MikeT's C5r 1.6 hdi Estate

[CitroJim]

All the best for the MOT Mike

[MikeT]

Two tyres and a droplink required to pass re-test, booked next wednesday.

btw Jim, do you still use backup tapes? I found six tapes still sealed that I no longer need - any good for you?

[MikeT]

A year's trouble-free motoring until now - MOT time

Last MOT gave me advisories which I hadn't acted on - front brake pads on minimum, n/s repeater showing slight loss of orange and n/s sidelight (new LED-type last year) flickering.

As I normally drive somewhat conservatively, those "minimum" pads still lasted the whole year (just under 10K miles) with the depth/wear cutouts still visible but I'd bought a set of pads in anticipation last year and so set about renewing them the day before the MOT. Typically for me, it wasn't a straightforward procedure either

Offside first, I noticed great globs of oily goo around the caliper and my heart sank suspecting a leak. Then I notice a "remanufactured" sticker on it too, thinking bad spanner monkey has been here! Oh well, cleaned off the goo and made a mental note to track down the leakage later while I rewound the caliper as per Haynes (anti-clockwise for right-hand caliper) only to find the piston was actually winding out! This also revealed a slightly damaged dust seal as well For heaven's sake, the car's only done 80k!

After fitting the new pads I then look for the fluid leak and find the CV boot missing it's large circlip allowing the axle grease to escape.

So onto the nearside wheel and dammit, at least half the dust seal had been eaten, though this was still the original caliper judging by the corrosion. Additionally, the piston wouldn't fully rewind either so I botched the job by re-using one of the worn pads I'd removed - just for the MOT, as I was resigned to it failing on the CV boot anyway.

Roadwheels back on I usually go for a drive to test and help pre-bed new pads before the MOT so took a trip to the local stealers to enquire about their calipers. As expected, over £200 plus the dreaded but surprised to learn they also sell exchange reconditioned units for £120 plus. A later search on the web found me a brand new pattern caliper for even less.

So in it goes for the MOT and is now back with me after it failing. CV boot insecure (the garage gave me a new clip gratis) and sidelight "less than 50% illumination" due to the flickering that's gotten worse. Tester's handwritten note alongside reads "transducer fault"

Otherwise, the receptionist told me, it's in very good condition

So, caliper ordered and I can then fit the last new pad in and get the CV boot re-packed and sealed for the re test but this sidelight problem has me concerned in case a simple (haha!) bulb swap isn't the answer. I have a replacement and will try that first but research suggests they're problematic alll round with the recommendation to use only OEM filament bulbs from Citroen or get lucky finding reliable LED alternatives. I'm pretty sure I don't have canbus bulb sensing or whatever it's called and they're just cheap led bulbs that's let me down but other members input always welcome!

[myglaren]

I put cheap LED sidelights in a couple or three years ago and although they are dim and blue they always pass the MOT without comment.
Never drive on sidelights so the colour is masked by the headlights when running.

[CitroJim]

Mike, good to see you on here again and happy to see the car has been good

I trust you're keeping well in yourself?

[MikeT]

Sadly, my health is going downhill, Jim. I have two chronic illnesses and possible more that remains undiagnosed. Just doing those front brake pads has me all but laid-up with major limb muscles aching and sore. Such is life.

Hopefully I'll be recovered enough to meet the 10-day retest window. Good to see you're still about Jim

[CitroJim]

Oh Mike, I'm sorry to hear about your health Look after yourself and I trust things will soon look up in that department...

Yes, I'm still very much about! You might like to read my blog at some point and catch up on what I’ve been up to this past year

All the best for the MOT retest...

[MikeT]

Well I replaced the sidelight bulb and no more flickering so I guess my "transducer" isn't faulty or if it is, it's cheaper to keep buying LED's as and when needed

I'll get the cv boot clip fitted tomorrow then book the restest leaving the caliper replacement for another day.

[MikeT]

Meanwhile, another successful fix I've accomplished over the last year is the electric windows tomfoolery. The drivers switch set would cause all sorts of merryment and distractions when operated, except the drivers window oddly enough (though the switches on each door would work as expected). The rear windows actually gett stuck and I've come to realise they're severely underpowered compared to say the xantia's motors. It's pot luck if the rear windows work when the engine isn't running! They sound severely strained.

Additionally, with a bit of dirt build-up around the rubber seals, they will easily trigger the anti-pinch when on the way up so a good clean and silicone spray helped enormously. (ditto for the lazy seatbelt retraction).

After taking out the drivers switch cluster and stripping it down, I found a good clean of the membrane and switch contacts restored their proper actuation.

I also had to buy a new battery side panel (where the intake clips on) as that had broken clips allowing the intake hang in front of the radiator. Totally shocked at the price, just a few quid! Whereas the air filter box, which had also had it's lugs broken off, was a hefty £50+ Thanks previous "mechanics" for your brutal handling of these parts. It's really not necessary....

(RANT WARNING)
I mean, I watched an hour-long video yesterday of some guy apparently teaching us how to renew diesel injector seals and I was appalled at his laziness (despite one seal actually taking him a total of four hours grunting and bodging!) and heavy handed brutal chopping of the plastic cable tray for access, when he actually did have a slim tool (an allen key!) to avoid such destruction! Even then, I'm pretty sure some of the blowby carbon gunk got dropped into the cams he felt he needed to expose to get to the fuel union nut!

[CitroJim]

Good work Mike!

I know the problem of the battery boxes from my 207 as it has a similar arrangement... I had to have mine out to get at the area I needed to diagnose some electrical issues and I found it needs careful and slow, patient handling - much to much for a mechanic on piece work and in a hurry... Much easier to chop and bodge

Good to know you work to high standards, excellent

[MikeT]

And therein lies the irony, Jim. IF this guy had done it properly, it would have taken him an hour at most, not the four/five hours it did. And that's not accounting for any future remedies needed due to the unnecessary damage he caused.

[MikeT]

Guess who's just returned from the MOT centre with a clean sheet?

Hopefully I'll get some of the overdue "other work" needed this year.

[CitroJim]

Excellent result Mike Well done!

[MikeT]

Playing with Lexia on my car yesterday, I noted the DPF was getting close to another auto-regen so decided to test the Forced Regen option as it was fully warmed up and unusally, with over half a tank of fuel to boot.

I was anxious for many reasons but it went suprisingly smoother than I'd anticipated. After a minute of non-action the rpms began to gently and smoothly increase to 4000rpm which it held for five minutes before slowly reducing back to idle. Observing the exhaust during this process I was slightly disappointed with the lack of fire and brimstone, the exhaust was surprisingly clean. However, on hard acceleration shortly afterwards, I noted quite a haze cloud in my mirror - presumably blowing out the ash? Additionally, instead of estimated 3% soot loading I've come to expect after an auto-regen, it read 0% this time. I put this down to the fact I normally drive below 3000rpm.

After the forced regen, lexia did report "Regeneration completed but with problems" With no further info, I hope it was due to the permanent passenger wing mirror heating element fault this car has.

[CitroJim]

Pleased it went OK Mike... The first time I did it I found it rather entertaining and in my case the fire and brimstone was biblically epic ;lol: