new addition to fleet

[Stickyfinger]

me......................My name is Spartacus !

[KennyW]

I thought you were Delores!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Stickyfinger]

Only at weekends my duckie

[jgra1]

it was always going to happen..
after some very nervous driving I finally had to retire whitey to the sick bed tonight.. the leak is now visible when you stop the car - no longer a bit of vapour.. have poured expensive coolant in but its time to stop.. if I destroyed this engine I would be quite upset :O
whilst I was resting her, I noticed a tiny toy sized old mg TF in there, so I grabbed it as its summery outside

new pipe is supposed to be on route from France, only about £25 which the extra antifreeze has already cost more than..

quick question chaps, I have been putting in G30 orange AF .. can I put slightly cheaper ECP orange in now?

[CitroJim]

I have a sneaky liking for the MG TF John

We need to know more

Hope the pipe arrives soon...

[jgra1]

Thanks Jim. It's a bit different thrashing around the lanes than the x7! I admit I tried to find reverse last night and then realised there was a third pedal

It's the car I worked on a year ago.. very thankful i still have it..

So.. no issues mixing different makes of orange coolant I am guessing.. I presume they are all OAT

[CitroJim]

They always look like fun when they're not blowing head gaskets John!!!

Not sure about the coolant... Too modern for me!

[KennyW]

John,

I would check the bottle for the specification's and see if they match.

I know some of the oil companies have listing for their oil so I would have thought there would be something similar for coolants.

But I would still be cautious to mix until 100% certain.

Kenny

[jgra1]

hi all,
I went to the dealers and got 4 x 2L bottles of premix - what they use, for £20 which seemed a good deal..
I flushed as good as I could, with tap water and sometimes careful use of compressed air.. I only managed eventually to get 7L back in (I cant remember the capacity of the system) I then tested using a coolant tester and it seemed to say -10 or -30 or -20C on different occasions, but the average seemed -20 ish..

this weekend I did the first main journey in her.. A trip to Taunton (with an added clio 1.0L powered leg to Dartmoor - to give a huge contrast to the meaning of why lots of us drive big Citroens /pugs!) - via Stickyfingers - who very kindly let me drive his H3+ tourer 138 and also drove mine..we agreed that something is not right with mine.. its not terrible, but something suspension wise is wrong.. we also pondered the 19" wheels it came with.. not as bad things, but as making some differences.. a big thanks to SF for taking some time for this.. and biscuits and coffee too - great set up you have there!

Fuel economy was pretty good although I have no figures right now.. will grab those tomorrow.. car was really nice on the whole.. not too different from my S1 in terms of cabin noise (it was quieter, but not massively different) / comforts.. they are both big hydraulic suspension diesels at end of day.. but still a nice drive.

will report back with ideas or lack of, re suspension ..
will also get tracking checked this week..

love the new car on the whole.. insurance ultimately will dictate whether I can keep her.

John

[Stickyfinger]

Was a pleasure John, nice to see you both.

Deffo a jiggle/pitching problem.

One question I forgot to ask ? does it still happen with a goodly (200kg) in the boot ?

[jgra1]

never tried that Alasdair .. I can do.. I may put her old engine in boot

[Stickyfinger]

Go to B&Q and get some gravel....6 /8 bags should do it

Open question to David H.....
What would upset HydroActive3 ? making it micro pitch at the front end and jiggle left right a little ?

[civvie]

Wouldn't be one or two spheres out of kilter would it? my old xantia rode like one of those big American things with the bouncy bouncy feeling suspension, cured it by replacing the spheres at the front. It felt as if the damping had gone

[jgra1]

Thanks sf and Steve..

as far as I know it did have 2 struts recently .. will see if I can see what's on the spheres..

After a great weekend :
Total electric meltdown today
First some clicking from passenger footwell .. nav screen then kept rebooting .
parked at a shop.
then handbrake failure message and finally gearbox lock.up.. all on my 3 mile commute.. crawled to work in third and walked away..

[Stickyfinger]

It is not bouncy.....it works fine at all corners and rides perfectly/bounce back etc: except for small pitching/jiggle.
No extra road noise, no crash/bang, handles all OK.

At first I put it down to the larger wheels/lower profile tyres.....but then when driving my car again again I came to the same conclusion that there is a problem.
My car is smooth on A roads with the bonnet line keeping dead flat level over A road type surfaces and glides like a Hydro-Active car should absorbing those undulations.

Johns car moves left/right/up/down a tad to much for comfort and feels "jiggly" when you watch the bonnet line. It is not the normal judder/bounce/harsh-ride you would expect of a failed sphere at one of the corners.

I do not have the experience to diagnose Hydro-Active+3 when the spheres or another part of that part of the system has a problem.

? Anyone with a C5x7 or a C6 have experience of failed spheres in the HA+3 system specificity (my suspicion) ? but as said my knowledge is very limited on the matter.

Crap on the new problems John !.....time for the LEXIA