Citrojim's Pixo, Saxo and Cycling Tales

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 29 Sep 2009, 21:13

Was a fun day Jim as always.
Can't wait 'til tomorrow

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 29 Sep 2009, 21:22

Photos photos photos.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 29 Sep 2009, 21:30

Here's the scary one:

Note: it is unadvisable to drive in this condition.

Oh, and I really, really, really, hate leather seats!

XantiaMan · Post by **XantiaMan** » 29 Sep 2009, 21:32

Looks like its been decapitated!

red_dwarfers · Post by **red_dwarfers** » 29 Sep 2009, 21:36

Im waiting for someone to say "Erm...What are you both doing on Thursday?"

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 29 Sep 2009, 22:01

I like your Citroen mug, i have one just like it 8)

That looks quite a job, still practice makes perfect i suppose!

Sid_the_Squid · Post by **Sid_the_Squid** » 30 Sep 2009, 10:01

Wow, kudos guys

Wish I could have been there, it looks like a lot of fun*.

Why the sudden hatred of leather seats Xac, related to the electric only movement?

*Is it wrong to be excited about such things

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 30 Sep 2009, 20:42

red_dwarfers wrote:

Im waiting for someone to say "Erm...What are you both doing on Thursday?"

Taking Juliet's dashboard out again

Sid_the_Squid wrote:Wow, kudos guys

Wish I could have been there, it looks like a lot of fun*.

Why the sudden hatred of leather seats Xac, related to the electric only movement?

*Is it wrong to be excited about such things

The front of the car is jacked up so it's tilting, you need to work at the front of the cabin, the seats being horrible leather are so slippery you have to fight against gravity all the time as well as fighting the dashboard.
I don't like sliding around inside a car when I'm driving so leather seats are no good for me.

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 30 Sep 2009, 22:20

As for me tomorrow, I think I'll need to see a chiropractor!!!!! All the strange angles in two cars over two days.

As seen in Xac's blog, a day of mixed fortunes but valuable experience gained and lessons learned in the crazy world of Xantia heater matrixes

I came in from taxiing the girls home and found the forum very sick, coming up with password boxes all over the place. It would not let me post.

I popped my server admin password in and it worked, which gave me a clue as to the problem (I hope).

I've just been into the server and hopefully sorted it. Apologies for the poor service this evening

Off to bed now, I'm pretty tired...

Post by **myglaren** » 01 Oct 2009, 18:44

I'd completely forgotten about that by this evening Jim. Couldn't log in this morning.

Have a good rest and hope the knots have come out by morning

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 03 Oct 2009, 00:15

Xac wrote:
red_dwarfers wrote:

Im waiting for someone to say "Erm...What are you both doing on Thursday?"
Taking Juliet's dashboard out again

Sid_the_Squid wrote:Wow, kudos guys

Wish I could have been there, it looks like a lot of fun*.

Why the sudden hatred of leather seats Xac, related to the electric only movement?

*Is it wrong to be excited about such things
The front of the car is jacked up so it's tilting, you need to work at the front of the cabin, the seats being horrible leather are so slippery you have to fight against gravity all the time as well as fighting the dashboard.
I don't like sliding around inside a car when I'm driving so leather seats are no good for me.

As it's such a long job anyway, I would be tempted to take the seats out, and then sit on something else lower, and wedge shaped to make it more comfortable, and also then the seats can't get dirty or damaged.

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 04 Oct 2009, 11:34

Just fit normal seats, it makes life so much easier

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 04 Oct 2009, 13:11

Xac wrote:Just fit normal seats, it makes life so much easier

"As far as I'm concerned, leather seats are normal"

Said a spokesman for the leather appreciation society..

CitroJim · Post by **CitroJim** » 04 Oct 2009, 15:23

After our epic heater matrix adventures I'm just about recovered to the extent that I'm nearly ready to talk about them again..

Speaking of epics, I've just heard that a duff EPIC injection pump is soon coming my way. It'll be a winter project to strip it, understand it and hopefully find out how easy they are to repair.. Looking forward to that

Yesterday I went on my now normal twice-monthly run to Somerset and back. This time I went in the Activa. What a lovely drive, I enjoyed every moment of it and reaffirmed (as if I'd ever lost it) my love of Activas. In fact, I did both legs of the journey in record time

I don't think it's because the Activa is intrinsically faster than the V6 but it does inspire a perhaps a more sporting sort of drive. Zero queues anywhere on the A303 helped too...

I did a small job on the V6 this morning, more as a preventative than anything else. Off-times there would be a very short delay in turning the ignition key to start before the starter motor ran, especially first-thing in the morning. This is apparently a well-known problem on the V6 and is caused by the starter solenoid voltage being a tad low due to voltage drops in various parts of the circuit; it can damage the solenoid in the end as it does not cleanly pull in and causes the solenoid contacts to arc and burn.

The answer is to fit a helper relay between the ignition switch and start inhibit relay so the ignition switch only has the job of operating a relay and not handling the full starter solenoid current.

A look at the circuit showed that the cruise control uses the inhibit relay to look for an earth via the starter solenoid to ensure the car is not in P or N when the cruise control is in use so this means the helper relay must go into the circuit before the inhibit relay.

On my V6, being a "poverty spec" without headlamp washers, there was, fortuitously, a spare relay socket next to the start inhibit relay. From this socket I was able to "borrow" and earth and 30A live supply for the new helper relay. I carefully dismantled the bases of both this and the inhibit relay and moved the necessary wires to a new relay base for the helper relay. I needed to cut no wires and make up just one new wire to complete the modification and if I ever need to return to standard, I can without there ever having been any trace of a helper relay ever being fitted

It also looks just as if the helper relay was fitted as standard.

So far, no more starter hesitation. If it saves the cost of a new starter motor (and they're silly expensive for a V6) then it will have been an hour well spent.

Last two jobs on the V6 will be new rear arm bearings and a new exhaust. neither are pressingly urgent but spares are already on hand to do the job. Like Xac, I was delighted with the performance of the local exhaust place we found, especially as my new back box has chrome tailpipes!!!

Back to heater matrixes, Xac took these wonderful photos of the bottoms of our respective heater boxes to show what a duff matrix leaves behind. No wonder they stink and make a wet mess of the carpet. Xac is to be heavily congratulated on getting these rare pictures as it is far from easy to get a camera a light in there at the same time, not to mention the access difficulties!

Firstly, this was my V6, all crystalline and dry as the matrix had been disconnected for a long while... Looks like it's full of sugar!

And this was Xac's Activa. Leaking well and steaming up the windscreen just before we extracted the old matrix...

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 04 Oct 2009, 15:24

I could manage without leather but not the electric adjustment that leather generally comes with, I'd like to try a set of cloth seats with electric adjustment, they are a rare beast.