Sluggish BX

mak224751 · Post by **mak224751** » 24 Aug 2005, 17:26

Hi All,
I have just taken delivery of a 1990 Citroen BX 17 TZD Turbo Diesel Estate. When I drove the car it didn't accelerate as well as i thought it would. For the past 3 years the car has been driven daily but only abiout two miles a day (it had only done 200 miles since its last MOT at the beginning of May)Has anyone any ideas why this might be happening and what i can do to improve the acceleration I am wondering if it might be the turbo
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

Roscoe · Post by **Roscoe** » 24 Aug 2005, 17:34

First thing I'd do is change the fuel filter, dump some injector cleaner in it, change the air filter and take it out for a good run on the motorway. Unlikely the turbo will be the problem, could be an airhose to the intercooler, or the intercooler sludged up inside if the turbo oil seal is leaking a bit.
Do you know the service history of the car - if not, would be a good idea to change the cam belt (and tensioners speaking from a recent bad experience!) before you start thrashing it. Do the easy stuff first like filters, injector cleaner, check all air hoses for tight connections, especially the little one that runs from the top of hte injector pump (Bosch) to the front of the intercooler, etc. before you start on the hard things...you'll probably find it is something relatively minor.

Oscar Too · Post by **Oscar Too** » 24 Aug 2005, 18:43

Sounds like the engine is choked with unburnt fuel and a good thrashing/italian de-coke (70mph in 4th gear up the motorway) will unclog it. You'll know you've succeeded when a huge puff of black smoke blinds the driver behind you and the car shoots off happily down the road.
As well as the above advice, it would be worth checking the condition of the bottom hose from the radiator too and if it's at all perished or soft, replacing it. Take the opportunity to check and flush the rad and cooling system, and if you change the timing belt, change the water pump too. There's good advice from Tom Sheppard on renovating aging BXs on www.bxclub.co.uk

Post by **RichardW** » 24 Aug 2005, 19:16

Before you go pulling the engine apart...
1. Check that the accelerator cable is adjusted properly - pull back the black serrated tube at the pump to take all the slack out of the cable outer, refit the spring clip in the appropriate location.
2. Check the pedal box isn't broken where it bends round to carry the throttle - BX pedal boxes are weak here and break. This causes the box to bend and pedal to move over to the right stopping you getting full throttle. Bending the pedal back will restore the power in the short term. Post back for a more permanent fix...

DLM · Post by **DLM** » 25 Aug 2005, 01:24

.......and hose through the intercooler as you would a radiator (but off-car).This will help remove the insect life, grit and whatever that eventually fouls it up. Also take up the tip of cleaning out the oil from the inside of the intercooler with some kind of solvent that doesn't hang around (surgical spirit). Internal cleaning demands a solvent like this which which evaporates well (and is helped to do so with planty of internal airflow), otherwise you'll get the mother and father of all backfires for a couple of minutes. This treatment recently made a world of difference to my 17 TGD turbo after too much sluggish town driving .

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 25 Aug 2005, 02:22

with engine off get someone to press throtle to the floor whilst you see if lever on pump is fully against throtle stop,also check condition od D shape seal where intercooler fits to manifold
regards malcolm

Oscar Too · Post by **Oscar Too** » 25 Aug 2005, 16:25

DLM
How do you access the intercooler to carry out that procedure? Is it relatively easy?
Oscar

mak224751 · Post by **mak224751** » 25 Aug 2005, 17:17

Thanks for the info will try it out this weekend and let you know what happens

DLM · Post by **DLM** » 27 Aug 2005, 16:24

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"> How do you access the intercooler to carry out that procedure? Is it relatively easy? <hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Removing the intercooler is fairly simple: a couple of retaining bolts at the front and the big air-pipe plus pipe oil-breather drip-pipe leave it free to be pulled vertically upward.
There are two ways in which it can be cleaned:
(1) Externally by washing out the the crap stuck on or between the fins (as with a radiator, don't use a high pressure hose unless you want to wreck the fins), and
(2) internally. The reason for internal cleaning should be apparent when you gently pull the intercooler away from its D-ring rubber gasket to the rear turbo manifold, as there's nearly always a lot of oil here, and it can be a shock to see just how much ends up escaping round the top and back of the cam-cover, as well as being thrown onto the intercooler base and HP pump belt! Cleaning out the oil from the inside of the internals requires (ideally) a warm, sunny day and a lot of patience. Whatever solvent you use to swill through the inside of the intercooler has a lot of oil to shift, and it will take a lot of shaking and tipping over the course of several flushes to make a significant impact on this. Why a sunny day? Once you are happy that the worst has been removed, you need to scrupulously dry out the internals until the absolute minimum of solvent is left, otherwise you will hear an alarming sequence of bangs on startup. Hot sunlight, good ventilation and patience is a great aid to achieving this aim: you will need to leave the intercooler baking for quote a long time post-flush, and, in an ideal world, flush it through very thoroughly with compressed air to dry it as thoroughly as possible.
I made do with a foot-pump and plenty of repetition, then ran the engine up to turbo-cut-in at rest several times (or so I thought). Even so, some weeks later when I took the car for MOT it backfired gently when the first on-road turbo kick-in occurred..... compressed air and solvent fumes are a volatile mixture.

Post by **Peter.N.** » 27 Aug 2005, 17:16

Also, try changing the fuel filter.

mak224751 · Post by **mak224751** » 30 Aug 2005, 17:34

Poured some injector cleaner in high revs up a hill blinded some poor bugger behind me and oh my god didn't realise these cars were that quick. Still got to do some basic things ie oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter mean't to do them this weekend but enjoyed driving the BX that much and the wife moaning at me for wanting to mess about with the car on a bank holiday weekend. Just got to sort out the rev counter as its a bit temperamental sometimes its works sometimes it can't be bothered and work out why the blower won't work.

Oscar Too · Post by **Oscar Too** » 31 Aug 2005, 19:07

DLM wrote "Removing the intercooler is fairly simple: a couple of retaining bolts at the front and the big air-pipe plus pipe oil-breather drip-pipe leave it free to be pulled vertically upward. "
Thanks - that's really useful, and simpler than I imagined - I've already had it off to replace the hydrau pump without realising it. Thanks again.
O

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 31 Aug 2005, 23:02

Re the heater blower; there is a thread by John W on aussiefrogs which contains detailed fault finding data.

mak224751 · Post by **mak224751** » 01 Sep 2005, 17:37

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">2. Check the pedal box isn't broken where it bends round to carry the throttle - BX pedal boxes are weak here and break. This causes the box to bend and pedal to move over to the right stopping you getting full throttle. Bending the pedal back will restore the power in the short term. Post back for a more permanent fix...
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Richardw I think the pedal box is broken as the accelerator pedal has moved over to the right and does waggle about a bit. If i move it to the left the acceleration does improve. Would like to know a more permanent fix
Thanks

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 01 Sep 2005, 18:34

I did mine nearly 6 years ago by bolting in a piece of 1 inch right angle, using if I recall correctly the existing bolts, and bolting the pedal to that using the original bolt. I recall doing it after I'd had the car about 3 days and doing it in the dark. As I hadn't even looked at the car properly I wasn't keen to drill it as I had no idea what I was likely to hit.
As I say - still there nearly 6 years later - wish every repair lasted so well!
Jeremy