Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[NewcastleFalcon]

We might be taking the Xantia down to St Annes / Blackpool area on the 10th, whether I take the Leaf or Xantia is still a coin flip at the moment.

We took the Leaf last time and it was a bit of a nightmare finding charging to be honest due to lack of chargers where I need them, too many people wanting to use them, and some being out of order, and at 200 miles it was 3 charging stops, an overheating battery and reduced power by the time we got there. The 30kWh Leaf is definitely not well suited to long journeys without battery cooling!

Over on the east side the Scottish borders are well catered for in Rapid Chargers. All the Border towns have them Coldstream, Jedburgh, Kelso, Selkirk, Melrose, Gala, Hawick, Peebles, Innerleithen, Earlston, Newton St Boswells, Duns, Eyemouth, Dunbar. If one isn't working easy enough to go to another one. Over the West side I am pretty much totally ignorant of the chargers and on a similar toss of the coin back in November when the Falcons had a little tour of the Lake District then headed up through Langholm over to Hawick, the Bargain Basement Micra got the nod. Didn't feel like pioneering in unfamiliar EV charger territory.

No doubt about it a bit of planning ahead with alternatives in mind is needed on longer trips through unfamiliar areas, and I did have a quick look at Zap map under the impression that there must be loads of rapid chargers now round Carlisle/Penrith/ Kendal/ Lancaster/Preston etc. First two I clicked on...reported issues! Probably best not for one of the FCF's EV pioneers to make one of those ranting videos about the charging infrastructure on a trip to Blackpool/Lytham from Scotland. Not a trip you make every day of course, but If you do take the Leaf I would be interested in the charging up experience en route "over on the West Side".


Speaking as I find...I have no problems with the on-road infrastructure in Northumberland/Durham/Scottish Borders
our usual stomping ground.

Regards Neil

[Zelandeth]

Sure she would be fine, a relatively relaxed long distance run in relatively cool weather shouldn't be a problem. Probably the most likely issues would be sticky brakes or the like rather than anything catastrophic I'd think.

I've been very much playing this game with my Renault over the last couple of months - she's already travelled further this year than every year since 2017 when she was dragged out of a 11 year slumber.

[Mandrake]

I did a little bit more work on the Xantia today to try to get it ready for the trip during Easter.

The radio hasn't been working at all for quite a while, (not even turning on) and before that one of the buttons on the steering wheel was faulty causing it to act as if the button was constantly held down making the radio unusable... driving 200 miles each way with with family with no radio is not the most fun so I decided to have another go at fixing it.

I checked the interior Fusebox fuse 1 and all was OK so I removed the radio. I then discovered there is ANOTHER fuse on the back of the radio itself - a 10 amp with a weird open back design with an exposed fuse wire, and it was blown. Hmm...

I replaced the fuse with a regular automotive 10amp and plugged it back in somewhat gingerly expecting it to blow again but it didn't - I was greeted with CODE, but was unable to enter the code as the number buttons weren't responding. It was at that point I remembered the steering wheel button fault so tried removing the plug for the steering controls - Bingo! I was able to enter the code and get the radio going.

Except at first it was only the left channel. "Ah" I thought - maybe one channel of the amp had blown and taken out the fuse, but no, after fiddling with the plugs a bit further the right channel started working, (I think it was the aux port actually as I was testing from my phone and maybe the aux port is a bit dirty) so I have no idea what blew the fuse and whether it will happen again...

I'm not sure that the radio reception is that great - out of the 8 channels I can receive at home 3 of them are quite distorted no matter how they're tuned but 5 sound OK. Shrug. It will probably get used mostly with a phone plugged in through aux.

While it's a shame to have the steering wheel controls unplugged, at least the radio can be operated without it randomly trying to scan through all the channels or turn the volume up!!

Next up was to fix the interior lights - although the map and sun visor lights work, both B pillar lights haven't worked for a long time... This turned out to be poor contact at the bulbs not blown bulbs.

It looks like a tiny chunk of plastic is broken around the edge of the hole where the plastic bayonet attaches, as a result the bulb tips at an angle and the contacts don't make good contact. I ended up fixing it by simply bending the contacts on the bulb up quite a bit so that when it's twisted into place there is still spring contact despite the bulb sitting at a bit of an angle. Both lights work reliably now and still work after thumping them...

I then realised three of the four door switches weren't working properly - the drivers and rear right switches didn't work at all and the front left was very intermittent. Only the rear left one worked properly.

I removed the drivers one and initially had a gasp of horror when only one spade connector was attached to the two terminals, assuming that the other one had fallen inside the A pillar with no way to get it out (how do you get access in there ??!) but after checking one on another door I realised that only one spade connector is used with the circuit completing via the body.

However this is very sketchy because it relies on a PAINTED screw biting into the metalwork and clamping onto a copper ring on the switch assembly to complete the circuit and naturally that copper ring is oxidised. After scraping that ring and cleaning the switch with contact cleaner the drivers switch started to work but it was still very intermittent if I wobbled or turned the pin on the switch. The passenger one likewise and the rear right one was still completely dead.

After a while I found if I rotated the pin back and forth many times while it was in the fully extended position this did the trick to physically wear off an unseen layer of oxidation inside the switch that contact cleaner alone didn't seem to help. I managed to get both front door switches to the point where I could wobble or turn the pin without the light flickering or cutting out.

The rear right switch I checked again and then realised the spade connector was on a different terminal to the other three - I swapped it over and it started to work and after doing the twisting back and forth trick it finally became reliable. I've never had any of these switches out before so someone else has managed to put that spade connector on the wrong terminal of the switch...

So both interior lights are working now and all four door switches are working reliably - which I don't think has been true since I've had the car!!

I've noticed the ride quality getting harsh again recently and possible air in the rear brakes again, so I figured that the joiner hose at the hydraulic pump might be loose - I found the jubilee clips were a bit loose so tightened them up again, did Citrerobics and found the right nice and smooth again - although whether that will last remains to be seen.

The original joiner piece at the pump inlet split many years ago and I've never been happy with the sealing of the section of regular hydraulic hose I have there - the pump spigot diameter is not the same diameter as the spigot on the end of the hose, and the hydraulic hose I am using is quite thick walled and stiff vacuum rated hose, as a result the seal on the pump spigot is marginal.

It really needs some softer more pliable hose to get a good seal - has anyone been able to find a good replacement for the original ?

Next up I think I'm going to replace the 12v battery. It's been in the car for well over 6 years now and has suffered many deep discharges when the car has sat unused for several weeks at a time and now it just isn't happy if the car is left even a week. I only drove the car a week ago and it was making hard work out of starting today.

Likewise the car got a 15 minute drive today which should have topped the battery up but after about an hour of working on the interior lights and radio it was making hard work of starting again. I don't want to take the chance of it letting us down far from home and I've been meaning to change the battery for a couple of years now so I think I better just do it...

[mickthemaverick]

Good work Simon, sounds like you will be taking a magic carpet ride to Blackpool. Well done!!

[CitroJim]

Excellent Simon The Xantia really is the perfect vehicle for your trip, especially all is now good and working!

Do change that battery, they can suddenly die when tired...

[Mandrake]

Anyone have any thoughts on the 50mm joiner on the hydraulic pump inlet - where I could obtain a piece of hose more suitable than the thick wall heavy duty hydraulic hose I have at the moment ? It has been an ongoing niggle on the car for years as even the slightest air leak there leads to harsh ride and air getting into the rear brakes, and it's very hard to get a lasting seal on the metal spigot with such a stiff hose.

[CitroJim]

A bit of carefully chosen unleaded fuel hose Simon...

[Mandrake]

A bit of carefully chosen unleaded fuel hose Simon...

What sort of wall thickness is that ?

At the moment I have some hydraulic hose which is rated for vacuum, but it's quite thick walled. This is a problem because the spigot on the pump is a smaller diameter than the spigot on the end of the long run of pipe - the original moulded joiner has different internal diameters at each end to suit.

With a stiff single diameter hose I've found it nearly impossible to get a good, long lasting air tight seal on the pump spigot...

To get a good seal with a single diameter hose it would need to be quite flexible so it could stretch over one spigot and squash a bit on the other one - but if it's too flexible the partial vacuum could lead to it collapsing and blocking. Technically the inlet pipe needs to be vacuum rated to avoid this, I'm not sure thin wall fuel hose would be ?

[CitroJim]

A bit of carefully chosen unleaded fuel hose Simon...

What sort of wall thickness is that ?

It can vary considerably Simon, which is why I said 'carefully chosen'

And as a rule, don't rely on pictures of it on eBay as what you see and what you get may not be one and the same in my experience...

Best if you can look at samples of what might be available in your local motor factors...

[Skull]

10mm HOSE

I fitted a short length of this and it seems OK

[Mandrake]

10mm HOSE

I fitted a short length of this and it seems OK

Are you sure you have the right size ?

I ordered a piece of the one you recommended above, and also a piece of this softer, thinner wall pipe in 10mm internal diameter:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123897137866 ... 4652017710

These both arrived yesterday. However I didn't check the old pieces of pipe I still had (I forgot I still had them in my toolbox) before ordering and when I compared them against the originals 10mm is clearly too small. The hole diameter of the original Citroen hose is around 12-13mm, and the previous piece of thick wall hose I had on the car before the one that is on there now is 12mm ID.

So I've ordered the 12mm version of the second thinner wall pipe - this is much more flexible than the one you linked and has a wall thickness and material property that is pretty close to the original Citroen hose segment so I think this is likely to be able to stretch and squash and seal better than the thick wall reinforced stuff but still be amply strong under partial vacuum. Hopefully I will get it in a few days so I can have it fitted and tested before the trip away on the 9th...

[Skull]

Are you sure you have the right size ?

The 10mm internal one has fitted on my pump spigot without any undue force and has sealed ok although I agree it is quite firm - mine is an X2 2.0 HDi.

.......also a piece of this softer, thinner wall pipe in 10mm internal diameter:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/123897137866 ... 4652017710

That one does look more of a match aesthetically to the original one though (plain)

I'd be surprised if they were a different size though although that appears to be the case

Good luck with the 12mm one .....

[Mandrake]

The V6 pump is unique and differs from all other Xantia's, I guess the spigot diameter is different too. HDi will use the "standard" Xantia pump.

My old piece of pipe was definitely 12mm ID as I measured it last night and it used to be a very tight fit on the spigot of the plastic hose which crosses the engine, no chance anything smaller than 12mm would fit.

The spigot on the pump is slightly smaller than the spigot at the end of the plastic feed pipe, (by about 0.5 - 1mm I think) the original moulded Citroen hose section has a different hole diameter at each end which is why a single diameter pipe which is big enough to fit the plastic feed pipe struggles to seal well on the slightly smaller pump spigot, especially when it's a really stiff, thick walled hose that doesn't have much give when you clamp it.

So I'm hoping the thinner wall more flexible pipe has a bit more stretch and give in it so it can stretch slightly on the plastic feed spigot (perhaps with a hair drier to persuade it) and at the same time clamp down better on the pump spigot.

I just know that I'm not getting a good long lasting air tight seal with the current stiff wall pipe. Fingers crossed.

[Mandrake]

So the 12mm nitrile hose arrived yesterday and was duly fitted and I can say that it's absolutely perfect for the job, both in terms of inner diameter and flexibility.

You can see in the picture below that it easily stretches a bit to fit over the slightly larger diameter spigot on the plastic hose:

In the foreground is one of the previous pieces of hose I've used before which is just too thick and stiff to seal well.

The car got a bit of use yesterday and the ride did not revert to being crashy at all. One thing I did notice though, which has been that way for maybe 6 months is the front ride height is quite obviously too high - how it changed by itself I don't know, I can only assume that the clamp was not quite tight enough.

Being too high makes the ride a bit unsettled especially on an undulating road and also makes it roll more in the corners so today I made an adjustment and dropped the front height by 15mm - I didn't measure it from body to ground as I don't have any level ground upon which to do it, I just eyeballed it, figured I needed to drop it about 10-15mm then made a relative adjustment... This made quite an improvement to the ride, making it feel a lot more sure footed and steady, almost gliding along.

The next job was to bleed the rear brakes after (hopefully permanently) fixing the pump air leak issue - some air did come out, not a huge amount but there was definitely some in there.

The final problem I tried to tackle today was the rear height corrector. It has not been working as well as it should for a year or two now. The symptom is that it responds to small errors in height when the height is too low, and responds quickly, however when the height is too high it has to be significantly too high (maybe 30mm) before it comes down at all and it comes down very, very slowly, taking 20 seconds or so to adjust when it's just a couple of inches too high.

As a result of this, every time the car squats under acceleration it corrects quickly, then as soon as you lift off the accelerator the rear pops up and it takes an eternity for it to make a downwards adjustment again, during which time the rear of the car can bob up and down and be quite unsettled on rough surfaces due to being too high.

I had a look at it today expecting it to need greasing but no, the linkage moves freely. Unfortunately the problem seems to be the main pivot pin that the spring mechanism pivots on is eaten away with rust so that the whole mechanism can rock side to side on the pin causing lost motion. When the car is too low the way the dog bone pushes it results in a precise movement that triggers the height corrector easily and immediately, however when it's too high the dog bone can move quite far with the pivot arm just rocking on an angle without actually pushing the height corrector at all. Hence the asymmetric response and overly large hysteresis.

So alas, no repair was forthcoming for this problem given that we're going away on Sunday. To fix it properly I'm going to have to fashion a new pivot for the arm.

I actually have a whole spare height corrector linkage assembly that Richard gave me years ago, but I never fitted it to the car as the pivot pin had also failed, in fact I think it is missing altogether. So my best bet is probably to try to fashion a new pin for the spare one I have and do a swap of the entire height corrector cradle assembly. The one on the car apart from the pin having failed is looking pretty grotty and is severely rusted.

Another snag is the very small bolt that clamps on the height control override rod (where you make the manual override adjustment) is rounded off so is going to need drilling out and replacing...

A shame I couldn't get the rear height corrector sorted before the trip down south but aside from the rear taking it's time to come back down after accelerating the car is driving wonderfully. A combination of fixing the air leak at the pump and dropping the front ride height down to what it should be has transformed the ride quality into something really rather good. When I eventually get the rear height corrector linkage fixed that should improve it further!

In other good news the car is absolutely dry inside for the first time in years. Even after a lot of heavy rain the carpets and mats are completely dry and there has been no condensation on any of the windows even during cold wet weather.

Previously, both front and rear windows constantly suffered from condensation problems to the point where it would drip on the dashboard if the car was left a few days and the high humidity in the car also unfortunately caused all the ceiling fabric to drop, but the car smells fresh and dry now. What a difference.

Fixing the source of leaks (first a heater matrix, then later drips into the fan vent) and then removing the carpets and thoroughly drying them and the car with a dehumidifier has finally got all the moisture out. It's just a shame I didn't get this done a year or two ago before the ceiling fabric was damaged.

[CitroJim]

That's all excellent news Simon

I know exactly the problem on the height corrector and one, in the long and distant, I made up a new pivot pin on the lathe... As I recall, doable but not easy as the thing is all riveted and small studs have to be used on reassembly involving some tapping and other machining...

Hopefully, a good spare can be found...

Enjoy your trip