405 1.9td excutive.

citroen7 · Unread post by **citroen7** » 14 May 2008, 10:54

I changed the front discs and pads yesterday and the cables to the brake pad warning light hand been cut ,so i joined them together and taped them up on taking the car for a run the hand brake light would not go off and then this morning it went on intermitently. Are the two items linked or do i have a seperate problem?
Also could someone point me to a thread on poor starting as at the moment i am having to wait quite some time after the light goes out and the she coughs and splutters and chucks out a cloud of white smoke.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 14 May 2008, 13:00

That'll be a separate problem. The brake wear is an amber light quite separate from the parking brake one although I think it is shared with the brake fluid level warning switch. That is worh a check although my experience says the switch down by the hand brake lever will be the culprit. They are adjusted so the light just goes out when the handbrake lever is fully off. To guard against leaving it slightly on I guess.

The difficult starting is likely to be worn glowplugs. White smoke is completely unburned diesel and is a pointer to glowplug problems. At least it shows fuel is getting through!

The other problem that can cause this is very tight valve clearances that hold valves just off their seats when the engine is cold. The XUD has a quirk that the valve clearances are tightest when it is stone cold. Just a tiny bit of warmth can open them up a touch and this can be just enough to close up a valve that is so tight on clearance that it is held partially open when the engine is cold. A valve held slightly open will destroy compression and make cold starts very difficult until a bit of warmth is around the engine, whereupon it'll run perfectly.

1.7 XUDs seem to suffer more from this than the 1.9. Strange as the heads are more or less identical.

citroen7 · Unread post by **citroen7** » 14 May 2008, 16:29

well call me "richard craneum" of course the the warning light is connected to the fluid level because i had forgotten to top it up

well at least i know it works.
I hope it is not the glow plugs because 4 new ones went in with the recon head but that was six months ago now i will maybe try the ones in the old head as an experiment

np · Unread post by np » 14 May 2008, 20:34

My experience with my old Xantia td was cheap glow plugs dont last.I fitted "cheap" plugs,& in my wifes Astra td,but they only lasted 6 months or so.Could be the plugs were cheapys??

reblack68 · Unread post by **reblack68** » 14 May 2008, 21:03

Shouldn't new discs and pads increase the level in the fluid reservoir?

citroen7 · Unread post by **citroen7** » 14 May 2008, 23:01

well yes in theory that should be the case but in order to push back the pistons i had to disconnect the flexi pipe which expelled some rather yucky fluid so this evening with help from no.1 son we bled the front brakes until some nice clean fluid appeared so that part of the saga sorted
will have a look at the other over the weekend