S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by superloopy »

What's this blower relay mod and has anyone ever documented it with pics? If not ... go on Simon, do it!

I deserve you to do this having read through every word of this post [emoji1] .... and that's a lot of words.

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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by CitroJim »

Northerner wrote:What's this blower relay mod and has anyone ever documented it with pics? If not ... go on Simon, do it!
Basically, a relay takes the place of one pole of the ignition switch that carries all the high current for the blower and the HRW which over time causes it to get high resistance and intermittent causing the blower to stop running and other odd electrical happenings......

It's not a hard mod.. And only needed on S1 cars as S2 cars had the relay...

And Simon has already done it once :wink:

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... hp?t=21372

A general discussion of all things blower, including a discussion on the mods:

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... hp?t=24786
Northerner wrote:I deserve you to do this having read through every word of this post [emoji1] .... and that's a lot of words.
You have a lot of endurance Mike but against that Simon's posts are always interesting and a god read...
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Mandrake »

I'm puzzled as to why that article shows removing the lower steering wheel cowl for this job ?

I have perfect access to the three connectors by simply removing the flat plastic panel that covers them, which is just a few screws... I have not touched the steering wheel or the upper or lower cowls.
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by CitroJim »

Mandrake wrote: I'm puzzled as to why that article shows removing the lower steering wheel cowl for this job ?
I found out, only after removing the lower cowl, when I did mine that it was unnecessary..

Simon, I have some 80A fuses...
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by superloopy »

Thanks gents ... understood now. I very rarely dip into the wiki, obviously [emoji5]

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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Mandrake »

Good news. It's all fixed! :-D

A break in the weather finally let me finish the job today. Because it was in the way I decided to cut all the jerry-rigged wiring for the bomb detector unit out, so alas I no longer have one of those to annoy me and my car is now slightly less unique. :twisted:

They had spliced into three of the ignition switch wires simply by stripping back some insulation, twisting their wires around the bared back wire and taping over it. #-o So I'm glad to get rid of that... Of course my splice is a good solid soldered joint:

Image

(The top insulation tape with the white wire - the other two are the ones from the removed bomb detector I also had to tape up)

Everything seems to be working fine. :) The link wire I used was slightly smaller gauge than the heavy wire I was splicing at each end so I checked the voltage drop across the new wire under maximum load and I only measure about 6mV so it seems to be fine, and I suspect the current drain isn't nearly as much as I expected despite the ratings of the fuses that it feeds.

So once I change Maxi Fuse A from 60A to 80A I'm happy that this is a permanent repair that will stand the test of time. =D>

Thanks to everyone who helped out with information, especially Jim whose circuit diagrams really saved the day. I've filed them away for future use and I'm sure they'll come in handy again one day. :)
Last edited by Mandrake on 06 Feb 2016, 16:43, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

OK, so WHY did it have a bomb detector unit on it???
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Mandrake »

Hell Razor5543 wrote:OK, so WHY did it have a bomb detector unit on it???
I think I've mentioned this before in my blog, but the previous owner of the car was a former IRA target... :shock: :lol:
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Ah. I didn't see that post.
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Stickyfinger »

You WILL be on the PNC then :).....lucky he wasn't a drug dealer like on of my old cars :)
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Mandrake »

CitroJim wrote:Simon, I'll check my stock...
Thanks Jim - the fuse you sent arrived on Tuesday night and was duly fitted. :)

Interesting story - I drove home from the train station and found the fuse waiting at the front door, so I popped out the old 60A fuse from slot A, and before fitting the 80A one you sent I noticed the terminals were quite oxidised so I thought it would be a good idea to give them a quick wire brush, which brought them up nice and shiny, and I then fitted it. I also noticed that the 60A fuse I removed had quite oxidised terminals, probably even worse.

I went for a drive to run some errands right after changing the fuse and immediately noticed a big increase in engine performance...with the car being far more zippy and responsive than it had just been 10 minutes earlier on the drive home, or indeed for the last few weeks where it has felt a little off colour. (Which I had put down to the very wet damp conditions)

Since the repairs/modification, Fuse A now supplies the permanent live (memory) to the engine ECU so it's possible that in the few minutes I had the fuse out the ECU memory was cleared (knock sensor, fuel trim data etc) however normally you'd have to remove the power for at least 10 minutes to ensure the memory is cleared.

Or it could be that the oxidised fuse terminals were causing enough voltage drop to the ECU that it was affecting the performance of the ECU. Also before the wire under the bumper finally gave way, the permanent live for the engine ECU would have been fed through Maxi Fuse C, which also turned out to be very oxidised, and not to mention the wire under the bumper may have been corroded and intermittent / high resistance for quite some time before finally dying, thus affecting the quality of the permanent live to the ECU.

Encouraged by these results I gave the terminals on all the Maxi fuses a wire brush to clean them up - they were all very oxidised after 18 years and its only a few minutes work so well worth doing I think! :)
Simon

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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

Useful tip there, Simon.
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by CitroJim »

Simon, that's excellent :D

I'm thinking I'll now get a load of 80A fuses, polish them up and sell them on ebay as a performance upgrade :lol:

Seriously, very happy all is now OK...
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Re: S1 Xantia V6 - no start, no central locking

Post by Mandrake »

I don't know whether it was the ECU having its memory cleared (which is known to cause this effect sometimes) or whether there was a poor connection but the change in performance was immediate and obvious, and it was only about 10 minutes from the time I arrived home, changed the fuse and went back out again.

If the performance stays good I'll go with the intermittent connection theory, if it degrades again over time I'll go with the ECU reset theory! :-D
Simon

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