GEEEE'z what an adventure!

[red_dwarfers]

Got the ABS sensor all sorted now 8)
I thought it might be fun putting the new one in and I was right

The sensor had a tight fit in its hole, I filed the hole a little bit as I noticed some rust making things worse. I also stuck a git of grease around the hole to make things easier, maybe it might even help if I have to change it again someday . Its also a good idea to put the securing screw loosely in when tapping the sensor home as the last thing you want is to damage the sensor on the 'dragons teeth' in the hub. Thankfully, my heat shield fitted perfectly - no reason it shouldn't have really I suppose!

BoL suggest using a piece of string to feed it up through, this does work if you can actually get it through the top hole where the grommet would be so I put it underneath that around the top of the trailing arm and pulled it up until it couldn't get through the gap between where the grommet will be and the trailing arm. I found that if I then pulled it back out a bit, it then got caught in the grommet hole. A couple of minutes tinkering with a pair of normal long nose pliers, and a foot long pair of pliers I bought thinking "What am I ever going to use these for?!" allowed me to pull the connector up through. You want to then get the piece of string over by the exhaust back box to make things easier later on.
The hardest bit is now trying to get the grommet home, access is very limited due to the gap between the top of the trailing arm and the bit of metal on top, and generally all the metal around the arm. After much tinkering and thinking I found the best way of getting it at least parallel to the grommet hole, was to jack up the trailing arm and get the grommet as near as I could get it to the hole, on a diagonal. Then let the trolley jack down, therefore letting the top of the trailing arm 'grab' the grommet and push it level to the hole.
I then spent a good while trying to get the grommet into the hole with very little success, so out came the foot long pliers straight up underneath the 'top trailing arm housing' (to think of a better word), and push it so the grommet is above the grommet hole, now is a good time to get a bit more of the sensor wire through the hole to make it easier to plug it into the loom.
The best place to plug this in is from underneath the car by the exhaust back box, this is incidentally where I unplugged the sensor to remove it originally, so the loom wire was still here. The new sensor plug has probably tucked itself somewhere awkward, this is where the bit of string then comes in handy again, just a case of pulling the plug over to you The added temporary length of the sensor wire makes this hugely easier to plug in too, don't forget that little metal clip
Back to the 'outside' of the car again to pop the grommet back down into its hole, I found that my pair of pliers or maybe a pair of right angle circlip pliers can be used to push the grommet back down on one side, then twist it around using pliers to do the other side and twisting back so nothing's under tension.
Generally, if in doubt, try looking at it from another angle, literally. Its suprising what extra gaps/better ways of doing it you find. For example, that 'tiny' gap where the sensor plug to loom connection is a lot easier coming from under the car, maybe even with a carefully placed mirror. Just take your time, don't pull the sensor cable too hard for one its a lot of money!

[CitroJim]

Kev, that's excellent; a well-known difficult job

A proper write-up on how to do the job would be incredibly valuable. Did you get any photos?

What's all the more remarkable is you did it in this biting cold. Or is it all warm and tropical down home?

That's one thing I hate about my enforced exile in this god forsaken corner of the UK; when I go home it always seems much warmer than it is up here.

[red_dwarfers]

I noticed while writing that post that it started to turn into a little bit of a write-up near the end
I did take a couple of photos, was hoping to take more but when I really started to get into doing it I completely forgot
At least the photos I did take 'should' clarify my homemade descriptive words

...stuck a git of grease...

I'll get cracking on a proper proof read writeup in the next couple of days, once I've got around to sorting out me video guides

What's all the more remarkable is you did it in this biting cold. Or is it all warm and tropical down home?

That's one thing I hate about my enforced exile in this god forsaken corner of the UK; when I go home it always seems much warmer than it is up here.

Warm and tropical I wish
Its been fairly nippy when I first start in the mornings, need gloves to start off with so I knew my fingers were still there. A few minutes later though, all thoughts of being cold subside and I really get into the job in hand

I did notice more of a biting cold up Milton, doesn't need much to become icy. I found it really suprising considering the distance is only a couple hundred mile

[red_dwarfers]

up Milton

Spare a thought for us even more northerly blighters, it's perishing where I am (Whitley Bay) most of the year round

Cor, fair ol' way up you are Mike!
So I take it sales of sun cream don't amount to much up your way

[myglaren]

up Milton

Spare a thought for us even more northerly blighters, it's perishing where I am (Whitley Bay) most of the year round

Cor, fair ol' way up you are Mike!
So I take it sales of sun cream don't amount to much up your way

What is this sun of which you speak

[red_dwarfers]

What is this sun of which you speak

That bad is it?!

I do feel for you chaps

[CitroJim]

It's that bad Kev, the only Sun they see up there is of the newspaper variety

Even their monuments suffer and go rusty up that way. Take a look at the Angel of the North to see what I mean

It may be cold up north but the people are very warm though and it's a real proper cold; not the sissy half-hearted sort we have down this way I actually love the north.

I'm looking forward to another expedition to Geordieland in the near future

As for it being cold in Milton Keynes, remember it's a new town and built on the most useless, god forsaken barren land in the whole of the United Kingdom. Prior to the 1970s, people kept as far away as possible from the area until some deranged soul though it would be a great site for a new town. Prior to that all there was to the area was a couple of horrid little railway towns (Wolverton and Bletchley) and they're still horrible despite being subsumed into the sprawling mass of Milton Keynes.

I swear that in any part of Milton Keynes it is a full 10 degrees colder at any time of the year than in Newprort Pagnell. Newport Pagnell is built in a very sheltered low-lying spot on the confluence of two rivers and is rather pleasant. Unlike Milton Keynes, where the soil is very heavy, stodgy clay that does not drain well, Newport and it's surroundings is built on a gravelly, sandy soil.

The old folks knew where (and where not) to build.

[red_dwarfers]

Had a bit of a cold bite today to start off with but I was hoping that the predicted snow wouldn't come to us southerns so I could crack on and give the Xantia an oil change.
After finishing work this morning, I walked out the office to find a snow covering everywhere which was nice (the office I was in today has no windows to speak of. Just lots of these 'natural' lights) I went to walk home up the hill to find a VW Golf and a Corsa scattered across the bottom of the hill. No visable damage to either vehicle but it looks like they exchanged details. A couple of other cars then creeped down, another scattered but recovered to drive off unharmed.....I continue up the hill futher to see a rather nice looking maritous green Citroen ZX on an R plate creeping slowly down. I couldn't help myself walking over and recommending that she not continue after seeing the performance at the bottom of the hill, the driver took my advice and parked Potentially a ZX saved from writing off

I saw the BX that seems to pop into the corner of my eye and dive off soon after again today.


The view of a partially cleared Xantia windscreen. Quite a picture for myself as we don't get snow very often. I thought I'd see if I could get her started after clearing most of the snow off....no chance IT just decided to struggle. I put it down to the 25% oil i put in there a week or so ago but after a bit more investigation I found the battery was measuring at just over 11volts?! No wonder the entire dash lighting went dim when the glow plugs kicked in. I gave it a go with a spare tractor battery I had which measured at 12.5v, the dash lights looked a lot more promising, gave it 2 or 3 goes on the glow plugs and it managed to just about turn over once I reckon.

Went up again about an hour ago to check on the fuel filter, (don't know why I didn't check that first) I unscrewed the fuel drainer and erm not much came out...so took the lid off and after a 'pop' it smelt of diesel and didn't appear to be gelled at all, the drain plug then started doing its job. I primed the bulb again and out of the corner of my eye...air in the fuel line I still gave IT another go starting and it just died with the sound of the soleniod clicking

I'm going to go back and get the battery in a min to give it a good overnight charge.
I'm hoping to take IT to a friends house on Wednesday evening to go up on his ramps and unseize these flamin' height corrector linkages....

.....Ready for the MoT at 10:30 on Saturday

I'm not very fond of the cold weather and snow at the moment, It's a good job that where I work is within skiing distance

[CitroJim]

Oh dear Kev, I don't know, you soft West Country types - a sprinkling of snow and you go to pieces

We just had a light dusting up here although it snowed to about an inch deep and they sent us all home from work at 2PM

I reckon your problems will be down to gelling of the oil in the tank Kev and possibly plugging the fuel line or the tank strainer. It's amazing the cooling effect the wind can have blowing under the car and across the fuel tank.

Speaking of fuel filters, I had a very senior moment with the fuel filter in my 2.1TD yesterday. Very embarrassing too Read about it in my blog...

Good luck with the MOT on Saturday. It'll pass. I know how hard you've worked on the car. Just one tip. If it is still very cold then, make sure your washers are working and not frozen up. If need be, use a very strong concentration of screenwash..

[red_dwarfers]

Im very at the moment

A few of you may have realised why already

I have an MoT certificate with no advisaries 8)

The place I was originally going to go to was a bit remote but its where my parents have gone for the last couple of decades, very friendly owners. Unfortunatly, there were snowed out of work in 6-10" snow
As I wanted it ideally to be done today or the early part of next week just in case it failed, to gave me a bit of time before I go away next Monday for a mini-holiday, I rang around other local MoT centers and lo and behold the nearest garage to me had a slot at 09:30 this morning, so 15 minutes after the phonecall ended, she was up on the ramps being inspected

I was a bit worried about the dicky front HC playing foul with the headlamp beam test, but the guy but the suspension up to high to test this...he did have a bit of a problem bringing her back down to normal again, but eventually worked it out

[andmcit]

Great news Kev, life in the old dog yet then!!

Andrew

[CitroJim]

Excellent stuff Kev, delighted it passed

[red_dwarfers]

Right, went to see Status Quo down the Plymouth Pavillions on Friday Quite an experience, the first time I've been to a gig like that. thoroughly enjoyed that, ironically, afterwards we went to a pub and we heard 3 more of their songs

On my way to meet up with the others I was going with, I lost the power steering . I pulled over to find that the slightly broken suction pipe was getting even worse and the smallest of wiggles would have LHM squirting out, adding to the fact that I was running a little late anyway . I ended up unclamping the pipe from a couple of fixings to reroute it slightly so that I could snip the broken end off the pipe and bosh it back into the pump. This is were the toolbox and bag of bits that I keep in my boot come in very handy After all that faffing about including the Citrobic bleeding process, I was running quite late, we waited at the platform about 2 mins before the train arrived

Tomorrow Im going up to Oxford with a few friends for a couple of nights, if I can find a library with Internet access I will pop on, failing that, I'll be without the forum for two nights

[andmcit]

I can find a library with Internet access I will pop on, failing that, I'll be without the forum for two nights

OMG, how are you going to manage Kev!!!???

Andrew

[red_dwarfers]

Im well due for an update!

Not that a great deal has happened...its been rather quiet really. Not had a huge amount of motivation if im honest. Lots of little projects that I have started that I need to finish.

I have got some more footage for another Video Guide, just need to do the running commentary, I really do hope to make this a bit more regular when the warmed weather comes!

The Xantia is due some TLC and to that extent I have tracked down a new steering wheel cowling (The current one has many broken clips and flaps around) and am going to look into getting a new windscreen. After driving out in the oncoming sun today, the amount of scratches and small chips, plus the large one near the scuttle, does distort my view. I'm also getting a leak on the driver's side sun visor fixing, nearest the middle. I have a funny feeling that this could be down to the seal on the radio ariel though.

Right I must get back to some Windows 95 era gaming