Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[Mandrake]

Same plastic tube and spring on all Xantia brake pedals...

I will modify new V6 after all the important things are done...

[Mandrake]

So I've decided that the inability to safely see either the gearbox sport LED nor the Suspension sport LED (nearly impossible on a bright sunny day, and can't be felt either) means that I'm going to build my own home made LED repeater on the dashboard...

Shouldn't be too difficult, I should even be able to power it through the dashboard light dimmer with a bit of cunning...

One LED for suspension sport mode, one for gearbox sport mode and one for snow mode. All I have to do is work out what colours to make them and exactly where to mount them...

[Mandrake]

More fettling today - I wanted to try to fix the cruise control before the old car goes in case I needed to steal any cruise control bits off it (cruise works on the old one) fortunately the problem turned out to be very simple so I didn't need to salvage any parts.

Being electronically minded the logical place for me to start was to test the electrical system with the help of Jim's diagrams. The first thing I checked was fuse F6 which was intact. I then tested the brake pedal switch - you can test this without unplugging it, simply remove the small carpet trim that goes across in front of the pedals and you can see the bottom of the connector.

With the key on the left pin is constant 12 volts, the middle is 12v when the pedal is pressed (brake light signal) and the right pin is 12v when the pedal is NOT pressed. This last one is the one that is usually MIA when the switch is faulty. No such luck as all voltages were present and accounted for.

Next I wanted to get to the ECU. On my S2 its dead easy - its in the back of the centre console below the rear window winder switches so you can get to the connector in 10 seconds flat. Not so on a S1 where its under the carpet under the drivers seat next to the centre door pillar! So that means unbolting the seat and lifting it away to lift the carpet.

The entire cruise system can be tested and troubleshot from the connector, and my testing went something like this:

Check the earth on pin 8 is good.

Check there is 12v on pin 10 with the key on and cruise control switch on the dashboard on.

Check for 12v on pin 9 with the key on, cruise control switch on on the dashboard AND the gear lever in drive.

Apply power to the dump solenoid and listen to it click - do this by linking pin 1 to pin 10 with a jumper wire. I could hear a click from where I was sitting in the back of the car.

Leave a jumper wire between 1 and 10, also add another jumper wire between pins 6 and 8 to energise the bleed solenoid, then connect a long (3 metre) pair of wires between pins 7 and 8, take the ends of these wires around to the engine bay so that you can watch the vacuum bellows - if everything is working when you touch the wires together the vacuum pump will energise and the bellows will start contracting.

When you release the two wires the bellows should stay exactly where it is, if it slowly expands again there is a leak somewhere or the bleed or purge solenoids are faulty. (The bleed one is built into the vacuum pump assembly, the purge one is the small separate solenoid)

Next test is to disconnect the jumper wire between pins 7 and 8 and repeat the test where you touch the long wires between pins 6 and 8 - now the bleed valve is open which means the diaphragm will only slowly contract when you energise the pump and when you let the pump stop it will slowly expand again.

The final test is to connect your long pair of wires between pins 1 and 10 instead of the jumper wire, and put jumper wires between 6 and 8 and between 7 and 8.

Now when you connect the long leads together everything will be powered on, but when you disconnect them everything will go off including the purge solenoid - so this time when you release the wires the throttle should jump back quickly.

If all these tests pass the vacuum pump assembly, purge solenoid, bellows and piping are all ok.

Which mine was...and during all this scientific testing I discovered the real problem - somebody had disconnected the link rod from the bellows to the throttle body and forgot to reconnect it!!

So if I had only looked more closely there first I could have saved myself over an hour... In my defence it was hard to see it, it wasn't until I was closely watching the bellows move under vacuum power that I caught a glimpse of the link rod hanging down limp...

So now cruise works too.

So that's everything I wanted to get done before the MOT and before the old car goes. After the MOT (and out of next months wages) will have to come a full set of spheres - they really are almost undrivably bad, and I know it will transform the car totally...

And after spheres will come a normal service. (According to receipts engine oil and filter was done very recently and the oil in the tappet cover through the filler cap and on the dipstick is still perfectly clean and clear, so it's not nearly as urgent as the spheres)

[Hell Razor5543]

I take it AEP will be getting a call from you in the near future? At a guess a full set of spheres would come in under £200 (I got a full set of 6 basic spheres for £142).

[Mandrake]

Either AEP or I might try online direct from IFHS that someone on the forum posted the website for recently. A full set of eight should be about £180. It would be false economy on such a nice car to not do all of them I think. I don't think any of them are salvageable. Once they're all done, that's them sorted for another 2-3 years....

[Trainman]

Going slightly off topic, I think your avatars needs changing now

[Mandrake]

Going slightly off topic, I think your avatars needs changing now

Well spotted sir.

You better give lexi a prod too - he still has the same Xantia in his signature even though he hasn't had it for over two years, so it will be doubly out of date soon.

[KP]

They could just be nearly flat. It would be worth putting them to one side and seeing if they are at a rally or such like it if a local member has a pressure gauge to test them.

Then maybe someone could regas them so mark which ones they are. Better than sending them off to become Chinese baked bean cans

[CitroJim]

Excellent news on the cruise control Simon

[Mandrake]

Thanks Jim.

Looks like I might need to buy some wiper blades after all - we got a good spell of rain yesterday and the blades Steve gave me started shuddering like crazy on actual real rain. (They seemed fine tested on screen wash the day before)

Can that happen if otherwise new blades have sat unused in the garage for a few months ? What was wrong with the old wiper blades ? The didn't look too bad to me, although they too didn't get tested in real rain. I still have them so could refit them.

Oh, and I noticed yesterday that the windscreen scuttle is broken in multiple places

Near the middle is a split right down the middle and you can move the two halves separately... And there are 3 other smaller cracks in the scuttle along its length as well. I'm assuming that it is going to leak water or will it not necessarily leak depending on the location of the cracks ? I didn't notice any water getting in during the rain yesterday. Is it worth me putting some black silicone sealer in the cracks ?

Are new scuttles available and easy to fit or would I need to get an auto glass specialist to fit it ?

I'll take some pictures when it stops raining...

[xantia_v6]

Good news on progress so far. I have been away for a few days, so missed the collection saga.
I have owned 2 S1 V6s in that colour, and I know how nice they can be. A year ago I had 2 spare LH rear doors in Silex, but I gave one to the purchaser of the car, and the other (which had an almost imperceptible crease) went for recycling.

On the brake spring mod, my preference was to leave the spring in place, but pack it (within the plastic canister) with about 6mm of washers to give the spring some pretension. I found this to give nice feel for holding the car with one toe at the lights, while avoiding harshness when hitting the brake more forcefully.

The mk1 V6 does usually have heavier steering than the mk2, but I certainly preferred it.

If the A/C sensor fan is not running, it probably just needs cleaning. With care you can remove it without dismantling the dash (prise out the clock first).

You might consider getting some wax injected into the sills before the car sees a northern winter, it would be sad to see it dissolving too quickly.

Scuttle trims no longer available, good used ones are not easy to find either... Only the piece above the A/C intake needs to be sealed for leaks, the rest is just cosmetic

[KP]

Also remove the rear arch liners and wash them out let them dry and coat them as well, the passenger side is a noteworthy one and try and get into the piece of bodywork just above the rear lights as I've seen one totally rotten there from up your way and it was a late S2 as well...

[Mandrake]

Sorting through the paper work so I can tax this car tomorrow and send off the change of ownership and just noticed the mileages recorded on the MOT certificate.

August 2010 - 60974
July 2011 - 62347
August 2012 - 63894
August 2013 - 64835

The mileage in the eBay photo at the time of sale (and verified by comparing the actual mileage after the nearly 600 mile trip home) was only 64871 - which means this car has only done 40 miles in the last year!

In the advisories it lists both side lower front suspension arm rubber bushes as being deteriorated but not resulting in excessive movement, and OSR tyre slightly out of shape.

Could that be the source of my wheel vibration ? Also if the car has only done 40 miles in the last year and has sat in a garage most of the time could that cause the tyres to become even more out of round ? With 600 something miles driving since then is it possible the tyres will recover their shape and be possible to rebalance or am I possibly looking at a new tyre or two to solve the vibration ?

If its an out of shape rear tyre, that might explain why the vibration gets worse during acceleration - as this loads up the rear suspension from the torque reaction, then when you ease off the throttle the effective load on the rear tyres reduces again.

[KP]

Wishbone bushes could easily cause that. When they totally go it's like an out of balance wheel

The rear tyre could be the rear arm bearing going on that side.

If the car has been sat for long periods exposed to the sun and the elements they will be shot to be honest and need replacing as they will never balance correctly. One reason I have to rotate my ff tyres every month, but it's parked in the shade as well to help them

So tyres,
Wishbones
Rear arm bearing

Not too bad a list for such a cheap motor Simon! Could do all that for say £200...

[Mandrake]

The wishbone bushes don't look too bad to me - they're in far better condition than on the silver car and the steering and cornering feels tight and sharp... So I don't think its the bushes.

The rear suspension arms look like they've had the bearings done already, but its hard to be sure when the rear spheres are so stiff that the suspension has almost no give. The tire isn't wearing on one side the MOT says its out of round...that won't be caused by negative camber, more likely from the car sitting for nearly a year without being driven.

Those advisories are last years MOT by the way, I haven't taken it for a new MOT yet. Will be phoning tomorrow to book it in ASAP but I doubt they'll find anything that wasn't listed last time since the car has only done about 600 miles since then - nearly all of it in the last 5 days!