All Things V6...

[DHallworth]

The tin is nearly empty at the moment!

[CitroJim]

Excellent David At least you now have a set of Irwins for future difficulties

[MattBLancs]

Wow that was a saga!

[bobins]

I think one viable repair that is used is to use the end section of one of the Berlingo pipes as it's more or less the same shape. A simple suitable compression joint is used to join them.

[DHallworth]

Berlingo pipes seem to be in fairly short supply for good ones these days too.

[Paul-R]

Are the ends similar/same on the Peugeot 407?

[DHallworth]

I’d imagine they’re similar.

Problem is they’re all holding an aluminium pipe with a steel bracket so the likelihood is none are going to be in great shape.

I’m looking for pipes off a newer car that could be made to fit just now in the hope that they won’t have corroded anywhere near as much.

[Paul-R]

The 508 perhaps? Or has that gone electric?

[DHallworth]

Right, I've bought 2 pipes from eBay to try and make a repair.

Pipe 1 is from a 2006 2.0 Petrol Citroen C4.

This pipe has the same low pressure return connector that goes onto the rack as the original. It looks as though it could be a touch pitted around where the clamp sits on the aluminium pipe too. However, it was £16.16 so I decided it was worth a go.

Pipe 2 is from a 2006 1.6 Petrol Citroen C4.

Again, this pipe appears to have the same connector that goes onto the rack. The only difference is the pipe looks brand new. This one was only £15.71.

My plan is to cut the bad section out of the pipe on the car but to take it back far enough to where I can get it on a straight piece of pipe. I'll then see which end of these pipes is closest shape wise to the original and fit that to the rack. As this is only a low pressure return, I'll then slide a rubber section of pipe between the two aluminium sections and tighten a jubilee clip around both ends of it.

I believe this should get me a solid enough repair to be fluid tight and not cause any problems.

Today, I've also ordered a packet of 9mm ID, 2mm cross section VITON o-rings and 2 new bolts to hold the pipes to the rack. I figured I might as well have a spare one. Once I've measured both the pipe on the car and the new eBay ones I'll make sure I can order some LDS proof rubber pipe that'll be a tight fit on each end and with a bit of luck this car will be back on the road.

David.

[DHallworth]

That’s the C5 repaired and now LDS tight

The pipe from the 2.0 C4 donated its end and a length of rubber pipe. I cleaned the aluminium pipe up a bit and clamped the rubber to it using 2 jubilee clips.

You can see it’s not quite the same shape as the original one was but the rubber gives it the flex it needs and doesn’t kink when refitted so that’s good.

I replaced the o-ring on the end of the C4 pipe with a 9mm ID x 2mm section VITON o-ring whilst it was off the car too.

I then used a pipe cutter to cut the end of the pipe on the car. It was a tight fit but I just managed to get it in and turned which was handy as it saves leaving a rough edge on the pipe and doesn’t create any swarf when cutting.

I then went under the car and fitted the pipe. I put 2 jubilee clips loosely on the pipe and slid it over the cut end of the aluminium pipe that was on the car by reaching into the wheel arch with my right hand and guiding it onto the aluminium with my left hand. I went back into the wheel arch and lined the pipe end up with the pinion before fitting the bracket and a new bolt. Once that was done I went back under the car and tightened up both jubilee clips.

I then topped up the LDS and worked the steering from side to side and am happy to report that there are no leaks. I only had 2 litres of LDS to top it up with so it’s still short of fluid. I’ll try and get to AEP Direct tomorrow to collect some and I’ll depressurise the whole system and set the level properly.

It’s not my usual kind of fix, normally I’d replace the whole pipe and not add extra joins in that could potentially risk a leak but seeing as the pipe isn’t available, this was a nice straight forward, cost effective repair.

The some of the marks on the old pipe were caused by me removing the stud to get the bracket off. You can however see where the crack formed due to the pitting and corrosion caused from the steel bracket on the aluminium pipe.

David.

[mickthemaverick]

A nice result David, well done!

[MattBLancs]

That’s the C5 repaired and now LDS tight

Hurray! Nice work

[daviemck2006]

Some people may call that a bodge, and it's the kind of thing we had to do on the boat when I was a fisherman. However just because it's not a genuine replacement and you have used ingenuity to fix it does not mean it's a bodge. A lot of bits we fixed at sea in an unconventional manner lasted for years so a lot of the time a bodge job can be as good if not better than the original. Its maybe the types of repairs needed as parts become ever less available.

[mickthemaverick]

Yes I totally agree Davie, repairing something does not necessarily mean replacing original parts, for me it means getting the thing involved working again as reliably if not more so than the original. My tale of the MX3 power steering fluid cooler here confirms that!!

[CitroJim]

Absolutely, it's a show of our skill and ability that we can successfully work around a problem like this