Finally Xantia Radiator changed

[ecohouse1]

Finally got round to changing the Radiator in my 1.9TD and as I saw on the forum, it was a pig of a job! Took over 2 hours. I had ordered a new bottom hose as I had been expecting it to be a piglet to get out of the radiator bottom bayonet and I was not wrong!! Top bayonet came apart with some gentle levering with a screwdriver. Bonus is that the washer fluid reservoir bolts came out no problem

Hose just would not shift at all, ended up cutting the stubb off at the radiator.

Biggest problem was removing the radiator itself - it was well jammed in being hemmed in by the intercooler hose on the o/s and the air con pipework on the n/s! Removed the trunking to the intercooler and that gave me a centimeter of extra space.

Funnily enough went to the dealer to get the hose (£60 in vat!!! ) and she said that on the diagram I needed a rubber o ring and a hose clip. I paid over the phone an when I went into collect on saturday morning - there was a box with the hose plus a bag of 20 hose clips (jubilee types topically enough!) and 20 O- rings and she charged me £1 per bag!! I think she was only meant to give me a one of each for a £1 not 1 BAG of each

Anyway thanks guys - all you said about bayonets were absolutely true and being armed upfront with the bottom hose was a major stress saver!

Cheers

Alan

[CitroJim]

Good work Alan yes, it is a bit of a job isn't it!

Ahh well, we'll know where to come to when we need an O ring

[spider]

Good to hear its done.

Yes they are about the same as the 406's not terribly pleasant to try to get the bottom hose joint off. Usually best to budget for a hose if the radiator wants changing.

[Bannedbiker]

Glad it went well in the end, not a job I want to do again for a while. At least your washer bottle bolts came out, I had to use a Dremel to cut mine off.
I remembered a few swear words I'd forgotten about the day I changed that radiator.

Martin.

[CitroJim]

I must say, Martin, working extensively on PSA's finest has always kept my profanity vocabulary in top-order

I only wish I could lean Welsh as fast as my Citroens teach me naughty words

[myglaren]

How about naughty Welsh words. You have to start somewhere

[CitroJim]

How about naughty Welsh words. You have to start somewhere

Not learned any yet Steve... I guess there are plenty that have voiceless alveolar fricatives in them perhaps say like 'llwck'

Any Welsh speakers on here like to teach me some?

[Bannedbiker]

I used to learn at least a couple of profanities in the language my car came from so I could swear at it in it's own native tongue!! Serbo- Croat for an old Yugo I had a few years ago, but tend to speak like Officer Crabtree when I swear at the Xantia;-)

[ashy90]

I am interested in what you mean by a 'bayonet hose', is it not just a regular hose then?


Talking of difficult to change radiators, I have been working on a Rover Streetwise which has had a small front end bump - which destroyed the rad, headlights, crash cans etc. Anyway, you would not believe the differance having A/C or not makes:

All the Streetwise's had A/C, but on a 25 without A/C, all you have is: Undo 2x 8mm bolts at the top (which can rust), disconnect a couple of hoses and unplug the connector for the fan and then you can pull the rad and fan out together. Providing the top bolts havn't rusted then it can be done in 20 minutes.

HOWEVER, the A/C equipped 25's and all Streetwise's, the rad is much bigger, the alternator has to be removed as it is much higher up, A/C pipes get in the way etc. I removed the alternator, A/C pipe going to the compressor, battery, air filter housing, and it still seemed impossible to pull the rad out! In the end, I pulled it out through the front - ok in my case seeing as the bumper, crash bar, air con condensor etc. was already removed due to the damage. Not easy at all!