I am an Activaist-v6 and a 2.1Estateerr

[Stickyfinger]

Well today was the first weekend I have had the car fully legal.

....WHAT FUN I had
...the Audi R8 that followed me pulled into the Petrol Station and spent 1/2hour asking me about the car and looking over it.
He was gobsmacked that it was a standard 18 year old car and not a MaxPower-chavrod. He was just staggered it had "production suspension" and always thought Citroen's all wallowed and floated.
....LOL we did not look at his at all (well I did a bit but did not let on) and he went away with a Pub/Boys/Cars conversation in his pocket, good old Activa.

Love the V6 low-end, nice for fast low revs travel, just why I like the engine and decided on it. Oodles of grunt over 3.8 and she revved very free and very smooth out to 6, no more atm until I know the sounds it makes and tune my ear to it.

I have what feels like a little "flutter" when braking aggressively but it did not increase in rate as the brake forces remained progressive and as impressive as I remember a Xantia is.
I will look at the rears, I did not dissemble them just a quick inspection and clean up.
What "system" problems would impart a light flutter into the brakes felt only via the peddle ?...like pulsing in fluid

At the moment I see zero need for drilled or grooved disks as the engine braking is both smooth and constant, the V6 halls it back very well in the dry.
The car should cool its disks well as it is quite high and I would think I would stick with the solid type as they would be happier in the wet even on a track I think. I will track run the Car soon so maybe I will change my mind if they get hot with heat sink. Adding Ducting for a temporary extra cool air flow would however be easy with the natural high ride height of the car.

Oil temp sat at +=70c all the time but took an age to warm up vrs the X7, it did rise to 85/90c after fast use but still moving.
Water, well that sat at 70 or (just) below, rising to 85 on fast use, it did hit 90 for a few secs when I slowed for traffic but then came down. Does this seem a little low for a steady driving temperature ?

So, the point of the above fun was to run over Salisbury Plain to Langfords scrap yard and check their Xantia stock.

3 x S2 cars, 2Dsls and 1Petrol..and a single S1 estate.
None were hydro-active cars ....oh well, I have to drive back

Well guys, first real day I felt 100% confident out in the car, I have got my gear changes with the right hand sorted now for fast work, I think because I have been in an auto for so long I had no instincts to overcome.
Put it this way, I haven't opened the door when changing up yet LHD with this "grunt" to foot ? not a problem.

I have to say....Alasdair old boy, yep you have made a good choice with the Xantia V6 Activa, it is a keeper and will just keep getting better.

[Skull]

Sounds like a great day out Sticky .....but how did that R8 manage to keep up

Flutter - a wheel buckled or maybe even a tyre with a flat spot from storage Or if it's just while breaking could be the discs warped (but I believe you have fitted new fronts )

[elma]

Congratulations Sticky I'm pleased your on the road. Are there any pictures of your car yet? I've totally missed them if you've posted any.

[Stickyfinger]

He could on monstered me quite often on straights............but he had to work hard enough to pull in behind me to see why this old French thing could do what it was doing however.
He had noticed it was flat in the corners hence his surprise it was standard...............................Oh I forgot, it has only a Citroen and Activa badge on it at the moment, the V6 and Xantia badges were all faded and horrid.

The plain roads switch camber quite often, long curves and depressions so helps the lighter car a lot, then add the Activa system, well the car is built just for these roads....they are the closest to b roads in France.

I did change the forward disks, pads etc. The rears showed no visible signs of the disk corrosion to the mount, disks looked good as did the pads so I left them. MOT was fine with no comments made other than how good they were. No vibrations at all thru the wheel. Wondered about a valve in the system.

[Stickyfinger]

Congratulations Sticky I'm pleased your on the road. Are there any pictures of your car yet? I've totally missed them if you've posted any.

Blog post
http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 17&t=50854

Congrats on the promotion to Ubergruppenleader

[elma]

Blog post
http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 17&t=50854

Congrats on the promotion to Ubergruppenleader

Aren't we on the blog here? I must have missed all the wrong pages, I remember a picture of a bush recently.

thankyou

Finally, it looks stunning.

[DHallworth]

Sticky, I actually find the standard V6 brakes (genuine Citroen discs and pads) to be very good indeed, they also tend to resist brake fade very well indeed.

I had a set of Pagid Blue pads in mine when I first changed the brakes and they were awful. The fade on them was scary. Robert at BL asked me what pads I had in it and laughed. Apparently he's tried most of the ones you can buy but always goes back to genuine. I threw a new set of Pagid Blue ones away as I found a new set of genuine Citroen ones on the shelf that I'd forgotten I'd bought

David.

[Stickyfinger]

Good to hear about you experience with the Brakes David, I run the Bendix solid discs and Mintex pads, as per my only other Xantia then as a choice when changing discs on the C5's......I did have original Citroen ones on a few times until changed and to be honest I did not notice a difference or improvement between the two, so I think it must be habit as they have always worked so well.

They never snatch, are perfect in the wet and if the caliper (on C5) is OK then they have always been superb even with the extra weight of the 2ltrX7 Devil car....I am very comfortable with them and they have instantly given me total confidence in the car.

....I was taught a long time ago by John Chatham that first you do the learn the brakes, then re do them to get the balance right, the rest of the stuff like engines you can do later because it just helps you get to the point when you have to brake. He always said that if you are the one to brake last and can keep your line then you are nearly always the smoothest thru and the first on the power on the way out.
He was talking Healey's but with a heavy front engine with good low-end torque the same seems true even with FWD on the Activa.
It seems to put its power down on flat rubber very well and I very impressed with the Activa's dry grip even on a relatively tight corner, catching the apex is quite easy even with the corrections you have to make on the road for POT HOLES....) under your ass in the LHD car, still I see them sooner

[DickieG]

The brand name Pagid is apparently owned by Eurocarparts so you're effectively purchasing own brand pads just like Tesco baked beans which I'm reliably informed work as well as Pagid brake pads when it comes to stopping a ton of moving metal

[DHallworth]

The standard Pagid pads are about as much use as a chocolate tea pot and they create huge amounts of brake dust. My sister has them on her 307 as she never drives hard and just potters around in it. She does now moan about her wheels being black a lot more often then she used to

Pagid Blue are meant to be far superior to the off the shelf Pagid pads that euro car parts supply. Apparently Porsche use them as OE pads from what I've read online, although I find it hard to believe tbh.

I don't rate the pagid stuff at all on anything that I drive enthusiastically, my Activa from now on will only have the genuine Citroen discs and pads as will my XM's.

There is a member on here who used to (don't know if he still does) rate the Pagid Blue stuff very highly, but from my experience it's not something I'd go near ever again I'm afraid.

I've just had to replace the discs and pads on my Supercharged Range Rover. There's plenty of cheap alternatives available for that car however I opted to fit Brembo discs and pads as Land Rover did from the factory. Thankfully there is a much cheaper source available for Brembo stuff other then LR themselves. Unfortunately though, if you're lucky enough to have a later model RR, the 4.4 TDV8 or the 5.0 Supercharged, they have 6 piston Brembo calipers up front. The pads for those calipers retail from LR for just over £190 and as LR have Brembo tied up in an exclusivity deal, you can only buy the OE ones from LR for the timebeing.

David.

[DickieG]

The problem with buying non original manufacturer brake pads is that most appear to be made to a different specification, for instance companies such as Textar make pads for BMW but buy Textar branded pads and then compare them with BMW original pads and they are totally different, BMW ones are far coarser so are more able to grip the disc and stop the car quicker, so in my books saving a few quid with the risk of trashing your car or hurting someone is absurd, for me it's original pads all the way whatever it costs.

[Stickyfinger]

My way of thinking about brakes is that in general OEM is best (or OEM Spec like Mintex) for a general road pad.

This is a financial decision by the manufactures.
So my logic goes: HIGH spec pad saves a lot of work, metal, rubber.
The better the pads perform then a cheaper standard disk/size/caliper set up can be installed. It can be less weight, fewer pistons and thus saves a lot of money.
In this instance the normal "lowest spec poss" equation is reversed.

With only limited experience so far as a large caveat to what I am saying :
I would think that if I do upgrade anything, it will initially be the cooling/airflow as I am quite sure the wheel design is not as efficient as it could be with air flow around the disk.

This I think would be improved with better under bumper/under-body airspeed/airflow [airspeed] to increase the negative pressure to help draw it thru.
1....... I have noticed Citroen have also played around with the bumper shape both in the cooling and its lower edge.
2....... They seem however to of limited themselves by always maintaining the high ground clearance dictated by the cars design.

I have to do some work under this part of the car as there is some damage to the plastic parts here so I have an opportunity to look at what can be achieved. I am also missing the cars original under-tray and would like to re-install the airflow over the engine lost due to this being missing.

This I think would be a lot easier method to gain a little more cooling than adding a positive cooling set up with direct ducting to the disks with all the faffing about that would involve, it would also keep the original look. Add to that the protection of components and pulleys/belt/electrics in the engine bay
Certainly it would be cheaper and certainly, although not as effective, it would add a very helpful cooling effect to an already very capable setup and in real life that is all that may be needed even with fast track use...... Some air vents of the back plate may also assist and again would be an easy mod (for a summer only car).

When fast road driving, if you are on the brakes that much [for the cars OEM set up],that you overheat the disks then your driving the car all wrong anyway, only on a track would you need (maybe not) any additional cooling or the extra grip of a 4 pot caliper like the Brembo's from a Pug. I have to say in my experience an "over-braked" car is more bloody dangerous than an "under-braked" one on the road.
.

[DickieG]

I am also missing the cars original under-tray and would like to re-install the airflow over the engine lost due to this being missing.

Unless I'm mistaken only diesel Xantia's had under-trays.

[Stickyfinger]

My car also has the fixings for it and a small remnant on one of them from the tray that used to be there.
An under-tray allows the air to flow correctly thru the engine bay , once past the radiator, it flows around and over the engine exiting past the manifolds/down-pipe and exiting under the car (drawn out by fast air-flow creating a negative pressure)

[chinkostu]

you'll notice Al that the tray isn't actually listed on the right hand side (EG: not fitted), if i put in my Xants VIN it has

7013 F2
NFP
ENGINE+GEAR-BOX SOUND PROOFING

yet uses the same picture.

If i put in the VIN for a friends S2 V6 it shows the same as yours (none fitted), except an additional part for Spanish police that shows up on all S2 models

doing a search on the P/N brings up X1 and X2 with

01


7013 F2
NFP


01

ENGINE+GEAR-BOX SOUND PROOFING
- DIESEL FUEL

and

01


7013 F2
NFP


01

ENGINE+GEAR-BOX SOUND PROOFING
- DIESEL FUEL EXCEPT TURBO DIESEL DW10TD EXCEPT DW10ATED TURBO DIESEL WITHOUT FAP


7013 F8
NFP

01

- DW10ATED TURBO DIESEL WITHOUT FAP AND DIESEL FUEL


01

- TURBO DIESEL DW10TD AND DIESEL FUEL


01

- LPG + UNLEADED PETROL



Regardless, the fittings are probably there if you decided to fit one. I need to source one as mines missing