[C5 X7] Spec check and parts swapping feasibility?

[the-termin8r]

Right, yet another update of things not going to plan.

The connectors finally arrived after taking 3 sodding weeks. I went for the unassembled version because I didn't know what wire size is used in the pre-built ones. I used 17AWG for the main socket lines and I think (the spool label was gone) 18 or 19 for the LED line.

My intention was to splice in a relay before the front lighter socket. Pin 1 of the connector which is the 12V for the ambient LED on the socket was supposed to be in series with the relay coil. That way the headlights coming on triggered the relay. Then pin 2 and 3 which are the 12V and GND, respectively, for the main socket would be switched by the relay to turn on the strips. The relay would have switched the strips in parallel with the socket, so the socket can still be used.

As it turns out, none of that happened because that pin driving the LED provides almost no current. The ~60mA of the LED in series with the ~30mA of the coil for a total of ~90mA was enough to send the relay into a jittering fit. Useless. So I gave up trying to be clever and just spliced the strips directly into the loom. Now they're on all the time, but with the brightness adjusted you can't tell. So in practice the ultimate outcome is the same as having them come on with the headlights. Oh and of course the brightness is controlled by the little buck module I spliced in in series with the strips and not with the buttons on the speedo like on the factory config. Given the faff that even this basic solution was, I'll settle. Doing it the proper way is idiotic.

Now the only thing left to do is to rethink the mounting method for the driver's side and it should be good.

Pics, diagrams and files to come in the final post when I get everything sorted.

[the-termin8r]

Ok, final update on the ambient strip retrofit. It's not perfect, but it's close enough. As mentioned in the last post, these unfortunately don't sync with the headlights turning on, they turn on with the ignition. Thankfully they're dim and unnoticeable in broad daylight. So it achieves the same effect.

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Parts list:

- At least 1 male and 1 female (I'd order 2 or 3) connector. I recommend DIY-ing the wires as I don't know what AWG the seller puts on. I'd also recommend finding a seller with faster shipping times if possible. These took three weeks to get to me.
- 17 AWG wire for the main 12V and GND lines and 18-19 AWG for the LED 12V line. About 500mm for each line should give you enough to work with.
- 2x 3m of thin wire (~22AWG?) to make a pair of extensions, one 1m long, the other 2m long. Ideally, each 3m length would be a different colour.
- 5 pairs of JST RCY connectors.
- Heat shrink tubing.
- 12V orange COB strip. I went for 3m in case I made mistakes
- Diffuser strip of your choice. I went for 3m of T-1010 black. The black washes out the orange glow a bit but it's not too bad.
- A buck converter module of your choice. I went for an LM2596 I had kicking around from an old project.
- Superglue and activator of your choice. I'd recommend superglue gel as it gives you time to work and adjust.
- Double sided tape of your choice. I'd recommend something good like 3M VHB tape. I went for 5952 which is 19mm wide and 1.1mm thick.
- 4 strip channels. These are 3D printed, I printed mine in PETG, but you can probably get away with printing in PLA. You might be able to do this without the channels, but they'll make life a lot easier. File attached below.

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Procedure (strap in, it's a long one):

The block diagram of the system is as follows:

1 - Go out to the car with the diffuser a pair of scissors, a tape measure, a marker and paper. Measure out your strip lengths by slotting the strips in and cutting them to size. Keep in mind, the passenger side one goes in farther than the eye can see.
2 - Look in the groove for the long strip. You'll see holes at several intervals. Measure the intervals between the holes. This is important for later.
3 - Go back inside and cut your COB strip based on the diffuser length. I made a the strips slightly longer than the diffusers. Note, the strips can only be cut at specific intervals!

4 - Take your thin 3m wires and put one end of each in a cordless drill simultaneously. Put the other ends under something heavy or in a vice or ask someone to hold them. Twist them together with the drill to keep them neat.
5 - Cut the loom such that you have a 1m long segment and a 2m long segment.
6 - Untwist both ends of the looms and strip all the ends of the wires.
7 - Solder and heat shrink a male and female JST on the end of each loom. Watch your polarity!
8 - Take your buck module and solder a male and female JST to either end of the module. It's up to you which side you put each connector on. Watch your polarity!
9 - Take your longer COB strip and solder a pair of JSTs to it and heat shrink the joints. It doesn't matter which end each connector goes on. Watch your polarity!
10 - Plug the short loom into the output of the buck module, then plug the long strip into the short loom. Now plug the long loom into the other end of the long strip. Note which connector is left unplugged on the long loom.
11 - Solder and heat shrink a single JST to your short strip. The connector you solder will the the opposite of what's on the end of the long loom. I.e. You want to be able to plug the short strip into the long loom. Watch your polarity!
12 - You can unplug the whole chain now.

13. - Take your lighter connector wires and strip both ends off all of them and crimp the terminals on. DO NOT slot them into the housings yet!
14 - Take the two thicker wires and strip a ~10mm segment of the MIDDLE of each wire. DO NOT cut the wires. You can use a hobby knife or other sharp blade for this. The result should be a pair of wires that have most of their insulation except for a segment in the middle.
15 - Below is the existing connector on the car, the middle wire is +12V and the bottom is GND. Solder your last JST connector to the stripped segments and heat shrink the joints. Watch your polarity!

16 - Now you can slide the crimps into the housings. Watch your polarity!
17 - You should now have what looks like an extension of the loom for the lighter with a random JST sprouting out of it.

18 - Print 4 strip channels.
19 - Take a channel and do a test fit of the short strip without peeling the backing. Align the channel such that the end of the strip without the connector is flush with the end of the channel.
20 - Mark where the other end of the channel lands on the strip.
21 - Gently make an incision in the backing where you marked it.
22 - Peel the backing up to the incision and stick that portion of the strip into the channel.
23 - Take your long strip and fit the remaining channels such that the channel positions match the positions of the solid intervals you measured in the groove on the car at the start. Again, only cut and peel the backing where the channels will be on the strip.
24 - Take your strips and diffusers and go back to the car to do a dry test fit. You're not mounting anything in place yet. The connector of the short strip should be pointing at the door. For the long strip, the connector that plugs into the long loom should point at the door. If you're happy with how everything fits go to the next step. Otherwise make adjustments until you're happy.
25 - Carefully superglue the channels to the diffusers. If you lay the channel into the diffuser (with the strips pointing into the diffusers) you'll notice that the top of the channel isn't flush with the diffuser. That's because that difference is where you'll be putting the glue gel. Do it in segments, put some gel on, spray it with activator and move on to the next spot. You can do 3 spots per side per channel. So one at either end and one in the middle on each side of each channel. It won't look pretty, but it doesn't need to.
26 - Take your VHB tape, cut it to size and apply it to the tops of the printed channels. DO NOT peel the backing yet! This is why the channels need to be aligned with the intervals on the car. You're using double sided tape to stick the channels to the car.
27 - Add VHB tape to the sides of the short diffuser where the grooves are as well. The grooves won't allow the tape to stick well, so use some blobs of glue. DO NOT peel the backing yet! The short channel needs this extra tape because most of the groove has a hole in it on the car and the available solid bit doesn't have a big enough surface area for the tape to hold long term.

28 - Go to the car and this time bring all the electronics, spudgers, head unit removal keys, a small flat head (to turn the knob on the pot of the buck module) and a T20(?) screwdriver.
29 - Open both front doors and both gloveboxes and pry off the trim on the sides of the dash. That will reveal a big and handy metal pipe. This pipe is empty, run your long loom through it. The orientation of the loom is determined by the connector on your short strip, keep this in mind!

30 - Remove your head unit.
31 - Remove the cubby under the head unit (unless you have an NG4 and have no cubby).
32 - Remove the fascia panel with the screen. To do so pry off the silver trim strip and undo the 3 screws. Then pry the whole panel off. Careful when pulling the panel away as the screen and button for the hazards have short cables
33 - Remove the plastic panel around the gearstick. The process for this depends on your suspension and gearbox.
34 - With most of the dash torn open, do a final test fit of the strip/diffuser assemblies. Make sure your wires are threading correctly! If you're happy, peel the backing off the VHB and stick them in. With the long strip, I'd recommend starting at the end nearest to the centre of the car and peeling the VHB segments one at a time.
35 - Connect the long loom in the pipe to the strips and tidy the excess loom away. DO NOT close the sides of the dash yet in case you need to make adjustments.
36 - Plug the short loom into the other end of the long strip and route it through the dashboard such that it comes out at the very bottom at the transmission tunnel. When you get the connector to just behind where the head unit would be, stop.
37 - Surrender your hand into the hole where the cubby lives. If you feel around in the very back, there will be a VERY thin slot at the bottom that leads down to the next section of the dash. Feed the connector through there.
38 - Pull your hand out and stick it back into the lowest opening in the dash where the ash tray lives. You will feel the connector come out as you feed it through the slot. Pull the connector through as much as you can, be gentle.
39 - Take your lighter loom with the spliced JST and plug the buck module input into the splice. Plug the short loom into the output of the buck.
40 - Plug the lighter loom between the existing loom in the car and the lighter socket itself
41 - Turn the ignition on. If your strips light up, good stuff. If they don't, don't panic.
42 - If the strips don't turn on, keep the ignition on and use your flat head screwdriver to turn the pot on the buck module until the strips come on. Turn them up to max brightness then turn the ignition off and go home. You're done for the moment, now you wait for nightfall.
43 - Once night has fallen, go back out to the car and turn the ignition on again, use the flat head again to adjust the brightness to your liking. If there is a good spot, you can zip tie or VHB the buck module somewhere in the transmission tunnel to stop it rattling if you want. You can now either go back home and wait for daylight or continue into the night.
44 - Reassemble the trim around the gearstick. Do this first before anything else. Make sure the cables aren't getting tangled in the gearstick or handbrake if you have a manual one and don't pinch them either!
45 - Put the head unit back in. DO NOT pinch any cables!
46 - Put the cubby back in. DO NOT pinch any cables!
47 - Put the fascia panel back on. Remember to plug the screen and hazards button back in!
48 - Put the dash side panels back on.
49 - Turn the ignition back on and make sure everything is working.
50 - Job done.

[wurlycorner]

That’s quite a bit of work tbf!
Well done getting it done.

[the-termin8r]

In my case it actually took me a solid 30 mins just to get the gear stick surround back in. Mainly because I accidentally designed myself into a paradox. My cup holder design actually means that I have 3 extra cables to route. I of course didn't account for reassembly when choosing cable length. That meant I effectively had to put the under-radio cubby and gear stick surround back in simultaneously (when the surround needs to go in first) while trying to contain the cables. There was a lot of swearing.

[wurlycorner]

There was a lot of swearing.

Standard for an x7, I am finding.

[mickthemaverick]

It is this type of general hassle combined with the steering rack issues that stopped me going for an X7 when my Mk1 was up for changing, and is the reason I now drive a Subaru!!

[the-termin8r]

I've been riding around on hydropneumatics for 17 years continuously (18 total) at this point, it's not something I can just ditch, I've been completely corrupted LOL. Over the last 11 years I've ridden in and driven a multitude of cars, not a single one of them even manages to hold a candle to everything the X7 offers (most of these actually compared to my 2L). The closest car to an X7 I've been in was the B6 Passat estate my dad replaced the 2L X7 with because of ULEZ. Even that was lightyears away from the X7.

To its credit though, it was large and practical, easy to get in an out of and you just got in and drove it. Other than that, it had no real redeeming features, at best you could call it generic. Ironically my dad bought it to not have to pay the obscene ULEZ charge (which I'm now being bled dry by). The Passat was so unreliable that it worked out about the same as paying ULEZ, if not slightly worse. In the year or so he had it before it went bang it drank something like 75L of oil. It's the most expensive car he's had per unit time and per unit distance in the 61 years he's been alive.

[mickthemaverick]

I was in a similar position to you Rob having had 14 years with a Citroen on the fleet but I have one issue that you probably don't. I have an EXCESSIVELY determined GREEN daughter who I cannot be bothered to argue with anymore and who insisted that I sell my diesels and only run petrol having had a huge row over not going electric!! That was my compromise and the Subaru was the only car I found that had all the extras I was used to. My first action on buying it was to swap its 17" wheels for 16" and higher sidewalls to soften the ride which worked well. I have now completed over 70k in it and hence I replaced all the running gear earlier this year and it is now an exceedingly smooth ride so I am happy with it. How long it will live we'll have to see but there are many Subaru's around with over half a million miles which is easily achievable with proper maintenance and sensible use.

[wurlycorner]

I’ve been driving a hydraulic Citroen of one kind or another for 30 years now (with my Father having them for at least ten prior to that - all different flavours of CX). TBH, with the exception of the Activa (which was never set up properly while I had it on the road and therefore not a fair comparison) I would say that while the X7 is clearly still better than a ‘normal’ car, it is the least pleasurable in terms of ride.
And the steering feel is numb compared to the mk1 c5 and Xantia (CX also not a fair comparison thanks to DIRAVI!).

[the-termin8r]

I feel like the X7 is the best compromise of all features. Speed, economy, handling (I'm yet to drive anything that's even as remotely as planted on a motorway), crash safety, comfort, refinement and modern QoL stuff like Bluetooth. The Xantia for example folds like a wet sock in a crash. The Activa is awesome, but I'd think very hard before I get into one these days. I'd make exceptions for classics like the DS, SM and CX though.

[mickthemaverick]

I'd be inclined to agree with you Rob except for the lack of an economical petrol option!!

[the-termin8r]

I think petrols are inherently uneconomical, especially in a big car. The Passat I mentioned before was a 1.8 petrol and it got about 35 MPG combined with somewhat sensible driving (manic driving = drinking even more oil). My 3L gets 35 if I drive like an absolute yob.

[mickthemaverick]

I've posted about this on my 2.5l Subaru Legacy which returns around 42mpg for my usage. We have had over 50 on long runs during some of the tours but 42 is a reasonable average for a car that is a fully fledged luxury saloon with every bell and whistle available in 2004. Those figures are also with the aircon on for 70%ish of the time and I consider that to be good for the size and weight of the car

[the-termin8r]

That's not bad going. My dad replaced the B6 with a Mk3 CR-V. It's a 58 plate, 2L petrol (naturally aspirated), 150 BHP supposedly, don't know the torque from memory. It's one of the single most gutless engines I've ever driven. He gets 28 on a good day with it, 25 on a bad and neither of use can figure out why given that the car actually weighs less than the B6. Mind you, the only reason he went with a stupid pseudo-SUV in the first place was because it was the only thing he could find in budget that was in acceptable condition. He was actually looking at Mk8 Accord estates. The ones going for ~£3-5K had MOT advisories about rust in every possible place you could imagine. One of them even had an advisory that just said "Body loose" whatever that means, jeez.

[the-termin8r]

Another thing to add to the list of missing features I'm noticing: this one doesn't have rear footwell lights. The mounts are there, but the light modules aren't. Luckily I'm planning on swapping all the seats between this and my 2L, so I'm hoping it'll just be a plug and pray affair.

I prayed as hard as I could but I think the car gods were on holiday or asleep or something. Because guess what? It didn't work. Do you reckon I'd ever learn my lesson? The lights don't work, there's a mismatch of pins and conductors in the connectors for the front seats between the cars. Other than that, all the other controls work just fine (I don't have heating or massaging). I've done the rear seats and the front passenger. I'll do the driver tomorrow and leave the light rewiring for another time, but I have ideas on how I want to approach.

All things considered the process for all the seats is quite straightforward (if you have an ok back). Unlike the rear seats, the front ones each weigh as much as half an American, get someone to help you if you need to.

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To remove the rear seats all you need is a 16mm hex socket (ideally a deeper one), a ratcheting wrench to undo the fasteners and a torque wrench to do them back up.

- All rear seat fasteners torque to 40 Nm and thread lock is NOT required.

1. Unfold the bases as you normally would.
2. Pop the plastic trims off the hinges. Start at the back and then pull them up and over in the same direction you did the seat bases
3. Undo the two screws on each base and pull the bases out. They're surprisingly light.
4. Follow the middle seatbelt to its lower anchor point and undo the bolt, the associated seatbelt buckle will also come off. Note the plastic washer, the seat belt anchor goes on the screw BEFORE the washer.
5. Both the seat backs use a common mounting point in the middle. The small back rest goes on top of the large one so you have to take the small one off first. Look at the bottom of the middle hinge near where the buckles mount. Undo the bolt on the hinge.
6. Fold both backs down and pull the boot floor up off the load-net eyes. It'd be easier if you also opened the spare wheel cover and just pulled the whole floor back a bit.
7. Undo the nut on the top of the middle hinge. This is why you need the deeper socket. I didn't have one and had to have my driver partially inserted into the socket. Thankfully it worked.
8. Undo the two bolts on the outer hinge of the small back
9. Pull the small back out, it's easier to pull the inside first then the outside because of the locating tab on the outside mount.
10. Undo the two bolts on the outside of the large back.
11. Pull it out as well in the same way as the small one. This one is a bit more cumbersome.

To put them back, do everything in reverse. Start with the large back. Torque everything to 40Nm and watch the plastic washer on the belt anchor. Before doing the bases, make sure the backs lock back in place properly and aren't misaligned.

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To remove the front seats is also fairly straightforward but a little bit more of a faff. You'll need a T40 bit, a ratcheting wrench to undo the fasteners, a torque wrench to do them back up and an old rag. And also depending on your battery connectors, you might need a 10mm hex socket to undo one of them.

- All front seat screws torque to 27.5 Nm. The manual says to apply thread lock to the bolts but it doesn't mention strength. On top of that, none of the screws on either car had factory thread lock on them. I'd assume they mean the weaker (usually) blue stuff.

1. Open all your windows
2. Remove the head restraint
3. Move the seat as far forward and as high up as possible. You'll need as much vertical clearance as you can manage. Fiddle with the base tilt as well to help you.
3. Remove the two rear screws
4. Move the seat as far back and up as possible.
5. Make sure at least 3 mins have passed since you last turned the ignition on then unplug one terminal of your battery and place the rag between the cable and battery to stop them from reconnecting. Note: V6 diesel owners, DO NOT close your boot after you disconnect the battery. Unlike the doors, the boot has an electronic latch, if you close the boot lid, you'll have to open it manually by crawling in through the other side of the boot and poking a thin screwdriver into the latch.
6. Unlock and unplug the connector on the seat and unclip the female loom from the seat
7. Undo the front two screws
8. The front of the runners have a couple of plastic locator prongs that clip into the floor. Pull the seat up carefully until the prongs release. The seat will probably fall backwards at this point.
9. Now just pull out through the front door opening. Unlike the rear seats, the front ones weigh as much as half an American, get someone to help you if you need to.

To put them back, do everything in reverse and torque everything to 27.5Nm, given that my screws didn't have thread lock, I'd say its up to you if you want to apply it or not. Note: plug the seat connector in BEFORE you plug the battery back in.

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No photos today other than to show the comparison between cars that have and haven't been taken care of. In my old 2L I found some regular dust, some soil dust and some leaf fragments. In the 3L I found Crisps, Bombay mix, part of an old air freshener, a random lip stick, a wrapper from something and other miscellaneous filth. That and parts of the seat runners on the 3L had some surface rust (not pictured) for some reason.

A Maybach has nothing on this leg room.