Ben's Citroen in Sweden

[daviemck2006]

The locking nuts on citroen are utter pain in the ass. Every citroen I have had I have dumped the locking nuts. On my first c5 the key broke on the first one. I got another key, they have a number on then and can be replaced. I slackened all the other nuts and drove round and round the local car park and I got three off. The fourth one took lots of profanities, lots of drill bits and god knows what else to get it off. They are hated articles for me, second only to sensodrive gearboxes [emoji49] [emoji49]

[Ben82]

I guess in a way I'm lucky that locking wheel nuts don't seem to be that common in Sweden, probably due to the tyres needing to be changed twice a year.

[Stickyfinger]

Or others "know" the problem they cause and have thrown them in the bin

[Ben82]

So on Tuesday I managed to get enough of our moving boxes inside to have enough space in the garage to fit the car. Which meant the wet weather that was due yesterday (and today), wouldn't hamper my two jobs lined up for the car this week.. Painting the Brake pipes and doing the oil + air filter change.

The brake pipes I did yesterday whilst it was pouring it down outside, but forgot to check them today to see if they would need another coat.

On the service front today, I got her up on the ramps outside, and as I had taken her a bit too far round the block I did the air filter change first of all to allow the oil to cool a bit. To be honest I don't think the air filter needed changing, it looked hardly used. I might elect to check it next year before ordering it with the oil, as I think that will be fine with being changed every 2 years (I didn't change the cabin filter this year as thought that would be ok too, plus it's a pain the backside to change).

I think the oil came out a bit dark for my liking:


Considering she's done less than 6000km in the past year (will need to double check the service indicator, but I'm pretty sure it's at around 24700 - from 30000 at the reset), but then I've only drained the oil once before, so not entirely sure what's the norm for the V6. I wouldn't say it's any thicker than what went in either.

She also seems to want more oil put in this time, Guzzled the whole 5L bottle and what was left in my spare "top-up" bottle. And on the dash she's still showing 1 short - though she was before I started today too. Dipstick is showing very close to from max. Maybe my dash sensor has gone, or not quite on level ground (however I did turn the car around to no change).

[elma]

These little things are wonderful for getting wheel nuts out. Theres a few sizes and they are generally good for 2-4 of the same locking wheel nut. You just bash them in with a hammer, they deform to the shape of the key and unscrew with a 17mm socket. Fantastic invention and a lot cheaper if you've a mate thats on RAC patrol.

[CitroJim]

That's an intriguing little tool James!

Ben, the oil looks OK to me and about as expected after that mileage...

[Ben82]

That's an intriguing little tool James!

Ben, the oil looks OK to me and about as expected after that mileage...

Thanks Jim.

Went to take Nathe to school this morning as I was going to go into town to do a few bits but the oil gauge in the car was flashing the squares at me. So had to syphon off half a litre before it went to normal. Am leaving it for 30 mins or so to allow the oil to drip down to ensure it's not over filling again. Next time I think I'll go with my gut and put the 5l on it's own, then leave it for a while to settle and then top up if necessary.

[CitroJim]

I've had to do the same in the past

The V6 is terrible for having a lying dipstick Ben...

I start off by under the amount in and then top it up in stages until it's right...

I find to get the right reading on the stick you need to dip several times in a row....

[Ben82]

Yesterday I started off with 2 jobs in mind, replace the headlamp washer pump and swap over the xenon bulbs to check to see if the passenger side one had blown or if it was the ballast.

Got the bumper off most of the way all fine and dandy, had one side propped up on a box whilst the other side was still mostly attached. and got a jug and a bowl out to catch the fluid, as I was intending on putting it back in. However after getting the pump out the fluid would spill out on the inside of the bumper first and wash off a bunch of dirt into the jug and bowl, so rendered it useless. oh well, had plenty to spare in the garage so just refilled.

Getting the pump off the hose was a bit of a pain, I could not work out the clip, holding the hose to the pump, so just tried yanking the pump off the hose. result was the pump breaking in the hose oh well, a few minutes with a screw driver scraping the remains out, and it was fine, the replacement that I got from a local breakers for about £10 (brand new it's like £60!), went in fine, and tested it, and it seemed to be working ok (the jets were coming out, but no spray, which probably needed more time for the water to get through the hose, and without the caps on I didn't want to make a mess in the garage. So started on the headlamps. Which for the most part can be read about in my xenon thread.

Long story short, they're a pain, and not designed for people with big hands to change, at least I know what I'm in for if I ever need to change them again.

On Tuesday I'm taking her down to the local garage to have the coolant changed (it's been at least 2 years since it was done last). It's something I could do myself, but the laws over here prohibit you from dumping coolant in the waste water system, can't even wash the car on the driveway without breaking the law! :/ So figured take it the local guy who's cheap, and it can be done without too much fuss.

Definitely will use that breakers yard again if I need anything, it's only about 10 minutes away, they seem cheaper than others, and are friendly

[CitroJim]

I've had very similar experiences on a Xantia Ben.. Similar system by the sounds of it... They are fun and you end up soaked!!!

[Ben82]

Almost 3 years since an update? oops.

I figured since I have a number of projects going on with the car, I might as well post about them here, so consider this a bumper update.

The OEM stereo in the car has had an issue for ages where it doesn't switch on/off, I guess the button was worn down or so. And for a long time I've wanted something so we can listen to more than just the radio stations here (and without the need to burn cds etc).
So finally decided to upgrade the stereo, I wanted something that wouldn't look too out of place, but as we mostly had android phones in our household it was recommended we should have bluetooth rather than using the USB.
So I went with a Kenwood KDC-X5200BT, and bought the bits for the steering wheel control etc.



It probably didn't "blend in" as much as I would have liked, but the stereo upgrade more than makes up for it. I also semi feel like keeping the steering wheel controls was a bit of a wasted purchase as I hardly use them now (voice control on the phone etc works ok, and often with spotify etc just need to set it once and go ).

I also routed the usb port into the driver's glovebox, and then ran a cable out round the trim and along the bottom of the windscreen to where I have my phone holder.

I also moved my cigarette lighter extender with USB port to the front cigarette lighter, and ran the cable to behind the passenger seat, with another usual cigarette usb plugged into it there for someone in the back. It's a bit tidier, but I'm considering getting something like this with drilling a hole in the centre back trim for it and hardwiring the ports off the back of the 12V socket, just so there aren't cables running everywhere. My only problem is it might look a bit out of place being in opposite contrast to the trim.

I might also see if I can find a suitable USB socket to permanently replace the cigarette lighter in the front (none of us smoke, and wouldn't want anyone smoking in the car anyway).

My winter steel rims look terrible (I'm pretty sure they looked fairly bad when I first got them too!).



So I've been using ChrisFix's video on restoring them (well - applied the same logic for the front to the back too).
I wouldn't say the job was a perfect one, as anyone with a keen eye for those things will probably notice they weren't professionally done, but I'm pretty happy with the outcome, got rid of the rust with various attachments for my angle grinder and drill, used some rust protection primer and black paint.



1 of those down and 3 to go. will probably get some new hub caps for them as well, as the existing ones are terrible to get on and off (one has a crack in it - which as I wasn't using them probably didn't help their condition anyway).

Last year's MOT failed on a headlight being either too high or low, local mechanic said it was hard to adjust due to the yellowing, so I've been getting bits to restore those as well, I was originally going to follow ChrisFix's video on that but I'm going to opt for this one instead:


I did attempt to make an offer on a similarly yellowed headlight on ebay to use as a practice one, but it was rejected - I'm not sure there's really a market for headlights that are very clouded but oh well.. I'm just going to go for it in a few weeks. Given that new xenon clusters are a few hundred each it seems worthwhile even if the fix only lasts a year or two - however, it seems like it should be longer.

I've also bought some colour match paint, as some paint is peeling from the raised part of the front bumper, need to get some plastic primer as I completely forgot to get some at the time. It's one of those jobs that sorta worries me if it doesn't properly match very well, but part of me feels like it'll probably look better than the peeling paint it currently is. If it does provided a decent colour match I might look at respraying the rear bumper as that has loads of scratches on it when things have been put in and taken out of the boot etc.

Earlier in the year someone keyed the length of the car however, it appears to only be a clear coat scratch, so I might attempt smoothing out the clear coat for that to get rid of that, if I have the confidence to do so.

[Ben82]

Was in the UK for a couple of weeks, so hadn't done anything on the car.

Today, I decided to attempt the headlight restoration, and am rather pleased with the results - I still need to put the paint protection film on, but it was very windy today, so might do that tomorrow if the wind dies down, or clear up the garage a bit so I can get the car in to do it there.


Here's the outcome of today:

Before:


After:


Hopefully once the plaint protection plastic is on, it should last a good few years, and hopefully just need a minor "top-up" job to getting them looking good again.
Then back to making the winter tyres look good.

Local mechanic has hung up his tools as well now so will have to find another decent mechanic to work on the jobs that are a bit out of my league.