Dean's Activa/XM/V6 and now Talbot blog

[Deanxm]

A little update, i say little as nothing much has happened .
Not been feeling too well recently and after perking up last weekend have slipped again after a day over in England , thankfully ive got two weeks off work now and ive been sleeping most of the weekend but today this with this lovely sunshine i decided to have a little poke at the Xantia as there are still a few jobs to do on her.

After sorting out the binding door lock and giving the battery a charge i fitted the new throttle linkage and capped off the hole where the dump valve was (it was just too chavvy) i also noticed the Knock sensor lead was worn through and earthing on an engine mount so after re-routing that and noticing the rough running and hunting stopped i was feeling a bit better.

Then i decided tomove her a bit just to turn the tyres and make sure the clutch wasnt seized and whilst doing so noticed a strange feeling when pulling away and braking, like the wheels had stopped but the car had not.

After parking up i pushed the car by hand without the handbrake on and it was rather clear the car moved but the front wheels stayed still and just moved forward and back in the arches while the car would travel up to 3"
After a quick look it would seem the P bushes are shot and after pulling the lower arm off the car the outer case of the bush just pulled off in my hand, so, another job to do and the mot date is looming, only £12 for both P bushes though and they should be here this week, had to take the O/s wheel off to get the arch liner out anyway so i could run a new windscreen washer hose through so its not all bad.

That Lower arm is going to be a right pita to refit though, the anti roll bar is pretty big and right in the way and i dont think the arm would have come out if the outer casing hadnt fallen off the bush beforhand.

D

[andmcit]

There is a knack to feeding the lower wishboine arm with a good/new P bush
attached around the drop link without having to remove the link; a right old
faff about but doable.

What trim are you trying to undo off the door? The outer door moulding
one clips onto square tabs that are held on with screws through the
doorskin from the inside - accessible with the window up. The upper one
which makes a seal onto the glass is just clipped on with sprung loaded
jaw clips along it's length.

Never had much trouble getting the bonnets on a Xant to align - somethimes
ther's an adjustment on the hinge mounting onto the bonnet that allows it to
sit fractionally further back etc. A twist of the bonnet rod or a tweak of the
catch mounting also offer scope to fine tune it; I'm guessing my level of
acceptance with bonnet shutlines is probably less critical then Richard's mind!

Andrew

[Deanxm]

Hi Andrew

Its the lower trim that seals between the door skin and the glass, i got new ones for the xm and i thnk they were called "weather strips"?.
Seems the Xantia ones suffer badly as all the ones ive found are all bubbly and the ends have curled out.

D

[CitroJim]

Hi Dean,

Sorry to hear you're still not feeling well A bit of spannering usually helps but on finding your "P" bushes gone then that's enough to cause a relapse

"P" bushes aren't bad really. The wishbones will tease out with a bit of manipulation without upsetting the ARB and then it's just a case of removing the old bushes with a big hammer and cold chisel to drive them off the ends of the wishbone.

It's vitally important that the new "P" bushes are put on in correct alignment. If they've badly broken up that's going to be difficult but what you're trying to achieve is no torsion in the rubber at normal ride height. OE bushes had alignment marks on them that meet a similar alignment mark on the wishbone. All new "P" bushes I've seen have had no marks and time and rust will have erased the mark on the wishbone.

Knocking off old "P" bushes is great therapy

Hope you soon feel better and enjoy your time off!

[Deanxm]

Well im feeling a bit better today but now have a cold , but the Activa is all done, the windscreen washers are working, the P bushes are on and all the brakes done with my bargain £10 front discs fitted, all i have to do is swap the insurance over for Monday morning and sort outt the MOT and Vic check, im aiming to have her on the road for the end of next week, next time i update this blog i will either have/not have my MOT /

D

[Toby_HDi]

Excellent news Dean,

Looking likely now that two Activas will be going back on the road in the same week!

I must say thank you again for the back box by the way

[Deanxm]

well we hope they are both going back on the road anyway, it it fails on something big it may spoil things a bit.

Glad the box fitted, sorry i was late

D

[Deanxm]

10am Friday the 1st of April will be the moment of truth, wont book the vic until after i have the MOT though, as im a wimp.

D

[robert_e_smart]

Does the car need to be road legal for the VIC, also is there any risk that it won't pass the VIC check?

[Deanxm]

The car has to have an MOT to be presented for its VIC check and there is no way it will fail the vic, it is purely to check that the car has been repaired and not just had its identity transfered to another car.

The joke of it is its the new keeper who must have this done and then the V5 is marked as substantialy repaired or economic writeoff, which is great but doesnt stop people selling a ringed car, i think the owner who has the car repaired should have the vic done so the logbook is marked for the next buyer, all a total con really if you ask me, another way to squeezw £50 out of you.

D

[Deanxm]

Hi all

As i write this i am more than a little annoyed, it seems after speaking to the insurance last night and being emailed a insurance cover note straight away they failed to notify Askmid, so as far as the authorities are concerned i have no insurance, they are saying the system is down right now and will not deal with me, strange how the database has been informed the XM is no longer insured though , so i drove an un taxed, un mot'd uninsured car 5 miles to my tast station this morning completely unaware.
The good news is it passed, with two advsories, perished o/s front brake hose, and leaking rear height corrector which i knew about as i split the diaphram seal when i put it back together and didnt have a spare to hand.

I only found out it was not insured when i tried to tax it online

Im off to shout at the insurance company now.

D

[Citroenmad]

Im sure ive had this in the past, it can take a few days for the insurance to appear with Askmid. If i need to tax a car close to renewal or applying for insurance then i try and do it a few days before, so I can either get the docs through the post and tax it at the post office or its on the system for an online taxing.

Good job with the pass though

[robert_e_smart]

Well done on the pass Dean.

Enjoy the Activa.

[Deanxm]

Thanks Gents, the thing that peed me off with the insurance is that the xm insured status was updated pdq, shame the same speed wasnt used when updating the Activa but its not a problem really.
Mot cost £41 and with what was thrown up i was rather happy, she does have a few issues, firstly i am struggling to get it to boost above 8psi, that could be a few things none of which are really major, the other is she missed a couple times as i applied the throttle, no eml came up but i need to drive more really, as soon as the insurance database is updated i can tax her and then im off

D

[Citroenmad]

Ive sorted out Insurance for tomorrow on the Activa, however mine isnt showing up on askmid yet. Should still be fine to drive as its insured and the insurance company can verify that. These things should happen quicker than they do!

Might be a few teething problems from it being stood around for 7 months?