Confessions of a Citroholic

[RichardW]

It's spoiling what is otherwise a v nice car.... I'm sure it can't be like this by design; they're awful! I will check the bulb is in properly, but I think it is; difficult to tell - it just pushes in to a set of spring fingers - I will see if any look bent. There are motors etc inside the headlamp unit as it has the directional lights, and being Xenons self levelling, but I'm pretty sure they're sealed units, so I don't think I would be able to get inside to look at / fix anything. I don't fancy having to replace them at nearly 2 grand the pair (amusingly they are not the same price!) though.... I was wondering about a conversion back to Halogens, but not sure how practical that would be.

FWIW PSA can make good lights - the Mk1 C4 Picasso has excellent lights, even on std Halogens!

[RichardW]

Hmm....seems there is a clip ring - I didn't do anything with that, just pushed them in (as that is how they came out)....
See about 6 mins in.


Better have another look then Hopefully I haven't buggered the rings up, as that could be an expensive day out

[RichardW]

Mea culpa

On the way home from work...note the odd spread of light. From inside the car, the bit on the RHS is not visible, making that side mostly dark.

A short time later...

Dip

Main

Note a nice even spread of light, and a difference between dip and main - difficult to pick up in the camera, but you can see the telegraph pole highlighted well up the road in the Main picture.

So, yes, my fault - neither was in properly: with the clip turned and the bulbs properly re-seated, they are the lights I thought they should be! Thank god for that....

[CitroJim]

Excellent That's good result Richard!

[RichardW]

Like driving a different car this morning - on the old bulbs there was no difference really between dip and main, and dip wasn't very good. Now the deer(*) in the next county are quivering when it's on main

* lots of these try and jump out in front of me when I am on the single track road the pics were taken on!

[Mandrake]

Driving lamps ? Does it not have front fog lights that help light the sides of the road ? I know it's "naughty" to run the front fog lights when it's not foggy, but they can be necessary to light the ditches etc on windy country roads...

It might be that they are just bad from the factory. Xantia headlights are a case in point - the Xantia headlights are absolutely dreadful compared to the lights on the Ion, which are actually very good! Not just much better brightness, but also much better pattern. They also have adjustable height from the dashboard which can be very handy. So not all headlights are created equal, even from the factory...

[white exec]

Well sorted! Correct filament position is everything - which is why headlight conversion from one type of lamp to anther is not generally a good idea.

[CitroJim]

Richard, at least you know what to do now if you ever want to rekindle memories of your Xantias

[RichardW]

Not much to report....

Had to pay to get the C4 serviced, a new experience! It was bought from Arnold Clark, but the Cit dealers are miles away, so I got it done at the Mercedes dealer which is local to work. They picked it up, washed and vacuumed it, and only charged £119 which seemed pretty reasonable - although that included £5 for screen wash I didn't really need, and 80p for a sump plug washer - what chance they actually drained it out the bottom??? Mercedes no longer have demonstrators - they have 'Customer experience cars' according to the signwriting on the one they left outside the office all day! Front tyres apparently down to 3mm, and one has a cut so I will need to look at that. SWMBO will have to slow down , as it's only done 9k, 10k ish out of set of tyres is going to get a bit pricey!! No evidence that they refilled the adblue tank, so will need to see if/when the light comes on for that.

[RichardW]

Checked the tyre and it does indeed have deep cut in it on the outer sidewall, dead obvious now I have looked for it, but I had to look twice before I saw it! Best get some Cross Climates on order then....

[RichardW]

I have a crazy plan....

The Velocette is 1929, so it will be 90 in 2019.... which seems like a good reason to get it back up together My Grandad's birthday was 20th Nov, there's a plan being hatched to have a birthday party then, with the bike running What really stalled it last time was a lack of money, but things have eased on that front, so I've run out of excuses! Here's the rough list....

Get a new bush made for the main 'bearing' in the engine (I found these guys who look to specialise in machining work, and motorbike resto, and have info about a similar bike on their website - will be contacting them in the new year)
Have a critical look at the forks and see if a full refurb is required, or if they can be used as is (I suspect the former....!)
Get new piston rings made
Get a new exhaust clamp made (they screw on the barrell and one is split)
Get new exhausts made
Refurb the carb
Refurb the magneto
Have a look at the wheels - might need to be replaced
Get the brakes relined - including getting one of the shoes re-cast as it has snapped at some time in the past
Pull the dent out of the tank(*)
Straighten the bars
Refurb the saddle
Get it painted
Put it back together
Find / remake the missing bits - these are as far as I know the gear change gate on the tank, and the engine decompressor mech

* or maybe not.... the idea is not a concours resto, but to get it back to running, bearing as much of the 'patina' as can be retained (but not a total rat look!). The dent in the tank (and the bent bars) are the result of the crash that ended this bike's use and my Grandad's motorcycling career (in about 1952...!) so maybe the dent should stay.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

just a wee mention for anyone Citroen-ist, of a derelict GS in Cambs on the pages of this month's Practical Classics (with the yellow Capri on the front), 'Rust in Peace' pg 60. Might be worth following up for anyone who's got one.

[CitroJim]

I have a crazy plan....

That will be magical Richard Go for it!

just a wee mention for anyone Citroen-ist, of a derelict GS in Cambs on the pages of this month's Practical Classics (with the yellow Capri on the front), 'Rust in Peace' pg 60. Might be worth following up for anyone who's got one.

I think I know that one Puxa... Ridden past a dead GS in Cambs a couple of times now during cycle sportives in the area... Was it the one near a little zoo?

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

no idea I'm afraid Jim, there is a pic, its orange with an orange Daf on its roof and a conspicuously tidy NSR Wheel (probably in much better nick than the rest of it).

Wisbech apparently, part of the country I'm very unfamiliar with; don't really even know where that is, gonna check googlemaps and educate myself.

[Mandrake]

Richard - did you manage to get your Lexia working properly again after we tested it ?

I've just been trying to set Diagbox up under a Virtualbox virtual machine on my faster laptop (as the old one is painfully slow and the battery life is useless) and I have run into a problem - it works with Diagbox version 7.02, but when I upgrade to 7.58 the ACTIA device driver stops working in device manager and nothing I do will get it working again, aside from uninstalling and going back to 7.02...

And yet 7.58 installed from the exact same install files works fine for me natively on the older laptop without a virtual machine. So it seems that the ACTIA drivers in V7.58 are incompatible with Virtualbox.... ?

I wonder if this is the same problem you are/were having ? Anyone else had problems with later version of Diagbox not working in Virtualbox ?