Citroenmads Citroen blog.

[CitroJim]

I like those new plates Chris

It's amazing just how a pair of smart plates can really improve the appearance of a car.

[Citroenmad]

Thanks Jim, I was unsure about the pressed metal ones but wanted to try some, they do look smart. I think I'll get some for the Activa at some point.

[chopper602]

How was it?

Ok - some good food put on and some product demos. Turned a bit low brow when they wheeled a couple of promotional girls in and snow foamed them !

[Citroenmad]

Almost worth going for then!


My uncle has machined and fitted the replacement bush to the V6 engine mount, which seems to have made a very good replacement. I'll see about fitting it tomorrow, that should see the V6 back on form again



After that I'll give the C5 a good check over ready for its venture to Paris at the end of the week.

[Deanxm]

That looks like it will sort the problem out no worries Chris, its a nice little bit of work.

D

[CitroJim]

Excellent stuff Chris, it looks just like the original!

[Citroenmad]

Ive had quite a productive day today

I started off by fitting the engine mount to the V6, which has done the job just as an original. The old one was well shot but the job is very easy, took me about 10 minutes. However, this has not cured the clonk when pulling away or coming to a stop. I later had the car up the ramps and had a good look at what could be causing it, everything looks fine, nothing appears worn or loose. The only thing I can get to make a clunk is the OS drop link, though it doesn’t rattle over bumps Im at a bit of a loss with this, if anything the clunk is getting worse. Maybe it is another engine mount, but the others that I can see all look fine.

The noise happens when braking coming to a stop, it clunks once and then again. When setting off it does it again. I'll have a better look when i have more time and maybe replace the drop links to rule them out totally.

I then set about checking the C5 over ready for its trip later in the week. After a good hoovering and clean of the windows, I treated it to a new cabin/pollen filter, which seemed a bit over due! As I pulled it out leaves came out of the filter box, the filter was black and quite a bit heavier than the new one. Just a small thing, I bought my C5 from a Vauxhall dealer who had stuck on Vauxhall branded number plates (still on but not for much longer!) and a Vauxhall tax disc holder. How it has survived this long I dont know, it now has a nice black magnetic Citroen one.

With the fluids and tyres checked I put the car up the ramps to try and find an irritating noise which had been ongoing for many months. Over rough road surfaces it would give a coarse vibration noise/rattle but not over bumps, only poor surfaces. I have previously replaced both front drop links and track rod ends, some of which did need replacing but they didn't cure this noise. It sounded as if something was loose, some trim, wheel arch liners perhaps. So I started checking there and made sure all the plastic covers under the bonnet and under the car were tight, they are. I then did a bit of poking around under the car, rattling things and checking for wear in suspension components but could not find anything. I did then find 4 very loose bolts, well, 3 as one had worked its way out and gone. Not that they do anything important, they only hold on the sub frame
I replaced the missing one and put threadlocker on all the 4 bolts.

The garage who changed my C5s clutch earlier in the year will be getting stern words when I see them next

Anyway, the noise has now gone and I have a very silent C5 with absolutely no defects to anything and nothing needs doing. Im very happy with that

The car is now full of all the things which the French like to see in a UK car: reflective jackets for each person, a spare set of bulbs, warning triangle, headlight convertors, GB sticker and a couple of breathalyzers. I'm all set for the trip now

Mike (superloopy) dropped by today to pick up the wheels I got from Jims. It was very good to meet you Mike and chat a bit about Xantias.

[Deanxm]

For that clunk on the V6 i would be checking the front wishbone bushes, bottom ball joints and callipers, it sounds like its that sort of thing.

D

[red_dwarfers]

Sounds like your cars have been listening to too much of this:



A productive few days then!

[Citroenmad]

I have checked them all Dean but not in great detail. It has got to be something like that, if not one of them. Ill take a better look next week

Perhaps Kev they just like to keep me thinking

[CitroJim]

That's odd on the noise still there Chris. The V6 has had recent P bushes and wishbone bushes but the lower swivels may bear a much closer check although when Mike and I (spectator mostly..) did the bushes the swivels seemed OK.

Shocking on the C5 subframe - absolutely shocking... That could have become very dangerous indeed. Thank goodness you found it.

[Citroenmad]

Thanks Jim, the P bushes still look fine and the wishbone bushes too. I did notice one of the lower swivel joints has a split gaiter, so I'll pop that off and check it first.

Its not good is it, im pretty pleased to have found it, not least for the safety issue

[Citroenmad]

Well, what an excellent few days in France I had

I have driven my C5 over 1400 miles since Thursday, it has been an absolute joy and as ever it proved very economical, refined and comfortable. Cruise set to between 75-85 for most of the journey which gave a return of 51.3mpg. Not bad at all, especially as I spent over 5 hours driving around Paris in the Friday afternoon rush hour Next time I'll either take someone who can read a map or a satnav which works in Europe, as it was, I had neither

I got into France on the Friday and decided to head straight to Paris for a look around. I have been before but many years ago. I had always wanted to drive around the Arc De Triomphe, that I did twice! The Champs-Élysées was also taken in on our tour around, we went past the Louvre museum and walked up to the Eiffel Tower. As I have mentioned, we got hopelessly lost, the signs mean nothing, the land marks are not signposted and it was extremely busy - as you would imagine. I lost count of the many near crashes I avoided, people really would just drive into you if you do not get out of their way. At one point there were two lanes painted on the road with parked cars down either side, for some reason we had three lanes of moving cars, how the mirrors stayed on I dont know! Parking is interesting, if you watch people park they dont stop until the bumpers have touched the surrounding cars. Every car is dented, battered and scarred. Scooters and motorbikes are everywhere, darting in between the cars with less than an inch to spare. It was an experience! I did plan on being out of Paris by about 3.00pm, but we could not find our route out, so we got stuck in the friday evening traffic, which was just crawling inch by inch, with lots of horns blearing, people trying to get into gaps which were not there and the odd shouting going on. Luckily none of that was at me

We eventually got out and on our way, though with no decent map and no satnav, it was interesting trying to find the hotel I had booked. We stopped by a little bar for directions. Instead of this we got a passenger, a slightly merry French man, who insisted he was going to show us the way. Which he very kindly did and also showed us to where Citroen was located, I then ran him home. A very odd scenario, but by this time I had been at the wheel of the car for almost 12 hours and just wanted to get to the hotel.

Saturday morning we headed off to the PSA Peugeot Citroen site for the tour. We were greeted by a barrier and a little talking box with a security guard at the other end. He didn't speak a word of English and didn't know what we were talking about. Eventually we found that we needed to be at the other entrance!

Once we had found where we needed to be there were already a good gathering of BXs, both English and French and a couple of GS too ... I wonder who that was! Some breakfast nibbles and some proper French coffee were on show in the sports hall area. After a bit of a catch up with the UKers we all headed off down to where the Conservatoire building is located. Time for a few pictures with our cars parked outside and another natter. We were then let into the lobby area which had a 'compressed ZX art work' feature on the wall, 4 or 5 engines, a V8 which was destined for the DS etc. There was also a cut away BX, lots of model Citroens, both clay models and real models which were on public sale. We had a bit of a talk and a video session by the guy who looks after the Conservatoire. He didn't seem to make much sense but I did grasp a few works

Then it was off our seats and through some double doors into the museum. It is laid out in a very organised fashion, ranging from the very old to the much more modern from right to left. What drew my attention straight away was a stunning C5III 2 door Cabrio, what an excellent looking thing. Behind us on racking were a number of large model cars, in excellent detail. They had prototypes, mock up styling exercises and production cars too. I can't list all of the 250-300 cars inside but there is a lot of very interesting stuff in there. From prototypes, one off production cars, cars with interesting histories and almost brand new production cars which had either been pulled off the production line and stored or seen very little use. I'll let a few pictures do the talking:
Some of the cars which attended, my C5 included:

Parked outside of the Conservatoire:



Interesting take on the 3 door C4, that is not the coupe which it became:

C-Air Loung and C-Air Dream:

C5 Cabrio (C-Sport Lounge)

Stretched XM - notice its actually an S1 (dash and mirrors) with an S2 front:

As new S1 XM, base spec, I think it was a 2.1TD:

Presidential DS - really a massive car:

As new BX Digit:

Cream Vise GTi:

Visa concept:

Very top spec Visa with dark red leather interior:






XM Multimedia

C6 Linage concept next to the real thing, which was a black and white combo:

As new CX Turbo, with next to no miles (this was started up while we were there)

Strange thing Citroen Eole, CX based:


Xantia Activa V6 - as new condition, next to no mileage

Xanae concept:

And of course, my main reason for going! The Activa Coupes:



Expect to hear a bit more from me on these in due time ...

Well, that is enough pictures for now.Unfortunately, towards the end of our time in there, my camera decided it was no longer going to be a camera and stopped working. Even though it appeared to take one picture and then need the battery removing, I have now found that it was not taking any pictures at all Still, I did get a good few while it was being helpful.

We were left to our own devices, the tour was taking people around and explaining about the more interesting cars but my French is not up to that. So I headed off in search for what interested me most. After about an hour and a half we were gathered up, after spending a little bit of money in the shop on the way out that was it, all over. But what an experience! For someone who really likes Citroens it is the place to see.

One car I thought we might see was the XM series3 - apparently a facelifted XM which has different styling ideas on each side. I have only seen two pictures of this and neither show any details. Unfortunately that was not inside, a few cars were out on loan and a great deal more are held behind the scence for restoration. I was a bit surprised to see that the cars are exposed to the light through roof pannels in the building. One end is without the rool pannels but the other is quite exposed, light does nothing for keeping a car in good condition, its plastics and rubber age. That said, maybe the windows are UV reflecting.

It is a bit of a shame that some of the ideas were not followed through. The Activa coupe, especially the second one, would have been an awesome car and I for one would own one now. I would also love a C-Air Dream - fantastic looking thing for a large MPV like car and also the Xanae, which is quite an interesting model.

I did spot a couple of interesting French cars on the roads, just off the channel tunnel I saw a very nice CX Prestige on the motorway. A couple of Renault 4s and 2cvs and other more interesting and older French stuff around Paris. There was one Xantia which drew my attention, a green S1 with a S2 front, held on by sellotape wrapped over the bonnet and under the bumper.

Not wanting just to head back home on the Sunday, we stopped in at the Coventry Transport museum for a look. It is a very good car museum and well done. Then we headed to see a someone who has even more cars than us!

The weather for the trip was wet, it rained most of Thursday when I was travelling to Folkstone. Friday it rained most of day down through France but Saturday turned out nice, just right for our trip to the museum. Sunday it rained torrentially all the way home, well until I got within 20 miles of home - where they had not a drop all day! Though that has caught up with us now, these past couple of days have been wet to say the least, major roads closed due to floods, I passed numerous abandoned cars this morning, some in ditches in a good few feet of water by the motorways. One car was smashed up, up an embankment and totally burnt out. My dad was following a 12 plate Megane through a flood earlier today, the driver decided to drive through very fast which resulted in a lot of black smoke from the exhaust and that was it, no more go for the Megane, idiot! As it was the weather has added another hour and a half to my daily commuting time these past days. The C5 again proving its worth in all the standing water, it did flash up the traction control light once this morning while going through a long swimming pool on the A19.

I finished putting together my Citroenian Xantia Files column last evening, just in time for the deadline. I dont want to spoil it too much, so I have left out any great detail about the cars inside the Conservatoire, as I plan on doing a little feature on that for the next column (in December) with a bit of a detailed report on one or two of the Xantia related cars which are in there.

[ragger]

Sounds like a really good adventure, probably needing "lashings of ginger beer". Some interesting photos to look at.

I went to the Glasgow Riverside Museum last week end which is the rehoused Transport Museum, and while there isn't much French stuff there apart from a 2CV and a Renault 8, I do recommend it. It has expanded upon and improved the original displays that we visited a few years ago. But it isn't Paris...

Rob

[CitroJim]

Wow What an excellent trip Chris

Some of those cars. Well, I'm just speechless...