CitroJim's AX, C3 Picasso, Cycling and Running Tales

[CitroJim]

It rained on Saturday but the girls still did their stuff in the carnival and it was very enjoyable despite us all ending up soaked. In the carnival procession we were being followed by a Ford Focus belonging to the Air Ambulance (never knew a Focus could fly...) but it hated going along at walking pace and showed its displeasure by setting it's clutch on fire. The smell was atrocious.

On our journey home I had trouble keeping the windows clear with a carload of soggy girls noisily steaming away. One, bless her heart, was ever so worried about making the seat wet but no problem, they're leather. I did have to dress them after though. The seats, not the girls!

Sunday I swapped glowplugs again in my 2.1TD as I'd been supplied the wrong ones - non-turbo ones. They don't suit turbo engines that use lengthy post-heating so the old NGKs went back in. There was nothing really wrong with them. The Needle Lift Sensor and leakoff pipes were the real problem.

However, in doing the work I discovered the aux belt tensioner was dying and needed urgent replacement. I got one from the GSF eBay shop for just over £40 and it arrived next day

Yesterday I was working in London but completed early and was home by early afternoon. I began the job of replacing the tensioner but bad light stopped play early Why in December must it get dark so bloody early? The job is not going to be quick and my hope that I could do it without dropping the engine down was soon dashed.

Yesterday turned out a really bad day. I should have known from how it all started to go horribly wrong on the train to Euston. We stopped near Leighton Buzzard and sat there like lemons for 40 minutes before the guard with a very nasal voice (why do they always have nasal voices? Is it an essential qualification?) mumbled something about a failed freight train in front of us. Eventually we reversed back to Bletchley and then across onto the fast lines and eventually, very late, to London. Good job I had this months edition of the Citroenian to keep me amused on the journey.

The job I went there to do was not a total success either

When I got home I was surprised to see my Activa still steamed up inside. Funny, I wonder? Hand under passenger carpet and I got bitten by a fish. It's soaked under there and for the usual reason - a failed windscreen scuttle seal So, that means I now have to pull the entire interior out to dry it

That, and my inability to complete my tensioner because of aforesaid light failing for once caused me to loose my sense of humour big-time. It's very rare but when I do, take cover I am a shocker.

I had to go to Tesco and then pick up my girls from Majorette practice. I was like a bear with two sore heads. Tesco niggled me because their PA system was blaring out bloody Christmas music at top volume. If I hear "Merry Christmas Everybody" one more time Don't they know there is NOTHING to be happy about when you have a wet Activa AND a duff aux. belt tensioner? It didn't help my mood at all.

Today, I hoped it would be quiet at work so I could have most of the day off to do the cars. It would have been a perfect day too but as my luck runs, no chance. far too busy

In fact, I was still growling this morning when I got to work and my mood did not lift when I realised there was no way the workload would let me take the day off. My workmate deepened the gloom even further when he announced a big job I did on Tuesday did not work

My mood really was by now.

But, funnily enough, it turned out a brilliant day. The earlier problems became absorbing and engrossing technical challanges and I got a real buzz from resolving them and setting everything back on track

So from to in less than a day.

I still have a duff aux. belt tensioner and a soggy Activa though. When that lot will be sorted, pass. Saturday I'm in Somerset and then it looks as if it'll be wet on Sunday. If Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day are fine, no question, there's cars to be fixed.

Now, here is the real worry. This morning in depths of gloom, I even considered buying a new C5...

One bit of good news, my nephew had his 205 Lucas diesel pump replaced on Sunday. On Saturday I will acquire the dead pump for a bit of forensic examination and see what died inside it.

Seven days and it'll all be over. Christmas that is. The day after Boxing day is my very favourite day of the whole year. 364 days until next Christmas

[Sl4yer]

Seven days and it'll all be over. Christmas that is. The day after Boxing day is my very favourite day of the whole year. 364 days until next Christmas

I know the feeling exactly Jim! At least now that we've got all the shopping done tonight, I can relax a bit.

My Activa is on the moist side too. Doesn't feel wet inside, but the scuttle seal isn't the best (looks spongy as someone else on here described).

The car can mist up suddenly as soon as the fan air hits the windscreen. No, it's not the heater matrix - was changed by Citroen last year. Is there a drain on the air conditioning that can block up somewhere?

James

[DickieG]

Is there a drain on the air conditioning that can block up somewhere?

Yes, its quite easy to break off the plastic air con drain tube from the heater box when changing the matrix. To check it you'll have to get right under the car on the bulkhead behind the gearbox and look for a rubber drain pipe held in place by two Torx 20 screws, remove those then check that the plastic tube behind is held firmly in place. If its has been broken off use 'Airfix' glue to re-attach it .

[CitroJim]

Hi James

Failed scuttle seals are insidious You can feel no wet on top of the carpet as it is all underneath and the sound deadening foam soaks up literally gallons. You have to lift the door seal and lift the carpet and put your hand right under the carpet. If your hand comes out wet, you have the dreaded task of then pulling all the carpets out. That means seats out and centre console out.

Luckily, the damp rarely makes it under the drivers carpet but it's worth a check. It does seep into the rear though so the back seat bases have to cvome out to lift the rear carpet. You need to prop the rubber membrane on the bulkhead up so that air can circulate under it.

The job must be dome as wet gets in the wiring loom and alarm box eventually. The only good thing is the floorpan does not rust as a result.

You then need to drive around for about a month with a stripped interior whilst it dries out. Race look Activa

A misty screen with the blower on is a sign...

There is a heater box drain for getting rid of A/C condensate and you have to be careful not to break it when replacing the matrix. It can be seen up by the steering rack, looking like a little rubber pigtail. You have to get right under the car to see it.

I hope, pray, you find yours nice and dry...

This will now be my third time of drying out a Xantia. Both my 1.9TD and my first Activa suffered. Happily my 2.1TD is bone-dry (I think/hope)..

[CitroJim]

Sorry Richard, I did not mean to say the same as you. We were both typing at the same time....

[ACTIVE8]

It rained on Saturday but the girls still did their stuff in the carnival and it was very enjoyable despite us all ending up soaked. In the carnival procession we were being followed by a Ford Focus belonging to the Air Ambulance (never knew a Focus could fly...) but it hated going along at walking pace and showed its displeasure by setting it's clutch on fire. The smell was atrocious.

They should have an Activa, or a CT estate, as they seem to manage to crawl along with ease.

The Focus with the cooked clutch, is it petrol or diesel?

[CitroJim]

The Focus with the cooked clutch, is it petrol or diesel?

I have a feeling it was a TDCi...

[CitroJim]

Today has been a extraordinarily good day At first light I got cracking on the 2.1TD aux belt tensioner problem and was soon joined by Richard (DickieG). By that time I had the car up on stands, wheel and mudshield off and the top bolt out of the spring. The lower spring bolt, deep in the HP pump and alternator casting was causing a problem. Due to the close vicinity of the oil cooler pipes and other bits and pieces, access was just a little poor. We cracked it in the end by loosening it was a normal Allen key and then used one of Richard's ball-ended Allen keys to wind the bolt all the way out. After that, it was plain sailing and the tensioner assembly will just wiggle out between the chassis leg and engine without disturbing the engine mounts

Getting the spring bolts back in was a bit tricky as the springs needs to be compressed a little for the bolts go go home.

It is very much a two-person job as to do it solo you'd need to be an Octopus

With the new tensioner, the belt tensioned as per book perfectly

The old tensioner was well worn on it's bearings and here you can see the ridges on the sleeve that made it behave like a ratchet!



Huge thanks Richard for your help

This afternoon I removed the passenger seat and carpet out of the Activa to assess the water damage from the leaky scuttle seal. My luck was in and I'd caught it early, before the water had got into the rear footwell Only the passenger side was wet and no wet in the electrics at all! Here's the puddle...



Caution, watch that plastic cable tray on the crossmember. It has a sharp edge on it which resulted in an inch-long cut to my little finger

And the extent of soak into the carpet foam...



One of the big problems is the foam-backed "septum" (the bulkhead sound deadening layer) gets soaked and this cannot be removed without pulling both dash and heater box out. The fix is to prop it up with wooden blocks so that air can circulate under like this...



Finally, and until I can get some good sealant, some tape was applied to the scuttle panel to keep further wet at bay...



And to prove the centre console can be removed without disconnecting the handbrake cables at the calipers (as the BoL tells you) here's the proof



The wet carpet is currently drying out by a radiator and the lounge has gained a rather snazzy black leather armchair as I'm running around without a passenger seat in the car whilst everything dries. The only problem is the airbag light is on constantly due to the seatbelt pretensioner not being connected.

I'll do a full write-up of the procedure for removing the carpet over the holiday.

To round off the day, I gave the Activa a good wash. This served two purposes; get rid of the muck and grime it picked up running to Somerset and back yesterday and to test for leaks. So far, bone dry

[CitroJim]

Well, that's Christmas 2008 done and dusted and it was good

I got up very early on Christmas eve and was in our big (Kingston) Tesco shopping at 05:00 and out by 06:00 No crowds and I finally found some decent presents. Talk about leaving it to the last minute!!!!

My girls were delighted with what I got them and a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas day was spent with the family. Our eldest Son bought our youngest daughter "Guitar Hero" and he spent the whole day playing on it

The evening as spent in very convivial company with close friends and at the end of the evening, my three-seat Activa was used as a taxi to convey some (new) friends home who had previously not been aware that Xantias existed; they were well impressed despite a gaping hole where the pasenger seat should be A quick demo of the Activa ability to flat-corner around roundabouts was well received

Knowing my interest and connections to Australia, our middle daughter, Robyn (who was born there) bought me Bill Bryson's book "Down Under". Despite plans to play Lucas Diesel Pumps today, all that went out of the window when I started to read the book. I confess reading that book has been virtually my sole occupation today Only now have I looked at the forums

Tomorrow I must get back to normal and hide the book or it'll be another day just reading. It is one heck of a cracker of a book though.

I was also given a DVD of Australian railway journeys and this evening I shall dip into that. It has, according to the cover, a piece on the journey from Alice Springs to Darwin aboard the "Ghan"; of special significance as Darwin was our home in the early 90s and Robyn's birthplace.

[CitroJim]

It's been an excellent Christmas and New Year so far

It dawned fine, dry and relatively mild here this morning so I took the opportunity to give the 2.1TD a lot of attention ready for its impending MOT. It's had a very thorough going-over and touch-wood, everything looks good and healthy

I even washed the car. After washing I took it out for a drying run and it's dirty again now One of the downsides of having a white car...

I hate not to take a freshly washed car for a spin aftwerwards because otherswise I find the brake discs have rusted by next morning and the first "off" is often punctuated by a big crack as they forcibly release.

Yesterday it was a case of out with the new and in with the old on the PC front. I've been using Windows Vista for a few months and I consider I've given it a good trial and tried to like it but Vista and I never really hit it off to be honest so I rebuilt my PC with a nice, fresh copy of XP Happiness is now restored....

Stuill, I did try valiantly with Vista but have reached the conclusion that the common view is the right one. It is total rubbish. Vista makes Windows ME look good and that was a shocking product too

[myglaren]

I've just been tinkering with a Windows 95 heap. After that even Vista looks good

[CitroJim]

Windows XP continues to look and run very well. If Microsoft had released XP after Vista, or as a replacement for it, they would be being congratulated now on what a fine product they'd made...

Still, we have Windows 7 to look forward to Wonder what that'll look like?

An excellent day yesterday 2.1TD and I took off for North Kent to see Gareth (Xantiaman583). It was a cold morning (-5C) but the good old 2.1 fired up sweetly and ran like a clock all the way down there. Except for the M1/M25 slip being closed, necessating a diversion through St. Albans and a scrabble for change at the Dartford crossing it was a very smooth journey except for the sun being right in my eyes most of the way!

The Dartford crossing has now gone up from £1 to £1.50 That's a steep rise...

Apart from a social visit, I went to give Gareth a hand to replace the front suspension "P" bushes on his TD Xantia. they picked up an MOT advisory last year and he was concerned at least one would fail this year.

I was concerned I may have to bring the wishbones home for treatment in my hydraulic press if we could not get the old bushes off or the forward bushes too had failed. In the event, ony one "P" bush needed replacement and even that one was borderline. We changed it and to be honest it's a surprisingly easy job Only the ARB makes the wishbone a bit of a fiddle to get out but if both droplinks are disconnected and the ARB held down, they slip out sweetly.

We removed the old "P" bush with a large hammer and cold chisel carefully applied to the bush inner sleeve. Gareth provided the violence and off it came as sweet as a nut and very nearly undamaged. One important thing is to mark the orientation of the old bush and replace the new one in exactly the same position. They won't last otherwise.

The new one can be tapped home using a socket as a mandrel on the inner sleeve.

In doing the job, we found a very duff drop-link. Gareth and I went to his local factors for a new one in Gareth's Activa. Boy, does it ever go now with the boost wicked up a bit and the manual boost controller in charge

It is now very quick indeed. Gareth knows I'm a nervous passenger and I don't really think he gave it anywhere near it's full on account of his quivering passenger If you want your Activa to go faster, ask gareth, he knows how! His new back box looks good and sounds utterly wonderful. Not too loud at all but very characterful, especially when it pops on the over-run!

I did not look under the bonnet but I do wonder if Gareth has stealthily transplanted a V6 in there. It feels like it Gareth's Activa is possibly the only MK2 in existence to sport an early MK1 "Activa" bootlid badge.

We went to the factor with me wearing my Peugeot mechanics overalls. Big mistake. I was asked by a Peugeot 206 owner there why his engine management light was on and how to fix it My response of "Have a good dealer run a diagnostic on it" did not go down well. Apparantly the local Pug dealer wants £46 just to do that The converstaion went on the lines of "Will it go out on it's own?", "Is it because the washer bottle is low on fluid?. "My sister had the same thing and hers went out all on its own driving to Gatwick and back". and so on and so forth until we made good our escape

Final job was to give Gareth's TD a full pre-MOT. It should pass as fundamentally it is in very fine overall condition and the MOT tester can see some new bits on it. Always a good thing

The engine in his TD runs like a clock despite still having rather a lot of Veg in the tank and whatever it is, the exhaust smell delicious I could still smell and taste it when I arrived home... made me fair hungry that did!

I'll say nothing of the a small incident with a flowerpot as Gareth parked up his TD, except to say a call to a Smart Repair specialist might be on the cards.....

All in all, an excellent day, thoroughly enjoyed and good to see Vicky and Jack again It was cold but in all honesty, I never noticed it... warm as toast in overalls, wolly hat and boots

Most of today has been spent in deep forum admin work, of which more later....

[XantiaMan]

Yep it was a nice day, i was basically tea-maker, i dont drink the stuff but Jim never complained His expertise and patience is a marvel to watch and pleased that i had his assistance with this job, not being overly familer with it and wanting to get it done swiftly because of the cold.

I did find it very amusing how the chap in the 206 assumed you were a Peugeot technician! It almost sounded like he was blaming you at one point for his troubles!

It was actually the wall i slightly tapped as the car moved forward on the deep gravel when i stopped to put it in reverse. Technically its the garden so i shouldnt be parking on it.... but not to worry i know someone for the job

Once my van is up and running i will pop up to yours to get your bumper corners sorted, inbetween i still have Richards bumpers to sort, waiting on my new gazebo to get here before i do that, its far too cold at the minute!

[CitroJim]

i was basically tea-maker, i dont drink the stuff but Jim never complained

No reason to complain Gareth, you make a very fine cup of tea

Once my van is up and running i will pop up to yours to get your bumper corners sorted

Perfect. And I'll fit your van up with a second battery and a split-charge realy...

[jgra1]

Gareth agree on the Gazeebo front, will put the walls back on mine this week as I have some evening work to do !

Could I pop to yours for some TD tuning and some tea sometime? mine feels slightly slower since I touched the fueling diaphragm thing !