The Xantia of Not Many Shitters

[Rust Collector]

Some better pictures from today then, tail light replaced:

Tachometer wildness:

Outside:

Inside:

It wasn’t until I drove it that I noticed the headliner sags quite a bit 😬

On stilts for an LHM check:

Before:

After:

It wasn’t bringing up the stop light before but may as well be where it should be.

If anyone has thoughts on the perpetually on sidelights and absent headlights then they’d be appreciated as I’m now retiring to eat some Klobaska and drink some beer.

[Zelandeth]

1 minute ago, Rust Collector said:

Some better pictures from today then, tail light replaced:

Tachometer wildness:

Outside:

Inside:

It wasn’t until I drove it that I. Priced the headliner sags quite a bit 😬

On stilts for an LHM check:

Before:

After:

It wasn’t bringing up the stop light before but may as well be where it should be.

If anyone has thoughts on the perpetually on sidelights and absent headlights then they’d be appreciated as I’m now retiring to eat some Klobaska and drink some beer.

Most likely gummed up stalk if the car has been sitting for a long while.  

Smoking heater was likely the motor being bound up - there's no resistor pack on these, there's a transistor based speed controller - if smoke comes out of that you'll have nothing but full speed (a relay bypasses the controller) or off.

[purplebargeken]

Saggy headliner. A la Jag XJ40...

 

[Bren]

Thread hijack.

This was mine.

IIRC I paid just over £1k in  2006. Back then this was not really cheap - it came with a sheaf of bills from a citroen specialist in Fylde.

It did have it's issues - Radiator looked like it had been pulled out of somebody's jacksie. The aircon was also inoperative - I replaced the bitron sensor but no cigar. One of the electric fan motors  had burnt out  and taken the wiring with it.

Local auto spark wired good remaining motor ( it had two fans) to a switch on the dash - much better and you could turn the fan off at motorway speeds as he installed a separate switch for  the compressor.

Would do 40+ mpg on the motorway and the ride - and brakes - need no introduction.

Bodywork was rust free - only issue was a front door hinge that broke away from the a - post.

The XUD was tough but coarse and 90 bhp - even then - was not enough.

I found an ex citroen mechanic in Widnes who worked out of a shed on Tan House Lane who could do the mechanical stuff.

He did a water pump and timing belt and pads and discs as well as a couple of spheres for £300 ( sadly he is no longer with us ).

I actually sold the car to him in 2009. For £400. True autoshite - spend a fortune and sell on for considerable loss. 3rd gear had started to baulk and a new job in Manchester meant I needed something that would do 40 odd miles a day without issue meant replacement. 

I bought a MK 3 mondeo. Another good car.

P232RFV was a great car.

[Mad Cyril]

That rev counter thing is almost normal when a Xantia is jump started.
It's really not difficult to whip the instruments out, pop the front off, flick the needle back, and all will be fine.

[stuboy]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

just needs a tow bar

[gadgetgricey]

11 minutes ago, Mad Cyril said:

That rev counter thing is almost normal when a Xantia is jump started.
It's really not difficult to whip the instruments out, pop the front off, flick the needle back, and all will be fine.

Or be lazy and drill a really small hole in the cluster and flick it back with a paperclip....
Well it worked for me

 

[somewhatfoolish]

I'd have thought something as posh as an Exclusive would have 'body coloured doorhandles M7". 🤔

[RoverFolkUs]

1 hour ago, Rust Collector said:

Tachometer wildness:

Hooligan, there's an Italian tune up and there's breaking the rev counter 😉🤣

[SiC]

I've seen someone reset a gauge that has done that with a really big magnet. 

 

[purplebargeken]

Wondering about the lights, maybe a clean up of connections and relays, maybe slightly furred up. On Triumphs it was nearly always the earth point. Granted this is not a Triumph...

Rev counter.... magnet fix sounds funky...

[SiC]

 

 

[Schaefft]

22 minutes ago, SiC said:

 

 

Randomly waving a rock in front of your cluster to fix it is exactly the type of experience I'd expect from Citroen ownership.

[grogee]

6 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Randomly waving a rock in front of your cluster to fix it is exactly the type of experience I'd expect from Citroen ownership.

You will be finding out soon! 

[purplebargeken]

The headlining will make my teeth itch.  Had enough of Jags and Volvos doing that sort of thing.  Might look into getting it redone once the car is sorted and stuff.

[beko1987]

3 hours ago, Schaefft said:

Randomly waving a rock in front of your cluster to fix it is exactly the type of experience I'd expect from Citroen ownership.

Place a sacrificial slice of Brie on the dash overnight as an offering to the French car gods 🙏🧀

[Andy F]

2 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

The headlining will make my teeth itch.  Had enough of Jags and Volvos doing that sort of thing.  Might look into getting it redone once the car is sorted and stuff.

I've never known a Xantia to have a saggy headlining. I can check the state of my spares Xantia to see if it's any better?

 

With regards the fan, there's a fat cable that runs under the glovebox. On one of mine I would occasionally have to give it a prod, as the wire didn't make a good connection, to get the fans to behave. Drove me mad in the end, so did something to fix the wire into the connector properly in the end.

[purplebargeken]

Cheers Andy. It would grate on me. It's a thing lol.

[bezzabsa]

owned a dizzel one - twice care of swapz very wafty and uber comfy.. jealous!!

[purplebargeken]

So this is wrong then?9

[Matty]

4 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

headlining will make my teeth itch.

Got a staple gun you can have a lend of Ken

[Zelandeth]

2 hours ago, purplebargeken said:

So this is wrong then?9

With the suspension at full height that little orange disc should be between the red lines.  It's attached to a float in the tank.

The headlight circuit in the Xantia lacks relays.  This results in quite a voltage drop by the time it gets to the lights, plus puts a lot of load on not very large contacts in the switch.  Adding relays at the headlights is quite a common mod and does make a noticeable improvement to headlight performance (which isn't a bad thing as they're pretty dismal at the best of times).

Headlining is odd.  I'd never known it to drop in a Xantia until recently, but this is the third one I've heard of it happening to in the last month.

[purplebargeken]

The very hot summer of a couple of years ago made many a headlining droop. Bastard.

[purplebargeken]

Orange disc... how does one top up the tank...

This is scary stuff...

[Zelandeth]

6 minutes ago, purplebargeken said:

Orange disc... how does one top up the tank...

This is scary stuff...

The cap is immediately behind the sight glass in the photo, with a vent line running to the centre of it.  Should have "LHM" stamped into the top of I remember right.  It's just a push fit.

The disc should be sitting roughly like this when you check it. 

Under normal use it will be right up against the top of the sight glass.

[Rust Collector]

I’ll mention that the disc sitting in the middle of the sight glass in that pic is at full suspension height - I noticed it was low when I checked the car over and topped it up with the LHM that was in the boot so should all be fine now.

the lights are still outfoxing me. I had a half hour today with the car and the lights aren’t coming on at all. I didn’t have my multimeter on me so couldn’t check the voltage at the lights so unsure if bad earth or bad stalk at the moment. 

[Matty]

10 minutes ago, Rust Collector said:

I’ll mention that the disc sitting in the middle of the sight glass in that pic is at full suspension height - I noticed it was low when I checked the car over and topped it up with the LHM that was in the boot so should all be fine now.

the lights are still outfoxing me. I had a half hour today with the car and the lights aren’t coming on at all. I didn’t have my multimeter on me so couldn’t check the voltage at the lights so unsure if bad earth or bad stalk at the moment. 

Got to be a commendation or at least a mention in dispatches for all this. Top man !

[purplebargeken]

50p says..... earth...

It's always* an earth.

[beko1987]

Cleaning dirty lhm filters is a very rewarding task though! I found a 4 pint plastic milk carton cut open sideways fitted under where allllll the lhm will pour out of the cap as you move it out of the way to remove the tank worked quite well! 

If the worst thing wrong with it is a failed headliner I'd be thankful 😅 Commission @vulgalourto make you a new one from your favourite suit or similar 🤔

Equally I'm sure I've seen posts where taking the headlining out isn't too hard, a b and c pillar trims off, jesus handles out, sun visors out, lights out (the car not you, gone wrong if it's the latter), sunroof trim if applicable then it slides* out the boot

[Matty]

1 minute ago, beko1987 said:

Commission @vulgalourto make you a new one from your favourite suit or similar 🤔

That has to be the best idea in a while. Totally bespoke headlining being the preserve of the great and good no more!