I'll get round to it at some point - Bratislava and Back: Things not to do in a mk2 Clio

[Rust Collector]

And yes, I will sort the faded trim out next! 😅

[wesacosa]

looks great mate, well done.  Makes me sad the roof on mine has gone to shit . 

[Matty]

By God that's come up well! Wasn't life better when manufacturers made interesting cars in lovely colours!

[Rust Collector]

36 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

looks great mate, well done.  Makes me sad the roof on mine has gone to shit . 

There’s lacquer peel at the front of my roof, on my door tops, on one front wing and on the spoiler, along with a few other places. It’s not ideal, but it is 30 years old and has done 259,000 miles at the end of the day - I’m slightly older than that and I’ve got my fair share of blemishes that I didn’t start out with. I like that the car is a survivor and I think some of the scruffiness adds to its charm.

[Rust Collector]

On 25/06/2024 at 00:12, brownnova said:

FTFY

 

Hope the XM has done fighting you. Your work on it is sterling, and puts many of us lesser fettlers to shame! 

I forgot to reply to this, sorry mate! The Pontiac is on hard standing at the farm currently; the reason being that as it’s a car I don’t plan to sell it’s not at the top of the list currently.

The priorities are the 3 or 4 cars that I bought to save, recommission and sell.

I suspect it’ll be next summer that I’m working on the Pontiac now as it looks like the welding will be a pretty substantial job involving separating the plastic sill panels from the space frame. I reckon it could be bodged, but I want it to be done properly as it’s a car that I think deserves the effort.

[wesacosa]

8 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

There’s lacquer peel at the front of my roof, on my door tops, on one front wing and on the spoiler, along with a few other places. It’s not ideal, but it is 30 years old and has done 259,000 miles at the end of the day - I’m slightly older than that and I’ve got my fair share of blemishes that I didn’t start out with. I like that the car is a survivor and I think some of the scruffiness adds to its charm.

I don't seem to have lacquer peel on mine but the roof went from ok to this almost overnight last year 

 

[Rust Collector]

2 hours ago, wesacosa said:

I don't seem to have lacquer peel on mine but the roof went from ok to this almost overnight last year 

 

Ah ok, that’s what I’m including under the general heading of lacquer peel - that’s exactly what the front of my roof is like.

[wesacosa]

39 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

Ah ok, that’s what I’m including under the general heading of lacquer peel - that’s exactly what the front of my roof is like.

yeah the 90s metallic paint does seem to like doing that

[Rust Collector]

Seeing as some rain was forecast today, I did something I’ve never done before; I waxed a car.

That was quite satisfying to do. My logic is that it should protect the work I’ve done and make any interim washes easier. I just need to get something to sort the black trim out and I can stop fucking around cleaning the outside.

Next up, I needed to replace two bulbs in the dash.

Fuck my life.

I wouldn’t have bothered but one of the bulbs in question provides the back lighting to the gear selection display so having it out of action was annoying.

The display itself is in this module that’s screwed to the back of the instrument cluster

The bulb itself was an absolute wanker to get out  fuck doing that again.

Whilst I was in there I replaced the bulbs in the spare clock I had.

That got me this far

And then fucking around with a pick for me here.

The temp sensor in the wing mirror is presumably duff, I may have a spare though.

I was cleaning as I put everything back together, so at least the dash is really clean now.

The final ‘fuck you’ from the car though is that the gear indicator only shows either P or N for all the gears.

Bastard.

[wesacosa]

looking good

temperature sensors are genetic Citroen I think, so can still be get for not a lot of money on eBay 

 

[Rust Collector]

5 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

looking good

temperature sensors are genetic Citroen I think, so can still be get for not a lot of money on eBay 

 

I reckon I might have a spare in the shed, but if not I’ll grab another.

It makes the interior feel a lot more together having the displays working at least.

[wesacosa]

2 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I reckon I might have a spare in the shed, but if not I’ll grab another.

It makes the interior feel a lot more together having the displays working at least.

Yeah looks good.  Both mine light up buy left hand display is illegible. Right hand one is ok but has a bit of bleeding 

[Rust Collector]

1 minute ago, wesacosa said:

Yeah looks good.  Both mine light up buy left hand display is illegible. Right hand one is ok but has a bit of bleeding 

It turns out my car doesn’t have a left hand display. There’s no wiring for it either, apparently some cars didn’t get them. One less thing to go wrong I guess.

I think I have a spare left hand display here but no idea if it works.

[wesacosa]

5 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

It turns out my car doesn’t have a left hand display. There’s no wiring for it either, apparently some cars didn’t get them. One less thing to go wrong I guess.

I think I have a spare left hand display here but no idea if it works.

I think maybe only VSX trim up got it

If it works it will be worth a few quid as most dont

[Rust Collector]

I’m slowly working my way through diagnostics on the Hydractive II system. I’m fairly sure I need to do some repairs to the ECU, or replace it.

At any rate, I’m still out enjoying the car. Today I’ve been on an hour and a half drive in it, and nothing blew up and no fluids vomited out, despite a mix of roads and traffic. It’s a joy to drive, and I’m fairly content now that it should be up to a decent length drive home with a new owner.

On all my test drives I’ve had the full entourage in tow so that my partner gets a break and for full jeopardy should we break down. It works really well as a family car, and my son loves it.

Even though it’s only the hatchback, it will take the two kids, me and my partner, the two large dogs plus a bit of luggage, a small pram and all the required child paraphernalia.

In an ideal world I’d keep the thing really, as I think it would make a cracking daily driver.

[wesacosa]

39 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I’m slowly working my way through diagnostics on the Hydractive II system. I’m fairly sure I need to do some repairs to the ECU, or replace it.

At any rate, I’m still out enjoying the car. Today I’ve been on an hour and a half drive in it, and nothing blew up and no fluids vomited out, despite a mix of roads and traffic. It’s a joy to drive, and I’m fairly content now that it should be up to a decent length drive home with a new owner.

On all my test drives I’ve had the full entourage in tow so that my partner gets a break and for full jeopardy should we break down. It works really well as a family car, and my son loves it.

Even though it’s only the hatchback, it will take the two kids, me and my partner, the two large dogs plus a bit of luggage, a small pram and all the required child paraphernalia.

In an ideal world I’d keep the thing really, as I think it would make a cracking daily driver.

I would definitely recommend one as a daily. I did with mine for 2 years until the ULEZ came in and its comfortable, large, reliable* and very economical yet clips along nicely on the motorway too

[beko1987]

3 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I’m slowly working my way through diagnostics on the Hydractive II system. I’m fairly sure I need to do some repairs to the ECU, or replace it.

At any rate, I’m still out enjoying the car. Today I’ve been on an hour and a half drive in it, and nothing blew up and no fluids vomited out, despite a mix of roads and traffic. It’s a joy to drive, and I’m fairly content now that it should be up to a decent length drive home with a new owner.

On all my test drives I’ve had the full entourage in tow so that my partner gets a break and for full jeopardy should we break down. It works really well as a family car, and my son loves it.

Even though it’s only the hatchback, it will take the two kids, me and my partner, the two large dogs plus a bit of luggage, a small pram and all the required child paraphernalia.

In an ideal world I’d keep the thing really, as I think it would make a cracking daily driver.

Those dogs would love an estate one 👌

[Rust Collector]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

Those dogs would love an estate one 👌

I keep saying I’ll never have another XM.

However, if a 2.1 or 2.5 diesel estate came up with a fairly high spec, in either blue or green, then I’d probably buckle.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, beko1987 said:

Those dogs would love a pogweaselled MG ZTT 👌

🤣

[Rust Collector]

Today I took on the last big fix (I hope) before it gets listed.

To recap, the car drove like the suspension was stuck in hard mode or had flat spheres, and I also was not getting the Hydractive diagnostic lamp illuminating on startup like it’s meant to.

After a lot of evenings plus today spent trawling through circuit diagrams and pinouts, plus combing through forums and google images to find reference points for how things should be, I spent today working through the electrical side of the Hydractive system to check that all was in order.

This is partly because the ECU was spewing out the codes for pretty much everything, and the fault memory couldn’t be cleared meaning that either the faults were persistent or the ECU had failed in some way.

If you recall, there is at least one physical defect with the ECU in that a diode that appears to join the negative pins to the permanent live pins was missing - today was the day this was due to be rectified (no pun intended). For my own sanity though, I still wanted to test everything else.

The short version is, it has permanent live, switched live and earth where it should do. The sensors all give a sensible impedance reading. The central solenoids that control the switch between soft and hard suspension settings can be actuated using the power probe.

Running the ECU outside of its case, I was able to measure the output from the transistors that power the solenoids - a common failure mode that produces a permanent hard suspension setting is these transistors burning out. Mine were behaving, they output 12v to trigger the solenoid and then 3.5v to keep it in that state - if you had an oscilloscope you could go further and look at the waveform as this lower voltage is achieved by pulse width modulation.

Brain now hurting, I went on the hunt for diodes. Obviously I had lost the original one that fell off the board.

I remembered that years ago I bought some to set up fog lights on a Granvia, but I had little hope they’d turn up as I’m a messy fucker so no chance they’d be somewhere sensible.

How wrong I was!

I consolidated a load of electrical shite into a draw a few months ago, and I must have found these and put them there at the same time. Result!!

Sadly I couldn’t find any decent (i.e. lead based) solder, just the cheap stuff that was supplied with a soldering station I liberated from work. This was not ideal as the stuff just wouldn’t flow , and the delicate balance between getting a good joint and burning the bollocks off the board is not a fun game. The soldering was the hardest/most frustrating part, and looks a right mess.

However, there’s a diode in place (and the correct way round this time!) on the board again, plus I’ve added in the two recommended diodes that perform the same back EMF filtering function as the diodes in the solenoid should they fail.

I chucked it all back together, and eagerly switched it on… and the diagnostic light didn’t flash. Bugger.

I read the codes, and I got exactly the same codes as I had before. Bugger.

I tried to clear the codes, and then read the codes again… this time they actually cleared!

The moment of truth then:

At the top left, you’ll see that on ignition the hydractive light comes on, the ECU performs its checks, and the light goes out.

Result!

The big question is, did it sort the ride out?

The answer is ‘yes, but…’; the suspension now has a noticeable difference between the soft and hard setting. It’s much more pleasant to drive. However, I suspect the spheres are tired and that replacing at least the central two spheres would make it even better.

That however, will be a job for the next person I’m afraid - in terms of time and money I am now at the end of my journey with this car. It’s at a point where it is MOT’d and perfectly useable as a daily driver, and whoever takes it on can either enjoy it as-is or can choose to put a little bit of money and time into it as an ongoing project to make it even better. Either way, they enjoy the warm feeling of knowing that I’ve done the bulk of the shit stuff so that they don’t have to! 😅

If I can be motivated enough tonight then I’ll get the advert up, but if you’ll excuse me for now I’m going back outside to enjoy driving the XM for a half hour or so.

[Rust Collector]

The XM is doing ‘an car’ things admirably, so this weekend I moved the ZX out the way as requested by mother.

The complication was that the ZX doesn’t have a rear axle fitted.

This will require stunt work then.

That looks safe.

The test lift was promising:

And it didn’t fuck off out of the bucket as it came down the ramps, which was a result.

Knowing that the mini tractor can lift it up easily enough, I’ve just put it on a couple of pallets for now.

I plan to abuse the old axle tomorrow and see if I can’t get the new one built up.

Other things I sorted today, but no pics sadly:

- I helped my dad re-seat the tyres on the gardening trailer by using a ratchet strap. The bead had come off on both wheels as a result of it being used with two flat tyres…

- My dad helped me to extract my Mitsubishi from the place I abandoned it last winter when it sank in the field. Now that everything is dry, it came out happily enough. A bit of ragging around the field brought the 4wd back to life, and we then unceremoniously dumped in a slightly different part of the field.

- For a giggle I also drove the XM through the fields with my Dad as he hasn’t been in any of my Citroens before. The suspension is mad, it just eats up all the ruts and the car travels smoother than it does on paved road.

I haven’t spent time with my dad for ages, so it was nice to spend an afternoon with him, dicking around and getting some bits crossed off the list.

[Rust Collector]

'You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.'

I've made my peace with this and vented to friends/family etc. about this car, so I'm not doing a write up now. But I've sunk countless amounts of money and time into the XM since December, in the hopes it would come good, and sadly it just hasn't. It's currently sat on the driveway, and it isn't driveable because something that I can't be arsed to diagnose is causing a grinding and vibration whilst driving. I'm done, and it's going back in the pile. I should scrap it, or sell it at scrap money, but I'm about 400+ hours into it and I just can't deal with that much of my life ending up in no car plus £200, so chucking it into the corner of the yard works better.

My fixation with sorting the XM has resulted in all my other cars being neglected. The MOT's on the decent(ish) cars we had have lapsed.

I went to repair the handbrake on the Disco 3, and discovered that some cunt has removed the cover from the module on the axle and left it off. So that's fucked.

I need to replace the propshaft bearing on the E320 CDi, plus weld the fucking rad carriage on again.

The Lexus is mostly ok, but I never got to the bottom of that top end hesitation problem. The fact that it wasn't right when I stopped using it gives me no enthusiasm to get a ticket on it.

We are using a single car between us, which hasn't actually been a problem as I work from home bar one day a week - this has possibly contributed towards me not being bothered to sort out at least a second car. This thing:

If you're determined, you can get two adults, two babies and two retrievers in it. Plus it's a piece of piss to park in the centre of town when I do go to the office.

I think I may be losing my interest in working on cars. I think I may even be losing my interest in running cars. I wouldn't mind some bland, family size, diesel powered blob. This was reaffirmed by the Clio giving me grief at the weekend, when I noticed air in the fuel lines. Long story short, the sender was blocked with sludge, and after I spent a lot of time fucking around and getting soaked in diesel it's now working better than before.

On to happier things though:

We're finally going on holiday. Sort of. We're visiting the in-laws for a week.

We were meant to fly, because all the suitable cars broke , and I left organising tickets to my partner, as I can't even begin to express my hatred of aeroplanes. I should add, it's not a fear; just an intense frustration at what a miserable, unpleasant method of transport aeroplanes are for proles like me. But at least travelling by plane is cheap.

Except it isn't. The price my partner had quoted me for travelling without luggage in the hold was lower than the cost of driving. But then if you want to sit near to each other (something that's helpful when you have two infants travelling with you, and will need to help each other) then that's another £80 over the return trip. And with the airline we use, a carry case is no longer classed as hand luggage - you're limited to a backpack. Want to bring a small case with you to go in the overhead luggage? Hand over some more money please.

Suddenly the miserable experience of travelling by plane is also fucking expensive, if you want to do something as extravagant than bring more than a couple of nappies and a change of pants for your time away.

So driving has been revisited.

It's cheaper. We can take some luggage. Our children will scream and cry for the whole one thousand miles there, and the thousand miles back, but I won't have to feel stressed about the fact that I'm annoying an airplane full of strangers with my children exhibiting the normal frustration of an infant in transit. The Clio is very small space to spend a whole day in. I hope it won't suffer from catastrophic mechanical failure in some way.

We leave on the 17th, return date TBC depending on whether or not the car shits its pants, if we decide to have a short break on the way back, or if I just give up and run off into the woods to live feral once I get there.

I'm hoping my enthusiasm comes back after the trip, as driving long distance by car is one of the things I love the most.

[Asimo]

A thousand miles is a long way to walk, a manageable and maybe memorable way to drive a car, a meaningless and irritating distance in an airliner.

One life. Live it.

[wesacosa]

10 minutes ago, Asimo said:

A thousand miles is a long way to walk, 

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Post liked for the dependable smol French city car and trans-european roadtrip plan, not for the ungrateful large French luxury car.

I presume you'll aim to cover the 1000 miles over 3 days and "accidentally" book two overnight stays as close as possible to motoring museums ?

[brownnova]

That XM really has fought you all the way!

Hope the pan European trip in the wee Clio perks things back up. Also hopefully the kids get into a good rhythm of travelling. We did Dorset and back from North Wales with our two little ones, but in a genuinely daft move had started potty training a couple of weeks before… so it was an endless chorus of “I need a wee” 

The ‘My carry potty’ we bought was the best thing ever on that journey! 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

'You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension.'

I've made my peace with this and vented to friends/family etc. about this car, so I'm not doing a write up now. But I've sunk countless amounts of money and time into the XM since December, in the hopes it would come good, and sadly it just hasn't. It's currently sat on the driveway, and it isn't driveable because something that I can't be arsed to diagnose is causing a grinding and vibration whilst driving. I'm done, and it's going back in the pile. I should scrap it, or sell it at scrap money, but I'm about 400+ hours into it and I just can't deal with that much of my life ending up in no car plus £200, so chucking it into the corner of the yard works better.

My fixation with sorting the XM has resulted in all my other cars being neglected. The MOT's on the decent(ish) cars we had have lapsed.

I went to repair the handbrake on the Disco 3, and discovered that some cunt has removed the cover from the module on the axle and left it off. So that's fucked.

I need to replace the propshaft bearing on the E320 CDi, plus weld the fucking rad carriage on again.

The Lexus is mostly ok, but I never got to the bottom of that top end hesitation problem. The fact that it wasn't right when I stopped using it gives me no enthusiasm to get a ticket on it.

We are using a single car between us, which hasn't actually been a problem as I work from home bar one day a week - this has possibly contributed towards me not being bothered to sort out at least a second car. This thing:

If you're determined, you can get two adults, two babies and two retrievers in it. Plus it's a piece of piss to park in the centre of town when I do go to the office.

I think I may be losing my interest in working on cars. I think I may even be losing my interest in running cars. I wouldn't mind some bland, family size, diesel powered blob. This was reaffirmed by the Clio giving me grief at the weekend, when I noticed air in the fuel lines. Long story short, the sender was blocked with sludge, and after I spent a lot of time fucking around and getting soaked in diesel it's now working better than before.

On to happier things though:

We're finally going on holiday. Sort of. We're visiting the in-laws for a week.

We were meant to fly, because all the suitable cars broke , and I left organising tickets to my partner, as I can't even begin to express my hatred of aeroplanes. I should add, it's not a fear; just an intense frustration at what a miserable, unpleasant method of transport aeroplanes are for proles like me. But at least travelling by plane is cheap.

Except it isn't. The price my partner had quoted me for travelling without luggage in the hold was lower than the cost of driving. But then if you want to sit near to each other (something that's helpful when you have two infants travelling with you, and will need to help each other) then that's another £80 over the return trip. And with the airline we use, a carry case is no longer classed as hand luggage - you're limited to a backpack. Want to bring a small case with you to go in the overhead luggage? Hand over some more money please.

Suddenly the miserable experience of travelling by plane is also fucking expensive, if you want to do something as extravagant than bring more than a couple of nappies and a change of pants for your time away.

So driving has been revisited.

It's cheaper. We can take some luggage. Our children will scream and cry for the whole one thousand miles there, and the thousand miles back, but I won't have to feel stressed about the fact that I'm annoying an airplane full of strangers with my children exhibiting the normal frustration of an infant in transit. The Clio is very small space to spend a whole day in. I hope it won't suffer from catastrophic mechanical failure in some way.

We leave on the 17th, return date TBC depending on whether or not the car shits its pants, if we decide to have a short break on the way back, or if I just give up and run off into the woods to live feral once I get there.

I'm hoping my enthusiasm comes back after the trip, as driving long distance by car is one of the things I love the most.

That's shite, the XM would be perfect for the trip. Fix my van and you can borrow the ZTT! 🤣

[Split_Pin]

I see you have about as much enthusiasm for flying as I do! It's one of the most depressing experiences IMO.

Also with you on the small car thing. I've applied for a new job which requires a car commute as public transport isn't available so the current gap in the fleet could be filled by something sensible!

Good luck with the trip.

[rob88h]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/features/i-wish-id-flown-instead-roadtripping-in-an-old-citroen/


(photo credit to the article)

I wonder if you could get your hands on the PassThePicasso (if it’s still about).  Or something like that. 
I hope your mojo returns - your fleet is excellent and your ability to tackle seemingly any job is to be applauded. 

[Rust Collector]

I’m massively behind on this thread, so there’s going to be a brief break in chronology as I’ll do some of the previous bits later.

For now though, I’ve finished doing what prep I can on the Clio, and last night the sun set over this magnificent beast as I got an early night.

Then I’ve packed absolutely everything (bar probably the one thing I need, which I won’t find out about until it is needed):

We made it to Folkestone without any grief:

I’m not sure about the relief driver though:

And we’re now on the train, heading to the land of cheese, wine, and Gallic shrugs.

We have another 550 odd miles to go today, and then about the same again tomorrow. Wish us luck!