French Car Forum

Allard and the Derv Doctor have been mentioned quite a lot in this forum as doing a good job of tuning turbo diesels. Alas they're a bit of a trek for me, being in the South East. Does anyone know of a similarly reputable specialist in the South East/London area?

I've owned my 1998 1.9TD for exactly one year. When I bought the car I expected cheapish motoring. How wrong I was. I think this car has been the most expensive to run I have ever owned. My previous main car was a petrol Ford Granada Scorpio and I thought that would take some beating, but the Xantia has managed it. Since December it has averaged...

Directions to the Dolphin, 30 Osborne Road South Southampton SO17
Quiet side street so not hard to park which is a mercy 'cos the pub's car park is small. Beer is very good and the food is pretty decent. Nice atmosphere, about 20% oxygen.
From the airport roundabout M27 towards Southampton.
Second lights road forks left onto
A335 Thomas Lewis Way...

Having idled away the past three months in Southern Spain, I returned home yesterday to tackle a huge pile of mail. One of the first envelopes to be opened produced a parking fine from the Borough of Hackney for £100. Because of non-payment, another letter told me the fine had increased to £150. Both letters quoted the Reg. No. of one of my...

... to call your car a lemon

Believe all cleaner fuels left untouched.
Thoughts anybody

A decent set of Michelins went on at the weekend. The previous weekend, Disks and pads were fitted to the front, together with a new driveshaft boot. Various checks and adjustments were made and bits procured. I have bought new rear arm kits but the first pair of major difficulties were to get the heater controls unsiezed and the rear wiper...

This has given me the best laugh I've had in ages.

here we are in March, I just took this pic from my back door of my house looking towards the garages.

I found a site within the last 4 days which gave alternative Citroen Manuals apart from these rather badly written, illustrated and published Haynes manuals. I originally had a BX Manual written by someone named Dussek (I think the name spelling might be erroneus) that was brilliant and this site gave publishers/outlets/shops for these...

M Reg Ford Mondeo Hatch in Doom Blue, Osama Bin Laden could drive around Westminster in one (he might be as I type!)and no one would notice him!!

Lately, every time I try to post a message I find I have to log in.
Is the board automatically logging me out after each message & if so why? It's only started recently & it's real pain in the @$$.
Anyone else finding this?
Alan S

Hi,
Hopefully this isn't classed as straying too far off topic.....I wish Citroen had a website like this Austin Rover one , it is a superb site with huge detail about the cars, the engines, the development, brochure and road test reprints. Shame Citroen doesn't have a resource as detailed as this one.
Guru Meditation

... Which was for a white diesel saloon, once owned apparently by Mike Costin. Notably it was air conditioned. I wonder if anybody else saw it, 'cos I've lost it again. If you did, Please let me know where.
Thanks.

What engine's that going to be then?

Hi All.. Two points I would like to raise for discusion..
(1) Would it be possible to relocate the temp guage source to a better position? The thinking here is, if the sensor gets dry it cant read the water temp, so why not move it to a place where it will not be in an air pocket as soon as the car starts losing water? Option B I would have...

They used to say it could only happen in America.
Not any more; we have an election later this year that has all the signs of seeing the ruling junta slapped around a bit, so as a result, all the bloody weirdos are jumping on the bandwagon.
If ths one gets in, she could change the criteria on Parliamentary Dress Standard if this is an example of...

Just under a year ago I did a lot of ranting about the poor ride quality of my newly aquired xantia 1.9TD, 1998 vintage.
What I have now realised is that I was in error comparing it to earlier Cit's. In which case it was inferior in terms of comfort.
what I should have been doing I now realise, is comparing it to its contempories. When I do that...

Yesterday DLM and I embarked upon a 400 mile round trip to rescue Mark's TZD estate which was on offer to interested parties on this site. Although I hadn't seen it, I felt it was worth taking on. I was agreeably surprised by its condition. Mark clearly loves his cars and the BX was one of the best esrtates I have seen in some time, the body being...

The ugly topic has been busy so just for fun...
No Ferraris, GT40s etc. that's too easy. Cars for everyman, please.
(The CX, SM and the Goddess qualify automatically, of course.)
Fiat's 128 3p Berlinetta?

Ermm this is off topic too
If you pass through Bath on your travels you usually get stuck in traffic for ages. Soooo:- Going South, when you hit the big roundabout at the bottom of the duel carriageway take first left, then first right, (its a lane more than a road) pay the 15p toll and carry on for about 3/4 mile, it brings you out in...

When I was helping fit the new door panels on my car we found that the lecky windows worked when the car keys were in my pocket! Mech went to check his ZX which was parked 20 feet away, and found his windows were the same!
My boot wont open electricaly, no elec feed anywhere in sight? I have to use the key, his worked off the central locking...

I have been told that the TD is the one to have but
one of my gurus asserts that though the td has more horses (yes and 53% more torque!) it is a rough engine compared to the 1905 diesel and bits rattle off it, usually pipes and ducting.
He also suggests that it is not particularly durable.
He is not a citrophobe and often right, but is he this...

I recently bought a used Opel Omega B 2.5ltrs V6, 1996 Model. The on-boardcomputer display is in German,is there a way I could change this to English so I can understand whatever is on the display.

I have an OPEL OMEGA B 2.5ltrs V6, 1996 model. I found thick whitish colour emulsion in my radiator bottle, this appeared to be a mixture of oil and coolant. I notice my car overheats in traffic jams and when my AC is on. I also found out that both water level and oil level keep going down each time I checked them. I discovered as well that when I...

Anyone else (in the UK) noticed that in the last quarter Xantia prices have been in free-fall. There are still the silly dealer prices around but the private sales and small trader prices have crashed. A couple of recent examples:

1998 TD's at approx £1300 - £1500
2000 HDI's at at 3000 - 3300
And 1.8 Forte 2001 at £4000
They are not isolated...

Concours.

Well go on then

Are they really safe? Wether they are safe or not, they are devious, sneaky, money making, inobtrusive little vans aren't they?
I feel a bit of a hypocrite harping on about speeding, like some left wing liberal softy, on a previous topic . But I recently had the misfortune of driving up the A11, not a busy time of the day nor the quickest car on...

Please bookmark the following link and check it as often as possible. Its the only way this will work. Read the homepage for full details and feel free to mail me with details for any links you want adding.
www.stolenvehicles.org.uk

Yes, handy tips on amongst other things, sex in cars!
No doubt Refitting is a reverse of the removal procedure .

Down as Chesterfield car auctions on Friday, and an Espace comes through, looks ok, but the thing is revving it's nuts off, somewhere between 800 and 4000 revs, I'd say.
Auctioneer asks the driver if it's him doing it, shakes his head, then he shouts CAN'T YOU MAKE IT REV ANY LOWER ?, and then carries on the auction, during which he laughs at the...

Together with the main GSF Car parts website,this Forum is being transferred to a superior, dedicated Webserver w.e.f. 16th January 2004.
As many of you know it can take some 48 hours for DNS records to update, and during that time, depending on where you are in the World you may lose the Forum completely, or you may still be able to see it (on...

Have a look the picture that the mars exploation rover has sent back from mars the website is

Now I'm a fan of modern hi-tech cars or even old hi tech cars (Most of my Cits ) But today at -3 I was reminded of the benefits of cars from a simpler age. A guy from the next village knocked on my door asking if I could help with his Moggy thou, so out I went opened the bonnet and wow you could see everything and its function was obvious. turned...

Gents, halfords are having their new year sale. Big deal I hear you say, but this year they have actually reduced someting you may want to buy!
Some of their Halfords Professional tools are up to half price. This is nice kit made mostly by Facom with a lifetime guarantee.
I splashed out on a set of flexible headed ratchet combination spanners for...

As a newbie it does seem to me that the xantias are prone to more probs than the other models? (Based on what I have read on the forums) so why would anyone buy one? and why would I buy a car with the weird hydro-sodit complex suspension thingy that makes the car go up and down? (Why not use a jack like everyone else?) Whats the attraction with...

Just spotted this on a local rag. Talk about 'till death us do part I doubt even Alf Garnett could have thought of this one.
Oh well, I suppose it could be called unique but in any case, I'll bet she never forgets her wedding day; after all, not all brides get capsicum sprayed on their Wedding Day.

Alan S

According to the ACPO the tolerance for speeding is 10% plus 2mph. I.E you CANNOT get nicked for doing 35mph in a 30mph zone, you'll have to be doing at least 36mph, 47mph, 58mph, 69mph and 80mph. This is FACT and if you have been nicked for anything less then you should get a lawyer to sort it.