All Things V6...

[Skull]

Looks very dark that Storm Grey ...good luck with the morph mission David

Tried to spin them around .... GiveMeABreak done it better and faster

[GiveMeABreak]

Yes, the force is with me today.

[RichardW]

That's only a slightly bonkers plan...what could go wrong???

The underbonnet pic certainly makes it look sick...

[white exec]

An overheating engine, if not damaged, shouldn't be difficult to sort.
Presumably responsible for all the yellow gunk?
Lots of options to hand, now!

Had just one short test-drive of a C6, and found it dark and claustrophobic after the light spaciousness of XM.

[daviemck2006]

At least one of these otherwise decent cars will get saved. Which one? We await the outcome with interest.

[DHallworth]

Well, the weekend has been and gone, as has the trip to France!

We stayed in Dover on Friday last week before boarding the ferry from Dover to Calais. After a smooth enough crossing we got to Calais without any fuss and then embarked on the 150 mile trip through France to get to the C6. Upon arriving the house we picked it up from was nothing short of impressive!

We had a good look around the car and the only fault we could find was a wishbone bush that you could quite clearly see had no rubber left in it! The cooling system was indeed full of oil. We had a good look around and smelt the oil and I couldn't place it. It wasn't engine oil but it didn't smell anything like the mess on the 407. We took it for a very short trip and it became immediately apparent that the C6 was suffering from the same fate as the 407! The mess in the cooling system was infact gearbox oil

So, after a bit of deliberating, thinking I'd have 2 cars that were in the same pickle, I did the only sensible thing I could think of...

Paid the man, loaded it up and headed back north through France to Calais!

We drove the 2.5 - 3 hours north to Calais to get the ferry back to Blighty! Unfortunately the wind was horrendous all the way back. We got to Calais, got through French passport control, then through British passport control and then to the P&O check in desk where we were told the port was closed. They gave us tickets for the Euro Tunnel instead of having to wait for the port to reopen which was handy! So we did the 10 miles back the way we'd come for the tunnel, queued through checkin and passport control there and got on a train with the 2 cars and the trailer. 35 minutes after the train departed we arrived in Folkestone.

We were earlier back then expected so we managed to get a look at the car on Saturday evening. The cooling system was indeed full of gearbox oil, thankfully though, despite the gearbox contents being yellow, it wasn't full of water like the one on the 407 was. It looks like the oil has made it's way to the engine rather then going the other way.

On Sunday the cooling system was flushed, what a mess that was! It was like baby poo coming out of the return and it was flushed. It was nothing short of disgusting.

After a good 6 hours of flushing the coolant eventually became clean.

Robert changed the gearbox oil cooler and the gearbox has had over 30 lites of fluid flushed through it to get it red again. This was what came out after 3 flushes...

At this point, I left the car at BL Auto's and flew home to Glasgow as I had to be in Dundee for work first thing on Monday morning.

Robert has given the car a once over and found nothing other then the wishbone bush. This has now been changed. When it was road tested, he found a vibration which was traced to a dry inner CV joint. It looks like it's had a new gator on it but wasn't filled with grease. Hopefully it'll survive being repacked as a new driveshaft is £650 and is unique to the 3.0 HDI!

Although being advertised as overheating, the engine is as smooth as silk and is sooooo quiet. I think it's quieter then my 407 Coupe. It's now done a good few miles and there's no signs of it using any coolant or getting hot.

After a few oil changes the gearbox is smooth and seems to change up and down ok and kick down well too.

I'm hoping to get it back to Glasgow on Saturday.

I started the process of getting it into the UK today. I had to fill in a NOVA on the .gov website (Notification of Vehicle Arrival), this was easy enough and confirmed that there is no duty or VAT due on the car. Next up I looked at registering it. I need to obtain a Certificate of Conformity from Citroen. This is 1 x A4 sheet of paper... however, Citroen charge £200 for it! I then looked at something called the Certificate of Mutual Recognition... This looks at headlights, foglights and the speedo.

Thankfully, the foglights on the EU and UK C6's are the same, the speedo is as simple as going into the computer and switching it to miles, the headlights however... Citroen state in the handbook I can switch the headlights depending on what side of the road I'm driving on. I explained this to the Vehicle Standards Agency... they asked if I could prove it so I explained that it's in the cars handbook. The response was "We can't accept exerts from the handbook as proof

So I'm hoping that if I get it MOT'd and the lights tested for MOT they'll accept that they meet standards... I doubt it though, they'll find something! They also want £100 for the certificate of mutual recognition.

The car has had new discs and pads all round, it's got 4 brand new Michelin Pilot Sport 4's on it, new spheres, a new speedo and hasn't got a spot of rust on anything underneath it. It's amazingly clean underneath it in fact.

Anyway, till I get it back and give it a proper clean (it really needs it!), here's a few pictures of it

[GiveMeABreak]

Ooo... very nice David. With the HUD option too. Good luck with it - I'm sure you'll get much enjoyment out of the beast.

[DHallworth]

Well, it's now passed it's MOT this morning too!

All looking good for collection on Saturday now.

David.

[xantia_v6]

All looking very good, but you still have the problem of what to do with your 407...

BTW, it would be useful to know whether the oil coolers fail due to internal corrosion, metal fatigue, or something else.

[DHallworth]

Initially, I'm going to flush the 407's gearbox in the same way that we have done with the C6 and see what happens. I can't in good faith sell it knowing what has been in the gearbox so my plans initially are to run the C6 and 407 as the work cars sharing the duties and see where we go.

Someone on another forum got the fear or his packing in and replaced it. Once he had replaced it, he cut the old one open. Here's his pictures below.

David.

[moizeau]

You shouldn't need a cert of conformity, or at least you don't coming the other way. You used to, but with the info next to 'K' on the Carte Grise, which conforms to European standards, that tells them everything they need to know. If it's the old log book or an import the info isn't available or applicable. The French accept this, so with their love of red tape, I be surprised if the UK didn't.

[DHallworth]

If the car is older then 10 years, you don't need the COC, unfortunately, as mine is under 10 years old, I do

[white exec]

Well, I take my hat off to you! Nothing ventured, nothing gained. A day to remember.
And you only shop at the best places, it seems...

These may look familiar. More Valeo excellence, this time from 2.5 XM.

Interesting that your 407 suffered coolant being injected into the 'box, while the C6 got it the other way round. This must mean that the C6 gearbox fluid pressure was higher than that of the cooling system, or else when it happened the cooling system was cold and/or not under pressure. In my case, a very hot engine shot large quantities of black engine oil into the cooling system. No overheating warning, but when the header tank filled with oil, being non-conductive, it triggered a STOP - Low Coolant Level warning.

Hopefully your C6 'box has survived.

A quick plug for LiquiMoly Radiator Cleaner (#2506), which is rather good at shifting the last traces of oil from cooling systems. How do I know?????

[bxzx16v]

Looking forward to how things go with the C6 and 407 David , how's the family Fl2 going ? Well I hope .

Mark

[Skull]

David - one more sleep ....Good Luck with them - sounds like you're trying the right thing

C6 - I bet that had been spoilt in it's previous owners 'garage'