Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[CitroJim]

Wow That is fantastic David... Love it...

He's got a 205 GTi in the very best colour too. Miami Blue...

I shall read his FB pages later...

And enjoy it...

[bxzx16v]

Love the 205 pics David.

Mark

[Mandrake]

Glad to hear you're happy with the exhaust, Simon. Like you say, for £70 it was a damn good fit despite the hanger brackets.

When it was idling on the ramp it certainly didn't sounds noisy, so it's a shame it's a bit boomy when you're on the move.

I'm now used to it - its not that bad really, not boomy as such, but you do notice the low frequencies. It makes it sound like a V6 I suppose, if you have the back seat down or windows down and you're travelling at 30mph at low rpm it has a nice low throaty burble that is certainly audible but not to the point of being obnoxious.

I think I noticed it because the old exhaust - at least until it started blowing through two different holes, was dead silent. No low frequency boom at all, much like the exhaust on your Activa sounded to me. The fact that that's the exhaust now fixed for (hopefully) a number of years gives me some peace of mind. The only slight worry is that weld on the cat tail looks like it has wasted away a little bit, hopefully the clamp I put across the weld will stop it coming apart if it does ever break along the seam of the weld.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable day and I think everyone else did too. After everyone left I put my Range Rover on the ramp for a pre MOT once over, am pleased to say it passed it's MOT on Friday without even an advisory too!

Looking forward to another French Car Meet sometime soon!

Yep it was a lot of fun, it would be great to have some sort of get together next year with a few more of the regulars from the central Scotland area perhaps!

P.s... Now the 205 is running right, Graham is going to forge the internals, and go for a high boost supercharger kit and take it up to about 400bhp.

Good grief, I've unleashed a monster!

[Hell Razor5543]

P.s... Now the 205 is running right, Graham is going to forge the internals, and go for a high boost supercharger kit and take it up to about 400bhp.

Good grief, I've unleashed a monster!

Not so much unleashed it, more helped it to realise its potential!

[Mandrake]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Santa has been, and made good on his promises...

[CitroJim]

Brilliant Simon That is a lovely present...

My girls got me something lovely... A Ramen kit...

They know my love of cooking Japanese food...

[lexi]

Happy rattling Simon!
That one looks very much like my Sealey version. I often wondered if mine was producing the claimed 440 NM torque figure?

I challenge you to set up a test procedure forthwith

[Mandrake]

Thought I'd check in - I haven't been on the forum much lately due to other things keeping me busy, but more importantly the new car has been so reliable (touch wood) that there has really been nothing to report!

Yesterday I noticed the first problem that has occurred since my ownership - the cruise control which I fixed when I first got it has stopped working properly... It does try to work but it can't open the throttle more than about half way. The end result is that if you set it at say 60 it will try to hold it but the speed will gradually keep dropping especially up a hill.

I assume the problem is a small vacuum leak somewhere causing the vacuum pump to run constantly trying to keep the throttle open, but it is fighting a losing battle. Whether the leak is a split hose due to the cold weather, the diaphragm, or the dump solenoid is starting to play up remains to be seen. Until I have a garage to work in there is no chance of me investigating in this weather...

I hit my first patch of black ice for the winter this morning. Zero degrees, no visible snow fall or ice, pavement not slippery like it usually is, just along the road 50 metres from home I came to stop at a T junction like I do every morning, gently pressed the brakes and....nothing....except the frantic pulsing of the ABS system and a car gradually sliding to a stop half way out into the junction. I would have only been doing 10 maybe 15mph at the most, there was just no traction at all. Luckily there were no other cars about or I could have easily T-boned a passing car...

I drove the rest of the way very gingerly but didn't encounter any more slippery patches. It's a good reminder to be on the lookout for black ice, especially on a road that gets little or no salting and tends to have puddles that form thin patches of ice, but to be honest even if I was on the lookout I don't think I would have seen this one in the dark...

[CitroJim]

Good to see you Simon I've been wondering where you've been..

Lucky escape on the black ice... I recall when that, 30 or so years ago, was such a common occurrence. Not sure if it's global warming or better salting now but it's nowhere near so common as it once was...

[Mandrake]

Well I spoke too soon - last night the heavens let forth and we were inundated with about 3 inches of snow in a short time which I had to drive home through. No salt on the roads (residential streets) at all so that was interesting...

Not as bad as the black ice but still very low traction. I used the gearbox snow mode for the first time since owning a V6 - but even with that I could spin the wheels if I didn't feather the throttle carefully.

For the last little windy downhill stretch of road (slaloming between parked cars) before the house I was basically driving at jogging speed as that's all that I felt I had the grip for. How much difference winter tyres might have made I'm not sure but I certainly wouldn't want to be driving in those conditions with these tyres too often.

Interestingly I noticed that the "rattle" in the front right suspension/steering that I suspect is lower ball joint was much more obvious when I was loosing traction - for example if I tried to take a slow sharp right hand corner (in gearbox snow mode too) that as soon as I accelerated slightly and the wheel alternatively gained and lost traction there was a loud "rattle" that I could feel on the steering and through the floor too.

I think this is my first time driving in real honest to goodness proper snow without salt on the road so it was something of an experience.

Another funny thing happened - a car across the road from us who normally parks on the road instead of half on the pavement like most cars on the street was parked in its normal location parallel to the curb last night - when I got up in the wee hours of the morning and looked out the window it was parked half way out into the road facing at a 30 degree angle towards our side of the road.

So either it got a light shunt in the night or the rain that I think we had through the night melted the snow under the tyres and let the car slide slightly... very odd...especially when I couldn't see any tyre tracks in the snow that would indicate a shunt from another car...

My car is still where I left it though 3/4 on the pavement and as far as I know hasn't been bumped! It makes me nervous to be parked on the side of the road on a steep unsalted street when there's heavy snow, especially when it's a minibus route...

[CitroJim]

A case of a magically moving car in the middle of the night then Simon Very possibly what happened I'd have thought...

[RichardW]

Winter tyres make a huge difference - I run mine on all season tyres now. The amount of grip in even deep snow is incredible (you can break traction if you mis behave of course!). Fortunately I got a new pair on the front of the C4 yesterday as SWMBO went off to Glasgow yesterday evening - turned round eventually, but she said everyone else was struggling up small inclines that she was able to drive up easily.

I've got a pair of winter tyres here on steel rims if you want to borrow them Simon - they need balancing though! You do need to be slightly careful with winters on the front only, as it's entirely possible for them to write cheques the backs can't cash without you realising - till it's too late! Only happened to me once in the Xantia (which is very light on the rear), but then the rears were nearly bald, and I changed gear and snatched the clutch just as I was entering a down hill bend - fortunately nothing hurt or damaged!

[Mandrake]

What make/model are your all season tyres Richard ? How do they compare to normal tyres in the summer ? (Bear in mind I like to zoom around corners )

I have a set of spare Xantia Alloys with reasonable summer tyres lined up, I just haven't collected them yet due to the lack of space to store them...

The tyres on the car now are pretty rubbish - not only are the rears out of round and vibrating slightly at speed despite best attempts at balancing, but the grip of the fronts is poor even in the wet, let alone snow or ice - they were ok in the dry but on a wet road understeered badly and don't have anything like the grip of the Michelin Energies on the old V6.

I'm wondering if I should ditch the tyres I have and get some cheap but decent winter tyres put on my existing rims now (if the bad weather keeps up) and use them until the summer, then put the other rims on the car with the summer tyres...

It all depends on how much driving we're likely to do after we move and how bad the weather gets. If it's like this a lot I think I'll need to do something as these tyres are completely useless on unsalted snowy or icy roads. Anyone have any good recommendations for 205/60/15 winter tyres for the Xantia that wouldn't break the bank ?

The house front is moving along Mike - the sellers have finally got their end sorted out (there were complications with letters of comfort and work that needed to be done to get them) but that is sorted now and is only waiting for us to get our mortgage offer refreshed, so we could be moving in by the end of this month.

That will give me a garage to work in and somewhere to store a spare set of wheels...

[RichardW]

If you've got rubbish tyres on it now, anything is going to be better! The ones I've got are Nokian WR2s - which are full winters, and they've run <5k. I've had a few sets of Vedestrien Quatrac 3s, but have got Hankook 4S on the front of both ours now, which are cheaper, but do as well in the tests. I've been impressed with the grip. All seasons tyres are more akin to what we used to get as an all purpose tyre (eg Mich XZX), whereas 'summer' tyres are more trending towards racing tyres with continuous bands of rubber all the way round! For Scottish motoring, all seasons are fine - we got 22k out of the fronts on the C4, and I never got near the limit, even in the summer. If you are going to flog it to the South of France or something, then probably best to keep a set of summers in reserve! mytyres has got the Hankooks for £78 each fitted.

Edit - whilst a new set of tyres might not appear to be that cheap, it's a lot cheaper than putting it in the ditch!!
Edit 2 - Just realised you opened by asking about all seasons - The Nokians are the full winters I've got in the garage - the cars are on a mix of the Vreds and Hankooks, and some unheard of make on the back of the 307 that were on it when I got it. (See my response to Rob's C3 mirror thread, where I also didn't read the title in full.... )

[DHallworth]

In 2011 when we had the really bad winter I had a Peugeot 406 HDi that I couldn't get home. I was cursing and swearing and was ready to set fire to the thing as it was useless in the snow compared to Cheryl's Xantia and my old 306 HDi.

When dad came down to tow me up the road in the Range Rover he took one look at my tyres and called me an idiot as they were on their wear limiters.

The next day I threw it into ATS Euromaster in Finnieston in Glasgow and had 4 new Michelins fitted to it. I aimed it at the hill and charged up it in 1st with no problems what so ever.

The Range Rovers are pretty incredible at the moment in this weather, my Supercharged one has the OE tyres on it which are Pirelli Scorpion M&S (Mud & Snow). I stopped on our lane last night and floored it from standstill. You felt the diffs lock and the thing propelled itself like it was on tarmac. It was pretty incredible.

David.