CITROËN BX 14 E Leader

[rob88h]

...Follow my Leader...

@Rust Collector unearthed this beautifully low spec "Leader" edition BX 14E around early 2023. It's unmolested, honest and wonderfully care worn by an old-boy previous owner.

I don't plan to change much about it, but I'm sure as old Citroens go it's bound to give me a story or two. So far, it's freshly collected from the South Coast, where I have to say it is a credit to @Rust Collector's work as it performed just admirably bimbling around the Seven Sister for a pub lunch before taking on 90 miles of country lane and motorway (including the trial by fire for any old car that is the Dartford Crossing) to get me back home. No squeaky bums or exciting faults to report on the way home, just a broad smile, a setting summer Sun and a ticking accumulator. 

[vulgalour]

Ah, so that's why you were going through the Wafflewagon thread recently... hope it helped!

[rob88h]

Haha, yeah, sorry. I’ve been reading that and liking things at awkward times of day... I’ve seen some other BX threads to go through when I’ve finished yours. Some good work and some good pointers, thanks. It’s what inspired me to set this one up on it’s own thread rather than losing it in the churn of my mixed vehicle thread. I’ve really enjoyed reading car specific threads lately, yours included. 

[MiniMort]

I hope you enjoy having 'everything'

[rob88h]

Every BX thread contains welding and The Leader is no exception. So far this has been handled by @Rust Collector. I think all he had to do was the rear offside wheel well.

[rob88h]

The Leader has been going ok so was treated to some rubber upgrades. The rear near side was a bit dubious on the wall, but hadn’t started cracking or crazing. Regardless it’s in the bin and now the rear set sort of match in newness and brand.

It thanked me by coming over all French and giving me inoperative wipers on the way home in the rain. 

I went to diagnose it yesterday and the are fully functional again. The spirit of BX wiring is strong with this one. I’m just hoping it’s not a “they don’t work in the rain” problem, as that’s kind of their raisin d’être…

[rob88h]

I took The Leader to the local Citroen Car Club meet yesterday. By a small world coincidence I met the chap who put @Rust Collector on to saving this car in the first place, I think, so he was really pleased to see it here in his section. 

I thought I recognised his reg and it turned out he was there in the ex- @dollywobbler C5 so I guess I’ll need to watch all the HubNut and @richykitchy YouTube on that now having met it/him/them. 

I may* have wasted some money returning The Leader to an Eastbourne reg… The former family owners retained the original vrm G91 RAP for their own reasons, the G_ATL reg is an age related replacement. I thought about getting a cheap AP plate as it had spent its WHOLE life down there, but decided it was frivolous. Then the first thing my brother said to me about The Leader when he saw it was “mmm, Lincolnshire car” bereft of nice things to say about it, haha. That sealed the deal and it’s now G19 FAP being pretty close to the original for little money. 

Plate nerds will either loathe that it’s on a private plate and I that gave up on the “history” of its age related allocation or be into the fact that it’s back on the right area code and kinda visually close. 
Personally, I think I went too far and shouldn’t be allowed to do internet shopping unsupervised. 

[Shite Ron]

I like the new plates, I assume looking the reg up on the internet will give some interesting results!
Very appropriate to the car, possibly in more ways than one! Especially to BX lovers.

[Rust Collector]

I love that it’s back on a lewes plate, that’s a really nice touch, much better than the age related plate. Now I think about it, my dad’s old Mk2 Golf was ‘Fxxx LAP’ (can’t remember the numbers) so must have been a local car. I’ve seen a few ‘FAP’ plates round here and had a laugh at them, never made the connection that they were a local reg.

Sorry to hear about the wipers giving you grief, if it’s any consolation they worked on the day it pissed down after I got it washed ready for you, so hopefully nothing more serious than a bit of water ingress 🤞From what I remember of replacing the motor on my red estate, the connector is just sitting in the scuttle and isn’t especially waterproof. Might be worth opening it up, cleaning it and putting some dialectric grease in.

[High Jetter]

33 minutes ago, rob88h said:

 

I don't think you've gone too far at all. Jermyn's Eastbourne site is now housing, but they are still alive in Seaford selling Fords.

[rob88h]

On 7/19/2023 at 7:18 PM, Rust Collector said:

a bit of water ingress

My gut instinct is that it is to do with the stalk - I didn’t mention it, but the washer pump is also in-op when the wipers are not working, so basically nothing from the stalk. Typically Citroen; it all works when I come to diagnose it…

Plates are here. It’s looking correct on its six character AP reg. It ended up a little more pricey than planned as for some reason my wife decided she wasn’t getting enough mail and the one letter for her to open that day was my Entitlement Document! I had some interrogating texts about why I’d spent what I spent which was resolved with me paying for a spa day (not Francorchamps).

[rob88h]

A good weekend for the Leader. I took it to a Car Show and on a family outing racking up 400 trouble free miles (excluding intermittent wiper shenanigans). 
Importantly, I was briefly able to park it next to another 14E Leader - probably some time since that’s occurred 

[vulgalour]

On 7/24/2023 at 2:51 PM, rob88h said:

My gut instinct is that it is to do with the stalk - I didn’t mention it, but the washer pump is also in-op when the wipers are not working, so basically nothing from the stalk. Typically Citroen; it all works when I come to diagnose it…

Plates are here. It’s looking correct on its six character AP reg. It ended up a little more pricey than planned as for some reason my wife decided she wasn’t getting enough mail and the one letter for her to open that day was my Entitlement Document! I had some interrogating texts about why I’d spent what I spent which was resolved with me paying for a spa day (not Francorchamps).

It is easier to ask forgiveness than permission.

[RoadworkUK]

Everybody involved in this enterprise is doing absolutely tremendous work. Fantastic stuff.

[High Jetter]

3 hours ago, rob88h said:

A good weekend for the Leader. I took it to a Car Show and on a family outing racking up 400 trouble free miles (excluding intermittent wiper shenanigans). 
Importantly, I was briefly able to park it next to another 14E Leader - probably some time since that’s occurred 

Hold on, the F reg has a fancier ass?

[somewhatfoolish]

Moulded plastic tail blazer; the height of 1980s styling, direct to you from the Ripspeed catalogue.

25 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Hold on, the F reg has a fancier ass?

 

[rob88h]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/285401784876?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=2Jv7l9z1Qdq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=Nh_mcoTOQvi&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

The F-reg one is for sale (albeit at £7k…). The add talks about how the original owner spec’d the Leader stickers to be removed, what a shame, so I assume he spec’d the tailblazer too. Or mine is missing it, but probably the former given the base-y-ness of the 14E. 

[rob88h]

Some shamelessly stolen photos of the Leader looking good:

photo credits: other people

[richykitchy]

Ahh, I saw this one at FotU and thought I'd found another Leader! Turns out I haven't, it's ATL in a different guise!

Was good to see it, though apparently you have major earthing issues at the rear lights (as I was told, over and over).

[rob88h]

3 hours ago, richykitchy said:

thought I'd found another Leader!

Sorry for the false hope. It’s been G_RAP, G_ATL and G_FAP in a few short months. When I move it on in the future I intend to leave it with its FAP plate so hopefully it won’t get your heart racing again.

Out of interest, what’re the BX Leader numbers like?

3 hours ago, richykitchy said:

apparently you have major earthing issues at the rear lights (as I was told, over and over).

Haha, you mean on this particular Leader? Thanks for getting the message over though, I’ll take a look! I spend my time in the drivers seat mostly so hadn’t spotted anything. 👍Why someone would go on and on about a fault to someone else who isn’t responsible for the car is a new one on me, regardless I was oblivious.

 

[rob88h]

Yeah, they were pretty bad. This was me indicating right… Coincidentally it looks pretty much the same as indicating left, so in total they were about as useful as indicators on a BMW.

The winner for “The Easiest to Remove Rear Light Cluster Award” goes to the BX. One little pinch clip and they fall away. I cleaned up the body side earth first but it made no difference. The cluster side earth (white connector) however was connecting about as positive as wobbly tooth only hanging on by the nerve.

Also pretty grim in there. I’ve convinced myself that looseness has caused the burning and not something else underlying. Contact cleaned, a bit of dielectric paste and the prongs carefully bent down and now it seems to work. Pretty dodgy connector though, in fact they all are, no nice “click” and your home, just general French-electrics-vagueness. 

I can imagine going over a speed bump and they’re knackered again. 

Bonus Repair: Right hand side rear sidelight just required the bulb removing and putting back in again. Another demonstration of its Gallic credentials. 

Bonus failure: The hazards… don’t. Seems to be the switch, I think it’s a TADTS problem. 

[vulgalour]

Even the phrase 'build quality' is generous when referring to BX rear light plugs.

[rob88h]

I’ve been using the Leader as my daily. Taken it to a few shows too. Maintenance planned. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

On 8/31/2023 at 11:50 AM, vulgalour said:

Even the phrase 'build quality' is generous when referring to BX rear light plugs.

see also fraud sierror saphire

[bezzabsa]

GIG FAP   possibly need this as a sticker 

giggety

 

[rob88h]

[wesacosa]

36 minutes ago, rob88h said:

Ooh I didn't think to do that last year 

[High Jetter]

7 hours ago, wesacosa said:

Ooh I didn't think to do that last year 

You were wise. 

[rob88h]

[Eyersey1234]

How many special editions of the BX did Citroën make?