FatHarris - tales of a motoring moron *Rover final musings**

[High Jetter]

Enjoy your well-earned beer(s!)

[fatharris]

13 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Enjoy your well-earned beer(s!)

Thank you, I did!

Head is feeling rather tender but it was a fantastic evening and long overdue!

[beko1987]

Time to get washing and polishing then 👌

[fatharris]

Had one of those rare things - a weekend out of the garage 😅

Ended up clearing the garden of the winter overgrowth (three tip runs!), cleaning and recommissioning the hot tub instead.

Yesterday, I got in the garage to give the interior a bit of a scrub, but in all honesty, it wasn't that bad. It got a hoovering, a wipe down of the hard surfaces with Auto Finesse Verso APC, and the windows cleaned with IPA - I also added a sticker on the wheel to remind me not the thrash it, along with the next forecast oil change.

The car was fired up to make sure it was running okay, the lights were all retested, locks, hinges etc, given a squirt of lube and the boot catch adjusted (this needs further fettling but will do for now).

Tomorrow is the big day, the MOT is booked for either 1000 or 1100.

Today, the insurance has kicked in, so I'm taking an extended test drive to get the car properly warmed up before dropping it off at the garage tonight. MrsH will be following me in the Laguna with a tow rope just in case 😅

As for today, it was meant to be a lovely day (it wasn't in the end), so the driveway got shuffled around last night to clear the way for a fun commute:

The drive in to work didn't fill me with the usual joy - whilst it would bimble nicely enough, it felt flat when giving it the beans and seemed hesitant to rev beyond 7000rpm.

Then I remembered the fuel in the tank had been sat there since November at the latest and has probably gotten a bit stale - tank topped off with Momentum and it feels a lot zingier once again! The stereo hasn't worked since it's been parked up either so that'll need investigation as a priority 😅

Cheers.

[2flags]

That looks lovely. You will be well chuffed to get that back on the road and be driving it after all the work you've put into it. Best of luck for the MoT, not that you'll need it. 

[fatharris]

28 minutes ago, 2flags said:

That looks lovely. You will be well chuffed to get that back on the road and be driving it after all the work you've put into it. Best of luck for the MoT, not that you'll need it. 

Cheers, I'm hoping to have finished the running-in period and just have it being 'an car' before Shitefest!

[fatharris]

So, the first drive out!

First I drove it round the block a couple of times, all seemed well.

Popped to Tesco to put some more fuel in.

And I noticed a few drips under the car.

I took it back home and was surprised to see a geyser in the engine bay.

Aware of the time constraints, and with the coolant piping hot, I went for an additional hose clip. 

This seemed to do the trick and the coolant stream stopped leaking. Re-bled the system and drove it to Phills. 7 miles covered since the rebuild, 493 to go!

He's kindly agreed to replace the jubilee clip first thing in the morning when the engine is cold, but I'll be getting a replacement hose on there ASAP.

To add to my concerned levels, the exhaust was lovely and smoke free during the bimble around town, but there was a quantity of smoke during the uphill section when a bit more throttle was required. 

That being said, it did seem to drive really rather nicely, and it was holding its temperature and keeping the LHM in the system. Brakes still take a bit of getting used to though!

Still, the MOT is tomorrow morning so it's all to play for!

Cheers.

[Tickman]

Fingers crossed for the test, you've done a lot of work to get this far.

[fatharris]

 

You know what? That ain't too bad.

[beko1987]

Something you'd want sorting anyway so 🤷

[twosmoke300]

His normal test centre would have passed it - we just bullied him into having a proper MOT this time🤣

[2flags]

Will the calipers free off or will you replace them?

[fatharris]

Will the calipers free off or will you replace them?

I'm hoping they'll clean up and be good for another retest, but I'll find out more when I collect it later - it's a good result regardless!

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[fatharris]

So, back in the garage we go - up onto ramps, raise the suspension, then lower onto axle stands to save me jacking on the sills.

The sliders weren't greased last time I was here, so I did them this time - there was a bit of crud on them which cleaned up.

Both sides went in but there's still a little bit of drag. I think it's okay though.

Either way, I went for another brake bleed because I wanted to get the last of the air out of the system - there is a slight delay from pressing the pedal to the brakes kicking in.

This is where things started going wrong - for some reason, the fronts have bled fine, but the rears wouldn't give any fluid at all - in fact, with the brake pedal on, the discs were still free to spin.

What's going on? It passed the rear brake performance test this morning and I'm a bit clueless now.

Going to revisit this tomorrow afternoon as I was getting irritated by it.

Cheers.

[jonathan_dyane]

The back brakes are fed from the back suspension (to vary braking force accordingly to load). This means that to effectively bleed the rear brakes you either need the rear jacked up under the suspension arms or alternatively suspension on high which will give rear brakes max pressure too

[fatharris]

I think that's correct as last time I bled it the fronts were on the ground - I was tired yesterday, can you tell?

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[fatharris]

No photos today, but I bled the rear brakes eventually, tightened the LHM and Alternator belts, and removed/refitted the steering wheel to make it more central.
The other end of that leaky coolant pipe also started leaking so I've added a second hose clip to that end - that'll be getting replaced as soon as possible.
Dropped it off this evening for retest tomorrow, there's a few emergent (not emergency, bloody autocorrect!) jobs coming from the test drives but nothing too taxing.
Cheers!

[Boycie]

After working in a Citroen dealership in the mid 90s I can confirm this was response from any mechanic given a job involving  Bx pipery......

 

 

 

 

[EyesWeldedShut]

2 hours ago, Boycie said:

After working in a Citroen dealership in the mid 90s

Wasn't Sands of Burham? I'm still smarting from their mechanical ineptitude in 1994  

[Stinkwheel]

2 hours ago, Boycie said:

After working in a Citroen dealership in the mid 90s I can confirm this was response from any mechanic given a job involving  Bx pipery......

 

 

 

 

Have to say this was always the result of showing a citroen dealership mechanic anything BX, CX, 2CV, GSA shaped in the early to mid 90's and onward.

They werent interested and considered them too difficult to bother with and they all wanted to just do oil and brakes on AX's and ZX's as they were normal and why did i drive this old shit anyway, why not just buy a new car etc etc

Whereas the parts department were usually great, they loved selling bits for the more oddball stuff, the guy that used to be at Baldets parts was chuffed when i ordered a whole shopping list of stuff for a dyane in 1994, he made a list for me of what was actually still available 

[fatharris]

Wasn't Sands of Burham? I'm still smarting from their mechanical ineptitude in 1994  

Funny you should mention Sands....

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[EyesWeldedShut]

37 minutes ago, fatharris said:

Funny you should mention Sands....

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I had a BX that colour on a 'G' plate which served me well (XUD non turbo)
Sands sold me a C15 van from new which dieseled the engine oil within a year. After much wrangling between us, them and Citroen UK a new engine was fitted. That then overheated as the heater coolant lines down the back were not properly re-connected. Sands were a bit arsey about it pointing the finger at 'owner error'?? We argued the toss for a bit (lack of temp. gauge helped my case) but I'd already got another car in during the interim so the C15 went bye-bye.  Chopped that one in for the BX not long after.

[fatharris]

Ladies (oh, who am I kidding?) and gentlemen:

Let's party.

[twosmoke300]

Spelt break down wrong there pard 

[mk2_craig]

Well done! Your hard work has paid off. 

[Boycie]

11 hours ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

Wasn't Sands of Burham? I'm still smarting from their mechanical ineptitude in 1994  

No , I'm in Ayrshire ....the stories I could tell ...

[EyesWeldedShut]

1 hour ago, Boycie said:

No , I'm in Ayrshire ....the stories I could tell ...

All my family are/were Ayr based but none of them have ever owned a Citroen. I was the black sheep in that respect.

[2flags]

Well done!! Now what are you going to do with all the time you will have now you're not fixing the BX?? 😁

 

[Boycie]

17 minutes ago, EyesWeldedShut said:

All my family are/were Ayr based but none of them have ever owned a Citroen. I was the black sheep in that respect.

I'm in North Ayrshire 

[fatharris]

I'm in North Ayrshire 

I do enjoy Ayr and Prestwick - spent a lot of time up there in recent years!

Great nights out

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