Xantia mk1/mk2?

[Stepto1]

Ta very much!

Hope that was a good year for xants?!

Any idea what the colour is? Not seen many dark metallic grey ones?

[Xaccers]

Cambelt is an easy enough job, with a few niggly bits like the 11mm cam cover bolt around the back, and the order in which to remove/replace the covers (if I could remember the order I'd tell you).
Change the water pump at the same time.
Good glow plugs are a must, as is good coolant. Overheating is really the only thing that kills the engine, so check the heater matrix and rad.
Costco do 20L of veg for under £20.

[falling-out-with-my-car]

all the lovely info provided in this thread I could clone your motor and leave you with a very expensive bill or a cosy night in a local police station.

something I have observed with my xantia is that topping up the Radiator expansion bottle with distilled water the level drops
away frequently especially in hot weather making it necessary to top it up again frequently especially after a long run.
draining out about two litres of diluted antifreeze and replacing it with concentrated antifreeze the level hasn't dropped since even on a long run.

gearboxes seem to like a change of oil about every three years with a couple of tubes of molyslip additive added which makes the gear changes really smooth especially when the engine is cold. if your going to run on veg like Xac and me you'll need to carry a spare fuel filter because they tend to clog up more often especially if your running filtered waste veg oil.
I tend to need to change filters roughly every 3 months or 3,000 mile3s which ever is sooner. clogging of the fuel filter is brought to your attention by the lighting/flickering of the stop lights on the top left of the dash board this usually allows about another 25 miles after the lights first flicker before the filter finally clogs especially in the winter.

below Minus 5 degrees C you will need to be prepared to add some petrol to your Veg oil to act as antifreeze because veg oil has no antifreeze like diesel does. 10% is usually sufficient but I have tried running on 20% this year in the snowy weather with no ill effects on my 1.9TD xantia. I also add a little diesel when the temps get down below zero anyway as extra insurance against frozen fuel lines. if your going to change the fuel filter anytime soon you could fill the filter housing up with some diesel magic when you put in the new filter and close the lid this manually primes the filter housing and it will blast out any muck in your injectors as well improving the spray pattern much more effective than putting a bottle in your tank, also brilliant for bringing down emissions before an MOT to. don't forget the old trick of dropping the throttle cable adjuster a couple of notches before the MOT which stops the tester opening the throttle and revving the nuts out of the engine. Never turn the engine off with the revs above 1000 rpm it can damage the Turbo, let the throttle come down first.

A really good coating of Wax-oil is always a good thing underneath a Xantia and it keeps all those pipe unions rust free for years on end.

[xantia_v6]

Any idea what the colour is? Not seen many dark metallic grey ones?

Probably "Silex Gris" (Flint Gray), code ETW on the bulkhead behind the right hand sphere.

Note:- if getting touch-up paint, there were 2 different colours with that name and code, I think the change was in about 94, the earlier colour is lighter.

[Stepto1]

Great info there guys. Thanks as ever for all the help and advice. Picking it up on Sunday. It's had a new pump and strut tops and I think the cambelt has been done but not sure so will get on with it anyway.