Xac's adventures with Cassy (and friends + wife)

[Xaccers]

Well it's been a productive day.
First off had a telephone interview which went well, should find out tomorrow or Monday when they want me for a second interview

I've also single handedly removed the dash, it's definitely much easier with two!
Had to phone Jim though as the dash wouldn't budge even though I was certain I'd removed all the bolts I could see.
Turns out there's one vertically just to the left of the U-clamp of the steering rack.

As for water... well, there's a few drops on the plastic plate that's up against the bulkhead, a bit of water on the main flap, but not much else.
I don't have a suitable torx bit to free up the wiring loom, and it got quite dark so the rest will be investigated by Jim and myself.
My suspicion is on a damaged matrix from GSF, perhaps one that had been returned and accidently re-dispatched.

[xantia_v6]

weren't the leather wheels only fitted to Exclusives, and they had passenger airbags too didn't they?
Thing is, Cassy has the same wheel interior as the lower picture, yet she only has one airbag.
When I have the LX picked up for scrap, I'll swipe the wheel off it for you.
It's sans airbag (though I think I have a spare) and radio controls, but just swap over your current ones.

Earlier VSXs had a leather wheel with just a drivers airbag. I thought all single airbag cars used ther earlier wheel, but maybe not?
I have spare (late) Mk1 airbag.

[DickieG]

There are two types of MK1 airbag leather wheels, as for when the change took place I'm not sure but the early airbag wheels' had the airbag check light built into the wheel down by the radio remote buttons on the right side which may explain the different construction.

[Xaccers]

Jim and I found out today what was causing the leak.
Due to the S2 wiring loom going over the top of the heater matrix and being such an unflexible PITA, the lack of room had meant the plastic pipe unit that can be unbolted from the matrix had been nicked, and part of the broken plastic got stuck between the mating faces leaving a gap.
Remember, we'd unbolted that section from the old matrix, removed the matrix and slotted in the new one.
To make things "easier" we thought it would be best to remove the pipes on the engine side, although we took "remove" a bit too far.
They would not budge so we had to use a pry bar, which actually worked out safer.
After getting the car up to temperature and pressure, we used one pry bar to operated the retaining lever, and the other longer pry bar to work the pipes off.
There was a sudden and almighty squirt of steaming water, which if we'd been closer with our hands would have probably scalded us!
Unfortunately, it wasn't from the pipes coming free, but from the rubber inlet pipe splitting from the plastic union.
Jim shocked me as he said a rude word.
We eventually managed to get the union apart and saw there was quite a bit of limescale which was causing it to grip. There was also a large crack in it from forcing it free, so it was totally dead.
Thankfully, Jim had a spare, and a pair of straight connectors which, thanks to the new matrix arriving from GSF early this morning, he hadn't had a chance to fit to his V6, replacing the copper pipe connector that we'd fitted.
So he set about measuring carefully, and fitted the replacement.
We tested and it remained bone dry.
Everything's gone back together, except we're missing 1 bolt and the 10mm deep socket I bought yesterday, there's no misting, and loads of heat

While we were working on the car, the exhaust parts we'd ordered from www.onlineautomotive.co.uk arrived all nicely vacuum packed together.
Now we'd ordered them on Tuesday, hoping to be able to pop up and get them. I spoke to a very helpful chap called Ash, who said that Jim's parts weren't in stock, but they might be able to get them in for the next day.
I asked in that case if they could deliver them to Jim's, and Ash said to leave it with him, he'd call me back.
30 minutes later he did, and said they can get them delivered for free (giving us a £15 discount) for Friday.
Excellent service and a good price too!

Anyway, as Jim left this evening, I thought I'd set about fitting the new middle silencer.
I took the old one off and compared it with the new one.
Not good, the new one was shorter and was flared at both ends. Not only that, it was a larger diameter!
I double checked the order and realised that Jim and I had mixed up middle silencers, so dashed over to his to correct the mistake
Once home, I compared silencers and the new one is a couple of inches longer than the old which is perfect!
So tomorrow (while Danielle is busy gardening for charity) I will fit the new middle silencer and fingers crossed the back box will fit too!

[CitroJim]

Your Activa almost ended up with a V6 exhaust on it Xac

Pleased the new exhaust midsection is longer the the old one!

My new V6 back box has chrome tailpipes on it All rather blingy!

It was a really enjoyable day today and good to have success at last despite the broken bulkhead connector. They are weak and difficult, especially on an Activa so always have a spare one handy with a couple of 19mm diameter pipe joiners when doing a matrix job. Else that, sport out on a new heater hose set and then if you break the old one, no matter. I reckon on any visit to a scrappy, try to rescue any if easily accessible, just so there are some in stock. You'll find the same connector on a Berlingo van as that was the source of the one on my V6.

There's no doubt we now have attained quite some skills in stripping the dashes out in both MK1s and MK2s now although I don't think either of us relish the thought of doing another any time soon

So don't ask either of us or you may hear me utter another rude word

Whilst it's fresh in our minds, I'll do a detailed write-up on matrix changing for future reference.

[Xaccers]

Exhaust fitted and not leaking - yay!
Will see if I can get some useful numbers off the old exhaust to work out how wrong it was.

[CitroJim]

Exhaust fitted and not leaking - yay!

Excellent! Juliet all warm, dry and quiet now then

Be interesting if it can be worked out what the old centre section belonged to...

[Xaccers]

Well, I don't know about dry yet, the septum is still soaked as I haven't been able to find my fan heater to help dry it, but we're getting there

[Xaccers]

I have found the electric fan heater, so tomorrow after dropping Danielle off at work, I will set it running drying the septum while I get on and change Cassy's glow plugs.
Was in a hurry to get to Danielle's on Saturday and needed fuel so had to use Tescos.
Not as gutless as the last time I used Tescos by Chichester, but she's definitely not happy on it, taking two lots of glow plug cycles to start rather than the one and a bit of a longer turn over on v-power or veg.

[Xaccers]

Drained the coolant and replaced it with a proper mix, as well as the wynns that GSF insisted on.
Took her for a spin to pick up Danielle from work too, which was fun
Quite a bit more oomph than Cassy.
She's still got roll problems though, which did get a few looks when sat at lights.
I think it's time to replace it. One of the links between it and the control bars has damaged thread, so the lock nut isn't able to lock up against the union, and I think it's moving as the car rolls, throwing the corrector off.
Also, when I fitted the exhaust, I noticed the rubber boot on the nearside link (looks like a thick drop link), so I'm wondering if grime could have gotten in and seized it somewhat as well.

[Sturdybloke]

As I remember Xac, the leather wheel on Jenny came of a late Ph1 VSX, but its so long and I have worked on/driven so many cars since I changed it I can't remember.

Are you really thinking of selling her?

Oh, and hello everyone

[Xaccers]

As I remember Xac, the leather wheel on Jenny came of a late Ph1 VSX, but its so long and I have worked on/driven so many cars since I changed it I can't remember.

Are you really thinking of selling her?

Oh, and hello everyone

Ello you
Yes, I unfortunately have to sell her, need the space, but not until I've fixed a few minor things (hydraulic pipe brackets on the pump for one).
She is such a lovely ride she's definitely worth getting in tip top condition before handing her to someone else.

The same cannot be said for the LX Jim and I spent the day working towards getting the engine out of.
Firstly I could only get the off side hub nut free, but Jim turned up and with is strong breaker bar and all my 20stone on it, the nut finally came free. Stupid thing is, as soon as they're cracked, you can just spin the nuts off!
Jim set about removing the drive shafts, and discovered that the intermediate bearing was pretty much non-existant!
With plenty of percywotsit he managed to free the shafts but there was nothing left of the bearing.
The compressor is the same as on Cassy's, which is leaking slightly, so I'm going to swap them over as there's no sign of leakage on the LX's, however there's no gas in the system either.
Oh nearly forgot! I went to remove the aux belt, and tried to rotate the automatic tensioner out the way, as I've found by removing the ecu box and using my breaker bar it's quite easy to get to. However, it would not budge, so I guessed like much on the car, the tensioner had seized and slackened the eccentric tensioner.
This didn't help the belt come off, so I had to remove the eccentric.
I then found out why the automatic wasn't moving.
Someone had replaced the spring/piston with a metal plate!
Once I'd removed the hydraulic pump and the plate, the tensioner was free to move, so I don't know what the purpose of this mod was.
Anyway, thanks to Jim working on the hard parts, and Danielle bringing us lovely tea and biscuits, the engine is now only held on by a few wires, a couple of hydraulic pipes held in brackets and the two top engine mounts.
I'll pop over during the week and finish the job.

[XantiaMan]

Sounds like you had as much fun as me then!

I found my hub nuts were very tight but like you say, once cracked off they spin very easily

You cant get rid of the Activa! They are amazing to drive when right, but also bloody hard work! The 1.9 TD's are addictive in a different way and i miss mine. Had the missus said ok, i would be having it back but we now have a 306 coming which should be fun in a different way. The engines on them are great.

[Xaccers]

Noooo Juliet is definitely staying!
Jenny is the 1.9TD hatchback I bought from sturdybloke to finish sorting out the niggling issues and then sell to a friend's sister.
She decided she was going to pile another bucket of cash into her Megane, which then needed several more bucket loads.
Then my neighbour expressed an interest as the gearbox on her scenic died, so I let her drive Jenny as it was winter, but she did nothing but moan about Jenny being hard to start (glow plugs needed changing) so she killed the battery. She left the inside light on overnight too, which thankfully I spotted and turned off. She had an awful habbit of finding something wrong, then not telling me about it for 2 weeks, usually via a note through the door on Sunday night. In the end I got my keys back and drove Jenny for a month without any problems (other than needing to floor it when starting, until I replaced the plugs), although I did find a very soft pear she'd left in the glove box.
Then, objecting to the car panels in the front garden, and the ivy growing up both houses, she reported me to the council's environmental health department (who were confused as they could see no issue), and phoned my letting agency about the ivy, being thoroughly obnoxious to them.
Although karma bit her on her backside when the agency's contractor pointed out the ivy originated from her garden

[CitroJim]

That was a fun afternoon Xac, despite the fight the car put up. We struggled for an hour to undo a lower swivel nut because of a damaged thread on it and then struggled hard with the RH driveshaft due to this collapsed intermediate bearing:



It had broken up and gouged the housing, making it nearly impossible to release the hockey-sticks due to gouged metal shrouding them!

This bearing failure did not apparently show up when driving