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

[Rust Collector]

29 minutes ago, Sigmund Fraud said:

FFS, man ! All it needs is a day's work* and twenty quid** in parts and it will be ready for you to drive around pretending you're someone very, very important :

 

*May be longer, because hydraulic Citroen.
** This presumes an araldite repair for the radiator, though ebay has a new one for £60.

I’d take twenty quid and a day’s work no bother.

The cheapest correct rad I can find for it is £85 and for parts going forwards I’m now into spending the money I’ve set aside for our holiday. With no guarantee as to getting that back before leaving, you can hopefully see why I’m feeling a bit fed up and frustrated as to how to proceed.

[Sigmund Fraud]

7 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

With no guarantee as to getting that back before leaving, you can hopefully see why I’m feeling a bit fed up and frustrated as to how to proceed.

Absolutely, and I have certainly been in similar "fallacy of investment" positions on many occasions...

[Back_For_More]

How about you put it out of harms way for a bit? I know you have storage - but it can come here if that's a safer option. 

Then you can get the Proton and perhaps others sorted and gone or just use the mojo boost to come back at it..... 

Always willing to head down and help out fella.

[Rust Collector]

The XM has a leaking radiator.

Ok, the XM was leaking coolant from beside the radiator carriage, where the corner of the radiator sits.

I have an ancient WankoMatic hand pump coolant pressure tester, so I thought for thoroughness I’d use it 

After standing on the driveway looking like I was giving a robot a hand job, it was up to pressure...

And nothing leaked.

I left it there and went to the shop and bought beer.

Still no leaks.

The other day I left the car to idle and I noticed that the coolant fan didn’t cut in.

The spill off line from the rad cap disappears somewhere down near the chassis leg, beside the radiator carriage.

Can you see where my thought train is going?

I got the power probe out as the multimeter is MIA. No power to the radiator temp switch, but when the terminal to the fan relay is powered.

I shall investigate further tomorrow…

Oh, and just to prove that this fucking car is cursed, as if we were in any doubt, this happened shortly after I washed it.

[N Dentressangle]

Nice one.

Always a good idea to walk away from a car for a while when it starts to really fuck you off like this. Coming back with a clear head often reveals the fix you couldn't see earlier.

[Rocket88]

42 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

Nice one.

Always a good idea to walk away from a car for a while when it starts to really fuck you off like this. Coming back with a clear head often reveals the fix you couldn't see earlier.

…and a telephone conversation with your local scrappy…..

[grogee]

20 hours ago, Rust Collector said:

I gave the XM a wash today with the intent of selling as-is.

Car Take Back are offering £270 so I feel like I’d be cheeky asking much more than £300. I’m still torn though as I’m into it for near to that in parts, plus countless hours.

Part of me wants to just change the rocker cover, chuck some radweld in and see if it can keeps its shit together for long enough to be tested.

I’m really not sure what to do with this car now, but I do really need it gone before we go on holiday in July. I’m quite disappointed that I’ve run out of time and not got it to where I wanted it to be.

It's a hard equation but in your position I would push on and try the radweld plus rocker gasket. A final £20 throw of the dice before CTB + death by cubing. 

As an aside, I am not up on my XM phase 1/2 or facelift. But I'm sure I've seen them with a slab of decorative wood on the dash? Yours looks a bit 'Saxo' without it but the chairs look nice. 

[grogee]

1 minute ago, grogee said:

It's a hard equation but in your position I would push on and try the radweld plus rocker gasket. A final £20 throw of the dice before CTB + death by cubing. 

As an aside, I am not up on my XM phase 1/2 or facelift. But I'm sure I've seen them with a slab of decorative wood on the dash? Yours looks a bit 'Saxo' without it but the chairs look nice. 

Edit: hopefully radweld not required! Come on XM, you can live again! 

[wesacosa]

14 minutes ago, grogee said:

It's a hard equation but in your position I would push on and try the radweld plus rocker gasket. A final £20 throw of the dice before CTB + death by cubing. 

As an aside, I am not up on my XM phase 1/2 or facelift. But I'm sure I've seen them with a slab of decorative wood on the dash? Yours looks a bit 'Saxo' without it but the chairs look nice. 

you need the VSX trim level before you start getting the wood

 

[grogee]

6 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

getting the wood

Heh. Uhhuhhuhhuh. Wood. 

[Sigmund Fraud]

2 hours ago, wesacosa said:

you need the VSX trim level before you start getting the wood

Not really, even a base model XM easily does it for me !

Oh, wait...

[Rust Collector]

Shall we have an update?

First off, let me reassure you that it’s not all doom and gloom. Dont get exited and think it has an MOT, because it doesn’t, but things are possibly getting better with the XM. This is good, because I was starting to wonder if laying my cock on the kitchen counter and repeatedly hammering it with the tenderiser would be a more enjoyable way to spend my time than working on that green hydropneumatic bastard.

So to recap, the coolant system appears to not have any leaks but the rad fan wasn’t getting power, but did work when given a +ve feed. This is suspected to be causing the cooling system to build up too much pressure and then vent out the cap, making a ‘leak’. The oil leak is suspected to be the rocker cover gasket. There is a slight weep of LHM on the front chassis leg.

At the weekend I was aiming to replace the rocker cover gasket at least.

This did not go to plan.

A couple of days beforehand I lost the key to the XM. I was fairly sure that it was either in a pocket in the laundry, or my toddler son had taken it, played with it and lost it. I looked through the laundry and the house, couldn’t find it, so I warned my mrs to check the pockets of anything she washed just in case, and I hoped I’d find it when tidying up after my son.

My mrs; ‘there is something in the tumble dryer banging, but I looked through it and couldn’t find anything’… I looked through it and two seconds later I had the key back. Good job I asked her to check through the pockets before washing anything! (Before you say do your own washing, I do some of it, but she puts some loads on whilst I’m at work too as with two kids the washing is endless)

I try the key, it doesn’t work. I replace the battery, it does work. Excellent. I notice it flicker a couple of times but then it settles and I put it away.

Can you see where this is going?

Come Saturday morning, I go to unlock the car. The key flashes, nothing happens. Turns out the key has been happily shorting away on the shelf, and the rolling code is out of range of the receiver in the car. Fuck sticks.

No worries, it can be re-synced by unlocking the car, turning the ignition on and holding the lock button on the key…

Driver’s door: key goes in, turns, spins.

Passenger door: key goes in, does not turn.

Boot hatch: Key goes half in. Water boarding with knockoff wd40 gets it all the way in, does not turn.

At this point I’m pretty fucked off, but I’ll be fucked if I’m not getting in.

[Stinkwheel]

Laugh isn’t quite the right response, but at least there is spare door glass 

[Rust Collector]

Because I’m not completely stupid, I checked my spares first.

I wanted to go in the offside rear door ideally, as the nearside was jammed up to a fence. Luckily I discovered my spare offside rear door has a fucked regulator so I couldn’t get the glass out, BEFORE I smashed anything. The nearside spare door had a working regulator and surrendered the piece of glass I needed.

Then like the stupid fat fuck I am, I had to wiggle in through the broken window whilst squeezing past the fence. Not fun.

With the car now unlocked from inside, and the ignition on, I was able to re-sync the key.

Just the glass to replace now, plus clean up  and I’m back to where I was.

The membranes on XM doors are bastards (of course), but at least I wasn’t the first in here desecrating the sticky back foam.

I think the car may have previously had the rear windows ‘downgraded’ to keep fit spec.

No real photos of the guts of the door, replacing the glass is the same as on most other cars. The only thing I will say is that the guide in the door frame is a bastard to refit so don’t be afraid to use a plastic drift and hammer whilst it is attached to the glass as I can’t see how else to get it to fit.

Glass back in, I hoovered up everything I could from inside the door, whilst gently* hitting it to rattle any stuck glass out. I then sealed up the membrane with my own supply of duct tape.

Who wore it better?

After all that was done, I put the door card back on, swore over the wasted day, and shut the door.

The door then swung back open.

I then slammed it several more times whilst screaming at the sky.

Once I had worked through that, I accepted that I wasn’t going back inside the door again that day and instead I got the duct tape back out.

That at least got me to the point that I could turn the car around, park it, and go inside to cry.

[Rust Collector]

Sunday I was moping, and a family christening threatened to ruin car time and wind me up even more.

Thankfully a break from being at home proved to be welcome, and my boy enjoyed the party afterwards which meant I was pretty happy too. He’s learning to love cars too, so maybe one day in the future he too will know my struggles.

Once home there was a bit of time left for tinkering. I decided to aim small, and I removed the door latch from my spare door. My logic being ‘fuck cleaning out the original latch, I’ll just slap the spare on’.

Luckily it was a piece of piss to do and so this lifted my spirits a bit.

Monday night I was able to get some time in on the XM and so I pulled the door card off again and went through the foam, again.

Once I loosened off the door latch some glass rattled out which had me certain I was on the right track.

Once the door latch was out, I discovered that the two latches were indeed the same.

But different!

The original is on the right, it has some weird actuator thing on it. It wasn’t possible to swap it over, so I cleaned the latch out instead.

After some testing, I got it working.

Then I got it refitted

And tested it

I’ve never been so happy to see and hear a door latch shut.

After that it was tape time

And with the door card back on, I was officially back to where I was before the key ruined my life.

[High Jetter]

7 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I was officially back to where I was before the key ruined my life.

There's a lesson there for us all! Glad you got it sorted and had a smashing time!

[Rust Collector]

I had time left on Monday, so I started thinking about the cooling fan.

First port of call was fuses.

But before that, a blood offering to the car gods was in order.

That was from trying to use a pick to pull a fuse.

With the self harm out the way, the internet suggested that the fuse I needed was in the cabin, so I went in there next.

@Stinkwheel, I owe you an apology. I think I previously claimed that this car came to me complete with full service mystery.

It turns out I just didn’t look in here.

Sorry!

I also found a clue in here.

As it happens, I had noticed that I hadn’t set off the alarm in a while, nor had I been terrified by the hydractive ‘adjusting’ the suspension whilst the car was switched off lately.

I replaced the fuse, and it was instantly vapourised.

Knowing that I’d been in the hydractive ECU previously, I unplugged this and replaced the fuse again.

This time it didn’t explode.

My suspicion was then directed at the diode that I soldered back into the hydractive ECU. So I cut it back out…

And then plugged it back in to test…

The fuse remained intact, and the suspension did stuff and so I’m calling that fixed. I rebuilt the ECU, greased the connectors and put everything back together.

I tried running the car long enough to get the cooling fan to kick in by itself, but an XUD is neighbour annoyingly loud at idle and I bottled it after a while.

I’m 90% certain that I’ve sorted the coolant system out though, plus now I have working* hydractive and car alarm.

[wesacosa]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

Shall we have an update?

First off, let me reassure you that it’s not all doom and gloom. Dont get exited and think it has an MOT, because it doesn’t, but things are possibly getting better with the XM. This is good, because I was starting to wonder if laying my cock on the kitchen counter and repeatedly hammering it with the tenderiser would be a more enjoyable way to spend my time than working on that green hydropneumatic bastard.

So to recap, the coolant system appears to not have any leaks but the rad fan wasn’t getting power, but did work when given a +ve feed. This is suspected to be causing the cooling system to build up too much pressure and then vent out the cap, making a ‘leak’. The oil leak is suspected to be the rocker cover gasket. There is a slight weep of LHM on the front chassis leg.

At the weekend I was aiming to replace the rocker cover gasket at least.

This did not go to plan.

A couple of days beforehand I lost the key to the XM. I was fairly sure that it was either in a pocket in the laundry, or my toddler son had taken it, played with it and lost it. I looked through the laundry and the house, couldn’t find it, so I warned my mrs to check the pockets of anything she washed just in case, and I hoped I’d find it when tidying up after my son.

My mrs; ‘there is something in the tumble dryer banging, but I looked through it and couldn’t find anything’… I looked through it and two seconds later I had the key back. Good job I asked her to check through the pockets before washing anything! (Before you say do your own washing, I do some of it, but she puts some loads on whilst I’m at work too as with two kids the washing is endless)

I try the key, it doesn’t work. I replace the battery, it does work. Excellent. I notice it flicker a couple of times but then it settles and I put it away.

Can you see where this is going?

Come Saturday morning, I go to unlock the car. The key flashes, nothing happens. Turns out the key has been happily shorting away on the shelf, and the rolling code is out of range of the receiver in the car. Fuck sticks.

No worries, it can be re-synced by unlocking the car, turning the ignition on and holding the lock button on the key…

Driver’s door: key goes in, turns, spins.

Passenger door: key goes in, does not turn.

Boot hatch: Key goes half in. Water boarding with knockoff wd40 gets it all the way in, does not turn.

At this point I’m pretty fucked off, but I’ll be fucked if I’m not getting in.

if you don't get the key quite fully home the locks do spin,  mine sometimes do that but it you try and give it some light thrust inwards as you turn it will sometimes open the door.

Edit: sorry typed this before I saw your other posts and the gif!

 

[wesacosa]

if you have any of those plastic window clips spare I'd definitely be interested in buying. Or also if you have a photo of what they look like  when not fitted and in the channel. two of mine are a melted mess

well done for perseverance whislt many would have got the meths and the Swan Vestas out by now 

[Rust Collector]

With more time left on Monday, it was onwards to the oil leaks!

It’s actually dripping off a dog bone that supports the gearbox, which is weird. I’ve sniffed it and it’s not ATF. It’s definitely engine oil out of a turbo derv, it’s darker than my thoughts towards this car.

I’ve circled it in rouge for your convenience.

It’s a weird place for oil to be, as it’s a long way from the engine and there’s only really pipe work for the air intake there.

The PCV valve is up at the top of this pipe work, and appears to be vomiting out a healthy amount of oil.

It turns out I also hadn’t fastened this hose down at either end last time I removed it. Whoops. The hose it joins to below was deformed too, as the insert inside had dropped down inside of it.

I fixed that and reassembled the hoses properly.

I also noticed that a joiner in the hose between the intercooler and inlet manifold was undone and flapping in the breeze too.

I refitted that properly also.

Both these hoses had oil leaking from them, predominantly the upper hose with the PCV valve… do we think I’m being optimistic to think that this is where my drip could be coming from?

After the car idled for a bit there was no leak, but it really needs a good drive to be sure. Which is a problem, as it has no MOT and is on SORN. What do we reckon?

Im still going to do the rocker cover gasket at any rate.

The final leak then… again, in red. There’s the LHM lines above here that go from the tank and along the chassis to the rear. They’re dry above this point, and behind it.

It’s certainly LHM.

Looking from above, the steering rack is over the area that’s damp. I’m still thinking about how I feel about this.

That pretty much brings me up to date on the car.

I’m happy that it feels it is going the right way again, but I’m further off than I thought I was a few weeks back.

I just want to get this car roadworthy and sold so that I can a) bugger off and enjoy my holiday and b) crack on with my other projects. It’s become a bit of a millstone, which is a shame as I was really excited about the prospect of owning and running an XM originally.

[Rust Collector]

18 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

if you don't get the key quite fully home the locks do spin,  mine sometimes do that but it you try and give it some light thrust inwards as you turn it will sometimes open the door.

I’m going to go out and test this now, and if it works then I’m going to go and get the hammer and smash every single window on the car.

[Rust Collector]

1 hour ago, Stinkwheel said:

Laugh isn’t quite the right response, but at least there is spare door glass 

It’s either laugh or cry! I was laughing maniacally as I put the window through, to be fair.

[wesacosa]

3 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

With more time left on Monday, it was onwards to the oil leaks!

It’s actually dripping off a dog bone that supports the gearbox, which is weird. I’ve sniffed it and it’s not ATF. It’s definitely engine oil out of a turbo derv, it’s darker than my thoughts towards this car.

I’ve circled it in rouge for your convenience.

It’s a weird place for oil to be, as it’s a long way from the engine and there’s only really pipe work for the air intake there.

The PCV valve is up at the top of this pipe work, and appears to be vomiting out a healthy amount of oil.

It turns out I also hadn’t fastened this hose down at either end last time I removed it. Whoops. The hose it joins to below was deformed too, as the insert inside had dropped down inside of it.

I fixed that and reassembled the hoses properly.

I also noticed that a joiner in the hose between the intercooler and inlet manifold was undone and flapping in the breeze too.

I refitted that properly also.

Both these hoses had oil leaking from them, predominantly the upper hose with the PCV valve… do we think I’m being optimistic to think that this is where my drip could be coming from?

After the car idled for a bit there was no leak, but it really needs a good drive to be sure. Which is a problem, as it has no MOT and is on SORN. What do we reckon?

Im still going to do the rocker cover gasket at any rate.

The final leak then… again, in red. There’s the LHM lines above here that go from the tank and along the chassis to the rear. They’re dry above this point, and behind it.

It’s certainly LHM.

Looking from above, the steering rack is over the area that’s damp. I’m still thinking about how I feel about this.

That pretty much brings me up to date on the car.

I’m happy that it feels it is going the right way again, but I’m further off than I thought I was a few weeks back.

I just want to get this car roadworthy and sold so that I can a) bugger off and enjoy my holiday and b) crack on with my other projects. It’s become a bit of a millstone, which is a shame as I was really excited about the prospect of owning and running an XM originally.

I seem to think my oil leak was pooling in that sort of area from the rocker cover gasket.  The gasket on when ai bought it had a bad leak and all down the back of the engine was covered as was the turbo , manifold, gear linkage etc. When I replaced it I either got a shit one or didn't do the corners properly and the gearbox corner wept and it collected on that sort of area on the subframe until the pool was large enough to start dripping.  Either way, with a torch and mirror it should be easy to see a leak, because of the angle the engine is canted back any leaks tend to collect around the back corners of the rocker cover to head joint so have a look and feel around there

[Rust Collector]

16 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

if you have any of those plastic window clips spare I'd definitely be interested in buying. Or also if you have a photo of what they look like  when not fitted and in the channel. two of mine are a melted mess

You’re welcome to them for free if you want to pay a visit and remove them as I’m a bit time poor currently, the clips themselves aren’t hard to remove but you have to remove the window glass to get at them. Otherwise beer money would work but it may be a while before I can remove them for you.

I could’ve sworn I had a picture of one but I must have imagined it. They’re made of two parts, the large outer section which is taco shaped, for want of a better comparison, with an internal peg on one side to hold it to the glass. There is then a plastic insert that locks it in place. These are the best I have:

[wesacosa]

thanks. I will take a look a mine again but petty sure the peg bit is missing unless its just needs pulling apart 

[Rust Collector]

9 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

thanks. I will take a look a mine again but petty sure the peg bit is missing unless its just needs pulling apart 

If the window has been out before I can understand why someone would cut the peg down. The way to fit it that seemed logical to me was to fit the plastic guide in the channel first, then feed the window into it and guide the peg in to the hole in the glass. There’s not enough space in the channel to do this though, but cutting the peg down to a nub would possibly overcome this whilst keeping the guide secured to the glass afterwards.

I’m 62% sure the correct way to do it is how I did it, which is to put the guide on the glass without the inner clip inserted, offer it up to the channel and then twat it in with a hammer and drift. The inner clip then goes into it once it’s in place.

[wesacosa]

I think mine probably hasn't been out before as it looks melted and deformed, and the other one is totally missing.all very odd.  they do look a fucking pain to fit 

[Rust Collector]

20 minutes ago, wesacosa said:

I think mine probably hasn't been out before as it looks melted and deformed, and the other one is totally missing.all very odd.  they do look a fucking pain to fit 

I’ve just realised I’m an idiot, and I have a surplus clip from the window I removed.

You can have it for free if you’re coming to the meet on Sunday, I’ll bring it with me.

[wesacosa]

ah nice one, thanks mate.  I am 50/50 on the meet but will let you know beforehand . If not im happy to drop you some beer money for it 

 

[Split_Pin]

Dear God that car is fighting you! Well done for persevering with it. Hoping you get it sorted and gone as per plan.

I think I'll stick with my lovely 1/18 Solido model of one!