My son Richard has taken my 1993 ZX TD Aura hatchback to use while he saves up to buy himself a new car, so I decided to buy myself another ZX diesel for the winter to save my Visa from use on salty roads. I have bought a great 1996 (P) ZX TD Avantage estate with just 2 owners and 84,000 miles, it has come with full service history and the original sales invoice.
Richard has been complaining about an oil leak from the Aura so he came over on Thursday and we diagnosed it as head gasket. He now has taken my estate and called me from Forfar, Scotland Friday night to say it runs very well!
Fix the Aura or find another ZX diesel is the question?
ZX's are great cars and massively underrated, its such a shame that are becoming quite a rare sight on the roads today.
As to your question about whether to repair that all depends upon cost and the likelihood of finding a similar replacement at the same cost of the repair as you never quite know what you're buying until you get it home and have the opportunity to give a car a thorough going over. How bad is the leak, does it need repairing or can it be 'monitored' etc?
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The Aura has leaked 5LTR oil in 1100 miles and leaves unsightly dripped under it. I have been quoted £400 to fix it with a new timing belt, so I do think that makes it an uneconomic repair. Maybe I could do it myself I am not a mechanic but have been tinkering with cars all my life and 1960s British cars hold no fear for me but have tended to stick with what I know. Do I need any special tools, are there any points to lookout for?
The Aura is quiet smooth returns 45 mpg in mixed driving and is never left behind, while not a show car it looks smart to the casual glance and the interior is almost unmarked.
Finding another ZX that is as good as this one or the estate I guess is potluck, it would be the easy solution as I have a long queue of cars needing my attention. The winter project is to rebuild my wife’s 1965 Triumph Spitfire that she has had for xx years and was her first car at 17.
£400 with a new head gasket is pretty good given the parts and a skim would be approaching £100-150.
An XUD head gasket was the first major thing I did to a car, no real skill required - just a lot of patience. Tools you need: a good socket set, breaker bar, torque wrench jack and axle stand...a BoL does help too.
The head bolts are torx headed, I can't remember what size though.
One thing to look out for is the auto tensioner on the timing belt, it can be a bit of a pain to get back together again.
Citroen Xantia Exclusive HDi
previously:
Citroen ZX Volcane - RIP
Peugeot 106 XN... stolen and destroyed by Kent Police
Well it cost me about £400 when I did the head gasket on my TD 6 years ago, and that was just for the materials, including gasket set with laminated HG from Citroen, plus new head bolts from GSF. I agonised over whether to re-use the old head bolts, but glad I didn't (for peace of mind), and car still Ok 6 yrs on. Cost included light skim of the head though questionable whether really needed - again, played safe
ZX's are great cars and massively underrated, its such a shame that are becoming quite a rare sight on the roads today.
Agree; if anything terminal happened to our 1.9TDsx we would even now struggle to think of anything better to replace it with (and if its cylinder head got a problem, there's a reconditioned spare on the 1.9TD engine in our now retired but still serving as a small shed Xantia which presumably would fit).
After much discussion my wife Claire has pushed me to repair and not scrap our ZX , my neighbour Graham donated a cam belt and tensioner, which was sitting behind his TV! So I bought a headset, head bolts, oil, oil filter, antifreeze and new glow plugs as it had also become difficult to start from cold. Graham had found me a local mechanic to fit it for me for £125 and it was done in two days. Unfortunately it was still difficult to start from cold so I asked the mechanic to have another look at it and he found that some rubber pipes had become porous and were damp with diesel and letting air in. £30 more and he replaced them for me and now it starts well and drives nicely.
Saw a 3dr silver Volcane almost identical to my old one on Autotrader the other day, and thought that I'd have it in a flash if I had the opportunity. Great cars, and very much under-rated as said above.
James
Now Citroenless for the first time in 20 years
2008 Mazda RX-8 231
2007 Honda CR-V Auto
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