Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[DHallworth]

It’s going to get a fairly major service as it comes out of hibernation this summer and the plug leads were on the list of things to be replaced. It’s certainly running well enough with the new coil pack installed anyway

[Stickyfinger]

1 video of each coil pack is merged into 1 here:

Shocking

[Mandrake]

Again... in the darkness of the workshop all became apparent! Neither coils had cracked or broken plastic but both were arcing in the same place!

Interesting that it's happening on the same place on both! I can't say I have seen that on mine, but I haven't tried running it with the cover off in the dark, might be worth checking.

I ordered 2 new replacement coils and replaced them on both cars and they've not given any problems since... not that they've been driven anywhere right enough! Although I am thinking of having the XM MOT'd this week.

Where did you order from and what brand ? The only brand new one I've ordered before was NGK and I'm not happy about the fact that 8 years later it has an intermittent failure of the primary of one of the coils.

The current was finding it easier to jump that air gap than the spark plug. I would suggest that you check or replace the ignition leads. I know that is a pain.

Yes, it's extremely likely that the leads are faulty on David's cars. These leads are carbon resistance leads with a normal value of around 3k ohm.

I had to replace the ignition leads on both my V6's for the same reason - they both had at least one lead that was open circuit, measured with a multi meter.

The spark energy will still try to jump the break within the lead itself, however by doing so the voltage available at the spark plug gap is correspondingly reduced.

The required spark voltage at the plug increases when you open the throttle and increase the cylinder pressure, therefore when the potential spark plug voltage is unusually low (due to breaks in the leads that it is having to waste energy jumping inside the lead) the engine will run fine under low load but you will get a single cylinder misfire and lack of power when you put your foot down.

Without an automotive scope it's actually pretty hard to diagnose this accurately so in these circumstances and given the age of the cars I would just replace the leads and cassette - it's actually not a bad job and it gives a chance to check for oil in the rear spark plug wells.

The lead for the left hand coil must be pretty stuffed to allow a spark of that length to jump outside the normal path, because that is a much larger gap than the combined gaps of the front and rear spark plugs...

[DHallworth]

Last time I replaced the leads I bought them from Citroen with the cassette.

They are now obsolete though and I cannot find any that come with the cassette that secures over the rear bank.

I've done about 150 miles in the XM since it's MOT and am not having any issues with it thankfully.]

David.

[Mandrake]

Looked under the Xantia the other day which has been parked for a couple of weeks and found an oil puddle.

After getting it up on ramps for inspection and expecting to see the oil pan leaking around the outside (after it was resealed last year by the Garage) I found that wasn't it. Instead there must be a small weep from the drain plug, as the area around the plug was slightly wet with oil with no other possible source and you could see the oil working its way from the plug towards the outside of the pan where drips were forming.

From what I remember, this plug has a captive copper washer ? Is it possible to replace this washer or do I need a whole plug ? (Which I assume is no longer available...)

The plug is very corroded and eaten away so if they are still available I'm inclined to just replace the whole plug and washer together.

[Mandrake]

Looking on Autodoc I see these are available but some have copper washers and some have dowty seal style washers and some like this one seem to include both !?

https://www.autodoc.co.uk/fa1/7816301#s ... g-oil-sump

I'm confused about why you would want to fit both ??

[CitroJim]

Dowty seals are better Simon and I believe, interchangeable with the copper crush washer... I still have a large pot of both sizes of copper washers and replace them on every oil change... Bluebell still uses them.

My old Saxo had a Dowty seal and I reused it many times...

[Stickyfinger]

Copper as a metal anneals perfectly, 1 min at red hot and it is "soft again".....just check they are not spreading.

I always re-use mine, no reason not to.

[CitroJim]

Only flat copper washers are reusable after annealing in my experience Alasdair.

The rolled copper crush washers often found on sump plugs are not... They'll have been crushed flat and there's no way to uncrush them!

[RichardW]

Couple of turns of PTFE tape....they never leak!

For the V6 the sump plug and washer are show separately. Plug NFP, but it's just M16x1.5 any bolt cut down will do (assuming you can find one threaded all the way to the hex). Washers are widely available.

[Stickyfinger]

I only have flat copper washers Jim ..... a bag of them

[Gibbo2286]

Couple of turns of PTFE tape....they never leak!

For the V6 the sump plug and washer are show separately. Plug NFP, but it's just M16x1.5 any bolt cut down will do (assuming you can find one threaded all the way to the hex). Washers are widely available.

(assuming you can find one threaded all the way to the hex) 'Bolt' is only partly threaded, 'Set Screw' threaded all the way down.

[Stickyfinger]

Well that put a -- cap-- on that question

[Mandrake]

So, I've ordered a drain plug and both crush copper and dowty seal versions of the seal, I'm inclined to use the nitrile rubber dowty seal as I think this will reseal better in future after oil changes but I will have the copper one as well and will keep it as a spare.

I've also ordered the 10w-50 oil that was discussed a couple of pages ago - I'm keen to see if an oil that is slightly thicker when hot than the 10w-40 in the car now helps with the slightly leaky hydraulic lifters that start to get somewhat noisy when the engine heats up and the oil thins. The lifter pistons presumably leak enough internally that they don't stay fully pumped up when the oil is hotter and thinner especially when the oil ages and becomes thinner still. (An oil change helps for a while but the effect wears off in under a year)

I've long believed that clattering lifters triggers the knock sensor which then reduces the timing advance (and power) so in theory this might help with that situation. The oil was only changed a year ago when the sump was resealed so technically I could try to remove the old plug and block the hole with a finger and try to get the new one in, but this could be messy and end in disaster, and the filter is quite rusty due to the car sitting most of the time so I think I'll just do the oil and filter anyway.

I also have the front right ABS sensor waiting to be replaced, I've had the new part for about 2 months now but no combination of spare time and good weather to do it in! I'm taking next week off work so will try to get the oil plug, oil/filter change and ABS sensor done then! (Weather looks good too)

The other thing the car might fail an MOT on is the front discs which are horrendous on the inner faces despite being replaced only 3 years ago - more than half the disc face is bubbling rust which causes vibration when braking from speed and won't wear off with use, and this is likely to fail the flutter test on the brake machine which my garage is quite fussy about...

These are the problems of having a 26 year old occasional weekend car that sits outdoors in the rain all the time! (I wonder if I should get a cover for it ? A bit late for the rear wheel arch rims which are badly rusted and now have a couple of holes )

Once I have the MOT on the Xantia I then have the rear brakes on the Leaf to do for its MOT.

The (foot operated) handbrake on the Leaf basically doesn't work any more and I have been relying entirely on the parking mechanism in the gearbox! It has a hybrid disc/drum system which has a disc brake for the normal footbrake and a drum brake for the foot operated handbrake, and the disc/drum is one piece.

The pads are worn down and need replacing and the disc is somewhat corroded but the real problem is with the inside of the drum or the shoes. Leaf's are notorious for the drum brake sticking and dragging especially when reversing causing a squeal or clicking or causing a lowering of efficiency due to drag, because the drum brake mechanism normally never operates while in motion so the drum/shoe surfaces never get scuffed and maintained and start to become grabby.

Internally corroded, seized handbrake cables are also somewhat common on the Leaf so I'm hoping that's not the issue as routing replacements over the battery pack is difficult!

[NewcastleFalcon]

The (foot operated) handbrake on the Leaf basically doesn't work any more and I have been relying entirely on the parking mechanism in the gearbox! It has a hybrid disc/drum system which has a disc brake for the normal footbrake and a drum brake for the foot operated handbrake, and the disc/drum is one piece.

The pads are worn down and need replacing and the disc is somewhat corroded but the real problem is with the inside of the drum or the shoes. Leaf's are notorious for the drum brake sticking and dragging especially when reversing causing a squeal or clicking or causing a lowering of efficiency due to drag, because the drum brake mechanism normally never operates while in motion so the drum/shoe surfaces never get scuffed and maintained and start to become grabby.

Internally corroded, seized handbrake cables are also somewhat common on the Leaf so I'm hoping that's not the issue as routing replacements over the battery pack is difficult!

Did all of that last MOT. The Handbrke cable both sides had siezed in the aluminium bracket at entry to the backplate. No way of effective un-seizing, a fine example of the corrosion weld.



Two new Handbrake cables from Cleevely (LH and RH parking brake cables...Cleevely Electric Vehicles £105.00 delivered) , new brake shoes done at the same time

The routing isnt really a problem this is what it looks like when you remove the back seat and the metal cover plate over the cable junction.



Be prepared for the bolts to shear off at the mounting brackets each side, but at least they arent blind hole bolts that require drilling out and retapping.




This post and others round about it cover the job.

viewtopic.php?p=769193#p769193

Neil