Modifications and improvements.

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tomsheppard
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Modifications and improvements.

Post by tomsheppard »

A pal of mine who wouldn't drive a French car if you paid him recently fitted roof bars from a BX to his VW. What minor modification have you made to your Citroen to make it even better? To get the ball rolling, here is one. I have wound about six turns of clear plastic water pipe around the heater hose on my BX to warm the screenwash and stop the jets freezing in the windchill.
humpy
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Post by humpy »

A laser jammer to my volcane. I haven't been stopped since!!
humpy
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Post by humpy »

Sorry that was a bit flippant. The best thing I did was to fit much brighter aftermarker headlamp bulbs. Ultrabright dipped beam bulbs and Halfords off-road use only 120w main beam bulbs. I reckon that there will be no one in front of me when I'm on main beam so it doesn't matter if they're illegal or not. It makes driving around country lanes (85% of my driving) a hell of a lot safer at night also.
Goodyear Ventura tyres all round have made the handling much more secure and the car brakes much better also.
Bosch multielectrode spark plugs, I feel have much improved fuel consumption and starting but that is very subjective.
alan s
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Post by alan s »

Grease nipples into the rear swing arms on all my hydraulic Citroens. Drive in the wet or through flooded causeways, next day grease in = water out & never had to change a swing arm bearing in over 10 years.
Latest "mod" if you can call it such was on my BX where I had the glovebox & speedo binnacle out of the car so decided to take advantage of the situation. Strapped down all the wires and alarm controllers that were 'floating around' as well as new foam on the outside of the glove box and wrapped foam underlay around things like speedo cables & bunches of wires and zip tied everything that could move and vibrate against things.
Might just get that new radio installed now I stand a chance of hearing it <img src=icon_smile_approve.gif border=0 align=middle> I must admit though; it is a strange sensation driving in a BX that doesn't constantly "talk" to you. <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
Alan S
Dave Burns
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Post by Dave Burns »

Fetched that wappy spring out of the brake pedal pushrod, replaced it with something solid, feel them brakes <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>
Rid the crummy radio cassette and stuff a decent Sony 10 disc auto changer in, amplifier and a rake of speakers, then keep forgetting to take the bloody face panel to the head unit with you when you go out in it <img src=icon_smile_blush.gif border=0 align=middle>
Dave
Jon

Post by Jon »

Hm, well at one time I was "Mr Modify".
Started with 2cv's. Like the handbrake, you need a handbrake tool, a 14mm spanner, and you need to turn the wheel whilst you turn the eccentric adjuster then try and tighten the 14mm nut. Found that handbrake adjusters from the GSA bolted straight onto the 2cv caliper. Simple adjustment by winding in an 8mm nut whilst you turn the wheel. I've modified most things in some small way since. Funnily enough the latest "modifications" are to my Berlingo, which now has a modified rear door (courtesy of a post) and a modified rear bumper (courtesy of a Rover 400) etc etc.
My latest mods are to the ZX. Got fed up of the crappy brakes, and fitted Zimmerman x drilled and grooved discs with Pagid fast road pads. What a difference. When they wear out I'm thinking of converting to Berlingo discs, pads and calipers to give much better surface area. Looks like a simple bolt on job if ZX 16v brake hoses are used.
I'm also toying with the idea of using some more Berlingo bits at the front of the ZX. Later Berlingo's like the HDi use Zx style front arms but with a bigger reinforced rear P bush, together with an 18mm balljoint as opposed the 16mm item fitted. Again, I'm hoping this will all go on. I'll report back my findings.
Other "mods" from the past include simple stuff like fitting stronger Diesel clucthes in BX GTi's and things like that.
Jon Wood
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Dave Bamber
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Post by Dave Bamber »

Got to be a CD player for a start.
On my 2CV I replaced the nasty cardboard heat exchanger outlet tubes with the rubber one's from a 2 cylinder Visa.
Berlingo HDI Wicked<img src=icon_smile_evil.gif border=0 align=middle>Red
Youth and talent are no match for age and treachery.......
humpy
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Post by humpy »

Jon, I'd be fascinated by your findings upgrading the brakes on your ZX. What model have you got. Did you bother replacing the capliers. What brake fluid do you use - does it make a difference? I too am fed up with the brakes. Someone ahead of me on the m25 had a crash the other day, as you can imagine traffic stopped pretty quick. Braking from 80mph, the brake pedal touched the floor at about 30mph and just stopped in time!! I notice that the volcane has the same brakes as the saxo vtr/s so anything they can be upgraded to, I take it, that will fit to mine?
David W
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Post by David W »

BX rear arm grease nipple: Alan are the full detail of this job on the 'net anywhere? A Citroen Club member asked me for them the other day.
Xantia brakes: Dave can you tell me more about removing the brake pedal spring?
ZX brakes: I've only driven smaller engined ZXs in a manner that doesn't test the brakes but never found them terrible. Our early ZX TD with all round discs and ABS has excellent brakes, I've driven this briskly and they haul it down well.
I have found master cylinders can gradually fail (happens they were all on 1.9Ds/1.4s) at higher mileages giving a non-specific but poor feel to the brakes. But with the all disc setup in reasonable order with OE discs/pads and recent brake fluid why should they be bad?
David
alan s
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Post by alan s »

Cheers David,
You can check it out at the link below.
Feel free to stick the whole thing on your own website if you feel it would be advantageous.
http://www.aussiefrogs.com/snippets/grease.htm
Alan S
David W
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Post by David W »

Alan,
Many thanks, I'll give the chap your link. Thanks also for the offer to reproduce the material. Sadly my website has been untouched for a year or more due to the "Citroen time" I spend in other areas. I do promise myself I will use a weekend updating but does that free weekend ever come?? Does it .....!
David
Dave Burns
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Post by Dave Burns »

David, pull the pushrod assembly from its socket on the pedal (can take some doing) this reveals a collar that splits in half, the centre can then be withdrawn and the spring removed.
A suitable spacer can then be inserted to make the assembly ridgid, I used a snug fitting nut with a piece of bolt sawn off and screwed into it, so the nut and bolt thread are flush forming a solid spacer.
Wouldn't have the spring back at any price now <img src=icon_smile.gif border=0 align=middle>
Dave
David W
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Post by David W »

Dave,
Re: removing Xantia brake pedal spring.
Does it cure that odd feeling that sometimes feels like the pedal pushing back at you?
I wonder what the spring was for anyway?
David
Jon

Post by Jon »

To Humpy and David W.
ZX brakes, especially on the Volcane, should be fine, in theory the combination of vented front discs and solid discs should give ample stopping power with no fade.
In reality though, although the rear discs are actually larger than the fronts, and the pads are the same shape/surface area as BX fronts, the rear brakes are hopelessly over limited by the inline compensators, and the (smaller) fronts end up doing too much work.
Now, I am no maniac, and in fact I am very easy on brakes generally, with over 30k miles on front pads on most things I've owned. What I find with the ZX (vented) setup is that in some conditions they fade badly after say a heavy application, and you either end up with a wooden pedal with no apparent friction on the next application, or a pedal that drops halfway. Or when towing something they are pretty crap.
There are ways of making the rear brakes actually do something, but I will not talk about that here for possible safety reasons.
So I looked at the front brakes and found that the discs are shared with the 205 GTi and Saxo VTS amongst others. So it was not hard to find some cross-drilled discs which were duly fitted in combination with some Pagid FastRoad pads. This has definately improved the (rare) fade problem.
I then began to think about other upgrades. We know that Xantia/Berlingo discs go on a ZX as thats what the ZX 16V used too. I was going to find some ZX 16v calipers but they are rare, so then found that Berlingo (Girling) calipers would bolt to the hub, and offered a good pad surface area. So, when my fancy front brake pads and discs eventually wear out, I will go down the Berlingo route.
The only other thing I've done on the present ZX (Aura) which has rear drums is fit new shoes, cylinders and adjusters with handbrake cables, and changed the brake fluid. In conjunction with the modified front set up the brakes feel quite inspiring on the odd occassion when I have had to "use" them.
People with rear drums on a ZX hatch may also want to think about using the ZX estate set up, much bigger, and shoes and drums shared with the Peugeot 405.
Jon Wood
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RichardW
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Post by RichardW »

My 'first' Visa (2 Cylinder) - it was my Dad's for us to drive - was heavily 'modified' to keep it on the road with spares from other Visas. Drove round with a white bonnet and red off side wing for about 2 years (rest of the car was s**t brown!).
Visa mods go to my mate on the Isle of Wight - he was building a GTI with a 1.7 TD engine (not sure if it got finished) - he had 2 GTIs at one time, plus he had a convertible. When the brown Visa gave up I gave it to him, as he was thinking about putting it back on the road. Excess of rust under the front end made hime change his mind, so he cut it in half, took the roof off the back half, welded the back 'doors' shut, welded in a front plate, and a draw bar, and used it as a trailer - towed behind the convertible. It was some sight!!!
Most other modifications have been bodge up to keep them going - mostly so reliable they don't need major work....<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
Richard
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