OK, time for an update. Gosh it's been quiet in the Avtiva Area. No posts since mine of 22 Dec!
I have acquired a Xantia Activa. It is a fine specimen indeed benefitting from the attention of Cap'n Slow in his Activa rescue thread. Primarily the installation of a full set of spheres.
I purchased it with a friend just before Xmas. We both wanted to experience an Activa, being not just petrolheads, but both of us driving and chassis engineering nuts too.
Bought with a rather large dose of caution. Alarm bells tinkling as we were met with "Morning! Everything's fine, just topped up the LHM this morning". (!) Anyway, went off on a test drive and all the Activa aspects were working. On return a steady drip of green could be seen from the RH rear suspension area, appearing suspiciously like from the bottom of the CAR ram...
The entire underbody to the rear of the subframe seemed to covered in a film of oil grime.
Anyway, you know the saying about a fool and his money (or two in this case). Deal suitably lubricated with the inclusion of a can of 10w40 and we were on our way...
Apart from just 150m after setting off, the loss of PAS and appearance of the STOP light for 5 seconds, it performed faultlessly(ish) on the return run to Northampton. Never before has such a journey been so filled with gratuitous lane changes. Taking it in turns to lead, we zigzagged our way up the A34 to really get the hang of this body-sway free handling. Direct comparisons abounded as the collection was completed in my SX estate with baseline suspension. The most strange thing is the subtlety with which SC.CAR works. It is actually more noticeable by its absence when returning to conventionally roll-controlled car.
So... jumping on, I spent several hours on the beast over Xmas hols.
LHM leak from rear turned out to be a leak return pipe which had escaped from the 4way just above the subframe. A well documented problem. CAR ram seems ok (pheww). Went for super-dry degrease with sprayed brake cleaner so any other probs could be identified.
There was also a leak from the CAR accumulator under the battery tray dripping off. Extremely curiously, after this was sprayed down with brake cleaner, no more LHM appeared.
The third leak (oh, I forgot to mention, this was noted at the point of purchase too and we still went ahead...
) was from the HP pump. This was running down the bracket and front of engine dripping (lots) off the sump. Duly cleaned up, it merely dampened in the next hour or so of running.
Things started to look promising for an MoT which had but 6 days to run by now.
In order to give a good impression to my local MoT garage, I decided on a full underbody pressure wash. On doing this, I found yet another LHM leak. this time from the LF strut leak return. This return pipe had 2 vertical hoses, as opposed to the 1 shown in parts catalogue. Even the part numbers are the same for teh baseline suspension. A previous botched repair involved teh 2nd pipe being blocked off with a M5 screw. Obviously LHM is quite happy to travle up threads. The whole LH steering knuckle below the strut was covered in damp oily clart. A repair was duly effected by supper dry cleaning the "spare" pipe and reinserting the M4 screw, this time with a dab of black gasket sealer. Sorted.
It remains a mystery as to the purpose of this "spare" tube or where it went or should go. The end of it looked as if it was hacked of with a knife. Since this fix, the LF knuckle remains bone dry. the leak rurn provided by the other pipe which is still connected. Anyone shed light on this wierd double pipe leak return block? The LF CAR ram is also totally arid.
First tried to repair the pump leak by nipping up the 3 long screws which hold the pump body together - to no avail. Then noticed the leak seemed to be coming only from the thread end of the uppermost screw. This was unscrewed all the way out and the thread area blasted with carb cleaner. Loctite thread loc'n'seal was applied to threads and screw put back in.
4 significant leaks now resolved.
I gave her a service of oil, filter, plugs (old ones were seriously tight in the head and electrodes worn oval, how long since changed???) and air filter.
We duly presented for MoT on 28th Dec, one day before expiry. Thankfully we got a pass despite the fact that the LF inner drive shaft boot was split all round. I believe it may have been overlooked as the subframe was very clean with no tell-tale grease splatter.
With MoT, I made the decision to SORN my SX and press the SC.CAR in to service on my daily 104 mile commute.
On the Sunday 30th we fitted a universal driveshaft boot kit.
And that's about it so far. I have now driven the car just over 1000 miles. Touch wood (knock) all is working fine. On my eco-commute it has returned 36mpg on the first full brim to brim calculation.
Further inspection shows we still have weeping from the rear 4 way and also from its identical twin at the front. Parts have arrived at my local Citroen garage to fix these.
What's next?
Well, the front ride ht seems about 20mm too high and the CAR control rod bushes are worn very oval. These bushes are also now waiting at Citroen garage.
I am currently thinking that it will be best to go for a full wishbone rebush and BJs, tres, control rod bushes, ride ht, tracking and CAR set up in one hit rather than several dabbling goes at sorting out what feels like a pretty tired front end.
Having said that, despite the loose feeling and a fairly poor set of P6000 (never much good at the best of times) the CAR makes the car hugely entertaining and different to drive.
Really enjoying it and this is driving the motivation to continue to "improve" it.
Will keep you posted as it develops.
Also much head scratching now as to how this fits with project Xantia 3rd Millenium....
The SX estate I current own could be the target vehicle but as it does not have Hydractive2, there are many more parts to transfer to make its suspension to SC.CAR... Hmmm. Anyone selling a nice Exclusive HDi 110 estate?
Peter
