1987 BX 17RD "Bleriot"

[vulgalour]

Right then, been a while since I updated here, things have been busy so there's not been a lot of BX fettling time available. I had a look at the windscreen seal to see what was needed today because, when I was inside the car, I noticed the passenger footwell was damp. Since I've no sunroof and as far as I'm aware the door seals and window seals are good, I assumed the heavy rain combined with the not-quite-sorted corners on the windscreen seal may have been the cause. A quick investigation revealed the windscreen trim seal hadn't actually stuck down for the most part and while the windscreen appears well bonded to the frame, water had got in under the rubber seal. I spent quite a bit of time cleaning out the sealant from the channel between the windscreen and the windscreen hole before rust treating everything so that anywhere I'd scratched through the paint and any residual surface rust was not going to be an issue. There was space inside the unit today so I could leave the BX indoors for the treatment to cure before applying fresh sealant and reapplying the rubber seal trim.


The leak at that back corner hadn't reappeared and indeed, the suspension is fine. So perhaps that was residual from some other problem. With the BX indoors I'll be able to see if it's leaking afresh when I next visit the car. Where last time the bumper absolutely refused to sit in place properly, this time it went in with merely moderate effort, on my own. Just as well really since Mike was busy fixing other cars today so it was good not to have to pull him off those jobs to help. I didn't have any washers or screws with big enough heads for the bottom bumper holes so I couldn't put those in at the moment. That said, with the side slots and top three screws fastened down the bumper is a very snug fit now (bonnet isn't fully shut in the first shot).






Also remembered to reinstall the grille.


The bonnet has settled a little more, it's almost where it should be now. For some reason the headlight on this side is sitting wonky, if I got it straight then it popped off the bottom inner ball joint so I'm not sure what needs adjusting there to sort it out.


The electrics have come over all French. The rear drivers side light cluster won't work at all. I've cleaned the connectors, the bulb, the sockets, the earth points I could find, and nothing. This is very annoying because it was working perfectly fine. The front side repeater on the opposite side and the front sidelights on both sides have also decided to go on strike and have been similarly disinclined to cooperate. As a result, left the car like this because I couldn't really go any further.




There was just one last job I did which was to refit the back half of the exhaust which quietened the car down considerably. The glow plug relay gave no bother at all today, suspension is working lovely, brakes still nice, etc. Just to get to the bottom of the electrical gremlin really.

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So, the headlight/bonnet issue now then. I know that you're convinced that it's alignment on the bonnet that's at fault, white exec, but it's really not. You can unbolt the bonnet, remove the lights and it will still sit in exactly the same way, so I don't really know how to prove to you that there's no adjustment to alignment available. The bonnet itself is bent on that corner, though it's slowly self correcting.

The headlight is indeed wonky. I wasn't sure about that until today because this is the first time I've got the bumper back on properly. This is certainly exageratting the issue with the bonnet. I found that if you straightened the headlight, it would pop off the lower inner ball joint and then sit straight, unfortunately that means it's then insecure so that's not really a solution. I suspect one of the balljoint fixings for the headlight is slightly bent out of place and I suspect it's the outer lower one, so I'll try raising that to see if it corrects things.

ust going to have to be a slow and patient process to try and find out what I need to tweak and where to get that corner looking right again. No big deal at any rate, I've got bigger things to sort for now.

[white exec]

You're likely right about the wonky headlights being caused by the ball-headed bolts being out of line.

Bonnet - Still looks to me as if the front centre of the bonnet (where the catch is) were pulled down further, then the front corners would nestle down on their stops (which are adjustable, iirc). Is it possible that the transverse slam panel, which carries the catches, is too high (? bent) at the centre. Worth investigating, with the headlights and grille/duct removed.

Do you have the Haynes circuit diagrams to hand? If not, I can scan and e-mail to you, if helpful.

[vulgalour]

I'm likely right about the bonnet too, you know. At this point, I'll suggest that the only way to find out what the problem is to your satisfaction is if you visit the car and take a look in person because without dismantling the whole car and doing a complete photo diary for you of every step (which I'm obviously not going to do), I don't really know how to convince you that it's not an available alignment issue. It's fine, I can live with it.

It was suggested the problem with the wiring could be the connector on the passenger side that provides the feed to the driver's side, a quirk of the BX wiring I'd forgotten. So next time I'm at the unit I'll clean up the connectors and earth points on the passenger side and see if that sorts it. I've got a Haynes to use if I need to and Mike's expertise on wiring and diagnose if the gremlin turns out to be a well hidden one. It'll sort.

[moizeau]

Quick thought, take both headliights out, very quick, how does it look?
All the best with the beast, I had an E reg 19rd, lovely, better than the turbo (which I still drive) to be honest.

[white exec]

I think our suggestions are to no avail.

[moizeau]

I stuffed mine into the back of a Volvo (whilst rolling a fag on a private road), unclipped the bonnet, replaced headlights, grille etc. Everything lined up, the bonnets are very flexible..very

[vulgalour]

If I take the headlights out, the bonnet looks exactly the same. That's not entirely true, if I take the headlights out the bonnet looks slightly better because it hasn't got the passenger unit making the gap look worse, but you know what I mean.

Please don't misunderstand, I do appreciate the suggestions made and have investigated them, along with my own attempts as mentioned above. The alignment issue is, I'm 90% certain, down to the bonnet and being visually exacerbated by the wonky headlight. Below, is a picture of the car from before I collected it.



You can see the headlight is wonky in that photograph and, from that angle, the driver's side of the bonnet looks to fit about as well as the passenger side now fits. There are, as I see it, three solutions. Solution one is to raise the driver's side bumpstop as far as I can to force the bonnet wonky enough that both corners look misaligned. Solution two is to get another bonnet since this one might be deformed. Solution three is to just put up with the fact that my flimsy French car hasn't got the best panel gaps in the world.

If I find out what the actual cause is, or manage to somehow find an adjustment that works that hasn't worked so far I will of course report back. In happier news, on my last visit to the unit that spot of LHM under the rear passenger side suspension has not reappeared and the arm itself has dried out. Not really sure how to explain that one, but there you go. I shall monitor things for the time being. If I can get into the unit on Monday as I hope to, I shall try and make some progress on something visual.

I'm without a car at the moment, which is a bit strange for me. Princess needed a pair of CV boots and a new wheel bearing, jobs I was all set up to do myself until I discovered the front hub nuts are done up so tight that trying to undo them by any method at my disposal just ended up with the wheels turning So for the first time in seven years of ownership, I've had to farm the job out along with having the MoT done at the same time since that's due very soon.

[vulgalour]

That's better! Culprit was the small green connector on the passenger side cluster had come unplugged. I readjusted the joining ribbon so there was a bit more slack on the passenger side so it hopefully won't do this again. Also replaced the blown brake bulb on the driver's side.


Up front, the inoperative side repeater was just a poor contact between bulb and holder, that now works. The sidelights were both poor contacts and one blown bulb on the passenger side.


With that done all the lights are now working as they ought to. I did buy some sidelights but couldn't get back to the unit since I was at the mercy of Mike's schedule since he's been shuttling me about today, so I'll fit the replacements when I'm at the unit again. Next was to try and get something done on the bonnet and have a look at all of the adjustment. I found out part of the reason for the misaligned headlight is a bent locator/adjuster. I did what I could with it to improve the alignment but realistically, I need more than the hour and a half I had today to adjust and tweak all the various parts to improve this.


After spending a considerable amount of time faffing with what little adjustment there is on the bonnet and lights, Mike and I go things to the point that the next round of adjustment is in the wings, which need moving a small amount in and out to correct the panel gaps to the bonnet. There was a balance to be struck on adjustment, since there really isn't much of anything to be had. The bonnet was got as straight as possible so that it still functioned with the latch, this then corrected the lift on the driver's side a bit and created a similar lift on the passenger side. The slam panel does appear to be deformed slightly, possibly pushed down, this was more obvious when looking for witness marks on the bonnet and comparing one side to the other. Some of the deformation was addressed with careful application of wood and hammer above the driver's side headlight though I suspect ideally the whole slam panel needs pull up and forwards a millimeter or two. It's possible the car has had a minor bump at the front at some point in its life, there's a witness mark on the leading edge of the bonnet and the front plate doesn't match the rear, that combined with the minor deformation found today all points to a minor incident which is easy to rectify once you can find exactly which bit is slightly off. I could do with another undamaged BX to compare it to side by side.


I'm not overly concerned about it at any rate. Most of the time the angle you view the car from means you can't even see the alignment issue, it's only a nuisance because I know about it.


The last job for today was to reglue the windscreen seal in place and tape it down so it stands the best chance of fitting well and staying put. We've used Tigerseal, which is probably a bit overkill. Eventually I'll probably get a new screen fitted with a new seal, just not yet. Pre-MoT jobs are now down to the small bit of welding on one sill step and, ideally, the fluids and timing belt change. It could go before those are done, but I'd rather I get everything as sorted as possible before it goes on the road to reduce the risk of FtP.

[vulgalour]

Let's have a little BX update. First thing to report is that even though the BX has been sat outside in lots of rain, the passenger footwell is bone dry. I consider the windscreen reseal a success on that one. Next up was to have a fettle with the parts I'd acquired recently to improve a few things. First, let's do the parcel shelf. My original one has really good blinds and loads of sun fade, the new one has really poor blinds and virtually no sunfade at all. Let's see if we can make one good one out of the two of them. First up, I removed the blinds which is five screws on the back of the parcel shelf, it then slides out of the slots that hold it in place easily enough. You can see here just how faded my original one had become.


With the plastic piece out that holds the blind you can then inspect what you've got. There's no fixings in here holding the blinds in, they just sit in shaped slots.


To remove, you simply lift them out. To get the pull tabs out you can flex the plastic slot just enough to get them through without breaking anything. It's then a simple, if slightly fiddly, affair of popping the relevant blinds and holder together before screwing the unit back onto the parcel shelf.


Another thing I noticed on the replacement shelf is that one of the clips for the strings was broken. I simply swapped one from the old parcel shelf. I also salvaged the other good parcel string as a spare for future use, just in case. To remove these, use a small flat blade screwdriver to push the tang in as you apply pressure to the fixing to pop it free. Be sure to keep hold of the little plastic washer this goes through to lock it all together too. Installation was very straight forward. I'm still on the look out for a replacement shelf clip that goes on the back seat to replace the one that shattered. Only problem now is the new parcel shelf highlights just how bad the sun fade is on surrounding parts.








Next job was to replace this passenger seat base with the one I acquired. This is a phenominally easy job. There's two not-tight spring clips at the front just behind the front-back adjustment bar, and two rubber bands at the back that hook into the seat base to keep the seat back trim in place. Undo all of these items and the base simply lifts out.




I got a little scare when I saw the bright blue version of the fabric in the car because I thought that was what the interior used to be like. Honestly, I've never seen a BX with that blue cloth for the interior and that's a shame, it looks fabulous. Mine does seem to just be the usual grey, even though the front grab handles/arm rests are blue and there's a blue tint to the interior fabrics and carpet. I digress.


Side-by-side you can see the wear on the original darker grey base, and how nice the replacement lighter grey base is. Wait... oh bother. Same fabric, different greys.


Oh well, it'll have to do.


I also got a replacement fan blower dial. The one on the car (on the right here) is cracked where the replacement isn't. And yes, both have managed to lose the metal spring clip so if anyone has any of those or can point me to where to get them, I'd appreciate that. It's worth noting that the blower fan only works on max speed too, I believe this is a regulator issue and something that's common and easily fixed so it's on my list.


Finally, I had a bit of an experiment with the dashboard. It has a big brown sunburnt looking patch on it, which is plausible given it's life in the sun, and it felt chalky. I know usually once vinyl burns like this you can't rescue it. Nothing ventured nothing gained, I decided to see if I could scrub any kind of 'oxidisation' off, like you would T-Cutting paint, using a variety of potions. The best results came from the Autoglym Insect Remover, weirdly, and a lot of the burn is much less obvious now. I'll keep plugging away at it and give it a protective coat of Autoglym Vinyl to see if it brings it back. The dashboard was easily the worst bit of the interior because you see it all the time and it now looks much better, so I'm happy with that. Surprised too, since it didn't really seem to bring any dirt off on the cloth.




The same process is unlikely to save the door bins which have started to crumble in places where they're nearly white. This also shows how blue the grey fabric is in the BX, I'd assumed this interior was the normal grey tweed and vinyl one but perhaps there was more than one grey offered at this trim level. Perhaps it's just the effects of too much sunshine.

[vulgalour]

Just to let you know this is the last FCF update on this one. It passed the MoT no bother and I've been enjoying using it every day since. FCF feels like it's more focused on newer cars these days and the Xantia has replaced the BX as the old Citroen of interest these days. That's fine, things move on. I've been using the BX forum and other old car fora which are a better source of information and help so I'll keep on happily keeping on with the BX elsewhere. Just thought it polite to draw a line under the thread here for those that have been watching and reading this one.

[moizeau]

Superb work though I think I prefer the original hub caps. Do please continue with the BX, even if it's only now and then. I had a blue g plated 1.9 N/A with the blue interior. If you need spare headlights I've got 2 from when I exported mine. Let me know. If there was someway of getting my white estate back after September cost effectively (no chance of a new CT due to corrosion) your welcome to that as well.
All the best with the old girl.

[Hell Razor5543]

I do think she is looking lovely, and YAY!!! on the MoT. Well done, and I hope she gives you many years of driving pleasure.

[white exec]

You've done a terrific job on her, and great to hear of the MoT success.
She is looking quite splendid, and there's something a bit special about a BX in white!

You are right about the single-model specialist forums, of course, because that's where you should be able to find really in-depth knowledge about every aspect of the car, and documentation to support it. Fortunately, a good few of us visit more than one forum, and so there's a good bit of transfer of know-how. BX and XM are particularly well resourced.

Lots of us here have really fond memories of our BX's, so it's been good to see yours. Do keep us updated as time goes on, not least with some more good photos.

Enjoy!