Congratulations on the purchase.elma wrote:So finally I have brought the V6 home and I absolutely love it.
Nope that's normal - its just a blanked off spigot not used on the Xantia. Perhaps it was used on the Peugeot.I did find this bit on the air filter housing that looks like it should have a hose, is anything missing? Just by the right side of the jubilee clip.
The Xantia V6 has bigger brakes than the standard Xantia and working correctly they have loads of grunt, (In fact I find mine can easily trigger the ABS on an emergency stop even on dry roads with new tyres) so there must be something a bit wrong with them, but nothing serious I'm sure.The 2 things that need attention which affect the drive most are the brakes which are a bit weak for a Xantia but probably good enough for an mot and the tracking.
Before you go getting the wheel alignment done, check the outside track rod ends for play and replace them if necessary first. Any slack in the track rods will magnify any small wheel imbalance many fold. Both my V6's have had a worn offside track rod end. You can usually tell front wheel imbalance is being magnified by a track rod end if cornering slightly makes the vibration go die down.I think it's the tracking anyway, the steering wheels not straight when going straight and theres a little vibration over 50. Need to jack it up and check the suspension before forking out for tracking.
I'd like the wheels rebalanced as well even if the vibration is something else because the weights are on the outside where they will damage the finish.
Likewise rear wheel imbalance can be noticed if it gets worse under acceleration. (This squats the rear suspension and prevents the suspension absorbing the vibration as well so it is felt more)
Good luck getting the wheels balanced - all Xantia V6's came with centerless rims - and I have been unable to find anywhere local to me that can get the balance right.
The last place made 4 attempts and still botched it, so I'm just living with a significant wheel imbalance above 50mph because I cannot find anyone to get it right. Hopefully you have better luck.
Beware - if the cooling system is full of stop leak there is a good chance the gearbox oil heat exchanger is blocked on the water side. If this is the case the gearbox will overheat easily and in just a few months to a year at most of hard driving it will be damaged permanently - how do I know ? Because it happened to my first V6.I'm wanting to make headway with the cooling system as well since it appears to be full of stop leak and there are crystals around the seam on the expansion bottle.
Do you have access to a Lexia ? If so you should plug it into the car and monitor the gearbox oil temperature while the car is being driven. (Use a co-pilot to watch the laptop of course
) Go for a good spirited test drive on A roads lasting at least 20 minutes and see what temperature the oil gets up to - if it only gets up to about 94-95 degrees at most and then falls back quickly to about 90-92 degrees when you coast for a couple of minutes everything is fine. This shows it is being cooled to engine coolant temperature.If you see temperatures in excess of 100 degrees with normal "spirited" driving and it takes a long time to drop back to 95 chances are very high that the heat exchanger is blocked and that the car should not be driven hard until this is resolved or you risk burning the oil and damaging the clutches in the gearbox.
It took about 6 months and maybe 5000 miles on my first V6 for the gearbox to be damaged due I believe, to continual overheating from a blocked heat exchanger, as it was getting up to 105 degrees or so on a regular basis. On my new V6 it doesn't go any higher than 95 even if I push it really hard and its typically around 92-94.
I wouldn't fret too much about the degasser tank - although they can fail I've had two V6's now with no problems with the degasser. It's a small sphere shaped nylon ball the size of a large grapefruit down amongst the pipe work under the coolant expansion chamber. You won't see it unless you remove the coolant expansion chamber or air filter box and it's a bit of a pain to get to.I've not found the degassed tank yet but assume it'll be the same and I've smelt coolant slightly in the car a couple of times so assume a matrix is due. Oh it's due a cambelt as well.
On the other hand the coolant expansion chamber is renowned for leaking at the seam! Both mine have needed replacing, but it is an easy job. Just drain about a litre of coolant via the radiator drain plug then you can remove the expansion chamber with two nuts and two hoses, then top up and bleed afterwards. A fairly easy job.
I didn't catch whether yours was a S1 or a S2 but if it's a S1 beware that the low coolant sensor in the expansion chamber does not work due to a factory design flaw!
So if you lose a lot of coolant the first you'll know about it is an overheating engine... so keep a watch on the coolant level until you have the leaky expansion chamber fixed.I also wouldn't assume the heater matrix is faulty - again I've had two now where it hasn't been faulty. Replace the known leaking expansion chamber first then carefully monitor for any coolant loss - if you don't have any coolant loss after fixing that leak the matrix is probably ok!
Since I replaced a corroded leaking radiator recently I have not lost any visible coolant level for over two months - its exactly at the level I left it at, which is about an inch below the top of the middle tube.
It was a very enjoyable trip and great to spend some time with you again...
Was clearly not thinking 
