All Things V6...

[CitroJim]

Gosh, that's an epic trip David!!! Do enjoy

[DHallworth]

Well, after a marathon Saturday, the C6 has now been rehomed with an incredibly enthusiastic owner who is going to continue to spoil and pamper her from here on it, and I am now the proud owner of a C5 3.0 HDi Exclusive.

The fun started on Friday evening/Saturday morning. I was meant to leave at 02:30am to drive to Preston, I couldn't sleep so thought I'd leave at 01:30 and stop somewhere on the way. It's a good job I did as the weather was so horrendous I didn't get to Steve's until 5:55am! Anyway, Steve dropped me off at Preston Station where I caught the train to Manchester Oxford Road, and then to Sheffield. Unfortunately my train was late into Sheffield so I missed the connecting train to Worksop.

The salesman from Evans Halshaw rang me and asked how I was doing and I explained I was going to be late getting in. He asked me what time I'd left home, and then offered to pick me up from Worksop station to save me waiting an hour for the train to Mansfield. The salesman was fantastic and when I got to the station he was holding a cup of fresh coffee and a bacon roll!

He drove me back to the dealership in his DS3 where I saw the C5 sitting right outside the window beside his desk. It looked spotless sitting there ready to go. We had a quick drive around the block in it and all was good. I signed the dotted line and was on the way within 30 minutes of arriving at the dealership.

Once moving, about 6 miles after leaving the dealer it flagged a fault with the TPMS valve on the rear left wheel. I rang them and told them and he said he'd call on Monday. True enough to his word, he rang at 10 past 9 this morning. The closest Evans Halshaw dealer to here is Edinburgh and it's a non Citroen franchise so they've agreed to send me a TPMS valve and I'll fit it and code it myself.

I then travelled from Mansfield back to Preston as there was someone coming to view my C6 in Preston. As soon as I hit the open roads I couldn't get over the power in this car. It absolutely flies! Over the 300 mile trip home it averaged over 45mpg.

I got back to Preston where Wendy had looked over my C6. The only thing she found not working was the lounge pack which was bloody annoying as it worked 2 days before when I was cleaning it. Luckily it turned out to be the switch pack on the drivers door which is being replaced tomorrow and she's collecting the car from Steve's on Wednesday.

I got home around 23:00 on Saturday evening so it turned into a long day. The C5 however handled everything that Storm Desmond had to throw at it on the way home. We sat still going nowhere on the M6 for about 35 minutes as the Highways Agency dragged someone out of the central reservation. Just south of Penrith on the way down south I saw an articulated lorry on it's side, that was still on it's side on the way home!

Anyway, after a long lie in on Sunday I got up and decided to have a look at the latest toy now it was at home in daylight. The car really is in immaculate condition, it has the optional 19" Adriatic wheels fitted to it which don't have a mark on them and are even shod in new Michelin Pilot Sport 3 tyres. I took the handbook and all of the documentation in the house and sat with a cuppa and had a flick through it. The car has been serviced annually, despite Citroen saying it doesn't need a service until it's done 20k so it's been well looked after.

One thing that I did find in the handbook was the fitting instructions for a Chip Express power chip. It suddenly became apparent why this thing is so bloody quick! The standard power is 240bhp, it's now running at 288, the torque was 332lbft, it's now sitting at 384lbft.

I found an old service receipt in the handbook with the last owners details on it, I dropped him an email and he was all to glad to shed some light on it. He owned it for 2.5 years and the only thing he had to do was replace the hydraulic pump. He traded it in for something a bit smaller apparently, but he did confirm that the tuning box was still plugged in, and that he fitted it about 11k miles ago. I also explained to him that the car had a warranty on it and asked if he knew of anything I should get done before it ran out and he confirmed there was nothing wrong with the car My guilty conscience then got the better of me so I phoned the insurance company and declared it. According to Chip Express it makes a difference of 20% to the economy on the car, and it only added £24 to the cost of the policy over the space of 12 months.

The only thing I can fault the car for is the suspension is pretty hard. I've read that these newer shape sphere's on the X7 C5 can need replaced between 40-60k if it's got the weight of the V6 up front so I'll get some spheres for it and get them changed at some point. Unfortunately with the newer shape spheres, genuine is the only way to go. I might see if a local indy has a sphere pressure tester I can borrow to check them with before replacing them. I'm going to change the gearbox oil a few times to make sure it's as good as can be, and I've got a set of mud flaps to put on the car.

I did a trial run with one of the mud flaps on Sunday afternoon but just couldn't get it to sit right. It sat fine along the bumper edge and along the bottom but there was a bit of a gap behind the flap:







It's going to Pristine Machine to get detailed and waxed on 21st December so I'll get some pictures of it after it's all shiny.

David.

[CitroJim]

Quite an adventure David!

Nice result with the tuning pack Excellent!

[Stickyfinger]

Yep, my mud flaps do the same, heat gun on the radius area (only) and it bends back a bit.....Xantia ones fit the front btw

The only accessory you need

[DHallworth]

One thing I did find on this car is a fold down cup holder mounted to the back wall of the centre cubby box.

David.

[Stickyfinger]

One thing I did find on this car is a fold down cup holder mounted to the back wall of the centre cubby box.

David.

David, for the life of me I still have not fathomed out why they did that, it will haunt you till you paddle across the Styx.... a true OCD "overdose" !

[DHallworth]

The new TPMS sensor arrived in the post today so I'll get that fitted and coded in with a Lexia tomorrow. Hopefully that'll sort it but I'm not holding my breath.

The C5 suspension has always seemed very harsh but I originally thought it was just to do with the 19" wheels fitted to it. Tonight however on the back roads it was smashing into pot holes and bouncing on ripples, it's definitely not right. I rang EH in Edinburgh who weren't interested as they're not trained on and don't have Citroen hydraulic tools, so I then rang EH Citroen in Mansfield and explained that I was so far away, and asked what could be done.

Thankfully they've agreed to have it looked at by Citroen Glasgow and foot the bill. When I tried to accelerate off a roundabout today the car almost felt dangerous as it switched to hard mode, there was no movement in the suspension and it felt like it was bouncing and felt very unstable. There's no fault codes stored on the ECU so hopefully it'll be something as simple as flat spheres.

David.

[CitroJim]

It does sound like flat spheres David, unless it has a set of special Koni sports spheres fitted to it to go with the tweaked engine

[Stickyfinger]

They are more like that than the Mk1/+face were or for that matter the Xantia.......... I do find mine does not like potholes/road-drains, it does drop into them and crash down a bit (when in sports mode), but maintains the softness on the rebound.

I am learning to hate "re-dressed" roads, every road drain is 3 fracking feet deep these days as they never raise the drain cover when resurfacing....rant over (but related)

[DHallworth]

If I push on the corner of my car and let go of it, it bounces on the rebound, much like a conventional car would when the shock absorbers were knackered! I'll get Citroen Glasgow to give it the once over and see what happens. I'm convinced the spheres are flat, if I'm right then EH are getting a bill for changing them, if I'm not then I'll have to pay £50 for them to have a sniff over it and see what happens.

At least one way or another I'll know it's right. There's a CCC member locally with a C5 X7, I might get him to take it for a drive and see what he thinks of it depending on how we get on on Monday.

David.

[DHallworth]

I'm convinced cars know when you're getting rid of them... The 207 HDi which hasn't given me any problem at all has needed a bit of attention this week. It started to flag a fault with the O/S/R ABS sensor, I bought a new sensor for it, and when I stripped it down to replace it found that the pads on that side were almost down to metal on metal.

One of the sliders on the caliper was sticking quite badly. I've had it out, cleaned it up and put some grease on it and it seems to be moving freely now so I've put a new set of pads in it. Thankfully I caught it before the pads got to metal on metal and wrecked a fairly new disc. The rear discs on the 207 have got the wheel bearings integrated in the discs so they're not cheap.

When I had it on the ramp doing the brakes I gave it a once over as I'm going to put 12 months MOT on it before I sell it. Everything looks good on it apart from the tyres. They're still legal but only just so I'll stick a full set of tyres on it before it gets sold as well.

The C5 has been at Citroen Glasgow since Monday. I spoke to the master tech when I dropped it off who actually understood hydraulic Citroen's and agreed with me that it needed spheres. A report was sent to Evans Halshaw who have agreed to cover the cost of the spheres so hopefully it'll be like a different car when it comes back. The spheres have had to come from France apparently and they're due to land tomorrow so hopefully it'll be home tomorrow evening or Saturday morning

David.

[CitroJim]

I'm convinced cars know when you're getting rid of them....

They do.. I established that very early in my automotive spannering days and it's not just French cars either!!!

Good to hear the C5's problems have been accepted and re being fixed at no cost to you David

[Citroenmad]

What a great looking C5, they really suit those large wheels

It sounds like quite the wolf in sheeps clothing! I be its an effortless cruiser, its a rare thing too!

Strange that the mudflaps wont fit, they're definitely for the saloon?

[DHallworth]

They're the correct part numbers on the box for the saloon. They're a perfect fit in every dimension apart from the gap you can see

David.

[Stickyfinger]

A small self tapper on the very underside David, it pulls them flat