All Things V6...

[moizeau]

Regarding the C6, call me a non trusting git but, that sounds like an inside job. You were offered it (as a write off) then they changed their mind. Someone in their circle has bought that.
The same happened to me with a house, gave an offer, accepted, diagnostics done then the day before the signing I was guzumped, which is illegal in France. Inside job from the estate agent because as I was looking round the house I was explaining to my wife how easy the renovation job was, estate agent picked up on it.
Hope I'm wrong and you get it back.

[DHallworth]

The car went through a Copart auction last week and got bidded up to £2500 but it didn't meet it's reserve.

The car has now been relisted with a buy it now of £4,700 but after 4 or 5 days it's still sitting there.

David.

[Stickyfinger]

Can you drop them a naughty offer ? (under another name)

[DHallworth]

I guess I could, however, I can’t imagine the name on the offer makes much difference.

[DHallworth]

It’s been near as makes no difference 5 years since I last posted anything XM related in this thread. I’m ashamed to say that 5 years ago is the last time that my XM had any use going to the Centenary in Coventry.

Paul spent a lot of time telling me that I should use the XM more than I did. He was right, I’ve had it 14 years now and I’ve done 4600 miles in it.

I was sitting having coffee yesterday morning and decided I’d try and get it MOT’d. A quick phone call later and an MOT appointment was booked for 0930 this morning. I went into the workshop last night, took the cover off the car, connected the battery up, checked the lights all worked and then set off for the MOT this morning.

The petrol light was on so I stopped on the way and stuck some fresh Tesco Momentum in it and I arrived at the MOT station at 0915. The car went straight onto the ramp and just after 10am I got handed a piece of paper which at the top said “MOT Certificate”. I was pleased and amazed to note that it didn’t even get an advisory. The emissions were on point too at 7HC against a limit of 200, and the CO was 0.02 against a limit of 0.3.

I realised on the way home that the Michelin tyres on the car were fitted when the car was in Malaysia and upon looking I noticed that they were dated 2007. There were some cracks visible but they were tiny. I decided I wasn’t prepared to take the risk on them so I’ve ordered 4 new boots and will fit and balance them when they arrive this week.

I’m going to take Paul’s advice and try to use the car a bit this summer in him memory.

David.

[DHallworth]

That's the XM and I are back home after attending Paul's funeral in Holyhead today. After doing nothing for 5 years, the XM covered 698 miles in 24hrs without missing a beat, she really did us proud.

There were 4 XM's, a Xantia and a C5 in attendance at Paul's funeral. He had his own little Citroen meet that he would have been proud as punch of.

David.

[myglaren]

Sounds like a good and appropriate send off.
His family must be heartbroken.

[DHallworth]

Well, the C5 has been performing well for the 20 or so months I've had it and it's covered 15,000 miles.

When I put a couple of bushes on the front of it a few weeks ago I noticed the drivers side strut was damp so I had planned on changing it before the MOT was due mid December.

I noticed on Monday evening on my way home that the steering was notchy and I could hear the pump cavitating. A quick look told a sinister story...

After being parked for 5 minutes, this was visible behind the front left wheel.

Turns out that the passengers side strut which had been bone dry all along had literally burst.

I called Citroen for a price on Tuesday and they quoted me £853 for a pair of struts after a decent discount on them!

After a bit of looking I found a seller on eBay selling a pair of brand new Genuine Citroen struts for half that price! He's got great feedback and he's sold over 500 sets of them so I've no concerns of ordering from him. However, thanks to Brexit, he won't post to the UK so I started looking at flying into Germany to collect them as I wasn't prepared to spend £853. I could fly from Stansted to Frankfurt and back again for £28. Glasgow to Stansted was 3 times that price but I then couldn't get back from Stansted on the same day which started to become a pain in the backside.

After a bit of thinking, I remembered we had an office in Dublin, after checking, he would post to Dublin for €18. I then checked flights and I realised I can fly to Dublin and back for £33 to collect them once they've been delivered.

So, they're currently with UPS and once they're in Dublin I'll make plans to go and get them. What's crazy is that despite flying to Dublin to collect them, I'll still be just shy of £420 better off. I like fitting genuine parts, however, I don't like being ripped off when buying them!

This C5 will live to see another mile!

[CitroJim]

Shame about the strut burst David but otherwise an excellent result! Enjoy the trip to Dublin!

[myglaren]

A good find on the struts. A bit complicated to get them but worth it.

[Mandrake]

Brexit has certainly made obtaining certain car parts more difficult and/or expensive.

Mr Auto was my go to supplier for certain types of parts and they still haven't resumed selling to the UK 4 years later despite still running a UK version of their website!

[moizeau]

It's pain in both directions. I wanted some high temp RTV, £5 in the UK, 16€ in France. Got a mate to bring me tube when he came over. Also done it the other way for a couple of members of the Z1OC with bike bits. One chap found some carbs in Germany but they wouldn't post to the UK and another chap found a 1974 date stamped wheel rim, same issue. Had them both delivered to me and a friend smuggled them back.

[Zelandeth]

Brexit has certainly made obtaining certain car parts more difficult and/or expensive.

Mr Auto was my go to supplier for certain types of parts and they still haven't resumed selling to the UK 4 years later despite still running a UK version of their website!

This is one of the main reasons I'll be moving the Renault on in the Spring. It's an absolute pig to find parts for at the best of times, and 99.9% of the places you find that do have them in stock will no longer ship to the UK. So it just becomes absolutely maddening in a hurry and I just don't have the patience for that. If you know someone in France I'm sure there are ways round it, but I don't.

Can't even really fault the companies either, it's the absolute absurd arrangements that have been set up around imports here that many companies are just deciding quite reasonably aren't worth the hassle. Last one I bought parts from for it made it clear in an email after my parts arrived that they would understand no circumstances be sending anything to the UK again for the foreseeable future on account of the amount of red tape that had been involved.

Glad you found a solution here, but there's no way that sort of solution would be viable for more people!

[Stickyfinger]

That is what happens when you tie businesses with political strings............whatever the colour or preference of the string.

[DHallworth]

Well, the struts made it to Dublin without any issues and they then made it to Glasgow too! They're now fitted to the car and the C5 is once again free of any LDS leaks.

If I ever catch the stupid sod that decided to put steel bolts through the aluminium castings I'll kick him in the nuts. I had to drill out the 6 bolts that secure the struts as they had corroded solid.

Anyway, job done and the car is now 1 bulb away from being MOT ready

David.