My current runabout was beginning to fail spectacularly, Needed a car to replace it asap. Started looking on ebay & local papers etc for a 306td or 106d, had no luck finding anything half reasonably priced/good nick. The girlfriends dad said why not get an xantia td, cheap & good on fuel so thought why not. I had drove a few of his past/present xantia's & they all seemed ok regardless of mileage. He currently has 3x activa's, (2x ph2, 1x ph1) & a hdi estate.
Seen my xantia on ebay pretty local to me & stuck a daft bid of £330 & won, nowt to lose for the price eh!
Anyway went down & picked it up, cash exchanged & drove it home. Needed a bit of tlc but for the price seemed good. Apparantly spheres have been recently changed & brakes done which is a bonus.
On first look at the car it needed -
New wheel trims, one missing & crap 5 spoke design.
Airbox renewing, Fibreglass covering a hole at the top
Dodgy drilled base too..Proper valet, smell of wet dog inside.
Parcel shelf as it was missing.
Central locking plips not working.
Interior lights iffy.
A couple of touch ups to the body work to tidy it up.
On the plus side the engine ran well, everything else felt pretty tight for 146k. Drove it home for 30 mile & all went well.
Next day tried to start it from cold, wouldn't go on the first attempt even after waiting for the glow plug relay to click off. 2nd attempt it stuttered into life with a cloud of smoke, glow plugs shot. I was planning on a full service anyway so got the parts...
Set about changing the glow plugs, took 3 hrs with a variety of tools, not a nice job. Got that sorted & starts really well from cold now.
Next the aux belt started squealing 5 miles later. On closer inspection the belt had jumped a tooth towards the cam belt cover! Belt was worn out & cracked so thought it was the fault. The auto tensioner was sitting on a funny angle with loose bolt, infact snapped. Tried to fit new belt & realized the tensioner was all over the shop. From initially looking at the room to sort this i knew the fun was about to begin
Got the parts & removed the hp pump & alt to access the tensioner bracket. Not a nice job really took a canny few hours to do. Luckily the remains of the bolt were loose so everything went pretty well. Fitted new belt & ready to roll again. Lost radio code in process but sorted that with help from here
Next job was a lhm leak from the 19mm union on the pump, sorted that in ten mins with a new seal. Had ten mins spare so banged the new air box & new filter on. Discovered the airbox was drilled all round the inlet
probably sucking in loads of unfiltered air! Thought the turbo whistle seemed pretty loud. Wish id took a pic of this before binning it, shocking really.Transferred my ins policy over tonight, the heater blower stopped working, typical. Tomorrows jobs inc oil change, got to love a french car
Jobs to do up to now -
Fix heater blower, can't be doing with out that.
Change timing belt.
Look at the height adjusters, rear wont rise/fall with citrobotics, im assuming its siezed/white clip popped off.
Re-gas air con. (with weather the way it is this can wait)
Fix plips, new battery's but the plips wont sync to the car even though they work.
New rear tyre n/s as its low, hopefully find a set of activa alloys for it eventually.
Hopefully its going to prove itself to be reliable even though its been problem after problem up to now. Let the fun commence!
Too big she says; she wants me to get her a Pug 206...
You've got to be a lot more careful because of the long bonnet and saloon styling, and those rather big C pillers. With a smaller car, its also a lot easier to squeeze through potential mistakes.
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