Cheers for the pointers there. There's not much price difference between the Xantia and XM one genuine wise so I'll probably get the XM one.
Been working on the Xantia a bit today, got the wheels swapped over so now we're running on the Michelin Alpin A3's. I must say the road noise has decreased and the rolling resistance appears to be less. Grip does seem to be a little down though I think thats just because they need bedding in a bit. Only went on a short test drive into town. While I was in the mood for tinkering under the car I decided to adjust the damned exhaust as it has been rattling for a good 12 months or so near the back.
The root problem appears to be that the pipe between the cat and back box is a touch too long, the join between the exit from the cat to the mid pipe is fully at home. Basically the back box is being pushed back too far causing it to rotate around the rubber mounting pivot things upwards, pulling the mid pipe up to hit the heat shield. I didn't particularly want to start butchering the exhaust system so I've lowered two of the back box mounting points a touch (read bent the brackets down then bent the bit where the rubber mounts up level again so it doesn't fall off). The mid pipe now doesn't fowl the heat shield, result!
It's shocking how you get used to these little noises, it feels like a different car with these new wheels and less rattly exhaust
Still not perfect, a couple of other little niggles have cropped up. First is that the clock display is a bit dodge, segments are displaying correctly. NS courtesy light doesn't switch on but the bulb is fine and the door opening detector switch thingy for the drivers door has been getting gradually worse. For the time being, I'm going to swap it with one of the rear doors so I can at least get the courtesy lights and lights on alarm working but I'll have to see if I have one in the ever growing stash.
On a completely unrelated note, recently I've decided it was about time that I replaced my current mattress which we worked out is comfortably in its 30s, probably 35 years. It was my mum's when she lived at home
oh god....actually I don't want to think about that...it was around about that time she met my dad...ahem moving swiftly on
It was quite a good experience mattress shopping, I ended up getting quite nerdy with it, the salesmen showed me cross sections of different mattress technologies, how they can be combined and that, very educational. Although I managed to strike a good deal, I spent a little more than I had hoped but at the end of the day, a good nights sleep is crucial. After coming back to this old lump after trying out all of those today I really cannot wait until its delivered just in time for Christmas!