Early Xantia 1.9D small issues and fixes.

[mirafioriman]

Some help please.....

1) When starting after the car has sat overnight or longer the stop light takes a long time to go out (when I got the car I changed the fluid and cleaned the filters and it didn't do this). Sometimes after setting off the light will flicker back on again once or twice. The issue seems worse in cold weather. Any ideas, accumulator sphere perhaps?

2) I have a pretty bad water leak into the drivers side rear footwell. After rain when I open the drivers rear door there is always water sitting on top of the door seal along the bottom. Any ideas? Again it didn't do this until after I got the car I have messed around with the sunroof a bit so I'm wondering if the water could be coming from here.....

[Stepto1]

The pros will be along shortly to help but until then I can tell you this much, my STOP light would take ages to go out and it was worse in cold weather until I changed the front accumlator sphere. The STOP light now goes out much quicker, the 'machine gun' ticking from the pump is down to about once every 60 seconds and the steering is smoother and quicker.

[mirafioriman]

Thanks, been considering changing the accumulator sphere but looking for confirmation before I part with my hard earned cash

[Stepto1]

Cheap and quick job to do and often overlooked by the sounds of it.

[aerodynamica]

Hiya, am I right in thinking your's is a Mk1 Xantia (Citroën badge on edge of bonnet not the grille) ? If so, it has the FDV valve and I am confident this is a major contributor to sinking off pressure from the pump when it's out of adjustment. Other than that, the HP pump could be tired or the drive belt a bit too slack. If these are the causes, a new accumulator will not help because the work still needs to get from the pump to the system.

A way to check if it's the FDV is to get in and start the car and with the system pressurising from overnight rest, turn the steering wheel a bit and hold it against the bit of pressure you feel from the tyres on the ground. If this action causes the pressure light to go out and the car to go up quicker, then it's an FDV problem. If not, then it's not

This doesn't apply if your Xantia is a Mk2 or 3 as they don't use the FDV and have anti-sink suspension.

[mirafioriman]

Thanks, it is indeed an early Mk1. I will try what you suggested in the morning. The pump was replaced by the previous owner but of course it could have gone faulty since I have had the car. The belt was replaced after I got the car when I did the cambelt and is tensioned correctly.

[CitroJim]

On an FDV equipped MK1 the STOP light should go out fairly quickly in my experience and it should being to rise pretty smartly too.

Another good test, expanding on Graeme's is to hold the steering wheel just off-centre until you feel resistance just before starting up and holding it there whilst you start. If the pump and FDV is happy then you should feel the resistance decrease quite soon after as hydraulic power is delivered to the steering gear.

On the leak, if you are confident the sunroof drains are all good then check the roofrack securing threaded holes under the rubber gutters above the rear doors. these are covered up with stickers to keep water out but these deteriorate and water runs in them and into the rear footwells. Seal them with silicone.

Other than that, it is possible a sunroof gutter collector under headlining is broken, allowing water to leak from the sunroof gutter onto the top of the impervious headlining and run down across and exit around a rear door grab handle.

[mirafioriman]

Thanks, will do some investigation tomorrow and report back on my findings

[mirafioriman]

Well, it's raining here again so went out for a look. The stickers over the roof rack mountings seem intact. The carpet is very wet on the high points just inside the door seal and beside the back seat. I have also noticed that water collects under the rear seat. The leak is not just causing a damp patch, more like a big puddle!

This may be a coincidence but a couple of months after I got the car I swapped the door panels and carpets to match the better seats someone had fitted. When I did this job all seemed ok, afterwards things started getting wet. Have I done something silly I wonder?

[mirafioriman]

Well did the test with the steering wheel this morning. As soon as the engine started the steering went lighter but the stop light stayed on for a long time and the car was still slow to rise. If I leave the car for a couple of hours and then start it the stop light goes out much quicker and it rises much quicker too.

[mirafioriman]

Been thinking about the water leak today. I think I have convinced myself that I dislodged the drivers side rear sunroof drain. The first opportunity I get I'm going to drop the headlining and take a look.

[CitroJim]

I'm going to drop the headlining and take a look.

This is what you should see:



It's the black pipe. Check it both ends, at the sunroof and at the top of the rear wheelarch. There's one on each side too.

This picture is of a repaired one where the clear plastic 'collector' piece broke away from the gutter proper. I used bedding mastic to seal it and wrapper a cable tie around it to hold it firmly in place...

[mirafioriman]

Thanks, now I know what I should be looking at. Hopefully I will be able to take some photos to document the job. I might try removing a few trim bits and getting the hose pipe out to see if I can identify any leaks.

[mirafioriman]

Another thought on the water leak. When I removed the dash to fix the speedo (Long story!) I removed the black trim at the bottom of the front windscreen. It was glued down with sealant. When I refitted it I fitted it dry. Would this cause a leak of some sort?

[CitroJim]

Would this cause a leak of some sort?

Gosh yes The scuttle must be sealed back to the windscreen, especially the half on the passenger side. Many windscreen replacement mobs make this error and what happens is that water running down the screen runs under the scuttle and straight into the heater intake and straight under the passenger footwell carpet. The foam underlay gets so saturated that eventually it overlows into the rear footwells...

The underlay will soak up countless gallons.

The only answer now is to have all the carpets out and dry everything throughly. Hang the carpets somewhere warm after wringing them out but they'll still take a couple of weeks to dry...

Carpets are easy to remove - just remove the front seats, rear seat bases and centre console and after disconnecting the handbrake cable the carpets will lift out...

You will see a rubber 'septum' on the bottom of the bulkhead in the passenger footwell. This'll be saturated and it needs propping clear of the floorpan/bulkhead to dry.

You must do this otherwise moisture gets in the electrics and causes all sorts of mayhem...

I know what you mean about a speedo cable.... Been there