Tales of a C3, a Goddess and some BMW's.

Koukku · Unread post by **Koukku** » 06 May 2009, 08:16

The V6 is more front heavy than other Xantias, as all the added weight is on the fronts. I can imagine that the front brakes will do almost all stopping work on these beasts, and unless you do regular emergency brakings, the rears can get stuck. If you look at the size difference of front and rear discs on a V6 it seems that Citroen knew exactly which end needs the stopping power, and which doesn't.

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 10 May 2009, 21:32

My VSX passed the MOT this morning with no advisories, having covered a total of 1003 miles in the past year giving a total mileage of 34,410

, she still smells and drives like a new car, no noise whatsoever over bumps and a very smooooth ride with comfort sphere's. I spoke to the MOT tester about the rear brakes issue on the V6 last week, he stated that the test requirement varies according the the weight of the car so a V6 will have a slightly higher requirement due to the extra weight. He stated that the VSX TD came out with a much higher result than the V6 so maybe I'll have to fit a new set of rear disc's as they are the only thing showing any signs of wear and its minimal at that, everything else is 100%

When I returned home I fitted a set of new glowplugs to Bob's TD, oh what a joy that job is, especially when it comes to the two plugs behind the pump. When Bob left I tinkered about with the Goddess, ticking off another couple of minor jobs to do off the list, now its time to get stuck into getting her properly cleaned up $\:D/$

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 16 May 2009, 08:37

Having just opened a Flickr account I though I'd add a few photo's from my collection, the first one is as the Goddess was being driven out from her French barn for the last time;

The following pictures were taken in the garden by her previous owner

On the journey home it would have been silly to miss out on the obvious photo opportunity, notice the missing piece of trim? Now sorted BTW.

This last one is from the journey home at the Eurotunnel terminal in France with my daughter Danielle.

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 11 Jun 2009, 19:15

This blog has been rather quiet lately as apart from helping Jim refit the engine and gearbox to his V6 project I'd been preparing the DS for this weekends rally and my HDi estate for a trip I undertook last weekend with a number of friends from work to see the Normandy D-Day beaches. Having owned the car for the best part of two years (during which time the car had been 100% reliable) I still felt the need to carefully prepare the car by way of fitting a new cambelt in additon to the usual checks.

So last Thrusday morning four of us set off in the car and caught the Newhaven to Dieppe ferry and had a pleasant crossing on a calm sea with the sun shining. Having cleared Dieppe I set off to where we were staying (Honfleur) but just ten miles into France I noticed the "Stop" and brake lights were flashing at me which in 14 years of driving Citroën's was a new and rather worrying experience for me. As the car still stopped, steered and accelerated normally I limped the car a couple of miles to a town we could see in the distance then stopped in the main square car park to carry out an investigation. As a stopped I put the suspension onto its highest setting and lifted the bonnet only to see the float on the hydraulic reservoir drop down below the maximum level almost immediately so I quickly switched the engine off and peered under the car to see LHM fluid dripping into an ever increasing puddle under the nearside rear of the car.

Needless to say at this point thinking that a high pressure hydraulic pipe had burst I was very concerned that our journey was about to come to an abrupt end. However I'd taken quiet a collection of tools with me so I jacked the car up to take a look under the car but could only see a stream of drips running down from above the rear subframe, taking the nearside wheel off didn't really help locate the source but a glimmer of hope came when one of my friends had a poke above the subframe and noticed that he could cause the flow to be interrupted if he moved a plastic return pipe. Long story short, what had happened is that the return pipe had slipped off of its rubber push fit joint so simply poking it back together stopped the leak. Better still is that literally just around the corner from where we had stopped was a Renault garage which had three litres of spare LHM to refill the tank and get us on our way again.

The big question running through my mind was why did the pipe slip off, was it due to excess pressure due to an internal leak? Having now completed over 800 miles over the past week (since the repair) and that all is still well I'm coming to the conclusion that when the reason for the failure may have been down to previous work on the car several years ago when the rear Hydractive valve and height corrector were replaced which may have disturbed the pipe joint leaving a ticking time bomb. Whenever the car is left it maintains its normal ride height unless a door is opened which opens the Hydractive valves so all appears normal at this stage so I'm employing a "watch and wait" policy whilst carrying a few litres of spare LHM just in case it re-occurs.

Visiting the D-Day sites was a truly remarkable, thought provoking and humbling event leaving me with the feeling that paying a visit there is a "must do" for everyone in order to get some idea of what those poor souls went through. Reading some of the letters the soldiers wrote to their families just hours before they were killed brought quite a tear to my eye, very sad. What I'd never realised is just how big those beaches are, other than "Utah" beach the others were one continuous beach making the total beach length about sixty miles

The past week has been spent "topping and tailing" the DSM rally convoy route directions including re-running the route in case of last minute road works, with the weather now looking good for the weekend I'm well set for an enjoyable time, that is provided the Hernia I've just had pop out doesn't get too lively!

Unread post by **xantia_v6** » 11 Jun 2009, 20:28

It sounds like the same problem I had a few months ago. I put a cable tie around the joint to stop it slipping off again.

I think that mine came off when I had a heavy load in the back, so maybe that contributes?

I have also since found that the diode on my rear electrovalve was partly or intermittnatly faulty. The hydroactive switched correctly electrically (and stayed electricaly in soft mode), but was often slow to go into hydraulic soft mode, or seemed to stay in a state that was nearly but not quite hard mode. I don't know if the electrovalve has more leakage in this state?

Since adding extra diodes, the electrovalve has been opening instantly, and since adding the cable tie, no more leaks!

Unread post by **RichardW** » 11 Jun 2009, 21:01

I had trouble with this on my VSX too - I think it must be to do with wear in the electrovalve overwhelming the return and the pressure popping the joint off. I had it shoved back on a big cost, and it came off 60 miles later, so I shoved it back on with a cable tie and it came off 300 miles later, so I shoved it back on with a cable tie either side wired together and it's been like that for at least 40k miles now (car still running someone else's hands)

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 11 Jun 2009, 21:13

Hmm, I'll have a look at the return flow rate from the Hydractive valve when I get the chance, the valve has been replaced within the past 30,000 miles and the car stays level when left parked but I'll check it for peace of mind, thanks for your comments chaps

MikeT · Unread post by **MikeT** » 11 Jun 2009, 22:02

A superb shine on that bodywork

Unread post by **xantia_v6** » 11 Jun 2009, 22:19

I never saw more than a slow dribble from mine, and it took about a month to lose 500ml of LHM, but I expect there is a surge flow when the valve switches one way or the other.

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 11 Jun 2009, 22:24

Whilst I bought three litres of LHM in France I only used just one of them, the other two are being kept in the car in case of a re-occurrence

vince · Unread post by **vince** » 12 Jun 2009, 19:37

Oh the pictures of the DS......

Im a grown man and happy with what i have so far, but im not afraid to say that jealousy oozes out of me when i see these pictures of the Goddess...

Cant wait to see her in the flesh this weekend and if im lucky, scrounge a ride 8)

Brigsygtt · Unread post by **Brigsygtt** » 12 Jun 2009, 19:55

The pic under the eiffel tower is awesome 8) Stunning car & location.

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 21 Jun 2009, 22:13

Time for some catching up here after a great weekend at the DSM rally where it was good to put faces to names and have a good chat. The journey to the rally was going well until the N/S/F hub cap made a break for freedom along the A413, it was one of those strange occurrences where I saw a round shape moving in my peripheral vision but couldn't initially determine what it was which made it difficult to work out exactly where the hub cap went despite spending half an hour looking for it. I managed to buy a new hub cap the following morning at the rally at a cost of £61 which gives some idea of the cost of parts for a DS, whilst pretty much everything is available, it is at a price. Thankfully the convoy drive I'd planned for the rally appeared to go OK, allowing me to relax and enjoy the rest of the weekend getting sunburnt on the back of my legs and neck due to delving under the bonnet of other peoples cars

.

In my ongoing quest to get the Goddess running 100% I recently managed to get hold of a fuel pressure gauge which proved very useful as it identified that the injection fuel pressure was running at 37 psi rather than the stated 28 psi so one evening this week I tweaked the pressure regulator to bring it down to the required level. This altered the running of the engine to the extent that starting from cold identified that the mixture had clearly been weakened as it was rather reluctant to run without a helping hand by way of pressing the accelerator for a couple of minutes.

With today being Fathers Day I popped down to see my Dad in Sussex yesterday rather than today to avoid congestion (London to Brighton bike ride today) in the Goddess as he's only had a few trips in her and he does rather enjoy the experience. This trip proved to be a rather useful test drive as it identified that the fuel mixture may be too weak as the engine became a little 'fluffy' following sustained motorway driving, so today I took the opportunity to make use of an emissions tester Jim had given me. As suspected the mixture was way too weak giving a CO reading of 0.60 so I spent the best part of an hour tweaking the mixture adjusting screw on the side of the ECU (despite reading everywhere that the screw must never be adjusted). I've been searching high and low for the recommended CO setting but I cannot find it anywhere so I've set it at 2.0 which would have been a common figure for the era of the car, it has also made a significant improvement to the running of the engine, no more popping from the exhaust, just a constant burble

a quick test drive confirmed that she's definitely smoother and quicker now. Over the past week I dug out an old Car magazine road test of a DS EFi and discovered that the 0-60 time is just over 10 seconds which shows she is no slouch and can offer a surprise to other motorists

That's the good news, the not so good news is that I've discovered some rust patching on the underside of the Goddess which doesn't appear to have been done correctly so tomorrow she's off to see Darrin at http://www.citroenclassics.co.uk/ for a full diagnosis on the issue.

Unread post by **xantia_v6** » 22 Jun 2009, 06:52

I think your DS has d-jetronic injection?? I have several years experience owning a pre-HE XJ-S with d-jet, and found that as the systems age, you need to get a bit more adventurous to keep the mixture just right.

The full (and unpublished) procedure is:

Adjust the fuel pressure for slightly richer than stoichiomentric at full throttle, mid revs, (a bit tricky to maintain that on the XJ-S without a rolling road).

Then adjust the calibration screw in the MAP sensor to be as lean as possible, consistent with the engine running nicely cruising at 30-4-MPH. This should be done under real driving conditions and can take a bit of trial and error, as each engine seems to have a different sweet spot.

The MAP sensor screw is under the cap with the epoxy seal and the adjustment has a locknut.

Finally adjust the idle speed and mixture for the correct CO (but maybe an older engine will idle better a little richer).

DickieG · Unread post by **DickieG** » 25 Jun 2009, 22:11

Thanks for the info on D-Jetronic, I'll see how my latest adjustment goes and take it from there.

The Goddess is due to return home tomorrow following remedial work for a previous rust bodge to the floor which turned out to be using bodywork sections cut out from some old (pink!) car

. I had the option of having a temporary job done but opted for the full works of complete new replacement sections being cut in to remove the rusted area forever

. The cost of this work however literally took my breath away and has caused me to lose quite a bit of sleep this week

the new interior I'd been planning for her will definitely have to wait for some time now. I daren't even think of letting SWIMBO know of the cost as I'll be awoken in the middle of the night with a long blade sticking out from between my shoulders

my only line of defence should she discover the cost is that had I spent the same amount of money buying a new car then it would now be worth about half of what I spent buying Goddess which will have at least retained it value.

If anyone has any other ideas for my defence (literally) please pass them on ASAP in case I need to think very quickly as I defend myself from a large blade

Cars are as bad as women, can't live with or without them!!