turned my attentions to cosmetics. This is rare for me, as normally I'm only really bothered about the underside.
Part of my Citroen-dealer shopping spree including a pair of new side repeaters, which feature non-removable bulbs (so if you blow one, you have to replace the lamp...logic?!) I had working repeaters myself, but they were yellowed and had lost all their reflective...ness. So, these were renewed as it's a quick easy job.

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Next, I turned my attentions to the indicator lamps, or more specifically, the offside front. Again, it appeared to have yellowed and lost its reflective shine, but having removed it, I discovered it was just filthy dirty inside, due to a failed seal. However, I'd already bought a good used replacement for £30, so I opted to fit that.

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While here, I planned to upgrade the DRL lights to LED (because if I'm gonna have wanker lights, I might as well go all the way, right?) I also planned to install some LED indicators, mainly for the reason that if the DRL is now brighter, it might make it harder for other motorists to see the indicator flashing.

The bulbs are a weird type, which come in a plastic housing. From Citroen, they aren't available at all (it's a bulb-holder w/bulbs already fitted, or nothing, sir). However, on eBay, they are available as they're also fitted to BMWs and other such things. They're not difficult to change, so I got in two of each LED; DRL, and indicator.

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Brilliantly, the DRL LED was too fat to pass through the lamp itself, so this had to be carefully 'engineered' to allow it to pass:

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Having plugged in the new "CAN-BUS ready" LED indicator, I then had to remove them again as, despite the label, they flashed at double-speed. Helpful.

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With one side done, it was time for a quick comparison:

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One of the reasons for doing this, other than making it brighter so it's more easily seen, is that the standard DRL's look like fog lamps. I can handle looking a bit rough, or unfashionable, or un-cool, but I cannot handle people thinking I'm the sort to run around with their fog lamps on.

Work wrapped up that night, and I spent the subsequent days and weeks just using it, and registering any issues or faults it might have. (Remoaner plates now fitted front and rear - we hadn't left at this point, and I was clinging on for dear life!) 

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(I still haven't washed it...)

Christmas came and went, and before we knew it we were back into Lockdown again, so driving time was limited to the times I actually needed to go out. This wasn't a huge issue (well, it is, but not for the C6) as the gearbox fault itself only really becomes known once the oil warms up. On a 5 mile trip to work, it's fine, so the short journeys each day are happy and relaxed, especially when you go sunset hunting on the way home...

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...or go looking for huge flames coming out the top of an oil refinery a few miles away:

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With the kids having to do learning at home, there were patches where I wasn't at work at all, so the C6 wasn't being used. In the idle cold winter weeks, I discovered the battery is either on its last legs, or the car has a power drain. The battery itself is located in the boot, so visually it looks brand new (what you can see of it, anyway!) There are no visible date markings, but I'm going to assume it's not fresh. Being that I only do 5 miles to work, and that recently those 5 miles have been irregular, with all the heating elements on (including the rear seats, which the kids never remember to switch off), and the grunt it takes to churn the thing over in the first place...oh, and the fact that the suspension pumps up when you unlocking the car and open the door; I suspect the battery probably doesn't get much of a chance to recover what it loses.

This came to a one morning where, rather than churn over slowly and struggle into life, it did its first fail-to-proceed. The C6 suffered the ignominy of being jump started by an S-Max, and limped to work where it spent the day plugged in like a Tesla:

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Having spent the day on trickle charge, the huge battery in the boot was still not at its best by the end of the day, so after work I opted to run the car up the motorway to Petersfield and back in an attempt to force some electrons back into the acid box like a RyanAir passenger desperately trying to force shut an overpacked suitcase by sitting on it prior to pulling the zip....or something. It seemed more sensible than potentially suffering another FTP in the Cul-de-Sac at home, and sure enough, by the end of the 30min trip, the starter was buzzing over at twice the speed, and has continued to do so since. 
During this mini-trip, I was able to sample a C6 in its prime, as it was the first occasion I'd used the car on the motorway with fault-free suspension. It was only brief, but I discovered that the gearbox issue isn't phased by motorway slogs, and that the issue itself arises when the box is being asked to change gear a lot. 15mins in a town will give it issues, but an hour on the motorway and it'll be fine, especially seeing as the gear that misbehaves the most is third, which the car is not using above 30mph.
I didn't take too much stock of how the car performed at the task, as I was concentrating on any problems that might arise, but it gave me more confidence in the car.

The downside is that the more time you spend in it, the more warm and comfy you get, and then when you arrive home, you don't want to get out!

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The fact that the car is so nice to be in, allied to the impression that it was perfectly happy sitting on the motorway meant that I opted to use it for a 200 mile round-trip to High Wycombe a couple of days ago (yes - I'm actually up to date!) I needed to buy some parts for the Imp, and that couldn't move without them, and it was blocking the workshop due to my poor-planning! Posting wasn't an option, as I needed to inspect the parts first, so a direct to & from trip took place in the C6.
Until this time, the furthest I'd driven it was, well, Petersfield as above! This time I'd thrown £40 of Esso's finest grease in it, and once I'd got past the seemingly endless roadworks round here, I hit the A3 (opted to avoid the M3 until I was confident the car would be fine), set the cruise to 69mph and settled in to see what's what.

Two things came to mind. Firstly, that I am wasting the C6 by restricting it to local commuter shuffling on 30mph roads just as much as you'd be wasting a Lotus Exige by only using it on motorways and never once taking it near a B-road, or a circuit. It's like buying an Intercity 125, and then using it on a branch line. Actually, the TGV would be more apt.
And, speaking of trains, the second thought I had was that, at 70mph, the C6 is, quite frankly ridiculous. I've never been in anything which laughs at a long(ish) journey the way this car does. At that speed, it is more like sitting in First Class on the Eurostar than being in a car. You cannot hear the engine, and though you witness other cars moving vertically as they traverse bumps and undulations, the C6 barely notices. At 70mph, it's doing 1900rpm, and averaging about 45mpg. Wind-noise is exceptionally quiet, given that it has frameless-doors, and only the tyre noise on my car lets the side down (relatively speaking - it's still quieter than most). It needs new rubber, so I'm not going to be holding that against it.

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Pit stop at Beaconsfield Services on Saturday

I have never, ever, travelled in a car where the 'fun' part of the journey was the motorway. Normally on a return, I'm itching to peel off the motorways and use the A-roads & twisty backlanes. Motorways are dull and monotonous, afterall, but with the C6, they're the party trick. They're actually what you look forward to! Sure, it's probably a novelty that'll wear off, but I've honestly never driven a car on a journey where I got out at the other end completely obvious to the hours I'd just been sat down. It doesn't eat miles, it deletes them.

Stopped by at a location I'd been to once before with one of my other double-chevron'd gasbag motors...

2021:

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2011:

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I'm looking forward to many roadtrips when all this COVID crap is done with.
 

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Awesome updates! I wonder how many got scrapped because of a simple issue like that! 

My cars been slow to start when left for weeks, although hasn't ftp'd yet. I'm ignoring it for now and leaving £60 in a pot in my bank account just incase. Always perks right up after even a short drive, I've not gone more than 10 miles since November 2020!

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It is my conviction BXs were usually damned and sent to the ninth circle of hell after their kwal-e-tee* uncoated hydraulic tubes started to fail, one after another. The clever* placement in front of left rear wheel, where they were exposed to salt and stuff, was a work of genius*, indeed.

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1 hour ago, Bitzer said:

It is my conviction BXs were usually damned and sent to the ninth circle of hell after their kwal-e-tee* uncoated hydraulic tubes started to fail, one after another. The clever* placement in front of left rear wheel, where they were exposed to salt and stuff, was a work of genius*, indeed.

That was only the earlier cars, in fairness. Everything post-89 had coated pipework. I mean, they still rust...

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  • 1 month later...

C6 clicked over 155k miles the other day, which means I've done...well, not many. Probably around 1,500 in it, though they have, for the most part, been trouble-free miles. It's not failed to proceed once, and I am very fond of it. It feels honest and humble, despite being a pretentious (for a French car, anyway) wafto-barge.

Sadly, it's developed a high-pitched squeal, which I suspect is drive-belt related. Due to work load (and other...ahem...projects) I've not got the room to bring it in for the repair work it needs (which is partially dismantling the front of the car), so I'm forced to SORN it as of today. £50 a month in tax? I'm not leaving that running!

I'll be able to bring it in when I've removed one of my other cars, and the natural pick of that bunch seems to be my mk1 BX, which is now running and moving around under its own steam. Plan is to get that on the road, and use it, opening a space inside for the C6. Until then, she'll have to wait.

Got to compare it with its ancestor a few weeks ago, though, which was nice!

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On 12/29/2020 at 1:41 PM, richykitchy said:

.....what does my C6 need?

....* The gearbox. It's an Aisin (a subsiduary of Toyota, no less) 6-spd auto box, reknowned for their smoothness and longevity....and for the fact that the 'sealed for life' element of the service instructions turned out to be horsecack. They need oil changes, but because the manufacturers said they didn't, many boxes are a-borked. Mine might not be...yet, but it's certainly not happy. It displaces a loud THUD! going into reverse (unless stone-cold), and once hot it can slip between 2nd and 3rd ratios (solved by backing off the throttle to allow to box to catch up, which results in an equal and opposite-direction THUD! Oh, and if you pull up at the lights, it'll stall, unless you knock it back into neutral. Good times. The fix could be as simple as a few oil changes, but it could also be a mechanical issue (a hydraulic valve block is a cool £600).

......*Air-con - doesn't work. Gets mighty stuffy in there, mighty quickly. Roll on cold weather!.....

 

It's grand to know that the ghost of an automatic CX still haunts the place. Mine sometimes thuds if you select reverse in a hurry. CX auto dipstick levels can be very random in their readings and even in the colour of the fluid - sometimes red, sometimes clear.....

Also the ventilation is still shite, so the C6 is just replicating the CX in this respect.

 

On 12/29/2020 at 2:28 PM, richykitchy said:

......A pair of Remoaner numberplates were sourced (while I still can - aside from the fact I'm a blatant remoaner, I plan to drive the car to France.....

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....

I wonder if the French fuzz might pull you for this, as I remember reading that we're no longer allowed to carry the EU stars on plates if we ever drive on the Continent. Instead, it has to be a plain blue strip or a blue strip with just "GB" on it. Or just plain plates with the oval GB sticker elsewhere on the back end.

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47 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I wonder if the French fuzz might pull you for this, as I remember reading that we're no longer allowed to carry the EU stars on plates if we ever drive on the Continent. Instead, it has to be a plain blue strip or a blue strip with just "GB" on it. Or just plain plates with the oval GB sticker elsewhere on the back end.

I doubt it'll be much of an issue, considering the throughput of UK vehicles on their original GB EU plates rolling through Calais and the like. They'd make a killing if they set up a stop check point once traffic joins the autoroute!

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1 hour ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

I wonder if the French fuzz might pull you for this, as I remember reading that we're no longer allowed to carry the EU stars on plates if we ever drive on the Continent. Instead, it has to be a plain blue strip or a blue strip with just "GB" on it. Or just plain plates with the oval GB sticker elsewhere on the back end.

Not with a C6, they won't. I reckon I'll get a motorised cavalcade!

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3 hours ago, Rusty Pelican said:

What a top read , i thought my W203 Merc was complicated - this is like a spaceship in its complexity - hat doffed at your skills Sir 

 

I second this as another W203 owner. I'll never dread the job of changing the door pulls again

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8 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Had a look around for petrol C6s today. Cheapest one was 14 grand in France(1 of 2 for sale), 19 grand in Germany 1 of 6, had almost 200k km). At what point did these get so expensive?!

Those are the ones that work properly and aren't waiting for spares....

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On 12/29/2020 at 1:41 PM, richykitchy said:

* The gearbox. It's an Aisin (a subsiduary of Toyota, no less) 6-spd auto box, reknowned for their smoothness and longevity....and for the fact that the 'sealed for life' element of the service instructions turned out to be horsecack. They need oil changes, but because the manufacturers said they didn't, many boxes are a-borked. Mine might not be...yet, but it's certainly not happy. It displaces a loud THUD! going into reverse (unless stone-cold), and once hot it can slip between 2nd and 3rd ratios (solved by backing off the throttle to allow to box to catch up, which results in an equal and opposite-direction THUD!

I've had a few renaults with Aisin Warner boxes, although those ones didn't claim to be sealed they also suffer with the dreaded thud in reverse. I think one had started slipping a bit too if memory serves.. Anyway a fresh fluid change usually sorts out the thud and from memory my slippage went away too. Don't bother dipsticking it, just get two 5L bottles of water from the supermarket. Empty them, empty the gearbox of fluid into one, fill the other with new fluid to the same level (then add 1-3mm for the odd bits you might of lost - if you want) and then pour the new stuff in. You only need to dipstick it if you've emptied it and not been able to fill identically side by side using the method above.

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