It's been a while

[thatfatbloke]

Been about 5 years since my last post when we sold our old Synergie to the much missed 'Citronut'. Saw a 1996 ZX 'Dimension' 1.9TD on eBay this morning and ended up buying her after taking a look. I pick her up tomorrow. 171000 miles on the clock,six months ticket and very little history. A bit bashed about but seen far worse,sunroof and central locking not working (works on key) but drives nicely. What one may call a car with 'character'. Not too many left now if you believe the 'How Many Left' website!.The last ZX I drove was a 1.9TD 'Aura' which I must admit surprised me with it's comfort,turn of speed and economy. The same engine was in the Synergie too. Does anybody know how much I should roughly pay to get the timing belt etc. done please?. Pics later.Ta.

[elma]

I would imagine about £250-300 would be the price, mere guesswork though.

Welcome back.

[Richard_C]

For reference (and not likely to be the cheapest) Citroen dealers offer a fixed price of £295. Unlikely to include the water pump though, which you might as well get done at teh same time because the labour cost is only marginally more once you are in there. At least you have a reference point - anyone charging more than £295 isn't trying hard enough!

http://www.citroen.co.uk/owner-services ... on-repairs

A while back I found the fixed price wiper blades to be a bargain for the old C5 - the price didn't vary by model so £30 for 2 proper C5 ones was a good deal. Not so good for cars with shorter blades that you can buy cheaply elswhere.

[Harlequin]

try Dean on *0-7-9-8-4 -6-7-1-5-0-5* ; he looks after mine and is reasonable in price

[CitroJim]

Welcome back to the forum

[ekjdm14]

We miss our ZX Elation, that was 1.9TD as well & it did indeed have a surprising amount of "nip" to it. Motorway driving was a doddle & it felt like the engine just came alive and would thrive all day at 70 *cough90cough* in top gear with a little to spare... The handling/comfort ratio was just about perfect too IMO & if we found another good one for the right price I'd have to seriously consider whether the 206's £30 tax is worth the difference in driving pleasure... (better go now, can't be seen to be gushing too much over a steel-springer's ride or I may be lynched lol)

Hope the car's a gooden for you, nice to see another ZX in caring hands

[thatfatbloke]

Only driven it the 15 miles or so home just now. Typical Citroen rev counter,starts off OK then goes scatty then stops working. Extremely lethargic temperature gauge that only just gets off the cold mark in that distance (heater works fine). Slight smell of fumes in the cabin when heater switched on. Fan belt 'squeal' briefly when starting from cold. Took a while to get used to a manual again,I have size 14 feet and sometimes it's possible to hit two pedals at the same time!. Radio fairly 'tinny' but works fine. Very comfortable as most Citroen's are. About to go out when it stops raining and sort the keys out as the one I locked it with only locked the drivers door and nothing else. Sunroof not working apparently,but haven't tried it yet as they have a nasty habit of opening and not closing. Still getting prices for cam belt change. Had one for £240 without the water pump and another for £330 with water pump etc. More later.

[xsaras4ever]

Welcome back to the forum , but more importantly , well done on buying a ZX, our favorite car.

Here in france they are known as "L'incassable" , meaning "the unbreakable".

We had one for 7 years, as our main car plus as our builders car, if memory serves correct it had done 550,000km when we sold it.

Long may you enjoy it.

Sometime in the future we WILL get ourselves a Volcane.

[ekjdm14]

Sometime in the future we WILL get ourselves a Volcane.

That is also the intention here, shame there's not so many left to choose from. Volcane can only be one colour (you know... the "correct" one. AKA Black with red inserts) and only 3 door too IMO so even though I would consider a petrol if a nice TD wasn't available, that kind of leaves me short on choice if I stuck rigidly to those criteria! It is a car that I've always loved the look of since they were new though so really do want to experience a Volcane of any variety.

Yon portly fella, the rev counter is something that you know about obviously, it was never right on our Elation even with a new CPS. To be honest I think it was the wiring connector but it wasn't urgent to sort and time ran out for the poor old girl before I got round to it, more's the shame.
At least the ZX has reasonable pedal spacing compared to the 206 where it is terrible for anyone over about size 4! The steering column UJ can interfere with your toes if you're not careful... Central locking is another PSA weak point of this era, likely to be caused by weak/dead solenoids in one or more doors. I've brought them back temporarily before with a good clean and lube of the entire locking mechanism but in the end opted for the manual locking option as we were on too tight a budget to replace them all and they were all on the blink.

Sounds like you've got a bit of fettling to keep you out the pub anyway, good luck if the fumes are coming from the turbo-downpipe joint, it's a little piggy of a job to get to the thing. Helps if you have a lot of 3/8" extensions and double jointed wrists to get round the steering rack/ram etc.

I take it you'd not be inclined to tackle the cam belt yourself? If you could, it'd save you a couple of hundred to spend elsewhere plus allow you to buy a top quality belt kit & pump with the other £1ton. Whatever way you play it, make sure you enjoy the car and take good care of it. There's not enough left IMO to waste a good one if it can be helped.