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[CitroJim]

That's amazing Mike

I reckon Toby must have spent a lot of his time playing Tetris to achieve that!!!

[Toby_HDi]

Seems myself and Dean were good at Tetris on the old GameBoy

Only took us about 10mins to load it. Impressed myself I must say. The added weight also made her handle a bit better on the way home.

[Citroenmad]

Seems myself and Dean were good at Tetris on the old GameBoy

Only took us about 10mins to load it. Impressed myself I must say. The added weight also made her handle a bit better on the way home.

What, 406 coupés dont handle very well? I thought they would be reasonable!

[Toby_HDi]

Seems myself and Dean were good at Tetris on the old GameBoy

Only took us about 10mins to load it. Impressed myself I must say. The added weight also made her handle a bit better on the way home.

What, 406 coupés dont handle very well? I thought they would be reasonable!

My shocks are getting tired, something I'll get round to doing when I concentrate on do an entire suspension overhaul

[MikeT]

Nothing to report on my Xantia except - even with these sub-zero temps and 90% SVO in the tank, she still fires first crank, I'm pleased to say . But you may find the following a tad interesting as the cold weather is currently a well debated topic...

On Tuesday I went to exercise my Diag2000 on a Coupe so thought it wise to invite Toby along. Now, I suffer badly in the cold what with poor circulation etc (so got well wrapped up, woollen mitts, hat, double-jacket etc etc). Whereas Toby's the opposite, he positively hates the hot weather in the summer but even still...

As the Diag was doing it's business, I looked up to see Toby strolling over wearing jeans and t-shirt The sight of him put goosebumps on my goosebumps and I could have sworn my core temperature dropped a few degrees!

An hour later after all was done and my fingers were numb, I was all too eager to get back to the warmth of my car but not Toby... he looked like he wanted to go take a swim or get an ice cream or something, he was obviously in his element (literally)!

[MikeT]

I'm out of hibernation now and the fun begins.

As some of you know, she passed the MOT yesterday which was a very welcome and pleasant surprise as I was certain there would be two failures at least.

As a result, I was buzzing and decided to try and improve the look of her as she's been accumulated dirt for way too long. Unfortunately, as I discovered after the third wash, some dirt just does not want to come off. I resumed cleaning today and still not made much of an impact so decided to try T-cut but that just mixed with the dirt it lifted leaving a lot of residue behind that was nigh on impossible to buff off. A few more applications improved matters but not enough so I've decided to try one of those clay bars I've been reading about and ordered some off ebay. I think a LB or two should do it

I've already fitted the Activa rear seats Dean kindly donated last year. Getting the backrest latches to line up and latch was a fiddly exercise but I got there in the end. A quick glance at the seatbelts had me scratching my head as the current ones seemed to work just fine, though the centre lap belt was quite tight and didn't appear to be adjustable. It passed the MOT like that so not sure what to make of it. I'll study how they compare to the MK1 belts (courtesy of DickieG) and fit them at a later time when I replace the door cards and front seats.

[CitroJim]

Great to see you out of hibernation and car-playing again Mike It's wonderful what a little spring-like weather can do for the spirit. let's hope it continues

Good luck with the clay bar... People report they're the bee's knees...

On the seats, yes, you really need the lower halves of the MK1 seatbelts and the inertia reel lap belt that goes with the MK1 seats; it's far superior to the MK2 lap belt...

[MikeT]

The clay bar didn't appear to lift much dirt, she's obviously cleaner than I thought. So, after the wash n polish, was pleased she got a few flattering comments from those that are used to seeing her dirty. It didn't last though, a bit of overnight condensation plus airborne dirt soon took the shine off but future washes should be much easier with her protective coats of wax.

Although, aside from it being a pain to do, it's obvious why I don't bother to keep her clean all the time - it really shows up the many scratches, blemishes and dimples collected from the general public over the years, poor thing.

Anyway at 127,771 miles, today I treated her to new oil and fuel filters plus an oil change. I was previously running a fully-synth 5w/30 over the winter but is now back on cheapo mineral 10w/40 for summer use. I wanted to change the air filter as well but it's not that old and still pretty clean looking as it is so I just swapped it around inside the box after a quick de-dusting.

De-restricting the intake would probably be of more benefit but haven't found a solution I like or could afford and she's still not been de-cat'ed either. I really should sort that this year.

There's many little jobs I'd like to do for my darling 'ERO but my health condition is proving ever more restrictive for DIY mechanics as proven today with the above taking me a mere three hours to accomplish. Ok, I was in no rush but I now feel like I've done a hard day's labouring and have no energy in reserve.

First off, I'd like to sort the steering geometry as it's getting tiresome keeping her in trim at speed and it grates seeing the steering wheel slightly turned left when going dead straight. I think a couple of new balljoints and droplinks would make a marked difference and wonder if she'd also benefit from new front wheel bearings too, for economy reasons. Alas, it's money that's the main deciding factor so I keep putting it off as long as she passes the MOT's.

But I shouldn't grumble, I get great pleasure driving her and find spending £65 to fill her tank is not such a hardship. Not sure I'd feel the same if I had to use diesel from the pumps! If only I could get a tax reduction for my choice of fuel, it's only right IMHO. Fat chance, eh?

I've also been trialling Millers Diesel additive which claims to add up to 4points of cetane. It costs ~£10 a bottle but does 10 tanks at recommended volume or 5 tanks for that little bit extra oomph which is hard to resist.

Having recorded mileage for some time now, the average is showing just shy of 41mpg. This is pretty much town driving with a regular sprinkling of sprints/charging up to 70mph thrown in where possible. Considering the fuelling is pretty much maxed out/overfulled for the boost and I tend to use the throttle more like a switch, that's ok by me.

I did, for the first time in ages, hit a motorway (the M27 to meet a group of 406 coupe owners) and found the economy for that tankful increased noticeably so would be interesting to know what pure motorway driving would return with the current state of tune.

[MikeT]

Why is it, as soon as the car is washed, polished and waxed, it's aerial bombed?

Nothing much done recently except it's had an oil and filters change followed by a retune for improved economy. I've been using Millars diesel additive which improves the cetane and it does make a difference to power over pure vegetable oil.

And today, I fitted the last of the Mk1 Activa seats after procrastinating over the front pre-tensioner wiring. It's a bit annoying to learn they're actually more comfy than my MK2 seats as you'd expect modernisation to have made improvements, not compromises. The side bolster adjustment is a welcome addition, says my back when cornering.

[MikeT]

Wowee, almost exactly two years to the day since my blog post.

I should have posted this in here http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =2&t=43948" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; I guess.

So in typical citronesque quirkyness, the elation is over as I found ERO has completely flattened her battery and didn't even have enough spark to open all the doors for me (first sign something was wrong).

I should have been prepared tbh, as I'd kept the battery on life-support for the last two winters using a dash-rested solar panel and locking the doors manually to avoid alarm sensor drain. When I entered the vehicle, I also noted I'd unusually left the CD fascia connected. Couple this with the fact it's powered by the fuse shunt fitted as ALWAYS ON to avoid memory loss and the display is set to go into "demo-mode" by default, I'm hoping this is what resulted in lowering the battery to a mere 8.5v - either that or the car's developed an electrical fault that'll need tracing.

You might laugh, but this worked before - I have a 40ah calcium battery that's fully charged, so carried it out to the car and went to the boot to get the jump leads - "oh no, this an S2 Xantia matey - entrance to the boot through the back seats when there's no battery power please" ERO telepathed to me. FFS u sonnabeech!!! I telepathed in reply

Anywho, jumpleads applied to both batteries, I came back indoors to allow the 40ah to share the love awhile but it wasn't long enough so I left it longer. Nope, that wasn't long enough either so I pulled them both indoors and plugged them into the mains (via chargers of course ) I've also ordered a new battery online that should be with me tomorrow. Then begins the drain test.

In addition to this downer, I've also just noticed the recent repair to the O/S/F bumper corner (which was the only bit of perfect, shiney, new-looking paint she has) is no longer mint looking thanks to someone putting a 10-inch kiss against it from their vehicle.

[CitroJim]

Mike, I seem to recall a long time ago now we've already discussed your battery discharge issues...

It was a long time ago now and the memory is dim...

[MikeT]

Oooo, mine's obviously dimmer than thou's then Jim. I have zero recall of that but I'm not surprised on either count

Was it in reference to the matrix leaking and the worry a certain ECU could have been affected?

[MikeT]

Hmm, new battery arrived, put on refresh charge overnight and fitted it today. With the bonnet open but all doors closed, I took a current draw reading between positive lead and battery and it was bouncing between 9 and 19 mA. The draw doesn't appear overly heavy though I'm not sure why it was fluctuating like that. What you all think?

[CitroJim]

That's fine Mike...

The standard discharge is around 50mA so yours is absolutely fine...

The bouncing is due to the operation of the CPH.

[MikeT]

Thanks for replying Jim and clarifying this - I'm a bit paranoid about prematurely killing something I just paid ~£50 for (ie new battery).