Dom's Car Blog

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 21 Aug 2010, 10:05

Sorry about the delay in replying, I've had a busy week. Started work as a radiographer 3 weeks ago as I passed my degree 5 weeks ago and the workload this week has been very hectic. Then coming home to a dad eager to get the VSX back together means I've had little time to sit on the internet - I'm not complaining though!

Andrew - How did the scrap men take your estate without you wanting them to? They just turned up and took it?!

Strange about the VSX and Athena badging, why would they try and make the car look cheaper than it is, rather than just saying we're selling cheap to get rid of old stock? It's funny that we think the OKV series of cars were registered by Citroen UK, it's the same story with my Activa, with reg EKV, KV being Coventry. Seems such a shame that Citroen (presumably) struggled to sell so many good Xantias.

I'm fairly sure that apart from the anti sink and accumulator spheres, the hydraulic system is in good nick, even with the electrovalves off there is still a decent amount of movement in each corner, much like my Activa with new spheres.

In other news I've silicone sealed the scuttle, which has stopped the passenger footwell getting wet

So thanks for the advice on that one folks.

Citroenmad wrote:That looks to be a tidy Xantia TD, a good buy. So your Activa is going the journey soon?

I'm afraid it might be sold, I don't want to though as it's a very good car, much better condition and less abused than this VSX

. Ideally I'd stick a 2.1TD in the Activa and use that as a commuter car, but I havn't really got the time.

A quick question about the new car however. I've noticed that the back box is wet, with what looks like LHM on it. And when you look further you can see that LHM has dribbled on the plastic that runs along the bottom of the car, holding the metal LHM pipes in place (if that makes any sense??) The rear electrovalve is dry as a bone, so I'm not sure what could be causing the leak? Any thoughts?

I'm off to the scrapyard in a bit to acquire some parts for the car, need an indicator side repeater, tailgate seal, possibly a door seal, a parcel shelf, and some C pillar covers as mine have a hole in for some reason!

If anyone else has any of these parts could you let me know as my scrapyard is pretty greedy and seems to take the p**s with prices sometimes!

Cheers for reading, I'll give an update when I can.

Unread post by **xantia_v6** » 21 Aug 2010, 10:49

Dommo wrote:I've noticed that the back box is wet, with what looks like LHM on it. And when you look further you can see that LHM has dribbled on the plastic that runs along the bottom of the car, holding the metal LHM pipes in place (if that makes any sense??) The rear electrovalve is dry as a bone, so I'm not sure what could be causing the leak? Any thoughts?

It could be the LHM return pipe from the rear suspension. There are a one or two rubber joiners above the subrame, and if the rear electrovalve has an internal leak, the pressure in the return tube can get high ennough to pop the tube out of a rubber joiner. Mine did this a couple of times till I put a cable tie around the joint to give it a bit more friction.
Access Is OK if you drop the nearside of the rear subframe till it hits the exhaust.

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 21 Aug 2010, 11:06

That would explain the low LHM level. Thanks v6, will have a look down there today, the weathers looking pretty good here!

andmcit · Unread post by **andmcit** » 21 Aug 2010, 15:39

Dommo wrote:Andrew - How did the scrap men take your estate without you wanting them to? They just turned up and took it?

Yep. These days, if it's not chained and bolted down it will walk. It was fully carefully locked and presentable though it wasn't parked in a driveway etc. If "they" can get away with it they will - should anyone challenge them it will be laughed off as a 'misunderstanding'...

bar stewards!

Andrew

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 21 Aug 2010, 22:52

That was good of them. Did you contact the police or anything?

Todays progress was that we got the interior back together, just needs the front seats going back in and the steering column surround putting back on, it seriously looks (and smells) a million times better than it did.

We also whipped off the front bumper to find the slam panel was cracked in a few places, so we took that off too. Priced one up from a scrappy at about £10-15 quid which is good enough for me. Will see how much they want for the bumper and consider using that (dark green IIRC) until I find a white one. Somehow the rest of the front end is intact, and it must have just missed the airbag sensors as they're both OK.

So this is how it stands at the minute:

Can see my first car (306), second car (Activa) and my third car all in one picture, and it wasn't intentional

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 27 Aug 2010, 22:33

Never updated this after we'd worked on it on sunday, have had a busy week so not really had chance!

We went to a local scrappy on Sunday (was shutting by the time we got there on Saturday) and had a very good haul, 2 C-pillar covers, bootlid seal, a parcel shelf - with a sun blind and WORKING elastic strings -, an uncracked slam panel, numerous bulbs, switches and bits of interior trim. All for £35.. Billy bargain if you ask me!

It all got fitted on Sunday, just looking out for a bumper now, may end up resorting to the wrong colour though if I can't find one soon!

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 18 Sep 2010, 20:25

I feel this needs updating!

We have a bumper, brand new off ebay in grey primer flavour - £5

We also did a cambelt, water pump, auxillary belt and one auxillary belt tensioner change this week. Last weekend we changed the automatic tensioner and PAS pump on the 306 as well, we've spent lots of time working on auxillary belts this week

Other jobs completed on the VSX included clearing out the sunroof drains after finding an inch or two of water in the rear O/S footwell (DOH!), and changing the accumulator sphere and seals on the HP pump as that was leaking all over the alternator! I get the feeling the rest of the spheres will need to be done on this car seeing as all bar the rear corners are genuine Citroen spheres - and therefore probably 13 years and 80k old! Which would explain the fast rise rate of the car. Is it worth sending these spheres off to pleaides to get recharged (if so, is this expensive/more expensive than new spheres)?

And in other news, last weekend we also treked across to Telford to pick up pazauk's 2.1TD in that gorgeous green/grey colour

. So far the issues we've found is that the rear dogbone has become detatched - which Pazauk mentioned, and the AC doesn't work. It also seems to smoke a fair bit under full throttle, but I wouldn't have easily kept up with it in the Activa without the manual boost controller, so I'm wondering if it has been remapped or something. As I understand it, the EPIC pump can be remapped?

So the first job I tried on the 2.1TD (SX spec by the way, shame it isn't a VSX!) was to lube up the height corrector and attempt to reconnect the dogbone. I doused it in plus gas and got some pliars on it to move it about, with the height adjuster set in service high I wasn't able to reconnect the dogbone, the spring loaded bit of the height corrector was far too stiff to move, with it set in normal or low is it easier? (I was using axle stands by the way

) Or is it lack of lubrication that has made it so stiff?

I will update the thread with both of these cars (and the Activa !) as time progresses.

Cheers for reading! I'm sure there's plenty I've missed off though...

vince · Unread post by **vince** » 18 Sep 2010, 23:02

Sounds like youve got your hands full Dommo....Just noticed your not that far from me down in Stoke..

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 18 Sep 2010, 23:48

Certainly have, started my first proper job 6 weeks ago too so that's keeping me busy as it is! And I just read in your blog about working at Liverpool GSF so no you're not far away. Would be nice to go to a GSF that has someone who understands hydraulic Citroens!

vince · Unread post by **vince** » 19 Sep 2010, 07:34

Lol i know what you mean, when hydraulic customers come into Liverpool the other guys break out in a rash and shout "Vince"

What are the guys like at GSF Stoke?

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 19 Sep 2010, 11:59

To be honest I've never given them a chance to exercise their hydraulic knowledge, I've always gone in with the exact part numbers I need, saying I need x amount of them, x of these, etc. I'd rather do it that way than let them give me the wrong parts. Even Pleaides got it wrong when I used them for the first (and probably only) time, because I didn't spoon feed the exact sphere specs. Ordered 7 spheres for an Activa, (all bar the rear corners and main accumulator) including the activa specific ones and hydractive centre spheres, and yet received non-hydractive front corner spheres which made the ride wallowey, bouncy and generally awful. You'd have hoped that 4 other spheres being for a hydractive/activa car would have given the game away that I wanted hydractive corner spheres!

KP · Unread post by KP » 19 Sep 2010, 19:48

IIRC to get the rear dogbone on the best way is to have the car on its lowest setting and have one end already on. Then set the car to high and as it rises you can easily push the other end on without much issue

Worked for me for a week while i waited for a new one from citroen

vince · Unread post by **vince** » 19 Sep 2010, 21:03

I presume ramps are the best way to go on that one then ?

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 19 Sep 2010, 22:58

Cheers KP.

I'm trying to work out how stiff the height corrector is supposed to be, as this one is very, very stiff!

Is the rod that goes to the part of the height corrector with the two big circular dust covers supposed to move within the height corrector?

Dommo · Unread post by **Dommo** » 19 Sep 2010, 23:01

And on another note

Barring a front bumper in white, the VSX is ready for use. This weeks task is to spray the current primer coloured bumper in Polar white (I hope). I also get the feeling the strut tops are a bit worse for wear in this VSX unfortunatly - sounds expensive

I'm just looking out for a pair of fogs, with the mount bit that normally stays with the bumper unless you take it off, if anyone has a pair?!