bobins wrote:My Land Rover allegedly has a heater, although I'd regard it more as a tepid-er, to call it a heater is overselling it a bit
Rover and other bits of BL had a long tradition of fitting ludicrously low-temperature engine thermostats - 78C, 82C....
Many a vehicle's heating system transformed by simply swapping for an 88C or 92C 'stat.
Wasn't it some Fords that had vacuum operated wipers as standard?
What a great idea, variable speed ones depending on throttle opening....
No doubt when you most needed them there was no vacuum available and they were either very slow or stopped..
About as good as dynamo lights on bikes. The lights that only worked when you were pedalling... Brightness depended on speed...
I had bike dynamos when I was a kid. Tyre wear was epic and the way they slowed you down when use use was not good... Hence rarely ventured out on a dark night....
On the earlier Citroën 2CV, the windscreen wipers were powered by a purely mechanical system, a cable connected to the transmission; to reduce cost, this cable also powered the speedometer. The wipers' speed was therefore variable with car speed. When the car was waiting at an intersection, the wipers were not powered, but a handle under the speedometer allowed the driver to power them by hand.
...and the SM was one of the pioneers of the rain-sensitive intermittant wipe!
As a teenager, was driven from London to Edinburgh (for the Festival) in a pink/grey two-tone PA Cresta, and that was before any motorway speed limit was introduced. IIRC, also before headrests, seatbelts and central reservation crash barriers. Doesn't bear thinking about these days.
Same owner later replaced the car with a dark green PD Cresta, 3.3L Powerglide. Amazing use of sheet metal, and room for a team of mechanics to stand in the engine bay!
I can see it now. A large engine XM gets pulled over, as the police suspect something is amiss. They empty out the car, and weigh it (amongst their other checks), and find it is 75KG overweight. They suspect a large amount of contraband, and so get the XM stripped down by a specialist. The report that comes back is thus;
After taking the vehicle completely apart, we were unable to find anything of a suspicious nature. However, we did find a large number of extraneous items, mainly in the engine bay, detailed as following;
37 3/8th assorted sockets
2 3/8th socket wrenches
41 assorted Torx bits
5 assorted combi spanners
1 3 foot breaker bar
1 2.5 tonne trolley jack
1 torch, and 1 workshop light unit
12KG of various nuts, bolts, washers and similar
1 new clutch plate, suitable for the vehicle in question.
At first we were unable to explain this, until somebody pointed out the vehicle in question was a 20 year old Citroen XM V6, and then we realised that this was (upon research) the normal situation with this type of car.
Last edited by Hell Razor5543 on 13 Apr 2016, 16:36, edited 1 time in total.
James ex BX 1.9
ex Xantia 2.0HDi SX
ex Xantia 2.0HDi LX
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.2HDi VTX+
Yes, I am paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?
Out amongst the stars, looking for a world of my own!
CitroJim wrote:Now we know why 2CV drivers always go as fast as possible!!!
NewcastleFalcon wrote:
...and the SM was one of the pioneers of the rain-sensitive intermittant wipe!
How did that work then?
Well I'm no expert but this is the explanation on wiki!
In March 1970, Citroën introduced rain-sensitive intermittent windscreen wipers on their SM model. When the intermittent function was selected, the wiper would make one swipe. If the windscreen was relatively dry, the wiper motor drew high current, which set the control circuit timer to delay the next wipe longest. If the motor drew little current, it indicated that the glass was wet, setting the timer to minimize the delay.
Now that's really clever and a great piece of Citroen lateral thinking! I love it!
