ZX Volcane questions

volcane_nut · Post by **volcane_nut** » 08 Jan 2009, 19:35

I'm the proud owner of a 96 (n reg) ZX Volcane 2.0 8v. I love the car but have noticed an odd noise whilst accelerating. It normally happens about 4000 rpm and sounds like a plastic rattle noise coming from the gear stick. I've tried alsorts to stop it but nothing seems to work. Does it sound like there is an issue with the gearbox? The car has done 86k and has had a clutch put in within the last 6 months (previous owner did it). I've heard that it may be a bearing in the gearbox (maybe main shaft) but i'm hoping its something common or easy to fix. The car pulls like a train in all gears and selects all gears without too much hassle. As i've read in other posts that the ZX is basically the same car as the 306, then if the gearbox does have a major fault, can a box be swapped from a 306 as their aren't many ZX's about?

Also, how easy is it to top up the air con on one of these fantastic cars. I tried the air con after buying the car but the air didn't get too cold, under the bonnet behind the drivers side head lamp there is a small metal connister which i've seen in the haynes manual that holds the fluid for the air con. When the engine is running you can see fluid and bubbles in the little window and when you engage the air con the revs die a little, hinting that something is working but the air doesn't get cold. Does this mean that it just needs re gassing to fix?

One final thing, when the car is started, it idles at around 2 - 2500 rpm and takes a while to settle, you can drive for 5 mins and it will still idle high but after a few more mins it settles to idle at around 8 - 900 rpm. its also very jittery on light throttle whilst its cold but when warm its ok. I think it needs a good service, but i'm also thinking that the idle control valve or stepper motor could be worn, whats the best way to check?

There's probably loads more things that i could ask but these are 2 niggly things that i'd like to sort out. Also the car has its MOT on monday so hopefully nothing much will be wrong with it.

Thanks

Lee

deian · Post by **deian** » 08 Jan 2009, 20:31

Hi,

Not sure about the noise, have u checked the gearbox oil level?
The bearing u have heard about in the gearbox would probably be the thrust bearing, in which case the previous owner would have replaced it with the clutch kit he had.

The 306 is based on the ZX so it will share many common parts, and I think the gearbox would probably be the same, someone will come along in a bit to confirm this.

Aircon does sound like it needs topping up, the aircon pumps clutch is engaging when u press the switch, therefore putting more load on the engine, that is why the idle will drop, but the ecu will soon correct for this. Maybe you could look into one of these kits to regass the aircon cannister... oh it's gas by the way, not fluid.

High idle sounds like the stepper motor/idle control valve (same thing), in which case, something will come up in the MOT I'm sure, and it should be an easy fix.. for the MOT guy, he may charge more, but u can look at the ICV urself.

The other thing it could be is the coolant sensor, it tells the car to run rich when cold, therefore faster idle, when there is some temp in the water after running a while the coolant sensor will detect this and the ecu will change the map. It could be other sensors too, does it have a O2 sensor?

How is it on fuel?

It sounds like it needs a good service.

Welcome to the club.

volcane_nut · Post by **volcane_nut** » 08 Jan 2009, 21:07

thanks for the prompt reply, by o2 sensor do you mean lambda? its a 96 so i would have thought so. Sorry not very knowledgable. I currently get around 250 miles from the tank but not sure if this is right for the car. it seems like its only got a small tank as it only takes just over £20 to fill (last time i fillied it petrol was 82.9 per litre.

I think that when i get it through the MOT a good service will be done, i guess its coming up for a cambelt change soon, i've read that it should be done every 48k so thats around 96k for the second change, is this an expensive job?

Thanks in advance

deian · Post by **deian** » 08 Jan 2009, 21:33

yea, the O2 sensor is the Lambda sensor

it should costs loads more than £20 to fill it from bottom to top, nice to have fuel costs down too!

not too sure on the cambelt job, shouldn't be too expensive, u could do it urself if u know ur way around an engine, that'll save on labour costs

volcane_nut · Post by **volcane_nut** » 08 Jan 2009, 21:49

As far as i'm aware, its got a lambda sensor. Sorry that should be £30 petrol not £20. Damn keyboard.

Its got a bit of a dodgy fuel guage, as in the needle doesn't stay still for very long, cornering or accelerating cause the needle to drop considerably, i had the same issue with my AX GT a few years ago, one second it says you have half a tank, the next its almost empty then back up to half. I'm guessing its just the sender is old and knackered.

I've never done a cam belt before but i dont see why i shouldn't be able to do it. I've heard that citroen's and peugeots and renaults sometimes have issues when releasing the bolts, especially ones on bottom pulley. I know the last one my dad did on my megane last summer was pain. There isn't a lot of room on the drivers side of the engine so is space an issue with doing the cambelt? I'll have to read the haynes manual to see how difficult it is. i tend to do servicing myself but leave more difficult jobs to the pro's. Still i must learn sometime.

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 09 Jan 2009, 08:44

the tank should certainly hold more than £30 squid of fuel, may be when the guage is reading low or empty you have about half a tank still in there,

i have not done a petrol XU engine cam belt for quite some time now, but i think if memery serves the hardest part of the job is unboltting the side section of the top engine mount,

regards malcolm

Sl4yer · Post by **Sl4yer** » 09 Jan 2009, 20:17

Well done on your purchase! I wanted a 16v for a long time, but by most accounts the 8v is the better drive. Must be pretty quick!

You're right to beware the fuel gauge on a ZX. I rarely get more than 44 litres into the 56 litre tank, even when the gauge is rock bottom. You might think this is a good thing, but my old petrol model had very poor fuel pickup. I found that out the hard way in the 3rd lane of the M62, after I'd only had it a couple of days.

Fill up as soon as the yellow light stays on!

My 1.4 did about 34 MPG in normal use. I don't expect the 2 litre would be too far below that.*

James

* Unlike a 2 litre turbo Activa that does about 23!

volcane_nut · Post by **volcane_nut** » 09 Jan 2009, 21:14

I had a extensively modified AX GT and that was good but i like the ZX more, it doesn't handle as well as the AX did although that had been lowered over 60mm front and rear with harder springs and shocks. I think it needs a service as its a little hesitant in the lower rev range but i think once i've changed the oil, filters, plugs, idle control it should be better.

It suffers from understeer at the minute but thats probably down to the old tyres, i think a new set all round is needed soon anyway, what tyres would anyone recommend? I do about 15k miles a year and most of it is cross country.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 10 Jan 2009, 14:46

Could the cause of your fast idle problem be the engine thermostat? Does the temperature gauge get to around 90 reasonably quickly? - if not start the car from cold and feel the engine and the top hose. As the engine warms up the engine should heat up fat and the hose (after the thermostat - sat cold - suddenly warming as the thermostat opens. (as its around 90 degrees it'll be far too hot to grab hold of - take care as it gets hot!)

I've got 2 diesel ZX - and on both it seems the bottom 3 gallons is not recorded on the gauge.

It seems Peugeot made many types of BE3 gearbox - all with different ratios - so you need to check what you are getting. (Some estates even have different ratios to the equivalent saloon!)

volcane_nut · Post by **volcane_nut** » 11 Jan 2009, 08:58

the temp gauge gets to the second mark within about 5 mins, the heater gets hot quite quick as well.

So would this mean that if the thermostat is not working correctly, the ECU is mistakingky thinking it needs to run a cold map when it shouldn't.

I've also noticed that after a drive you stop the engine and then restart it, the engine idles fast again for a minute or two then settles again even though the engine is warm, thats why i initially thought about the idle control valve / stepper motor.

As its got its mot tomorrow, i'll have to see what the garage says about it.

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 11 Jan 2009, 10:17

the idle control stepper motors do fail with age

regards malcolm

Sl4yer · Post by **Sl4yer** » 11 Jan 2009, 11:58

citronut wrote:the idle control stepper motors do fail with age

Failed on my 1.4. But failed in the warm position, which made the first few minutes of driving challenging!

The idle on it's own shouldn't be an MOT issue, since the engine has to be thoroughly warm before testing.

James

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 11 Jan 2009, 12:18

Sounds like your thermostat is OK - yes I was thinking the ECU might be compensating for a cold engine all the time - especially in the current cold weather.

Which leads me to wonder if the temperature sensor is OK?

volcane_nut · Post by **volcane_nut** » 12 Jan 2009, 12:18

well its been for its MOT and failed (kind of expected it really) but its nothing too expensive to put right.

1 new tyre
passenger side headlight is moveing about, probably a mounting post broken
rear brake pads need changing
rear brake valve leaking
hand brake travel exessive (probably due to pads and needs adjsuting)

and thats all, so all in all not too bad, i was expecting more.

There were a couple of advisory things (wiper blades and usual) and a couple of rubber brake hoses starting to crack so they will get done in the summer.

I'm planning on giving the car a good service next month (when i've got some monet again) and repair a couple of small dent and scratches to bring it back up to a nice appearance.

anyone got any ideas on tuning? Are the engines pretty reliable in the ZX? I'd like a bit more power from it (maybe K&N filter and exhaust change).

Has anyone ever turbo'd one? I'm not thinking massive turbo with a larghe amount of boost, just a light pressure turbo, what would be involved.

Post by **CitroJim** » 12 Jan 2009, 12:54

Leaking brake valves seem quite a common failure. There's been a few posts in the past about those.

volcane_nut wrote: anyone got any ideas on tuning? Are the engines pretty reliable in the ZX? I'd like a bit more power from it (maybe K&N filter and exhaust change).

Not a lot of scope really, the ECU prevents anything much. A freer flowing exhaust may help but swapping the air filter won't; the original airbox and filter are seriously good. A K&N element in the original box might not be a bad idea but by no means necessary.

volcane_nut wrote: Has anyone ever turbo'd one? I'm not thinking massive turbo with a larghe amount of boost, just a light pressure turbo, what would be involved.

Many of us drive them in our Activas. The TCT (XU10J2CTE) engine is basically a low-pressure turbo version of your engine. They're good. 150BHP and enough torque to climb the side of a wall

At risk of making Andrew (andmcit) see red, a transplant from a dead Activa or TCT Estate is possible and they can be tuned quite simply to liberate a few more horses by upping the boost a tad and putting on a freer flowing exhaust.