Confessions of a Citroholic

[RichardW]

Indeed, but was thinking last night that in about half a million miles motoring, I can't actually having a puncture repaired - I've scrapped a few tyres that have punctured, but they were almost always end of life anyway. Can't grumble about that really!! If they say they can't repair it, I'll just bung some tyre weld in it - it takes nearly 2 weeks to go down, so it's a very small hole! I'm probably in for 4 new tyres across the 2 cars in the next couple of months, and both will need front discs and pads before MOT in early part of next year - so that will be new brakes at all 8 wheels in 6 months

[CitroJim]

Half a million miles of motoring - that, as a stark statistic, sounds an awful lot!

[RichardW]

20 years at 25k / year - it soon adds up!

[CitroJim]

Gosh, with my near 40 years... I must have done about that too... Shocking.. Think of how much money has been spent

[RichardW]

Some work on my Sister's Xsara yeserday. Oil + filter change, cut off and fitted a new spare wheel hook - quite a lot of surface rust under the rear (well it is 14 years old / 130k miles now I suppose!) so I scraped the worst off and slapped some underseal over it. Needs new handbrake cables (they're original I think - this car has been in the family from new so we know its history!). Signs of a slight blow at the front joint on the cat, so I wired the pipe up to the heatshield so it doesn't end up on the road if (when!) it breaks. It could be welded if it was taken off, but I am not volunteering for that yet!

[RichardW]

Got to put new front tyres on the 307. Came across the receipt for the current ones last night whilst clearing out. Put on in Sep 2014 at 87,700 - now on 119,500, so can't really complain at over 30k out of a set of fronts - and they're all seasons at that . Going to put Michelin Cross Climates on, to match the ones I put on the back not that long ago.

[CitroJim]

That's good Richard.. I was looking t the Michelin Energy on my Activa... Hardly worn and look as good as new but I must keep an eye on their age as they'll need to be renewed on an age basis... They must be 5 years old at least...

Can you remember now at what age tyres should be replaced?

[Mandrake]

If exposed to UV isn't it 7-8 years ?

Or until cracking.

[CitroJim]

I'm OK for a bit yet then

Or until cracking.

Me or the tyres?

[daviemck2006]

I seem to remember 7 years being advised for tyres back in my caravanning days. I remember being a bit peeved about that and put the 165x13 tyres off the caravan and on to the front of my cavalier. The tyres were ancient and had no grip at all on the car. They soon got dumped and had what looked like full tread and no real perishing.

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[Mandrake]

Age causes the rubber on the tread to go hard before the sidewall cracks, this will cause a loss of grip especially in cold or wet conditions.

I had the exact same problem on my Xantia when I bought it - the tyres had plenty of tread on them and they had done low mileage (the car was hardly driven for the few years prior) but based on the date code the rears were about 9 years old and the fronts about 6 years. Dry grip was "ok" but wet grip was astonishingly bad despite near full tread depth, the first bit of ordinary rain and I could power slide through corners with alarming ease. Likewise they were terrifying in any sort of snow/ice with basically no grip, even by summer tyre standards.

A new set of michelins on it now and the wet grip must be 2x or 3x better I'd say, mostly down to the rubber being nice and new and pliant.

[RichardW]

Fleet update....

307 will pass 123456 on the way home
C4 approaching 101000

This part of the year is a bit painful - both MOTs, Both insurance, and Tax on the C4 within the space of a few weeks.

Some spannering to come:

C4 needs OSF wheel bearing, might as well do the discs and pads which are about done whilst it's apart. It's in for MOT on Fri, but I'm hopeful it will pass without needing these doing. Probably getting towards needing 4 new tyres as well.
307 needs front discs and pads before MOT (end of Feb). Slightly longer term it needs cambelt, and whilst the coolant is drained I intend to remove the DPF and clean it out, and it needs a new stat as well.

Need to have a look at my Sister's Xsara as it is losing water. Suspect either the water pump or the inlet housing on the back of the block. It also needs its headlights polishing as they are well cloudy.

And there's a V6 Xantia up the road that needs assistance with a matrix change.....

[RichardW]

Oh, forgot, the Xsara really needs a new rear subframe.... I've not volunteered to fit one. Yet!

[CitroJim]

And there's a V6 Xantia up the road that needs assistance with a matrix change.....

And a thermostat change too That's a fun job as well

[Mandrake]

This part of the year is a bit painful - both MOTs, Both insurance, and Tax on the C4 within the space of a few weeks.

You should look at the option of monthly direct debit for car Tax - not only does it spread the cost evenly through the year but much to my surprise its actually cheaper to pay automatically by monthly direct debit than manually pay the 12 month lump sum! (let alone the more expensive 6 monthly lump sum I was paying before)

And there's a V6 Xantia up the road that needs assistance with a matrix change.....

And a thermostat change too That's a fun job as well

Thanks Jim, that's me filled with confidence and has me rearing to go. NOT!

I was going to try to pencil in the thermostat change for the weekend after next but checking the weather report shows heavy rain so I might have to postpone it further and drive carefully! Grr...