picasso headaches!!

[lupe]

Hey there people.

Im in the north west scottish highlands and hope i can bring help to the forum's.
I specalise in panel beating, painting, mobile dent repair, smart repairs etc and am reasonably mechanical minded as in have rebuilt engines have a fair stock of tool's and can do anything with a haynes manual and a swear jar.
I am however a french car virgin until an old lady i care for gave me a 2005 1.6hdi picasso desire in beautiful practically new condition that she has had since new, it has however 270,000 miles on it, her husband had dementia and the only way he would settle was in the car, and so at 80 year's old the lady would tour the highlands up to 3 times a day.....that is love.
The car has been driven at 30mph everywhere with a good strong engine etc but the arse is sagging and gives a hard clunk over moderate bumps from the rear,the wheels are close to the arches and giving plenty of negative camber.....bushes all look good and shocks so i think axle ...could someone tell me what i need parts wise to freshen up this axle??? there are so called bearing kits on ebay fairly cheap....and then how much of a pain is it renewing these axle bit's?? i cant afford a recon axle so a kit is the way to go i think and i am competant and under no pressure to do the job on a wet sunday afternoon, i can do it over lot's of umm wet afternoon's!

Im just looking for general advice here please folks, and to find out what i am up against......i was given the car and am so delighted with how it drives its just the rear clunk and slight sag that bother's me. and i need to repair it myself as im kinda isolated here and the money tree has been slow growing!

Right ramble over.....looking forward to talking with you all

[Peter.N.]

270,000 miles without the turbo failing must be a record for one of these - unless its been replaced of course, so it has obviously been well looked after. Can't help you much with your suspension although if you have a Haynes manual you should be able to find your way round it, maybe you could get a secondhand rear axle from the breakers if you have one locally, I know there is one near John O Groats

I would suggest that you change the oil about every 5-6K miles to preserve the turbo, the sump has to small a capacity and to long oil change intervals to keep it healthy, no need to use expensive oil just change it regularly.

There is a firm near me at Stockland that reconditions rear axles, they will send it or fit it for the same price - bit of a long way to come though.

We should be up in Lairg in may.

Peter

[lupe]

Hey peter,

Thankyou very much for your reply, its the original turbo and the weekend i stripped all pipes and EGR into head (yuck) turbo is incredibly tight on the shaft and no play at all. oil has been done every 10k from new...engine pull's hard no smoke...i hated these french motor's but i love this motor, so impressed! just i have to get the oar's out round bends lol... i did read turbo pipes are too narrow etc and oil will be changed as you said. trouble is there are so many variants of these motor's..theres this DPF and i have no idea if mine has that.. anyhoo its this axle thing and recon is an option...does that firm post?? how much are they??

I am 8 miles from lairg, if your passing etc kettles on. oh and shin fall's if you know it was burnt down.

Can anyone shed light on the axle prob??

[citronut]

hi and welcome

and can do anything with a haynes manual

WOW
anything!!!!

most of us on here can only look at the picy's

so you could even tear it into 4 equal pieces without even taking it out of its celafain

[Peter.N.]

We were up there last year when the visitor centre burnt down - nothing to do with us though! We stay at Rogart.

I think Citroen diesels are the best, I have a C5 and 406 2.0. 8 valve Hdi which have both done around 200,000 miles and are still going strong with the original clutches and DMFs, I think the newer ones are a bit more complicated but apart from turbo failure still a cut above the rest.

There are a number of axles on ebay for very reasonable prices :
http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/picasso-rear-axle" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I can't find the details of the local chap at the moment but I think his exchange units are around £500 which is a lot dearer than ebay.

Peter

[RichardW]

I wouldn't bother with a 2nd hand, unless you can confirm it came from the same model, and is low mileage. SP engineering are the firm down south that refurb them - they were about £350 (+VAT?) - but this doesn't include stub axles. There is an outfit in Poland that advertise on ebay IIRC who are similar price, but include stub axles (eg Here. You do NOT want to tackle the bearing job yourself!!

[Peter.N.]

Found the local one:

http://sspengineering.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lighty]

These guys are excellent, we have fitted about 30 of their axles with no issues. Don't bother trying to do it yourself, it is nigh on impossible. The Xsara has the bearings on the radius arms, rather than the axle itself. These radius arms will be worn out, so 2 new ones will be required, + the axle tube. The specialists remove the bearing tube , rw machine it fractionally bigger (as removing it makes the original fitting a bit bigger) then they press it together & rebuild it all with new bearings & lots of grease. Never had a failure from them, and they are quite cheap. £250 inc vat for a Picasso one



http://www.imaxle.co.uk/catalogsearch/r ... 953&y=-133" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[citroenxm]

Peter..

FIRST BIG MISTAKE! Do NOT USE cheap oil in the 1.6 HDi engine! that IS the big mistake. The 1.6 MUST ONLY use Fully Synthetic, oil and NOTHING else, useing cheap oil in these causes the Oil Sludge that blocks the feed pipes up to the turbo.

Unfortunally the 1.6 is the Worse engine PSA have ever been involved woth. The 2.0 8v HDi that started life in the Xantia and 406 is the Best one, followed very closly by the Later 2.0 16v engine which is prooving very good too..

Is the car a Xsara Picasso, or a C4 Picasso? C4 Picassos have Air Bag rear suspension which can and does give issues.

Ive got a feeling though that the Air Bags are only on the Grand Picassos.. but Im not 100% on that.

Xsara Picassos do not have air bags, but do suffer from rear beam bearing wear like most Peugeot cars with the same setup.

[RichardW]

"Ive got a feeling though that the Air Bags are only on the Grand Picassos.. but Im not 100% on that."

You're right Paul - but only on Exclusive spec models. Best avoided!

[citroenxm]

Ahh thats it, Cheers Richard!!

[Peter.N.]

Peter..

FIRST BIG MISTAKE! Do NOT USE cheap oil in the 1.6 HDi engine! that IS the big mistake. The 1.6 MUST ONLY use Fully Synthetic, oil and NOTHING else, useing cheap oil in these causes the Oil Sludge that blocks the feed pipes up to the turbo.

Surely if the oil is of the correct spec Paul it shouldn't be a problem, just that if you are going to change it more frequently it will reduce the cost.

Peter

[citroenxm]

Unfortunally not Peter, These 1.6 engines are VERY delicate and not good with their oil, and Sludge up very easilly.

You might want to read this GOOD bit of info on them..

But DEFO not a cheap oil to be used for a long life!!

http://www.total-ni.com/index.php?optio ... =12&t=6031" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[lexi]

I don't disagree with Peter or Paul here. If you are canny you can use a lower spec and change more frequently. Remember that oils like Rimula and Vanella, plus many other fleet oils are not cheap oils. They are used in trucks costing over 200£k. Neither are many semi synthetic oils less spec than other fully synth. Millers Semi synth has same SL CF spec as their fully synth in the range at 5w30.

The point is that you should know when your oil is going to be sludging and change well before it. To save confusion and any error, a fully synth is recommended. It willresist sludge a bit longer as it breaks down more slowly. It will also be the correct viscosity as they are thin. So no chance of too thick an oil.

The other main issue is that of warranty, the manufacturers insist on their specified oil for claims.They can check the oil on newer cars. This can be a bit of a get out........I don't know. Not an issue on old mota but could be if new turbo is fitted by a company.
Some of the damage on these engines must be effect of sludge block up, when cold starting takes place. That is where the real advantage of the fully synth oil is. In fact until these sludge issues with 1.4 and 1.6 diesels, I was reliable informed it was the only real advantage of fully synth. That was the tech at Millers examining my oil and knowing how often I was changing it. We need to remember that there is much marketing in oil and so much opinion.

There cannot be much wrong with actual 1.6 engine when it can achieve 270k mls? Poor maintenance, oil and blockages likely on a lot of failures. Turbo quality maybe too?

[citroenxm]

Im only really reading what Ive been seeing in other areas. I agree they can do great milages, Ive a taxi customer who runs two of them and they are both hedging 200k...

Contridicing my own words above Ive also heard that Injector Leaking can cause this Turbo issue too as the soot works its way back somehow.

Anyway. My bottom line is that I do not think any are anything as hardy as the previous 8v engines in the Xantia.

Im currently dooing a turbo replacment for my sister, the instructions SPECIFICALLY say that ALL soot must be removed from inlet manifold, plus sump removed and slude removed, Oil pick up removed and cleaned, any injector seals replaced if suspect.

As for oil, I think the other issue is people use Semi Synthectic due to being cheaper, but the two Semi and Fully synthetics are not compatible, but people dont always realise this. Fully synthetic oils for these is expensive so people assume useing cheaper of a slightrly different grade of oil wont do any harm, where eventually it does.