Ayy down't believe it!!

Unread post by **alan s** » 23 Jun 2006, 23:34

One of the sons bought a 2.0i Xantia VSX in Sydney last week.
To collect we had a flight down followed by a 1300 klms drive home which went without incident apart from the heater being by passed and the temp getting below 0 in the wee small hours (yes, it doe get cold out here at times) but as I usually do, upon arriving home and as a result of us being about 80% satisfied with the performance, I did the usual thorough going over that I do to our cars.
This usually consists of checking everything systematically followed by a change in all fluids, bleeding of hydraulics etc.
Having found the spark plugs hadn't been removed since 1995, I thought that after around 230K klms, they were about due and as it idled and ran a bit rough, the injectors would no doubt be well beyond the time when they needed a service, so I also whipped them out. Popped the end caps, "O" rings and spacers on 2 but had a distraction, so left on a bench so I could continue later. Later turned out to be the following day, so I decided to fit the kits to the two I had stripped before I went any further; no dramas so far. Final part of these is to replace the filter baskets of which I had already gouged two out. Grab the kits I normally keep on hand and instead of being an "interference" fit, they simply fell in. Upended, they fell out again!!

To make a long story short, the kits that fit BX injectors and most other Bosch injectors are 5.5mm diameter by 13mm long. The ones that fit a Xantia, are 6.5mm by 16mm long. No sweat thinks I; I'll just order some larger ones. WRONG!! Nobody has heard of 6.5 X 16mm filter baskets. I contact Bosch who proceed to advise that the injectors I have ceased production in 2002 and were replaced by (another number) but that makes no difference as they don't make filter baskets for either ones.
I have eventually located a couple (for $4.50 each!!!

but down in Melbourne and after being quoted a further $10 for air freight, I now discover the suppliers screwed up and sent them by normal mail meaning I won't see them for 5 more days.

Moral of the story; if you have to redo Xantia injectors, be certain you have the correct kits before you start and if all else fails, leave the filter buckets intact.
This caper has put us off the road for about 10 days in total just trying to locate the parts.

Alan S

Amazon Activa · Unread post by **Amazon Activa** » 23 Jun 2006, 23:42

Struth Mate (

)

Are Xantias rare in your country? It just seems along way to go for a car....maybe I am wrong.

Anyway, sounds like you have been pretty unlucky, but its nice to hear of another Citroen being looked after.

Unread post by **alan s** » 24 Jun 2006, 00:00

The sales of Citroens out here are I think about 2% of total car sales at present which is a big improvement on years gone by.
I checked this morning on a popular online car sales site and there were 7 Xantias for sale nationwide, one BX and one XM, so they are a bit thin on the ground.
We're one of the few Citroen owners in a 250 klms radius of where we live and our nearest dealer is 350 klms south or 550 klms north of us so I suppose you could say they were a bit rare.
The car we bought incidentally was a panic sale and was around 1/3 of normal bottom end price, so worth the effort as basically it's not a real bad car.

Alan S

andmcit · Unread post by **andmcit** » 24 Jun 2006, 14:29

alan s wrote:The car we bought incidentally was a panic sale and was around 1/3 of normal bottom end price, so worth the effort as basically it's not a real bad car.

Alan S

Who was panicking? The seller or the buyer!!

I've not had any 'fiddlings' with these on Xantia or Xm's - by 'basket' do you mean the injector body? Is there a sleeve into the head which needs breaking up/gouging out!? Wouldn't an injector cleaner have the same effect?

Andrew

Unread post by **alan s** » 25 Jun 2006, 00:28

The small filters that go into the top of the injectors.
It's common and good workshop practice when cleaning the injectors that these are replaced.

Alan S

reblack68 · Unread post by **reblack68** » 25 Jun 2006, 10:30

We once made a 900 mile round trip to collect a car. In retrospect it was a bit ambitious to expect a free 305 to manage the 450 mile drive home. 10 minutes up the road we had our first breakdown. There was a problem with the fuel pump and the engine would die unless you thrashed it.

After a fraught journey home (not for me though, I was driving my own car) we discovered the timing belt was so badly perished that we pushed the car into the garage to fix it.

deian · Unread post by **deian** » 25 Jun 2006, 22:03

alan.s.... do u know who Victor Meldrew is?

Unread post by **alan s** » 26 Jun 2006, 00:14

Yes, we got the show out here too.

Alan S