Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[DHallworth]

It’s a pain in the arse that he’s thrown the broken bit away but if it’s anything like the one that came off my car previously it likely took very little effort to break it

Hopefully you can find one and get it sorted.

[Mandrake]

Ebay item number 164376997247 any help Simon?

Yes, actually, it was!

It’s a pain in the arse that he’s thrown the broken bit away but if it’s anything like the one that came off my car previously it likely took very little effort to break it

Hopefully you can find one and get it sorted.

Yes, it was pretty badly cracked and delicate, to be sure. The thing that annoyed me was that he lost that big chunk so that I couldn't glue it back together myself, and also that he handed the keys back at the house telling my mum that it was all done and everything was fine when he'd lost a piece then just rammed the rest in loose with no attempt to glue it down or water proof it and then bolted.

In any case mick's link saved the day - while it was a bit more expensive than I'd hoped for and was itself split in two vertically (any Xantia's still around without any splits in their scuttle ??) apart from that one clean break it is in pretty much pristine condition with no micro cracking or weakness along the edge of the glass like the old one. As good as you could expect from a second hand piece. The breaker was very fast sending it and even phoned me first to make sure I'd noticed in the photo that it was split in two.

So I glued the two halves back together with epoxy with an additional plastic splint at the back:

And very carefully "glued" it down to the glass with black silicone - I think it came out alright!

[mickthemaverick]

Excellent news and a good job well done!! Onwards and upwards!!

[Mandrake]

Sorry I've not had a chance to update the thread but after months of drama and hard work the Xantia passed its MOT on Monday.

It got an advisory for minor pitting and corrosion on the inside face of the front discs (shame, probably due to the car sitting unused for 6 months. ) and the rear number plate. I'm not sure as I didn't speak to the technician but I assume it's the fixings which are badly rusted to the point where one side is barely held on that he was complaining about, even though the MOT bullet point talked about "visibility"...

Anyone know how the rear number plate is attached on a Xantia ? The fixings are so badly rusted and have been for a few years now that it's impossible to tell if it was a bolt, screw or rivet originally. The boot is fibreglass so is there a captive nut or does it just screw into fibreglass ? (No idea)

The air conditioning has also been re-gassed and is working, however he did warn before doing so that there is evidence of a slight leak in the area of the condenser, so it remains to be seen how long it lasts and whether it will need a condenser to make it last a decent amount of time.

I've also realised what the 40 ohm resistor in the air conditioning switch is for - it's to power the light at a low brightness when the headlights are turned on...

Unfortunately now I have an LED instead of a bulb the LED runs at full brightness when the headlights are on regardless of whether the switch is on or off! (since 40 ohms is insignificant compared to the 1k resistor on the LED)

So it needs the 40 ohm resistor replacing with a MUCH higher value, probably around 2.2k to allow the LED to operate dimly with the headlights on so you can tell the difference between headlights and headlights + aircon. Will have a look at that at some point in the near future, and I will experiment with a few different resistor values in the house with another LED before I pull the switch apart again, as the LED is a bit on the bright side at the moment as well.

[mickthemaverick]

Even better news than the last lot!! Roadworthy again and just a few more jobs while you are using it!! Well done that man!!

[Skull]

Anyone know how the rear number plate is attached on a Xantia ?

Yes, on the hatchback it's just a self tapper into fibre glass ... I drilled both holes and number plate to accept the larger bore plastic number plate 'flat head domed screw' type with a plastic nut fitted inside the boot cavity (I had removed the interior boot trim (for tailgate light switch repair) and for ns nut I think I had to enlarge a moulding hole slightly, the os was easy access and just required the hole enlarging) but you might be able to access through the tailgate light fittings ?

Good news on the MoT

[Mandrake]

I had a feeling it might have been a self tapper into Fibreglass - seems like a Citroen thing to do!

[xantia_v6]

The rear plate is normally held on with something like a wood screw. Done by the dealer, so YMMV.

[Mandrake]

It never rains but pours, so the saying goes.

I went out to use the Xantia today for the first time in a couple of weeks and noticed the interior rubber mats seemed to have a lot of condensation on them so I lifted them up and to my horror the front passenger side carpet is absolutely soaked.

And by soaked I mean like a sponge cloth full of water. If I press my finger down into the carpet at all it ends up submerged in water and I can hear "squelch squelch squelch" from underneath. Basically the water level is right up into the carpet pile

We've had heavy rain the last couple of days and the gravel area around our bins is flooded as well so there has certainly been a lot of rainfall in a short time.

There is no taste of coolant (and no coolant is missing) nor has the car been driven recently so it's definitely rain water ingress. But I can't for the life of me find how it is getting in...

It's had a new windscreen fitted and I took great care in bonding the new scuttle and making sure it was water proof - I did a test with a few jugs of water poured down the left hand side of the windscreen and it is all diverted around the heater fan inlet without even a drop of water heading towards the heater fan inlet - so it doesn't seem to be the source of the leak.

Likewise I've tried pouring water on the roof above the windscreen and passenger door and nothing is getting in. There is no sign of water on the inside of the windscreen, on the dashboard, the carpet higher up under the heater box area seems pretty dry. The drivers side carpet is dry and the rear left carpet is dry too!!

Does anyone have any ideas how the front left carpet is completely flooded but there is no sign of how the water has got in ?

Also, what needs to be done to remove the front carpets ? I believe the carpet has to be cut in the middle ? I know that there is a large electrical connector block under the passenger carpet area which will be completely underwater now - that won't last long before corrosion sets in and electronics stop working so I need to get the carpet out pronto.

This connector got severely damaged in Dad's car many years ago due to a water leak and I ended up having to bypass most of the wires in the connector as it was so badly damaged by the time the leak was found. (And I don't remember what the cause of the leak was - I think in that case it was the scuttle leaking into the heater fan inlet, but that doesn't seem to be the case here)

[myglaren]

Could it be the door drains clogged. Or if you have a sunroof, one of the drain tubes come apart, or again the drain clogged.
Even the drains in the wheel arch.

[Mandrake]

No sunroof.

Door drains ?

Wheel arch drains ?

[xantia_v6]

You need to remove the front seats to get the carpet out (maybe just unbolt them and lean them back), and at least partially remove the centre console. It is more than 10 years since I last did this so can't remember more details.

[myglaren]

Drains from the scuttle exit in the wheel arches and can be clogged and overflow into the car. Had this with my GS.
Also the drain holes in the bottom of the doors can be clogged and the rainwater will overflow into the footwell. Water can usually be heard sloshing around in the door if it is moved.

[Mandrake]

Sadly I've not had a chance to work on the car since I last posted or even take the carpet out - mainly down to two bouts of illness in January and seemingly never ending weekend rain. The carpet is starting to show mould spots now and is totally soaked on the front left passenger area. (The right front and rear carpets are still dry)

However on Thursday night I did discover WHERE the water is getting into the car, but not HOW it is getting to there. It was light to moderate rain when I came home so I popped the bonnet to convince myself it wasn't getting in through the heater fan intake vent, but it is!!

There was one drip every 5 seconds falling into the vent landing just at the bottom of the mesh grid in the vent with a long wet trail visible all the way down into the bowels of the heater vent:



It fits the symptoms that the front left footwell is flooded up to the level of the carpet but the drivers side and rear carpets are still dry.

The problem is I cannot understand HOW the water is dripping from the under side of the scuttle into the vent. I was VERY careful and neat when I fitted the scuttle, the silicone sealer seal line between the window glass and the top edge of the scuttle is still intact and is immaculate all the way across so there is absolutely no way water is running down the outside of the glass and into the gap between the scuttle and glass.

There are also no cracks in the scuttle at all except for the one clean break over towards the drivers side which is epoxy glued across the entire join. So everything seems perfect.

Which means that water is somehow travelling on the UNDERNEATH side of the scuttle from somewhere else and is somewhat annoyingly choosing to drip exactly above the vent, as I didn't see any drips anywhere else.

The only two possibilities I can think of here are:

1) There is a drain hole near the middle of the scuttle which allows water to drain down past the wiper motor into the trough - could water be going over this edge then running back along the underside of the scuttle until it reaches a curve or bump which forces it to drip ? The car is parked with the front left wheel in a drain hollow on the drive so is on a lean to the left. However if this is what is happening that must be a design flaw surely ?

2) Could water be getting in at the top left corner of the windscreen edge and running down the edge of the glass under the rubber (but outside the cabin) and then run along underneath edge of the glass - which overhangs the body work quite significantly - in which case it could be dripping from the under edge of the glass where it overhangs the vent directly into the vent, not even wetting the scuttle ?

Two things make me wonder if this second theory could be the correct one - one is that the rubber seal doesn't really fit properly at the top left corner of the window, and is one aspect of the glass job I was not happy with: (other than breaking and failing to fit the scuttle of course!)

As far as I can see this does not affect the integrity of the seal between the glass and the frame of the body and is there more for looks, however I'm wondering if water could run into this gap then slowly work it's way down between the edge of the glass and the rubber, travel around the bottom edge of the glass and finally drip off the bottom of the glass ?

The second thing that makes me wonder this is that I previously noted that I found a giant blob of putty on the bodywork when I removed the original scuttle which looks like it has been there for a long time:

Could this be a bodge or even a factory mod to try to prevent water coming down the edge of the glass and dripping into the vent, and by throwing away this blob of putty I'm now seeing this problem ???

Without the putty blob the water path might look like this:

That slight V in the body work lines up almost perfectly with where the water is dripping...

What do people think of this theory ? If I'm correct I need to remove the scuttle again (argh!!!!) and replace the missing putty blob with a big blob of silicone sealer that goes right from the corner of the glass down the metalwork to direct any water dribble coming down the side of the glass away from the vent. (And I would be inclined to put a blob on the other side of the vent as a dribble break as well to stop any water dribbling across from the other side when the car is parked on a lean!)

I'm very reluctant to remove the scuttle due to the high risk of breaking it or chipping the glass again as I'd be back to square one if I broke the glass. It looks like I will have my first chance in a couple of months to have a look at this so I'm trying to decide whether to take the scuttle out tomorrow or not!

[myglaren]

Could you put a cowl of some sort over the top of the vent to direct water away from it?