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

[Zelandeth]

Any tantalum caps in there Jim? Those would probably be the next suspects at this sort of age.

[CitroJim]

Any tantalum caps in there Jim? Those would probably be the next suspects at this sort of age.

A very god call Zel but none I can see... I have a few more electrolytics to check now...

This wireless has far too many SMD components for my liking...

The problem is independent of volume control setting so definitely late in the amplification chain...

[CitroJim]

Happily, on what has been a very fine day I managed to find a bit of time to do some most welcome spannering

I gave both Sally and the Pug of Love a good routine check and both are fine...

I noticed Sally had one rear fog out and one front fog out... The front was easy - just a bulb. And despite it looing quite a task, swapping front foglight bulbs is noit difficult

The rear was a bit of a surprise... I pulled the light cluster out and found there was no bulb in the holder! I popped one in and before replacing the bulb carrier in the cluster I checked it worked and it did

However, when I came to pop the carrier back in the cluster it wouldn't go in

Reason was a 'bar' across the bulb hole in the cluster as shown in the picture below! There was never a bulb fitted

Own Work

I popped out the 'bar' and reassembled and Sally now has two rear foglights for the first time in her life!

I then replaced Sally's alternator belt as the old one was looking a bit elderly and cracked... Another incredibly easy job

Next up, I pressed the new wheel bearings into the Activa hubs...

Own Work

Now the hubs and driveshaft is ready to be refitted

Own Work

Hopefully, the weather will be good enough following parkrun to carry on and start the reassembly job...

With luck, the weekend should see the Activa back on her wheels and MOT ready but on Sunday morning I'll be in Nottinghamshire riding the last cycle sportive of the year - the Nottinghamshire Wheeler...

Looks like the weather for Sunday is going to be OK for the ride...

Finally, for today, I made a bit more progress on sally's odd wireless problem... I'm hopeful the mystery will soon be solved

[Michel]

Happily, on what has been a very fine day I managed to find a bit of time to do some most welcome spannering

I gave both Sally and the Pug of Love a good routine check and both are fine...

I noticed Sally had one rear fog out and one front fog out... The front was easy - just a bulb. And despite it looing quite a task, swapping front foglight bulbs is noit difficult

The rear was a bit of a surprise... I pulled the light cluster out and found there was no bulb in the holder! I popped one in and before replacing the bulb carrier in the cluster I checked it worked and it did

However, when I came to pop the carrier back in the cluster it wouldn't go in

Reason was a 'bar' across the bulb hole in the cluster as shown in the picture below! There was never a bulb fitted

Pretty standard on many cars Jim, to only have one rear fog - the offside. You'll find that LHD ones have the same rear fog missing on the other side of the car..

[bobins]

Yep, for that age of car there is a requirement to have at least one rear fog lamp and not more than two, and if one is fitted is must be either on the centre line of the car or off-side.... and time to get your vernier calipers out - for the distance between the rear fog lamp and stop lamp there must be at least 100mm between the "light-emitting surfaces of the lamps when viewed in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle"

[xantia_v6]

the new amplifier IC arrived yesterday and despite replacing it, just before going off to the dentist for a filling, the same fault remains

So, back to some deeper fault-finding... I WILL fix it but I'll have to rig it up to run on my workbench rather than trying to fix it dead and just testing it in the car...

This wireless has now become a challenge!

Can you re-cap ( ) the symptoms?
A possibility is that a speaker wire is shorted somewhere.

[Stickyfinger]

the new amplifier IC arrived yesterday and despite replacing it, just before going off to the dentist for a filling, the same fault remains

So, back to some deeper fault-finding... I WILL fix it but I'll have to rig it up to run on my workbench rather than trying to fix it dead and just testing it in the car...

This wireless has now become a challenge!

Can you re-cap ( ) the symptoms?
A possibility is that a speaker wire is shorted somewhere.

Which would explain why I could get it to work by hitting the door (as I said) Jim

[Zelandeth]

Also try flexing the PCB. Some of these single chip amplifiers have a feedback input... it's possible if that's gone astray due to a crack or dry joint that all sorts of mayhem could result... especially if it's proven to be affected by percussive maintenance before.

[CitroJim]

the new amplifier IC arrived yesterday and despite replacing it, just before going off to the dentist for a filling, the same fault remains

So, back to some deeper fault-finding... I WILL fix it but I'll have to rig it up to run on my workbench rather than trying to fix it dead and just testing it in the car...

This wireless has now become a challenge!

Can you re-cap ( ) the symptoms?
A possibility is that a speaker wire is shorted somewhere.

You may be right Mike... My research is leading that way as I believe the amplifier IC (a TDA8561Q) is going into protective shut-down on one of the four channels and hence the noise... The channel will switch on and off in square waves at a very audible frequency which sounds very much like 'motor-boating'. This all according to the IC data sheet...

All caps (always major suspects) checked good

Oddly, the ex-Xantia temporary wireless does not show the same symptoms and all four speakers seem OK..

It's looking wet today so I may get more done on this today if too wet later to carry on with the Activa...

Yep, for that age of car there is a requirement to have at least one rear fog lamp and not more than two, and if one is fitted is must be either on the centre line of the car or off-side.... and time to get your vernier calipers out - for the distance between the rear fog lamp and stop lamp there must be at least 100mm between the "light-emitting surfaces of the lamps when viewed in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle"

That makes full sense Thanks! The distance is good as fog and stop are at opposite ends of the cluster I can rest happy on that score knowing I'm legal!

Also try flexing the PCB. Some of these single chip amplifiers have a feedback input... it's possible if that's gone astray due to a crack or dry joint that all sorts of mayhem could result... especially if it's proven to be affected by percussive maintenance before.

Tried that and checked very carefully... Touching one channel input on the amplifier IC effectively bypasses the input signal to earth and mutes that channel and allows the other three channels to perform normally... So not exactly percussive... More using finger resistance to damp things down!

[CitroJim]

Despite best laid plans I got nothing done on the Activa today

After spending a lot of the morning enjoying a moist and most excellent parkrun, Sally reminded me in no uncertain terms that she is very much a Citroen on the way home

For a couple of days she's had an occasional hesitation and misfire when seemingly half-warm. This would be very brief an then clear, never to return until next time...

Today though was a different matter.. Leaving parkrun she started fine and for the first couple of miles ran like a dream. then she started to splutter, clear and the misfire and generally hesitate and feel well down. On reaching home she was idling very lumpily and almost cut out..

Stop, switch off and restart and she was fine again For a while at least...

The problem felt either like the coil was breaking down or she had fuel starvation.

I swapped the coil - I had a spare as she uses one identical to the Activa

No real improvement.

I swapped the fuel filter... Again, not a success...

Got the ELIT out and it recorded an intermittent oxygen sensor but live data showed it to be good

On another test drive, whilst watching live data, she almost cut out and this time the ELIT recorded a permanent throttle pot problem...

I then broke apart and cleaned the throttle pot connector and the engine ECU connector after disconnecting the battery and she then behaved perfectly on the next test drive of over 15 miles....

Typical feminine Citroen by the looks of it

I'll know for sure how she is tomorrow as I'm going to trust her to take me to Nottingham for the Nottinghamshire Wheeler cycle sportive as I'm sure she won't let me down even if she does have another hesitation spell - switching her on an off seems to fix but I'm not going to risk the M1 - I shall go via the A1 up to Newark and head across to Southwell racecourse from there... Google maps says there's not much in it between the M1 and the A1 route time and distance-wise..

Last spanner job of the day was to check, service and prepare my bike for tomorrow.

Now to prepare my clothes and food for tomorrow

I'm looking forward to tomorrow Maybe inn the afternoon I'll get a bit more done on the Activa - depends on when I get home and how tired I am after the ride...

[Zelandeth]

If I were you Jim I'd also as a precaution just change all the vacuum hoses. Most of the "bolt on" injection systems like these are *ridiculously* sensitive to even the tiniest of vaccum leaks. At the very least I'd change out any that you can't readily see to examine, as Murphy's Law states that those are the ones that will leak.

This is from someone whose dealt with similar setups on several cars and really should know to follow my own advice by now, yet ended up chasing my own tail for a couple of weeks due to a vacuum leak a couple of months back...

[CitroJim]

Zel, that's a very good point... Fortunately the Saxo is not too well endowed with vacuum pipes but there are enough to potentially cause issues... Those to the brake servo, the inlet air selector an the carbon canister stand out as good suspects...

Those will be checked and sorted on the next foray! Thanks for the prompt

I should know too.. They were a regular nightmare and source of no end of grief on the 205s...

[myglaren]

[CitroJim]

^^ Love it! Especially the end where the narrator say it 'takes the sigh out of cycling...' Priceless

Thanks for that Steve!

[myglaren]

The gear thing looks intriguing.