1997 Xantia 1.9TD Estate - 05/07

[isisalar]

CT1 is fantastic stuff and does everything the makers claim it does including sticking to wet surfaces, nothing, however will stick anywhere near previously applied silicone, apart from more silicone,
Their multisolve de greaser/solvent is equally wonderful and can also be used with any non acrylic sealant, including silicone for removal, tooling and preparation/cleaning. I wouldn't be without some.

[bxzx16v]

The blue xantia estate looks like it's Chris (citroenmad), he lives up your neck of the woods.

Mark

[CitroJim]

The blue xantia estate looks like it's Chris (citroenmad), he lives up your neck of the woods.

Mark

Could well be. Interesting that it's wearing Activa alloys. Chris has an Activa so he may well have swapped over the wheels..

[Hell Razor5543]

Just a thought re the rear number plate. I wonder how close a fit the design for a Rover 75 rear plate is?

http://angelplates.net/res/img/ROVER%2075.png" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CitroJim]

Are they Activa alloys Jim? Look more like xsara vts to me ... a little too 'rounded'.

You've got me thinking now Mike... They could also be early VSX Xantia wheels...

We need Chris to confirm or otherwise...

[Northern_Mike]

That looks like Chris driving it.

[vulgalour]

Whoever it was driving the blue estate should be rightly proud of it, made me think mine was dirty and unloved and that's not a thing I think of my car that often. The Rover 75 plate is a close fit, but the sides are tapered too much to really look right. Number plate solution is to find the reflective yellow vinyl and a sheet of suitable thickness acrylic cut to shape, Motorcool will then build me a custom plate with those materials... obviously that means this job is having to wait for the time being.

----

MoT on the Xantia is due on the 25th. Today we finally got the time to get started on the clutch change, but not until half the day was gone so we only got as far as removing the wheels, checking the front brakes (which are in fine fettle), removing the under tray and draining the gearbox oil. The oil out of the gearbox was very much in need of doing, while it's still pleasantly opaque and oil coloured, it smells bad and seems thicker than it ought to be. It's likely the oil hasn't been changed for the 100,000 miles the car has done, likewise the clutch, so I'm not at all surprised or disappointed by what came out.

What was nice to see is how solid the car is underneath, it's definitely the nicest I've had to date and worth spending the effort on. There is a weep from the sump gasket which we'll sort when we do an oil change and I suspect the weep at the top of the engine is from the usual suspect of the rocker cover gasket. Haven't yet checked the arm bushes at the front, but that is to be looked at as they may need doing ahead of the MoT. Plenty of things to remove before getting the old clutch out and plenty of things to check for wear and tear. So far so good though, it all looks pretty good.

Here's a potato-cam shot of things at the end of play today.





Hoping to provide a positive update on this job tomorrow. Wish me luck beating this appalling man-flu or whatever it is that's reducing my working day to three hours.

[Northern_Mike]

Are they Activa alloys Jim? Look more like xsara vts to me ... a little too 'rounded'.

You've got me thinking now Mike... They could also be early VSX Xantia wheels...

We need Chris to confirm or otherwise...

Having had a compare of pics of various Citroen alloys, I think they're Activa alloys and it's Chris...

[Xantia97]

Good luck with the clutch etc. and the MOT.

[CitroJim]

Good luck with the clutch etc. and the MOT.

At least you have a nice garage to work in

Looking again at the wheels, I was was out in my Activa on Saturday evening and looked at the car side-on where it was parked in quite bright street lighting. The shadows cast on the wheels made a very similar image to the wheels in the blue estate picture so it is very likely the alloys are Activa as first thought...

Thinking on, the VSX alloys are similar but have much smaller cut-outs.

[Northern_Mike]

I'm pretty sure they are Activa MK1 alloys, just like mine.... but a lot cleaner, and I'm 99% sure that's Chris. Pity we can't read the reg of the car or then I'd know.

[Citroenmad]

Your Xantia estate looks great on those Synergie wheel trims and the early grill. I'll have to keep an eye out for it ...

Speaking of lovely Xantias - thank you for the compliment on mine - I spotted another estate today that looked very swish indeed. I begin to question the rarity of the Xantia estate, this is the second one I've seen locally and they both looked in very good order. Sadly I wasn't in my Xantia, I was in a Jaaaaaag.

I've been spotted! That was me, thank you for the kind words about my HDi Exclusive

I'd just been to take it for its MOT then, which it passed with no advisories. The tester commented how good a solid car it is and how clean it is, which was also nice!

I took it down to the NEC this weekend gone too, 500 effortless miles. It'll soon be in winter hibernation though.

The blue xantia estate looks like it's Chris (citroenmad), he lives up your neck of the woods.

Mark

Could well be. Interesting that it's wearing Activa alloys. Chris has an Activa so he may well have swapped over the wheels..

They are Activa wheels, yes. I alternate running Activa wheels and its standard Exclusive alloys as I like the look of both ... I have two sets of each style of wheel ... so the Activa still has its set

[CitroJim]

Good Now we know for sure!

[vulgalour]

You'll see me out and about in the near future, I have no doubt. Shall be spending lots more time, effort and cash getting mine up to spec properly, it's too good a car not to do it really.

----

It continues. I can understand why so much is charged for a Xantia clutch replacement now and I begin to wonder if it's not enough. A lot of time feels wasted by the amount of car you have to remove to get to the gearbox including a good bit of the suspension. I think Citroen fitted the car to the gearbox, not the other way around, it seems to be at the very core of the engine bay.

Because I've been ill and there's customer's cars taking priority, work on the Xantia is not a full-time affair. Less than ideal, but that's how it is. After 3.5 hours the car is ready to have the gearbox dropped after which the clutch change and rebuild can happen. I strongly suspect refitting will be much quicker than removal.

With the LHM reservoir, pump thingy, battery, battery tray, front accumulator, air box, driveshafts and myriad smaller items removed you can just about get at the gearbox. The vast majority of the time involved is figuring out how and where things are fastened down and what order to best remove them, the HBoL isn't as useful as one might expect in this regard.




You reach a point where you have to call it a day with this sort of thing, so we brought the plastic stuff home and got on with degreasing it and cleaning out the LHM stuff. Even though the LHM was done less than a year ago the bottom of the reservoir had a lot of very black deposits and the filters were equally mucked up which I expect contributes massively to the niggles I've had with the suspension and brakes.


There's still more degreasing to do on the air box, which is quite crusty down one side, but everything has cleaned up very well and is now drying out so we don't get any water contamination in the LHM on reassembly. It's likely I'll clean out the LHM a couple of times in quicker succession than is usual to get it all back into excellent condition again.

Finally, we discovered the positive terminal cover hiding underneath the reservoir, not sure how it got there and didn't know it was missing but it's nice to have it and be able to refit that when the job is done.

[CitroJim]

Finally, we discovered the positive terminal cover hiding underneath the reservoir, not sure how it got there and didn't know it was missing but it's nice to have it and be able to refit that when the job is done.

Found a lot of those in Xantia engine bays over the years much as I've found quite a collection of lost glowplugs behind the injection pumps