Dustman’s Smoll French Fancy Vol 2 - I’ve been knobbing.

[dozeydustman]

I have noticed the exhaust rubbers aren’t as in good a health as I thought; they haven’t perished but the pipe/box mounting arm holes are a little stretched where the metal had flaked.

I’ll keep an eye out for a set.

[dozeydustman]

I’ve just lowered the front end of the car down. This doesn’t look right. I’m hoping it is just accumulated water and not brake fluid.

 

It does feel a little oily.

[dozeydustman]

Dollop of assembly paste and a larger clamp and we’re done.

Basking in the sun with the Suzuki, which will be cleaned out and roffled once insurance is transferred over - my temporary cover for the Citroën ends tonight.

[NorthernMonkey]

1 hour ago, dozeydustman said:

I’ve just lowered the front end of the car down. This doesn’t look right. I’m hoping it is just accumulated water and not brake fluid.

 

It does feel a little oily.

That location looks very much brake fluidy to me…be careful there.

[dozeydustman]

I’m going to whip the wheel off shortly. The brake pedal is very firm and the brakes work well so it may have dripped down from elsewhere in the engine bay.

It doesn’t have that slightly fishy smell of brake fluid though.

[dozeydustman]

 I’ve just been track and traced so it’ll have to wait 🤬

[dozeydustman]

Had a first decent run in this since bringing the car home 2 weeks ago, as we popped up to Kent to see my brother for his birthday. The brake wasn’t leaking and the fluid level hasn’t dropped so we took it.

Car performed absolutely faultlessly there and back and since filling up we’ve only just put more diesel in it, according to the on-board computer we averaged 68mpg on a full tank which I am more than happy with. I’m in the process of a list of jobs for the car. MoT is booked for 1st September so I’ll give it the once over at the weekend and see what it needs that is blindingly obvious.

[dozeydustman]

The to-do list:

➡️New tyres all round + spare (which is a different size and not a spacesaver)
➡️Sort Radio and various French electronic eccentricities
➡️polish headlamps
➡️fit new rear exhaust rubber mounts
➡️Timing belt and coolant change (more for peace of mind than essential)
➡️Get air conditioning looked at. It tries to cool the airflow as I have noticed a small drop in temperature from the dash vents when it’s switched on so hopefully just a regas.
➡️Find and replace missing and broken bits of trim

[dozeydustman]

On 19/07/2021 at 16:05, dozeydustman said:

 

The to-do list:

➡️New tyres all round + spare (which is a different size and not a spacesaver)
➡️Sort Radio and various French electronic eccentricities
➡️polish headlamps
➡️fit new rear exhaust rubber mounts
➡️Timing belt and coolant change (more for peace of mind than essential)
➡️Get air conditioning looked at. It tries to cool the airflow as I have noticed a small drop in temperature from the dash vents when it’s switched on so hopefully just a regas.
➡️Find and replace missing and broken bits of trim

2 tyres have been replaced with Vredestein T-Tracs, which have improved the handling greatly, and the occasional drift left/right has been cured.

I was greeted with an MoT fail though;

the liquid in the wheel I photographed nearer the start of this thread was coming from the damper on the n/s/f so the garage replaced that, a drop link and replaced the horn (which was intermittent but worked when I dropped the car off) for the grand sum of £260.

at least the pass was a clean sheet and I have another year of £20 a year road tax motoring. I am really really happy with this little car.

I’m hoping I can arrange with a fellow shiter who has previously offered his services to plug this little buzzbomb into his Lexia and pair it up with the OEM but not original to this car CD player. It might sort out the various electrical gremlins this car sometimes has.

[dozeydustman]

A little run up to Berkshire today as a fellow shiter offered to plug his Lexia into the little Citroën to pair up the original type radio to it and see if there were any stored errors.

I now have a factory type radio paired to the car and discovered the glow plug relay is faulty. I’ll find that, test it and install a new one of needed.

I’ll also see if there is a proper fitting kit for the genuine type radio or it’s just the usual univeral mounting cage and the security bolt at the back. Hopefully in my week and a bit off work this is something I can get done.

Many thanks to @Tepper for taking a look at this for me. Good to meet another forum member and a gentleman to boot.

[Tepper]

Pleasure to meet you as well, glad we got it sorted out 🙂  you know where I am if you need Lexia again, which in the nicest possible way I'm hoping you don't any time soon.

[dozeydustman]

Did some investigations to the  weird central locking and rear wiper anomalies.

disconnecting and reconnecting anything makes the rear wiper go absolutely booley. Found my voltmeter and pressing the central locking button on the dash gives a strong pulse down the wire to lock, but nothing on unlock. It pulses again on the lock side.

I’m hoping somewhere there is a simple short. I’ve had a lot of issues trying to get the Lexia to run without my antivirus kicking up a stink and blocking all and sundry whenever I try and install or run it.

[dozeydustman]

Oh, and I’ve bought some part worn winter tyres. I will be visiting relatives in the north in the new year and they always seem to get snow. They can go on the new to me alloys.

[dozeydustman]

As I’m over my covid symptoms but not actual covid lurgy (2 negative PCRs but isolated anyway) I managed to get couple of car jobs done.

 

Finally got the alloys fitted with the winter tyres and whacked on the car. A pair of 2019  dated Fuldas for £35 on eBay at the back, and a pair of much older (2010) Hankooks at the front. It’s noisy as expected for winter tyres but the roadholding is better. And the car no long pulls as hard to the left, but the tracking is still slightly out. Wheels have a few dings but so does the car, and they didn’t have corroded bead seats.

Going to keep the 14” steels and tyres for the time being.

Also got some wipers to fit, which I shall do shortly. Both fitted are too small, so I’m wondering if the correct sizes will improve or worsen the triangle of doom.

[dozeydustman]

Correct size wipers has made the triangle of doom much worse. @dollywobbler please don’t tell me off….

[wuvvum]

The thing that bugs me most about C2 wipers is the fact that the driver's side doesn't come all the way over to the A pillar at the top.  It's like the mounting is too far over to allow it to do a full sweep.

[dozeydustman]

Yes it's a very poor design.

[dozeydustman]

The to-do list:

➡️New tyres all round + spare (which is a different size and not a spacesaver) - I have new wheels fitted with winter tyres, I'll get summer tyres come spring. The steel wheels all leak air.
➡️Sort Radio and various French electronic eccentricities - I can't get the Lexia I got from Tepper to work properly
➡️polish headlamps
➡️fit new rear exhaust rubber mounts - one is fitted, need to fit the other.
➡️Timing belt and coolant change (more for peace of mind than essential). I think one of the tensioners is rattling as well.
➡️Get air conditioning looked at. It tries to cool the airflow as I have noticed a small drop in temperature from the dash vents when it’s switched on so hopefully just a regas.
➡️Find and replace missing and broken bits of trim.

[dozeydustman]

Had the wheel alignment checked and corrected today at National Tyres in Bognor. Only place who could fit me in and I got an online discount code so 4-wheel laser alignment for £30 was pretty good.

Car had always pulled to the left. Watching the guy set it up I was keen to see what the settings were. NSF toed out by 1.48, OSF toed in by 0.70, which would explain a hell of a lot. Should toe-in between 0.07 and 0.22.

Drives much straighter now but the steering wheel is one spline anticlockwise on the wonk, so I will more than likely need to correct that before my mrs moans about it.

[dozeydustman]

Replaced the headlamp bulbs today, they were a sod. May be easier next time to remove the units to install the bulbs! Or get someone with smaller hands (wife?) to fit them!

[FakeConcern]

I don't remember seeing this thread before, I like C2s!

These days if you can replace the headlamp bulbs at all without dismantling most of the car it's a win...

I sometimes think I pay for the fact that the lamps can be removed from my Volvo super easily by having Mrs Concern's Renault Moodus to work on as well!

[dozeydustman]

3 minutes ago, FakeConcern said:

I don't remember seeing this thread before, I like C2s!

These days if you can replace the headlamp bulbs at all without dismantling most of the car it's a win...

I sometimes think I pay for the fact that the lamps can be removed from my Volvo super easily by having Mrs Concern's Renault Moodus to work on as well!

I bought the car from Wuvvum last July after the Corolla died. It's done us really well, needs a little TLC. Love driving it, very go-kart like despite being fitted with the engine from a canal boat! Very frugal - regularly gets 60mpg

[wuvvum]

I do sometimes regret selling it with fuel prices the way they are...

I had to replace a headlight bulb on the grey one, they are a bit of a fiddle - not the worst I've had to do though.

 

[dozeydustman]

A couple of online tyre places do PayPal pay in 3, so in the next couple of days I'll be ordering my summer tyres and keeping the 2 good winter tyres for the C2.

Set of 4 Uniroyal Rainsport5 for £70 a month over 3 months? yes please. Then just need to find a 15" spare and flog on the 5 good 14" tyres on leaky rims. 175/65R14 doesn't seem to be a popular size, even with the facebook morons.

[dozeydustman]

Now I have another Swedish Vauxhall it's decision time for the C2. We don't (at the moment) need a second car, but as we're planning on moving away from Chichester to nearer Bognor or Pompey (because houses are significantly cheaper) we will need a car for Mrs_dustman.

Really annoyed as the new tyres I ordered arrived on Monday while we were umming and ahhing about getting a more sensible car.

I may put it for sale/roffle on here -

Good points: MoT is 2nd September, last one it had a new front damper and a horn fitted, plus the exhaust is under a year old.
It does 55-60mpg around the houses and I managed to eke 72mpg out of it on a run to Dover in October last year.
Spare set of wheels (14" steels) with 2 brand new and 3 very good tyres - it's running on 15" Picasso alloys with winter tyres.
Great to throw around bends etc.
£20 road tax
Some spares (cam belt set)
4 cup holders
Electric windows.
 

Bad points
169900 miles
needs a tensioner for aux belt
Air con is feeble
Still has the central locking issue from when I bought it from Wuvvum last summer which makes the rear wiper go mental.
Not London ULEZ. Not sure about any other cities.

 

If there's sufficient interest I'll bung a for sale thread up with possibility of a Roffle. I have a price in mindIf you want the new summer tyres (I got Nankang Greensports as Uniroyals ended up out of stock) they'll be extra as I'll get my £150 back for them!
 

[dozeydustman]

This little fuel sipper has now gine to its next home. Staying in the forum and I’ll let the new owner reveal if he wishes to do so.

It’s been a good little car for the last 8 months but giving our changing familial circumstances it’s impractical for transporting relatives who are unable to get around on their own. If when we’ve moved house, need 2 cars again and this becomes suddenly for sale, I’ll be interested in taking it back!

[dozeydustman]

Smol job on smol car this lunchtime. The rudeboy air filter had to go. If it was a 1.4 or 1.6 Furio or VTR it would be sensible, but on a 60hp TU1A it’s stupid.

It was poorly fitted and apart from the flexi pipe the filter was in poor order and very dirty. Having recently won a complete set of QH branded filters and Bosch plugs on eBay for £7.99, and a replacement original airbox for £19, not having much else to do today meant I could swap them over.

The hose fell off the intake duct, which as you can see below was just the stub from an airbox with some quality* attempts at making a seal.

Removal of 1 bolt from where it shouldn’t have been, and the new filter installed in the housing, the assembly plopped in with no fuss.

While I was there I checked the cabin filter.

Not especially manky but far from ideal, so I installed new.

without a shadow the easiest cabin filter I’ve ever changed.

A quick drive round the block and the little blue car sounds happier, has a smoother throttle response and according to the on-board computer is doing 1-2 mpg more at a given throttle, speed & gear combination.

If anyone is desperate enough to want the air cone let me know, but it’s dustbin day tomorrow so I will be binning it. I don’t know why a PO didn’t just buy one which fitted straight on the intake with a suitable mod to the rocker cover vent cap, instead of hacking apart the old air filter assembly.

There is still a list of jobs to do, thankfully mostly trivial or simple.

- oil change
- change plugs
- set tappets - not especially rattly but probably more than spec.
- remove ridiculous tints from rear windows
- change cam belt and water pump - last done 2019 but 50k miles ago. More for peace of mind.
- change clutch, the bite is very high
- fit replacement window switch
- fit nice gearknob & gaiter

I may hoik the engine out to do the clutch instead of dropping the ‘box, as I can do the belt much easier with the engine on a bench

[dozeydustman]

I started fitting a dash cam hard wiring kit this morning.

Trim off and wire zip tied in place

This was the only victim. While reinstalling of all things. Saved the broken off bit and will superglue into place next time I need to take it off.

Wouldn’t* know I’d been in there.

mini USB plug is in the correct place for a great close up of the Triangle of doom 

[dozeydustman]

Next I had to find a switched live. There are 3 fuse boxes on this particular model - one under the bonnet and 2 in the glove box. The previous C2 we had only had one fuse panel in the glove box. Mix of standard and mini blades.

I found the switched live in the yellow fuse box.

Sadly the supplied piggy-back connectors don’t fit in there so I need to find another switched live or get a different piggy-back connector, so I left it at that as I had other errands to do today.

Before I did, one important job. The centre console tray was never a good fit, the gearknob not pleasant to put your hand on and the fag lighter socket didn’t work. I don’t smoke but the wife needs to use the socket from time to time. I found a nice replacement at Silverlake a couple of weeks back including a much bettet knob for my wife to handle.

This floppy old thing was taken out and switches transferred to the new* part.

The gaiter isn’t in the best nick and the trim ring is cracked.

Lovely shiney knob from the same breaker I got the tray from. All switches work and so does the lighter socket. The knob has a much better feel in the palm of the hand, so I hope the wife appreciates it.

[dozeydustman]

Managed to do the oil and filter change on this today. It was saying check oil; level was fine and had 14k to go according to service indicator.

Didn’t miss this time. Well, not by much.

First time I’ve done a paper element filter. 24mm for future reference.

yeah, I think that’s done more than 6k. The oil was very thin and black.

Reset the service indicator and electric dipstick is fine.  
 

Went round the block, no leaks etc so we’ll call that good. I’ll check the oil level again tomorrow, but the tip of the dipstick is fresh oil coloured 🤨