Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[DickieG]

Thanks Jim.

Looks like I might need to buy some wiper blades after all - we got a good spell of rain yesterday and the blades Steve gave me started shuddering like crazy on actual real rain. (They seemed fine tested on screen wash the day before)

Can that happen if otherwise new blades have sat unused in the garage for a few months ? What was wrong with the old wiper blades ? The didn't look too bad to me, although they too didn't get tested in real rain. I still have them so could refit them.

Quite likely you just need to bend the wiper arms so that the blade is presented to the screen at right angles, over time the arms bend in the direction towards whatever is the last directional sweep.

Oh, and I noticed yesterday that the windscreen scuttle is broken in multiple places

Near the middle is a split right down the middle and you can move the two halves separately... And there are 3 other smaller cracks in the scuttle along its length as well. I'm assuming that it is going to leak water or will it not necessarily leak depending on the location of the cracks ? I didn't notice any water getting in during the rain yesterday. Is it worth me putting some black silicone sealer in the cracks ?

Are new scuttles available and easy to fit or would I need to get an auto glass specialist to fit it?

Provided the area above the heater inlet is adhered to the screen you needn't concern yourself about the rest of the scuttle as far as leaks are concerned, last time I looked new scuttles were in excess of £150+ new from Citroen.

[KP]

Ahh I took the tyre warning as being wear possibly, if one is out of round last year more are likely to follow this year.

Rubbers can look good but show issue when the prybar of doom is applied as I know all to well. The tyres would be my first port though

[Northern_Mike]

Simon, the Silex grey one I (and Jim, and Chris) had vibrated horrendously betweeen 85ish and 100. Above that it curiously stopped. It was the tyres and wheels being out of balance, and one rear tyre out of round. Jim and Chris never noticed this as they potter about barely tickling the throttle. That would be my first port of call.

Give your wiper arms a bit of a lateral twist too, the angle they're on the screen at is probably a bit wrong. I usually need to do this with with new blades.

[Mandrake]

Quite likely you just need to bend the wiper arms so that the blade is presented to the screen at right angles, over time the arms bend in the direction towards whatever is the last directional sweep.

Thanks for the tip - I'll give it a try. It's not a problem I've ever seen before believe it or not. Unfortunately I already put some new Valeo blades on today - huge improvement but still a slight intermittent shudder when the window isn't fully wet. Hopefully with a twist it will be silent as that type of noise really annoys me.

Provided the area above the heater inlet is adhered to the screen you needn't concern yourself about the rest of the scuttle as far as leaks are concerned, last time I looked new scuttles were in excess of £150+ new from Citroen.

I might be ok then as it poured down today and we were out for a drive and I didn't see any sign of water coming in - I assume it would actually leak down through the back of the passenger side dashboard onto the floor in a visible way ? I'm pretty sure that's what my Dad's one did when the scuttle above the intake was broken.

Rubbers can look good but show issue when the prybar of doom is applied as I know all to well. The tyres would be my first port though

Jim applied his prybar of doom when he checked the car out on Wednesday and seemed to think they were fine, so I think I'll be ok on that point.

Simon, the Silex grey one I (and Jim, and Chris) had vibrated horrendously betweeen 85ish and 100. Above that it curiously stopped. It was the tyres and wheels being out of balance, and one rear tyre out of round. Jim and Chris never noticed this as they potter about barely tickling the throttle. That would be my first port of call.

Thanks Mike, it does sound like the same problem. When I had actual wheel imbalance (not flat spots) on the silver Xantia it only occurred across a fairly narrow range around 75 plus or minus a few mph.

This one is doing it between 70 and 90 (I didn't go any faster than that) and is worst at 85 and during acceleration it can be extremely bad. So I guess I may have to replace at least one out of round tyre then as well as the balancing. Pity I didn't think about out of round tyres earlier in the weekend as I could have spun each of the wheels and visually checked them.

[Mandrake]

So what do you guys reckon a fair price is to get all four wheels balanced on this car, bearing in mind that they're centre-less wheel rims that most places can't or won't do... ? (Almost nobody in my area will touch them, I phoned a lot of places last time for the other car)

The car is now taxed, change of ownership posted away, MOT booked for tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

[Northern_Mike]

I paid a fiver each for mine down here in Berks.

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[Mandrake]

I paid a fiver each for mine down here in Berks.

Right, are you sitting down then ?

The MOT is booked in with Citroen Glasgow tomorrow - mainly because its convenient walking distance from work so I can drop it off during the day and collect it after work.

They were also kind to me with the emissions test last MOT time, and balanced one wheel for free with the last MOT as well... (and I know they have the facilities to do the centre-less rims properly - one of the very few local places that can)

So I enquired this time about getting the wheels balanced with the MOT - unfortunately they send MOT bookings to a call centre so you're not actually speaking directly to them while booking the MOT. £29 per wheel !!

Needless to say I said no thank you to that... I'm only aware of one other place nearby that can do them, and they took three tries to get it right last time... (but did get it spot on eventually) so I'm contemplating what to do about the wheel situation now.

Probably best to wait until I see whether they give advisories on out of round wheels and I've had a chance to inspect and spin the wheels myself while jacked up to decide what I need to do about tyres...

[Hell Razor5543]

Silly question, but what state are the tyres in on 'Problem Child'?

[CitroJim]

Silly question, but what state are the tyres in on 'Problem Child'?

Good point as you may come to hate the S1 Exclusive wheels Simon. They're lovely wheels but such a job to keep clean. The S2 Exclusive wheels are a bit boring but against that they are a doddle to keep looking smart...

They will swap as I ran an S1 with S2 wheels.

£29 to balance one wheel is outrageous!

All the best with the MOT...

[Mandrake]

Silly question, but what state are the tyres in on 'Problem Child'?

So so, the front are half worn Michelin Energies, the rear are Federal's with plenty of tread but getting a bit old. There is a slight vibration from one of the rear tyres there too, probably from the screw that is embedded in one...

They're on different style rims though and there is no time to swap tyres between rims before Will takes it away tomorrow. (I wouldn't do that to him anyway after the price and condition of the car are already set)

The new car is in immaculate enough order that it really deserves a couple of new tyres if they're needed. I might just have to put up with a high speed vibration for a couple of months until the budget allows as I still have spheres and a service to do yet. Below about 70mph it's fine, and once the spheres are done and the suspension is actually working properly the problem may be a lot less severe anyway. (With the suspension stiff at the rear there is no isolation between any wheel vibrations and the body)

[Hell Razor5543]

I wasn't thinking about swapping between rims. I was going to suggest popping on 'Problem Childs' wheels, then getting the new V6 through the MoT, and then swapping them back.

[Mandrake]

Silly question, but what state are the tyres in on 'Problem Child'?

Good point as you may come to hate the S1 Exclusive wheels Simon. They're lovely wheels but such a job to keep clean. The S2 Exclusive wheels are a bit boring but against that they are a doddle to keep looking smart...

They will swap as I ran an S1 with S2 wheels.

The new rims are in better condition than the old ones, although the old ones are in quite good condition too.

As for keeping them clean, it was mission impossible keeping the S2 rims clean too! I pretty much gave up. Apart from a few days after the car is washed I resigned myself to the rims being black with brake residue, thus far the new rims have kept clean, considering the 700 miles it's done in the last few days that's a miracle!

£29 to balance one wheel is outrageous!

All the best with the MOT...

It sure is outrageous.

I'm fairly confident about the MOT, although I did spot some rust on one of the rear strut large feed pipes that might draw their attention, (no time to fix it before the test though) also there might be a little bit of blow on a rusty bit just before the rear muffler - its flaking away there and I think there is a small noisy leak. Hopefully just an advisory.

The rest of the exhaust system looks in pretty good shape - so I'd want to get that little bit ground back and welded rather than replacing big sections of exhaust. Despite you saying that the exhaust sounds quite noisy and is after market, it's much quieter than the old £75 after market one!!! I actually quite like the sound of it. It's got a nice V6 burble at low RPM if you have the rear windows open but you can otherwise hardly hear it, and none of the "boom" at idle with accessory load that the old car has.

Also the rear muffler is actually OEM after looking at the part numbers on it...so assuming it passes the emissions I think this exhaust will be good for many miles if I get that tiny rusty patch on the pipe fixed...

[Mandrake]

I wasn't thinking about swapping between rims. I was going to suggest popping on 'Problem Childs' wheels, then getting the new V6 through the MoT, and then swapping them back.

I don't think the tyres will have any trouble passing an MOT - I'm thinking more about getting the balance sorted to stop the high speed vibration...

Given the previous owner was 93, I don't think this car has done over 70mph for a long time.

[Hell Razor5543]

9 pages in a week, and he has only had it for 4 days! Come on, give him a chance. Some MoT places have a long waiting time.

[KP]

Have you asked David if he can do them and what he would charge? To be honest not much point balancing them if the tyres are out of shape IMO..