Confessions of a Citroholic

[Michel]

After that I WASHED my car

HOW DARE YOU?!

[RichardW]

Well, it was due its biennial wash....!

[RichardW]

I forgot to add...

The passenger seat in the Picasso is jammed again. Last time is was jammed right forward (pen in the runner groove), but the release lever was working. This time the seat is back, but the release lever is jammed. And in the process of poking / pulling it yesterday, I have dislodged something and the airbag warning came on. So I need to look at the airbag connectors, then probably take the seat out again to fix it. It is just possible to separate the seat from the runner mech in the car so it can be removed - although as the seat is back this time, it might be possible to get access to the main fixings and get it all out in one go.

[RichardW]

In the world of PSA not inventing new faults, the air bag light has been fixed by unplugging and reseating the under seat connectors

Can't see why the seat is jammed, but the holding down bolts are covered, so it will have be dismantled in place - although getting the side covers off may give access to the release mech and allow it to be freed without having to take it right apart.

[CitroJim]

Can't see why the seat is jammed, but the holding down bolts are covered, so it will have be dismantled in place - although getting the side covers off may give access to the release mech and allow it to be freed without having to take it right apart.

That's going to be fun Richard

[Mandrake]

Oh dear, I've had to remove a seat before where the mounting bolts were loose and fouling the sliding of the seat to get to said mounting bolts. It was a few hours of swear words I can tell you... Hopefully you will have more success!

If you can get the side covers off that will help a lot, that's for sure.

[RichardW]

I've got form on this seat....

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[Mandrake]

I've got form on this seat....

viewtopic.php?t=48005

So, round two then ?

[Zelandeth]

A few minutes standing on your head with a torch before pulling things apart may be worthwhile. Worth carefully examining the mechanism to see if anything is obviously amiss (I know some use cables) or something silly has got somewhere it shouldn't.

I was tasked with sorting a similar fault at the garage one day (Mondeo I think), and after a bit of digging found a five pence coin had managed to wedge itself in one of the runners such that it had totally jammed the mechanism.


...took me half an hour of swearing to then extract it, but easier than taking the whole seat to bits.

Likewise one of the tricks the seats on the old Saab 900s enjoy is the left and right runners getting out of step with each other, which often will jam the whole thing up.

[RichardW]

Ah, yes, Ding, Ding!!

I've got to fix the boot handle as well - it's long been broken, but has got worse of late, so I've just ordered a new one. Comes in 2 parts - handle and microswtich; there are 2 types of switch, but Cit only supply the handle complete with one type - if you've got the other type you have to throw away the switch they've just sold you and buy another one!! Switch on ours is still working, so if it's not the 'std' type then I will just change the switch over. J'adore les Frogs!

[CitroJim]

after a bit of digging found a five pence coin had managed to wedge itself in one of the runners such that it had totally jammed the mechanism.

Had the same on a 205 years ago... It was a bit of fun digging it out but it improved seat movement no end...

[RichardW]

No car stuff done as the boiler is demanding my attention this week

It's had a weep (ok a bit more than that!) from both the main exchanger outlet and the pressure switch for a good while - although the exchanger leak had largely sealed itself. This week it got substantially worse, and with the cover off water was pouring out of the exchanger outlet. Now, this is a copper pipe into a plastic housing, sealed with a O-ring, and my plumber friend thought the o ring had gone (sounds familiar....) and got one ages ago, but we never around to fitting it. He's away of course this weekend... Anyway, got it apart and managed to get a new ring from the plumbers merchant (£3.41 for a 22mm O ring ). The pressure switch is also plastic, and screwed in - despite having a new switch, I had put off installing it, as I strongly suspected it was going to shear off as soon as I went near it. I was not disappointed Went and bought a set of easy outs, but wouldn't play (later turns out I was just screwing the easy out into the back of the brass housing ) So I drilled it a bit, then spent about 90 mins cutting / scraping out the remains of the old one until I could screw the new one in. New O-ring on, put it back together, filled with water, and...... no real change A closer look at the outlet housing shows that in fact it is cracked, and given that it doesn't appear that the housing is available separately, and a new exchanger costs half as much as a boiler, looks like it is new boiler time. Of course they always pick the cold times to give out, don't they There's still time for having a go at a bodge though I think that a well aimed piece of alu plate, some RTV silicon, and a jubilee clip, may effect a 'temporary' repair to give us some breathing space before fitting a new boiler.

On the up side, the PTFE repair on the dishwasher is holding, and the boot handle for the Pic has arrived.

Off on an emergency call to a friend's with a new baby to look at their heating now

[CitroJim]

Oh gosh Richard, what a time to suffer boiler issues

Hope the 'temporary fix' will do the trick and you can be all snug again

Fingers crossed you can fix the friend's system too... With a new baby that's definitely not the best time to have a heating failure...

[Mandrake]

Oh dear, a failed boiler in winter, my worst nightmare.

Had a faulty pump a winter or two ago - it didn't completely fail but it got really noisy and every time it heated up it would start screaming and stop pumping! (I think the impeller had come loose on the interference fit on the shaft...)

A new pump was readily available but it was quite stressful nursing the system along until I could get the pump, draining the whole system down, replace the pump, fill it up again, check for leaks, put the inhibitor in again etc when it's below zero outside and every hour of delay is the house plunging rapidly into freezing conditions with no backup... (we have a 2kW portable electric heater but it won't make much of a dent on this old house, should probably get a couple more for emergencies. )

This year I had the gas control solenoid fail which put the boiler completely out of action - at first it looked like I'd have to buy an entire gas control unit (which I'm not allowed to change myself since it would disturb gas lines) for over £100 just to get the electrovalve sleeve as it didn't seem to be available separately from the usual boiler parts suppliers... but I eventually tracked down the electrovalve coil sleeve by itself on ebay for £25 which turned out to be the genuine McCoy and was an easy fix. Phew. It also had the courtesy to fail in summer!

Good luck with the boiler repairs! Post a couple of pictures of the problem area on yours if you can, pictures are worth 1000 words and there is a forum full of experienced bodgers here, maybe we'd have some ideas.

[Zelandeth]

This is exactly why the boiler we have here is going to be kept going until the bitter end. Everything in it is metal, and there are a total of five moving parts. The most complex electrical component is the thermostat. Four wires into it...L, N, E and a 240V "call for heat" signal. That's it. No fancy electronics, no timers, no purge systems, heck...no fan!

Plus it's still B rated for efficiency even after 34 years.