Mungkie's Activa Blog

[Deanxm]

Thats nice, all the works been done, looks like you just need to start using it then

D

[CitroJim]

I'm sure I can be persuaded to make you a new ram bush Mungkie Have you seen the page on it on my website? It's here if not... PM me your name and address and I'll drop one in the post to you in due course...

The ride is a tad on the tauter side compared to an HDi and if you're expecting a really floaty magic carpet then with an Activa you're not going to get it... However, it should be much more comfy than a tin-sprung car taht can go round corner reasonably competently.

You know when an Activa is right as it feels very nimble, vey chuckable and light on it's wheels, just like a little skateboard but without any of the downsides or risk of eyeballs popping out of sockets and spines being irreparably damaged and so on. If it drives, feels and handles like a well sorted Pug 205GTi then it's good...

The Activa Buyers Guide contains a lot of very useful information on giving the suspension system generally a good test and by extension proves the electrovalves are working well. Last time I saw your car the suspension, save the duff spheres, was working well.

Having said that though, it would be a good idea to run a Lexia across the Hydractive ECU to clear out any recorded faults as their presence does seem to blunt things just a tad in the handling and comfort department...

[Mungkie]

Hi Mike, you are a saint for keeping me up to date on the history of the Activa looks like I'll be able to take the hydraflush back and save the money for fancy tyres when the time comes:-D

My reason for considering fydraflush was that when I took some of the spheres off they were filled with milky/cloudy LHM but in hind sight that might be due to them failing and so never pushing the LHM back into the system so that when the Hydraflush/LHM was changed they still had ancient LHM in them. Anyone agree or disagree?

Jim you are also a saint and once I have done a little more investigation I will probably be sending you a PM with my address and a request for a bush for the rear ram.

Now there is one thing that is troubling me ..... I made a mistake, which might turn out to be a tragic mistake, when changing the spheres I tried to jack the front of the car up from the bottom of the front activa ram and this might be the cause of what appears to be a problem with the side to side leveling, it seems that once the car has settled the o/d/f wheel to wheel arch gap is 4-5 fingers where as the n/s/f is 3 fingers....

I took the Activa for a little drive after some more Citarobics and the noise near the boot seems better, I guess the suspension is getting softer/ better at the back.

Dean , you are a sinner the way you can drive that Activa

The wife is in bed so I'm free but the weather is awful so now instead of playing with the car itself I have a different kind of Citroen work/play to do I have borrowed my Fathers Lexia and am going to set it up on my wife's laptop and try and sort out that engine management light on the HDi. Althought it should be great to have the Lexia; sadly I don't have a 30pin connector( or is it 16 pin) so that I can plug it into the Activa but I guess if I can get it to work with the HDi I'll invest in the connector and get one from ebay for a small fortune.

Most likely if Lexia is slow to install I'll start reading the Activa Buyers Guide again while it installs, the other option is if it installs quickly I'll be able to read the guide after I've used it on the HDi. Oh I see its 10pm already to we'll have to see how it goes. If I make any progress I'm sure I'll post it up here either last thing tonight or after my filling at the dentist tomorrow.

I'm using the Activa almost every day, but I am starting to notice the constant need to fill the tank again, something which the HDi doen't suffer from

I think generally the car needs to settle for a bit and I need to understand the system and lubricate the height correctors and maybe the rams, does anyone recommend a suitable grease for the rams/suspension struts?

[Northern_Mike]

The car not sitting level is likely to be worn or filthy (or both) roll-correction linkages. Not a huge problem, you probably haven't done anything jacking it where you did. It takes a lot of load there when cornering.. There is a good diagram somwhere of the linkages, and instructions how to clean them, but I can't find them!

[Citroenmad]

Good work on getting the Activa, when right they are just superb and a joy to drive, a real 'Q' car.

I'm using the Activa almost every day, but I am starting to notice the constant need to fill the tank again, something which the HDi doen't suffer from

I know that feeling, you'll soon be back to using your HDi almost every day
They are very good fun and once you get to know how they handle, they can really be made to corner very well indeed. It took me a bit of getting used to at first, I find in the dry it is predictable, understeer comes on if your really pushing through bends but lift-off oversteer is really easy to get. As Dean said somewhere, its an easy car to corner and balance on the throttle, but Ive had mine catch me out on a few bends as the rear is quite oversteer prone. Put the best tyres on the back, that is a very good bit of advice! My tyres wear alarmingly on the edges, its far too fun to not go around roundabouts sideways but the tyres don't like this. My Michelins seem to go to plastic quite quickly and lost all grip in the wet, making the car quite dangerous. Ive not driven it in the wet with its current tyres, but I tend not to, as in the wet you can not get the best from the car

Jacking up on the front ram is not a very good idea, though I doubt if it has caused the lean. Was it not leaning over before? Setting the side to side level, if it is not caused by wear, can be a fine art. It has taken me many hours and many tanker fulls of fuel to get mine sitting right by adjusting the corrector.

[Mungkie]

Time for a cup of tea and then bed.

I have installed a new Virtualbox Virtual windows XP machine with Lexia running on it. Lexia is UGLY and SLOW! I ran it on the HDi and it seems I have low pressure on the injectors which I think I have read about caused by the low pressure fuel pump(?) but I'll have a look at that in a few days.

I have also read the Activa buyers guide, some of the checks I have already done, but I'm looking forward to doing the others soon and getting under the front of the car and really having a look around to see how it works.

I think I'm getting the feeling that I might like working on the Activa more than I actually like driving it ... I'll be sad if I actually get it perfect, maybe I'll be like Dean and decide to sell it when that happens

[CitroJim]

If you think Lexia3 is slow then try Lexia2. I've seen grass grow quicker.. I guess it's slow because it's running under an emulator/VM in your case Mungkie. Try it on native XP and it may be better but remember the Lexia itself is a 16 bit application and running under 32 or 64 bit Windies it's always going to take a performance hit.

It's not supposed to be pretty! Proper professional software never is. It is very functional though.

Speed again is limited by the data throughput between the ECU being interrogated ad the Lexia. Data rates on older cars are slow.

I like working on an Activa, they're a challenge I also like driving a well-sorted one too...

Work through the buyers guide and most of any faults will show up.

I'll be sad if I actually get it perfect

No risk of that There is no such thing, however hard you try You get them perfect and then they break again. It's how they are...

[Deanxm]

indeed, get them close to perfect then leave them alone and they will be as reliable as anything, if you cure that final niggle you going to be in the brown pretty soon as activa's do not like to be fully functioning and will rectify the problem.

D .

[Mungkie]

Since I ran through a full tank of petrol at an INCREDIBLE rate I have been driving the HDi as it was fully of diesel, I reset all the engine faults on the HDi and wanted to see if they come back. No sign of any engine faults yet. Its been quite a while since I drove the Acticva and the HDi is still full of diesel. Today I thought I should start the Activa and take it for a little drive to keep it healthy. OH MY GOD I LOVE DRIVING IT. It made me smile so much, I think that its driving better the more exercise it gets. My tires are really getting caned by the driving style that the Activa encourages. I think my original plan of keeping both cars has to be the way forward. Long drives or regular drives with the air-con HDi mile machine, short, silly fun, glorious drives with the madness that is the Activa.

I think the spheres on the HDi are in need of a change asap. Has anyone used the spheres from aepdirect? they seem very cheap, are they any good?

And the other question is, does anyone lubricate the suspension struts on their Citroens? What do you use?

[Deanxm]

Glad your enjoying it , aep spheres are fine, they are probably amtec ones so no worries there, and i dont ever grease my struts, so to speak, i know the bx boys go on about it a bit but i dont really see the advantage, some say it makes the ride better others say it doa=esnt make any difference but if i did do it i would just wipe some lhm round them, the seals will wipe it off the first time it moves whatever you put on to be honest.

D

[Mungkie]

Not much going on with the Activa, only real news is that I had a cheap axlestand break!! no damage to me or the car but worrying none the less. New stands on order. I think I managed to fix some of the noise coming from the rear of the cabin by adjusting the boot latch. I was looking under the bonnet and notices the pipe from the airbox into the turbo(?) is torn and taped together, does anyone know what hoses on other cars might do the job of a replacement? I have a few turbo diesel XMs I can pinch from. I still haven't had a look at why the front isn't level, but I'm scared of doing anything without decent axle stands.

I have received the new spheres for the HDi but without the axle stands no fittinghas happened

The spheres are I.F.H.S. brand I think.

I'm probably going to see a body shop tomorrow to get an idea what ball park I am looking at to get the lacquer problem fixed. Although I'm unlikely to get it done unless it is REALLY cheap.

[Northern_Mike]

That's just the elbow of the pipe from the airbox to the plenum that's torn and taped together. I am the guilty party. It was torn about 2 years ago when I first borrowed the car off Pete, so I duck-taped it together, with the intention of getting a replacement. As far as I know, no others fit. I'd be tempted to get a piece of Samco silicon hose to replace it if it were mine.

I would get a pair of reasonable ramps - makes changing the rear corner spheres a doddle. Drive onto ramps, depressurise, unscrew spheres, screw new ones on. As long as the spheres come off, it's literally a 5 min job. That's how I replaced them on your Activa.

I've always used Pleideas spheres. I have had experience of others not being at the correct pressure when bought.

[Deanxm]

Hi Pete

Ive got a good one of these flexi pipes for sale PM me if your interested.

D

[Chris570]

indeed, get them close to perfect then leave them alone and they will be as reliable as anything, if you cure that final niggle you going to be in the brown pretty soon as activa's do not like to be fully functioning and will rectify the problem.

D .

Never a truer word said.

[andmcit]

Maybe I'm just fortunate, I used an Activa for a year as a daily driver and only needed to change
the pads and a bit of exhaust and tyre and it never gave any trouble. Past tense though as it was
stolen unfortunately and probably met a grisly demise. I believe it helped having a FCSH and Indy
maintenance all it's life, I really miss it badly, the best Activa I had and good on fuel too! Yes really.

I don't believe these have to be lampooned as much as they are.