Veggie and Activa tales but now rental reviews blog!

[KP]

Well back from holiday and onto the Xantia to get it MOT'd and sold as the tax is up at the end of the month.

So today i set out to do a service.

Took the ramps off the rear wheels, put them at the front and drove it up.
To do this i had to swap the battery as it was flat after 2-3weeks no use, so swapped for a 62ah one i have kicking around and then once it had a few seconds to settle at tickover i put the other battery back on
The aux belt squeak has now gone and im guessing being sat up for so long hadn't helped that and my regular start ups are easing it off.
While the car warmed up i removed the accelerator kick back damper, and then swapped out the air filter.
Once the fans had kicked in and kicked out i switch the engine off and removed the plug and left the oil to drain.
I had the old boot base material so while the oil seeped out i set to do the fuel and oil filter.
Fuel filter done by cracking open the drain feed and draining a little out but still some leaked over the side.
Swapped it out and fitted the new one and tightened all back up, then set to the oil filter which was super tight.
So some fighting and it was off. Cleaned off the interface and then applied oil to the new ones rubber seal and fitted it.
Took the oil filler cap and dipstick out and gave them a clean with my clean oil rag.-
Even using a cut off bottle there was still some splurts from the bubbles coming back up so once the filler cover was back on and dipstick in i gave the area a good squirt with fairy liquid/warm water mix and gave it a minute to soak before then cranking the engine over and letting it idle before then using the gentle spray on the car wash hose to wash it all off and leave a much cleaner area than it was before i started.

Will double check oil level tomorrow but will pop over to oldham and pickup some total LHM about 3-4litres which works out at £1/litre which is cracking value!

Then gave the car a quick wash and did the same with the XM and maybe get time to service the XM tomorrow.

The bits i now need for the Xantia are
Drivers side wiper arm with splines intact!
Drivers side window switch pod with mirror controls.

For the XM i now need
LED refurb kit
Drivers side window switch panel(single touch down is intermittant)
MK2 radio with working lights, code and display and tape player cover (for when i sell it on as i want to stay original upon sale and the current one has a broken cover for the tape player, and the lights dont work on it )
Work on air direction issue as it doesnt vary when i turn the temp and fan power as well as recirc work fine annoyingly!


On other good news, after washing the car i could see the difference in the section of the bonnet i used the meguirs restoration kit on and the rest that i didnt so another job to finish off as it doesnt half bring that part of the bodywork up and will help with a sale when people see the car in real life as it literally just shines and feels so smooth!
Order will be, Wash, Claybar, Light wash, meguirs compound, light wash and claybar again, then final polish applied and buffed off

Well thats it so far!
The XM has hit 196k and just carries on going. I keep putting veg in with 4 litres of normal dino diesel per tank. The xantia is running on pure veg now with a tiny small amount of engine oil in it as i've found about 100ml per tank gets rid of the smell of the veg quite well. The XM is also getting this treatment with old engine oil but does dilute it more than the xantia due to the size of the tank.

Getting about 750+miles from each XM tank at the moment which is annoying but with work being so varied at the moment i dont spend a whole lot of time sat at motorway speeds. Not having AC sucks in the winter but it doesnt take long for the windows to clear.

[CitroJim]

For the XM i now need
LED refurb kit

What's one of those then Will? Is that to sort out missing pixels ont he LH display?

If so, I'm most interested...

[KP]

I've found a link to a guy in France who sells the kits for €40 delivered Jim

Meant LCD not led lol just realised that

Well tonight I picked up 4litres of castors lhm for... £4 in Oldham total bargain!!

Very annoyed though as today I was hoping tigger onto the abs sensor on the xantia.

The xm put pay to that thought though.
Started to service it and didn't need to do the filter as it's a l&b jobby so need a quick hose out.
Then the fuel filter... That purflux setup is a nightmare and even now I'm not sure it's 100% sealed tight again.
Then I went to hunt for the oil filter. Could I find it? Could I friggin bollox! I really need to install my lights in the garage as this would help a lot more as after it got broke into I painted all the windows up so no one can look in and tripled locked the doors!
So that part of the service was scrapped!
I also noted that the oil cooler had been disconnected from the cooling circuit.
This explains where I get a tiny drip from every now and again, though it only seems to happen once a week or less, and the oil level is still the same so it can't be that big but at least it's one less thing to worry about.

Also had to fix the stupid underbody tray for the front-rear hydro pipes and fuel pipes and have now realised that as there is a repair section in there it's too big for it so have used some metal reinforcing to keep it in place and help support it. Will see how it goes though.


LCD repair kit will likely wait until the end of the month as the money will go on the xantia mot and get it moved on

[CitroJim]

Let me have the link for that repair kit Will as I'll get one too...

So where is the oil filter then?

[KP]

God knows Jim

I've given up finding it now and resorted to buying another off the bay to get the job done

It will turn up one day I'm sure. What day that is who knows lol!

[CitroJim]

God knows Jim

I've given up finding it now and resorted to buying another off the bay to get the job done

It will turn up one day I'm sure. What day that is who knows lol!

Does that refer to the LCD repair link or the oil filter Will?

[KP]

The oil filter

I'll try and dig the link out for the LCD when I get a chance Jim

[CitroJim]

I'll try and dig the link out for the LCD when I get a chance Jim

Thanks Will as I'm told I need to order two...

Although for the other XM in question the display is nowhere as bad as mine...

[KP]

If it's not too bad then maybe the pencil method would work?

[KP]

Well time for an update.

My dad reported gearbox issues the other week when he went to turn it around on the driveway after driving it home and emptying the shopping into the house.

Originally i thought it might be the clutch or DMF gone.
I was wrong and it looks like the selector mechanism in the box is the issue but now he is struggling to get the thing off the car

On the other hand it has got my Xantia finally sorted as the only other semi functional car i had at the time, so I've handed it over to him to use until his C5 is back online.
Its getting re-mot'ed tomorrow as it failed today on the drivers rear door not opening.
Apparently the garage tried everything.... I told my dad to simply take the plunger part off and leave the bare metal rod showing. Job done and took about 30seconds for him to do
Next on the list is getting the code for the radio so he's going to take it out at some point and get the serial number off it and plug it into the calculators that are floating around, failing that may have to pay citroen for it unless one feels nice enough to offer it up(can these be pulled from service.citroen easily enough?
Everything else it passed on as well without any minors apparently so i'm well chuffed! I'll get him to do some tidying up of it and I've got some Veg and engine oil to drop off for it to use as fuel as the glowplugs on it must be pretty good as it start first time on any fuel put in regardless of outside temp or how long its sat and just pumps away
It does need the aux belt pulley sorting though as its a squeeker on startup and under heavy load, IE AC on, alternator pulling power and HP pump requiring power with power steering loaded up.

The 2.5td is being a pain to start sometimes in the morning so i tried it on straight diesel and pumping the primer pump as well incase of an airleak. This doesnt help at all so its now the glowplugs that need to be done. I'll get some of the duraterm ones i posted up a while ago and have a bash at getting them done, even if i just do the 2 easy ones its likely to help somewhat as it feels like 2-3 could be dead now

The car seems to be OK after its recent radiator issues whereby i found the ChargeCooler radiator sprung a hole!

I had already ordered the big rad up so i now have a cheap OE one sat for me when i need it. It doesnt have the rail across the top for the fuel pipes to clip in so when the time comes i think those pipes will come off and i'll fit some proper goodyear stuff that i have in the garage.
I have also recieved a smll package from a breakers with some tasty bits in it. Mainly 2 bumper washer trims as any car i've seen that hasn't been really cared for seems to have them missing! and the vents for the doors, the pillars and dash ends and the twist nob for the boot storage bins

The anti sink valve does stick a little i have found but i give the engine a good 30seconds to prime things up before driving off in the morning. She copes well when fully loaded although i am keen to get the radiator setup back as it should be even though its not great as i've found on Noz's forum due to the way the thermostat is setup

The heater control panel direction nob does nothing at all. This needs looking at as it could be the nob, the cable(if its cable) or the flap end.
The dab radio that i installed is working great. im just trying to get a good sized SD card for it that works so i can stop burning CD's for it and also because it will stop the odd bit of skipping i get over a rough bit of road i have to drive a lot, and when i say rough, i think it was put in in the '70s and hasnt had any care since so is pothole nirvana!!

Also there is some wierd fault that the passenger wing mirror after startup has a mind of its own for about 5-10seconds wondering where its going.
I think its something to do with the dipping on reverse function of the cars mirror but ho hum i can live with it.

MPG wise im getting between 43-46 as i seem to hit a lot of traffic lately, like the M56 close the other night where i spent 2hours diverting round that after everywhere became gridlocked and with my phone battery dead and both charging cables at home i did my own diversion from memory which at least got me moving again!

On the runs when its been clear at silly o'clock i've done resets on the trip odo and been getting into the high 50's just cruising along at 55-60.
She needs a good clean though as the commuter dirt is building inside and out and she happily swallowed 150 3kg bricks the other day without complaint. The abck became super soft though so i may chuck another load in longterm, help with the economy on the downhill runs!

On the RR front i have finished stripping the intank pump, balance pump and floats down, cleaned up and cleaned the tank out and put them back in. the car is now resealed so i'll get a dehumidifier in there to dry her out as she smells a bit musty from being sat a few months but nothing a good day of care wont fix when she is back on the road!
She needs a new battery as the one in it has been killed recently by one of the frosts despite being on a charger. Even the ctek couldnt bring it back to life when i tried it.
After this if she still runs rough i'll get a new injector wiring loom and go from there. She was washed around my birthday so shes got 2 months of silt dirt built up on her which also needs to come off, and will be another day of washing as she will love it!

The '12 plate golf i drive sometimes is performing OK and due its first service. It feels crap in the morning after a cold night even after a run of the glowplugs but as its a 1.6TDI i suspect as much and will just get VW to check it over when it goes in. Its a very very hard ride though and i dont think i can ever go back to a steelie sprung car unless it was one of my past frenchies. These german thigns are just way too hard for me as i get older

[CitroJim]

You have been busy Will

[KP]

Well time has been ticking by and they got a lot of neglect due to work so it was time I have them some love

[KP]

Well update time!

I picked up a 2005 C5r 2.0 HDi138 16v estate. With some faults mind!

First one was cruise control not always working and showing up speed control system fault occasionally.
Interior heat control for both drivers and passengers side doesn't work and I'm sure the AC compressor isn't cutting in.
Both front alloy centres are missing and the wheels are badly scuffed
the interior needs a bit of a clean to get rid of the last of the smoker smell in it which i can just about pick-up now
Depolution fault comes up on the dash sometimes as well.
Lumpy idle and smoke from cold for about 20seconds and then clears.

So far i have narrowed things down to;
Depolution fault is the fuel cap sensor(approx £60 and fun to fit!)
Cruise Control seems fine after fault cleared
Heater issue is a known weakness where the flap motor spindle isnt long enough and just wears out the control due to not spreading the load out over a big enough area. Revised motors available from citroen for about £70 a side from what i've seen but i need to get at them first to double check, i need to read up on this as i haven't seen any nice picture guides of it all yet.
Startup i think is the car needing a good run with some strong fuel system cleaner in as i think it could be a leaky injector as it quickly clears and doesn't affect performance or running in normal operation and MPG seems to be pretty decent.

Lexia has shown the DPF is 20% clogged but wont run a dpf regen due to the fault for the fuel filler cap fault

The big things that are bugging me at the moment are all interior airflow related, the flaps and the compressor not kicking in. But even though the compressor isn't kicking in there is no faults with the system being shown.

Heres some pics from my diagnostics of the car so far.





If anyone can help by posting up screen grabs from their AC running and working without issue that would be great might help me workout whats going on!

It took me a day of faffing around to get diagbox working but at least its working on a Spare lenovo X61s laptop. I'll likely soon be selling the laptop and another one of my laptops soon and getting a small-ish business one for my new company so will probably have a dual boot machine with 32bit for diags of cars and a 64bit os to make use of the extra ram in the machine.

In other news the Xm hasn't been too bad. Its had the radio and centre console upgraded so i now have BT audio in the car and a USB socket that charges my phone so all good. its now getting a much higher MPG as i've been doing longer runs and its dropped from 52mpg down to 48mpg average over the weekend due to short blasts locally but as i'll be doing 22miles each way to my a jobsite up until around xmas. With the roadworks on the 56 and 6 i spend the almost whole journey sat at 55mph on the speedo and 3 miles over thelwall at 40 so the MPG is going to be nice!
The car however had a moan in that the fuel injector leakoff stopper at the end of the injector row was leaking fuel. Everywhere i parked there would be a small puddle under the car when i got back as it bascially then ran down the block. I've swapped it for another one i have but am thinking that i may just run a length of leakoff pipe and T into the main section which feeds into the injector pump.
Im keeping my eye out for a cheap set of injectors and pump as i would like to get the injectors recon'd and the pop pressures increased a little to account for the veg.
Also still on the cards for the XM is a proper heated fuel filter assembly taking the heat from the heater matrix supply pipe and lag the filter itself when fitted(£60)

I've also managed to get 2 sets of seal kits from a mix of 2 dealers for the LHM pump so that will be a job for sometime in the next few weeks when they come in from the other dealers.
Thanks to Tim i have some spares including a LH display so will be getting to that at some point and refurbing it, fit to the car and refurb the removed one

Onwards and upwards as the Blue Xantia TD is back on ebay for the 4th time due to timewasters! The last one was coming from Dublin and and wasnt happy when he realised he would have to get here himself and that i was being quite reasonable when i said i would fill the tank with veg but it would be £65 to do it, which is still miles cheaper than diesel but he threw a wobbler and said it was too much hassle so wanted to cancel the transaction! I was a fair bit p1553d off as the car had only sold for £255 so wasn't a lot of money for what the car is really, bargain of the century and not much more than i paid all in!

[Chris570]

Seems like you're having fun with the world of PSA!

One question, why are you thinking of getting a heated fuel filter?

Not sure if you know but i've got a 2.5 xm as well and i'm running veg on it. I had an air ingress problem and i've resolved it by changing the pipework into the injection pump and from the bulkhead. I've also added a little helper lift pump though that sits just next to the throttle pot and delivers the fuel at something silly like 4psi so the fuel system from that point on is at a slightly positive pressure so air ingress simply won't happen Since doing that (£18 including the new pipework) I've had no problems at all with fuel delivery. I run straight veg, i don't cut with diesel.

[KP]

Ahh didn't know that Chris!

The problem is that you can't overheat veg so my thinking is to make life easier for the uplift pump in the main pump to heat the veg in the filter housing. Which I'm sure is leaking a little air Ito the system so want to replace it and put a hand grenade pump in for emergency needs.

Also as I'm using soya at the moment it is a good bit thicker than rapeseed but I may have stumbled across a supplier 45mins away that can supply new rapeseed for 55p/l!! Even cheaper than some wvo suppliers and would be good for winter as well.

While I can get away with not cutting it with diesel i almost always put a little in each tankful so as to make it thinner.

I've replaced some sections of supply pipe under the bonnet but think I'll need to replace it all soon and run the supply pipe along the bulk head and the return pipe over the engine covers instead of the original fitment going thru and round some as it's a very specific angled route which is annoying as the pipe takes so many twists and turns on it's routes