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

Xaccers · Unread post by **Xaccers** » 27 May 2009, 16:09

I was in London over the weekend too Jim!
It was really hot and sunny, and I think that went to my head (and tum) as I wasn't too well either. Unless there was a minor bug on the tube...
Glad to hear you're feeling better now.

MikeT · Unread post by **MikeT** » 27 May 2009, 17:05

Hmmm, good point xac, I think the sun is much, much stronger due to the thinning of the protective atmospheric layers that I think can cause heat stroke. I'm of the opinion this summer is going to see a lot of casualties and fires, roads melting etc. I hope I'm wrong of course.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 27 May 2009, 17:06

With the heat and the crowds and being well stuffed like sardines into the tube on a number of occasions I reckon there was a very good chance it was a touch of something caught in London Xac...

The girls dragged me around Oxford Street and Bond Street for a touch of retail therapy

I was floored when toward Marble Arch the suddenly exclaimed "Hey Dad, look! Primark!!!"

superloopy · Unread post by **superloopy** » 27 May 2009, 23:15

CitroJim wrote:Roll on retirement!

Yep, that's what you need Jim.

Worked wonders for me who worked for years in a similar capacity as yourself. High blood pressure and many days off to recuperate GUARANTEED my acceptance on the first round of voluntary redundancies and i clicked for a full pension some 7 years early. Result!!

Your time sounds not too far off too me

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 28 May 2009, 07:14

Mike, you may well be on to something with the sun. I did get a bit caught by it and thinking on, what I was feeling was not too dissimilar to a touch of heat-stroke. As you know, I'm very fair-skinned and I burn at the drop of a hat.

Worrying, especially as the skin cancer rate seems to be rising...

superloopy1 wrote: Your time sounds not too far off too me

I'm planning it that way Mike. I can't wait to retire and in five years (at 55) I'll hopefully have seen the girls trough Uni and then circumstances will allow me to say bye-bye to the salt mines for good. I've no intention of doing what most of our retiring staff do; retire one day and then return on a retired and retained basis the next.

We have plans for when I retire and that's to sell up here and return back to my native lands in the West Country, look for a house with a big garage/workshop and plenty of parking. My dream is to set up a small Citroen specialist garage, just for the pleasure of it.

One day....

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 07 Jun 2009, 21:09

It's been a long time since I've written anything here but then again I guess most of my time has been spent on the V6 just recently..

Both the Activa and 2.1TD have been as good as gold throughout the V6 adventure despite not being the centre of attention. My Activa now lives at the GF's house and actually gets more use now as if I need to pop out somewhere when I'm at Val's I take the Activa. I am insured to drive Val's Corsa but that's a step too far

I colected my 1.9TD from it's custodian on Thursday evening upon his departure for a 2 year spell in Pakistan. We gave him a good send-off.

It has been several months since I've driven the 1.9TD and I was very pleasantly surprised at what a fine car it still is. I'll be spending some time this week cleaning it up and giving it a full service ready for its new owner to collect on Friday. It needs a good clean as it's custodian, although looking after the car well from a mechanical point of view, never showed it a sponge and a bucket of soapy water and nor, for that matter, a vacuum inside

I drove it over to Tring this morning to visit Lawrence1973 who has been having problems with his 406 1.9TD engine since rebuilding the fuel pump. It was perfect for a while but let him down on the M25 with a very rough running engine.

We started the car and it really ran like a bag of spanners, shaking and knocking. Massively over-advanced. I popped the Lexia on and found the ECU full of faults. I cleared them and the engine actually ran a little better but the rough running (albeit properly in time) remained with copious white smoke. There was no doubt at least one cylinder was down. Then, something nasty happened. I revved the engine a little and it responded but then something went "snick" and it stopped

We checked the cambelt and no issue there and then checked the camshaft as when spinning the engine over on the starter it did not sound right at all, displaying all the symptoms of only one cylinder having any compression. I was expected to find a broken camshaft but it appeared intact. Lawrence must now lift the camshaft first and check it and then lift the head for a closer look to see where all the compression has gone.

It is perhaps scant comfort for him that his pump rebuild was not the cause and is working fine. Something learned is that when an ECU is full of faults it does not work properly until the faults are cleared and they do not clear with a disconnected battery. What was bizarre though was despite all the logged faults, the engine management light was out

Although it did work....

I shall miss my old 1.9TD. My first Xantia. I also do see why some prefer the 1.9TD over the 2.1TD. I have to say the 1.9TD does have a lot going for it and it's liviler than I ever recall...

XantiaMan · Unread post by **XantiaMan** » 07 Jun 2009, 21:48

CitroJim wrote: work....

I shall miss my old 1.9TD. My first Xantia. I also do see why some prefer the 1.9TD over the 2.1TD. I have to say the 1.9TD does have a lot going for it and it's liviler than I ever recall...

You never did go out in my old TD Jim, you would have been quite surprised how a slightly tweaked one can perform. I miss it, an old faithful.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 20 Jun 2009, 21:08

It's been a bit of a while but I've been busy, both at work (nothing changed there

), on the V6 and spending time with Val; the latter being very good time spent but it has somewhat kept me away from here

Apart from poor old Malcolm loosing a finger, the DSM Rally last weekend was a brilliant weekend

I especially enjoyed Saturday's convoy. It was magical to witness so many DSs in convoy. Dave the rave and I were the back-markers along with Mick in his Traction Avant. Sadly, Mick broke down about three-quarters of the way to Wendover Wood and Dave and I stopped to offer assistance as the rest of the convoy went on ahead. Mick's problem was a heavy intermittent discharge, the reason we did not find the cause of until we returned to the rally site. The brake light switch operating rod had come loose and was intermittently shorting the power feed to the switch to earth.

Upshot was that I fell in love with the Traction and maybe one day one will become my next project

For a 30s car they go very well and look so cool 8)

Today has been almost entirely spent on the V6 doing the final jobs before MOT. More on that in my V6 blog.

Sid The Squid visited me this afternoon in his LPG powered 1.8I Auto. He came for a gearbox oil change and to try and diagnose an engine running issue. The latter diid not meet with too much success just yet although some valuable clues were found. The former job went well and we used the Lexia to ensure the gearbox was at the right temperature when checking and adjusting the level of liquid gold in it. Suffice to say, as has been siad previously, it is very essential to have the AL4 at 60 degress when level checking and topping up.

The Activa and 2.1TD contine to perform faultlessly despite no maintenance recently. I took the Activa to the DSM and enjoyed the ride. I enjoyed it even more after it was used to demo DickieG's ELIT and the gathered hydractive ECU stored faults. Clearing them really does make a difference to the feel of the car; afterward it felt considerably tauter and more responsive on the handling side of things.

I do have a small problem with the Activa though. I discovered the passenger footwell was wet again. I noted this after our recent spell of hot weather when the aircon was heavily in use. On Sunday at the DSM rally I proved beyond doubt that aircon condensate is getting in the car. As soon as I have time in the week I'll be having an urgent look at that' foccussing attention on the plenum drain.

Next week I'm only working half-days. Such is the work I do nowadays that to be away for any stretch of time is impossible so in order to take some time off we've established a good old compromise of taking it as half days. Work is happy as they have me in the mornings and I'm happy as I have the afternoons to play cars!

Featch · Unread post by **Featch** » 20 Jun 2009, 21:27

CitroJim wrote: It has been several months since I've driven the 1.9TD and I was very pleasantly surprised at what a fine car it still is. I'll be spending some time this week cleaning it up and giving it a full service ready for its new owner to collect on Friday.

And very pleased the new owner is too! I drove it back to Dudley to deliver it to son Vinnie's. A very pleasant sprightly car. More importantly it's had the approval of Vinnie's SWIMBO as well.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 20 Jun 2009, 21:33

Oh that's excellent Andy

I've been wondering how Vinnie is getting on with her.

XantiaMan · Unread post by **XantiaMan** » 20 Jun 2009, 22:10

How many codes needing clearing on the Activa Jim? Mine needs the steering angle sensor doing again, its been a while.

Sl4yer · Unread post by **Sl4yer** » 21 Jun 2009, 00:29

XantiaMan583 wrote:How many codes needing clearing on the Activa Jim? Mine needs the steering angle sensor doing again, its been a while.

I cleared that once on mine, and it hasn't appeared again. Yet. But I suppose I've only had it for 7 months or so. What DOES reappear now and again is a 'Brake Pressure Sensor Intermittent Fault'. Not too worried about it, but trust it to be different!

James

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 21 Jun 2009, 08:29

Sl4yer wrote:What DOES reappear now and again is a 'Brake Pressure Sensor Intermittent Fault'. Not too worried about it, but trust it to be different!

It will on a MK2 James as the brake pressure switch was deleted. It's a "ghost" fault

Mine had the usual "steering angle" fault Gareth and it crops up regularly and I've (and I think Richard has) seen it on EVERY Hydractive ECU I've diagnosed.

Richard's ELIT told me my steering wheel was out of action

James, I'm surprised you don't see regular occurrances of the steering angle fault. What's your secret?

Gareth, I'll be bringing my Lexia to the National. Can you wait until then? Else, if you're passing this way any time...

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 21 Jun 2009, 09:51

Sl4yer wrote:What DOES reappear now and again is a 'Brake Pressure Sensor Intermittent Fault'. Not too worried about it, but trust it to be different!

Check the date on your ecu as that fault showing up on a S2 would indicate that the ecu fitted is from a S1, as Jim mentions the brake pressure valve wasn't fitted to S2's so the original ecu would have been programmed accordingly.

The consequence of fitting a S1 ecu to a S2 is that once the car exceeds 16 mph the ecu switches into firm mode whilst it looks for the brake valve, after 5-10 minutes it gives up looking then works correctly albeit in a default state. Ultimately S1 and S2 Hydractive ecu's are not compatible.

XantiaMan · Unread post by **XantiaMan** » 21 Jun 2009, 09:59

CitroJim wrote:

Mine had the usual "steering angle" fault Gareth and it crops up regularly and I've (and I think Richard has) seen it on EVERY Hydractive ECU I've diagnosed.

Gareth, I'll be bringing my Lexia to the National. Can you wait until then? Else, if you're passing this way any time...

Yes mate can wait till then, or may pass by Richard's before then, got a mate doing a few more ding and dent removals from the Activa in prep for the show and it passes that way.

Don't forget my clutch in September?!