New members saying hi, ZX TD owners...

[ekjdm14]

Just wanted to make a post to say hi, and thank you for having us (Dan and Emma) on the forums. Just from searching round the forum we've already made more progress on our Silver '96 ZX 19TD in a couple of hours, than in a week of faffing around scouring the Haynes book of lies & wiring diagrams! Got our intermittent wipers and wash/wipe function back after reading about the dry joints in relays & also found a decent description of where to find the TDC sensor on an XUD9 lump, so should hopefully have a rev counter in the next day or so as well

We bought the car in December for £150 with 9months MoT but not running. My suspicions were confirmed (and a deep sigh of relief breathed!) that it was the stop solenoid causing the non-start, so that was a £6 fix, but then we had to replace the newish glow plugs too as it still wasn't jumping to life the way I know an XUD should. Turns out some garage oik had fitted a set of non-afterglow safe plugs and they'd burnt out!

So all was good, so we thought.... then out of the blue setting off from some lights, *bang* the offside wishbone completely sheared it's bush off. That was another pain in the *rse finding the correct wishbone as this ZX has 14mm balljoints (thanks PSA and your parts-bin build philosophy). Cause I believe was the PO smacking a kerb hard (recent receipt for tracking adjust in paperwork & we were offered 3 alloys with good tyres by the seller!) which sheared the small bolt off the rear bush, then fatigue finished off the "tab" that's secured by the ARB bolt.

Now finally we're getting somewhere, I'm getting to know my way round the car to sort the inevitable niggles that go with a £150 Citroen (owned a few Pug diesels before and petrol Citroens but this is our first ZX TD) and the car's slowly gaining Emmas trust (she's the chauffeur ).

Hopefully will get a couple of pics up in time, but for now I'm off to relax in front of the fire and dream of sunny road trips to Norfolk and Wales haha. Au Revoir

[bxzx16v]

A much underrated car the Zx, especially with the 1.9td.

Mark

[ekjdm14]

Yeh definitely, I've always been a fan of the old XU diesel motors and at just turned 91k miles this one's only just run in. Build quality never bothered me much back in the day as I was buying £50 cat C cars, whacking them into roadworthy shape with an acrow prop and blocks of wood and running them into the ground using them for work carrying all sorts of stuff in them (not the case with this one though, it's a keeper with any luck so got a few squeaks and rattles and a dead central locking solenoid to attend to!), and sorting the electrics is just a bit of fun to me once I've located all the hidden components... Love how they fit a relay board and then use about 3 slots, dotting the rest of the relays around the most inaccessible places they can find!

Speaking of which, another job on the list (after deglazing the brakes or maybe replacing pads/shoes/wheel cyls) is to convert the headlamps to relay operation & keep the dipped bulbs on with the mains, so we have more than glow worm spec lighting for night drives.

Tempted to up the boost a bit too but can't get too carried away with this one, the turbo needs to last a while

[ekjdm14]

Well that was strange! After me saying I was going to have a look at the rev counter, today on a drive all of a sudden it jumped to life (first time it's ever worked in the couple of months we've owned the car!)

It worked for 15 minutes until we went for a meal, then was not working again when we came out & hasn't worked all the way home. At least we know everything is there for it to work now & it's just another famous French bad connection

[dei9]

Welcome, I had one before (a K reg), they're great cars, and handle very well, the 1.9td in that chassis is pretty pokey, do u have the manual pump at all (tweaking it can be quite fun, but it's easy to mess it up, you can make it smoke badly and churn up the driveshafts, the pump is good enough for a land rover disco 2.5td i believe, the bmw engine i think).
Have fun with it. It's a very decent car, I prefer it to the 306 (which it's very similar to).

[ekjdm14]

yeh it's a mostly manual pump (albeit lucas not bosch), couple of electronic solenoids but the fuelling can be adjusted the old fashioned way. TBF it's good enough as it is, plenty fast enough and not a spot of smoke on smoke test when it's up to temp. Think for now I'd better leave any tweaking alone until my better half has got used to driving it as it is & we've made sure the electrics & chassis are up to scratch but might be something to play about with in future. Just replaced the positive battery terminal today too as it was snapped when we bought the car but I'd bodged it with an 8mm spanner to brace it up temporarily!

It's similar enough to the 306 that we're looking at a set of 15" alloys off a scrapper locally, Ive always liked the look of the 306 myself but it looks a heavier car somehow than the ZX?

[beko1987]

Welcome! I have an L reg ZX 1.9td too, although luckily with none of the issues yours seems to have!

Pads and Discs are easy (nearly done all mine), I need to fit 2 new lower ball joints at somepoint soon though.

[ekjdm14]

Welcome! I have an L reg ZX 1.9td too, although luckily with none of the issues yours seems to have!

Pads and Discs are easy (nearly done all mine), I need to fit 2 new lower ball joints at somepoint soon though.

lol yeh, I expected issues buying an XUD engine car with 9months ticket for £150 but not quite the sort of problems we had! the brakes have improved with use & are now about as sharp as I'd expect so guess it was the prev. owner's driving style had glazed them. Rev counter's working more & more of the time and its quite funny when it jumps to life, but still need to fix it properly really, and need to resolder the rear wiper relay. Been really busy and stressful of late so not had a chance to do anything other than check fluids & tyres (not used a drop since we bought it, except a few gallons of screenwash! Foul weather...)

[Rhothgar]

Hi

Should finally get around to resurrecting my other half's ZX 1.9TD SX in 2020.

Had to change the heater matrix in 2013 and it only lasted about 18 months. Couldn't face the 10 hour job to do it all over again so it's just sat on the drive since for the last 5-6 years looking all forlorn.

The damned lacquer on the tailgate and roof have not gone which is a real shame as it was pretty much immaculate. I now wish I'd have just washed and waxed it once in a blue moon. It would have saved the nightmare of refinishing it. Started to think how I am going to peel lacquer off to a feather edge without going through any paint. Might even have to have it professionally done.

Absolutely fantastic car to drive. Very sporty.

I don't think there are many members now on the forum with a ZX TD.

I just wonder if you still have yours now. Maybe not...

[white exec]

Do post a photo or two...

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Wa-Hey, another interesting Thread, looking forward to hearing more of it.

Have a good look at the Inner Wings and Strut tops within the engine bay, catch any rust if there's a problem developing before it gets too bad. My scrap ZX was in a bad way in this department.

Plan to update my own Thread soon. There's been some progress.