All Things V6...

[Stickyfinger]

Ah ha....makes good sense now.....cheers

[DHallworth]

The weather has been gorgeous up here today... Was so tempted to tax the Activa but decided to wait until 1st April instead. Will give her a good service this week as long as time permits.

I've also got what must be the nicest V6 Xantia's in the country residing here at the moment to have a few issues looked at whilst the owner is on holiday. BW dropped it off last night for a bit of fettling. It had a misfire but swapping the coil pack with the Activa cured that so will get one of them ordered up, there's a leak from one of the cam boxes as well, I'm hoping to get that resolved but my wrist is still tender after an operation on 1st March.

Now the weather has warmed up again and spring has arrived it's nice to be outside tinkering again. It's also nice to have a car that needs a few jobs doing as the Activa, XM and C5 are all in fine fettle and behaving themselves at the moment.

David.

[CitroJim]

Excellent David It's just the weather to come out of car hibernation. I know I have

V6 coils are terrible for that and take it from me, it's always a good idea to carry a spare at all times!

Hope the cambox oil leak is on the top cover and not on the lower part of the cam ladder else it's a timing belt off and cam out job! If you go that far it's wise to do them all, not just the leaky one...

[lexi]

What was wrong with the wrist David?

[DHallworth]

Jim, the plastics on the coil pack have got a couple of cracks around the back where I couldn't see them initially and the engine bay was detailed so I'm assuming that they just got wet. I noticed the oil leak as the plug nearest the battery on the front back had a bit of oil in the hole.

The owner (BW from on here) has ordered a cam belt kit and water pump for it so it's here anyway. Looking at it, it looks as if the leak is from the lower half of the from cam box.

I just rang Citroen to order the coil and a set of plugs. When they tried to order the coil pack they got a message on the system saying that it is now NFP. Annoyingly it doesn't show it on service.citroen.com.

Lexi, I had an operation to remove a cyst from the tendon. I had it done 5 years ago but it came back again so this time he cut right down and took it out from the tendon so it's taking much longer to heal

David.

[CitroJim]

Most V6 coils seem to crack David and generally they don't seem to cause a problem so the fact it has cracks is not always a reliable indicator but a road test and diagnostics surely are.. Did diagnostics how up anything amiss?

Worrying the coils seem to be NFP but hopefully the after-market will continue to produce them. Sagem seem to be the main makers...

If you are doing cambelt and water pump then the camboxes become easier... I recommend pulling the sprockets and hubs right off so the cams can be fully lifted out.. It's a bit more work but it makes it easier to clean the joint faces and apply sealant...

Are you fitting the later C5-type tensioner too? It's a very much recommended modification as the old dynamic tensioner is a bit of a menace to set up and must be set using a SEEM gauge... In contrast the C5 eccentric tensioner is easy and needs no SEEM gauge!

Hope the wrist is well on the way to healing now David...

[DHallworth]

It is indeed the later style tensioner I'm fitting Jim.

I've done 4 of them now and the new ones are a breeze to set up

Citroen/Peugeot cannot get coil packs at all, however, Renault have them in stock under part no. 7701205906, they retail at £135.23 + VAT but they're quoting 7 - 10 days for it to come from France. There's a host of Valeo ones on eBay for around £107. I'd imagine the Valeo one will probably be as good as any.

I've ordered the o rings to reseal the hydraulic pump on it this morning, if we're going that far, it's probably worth changing the auxiliary belt as well.

David.

[CitroJim]

Hope Hydraulic pump O rings never go NFP David. If they do we'll be a bit lost as most O rings that are easily available are not LHM-proof...

Valeo coils should be OK. Sagem ones are the ones that seem to like failing!!!

[Mandrake]

Hi David,

For what it's worth, I fitted a new NGK coil pack to my new Series 1 V6:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NGK-IGNITION- ... 2c7141a38f

£89 from parts-direct-uk-ltd on Ebay. I fitted it back in June 2015 and I have no complaints with it and it seems to be just as well made (if not more!) than the Sagem's I've used before.

I was initially hesitant to buy a non-OEM type however there was no alternative within that price range at the time, and I have been pleasantly surprised by the build quality and reliability of this one.

If you need the spark plug leads and cassette for the rear bank, your best bet is www.mister-auto.co.uk.

[DHallworth]

Thanks Simon, I'll get in touch with Bill and see what he wants to do.

Plug leads on this one appear ok and with the new coil in it she was running perfectly so I think we'll leave the leads alone rather then upsetting them.

David.

[CitroJim]

It's worth testing the leads David as I've known them look perfect and seemingly work well but actually test open-circuit...

[Mandrake]

It's worth testing the leads David as I've known them look perfect and seemingly work well but actually test open-circuit...

They seem to break at the tight bend where they come out of the side of the rear bank and up around the back - badly designed cable routing with insufficient cable slack if you ask me!

On my first V6 two of the three leads were open circuit when twisted near this point... and on my new V6 guess what, same thing! The engine will still run because the spark jumps internally across the break, but it will not run as well. Or you might find that it runs fine sometimes but seems "off colour" at other types, as the wires move around with vibration.

My new V6 was famous for this when I first got it - it would have it's good days and bad days, if it started to seem off colour I'd just give the spark plug leads some wiggling and it would come right! Since replacing leads and coil pack I've had no more of these type of problems. Personally if it was mine and it was still on the original leads I would replace the leads too, especially if other work was being done in the area.

The routing of the leads on this engine is quite harsh with sharp bends and little slack, I think it's inevitable for them to go eventually from physical strain as well as heat. They're also very easy to damage fitting new ones or refitting old ones - one new set I managed to nick right through the insulation on those horrible little sharp teeth in the plastic wire guides...doing a neat careful job of routing the new cables is not as easy as it looks.

Normal resistance reading for the leads is about 6K ohm BTW, make sure to try twisting and bending the cable especially near the cassette end whilst taking the measurement as any break is likely to be intermittent and only manifest depending on how the wire is lying.

[DHallworth]

Right, coil pack and plug leads are ordered. If we're going in that far it seems daft not to fit the new spark plugs whilst we're at it.

I see the ones listed on service.citroen.com are Bosch FR8KDC, are these the plugs that everyone would recommend for this engine?

They're what I fitted to the Activa and have no complaints about them.

David.

[Mandrake]

I'm using FR8KDC in mine - I think they're a good choice.

[Stickyfinger]

FR8KDC ,,,same here