I have done something silly. C6 content. Sold!

[beko1987]

Sounds like it's from the era where that's going to be the most pain free option. I've had think pads kill ide-m.2 adapters and that was annoying enough 😂

Buy 2 cf cards and end up with both identical and tested. Then stick one back in it'd packet and tape it somewhere safe just incase (then never find it again...) 

[Tepper]

Updates from Le Grand Citro(e)n - not doing too badly. I noticed it was running cool, so we changed the thermostat and housing for a genuine part. Dealer wanted almost £200 for it, luckily managed to bag one on eBay for a much more palatable figure. What a mess of an engine bay, you can see the old thermostat sitting in the middle of the V:

This air spitter pipe thinghy had to come out to get to the thermostat, along with a lot of other small, fiddly, brittle bits of plastic. Safe to say I gave it a good clean, boooo EGR:

Now it warms up quickly and sits at 88 degrees like it's supposed to. Lovely, this should improve MPG, passenger comfort and engine happiness on the trip to France. I've also been playing with the height correction:

This has resulted in a lot of 'computeur says non'. I've gotten it to accept a set of values, which has massively improved the ride, but it's still sat a bit high. I've replaced one of the height sensor linkages with generic new balljoints (cos cheap, but work well) due to corrosion and play in the linkage and I think I need to do at least one more. The linkages I've made up are adjustable, so I may be able to just adjust them until the car is sat where it should be AND the computer says OUI. Watch this space.

Finally, one of the headlight bulbs started flickering then went out a few times, causing a flashing telltale on the dash. Changing headlight bulbs is a simple job on the C6:

Someone had changed just one side previously (which is supposed to be naughty, I don't know why) - I stuck in a nice new pair of bulbs. Now I've done it with the headlight out, I might be tempted to give it a go with the headlights in place but it would be a right fiddle. Correct functioning of headlights has been restored, so aside from the infotainment system (which I will hopefully have the parts to sort today), it should be ready to go.

[Sham]

Magnifique!

I really do wish I had the stones to have one of these.

[grogee]

I think I want this one after it's fixed. 

When did the French manufacturers all sit down and agree that it was ok to remove the bumper to change a bulb?

[beko1987]

My 02 Xsara is bumper off. 

In reality the drivers side is doable, passenger side requires the loosening of the abs pump on its pipes and some loss of blood. 

Tbh if I need to do it again I'll arm myself with new bulbs for the entirety of the front end and have the bumper off and a good cleanup whilst I was in there... My headlights are yellow candles tbh 

[Mad Cyril]

7 hours ago, grogee said:

When did the French manufacturers all sit down and agree that it was ok to remove the bumper to change a bulb?

First time I came across this obvious scam purely designed to line the pockets of main dealers was the Mk4 Golf (1998?).
So let's blame the Krauts until somebody comes up with something earlier.

[Asimo]

I never removed anything* to change bulbs on my Mk4 Golf. It wasn’t as easy as it should have been, but it was all do-able.

**Except skin from my wrist.

Citroen BX: that’s how it should be done.

[Tepper]

On 12/14/2021 at 1:27 PM, grogee said:

I think I want this one after it's fixed.

Be careful what you wish for... 'cause it's fixed. It will actually be for sale in a couple of months if you're interested.

It didn't like the CF card at all, I don't know whether my IDE adapter or the CF card is faulty as they're both new to me and I don't have means to test them. The CF card formats fine in a card reader, so it should be OK, but apparently SanDisk can cause problems - guess what brand I've got... I have an IDE to USB adapter coming soon, so I'll test the card/adapter when it turns up. I thought there was no harm in trying to run the firmware update disk on the original hard drive, and after a tense half an hour, the thing sprang back into life and appears to be fine. I'm not convinced how long that's going to last, but let's see. Place your bets ladies and gentlemen!

So as of now, the C6 is *whispers* fully functional. This is obviously a strange state of affairs, I'm sure the universe will restore the natural balance of brokenness soon but for now it works. My brother leaves for France on Saturday.

Really hope it doesn't throw its toys out the pram on his watch.

[grogee]

Well done on all the sterling work you've done here. Have always wanted a C6, well any big Citroen really. May well be interested depending on the timing, but rather than piss off the rest of AS you should probably sell via usual Shite For Sale section.

Realistically for me it would have to come with some form of diagnostic kit like you've been using but maybe that's being used on other Citroen wrecks classics?

[Zelandeth]

Never, never let them know you've noticed.

I made that mistake with the Jag.  Less than 24 hours later the alternator packed in!

[somewhatfoolish]

Dangerous levels of want building.

[406V6]

Regarding the CF problem, I don’t know much about C6s. CF cards and similar are more my area. As the C6 is ancient in IT terms the hard drive or CF-equivalent replacement will need to bear that in mind and use similarly old technology. Keep the size of the CF card to be around the same as the old hard drive and also use the same file system.  I’m going to guess the next bit – that the hard drive is less than 2 GB in size and uses FAT16 file format - whereas if you were putting in a CF card today it would be much larger and therefore use FAT32. I could be wrong on this but it’s worth checking if you have the tools.  The Wikipedia page on CF cards is worth reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactFlash

Good luck.  Love reading about your adventures with this fine French machine.

[loserone]

On 15/12/2021 at 19:42, Tepper said:

interested

TWO PLEASE

[Tepper]

Now for sale, don't all shout at once!

Radio/sat nav has been perfect since reinstalling the firmware. I'll be sad to see it go, but needs must.

For sale post can be found here.

[Tepper]

Now sold! Copy/paste from the 'for sale' thread:

Now sold to an enthusiast buyer. The whole experience was actually quite pleasant and I have had no messers at all - if only all sales could be like that. Admittedly there has been limited interest, but all the enquiries I've had have been genuine and I hope the new owner gets on well with it.

9/10, C6 ownership has not been anywhere near as ruinous as expected - would recommend.