CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[MattBLancs]

Enough of this toilet humour!

[mickthemaverick]

Don't sink to their level Matt!

[RichardW]

Gone right down the pan here

[daviemck2006]

If you ask me they are speaking sh1te

[Rp0thejester]

Let's stop taking the pee....I'm surprised it's not all stainless steel to look like a train toilet, then it would be a proper poop hole

[CitroJim]

Huge giggles to all of the above Highest quality banter

Yesterday morning I had a perfectly functional bathroom...

I went for a most excellent lunch with Mick yesterday, to the Fancott Arms again who both serve the most excellent food in most pleasant surrounds and cope with my rather difficult dietary needs with aplomb. The establishment comes very highly recommended.

The halloumi kebabs were simply delicious as was the vegan Ice Cream to follow. I asked the server if it was lactose, gluten and soya-free? She replied that it was free of everything... Fair enough It was remarkably good and very much like proper ice cream...

And I came home to find this

The demolition squad had been in! Still, one has to break a few eggs to make an omelette and I know it'll be worth it.

I drove Strawberry to the Fancott yesterday and went armed with my IR thermometer to check her coolant temperatures. Just after a good run it was found to be 88 degrees. Spot on to the thermostat setting. My worries about the cooling fan cut-in temperature were groundless; the fan cuts in a 92 degrees and cuts out at 85 degrees. I'd say that was just about perfect

[CitroJim]

Bathroom work continues apace and lots of old bodgery is being revealed... The space under the very squeaky and wobbly floor was full of all sorts of old builders and plumber's rubbish!

We had a 'funny' the other day as a direct result of the work: I found I had no hot water in the kitchen following the water going off to remove the old plumbing in the bathroom and plumb in new pipes. The oddity was that although there was no hot water in the kitchen, the downstairs loo had too much - the toilet cistern was being filled with hot water!

Thus bringing a whole new meaning to the term 'hot flush...'

It had us scratching our heads for a bit and in the end we found it was all caused by swapping over hot and cold pipes upstairs.. My kitchen cold is fed directly from the rising main whereas all other cold feeds are via the upstairs boiler plumbing! It was quickly resolved!

Yesterday the old van got a bit of TLC. I planned to replace the front discs and pads but when I looked they really were not that bad despite being a little juddery upon heavy braking. The pads have years of life in them so given my driving style and how much I use the van. I'll do them another time. When I need to, it's a clearly very straightforward job.

Keen eyes will note in the above photos that the mudshield has been removed. This was for me to learn how to do it and give me a view into the area I'll need to access to replace the cambelt and water pump.

In removing the mudshield, a big lump of sound-deadening material fell out

I couldn't work out from where at first until I realised the shield has a piece of it on both sides - fore and aft. Here's the fore nicely in place:

I could see why the aft fell off: there's a big crack and hole in the base of the mudshield right by the pad fixings...

I guess a big stone flicked up and smashed it at some point...

I can't imagine these pads do much so I'm not going to worry about replacing it.

I was surprised at how much muck and rubbish fell out along with the pad when I pulled the mudshield down...

The cambelt will be done as soon as the bathroom is done; currently my working space is very limited due to a fleet of white builder's vans on my drive...

[mickthemaverick]

That crack/hole in the mudshield is a classic for repair with the hot staple gun and a piece of suitable plastic for a patch. Ice cream tub lids work well!!

[CitroJim]

Good thinking Mick

Ice cream tub lids work well!!

Will vegan ice cream tub lids work? Asking for a friend

[mickthemaverick]

Have you got a hot staple gun Jim? I can't remember. If not you could bring it here and we-ll sort it.

[RichardW]

Cambelt will be a piece of cake for you with small hands, Jim! You might need some more heft to get the crank bolt out - but they are not that tight. Supposed to be replaced - decent kits come with a new bolt. No real gotchas on these, unlike the 2.0 HDi with the hidden, different sized, bolt down the back!! It's a bit tricky to rotate the crank and wiggle the locking pin (for holding the crank for bolt undoing / tightening only) in over the exhaust single handedly... I've never managed to get the belt back on over the tensioner, but it's easy enough to fit the belt first, then bolt on the tensioner afterwards.

[MattBLancs]

That crack/hole in the mudshield is a classic for repair with the hot staple gun and a piece of suitable plastic for a patch. Ice cream tub lids work well!!

I hot stapled the blue 308 SW front mud shields, they unfortunately didn't fail where I fixed them but fresh locations instead!
This was hot staple then reinforced with a "bead" of hot glue gun over the top to spread the load a bit.

Arch liner very brittle. They are by far the flimsiest arch liners I've come across, without doubt I'd say the 406 Coupe's plastic liners are much better condition despite being more than twice the age!

Bought a new aftermarket liner (Autodoc, about £25?) very thin but at least flexible and thin, rather then brittle and thin!

Had filthy (and unclear if ever did anything meaningful!) "sound deadening" pads on the back just like yours Jim. New one didn't have anything at all.

[mickthemaverick]

On my first C5 I had them splitting and no hot staples back then. I actually 'Wallpapered' the inside of the liners with good old blue tarpaulin and spray on upholstery glue, Copydex I believe I used. Repaired and reinforced at the same time!

The butchered tarpaulin, later used during the sewage flood!!

[MattBLancs]

Ha ha, good old Copydex - am sure it's good stuff but I detest the smell of it! (Assuming the spray on stuff smells as foul as the brush on stuff)

You might have better luck than me repairing them - I did it as much as for a bit of practice with the hot stapler as much as anything.
Incidentally - the new (to me) 308 front arch liners are equally mangled, so they've been hot stapled too (stupidity repeating same experiment, expecting a different result, but hey ho!)

[MattBLancs]

On my first C5 I had them splitting and no hot staples back then. I actually 'Wallpapered' the inside of the liners with good old blue tarpaulin ...

Gosh those C5 sure have big arches!