Citrojim's Saxo and Cycling Tales

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 18 Jan 2009, 17:37

Here are the pictures of Paul's old strut tops..

In this shot you can clearly see the hole and general deterioration...

But look at this when viewed side-on. That distortion is not normal as witnessed by the other strut top in the background!

So near to failing...

Looking at the second picture, those tow strut tops look like some bizarre space creatures that Dr. Who might do battle with. "Invasion of the Strut Tops - be very afraid"

Had a nice, quiet day today. Just catching up on odd jobs. I did give both cars a wash and here's proof... (It was too nice to say indoors today, house or garage!)

It looks like my Activa has a big dirty mark on the rear wing but it's just a shadow. It was very hard to take a decent picture in the low, bright sun.

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 24 Jan 2009, 18:18

Jim, just noticed a small change to your signature

I take it that the V6 is at home now then

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 24 Jan 2009, 18:54

red_dwarfers wrote:Jim, just noticed a small change to your signature
I take it that the V6 is at home now then

She certainly is Kev

Sitting patiently by the garage awaiting time and weather to get stuck in to it. Engine runs like a clock. We started her up this morning and no word of a lie, you can't hear her running; she purrs

The car is is pretty good nick too. she's a bit grubby from where she's been standing for a couple of months but it'll clean up a treat. There's a few incidential jobs like the blower ruunning permanantly, the heater matrix elbow and on unloading, an LHM leak has appeared from somewhere in the back. Apart from that, all is very tickitty-boo.

Brittannia Rescuse were fantastic and highly recommended

They sent a mechanic out to see if a roadside repair could be done but the old boy took one look and said "Can't even see the ***** gearbox, let alone try to fix it.."

So she came home on the back of a Citroen Relay. Lovely vehicles those, very refined and fast too.. Relay and V6 on the back cruised a treat at 80!

As work progresses, I'll open a new blog dedicated to the V6...

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 02 Feb 2009, 20:29

It's been a good week and a great weekend. Stories to tell on the 2.1TD, the V6 and my nephew's 205

The V6 story will be continued in my V6 Blog - Brief Encounter II, and the story of my Nephew's Lucas Diesel Pump antics will hopefully now be concluded in my Contaminated Diesel Pump Blog..

On Wednesday evening, during my regular big mid-week "Dads Taxi" run, my 2.1TD started to very slightly misfire on very light throttle openings when on the over-run; almost like a petrol engine with a very slight misfire. Very odd. I made a mental note to have a look into it at the next opportunity.

Before that opportunity came, I had a job to do in Southampton and for this, the 2.1TD made the run. The misfire was slightly apparant going down and got steadily more noticeable on the return leg. Under power it was fine, if maybe a little rougher than usual.

Whilst in Southampton I met up with David (ellevie) and we enjoyed an extremely good natter, a delicuous pub lunch (game pie) and a stroll across the Common in Sothampton. An absolutely great way to spend a couple of hours at lunchtime

next tike I'm in Southampton David...

I set off and it all went horribly wrong on the A34

There must have been an accident or something that closed the northbound carriageway totally. Luckily perhaps, I was near the head of the queue and after about 30 minutes the Police directed us onto a side-road and away from it. Jane, who lives in my Tom-Tom, very kindly navigated me through a collection of lanes back onto the A34 some miles beyond the snarl-up. In all, I lost about an hour so not bad at all...

As soon as I got home, after picking up the girls for the evening, I popped the Lexia on the 2.1 and did a full diagnostic of the pump and ECU. Nothing wrong apart from a lone Needle Lift Sensor error that cleared fine and all diagnostic tests and actuator tests then passed fine.

That "misfire" was still there though. So what was it? I scratched my head a bit and then it dawned on me. When was the fuel filter last changed? I never had in the 14 months I've had the car and I've done near-on 20K in that time.. Sunday I replaced the filter. It looked about a thousand years old and was practically black

Not surprisingly, things are much better with a new filter

How bloody careless of me

Given the problem on the 2.1 and not knowing the cause then, I took my Activa to Somerset and back on Saturday. Deep joy

I love driving the Activa and it performed wonderfully. It was a lovely dry day so it stayed clean but I did have to pass a gritter on the A34 late on Saturday night and it was like running through a sandstorm

No damage but the front was covered in salt though

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 09 Feb 2009, 10:12

last week was a very frustrating week for me

All the snow meant not only was "real" work somewhat courtailed but it prevented me getting any further stuck into the V6

No work will be done on the V6 this week either as I'm down in Hampshire on a week-long residential training course..

The good thing is that there is plenty of Internet hanging around here in the form of free Wi-Fi and an Internet cafe in the school proper so at least I can keep in touch. I'm posting this from the Internet cafe whilst we await classes to begin...

On Saturday I did something to my back and I'm not sure quite what but yesterday it was getting better and after a very restless night in a stange bed, it's all gone bad again

In fact last night I slept badly generally on account of a tiny room and enough heat to roast a good sized chicken

I'm hoping the heat can be turned down or a window can be cracked open a bit...

Food's good though!

So, it's a week of education for me and I hope the subject matter is interesting enough for me to not wander off day-dreaming in the direction of V6 gearboxes...

I ran down here in the Activa. I've still got the slight "misfire" on the 2.1TD at small throttle openings and therefore I'm just a bit cautious about taking it on any long and important journeys.

The last thing I did before leaving was to fill it with BP Ultimate and throw a bottle of diesel treatment in. Next week will see if that has helped.

I'm beginning to wonder though if the EPIC pump is beginning to show the first signs of sickening. If so then that long-standing mechanical pump replacement project just may happen on my own vehicle. I have a good Lucas DPC pump lined up for the job should the EPIC die on me. I do have a fair selection of poetential Bosch candidates but if I use a Lucas, I'll not need to swap injectors or pipes. And besides, I like Lucas pumps; even more so now I've stripped a couple and got to grips with how they work.

Time will tell on the EPIC front. Still, if mine does die, at least I'll have a dead one to disassemble and learn their inner secrets

It's an ill wind ad all that

KP · Unread post by KP » 09 Feb 2009, 13:15

Jim has it started to 'stall' at all when coasting down at all??

It soudns a bit similar to what happened to my dads 2.1td before we sold it. He cleaned the fuel lines, filter and even the tank out and it ran a bit better before it went but never quite the same....

If you know how long roughly it will take to convert over and are confident that the activa will carry you over or the 1.9td before you sell it then i would go this route and make work on it and get it done..

At least then i can eye up some 2.1tds with the eye to converting them to veggie friendly fuel in the future

Sympathise on the bad back problem, hotel beds are never comfy and me adn the mrs had the discomfort of one on xmas eve, i seemed to suffer more than herself though

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 09 Feb 2009, 14:22

KP wrote:Jim has it started to 'stall' at all when coasting down at all??

Not yet Will, it's just giving what I can only describe as a "misfire" on very light throttle approaching the over-run. Imagine going along at 60mph say, with the throttle just cracked open and you feel a bit of a hesitation, almost like a surge forward in a way. Plant the foot and off it goes again...

A Lexia session shows absolutely nothing wrong at all...

Mechanically, the fitting of a late Lucas DPC should not be difficult, a throttle cable will need to be arranged and some form of method of "pulling" the cold-start lever will need to be devised. How the ECU will like not having a pump on the end remains to be seen, especially as the ECU does a few more things than contro the pump.

Certainly, if it all comes off, it'll make the 2.1 a more attractive proposition, especially if a Bosch will work Ok as that then opens it up for veg./SVO running

No worries about pulling the Activa into full daily service and hopefully by the time a pump job on the 2.1 become essential, my V6 will be up and running.

I reckon my 2.1TD is jealous of the V6. Funny how it started misbehaving shortly after its arrival......

Looks like 2009 is going to be interesting

KP · Unread post by KP » 09 Feb 2009, 15:18

Can you alter the injection timing with a lexia as it may be worth advancing the timing a few degrees and seeing if it helps?

Also maybe get the injectors down to a lucas or diesel specialist to see how good they are for spray pattern and the like?

Can the epic run the engine not connected to the ECU at all??

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 09 Feb 2009, 18:55

You can't modify the timing with the Lexia Will but what you can do is check the integrity of the needle lift sensor and ensure the pump is following the timing requested from the ECU. Yopu see two figures; what the ECU desires and what the pump is set to.

You can do a whole gamut of actuator tests on the pump. Amongst them, you can check the operation of the stop solenoid and the workings of the timing servo. It does this by varying the timing across the range and you confirming that the engine not distinctly changes. Actually it makes it knock! Another test is that it accellerates it to 3,000 rpm indepedant of the throttle pedal and ensures it can hold that speed accurately. The EGR valve can be tested and that's one thing I'm not sure is working properly. Clicks should be heard and I don't but that may be my ears!!!

Good idea to get the injectors checked. If one or two were a bit on the iffy side that that could account. In fact, I still have three of the four injectors I had from you so i could put those on. I've already used the needle fift sensor one follwing the original failing a few months back.

No, the EPIC must have the ECU connected at all times as the whole thing is fly by wire. The ECU controls a number of electrovalves in the pump to achieve control. It does not even, as far as I'm aware, have an emergency stop lever; something I find a little disconcerting.

KP · Unread post by KP » 10 Feb 2009, 09:02

Not good if you start to get a runaway engine from turbo failure, but i guess all modern diesels are the same and a lot of damage can come from dying turbos...

Get the 3 i gave you soaking in some nice diesel or maybe a bit of petrol to just clean any dust or dirt out of them before you put them in jim just to be sure...

My dad made a blanking plate thing up for his EGR valve i think on his 2.1 td and it did help the MPG a little bit as well

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 10 Feb 2009, 19:09

Swap the pump with a 1.9 bosch, and use the ECU from one too

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 10 Feb 2009, 19:55

Xac wrote:Swap the pump with a 1.9 bosch, and use the ECU from one too

That won't work directly Xac as the 2.1 ECU operates virtually the whole instrument pack whereas the 1.9TD ECU only drives the tacho from memory.

For ease, it'll be best to retain the 2.1 ECU whatever pump goes on providing it can tolerate not having a pump to talk to....

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 14 Feb 2009, 23:49

Oh dear, it's good to be home again

This past week has not been good

I've been on a residential training course this past week and was not feeling too bright on Sunday and as the week wore on I fell sicker and sicker until Wednesday evening when all hell let loose. Basically a bout of 'flu and a bit more

I was so ill I'd have gone sick under normal circumstances but because I was on this course, I had to carry on. That was hard

The course itself was good and under normal health I would have enjoyed it enormously but it was a struggle given the state I was in but I got the gist of it... It was a technical IT course and ran at a frantic pace.

The course was held in a DeVere Venue, a business hotel dedicated to business trasining an conferences. It was rather posh but very clinical and the room I was in was somewhat bijou with a very small bed...

I'm back there in five weeks for part 2 of the course.

I ran down and back in the Activa and it was a good choice. The Activa really does excel at journeys and is surprisingly frugal too.

My Activa spent time there in the company of very new and posh cars in the form of 5-series BMs, big Volvos and big Mercs. It fitted in very well and did not look out of place at all, except for looking a bit small against the modern cars. It's amazing how big some now are when compared to a Xantia

My 2.1TD seems OK now touch-wood. Despite it's five day rest it started instantly and ran like a clock. It seems the BP Ultimate and the Diesel Treatment may have helped...

I was still feeling very rough yesterday but today has been a turn-around day and I'm more-or-less back to normal. Part of me reckons I fell sick because I was thrown so far out of my normal environment for a week and I missed my cars and kids. Going out and doing some spannering on my V6 today has dome me a world of good

It's good to be back

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 17 Feb 2009, 21:23

It's still good to be home

I gave my 1.9TD a good, hard look-at ready for it's MOT this week (a full pre-MOT as far as I can) and happily, alll looks good

For a Xantia weeks away from it's 16th birthday and 200K it is still in remarkably good shape and an MOT pass will hopefully be obtained.... It's custodian will be getting the actual MOT.

Said car will be available for rehoming in May when said custodiaon leaves these shores for very distant ones; he and his SWMBO are my best and oldest friends - known for 34 years now and their boys and my girls are like brothers and sisters. We have become part of their family and join in all their family occasions. I'll truely miss them whilst they are away

I could go to see them but that means flying and I don't.

So, if anyone wants a very original 1.9TD "sinker" let me know. It's a little ragged around the edges but still very sound. Sadly I have to part with it to give space for the V6. Sad as it was my very first Xantia and what got me so deeply into Xantias...

Works has been good this week but very busy; as to be expected after a week away training but I've returned refreshed and with a new keenness even if work yesterday left me totall poleaxed... Tonight I've been out playing V6, of which more in my V6 blog...

This weekend John (Jgra1) and I are off on a tour of the UK to pick up a something for John, and my new autobox. We are then off up to Newcastle to see John's dad and carry on work on his 306 and on the way we'll be calling in on KP and Myglaren for a chat and a cuppa!

CitroJim · Unread post by **CitroJim** » 20 Feb 2009, 22:12

My 1.9TD finally passed its MOT today after an earlier fail. Despite my careful checks I missed something significant. Well, to be truthful, I saw it but paid little heed.

The fuel return line from the pump was a little damp and not actually leaking as such but the MOT tester spotted it, gave it a tweak and it got worse. It was weeping right up against the bulkhead where the supply and return pipes go through a block attached to the bulkhead.

A new length of pipe and a pass was secured

In doing the job I got my hair drenched in diesel and wondered for a few hours afteward why i could still smell diesel!!!

She's good for another twelve months

Off up North tomorrow. It promises a very enjoyable trip and I'm sure will provide much for the blog...