Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[Mandrake]

Still struggling with neck/headache issues at the moment so not really able to do any heavy work like pulling a dashboard out.

It's been raining a lot recently and the Xantia has sat with a 12v battery conditioner untouched for about 6 weeks now, yesterday I went open the car up so I could remove the charger and run the engine for a few minutes and air the car out and had 3 rude shocks waiting for me...

The first was that the spare child seat in the car was covered in white mould, along with the seatbelt. So out that came. The car has been sweating inside a bit (no more than usual given that the carpets have water in them) but I've had almost no opportunities to open it up to air it due to weather etc.

The next problem is I couldn't get the bonnet open! The bonnet pull was jammed, it just wouldn't budge. Finally with no other obvious alternative I pulled the lever extra hard fully expecting it to snap but it didn't and right at the end of it's travel the bonnet fortunately popped open. I've used spray grease on the two bonnet latch mechanisms and it opens rather easily now so I wish I'd done that months/years ago.

However rude shock number three has me really stumped. It seems that despite the car sweating a bit inside over the last few years due to lack of use, it decided now was a good time for all the ceiling lining to let go and fall down!!

It seems that the fabric layer has just let go of whatever is above it, presumably due to excessive humidity in the car for an extended period of time, and I have absolutely no idea how to fix this or whether it even can be fixed without major work. Is it glued to the layer above it ? It's shown no signs of sagginess before then suddenly it all drops down. When I try to smooth it back up into place it kind of clings to the ceiling again but starts to come down again. The fabric doesn't even feel damp, even though the car was sweating on the windows.

Drying the car out is almost impossible at the moment with the weather we have - I can't leave it open during a workday as nobody is home, in the evenings its still freezing and wet, and I tried to use a portable dehumidifier shut inside the car a couple of times but it turns itself off after an hour or two due to the ambient temperature being to low for it to function properly, and without heating the interior as well it can't pull much moisture out of the car.

It's not just inside the car that is suffering from damp - the felt lining under the bonnet has the same mould on it as well, presumably just because its been so wet and the engine has not been run for weeks to dry it out due to the coolant leak.

So has anyone ever dealt with collapsed ceiling lining before ? For the first time with this car I really feel like its various problems are "getting away from me" and I'm not able to get on top of them. The heater matrix is a "minor" problem on paper but a major job to do, especially when all the carpets need to come out to be washed and dried, (with nowhere really to leave them when they're out of the car) and I still have a rainwater leak to find as well.

It could be at least another month before I'm physically able to do demanding work like a dashboard removal, and like the carpets I don't really have anywhere to store the removed dashboard so that I can work on the car in my own time instead of trying to do a quick job.

[Hell Razor5543]

I would try to get hold of a lot of desiccated silica gel packs and leave half of them in the car each day. Then swap them over, popping the 'used' ones in the oven on a low heat for a while to dry them out, 'resetting' them for their next stint. That way you may be able to keep the condensation under control. Something like these (if they can be 'reset');

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125111506014 ... Sw8Bph6qSd
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154640568023 ... 5161115538?
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/165161115538 ... BM8qT4lNtf

[mickthemaverick]

I would try to get hold of a lot of desiccated silica gel packs and leave half of them in the car each day. Then swap them over, popping the 'used' ones in the oven on a low heat for a while to dry them out, 'resetting' them for their next stint. That way you may be able to keep the condensation under control.

I can verify that, my MX3 had similar problems mainly due to water through the window seals and I am able to confirm that my two rotating silica gel packs have solved that completely!!

[myglaren]

Another option to James' is cat litter. Needs to be the rare-earth type to be properly absorptive.

[bobins]

Another option to James' is cat litter. Needs to be the rare-earth type to be properly absorptive.

Presumably that's similar to the Fuller's Earth type, only harder to find in Sainsbury's ?

[myglaren]

That is the one.
I bought some from Aldi or Lidl, only used a bit and gave the rest to my daughter for her cats.

Put it in stockings and got it all over the car but not a problem for a stationary car.

[xantia_v6]

Bad news on the headlining. I think that the fabric is laminated with a foam backing, and the foam has perished and separated. If that is the case, there is no way to successfully repair it other than by finding a better roof lining panel, or fitting replacement cloth (not a job for a novice upholsterer).

[Skull]

HEADLINING + page 9

Headlining is a tricky job and not one you want to have too many attempts at ... I'm on my 3rd effort and it's still not brilliant ....

[Mandrake]

So, the Leaf went in for its yearly service today, (a couple of weeks late due to our whole house coming down with Covid, which we have thankfully all recovered from now ) and two days ago I started noticing a squeaky/groaning noise when steering, so I asked them to check that, fully expecting it to be a failed strut top bearing, which I did not want to tackle myself.

But no, it's apparently play/lack of grease in the left front lower suspension arm ball joint, as demonstrated in the walkaround video they sent me where you can see the arm move when the mechanic just pulls on it with his hand... doh.

Well, that's unfortunate and embarrassing, because when I did the gearbox swap on the Leaf those months ago I managed to bust the rubber boot on that lower left ball joint and had to fit a locally sourced after market boot to get it back on the road and I guess either I didn't check the quantity of grease, the boot wasn't a good fit, or I somehow damaged the ball joint in all the levering I did trying to get that arm to let go. (Which is possible as I had a hell of a time with the retaining bolt...)

So, how much did they quote to replace it ? £158.45 + vat for an entire lower arm and £118 + vat for labour, adding up to £331 including VAT.

It turns out Nissan will not replace the ball joint on it's own, they just replace the whole arm with the ball joint even though separate ball joints are available in the aftermarket and just use a C snap ring to attach them to the arm as far as I can see... (so I shouldn't even need to remove the arm from the car to replace the ball joint...)

A quick google search finds an SKF ball joint for £11 plus delivery!

https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/skf/15248231

(I'll need another retaining bolt/nut as well as you're not supposed to re-use them)

However I don't have any C clip pliers that would fit the clip pictured in the link above - can anyone recommend a decent but affordable pair of C clip pliers that are likely to work for this clip ? Is the size of the hole in the ends of the C clip for ball joints fairly standard ?

I could probably bodge it somehow without the pliers but I'd rather just get myself a pair for future use to make the job easy, however I don't want to pay a lot for a pair when the ball joint is so inexpensive and I would very rarely ever use them - some of the pliers I've looked at are quite expensive and I'm not sure what style of pliers to get...so a recommendation on some pliers would be appreciated.

They also picked out the front discs as heavily corroded - I agree with them on that point as the inside face of the front discs are pretty bad (not the outside for some reason) and the MOT test in September did flag some "brake flutter", so new discs and pads are on my list of jobs to do on the Leaf before September's MOT, so I can put it off for a month or two and shop around a bit for the parts.

So how much did they quote for doing the discs and pads ? £209 + vat for pads and discs and £118.8 + vat for labour for a total of £393 inc vat.

So the bill today if I'd just said yes go ahead with everything would have been £726 for basically a faulty ball joint and swapping the front discs and pads, on top of the £159 for the service it actually went in for. Ouch.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here but this is why I do my own car work as much as possible.

[mickthemaverick]

I have a set of Sealey circlip pliers which consists of 2 straight inside and outside, 2 curved inside and outside. I have had them for 10+ years used them a lot on various gear shafts , bearings etc and never had a problem with them!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Never done a ball joint like that one but it appears some heavy duty equipment is needed to press them out and press them in, to the lower arm.

This vid covers it, the ball joint bit is the same, is retained by that circlip but like I say looks like a bit of a pain to press out and press in. Looks like the new arm with already installed ball joint could be easier DIY, unless you have the gear.



Regards Neil

[Mandrake]

Never done a ball joint like that one but it appears some heavy duty equipment is needed to press them out and press them in, to the lower arm.

This vid covers it, the ball joint bit is the same, is retained by that circlip but like I say looks like a bit of a pain to press out and press in. Looks like the new arm with already installed ball joint could be easier DIY, unless you have the gear.



Regards Neil

Hmm,

You might be right actually. While the joint on its own is only £11, I would need the pliers and a (probably quite expensive) ball joint press kit to remove the old one and fit it, a kit I might only ever need once. Whole aftermarket arms aren't as expensive as I thought, here are a few ranging from £35 to £117 inc VAT:

https://www.buycarparts.co.uk/nissan/le ... ange[]=asc

Here is the genuine Nissan part by comparison, for £163:

https://nissangenuine.com/nissan/nissan ... ompl-tran/

[mickthemaverick]

Of course there is a half and half solution Simon. There are many small garages, or engineering shops, with hydraulic presses and when I have used that route, ie remove control arm and take it with the new joint to see them, they have always been happy to press out the old and press in the new for between £10 and £25 depending on them. Thus total cost is still not too bad!!

[Mandrake]

I need it fixed with a minimum of fuss and without buying expensive single use tool kits so I've decided to order the whole arm. I didn't want to buy too cheap so I went middle of the road in that price range and ordered the Delphi arm for £52 + shipping, still way cheaper than an OEM arm for £164 and also saving the labour cost of course by doing it myself.

(However I ordered it directly from Autodoc as buycarparts.co.uk seem to be yet another shell for autodoc as the listings and prices were identical! )

[Gibbo2286]

It's nice to have the proper tools but I think most mechanics would get that changed without, a little bit of thought along the "DIY with function over finesse!!" route would do it, don't even need circlip pliers if that ring is as accessible as shown in the video.