Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i, GTi180 plus XUD9TE 206!!

[ekjdm14]

Ahh that'd be the one... What makes no difference on a healthy Xant' though, a larger accumulator or a dying one?

I ask because the car drives/brakes/rises etc pretty well as things are, but obviously I want to replace the accumulator soon as it's clearly sub-standard.

Not long now before I'm either back on here singing the praises or cussing wildly haha

[CitroJim]

I'd just use a standard one, I see no advantage in using a larger and higher pressured one...

Your hydraulic system looks pretty healthy

Looking forward to your first reports of your drive this afternoon

[ekjdm14]

Well the MoT is done & dusted, hilarious case of history repeating itself though in that like the XM the Xantia also died as we turned into the driveway on the way home! Although this time the cause was different, the XM was out of petrol with a dicky gauge whereas the Xantia's FTP was all of my own making.

As you're all no doubt aware, the replacement engine is from a manual ZX and still retains the manual pump at the moment, although I am planning to fit the kickdown cable linkage soon. Trouble is I had routed the cable in anticipation of this & it shorted against the stop solenoid, blowing the fuse.

Fortunately for me it happened outside home again and I quickly twigged what the issue was so was able to run in the garage and grab a jump lead to get the car onto the drive... Why is it always the automatics that stop in the road?

So that's my afternoon's work sorted, replace a fuse & hope no other damage (low oil warning was flashing as I drove onto the drive, presume same circuit killed) and install the kickdown properly. (for now it handles the manual pump well, but I believe I may have to install the auto item with it's advance-lockout solenoid for cold weather sanity)

OK, off to change a fuse now and decidedly red-faced... at least it didn't die on the ramp!

[CitroJim]

Great news on the MOT

Hey, we've all been there with shorts so don't beat yourself up about it I once replaced a set of glowplugs in an NA 205 and shorted the busbar to earth on the head... Made the old thing a bit hard to start!!!

Xantia oil level gauges are notorious for crying wolf, especially with semi-synthetic oil when it's hot... Can be safely ignored - use the dipstick!

[ekjdm14]

All sorted now, and it wasn't quite as I'd feared (although twice as confusing when I found no fuses blown!)

Turns out the inertia switch had been broken off the inner wing and didn't particularly like being zip-tied to the strut top! At least that one is sorted. I don't think a diesel really needs an inertia switch anyway, although maybe it's an autobox peculiarity to stop it running amok if left in gear/running? Will either glue or replace it anyhow now we know the cause!

Only one advisory on the MoT as well, just the left door jamb to sort and she'll be a gooden new exhaust and reg. plates are on the agenda too though to keep it tip-top.

Not sure if the flashing oil warning was due more to the engine running with the inertia switch tripped/stop solenoid jumpered but it's gone away now. If I'd known they were a pain I wouldn't have bothered fitting the sensor into the ZX engine lol

[Hell Razor5543]

Normally inertia switches are to stop the fuel flow in case of an accident. While diesel (compared to petrol) does not readily catch fire, it can still pollute the environment just as easily.

[ekjdm14]

Yes, but if a fuel pipe on a diesel ruptures it's going to stop the engine anyway pretty much. There's no electric lift pump on this... Either way it's sorted for now & will try and get a non snapped item to make sure it doesn't escape again

Just got a moment to finish the kickdown cable install so that's another job ticked off and the ol' girl is officially on the road again at last. Not had a proper run out yet but hoping to do a few miles later on after dinner.

[ekjdm14]

OK well, 30-odd miles down & first impressions are better than good. It's such a smooth quiet relaxing ride, need to adjust the kickdown cable as it's a bit too keen to drop a gear when cruising about 50mph & get the tracking attended to as the wheel is a few degrees off centre but other than that and a good citerobics session completed when we got back there's not a lot wrong at all.

I even found the crank sensor too, installed and plugged in where it always has been! it's just the thing is on the blink as the rev counter came to life briefly while we were out so that's one less mystery... Oil level warning is on the blink when hot too as Jim suggested but these are things we are used to living with, part of the fun of owning French cars IMO but when time/funds allow they won't be too much of a pain to correct either... Character I think they call it

We also saw a blue Austin Seven out on a run as we neared home, and I pondered which would win in a drag race!

[CitroJim]

Excellent! All that hard work has really has been worth it I really am delighted

[ekjdm14]

I'm well pleased with how the car's coming along, considering how broken it was and how close it likely came to being scrapped (I notice the 406 I swapped for it has now vanished from the DVLA database, despite having a few days to run on the MoT still!)

It was a lot of work, but the car was/is worth it as behind the neglect & abuse of the last couple of years it's a well loved and cared for car. Managed to provoke the sunroof motor into life last night too with judicious use of the emergency handle, sadly the crunching sounds tell the story and I suspect the cables are a goner. If the motor jams up though could that mean the drive gear is still ok I wonder?

Will have to start looking into sunroof sagas again now, I guess they're largely similar to the XM unit and other PSA/Webasto ones that suffer rusty cables?

[CitroJim]

Indeed, it is absolutely brilliant to see this car really and truly back from the dead!

I think the sunroofs are pretty much similar but the Xantia ones are generally a bit more reliable...

It's easy to get at and remove for full servicing... Just drop the headlining...

I may have some more detailed information on them. I'll have a look...

[ekjdm14]

That would be brilliant if you could please Jim, when I get a moment I'll go out and have a play with the motor/gearbox and see if I can get it into a position to remove the glass now I've had a gander through some old posts on the matter to refresh my memory...

Strange thing though, on searching for my thread on the XM (the weldathon, amongst other things, of early 2015!) it seems to have vanished! There's a post from before we committed to buying it, regarding a potential gearbox fault, but no actual project thread... It was definitely on here... I think!!! Or was it on clubXM? *goes searching EDIT- it's on clubXM after all lol,

[CitroJim]

The only document on the sunroof I've found so far is how to remove and replace the motor and gearbox but I know amongst my paper stuff I have some more information... As soon as I get home...

Glad you found your XM thread! That's a real relief... If it had been lost on here I'd have been very concerned as we've always been very careful with backups and data integrity...

[ekjdm14]

OK thanks, to save you potentially wasting time scanning stuff unnecessarily I'll get back to you if & when I need more info & exactly what I need.

Thanks very much.

[ekjdm14]

Aha, sunroof is diagnosed and partly fixed now The motor gearbox isn't stripped but the outer gear is a bit chewed and has tight spots, so will try and locate a similar enough replacement that works. Also the cables are fantastic, not a spot of rust and nicely lubed up. As I said, there's evidence this car has been very well cared for until recent years. Just glad we caught it in time before it got any more abuse & neglect

Main problem now though the plastic 'sliders' for want of a better word, that run in channels & are attached to the cables, either side of the roof have been damaged. I'll try and get a photo as it would be easier than trying to describe exactly which bit, but the pivots have been broken off said sliders and this has left the mechanism with a lot of play & allows the associated parts that attached to them to come loose sometimes.

Only trouble is, I'm not sure if these will be replaceable without dropping the cassette which I'm loathe to do now as I feel headliners are never quite the same once they've been removed/refitted no matter how careful one is... Will get photos soon & will have a play with scrapyard sunroofs when the chance arises to see if it's possible.

And Jim, ol' friend, ol' buddy of mine If you happen to have a diagram of how the parts all fit together or even just a pic of the parts in a dismantled state that would be most helpful. Off to take snaps and put the glass back on now...