My ZX

TomH · Post by **TomH** » 07 Dec 2003, 17:26

hello!
Been reading these boards for a bit now, quite useful... thought I'd chip in though. I have had a 1994 ZX 1.9d for a couple of months now (my first car, awww!) Quite pleased with it except it's not without its problems! I'm quite ignorant about car mechanicals though so a lot of the stuff I've read on here is not making much sense!
My first (and most irritating!) problem is cold starting. Its a bitch to start in the mornings when it is cold, which I'm guessing is glow plugs. I bought some bosch ones asssuming it would be just a screw out and in type jobby. Having had a look, the first two as you look at it on the left seem easy enough to do (if I had the right size screwdriver!) but the two on the right look impossible as they are blocked by other bits an pieces and you can't get to them!
Next up is the phantom rear windscreen wiper! It seems to go on and off when it likes and makes a nasty buzzing noise. Electrical fault, or something like water getting into it?
The heating only works when I cane the car, or drive at high revs consistently making my journey to work a little uncomfortable in the mornings! Is that normal? hmmmmm
I think that's about it! Nice little car apart from that! The interior is a bit flimsy (door panels loose and the inside lock bits fall off!) oh, and the brakes seem quite dodgy!
So i dunno if I've bought a dog or if they are all like that!

Dave Burns · Post by **Dave Burns** » 07 Dec 2003, 18:08

To change the plugs you will have to move anything that obstruct the operation, within reason that is, after that you will have to obtain tools that will make the job as easey as possible, a good 1/4" drive socket set with long extensions is a must for this job as are cranked ring spanners.
A tip for keeping the little nuts from falling to oblivion is to shove a shread of card or paper into the socket, so as to bind against the nut and prevent it falling out once its free of the thread, also very usefull for putting the nut back on.
The wiper sounds like it has got parking problems, one cable stays live with ingition to keep the wiper going until parked when it is switched off, this sounds like an internal fault with the motor/gearbox assembly.
The thermostat needs replacing if it only gets hot during high load periods, get yourself a new one (with seal) and 4 litres of citroen antigel antifreeze, refill at 50:50, have a trawl round and get the info on bleeding the cooling system or that will be the next problem.
Dave

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 07 Dec 2003, 19:46

We bought our ZX 1.9 D last year and like you found the thermostat was no good. No real trouble to replace but I had to get a thick ring for it as the new one came with a thin one. In fact the original stat had a ring seal on the valve which had broken and would probabaly have worked if I'd simply removed that seal.
Thre rear wiper is a curiosity but I have the same problem. our car has an after market? imobiliser made by Autowatch installed and I'm sure the phantom wiper is related to this installation. It otherwise works but doesn't operate on the injection pump, presumably merely blocks the operation of the starter, glowplugs etc.
The brake discs wear rapidly but are cheap and easy to replace. I expect a new set of pads and discs will sort out the brakes. justas an observation I would say that they are no where near as good as BX brakes. If the handbrake is loose the rear self adjuster may have stuck or there are other problems with the back brakes.
Jeremy

ZXdanslamaison · Post by **ZXdanslamaison** » 07 Dec 2003, 21:33

Thats interesting about the thermostat - I too found that mine failed after 25k. Only thing that ever went wrong with the 1.4 engine.

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 08 Dec 2003, 00:19

Replaced my ZX td thermostat as well. The guage was barley getting out of the cold. Now it reads about a third of the way up and all is cosy first thing. The only problem I had was the housing seemed to have a warp in the botton of the sealing face but I cured this with some orange instant gasket.

ZXdanslamaison · Post by **ZXdanslamaison** » 08 Dec 2003, 00:25

Looks like you had the opposite problem to me - mine stayed closed.... on the hottest day of the summer... whilst stuck in a motorway tailback - bad news!

TomH · Post by **TomH** » 12 Dec 2003, 20:46

ho-hum... am without car at the moment. Couldn't do the glow plugs so took it to a local bloke, but one of the plugs was rusty and broke trying to get it out so is now stuck. great!
I would have thought the car would get pretty hot because I'm sure the radiator coolant needs changing (is about at the miniumum level and looks filthy!)
Oh, and why are the dash lights always on?? Very bizarre! I forgot to put my headlights on once because of this... dangerous!

Guru Meditation · Post by **Guru Meditation** » 12 Dec 2003, 21:00

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Oh, and why are the dash lights always on?? Very bizarre! I forgot to put my headlights on once because of this... dangerous!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Hehe that little 'feature' caught me out too first time I drove in the dark. Rookie error, admittedly, but to drive around a lit town no lights are needed apart from to be seen, and the lights on my ZX are so $hit you can hardly notice if they are on or off if a street is well lit.