Xsara 2002 HDI-110 sudden consumption of water

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nick
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Post by nick »

rossd wrote:Thats odd, mine is as stable as anythingup to highly illegal speeds.
Yep mine too.

I had mine remapped to 140ish bhp a couple of months back and it really flies now :D
ebod
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Post by ebod »

Its just had its MOT this week and it needed a new bottom ball joint. I left it with my garage who I think have put a full wishbone arm on. I've not checked as I've been away and left the wife to sort it in my absense.


OT#1 : I can't get GSF to quote me a price for a recon or new power steering pump. Can anyone advise the Citroen part no ? ( the numbers I have don't come up o Google )

OT#2 : GSF quoted £58 for a timing belt kit comprising belt, tensioner & idler pulleys. Beside water pump & aux belt, am I missing anything I should also be replacing at the front of the engine? I thought £58+vat was cheap for belt/pulleys ?
cyber-shot
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Xsara 2002 HDI-110 sudden consumption of water

Post by cyber-shot »

Hi i have a xsara that was using water as well not a lot about a pint every 1000 miles or so,could not find a leek anywhere,then the other day i started the car no prob into second gear then a big plum of white smoke out the tail pipe after a mile smoke has gon. only got this now and again,but using a lot more water about a pint every 100 miles.so head gasket has gon.
you will not get a head job dun on a hdi xsara for £400 more like a £1000 the engine and box has to come out first as you cant get the head off with engine in the car,cant get engine out without the gearbox. but for £24 you can fix it like i did,i bought a bottle of stuff called STEEL SEAL you add it to the rad do a google for it i have dune 300 milse and it hasnt used a drop of water,no back presure just amazing stuff im a mechanic of 20 years never thought i would see the day you got stuff like this AMAZING
ebod
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Post by ebod »

I've googled it and it does look like wonderstuff.

Are you 100% sure Xsara HDI needs to have the full engine & box dropped ? My clutch is pretty worn anyway.

What did you do in order to follow the strict process for this Steal Seal stuff , i.e. it suggests it has to get to 99°C which is way above normal temp. Did you fit a new stat etc.
I can't see how I could get mine to run at 1000 rpm to get the fan to trip, it would take all day.

Mine is staying in the normal 1/4 temperature scale zone and its main symptom is gassing.
cyber-shot
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Xsara 2002 HDI-110 sudden consumption of water

Post by cyber-shot »

Hi yes the lot has to come out, about 4 hours to take out then its a fare job to take the head off once out
the fan kicks in at 99c i tested it with imfared temp gun bang on thermostat fully open at 83c .you dont need to take out the ,thermostat,you just need to make sure you use good antifreeze at 50/50.if you dont have oil in water you will not need to flush it out
i put a hammer on the throttle it does take a while but its well worth it
cyber-shot
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Xsara 2002 HDI-110 sudden consumption of water

Post by cyber-shot »

Hi forgot to say i tow a 17 foot caravan with my xsara has never over heated to my knowledge has covered 127500 milse temp normally just over quarter mark . replacing the thermostat is just to eliminate it if its not working properly,so if you think its ok leave it in
ebod
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Post by ebod »

..okay chaps this snake-oil steel-seal stuff has turned up in the post this morning.

My Xsara is still running okay but I'm being mega careful not to let it go over the 1/4 mrk on the temp scale by running with the heater blowing. :oops:

So its keeping stable but it definately is gassing.

On the instructions for the website it mentions 'additional directions' but on the sheet of paper supplied its states'FOR BACK PRESSURE additional directions'.
http://www.steelseal.co.uk/index.asp?fu ... AGE&page=4

I'm certain that mine is just gassing as there is zero oil/water crossover. These 'additional' instructions clearly must be followed in my case.

The problem I have is how he hell do I figure out which cyinder is gassing...and how do run it without glow plug screwed in and injector unplugged . Isn't this dangerous ??
I hadn't figured on this much messing.. :roll:

Oh yeah ...and what is the capacity of the water system i.e. how much elthylene glycol should I buy ( 5Ltr ? )

anyway I'm away to Spa Francorchamps tonight for the Belgian grand prix. I'll be back Tues.
cyber-shot
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Xsara 2002 HDI-110 sudden consumption of water

Post by cyber-shot »

Hi it takes 9.5 litres it recomends 50/50 mix as for gassing i dont think you have to worry about it my one was pressurising a bit as well

i think what they mean is if you take the top of the header tank and the water comes out when you rev it ,or if you can see lots of bubbles coming through the expansion tank,just make sure you get good antifreeze the temp gauge will go about 3/4 of the way up the temp gauge before the fan will kick in i thought it was never going to come on just be patient.

done over 400 milse now most of them hard miles as well,not used a drop of water
ebod
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Post by ebod »

cyber, I made a start this morning but I didn't feel I got a lot of water out of the the system. I've pulled the top / bottom rad hoses off and also the thermostat.

Did you drain the block ? If so, where th hell is the drain plug ??

ebod
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Post by ebod »

I've took the plunge and started the job.

- rightly or wrongly I couldn't find a block drain plug so I started the engine for ~15 seconds. I also took out the stat and connected a hose and blew down it to expel water out of the bottom hose.

- took of the undertray and started the car on ramps.

- quickly noticed after a minute that there was water dripping from the front of the engine............arggh!! Now I'm not sure whether running the engine for 15 secs screwed up the water pump or whether it was actually the pump causing the water loss in the first place!!

- I continued running the engine and it very vey slowly got up to temperature without any mega bubbling etc.
- it took ages and ages to start going past its normal operating point of 1mm before 1st qtr mark In fact I was concerned about the water level due to the pump leak so I topped it up with EG. There was no pressure build up when I open the reservoir cap...

- it wasn't going past the 1/2 way mark (90°C ), then I noticed it get to ~1mm before and it dropped a few mm on the gauge. So I nipped round to the front of the car and spotted the fan spinning down to a halt. So I immediatley turned of the engine as the steelseal instructions said run it until the fan kicks in.
( on my gauge, the fan seems to kick in at ~88-89°C , so I assume the gauge is inaccurate)

So now I'm at the 1st cool down period, the car is not boiling hot or bubbling, but clearly the water pump is screwed. I'm going to continue the precedure as if I don't, I'll be uncertain about whether the head gasket is sorted.
Going back to the last few weeks when I first observd this problem, the car definately emitted a 'psst' of pressure when I opened the tank cap in the morning when cold. There were definate traces of crystalised fluid around the top of the tank. Could a leaking water pump cause these symptoms ???
cyber-shot
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Xsara 2002 HDI-110 sudden consumption of water

Post by cyber-shot »

Hi your water pump could well be on its way out,as you know the timingbelt drives the pump so get it fixed ASAP.

after i had finished doing mine i took off the bottom hose on the header tank and flushed the headertank out then refilled to the top.then squeezing the top rad hose whilst opning the blue bleed screw IE squeeze hose open bleed screw close bleed screw release hose you should see water level dropping in the header tank keep doing this till the water drops no more

i never drained the block i tested antifreeze with a tester it was about 40/40 i just took bottom rad hose off then filled rad with the snake-oil LOL and antifreeze,i never took thermostat out , if your pump was gone you would be using quite a lot of water
ebod
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Post by ebod »

The water pump truely let me down this morning on the M62. The car set off okay but as soon as I hit traffic it started dumping water rapidly so I had to escape off the sliproad @ J23.

I refilled it twice on the way back home whilst limping to my local garage.

Its in dock with them for a water pump, aux belt & may as well get its PAS pump sorted as its whining badly.
They had a few spare cars for me to borrow. I turned down a 2002 Astra & Laguna in favour of an old SAAB 9000 auto ( alright!! )

So I won't know if the HG is sorted until the pump is fixed. :roll:
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